Images swam across Chione's vision, as if she had her nose pressed against an aquarium, and fish were floating by. What was going on?
No less than half a day ago, she'd been fighting off huge gigantic creatures in some dark, dismal Medieval world. Before, some futuristic land, complete with flying cars. She couldn't even remember when, or where she'd obtained the 8-foot sword on her back, or how she'd even learned to use it. Every time she thought she might be getting used to a place, she disappeared, and reappeared somewhere else, like she was falling through holes. But no other place had given her these... these... memories. Sure, they'd cropped up once or twice before, but now, they flashed across her vision every few seconds, like her brain was trying to tell her something. She shrugged it off again.
"Speaking of Raltise, whoever this guy is.. what if, and this is a cute, hypothetical 'if' here, he takes over Ness? I mean, it didn't seem too hard for him to just wiggle these guys around like... well, like puppets." She mentioned offhandedly to the group, who seemed to consider this for a few moments.
"Well, Ness IS the defender of the world..." Dan mumbled.
"He's blinded by rage, though..." Siris said, thoughtfully. "Wouldn't that technically make him weaker, and easier to control?"
"WHERE is my new suit!?" A British accent screamed angrily. "I am raising my demands to a new pair of shoes as well!"
"SHUT UP!" The whole group chorused.
Matt grumbled, grinding his teeth. "I am going to BEAT him with my plank any minute!"
Chartreuse was humming a snatch of a questionable song. He motioned to the group. "I severely doubt my sexy pinto can handle so many people, so there'll have to be some sort of space arrangement. But hey, if everyone can fit in, I suggest we go for a little ride."
"If Ness IS in danger... we need to find him, or Raltise, before something goes seriously wrong..." Talus mused. "Ness's own anger against the loss of his friends could well be used against him, against us."
Turning around, Chartreuse nodded at Talus, and grinned. "Deep, man. Let's go."
Just as Chartreuse was about to walk away, Chione nudged him gently.
"Mmm? What's up Chione?" Chartreuse asked.
"Uh, didn't you give your car to your sister?" She inquired, raising an eyebrow. Chartreuse facepalmed with a sigh.
"Yeah, I did. Well, it's probably for the best. Any parking space down here was kind of in the splashback zone," He replied, waving his arm toward the streets. It was true. Every single car near where they had fought had either been decimated by the burning buildings or severely damaged by some miscalculated attacks from both parties.
"I guess we could take the bus," He shrugged. Matt nodded.
"You're right, that does seem to be our only option. I would let you use my Gremlin, but there's just not enough space for everyone to ride in it. Anyway, I haven't gotten a chance to ride the new bus yet."
"Me neither," Siris said, "But it's about time that they put a stop in Onett."
The group walked together to the bus stop, which had been placed in front of the town hall. Shortly after reading the sign, a bus pulled up to the station. The driver leaned his head out of the window, the rest of his body blocked by his large cranium.
"Hey, It's 2 dollars for a ride. All aboard for Fourside, with a few short stops along the way?"
Chartreuse nodded, handing the man $14. Turning around, he grinned. "Don't worry, you guys can pay me back later." Having said this, the group boarded the bus.
Once inside, Siris looked around the bus quickly. He breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that there was barely anyone on aside from his group. It was hard enough traveling in large groups, but even more strangers would wear thin on him quickly.
"Hey Siris, you can move away from the door any time. It's not like the rest of us have anywhere to go after all." Siris turned around to see the irate Talus behind him, adjusting his glasses slightly as he waited to board the bus. Siris mumbled something as he stepped aside, giving the others room to board.
As soon as everyone has seated himself or herself, each of the tinier groups struck up conversations. Matt and Dan sat to themselves, Dan bringing Matt up to speed on their previous Adventures. Rustopher seated himself by Talus, but neither of them spoke. Talus was content by staring around the bus casually, whereas Rustopher kept himself entertained by flipping through a copy of 'You Wish You Had My Life' that someone had left on the bus.
Chartreuse, Siris, and Chione sat near the front of the bus next to Dan and Matt, staring out the windows for a few moments. Once they were a mile or so down the road, Dan coughed slightly, gaining Chartreuse's attention. When the man looked up, Dan spoke.
