Colin's posts

Leo just sighed deeply, and shook his head.

"Ugh." he muttered.

"Time to do this." he said.

Some time later, Miki and Tyson were back in their home, when Miki received a call from Sharp.

"...I need you to come into my office, ASAP." he said when she answered.

"I have someone here that is EXTREMELY insistent on meeting you, and they're NOT taking 'no' for an answer." he went on.

"How soon can you get here?" he asked.

Normally, when people made demands like that, Miki knew that Sharp would send them packing. The fact that he was acquiescing to it this time was very telling.

Either the situation was THAT dire, or the person was THAT powerful.

Or both.

Leo thought for a moment, before nodding.

"Right." he said.

"One moment." he told her.

He then scrambled to get a pad of paper and a pen, and wrote something down for her, handing it over.

"I am the second in command here, and this should get you some time off to recuperate, and it should expedite your treatment... ie: get you to the head of it all." he went on.

"....it's the least I can do." he mumbled.

Leo's eyes widened, and his face paled.

"G...g... gone?" he asked.

She nodded in response.

"Oh... oh, no. Oh, no, no, no..." Leo muttered quietly.

"I need to... I need to see him." he then said.

"I need to see Chronos."

"...ah?" Leo muttered, seeing this.

"Wendy, hold on." he told her.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." he said further. "I can see that you're injured... and badly." he commented, looking her over. "And that is very concerning, considering what we are." he continued.

"What did this to you?" he asked.

"And what is this massive huge HUGE problem?" he asked further.

"...I'm willing to guess it's related to your injuries, though." he added, trying his best to keep calm and not panic in front of her.

Chronos didn't say anything as Syraene said what she did and left. After she left, though, he merely shook his head.

"Just succeed." he said.

"Succeed, and come back to me." he mumbled.

"An eternity of life is a living hell without you." he went on, as he started to regain his composure and rebuild the world that was crumbling around him.

He then sighed once more, creating a Rolex watch in his palm.

"...she's the only one that can get away with that." he grumbled to himself, crushing the object into sand with his palm.

Chronos sighed in response.

"Right." he said.

He then snapped his fingers, and a paper and quill appeared in his hands. Once they did, he quickly scribbled down what he knew, and handed it to her.

"Here." he muttered.

"Be careful." he went on.

"Only one of those works. The others... they might do something, they might not." he admitted.

"I have NO idea what the other 4 will result in."

Again, Chronos growled.

"I do." he replied.

"....and I don't." he told her.

"Look, I can think of 5 different ways to kill one of those things." he then said. "Only 1 of them is guaranteed to work, though." he continued.

"And no, I don't remember which one it is." he quickly said further.

"It's literally been an immeasurable amount of time since I had to think about this sort of thing."

Chronos just sighed and looked at the manifestation.

And when he did, he paused, almost frozen.

She knew he was angry... his fist clenched tightly around the hourglass he was holding, causing sand and shards to fall to the floor.

"....I see." he said.

"Damn it. Damn it ALL." he growled.

"It had to be a Somnovore, didn't it?" he asked rhetorically, as the reality that surrounded them seemed to start to break down and disappear, melting away before Syraene's eyes.

After about 15 seconds, she saw the door glow for a moment. It was her invitation to go inside... which she did. When she stepped through, the door closed behind her.

The realm was usually different whenever she stepped through, and this time, it had taken the form of a cruise ship, sailing in a vast expanse of an ocean... made of sand. Though the sand seemed to behave exactly like a liquid.

On the deck of the ship, she saw the one she was looking for, laying back in a lounge chair, studying a small hourglass that he was holding in his hand.

He looked over towards her and waved.

"Aloha!" he called to her.

Ryker just sighed.

"Yes. Yes, you do keep making things worse." he said.

"But don't dwell on that." he told him. "That's part of growing up and figuring things out." he continued. "Life is about trial and error, and mistakes need to be made to move forward." he went on.

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to talk to your father. And there's no way we could have known that the course you took would end up that way." he assured him further.

"However, want to know something?" he asked.

"I'm not mad at you. And Aly won't be, either." he said. "We're here to help you pick yourself back up, so you can move forward and learn from this." he explained.

"You're not alone. We're here for you, and we'll help you through this." he went on, before the demon took over.

"And if that necromancer sends anyone here, or comes here himself, then I'll make sure to send them back!" he declared with a dark and hardy laugh.

"....oh." Hal responded.

"I see." he said.

"My apologies for bringing up such a sordid subject." he apologised.

"Regardless, I will not keep you any longer." he went on.

"I'm sure you have some things to do with this new information, so I'll let you do them." he continued.

"Let me know if there's ANYTHING I can do to help."

"...lovely." Hal muttered.

He then paused for a moment, thinking it over.

"Wait." he said.

"This creature resides on the same realm dreams are on." he repeated.

"As Order members, don't you reside on that realm as well?" he asked.

"Would this thing be a direct danger to YOUR kind as well?"

"..........." Hal was silent again, wondering if what he saw was true. Could he believe his eyes here? Or was this just something his mind had conjured up.

"Good." he responded.

"Invaluable is good." he said.

"And you're welcome." he went on, before pausing.

"So... care to share what you know?" he asked.

"Because it seems like you recognise whatever that is."

"...." Hal was silent, regarding the woman.

"Here." he said, handing her the picture that Miki had drawn.

"One of my agents, Agent King, was attacked by this thing in his dreams, his wounds consistent with all the others." he explained.

"And his partner, being a form of psychic, received this image when she touched something of his. His blood, to be precise." he went on.

"She says this is what killed Agent King."