Colin's posts

The man just laughed.

"Too late, sugar!" he told her.

"I'm going to-" he said, before he froze.

And he seemed to completely freeze.

He stopped moving, stopped speaking, and for all intents and measures, seemed to have become a statue.

However, Erica then noticed that he was shaking and quivering slightly. She managed to slip out of his grasp, and when she looked at him, she saw that his eyes were wide, his pupils small, and he seemed to be oblivious to everything.

Which probably meant he was having an emotional overload and breakdown.

@Shark: Well, to quote Michael Caine as the immortal Alfred Pennyworth: "Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

@xd: Oi, just a heads up here, Voltra's a PG-13 site. A little bit of profanity here and there's all right, but do try not to go overboard, all right?

Thankfully for her, the shoe hit the man right in the face, and felled him to the floor... if nothing else, out of shock and disorientation.

However, when she stopped at the door, and paused, others took that as their opportunity to get her. Specifically one of the people that had been knocked into a nearby corner a few minutes prior.

They rushed over towards her, and grabbed her from behind, lifting her up by her arms.

"Ah-ha!" they declared.

"Got you, you little pest!" they said.

"Now be a good girl, and come with me." they then hissed into her ear.

As she was making her way to the door in question, a stray bit of electric mana crashed into the wall above it, and large pieces of debris started to fall, blocking the door slightly.

However, one of the people there seemed to break off from the pack, and was running towards her.

"Why you little..." he growled.

"Come here!" he yelled.

"You're worth a fortune!"

It was then that all hell broke loose.

Everyone started fighting each other.

EVERYONE.

And that meant that mana was starting to fly everywhere. People were attacking with lightning, fire, water, ice, wind, you name it, the mana was there.

But it didn't seem that people were caring about collateral damage. Mana was combining and causing even greater damage, and Erica was almost being hit by stray elemental mana of every type.

As soon as she did what she did, the air around everyone in the building changed.

People froze up, some looked angry, others looked greedy, but it definitely seemed like people were starting to become very uneasy with each other.

At which point, one of them started to race towards her.

"SHE'S MINE!" they yelled, as they leapt towards her... only to be shot down by an orb of fire from one of the others there.

There were some more murmurs and whispers, before... sure enough... she heard someone speak up.

"How do we KNOW she has it?" they asked.

Resounding agreement started to ring through the crowd, until she was approached by a large imposing man in a black business power suit.

"We will prove it." he commented, as a few others joined his side.

"You." he said to Erica.

"You will remove those wrappings when I tell you to. Not a moment earlier." he told her.

Rene just sighed.

"Right." he replied.

"I'll be back." he told her.

"With Erica in tow." he added, conviction in his tone.

With that, he left, leaving Kalin there with Felix.

Meanwhile, Erica was surrounded by people she didn't know... and they were all looking at her like she was some sort of tradeable commodity.

"Fascinating." one of the figures said.

"I didn't think the marking actually existed..." another murmured.

Rene shook his head.

"Kalin... if someone else has to be found to take care of her, so be it." he said.

"But if she disappears into this sort of black market show system... she's gone forever." he reasoned.

"I've done worse in the past, Kalin." he reminded the redhead.

"FAR worse..." he muttered.

"All I care about right now... is getting Erica home." he told her frankly, as he started to think about something.

"Though a little stealth and finesse may go a long way, here..." he admitted quietly.

"All right." Rene responded.

"That makes sense." he said.

"Because one way or another, Erica's coming home." he told her.

"And I don't care if this gets both the Council AND the Triad after me." he went on.

"I refuse to let this happen."

Rene raised an eyebrow when he heard that.

"...how cliche." he said.

"But all right." he muttered.

"Guess I'm going to the East end." he commented.

"What about you?" he asked.

"You leaving, or staying here and making yourself at home?"

"......" Rene was silent, before smirking.

"I see." he said.

"Interesting..." he muttered.

"Did he give any more information?" he asked.

"Anything more specific or useful?" he asked further.

"Or... am I going to have to pay this person a personal visit?" he then asked ominously.

Rene seemed to freeze when she said that.

And Kalin then saw something in his eyes that she hadn't seen very often. She'd seen it when someone purposely hurt her, but that was about it.

She saw Rene getting angry. Actually angry. The rage was starting to truly build up inside him, but he was doing all he can to contain it right now.

".....I see." he replied darkly.

"How... do you know of this, exactly?" he then asked her.

"This seems like something that would be kept hushed, and quite competently, at that." he commented.