"Chartreuse, there's something that's been bothering me."
"Yeah?" Chartreuse asked, turning around from looking out the window.
"Well, you said you lived with Narcy in Fourside, in this universe, but the last time I saw Narcy, she was in a different universe than this one. However, they're the same one. How is that possible?"
Chartreuse sat silently for a moment, thinking. A moment or so later he finally spoke. "Narcy explained this to me once, so I'll do the best I can to translate what she said. By now, you obviously know that there are different, parallel universes, each holding their different existences. Everything in the universes holds a pattern, which means that everything must be born at some point, and everything must die at some other point, including these parallel existences. What that means is that when an existence exceeds it's natural lifespan, it collapses. However, since there are billions of people in each universe, their essence merges with that of another universe. In the case of people that existed in both places, they are merged together in the new, combined universe. In the case of people that exist in only one place, like most people, they are simply carried over to the new universe in the blink of an eye. Since there are so few cosmetic differences between universes, it's impossible to notice. It happens all the time, every second. Seeing as there are infinite universes, there could be universes combining into ours at this very moment, or we could be merging into another one at the exact same time. To answer your question, the universe in which you first met Narcy merged with this one, probably even before the whole Fourmoon incident began, while you were on your other adventures. That would explain why you never noticed any changes in this one -- not that you would have noticed them anyway. Do you understand?"
By now, Siris, Chione, Matt, and Dan were all listening, their minds completely goggled. Dan raised his hand slowly, as though he were in school.
"Does that mean that if I went looking for Lucretia Fake in this universe, that she would remember what happened in the other universe?"
Chartreuse shrugged. "She may, she may not. When existences collapse like this, it's impossible to tell what portion of each set of existing memories will be in tact after the fusion."
Siris nodded his head, slowly understanding. "Cosmic..." He muttered.
The bus fell relatively silent for the remainder of the trip, save for when the driver would ask, “This bus continues to Fourside. Do you want to get off here?”
“Where do we stop?” asked Dan. “We don’t exactly know where Ness went.”
“I would assume,” Siris began, “that since Ness at this point seems bent on finding and fighting Raltise, that he is probably heading toward the last place he knew Raltise to be.”
“Fourside, then,” Matt said. Siris nodded.
“We’re going to Fourside,” he told the driver. Despite having this information, the driver continued to ask the same question at every stop. It might have begun to become annoying, had they not reached Fourside in a good amount of time.
The party members piled out of the bus, which promptly drove away.
“We’re in Fourside,” said Chartreuse. “But the city is huge. Ness could be anywhere.”
“If you ask me,” Rustopher said, though nobody had, “it is probably best to continue with the hypothesis that the boy for whom you are searching has gone to the last place this ‘Raltise’ was seen.”
“And where is that?”
Dan grinned. “The APE building.”
The group set off on foot toward the building in question. It was at this point that Siris felt it best to get in tune with some magic he hadn’t used in a while.
“Yeah, he’s definitely around here. We’re getting closer.” Those who knew Siris knew that he knew what he was talking about; those who didn’t said nothing to contest him.
The party turned a corner, and sure enough, Ness was only a few dozen yards away. It appeared that he had been releasing his rage, as the sidewalk and some trees seemed to have sustained damage. He was presently sitting on the curb and sobbing, though it was possible that he would get up and start damaging things again.
“Let’s be careful,” Matt warned.
Talus began to approach Ness.
-----
The captain of the ship coughed loudly, causing Christina to wake up. "Ar, g'mornin'. What a night, huh? I've already told all my fellow captains about what happened last night. Yar, I owe you one because they bought me a few rounds of beer. I told them that my slippers destroyed the ghost. Of course, don't be tellin' them that it's not true, yar. Your friend went off after we docked, so you may see him around town."
Christina looked around slowly, getting her bearings after the strange trip. She got up. Poo materialized next to her. She didn't think that she'd get totally used to having a stinky ghost following her around. "Hello, Poo. I'm going to explore Fourside. I want to see if my old haunts are still around." She winced at her bad pun. Poo didn't seem to notice it. She disembarked the ship and walked towards the bustling city center.
