Colin's posts

"Yeah." Ash replied.

"I'll use my mana to get us directly to the medbay there." he told her.

"And Kiah, I'll make sure Sydney knows what's up here." he then said to Kiah. "We'll leave the door open, obviously, and make sure it won't shut and trap you in here." he went on.

"Want me to tell Ilias that you'll be fine?" he asked.

Ash looked to Erica for a moment, sighed, and looked back to Kiah.

"Hour. Hard. Got it." he said.

"Come on, Erica." he told the other woman. "We should go." he said.

"Get you back to the Unit where you can properly crash and get treated." he went on.

He was then silent, shaking his head.

"...and figure out what to do about Vanessa, going forward." he then growled.

"...okay, fair." Ash admitted.

"I can understand that." he said.

"Well, Erica, I suppose we should be getting YOU back to the Unit, so you can continue your recovery." he told Erica. "And get your HANDS looked at, too..." he mumbled further.

"Kiah, is there anything we can do for you right now?" he then asked his cousin.

"Any food or anything brought to you?"

As soon as he felt that Kiah's rune wasn't fighting his, he dropped his own and took a step back. As he did, he crossed his arms over his chest, sighed, and shook his head, looking around.

"Wonder place, this area..." he mumbled.

"Anyway, glad THIS went quickly." he said. "Kiah, that rune was REALLY something else." he told her. "Gonna need to let Mom know about it." he went on, referring to Rowena.

"And you may need some additional help controlling it." he continued.

"Anyway, how y'feeling now?" he asked.

"More stable?"

"Thankfully, that won't be needed." he told her, stepping to the door and knocking on it loudly.

"COME IN!" he yelled to Erica.

"And don't shut the door behind you!" he stressed, before making his way back over towards Kiah.

Once he was standing behind her, he put out a rune that spread out around the both of them, but its sole purpose was to stop Kiah's rune from lashing out AGAIN, as he knew how quick it was to do so.

Once Erica was close enough to touch Kiah, he would release his rune.

"Oh yeah, to speed this up, because she asked me, where was the place you were last touched with someone's hands, before you starting acting like this?" he asked her, aiming to speed up this process. For Erica's sake, mostly.

"Christ almighty." he muttered to himself as he shut the door behind him, so the rune wouldn't escape. He could see it bouncing all around, desperate to spread out as far as it could go.

But it then seemed to 'latch onto him' when it found a 'target'.

He responded to this by putting out a tiny rune that surrounded his feet, keeping Kiah's at bay, and looked at the woman that was causing the rune.

"..." he was silent, about to say something, but realised that it would probably be met with snark and anger. So, he merely decided to focus everything he had into his own rune, and pulsed it out as strong as he could.

Thankfully, Sydney's mirror room contained it, but it absolutely obliterated Kiah's rune.

"You good?" he asked her. "If so, got someone here that'll stop this crap from happening." he told her.

"...damn it, fine." Ash growled.

The two quickly made their way outside, where Lindsay rushed to greet them, but Ash spoke up before he could say anything.

"I'm fine. Head back home." he told him. "Erica says she's gonna crash soon, needs to help Kiah. I'll take her there, then take them both to the Unit for medical treatment and recovery." he explained. "I'll give more details when I'M back home." he added.

"...all right." Lindsay conceded. "See you later, Erica." he said to the young woman.

"Bye." Erica replied bluntly.

"..." Lindsay was then silent, before stepping back and disappearing in a burst of red flames.

"All right." Ash said to her. "Let's go." he finished, as he gently grabbed her elbow, avoiding her hands purposefully, and the two disappeared in a burst of black flames, appearing in Sydney's home, just outside the door to the room Kiah was in.

"If she's home, she'll come find us." Ash told her.

"I'll head in first and quell that rune."

Ash shook his head.

"Damn it, no." he said, getting to his feet.

"At least let me apply some salve or something right now." he told her.

"Please?" he asked.

"...or are you going to just continuously throw your own health and safety to the wayside?"

Ash paused and seemed to think for a moment, before letting out a small breath.

"...much." he said.

As he said that, she felt the overall heat that surrounded her die down to nothing, and the feeling of the rune vanished all but entirely.

"Thank you." Ash said further, before suddenly realising something.

"Oh, lord!" he exclaimed.

"Your hands! How are they!?"

"..." Ash was silent for a moment.

"Not like telling you would do anything. I can't do anything right." he said to her, before suddenly slapping himself.

"Wrists." he said.

'Last time Kiah touched me was when she grabbed my wrists and we teleported out of the Unit." he answered her.

Erica could see he was desperately clinging onto the control he had. And while his feeling inferior was not inherently part of what the copy had done, it HAD made some buried feelings resurface.

But right now, that was neither here, nor there.

He'd told her where Kiah had touched him.

"...ah." Lindsay responded.

"Knock twice, and announce who you are." he told her.

She did so, knocking twice and saying it was her, and there was silence for a moment or two.

"Go away!" they heard Ash's voice call out. "I might hurt you!" he yelled further.

"Ashley!" Lindsay then called back in response. "We know what's going on, and Erica can help you! She's the only one that CAN, right now!" he continued. "And the sooner you let her help you, the sooner you two can go and save Kiah from the same thing!" he then added.

Again, there was silence for a moment, and Erica felt the mana presence decrease. A LOT.

"You'd better get in there and do it quickly." Lindsay told her. "No clue how long he can reign it in like this." he warned.

"Where ARE you in there!?" he then asked loudly.

"Livingroom! Just to the left when you come in!" Ash responded.

"Of course." Lindsay responded.

The two made their way to Sharp, where they told him of their plans. He didn't seem to like it, but he also realised there was no other option. So Erica was granted leave to get this done, and the two of them left the Unit.

Using Lindsay's mana, they arrived in a forest somewhere, in a VERY small clearing, where Erica saw there was a small cabin-like building. And she felt IMMENSELY powerful mana emanating from within it.

"...he's in there." Lindsay told her.

Lindsay nodded in response.

"Very well." he told her.

"We'll need to tell Agent Sharp about this, obviously." he then said.

"However, I think you should be safe. Ash seems to have most of his wherewithal still left... though he IS considering himself a danger..." he admitted to her with a small sigh.

"Regardless, I'll take you to Ash, and then you two can go to Kiah."

"I DO know where he is." Lindsay admitted. "I was sworn to secrecy, however, in this case... pretty sure this trumps everything, and I can take you to where he is." he told her.

"If you're prefer HIM to accompany you to help Kiah." he said.

"I defer to you on this. You are clearly the authority in terms of how to do this." he went on.

"Just let me know."