Colin's posts

Vito was silent as he heard what Hollie said to him.

He knew that when his real name was used, things were bad. And it was serious.

"....right." he said.

"Yes, Ma'am." he then said further.

"What... what is it?" he asked her, a bit of hesitation to his voice, and she could probably guess why.

He was bracing himself for whatever it was she was about to ask him to do.

"....I'm starting to feel it." Leo admitted.

"I... admittedly, as an Order member, I AM above most things, but this is... different." he told her.

"I realise that drastic times call for drastic measures." he then said further.

He was then silent for another moment, and sighed.

"...I'll go tell your crew about this." he told her.

"...may this work out as you intend it." he finished, before excusing himself and leaving her alone.

"....I'll do it." Tyson replied.

"Right." Leo mumbled.

"I'm going to go back to Violet and Emerald." he told them.

Ty was the first to excuse himself, and left... leaving Leo looking rather concerned.

"....something tells me you're going to do something VERY drastic..." he mumbled to Hollie.

".......but I trust you." he told her.

"I hope this works out optimally for us all."

"......a good runner?" Ty muttered.

"Uh... well, most of the fastest people here are sick..." he said.

"I don't think ANYONE in this building would be fast..." he went on, before snapping his fingers.

"Wait! Gemini!" he realised.

"She's pretty damn quick." he said.

"Why?" he asked.

"........." both Leo and Tyson were silent for a moment, looking at each other, before Leo looked back at Hollie.

"Ah..." he stammered.

"Not... not TOO long..." he said.

"And what does THAT mean?" Tyson asked.

"They should start dying around and 20-minute mark." Leo said. "35 minutes at most, I would say." he said further.

"That's still kind of long for NO atmosphere..." Tyson muttered.

"........" Vincent was silent for a moment as his sister asked her question.

"No." he replied.

"Cassandra has it." he said.

"...why?" he then asked.

"Why do you need it? Its ability won't help you, will it?" he asked further.

There was an underlying concern and confusion to his tone, and Hollie could hear it clearly.

"......." Leo was silent and then sighed.

"There... there was a trophy. A small trophy. One that had been imbued with mana to shine and sparkle eternally, it seems." he told them.

"It clung to it, basically feeding minimally. And... well, after the escape pod disengaged from the main ship, stasis occurred... and... well... yeah..." he mumbled further.

"So can we kill it?" Ty asked.

"We can. But we'd need to essentially recreate a low to no atmosphere environment... or something akin to that." was all Leo could respond with.

Leo nodded.

"Right." he said.

"It also seems that they can go 'dormant' when there's no mana around." he told them.

"...is there any way to stop them?" Ty asked.

"I don't know." Leo replied.

"But we DO know that, apparently, they cannot survive in space." he continued.

"...really?" Ty asked.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"It... it's airborne." Leo said.

"The virus is airborne!?" Tyson exclaimed.

"Virus isn't the correct term." Leo responded.

"See... this IS being caused by microorganisms, yes... but it's not like a virus or a bacterium, or anything like that. It's... more like a weird parasite?" he explained. "But they travel along the air, enter organisms that have mana in them, drain them dry, and move on." he continued.

"....and Violet and Emerald brought them with them?" Ty asked.

"Well... a form of it." Leo replied.

"They're not QUITE as evolved or advanced as what ravaged her world." he said further.

Leo looked exhausted.

He was breathing heavily, and sweating profusely... probably from all the running and yelling he'd just done.

"Calm down, kid." Ty said.

"Seriously, take a few breaths." he told him, to which Leo did.

"Now... what is it?" he asked the young Order member.

"We found it!" Leo exclaimed in response.

"Violet and I! We found what's causing all this!"

Just as Tyson was about to respond... and as if on cue... they both heard something.

It was a voice. A familiar voice. And it was calling out for Hollie.

"...llie! HOLLIE!" Leo shouted out.

"HOLLIE!" he repeated.

"......" Tyson was silent, before looking at Hollie.

"Methinks you have someone looking for you."

Tyson's first instinct was to get angry. He was livid at the thought of Hal's replacement being talked of already... but he knew why she was asking. Or, at least, he figured why she was, and he knew she'd never be callous for the sake of being callous. He knew she had valid reasons.

So he took a small breath, and let it out slowly.

"Yeah, sure." he replied.

"I've filled in for him before in the past." he reasoned.

"And Hal's always said that I'm a potential candidate to be head of the Unit if something ever happened to him." he went on, pausing again.

"...just never thought it would come up THIS soon." he admitted further.

"Fair enough." Ty responded.

"And all right, that... does makes sense." he said.

"......" he was then silent, before sighing.

"I'm not going to lie, I'm worried about Hal." he told her candidly.

"Anyone that's asked me, I've responded with 'he's tough, he'll live through this'... but... well... I don't know if I believe it." he admitted further.

"I know his very existence is based on mana-" he went on, before realising that Hollie was probably just as worried about Hal, if not MORE.

"...but I won't say anything more on it."

"Of course." Tyson replied.

"I'll do whatever I can." he told her.

With that, he began to help her as best he could, but paused after a moment.

"...Lady Remmington?" he addressed her.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

"This whole situation can't be pleasant for you, to massively understate it."