It took her twenty minutes to get to downtown Fourside. She looked around, noting that the town had recovered quite well from the events that took place last year. She could see that the department store was having its annual sale and that the museum was open. She decided that perhaps she could spend some time in town before going to her parents. After all, it's always good to have fun while trying to accomplish something. She looked around once more and walked to the museum. She took a few steps then turned to Poo suddenly.
"Poo, perhaps you should disappear. I mean, you never know how people will react to seeing a ghost."
"True. Good thinking." He disappeared. "I'll still be following you around, though." Across the street in an alley, several dubious looking men were watching Christina. They were ex-bodyguards for the mayor of this city.
"Hey man, look at that chick."
"Yeah, she's hot. Wait, isn't she Christina Evanhouse?"
"Yeah, it looks a lot like her. Dang, man, she's rich. Perhaps she's got that diamond on her?"
"Well, there's only one way to find out." A second bodyguard pulled out a submachine gun and loaded a clip into it. "Let's follow her."
"Are we going to shoot her up?"
"Perhaps."
Christina continued walking to the museum. Outside, she saw a vending machine. Decided that it was time to get a drink of some sort, she went up to the machine and put in some change. She decided to get a root beer. The can fell out of the machine and almost magically, her change fell out of the machine as well. She got another soda for free. Perhaps the vending machine company should fix their machines. That happens to me all the time. She drank her soda and then entered the museum free of charge with her lifetime pass that she obtained in Summers.
Inside of the museum, she looked at all of the exhibits. She went into the back room and looked at the exhibit there. To her surprise, there wasn't anybody else in that room other than a man dressed in black. The door that she entered to get into the exhibit closed behind her, at which time one of the men in black walked up to her and started to talk to her.
"Hello, young lady." He flashed a smile. He was wearing dark sunglasses, dark enough to where Christina couldn't see his eyes.
"Hello."
"Are you Christina Evanhouse?"
"Yes. Why?" She looked around and saw that more men dressed in black came out from their hiding places within the exhibit.
"We want your cash and your diamonds."
"No. I won't give them to thugs like you, either."
"Oh, is that so?" The man in black chuckled. "Open fire, boys."
Christina was shocked when the man told his associates to start firing. She dove to the ground as the men pulled out their submachine guns and started opening fire. They were rather good shots, but for some reason they kept missing. However, they did hit Christina once in the leg.
"Aaaah!" Christina screamed. "Somebody help me!"
Poo materialized once again. Knowing that perhaps a friend was going to be killed, he went into action. He took control of a gunman's arm and swung it around so that it was pointing to another gunman. The man kept firing, not knowing what was going on. He hit his friend in the chest and his friend went down. The stinky ghost continued to do this until each gunman was neutralized. After this was done, he went over to Christina. He found that she had fainted from the shock of being attacked. Shortly after, policemen and guards entered the room. Poo disappeared once more.
"What in blazes happened here!?" The leader of the police force dispatched looked around. He noticed that a young girl was still alive and actually coming to. He went over to the girl to see if she was alright.
"Hey, hey. Are you alright?" He picked up his walkie-talkie and requested that ambulances be sent to the museum at once. He went back to seeing if the girl was alright.
"Yes... I'm fine." She sat up slowly. She looked down at her leg. "I was only grazed in the leg. Goodness gracious, I could have been killed again."
"Well, just wait for the ambulances to arrive. We'll get you checked out. My goodness, first a kid goes on a rampage and now this. I wonder what's going to happen next in this city." Minutes later, paramedics arrived. They broke through the crowd that had been established outside of the door and checked Christina out. They bandaged her wound when they saw that she wasn't harmed anywhere else and started helping the men who were still alive. She limped out of the museum and sat on a bench across the street from it. She was amazed at how many police cars and ambulances had shown up. There, she sat for a bit.
Vincent arrived to see what had happened. He saw Christina sitting on bench so he took a seat next to her. "I heard the sirens and wondered what was going on. Rough day so far, huh?" He motioned to her leg.
"Yeah, definitely."
-----
Risosha snapped back in surprise as he felt his control over the Four Puppets severed abruptly. "My my...it appears our Young Protector is a bit more powerful than we had anticipated. No need to worry, however....yes, quite." He flashed a malevolent smile. Somewhere within his depths, the imbued power of the Nightmare Rock glimmered. Time passed. A small crack split through the rock. Risosha felt a sudden surge of power. His skin turned a ghastly shade of white, accompanying his already demonic eyes. Raltise was breaking free, ever so slowly.
"Yes, yes! Excellent! Most excellent! Now let us see what the reborn puppetmaster can do for his fallen marionettes." Risosha closed his eyes in meditation, stretching out tendrils of evil energy to surround the fallen bodies of Lier X. Agerate, Monotoli, Everdred and Carpainter. Slowly, very slowly, the battered bodies rose to their feet. Carpainter's neck was brutally smashed inward, but this did not seem to matter to him. In fact, all four exhibited some form of fatal injury, yet all appeared in perfect shape. The crimson glow in their eyes intensified, and wicked sneers encompassed their lips. With a flash of purple light, all four winked out of existence, reborn with exponentially greater power. They were heading for Fourside.
"Quite. Now to set the mood..." Risosha redirected his assault upon Fourside. The skies grew dark and cloudy, and purple thunder split the atmosphere, striking about the city, sending buildings alight with fire. Many of the citizens outdoors paused, holding their heads in sudden agony, flinching their eyes closed, and once they reopened them, they were under the red-eyed demon's control as well. Penetella Giovanni stared out his window in disbelief, eyeing the suspicious activity out in the streets.
"What's this jibba-jabba all about!? Some crazy foo is up to no good! Penetella won't stand for this!" He rushed out of his second-story apartment and out into the street. Several of the controlled minions headed toward his direction, and he brandished a pair of dirty socks, whipping them around like nunchucks. He dived into the fray.
----------
Talus placed a hand on Ness' shoulder apprehensively, and sighed uneasily when Ness didn't immediately lob his arm off.
"Ness, don't let your anger consume you. You'll just be letting him win. Remember, you're the young protector of the Earth. No matter how much it hurts, you have to struggle on." Ness sighed, wiping his eyes and looking up. He frowned at two figures across the street, heading in his direction.
"Hey..." He whispered. "Isn't that..Ms. Fake and Venus? What are they doing out here?" He jumped up from the curbside and ran to meet them. He stopped five feet short as the two women approached him, smiling enigmatically.
"...what's wrong?" He inquired. Then he saw their eyes. Bloodred. Venus hissed savagely and lunged at Ness' throat.
-----
The red-haired boy was still walking to Twoson when the bus carrying the other group came up on him. When he heard the familiar sound of a bus, he turned around and saw it.
"Darn it! Why didn't that idiot tell me there was a bus that went this way?" he growled to himself as he tried to get the driver's attention. He failed miserably and the bus went past him. "Screw this."
He started running after the bus and moved his right hand to a card carrier on his belt beneath his shirt. He also took the device from his belt loop with his left hand. Without breaking step he pulled the card through the slot on the small device, light began shining out of it as the card passed through.
"Cardo Surash! Aia Bodo!"**
Ten or twenty meters ahead of him, a board appeared out of nowhere and hovered just over the ground. Running towards it, the boy switched the card and device between his left and right hands, drew his right back, and swung it forward. As he did a beam of light snaked forward from the device and latched onto the exhaust pipe sticking up from the back corner of the bus. He took a flying leap and landed on the board just as the beam became tight and started pulling him forward.
Now he was streaking along at the same speed as the bus, hovering only a foot off the ground on the 'Air Board'. While the people the bus passed wondered what was going on, neither the bus driver nor the passengers noticed the strange trailer they had acquired.
Before long, a "Welcome to Twoson" banner caught the boy's eye, and he realized he needed to figure out how to get off the bus, as such.
**"Card Slash! Air Board!" minus the accent.
-----
Kapeka was busy sitting at the bottom of another trashcan, hating herself. She had been ready to do it, ready to jump out of the shadows and attack that Ral-person. Ready to kill him. Ready to avenge her brother.
But, her nerve had failed her. There was just something odd about him, the crimson eyes, the ability to control people, the quality of his voice, that creeped her out. Her fury had been replaced by fear, and she had hid.
She sighed, and decided to go flying, to take some things off of her mind, and to escape her fear.
She lifted off, and started going in a random direction. It didn't work, she still felt exceedingly miserable. She wasn't watching where she was going, and didn't care either. She'd never ran into anything before, (She had fallen into a volcano, but that was a different story.) so, how could she run into anything now?
She went up, up, up, scouting for anything that could give her the slightest clue of Raltise's location. There appeared to be nothing but...what was that? The southeastern horizon was dark...that was...strange.
She quickly started to go west, but, no, no more running away, she was going to kill Raltise, if this was even him, or die trying. She set off for Fourside.
-----
The red haired boy needed to think of a quick solution...
"I need to get off of this bus..."
Before the boy could act, the board vanished... and he was sent flying down the road. The option card isn't unlimited, you know.
As fate would have it, a man about 21 years old, was walking along. He had short brown hair, brown eyes, and was in decent shape. He was wearing a white T-shirt, and his favorite black dress pants. He was about 6'6", so he was definitely not the shortest guy around. Wearing a Discman, and humming along, he didn't see the young boy heading towards him. The boy didn't see him either. In an instant, the boy and the man collided, and are sent crashing to the ground. The man rubbed his head, as the young boy jumped up and wielded his weapon.
"You oaf! Why didn't you get out of the way!" The boy screamed.
The man turned his head confused. He had no idea what the boy just yelled. He stood up, and was offended at whatever it was the young boy happened to say.
"I don't know what it is you just said, but take it back or I'll use your arms and legs to turn you into a pretzel! They don't call me "The Brusin' Baron" for nothin'!"
They looked at each other, ready to battle. However... The Baron stood almost two and a half feet taller than his younger adversary! He was also twice as old. The Baron dropped out of his fighting stance, and offered his hand to the boy - it wouldn't be a fair fight.
"I'm sorry about that. But at least I stopped your fall. What were you doing that sent you hurling towards me?"
He glanced over The Baron briefly, before putting away his weapon. The sheathe appeared and disappeared again, but The Baron didn't notice.
"I'm looking for Apple Kid's place. Where is it?"
What a rude boy. However, The Baron didn't catch the hint. In the wrestling business, you got used to bosses and co-workers being snobs.
"I can go one step further. I'll lead you there. Just follow me, kid. We'll get there in no time. By the way, call me Bruiser."
The boy once again looked over the man. What did this so-called 'Bruiser' have to offer him? Rather than argue, he nodded, and the two headed toward their destination. Walking south, Bruiser had a lot of time to think. It'd been only a few months since his professional career ended prematurely...
He was wrestling for a well-known organization. In fact, he was in the main event. Everyone from far and wide came to see this wonderful match. "The Bruisin' Baron" was set to face the world champion... "Quick McPhee". The match sold out. It was dead even... until the fateful move. Bruiser picked up McPhee, and tossed him to the ropes. McPhee came flying back, and Brusier hit him with a huge clothesline. (Used his right arm to knock down the opponent.) McPhee's head turned the wrong way, as if his neck was broken. What had caused it? The match was not real ... he looked at his arms ... they were glowing dimly ... what had caused a small move like a clothesline, to nearly decapitate someone as strong as McPhee? Why were his arms glowing?
That night, McPhee went into a coma. Bruiser went to visit him often until his death soon after... The match ended in a draw... but to Bruiser's disbelief, he was barred from the sport forever. He had lost most of the friendships he ever had in the industry... all because of something he couldn't control. This was the first time that he witnessed the power. He had not seen it since.
"Are you going to answer me, or are you just going to stand there?"
The boy's words brought Bruiser out of his trance.
"I'm sorry, what were you asking?"
The boy sighed to himself. He pointed to the sign that indicated they had arrived at the Apple Kid's Domain.
"Is this the place?" He looked at Bruiser and he smiled back.
"Darn straight it is."
The boy nodded at the man.
"Thank you. Now I can go alone." His statement shocked Bruiser. He still didn't even know why a kid so young and small would want to see Apple Kid. He wasn't about to just let himself get ditched anyhow.
"No way, man. I'm staying here. Why did you want to come here?"
The boy turned, stared, and shook his head. As he walked toward the door, Bruiser stood there confused. His curiosity got the better of him, and he followed him inside.
-----
Skulryk sat at a bench a block or so away from the smoldering remains of L'Hotel du Summers. This was not going as he planned, but hardly anything did go as planned. Still, Skulryk felt a bit let down at this. His triumphant return to reporting... stifled by roadblocks.
Another thing that really annoyed him was that all the other reporters were allowed to go through, since they were all backed by a news company. Skulryk, on the other hand, was freelance, and they didn't let him through.
Skulryk already figured that they weren't going to let him through to do a report on the fire, no matter how many times he asked. He began to have doubts on the entire back-to-reporting idea he had, and figured maybe it was just a waste of time.
By this time, the greater portion of Route 40 was closed off. The police had expanded their roadblocks, and now Skulryk could barely get some footage of the hotel. Not yet one to give up, Skulryk went on with interviews, but had little luck.
Already with his camera set up and recording, he grabbed people from the streets.
"Sir!" He shouted after someone. "Sir, please, if I may have a moment of your time."
"Huh?" the man Skulryk addressed said. "Hey, leave me alone, can't you see I'm trying to be with my girlfriend?"
"Miss, what about you?" Skulryk said, turning to the man's companion. "What are your thoughts on the recent fire?"
The lady simply hurried away from Skulryk, and he stood alone on the street corner. The streetlight above him flickered on.
Dusk was setting in and the sun was setting, and something snapped in Skulryk's mind. He had nowhere to sleep. L'Hotel du Summers was out, for obvious reasons. To his knowledge, there were no other hotels in Summers. However, Skulryk figured maybe the neighboring port town of Toto had something to offer.
As Skulryk packed his camera and tripod away, preparing to make his way to Toto, he overheard two policemen talking.
"Yeah, the fire chief confirmed that it was arson, and not a gas leak. They're gonna block off more of Summers now."
"Crikey! That's gonna make it a really long night tonight... I don't know if even the mighty Onett Roadblock Squad can keep up with this block-off, especially with all these reporters."
Skulryk paused for a moment, then smiled as he grabbed his notebook, scribbling some notes.
L'hotel du Summers fire no mistake; police confirm as arson.
-----
As Venus dove forward, Ness fell back onto the asphalt, rolling out of the way of Venus as she fell. "Raltise...he's got too many people under his control."
Ness couldn't kill anyone; they were all innocent. He had to find a way to incapacitate them. He didn't really have time to think, though, either. Miss Fake was running towards him as Venus got to her feet.
"Well, by this point I have two options..." He said, backtracking towards the relative safety of the group who knew Raltise.
"I can kill them all and I'll have taken innocent lives..."
Dan interrupted. "I wouldn't try that; the tabloids'd have a field day..."
Ness frowned, to which Dan responded with a false innocent look. "Or I could run. Really, really fast."
The choice was made when another Fourside citizen lunged at him from behind, stopping when he lost his left ear to a downward slash from Chione's massive sword.
"Hey, I said I wanted them to stay alive, didn't I?"
"What, do you want me to let him chew your head off? I'd be happy to allow it next time if--Ness?"
He was already down the street, several zombies giving chase.
-----
The passengers on the Demec clustered on the deck. Fourside was now in sight, but something seemed wrong.
"What is that?" one wondered.
"I thought we just got out of a storm!" complained another. "And now we're already in another?"
"The weather'll probably be so terrible at Fourside harbor that we can't dock. We'll be forced to spend another day at sea. My daughter's already seasick... and I swear my baby son's getting colicky," moaned a harried mother. Indeed, that was the case; the captain soon announced that conditions in Fourside precluded a docking.
Harsemhin looked on at Fourside. The entire city was overcast by strange purple clouds. He could barely discern anything.
The sight chilled him to his bones. He had seen this before. He headed towards the stern of the Demec.
"One year has passed," he whispered. "One year, and the threat has returned. Raltise."
Suspecting that Raltise had returned to Fourside, and once more made it his base of operations, Harsemhin collected his goods from his cabin, indicated to an indifferent captain that he was leaving, and returned to the stern.
"Now I return to where it all began and took place. I've come full circle." He climbed onto the railings and dove off the side of the ship.
Orienting himself towards Fourside — and where he suspected Raltise was — the quasi-Druid began to swim towards the city.
-----
"So Poo saved you, then? Where'd he go, anyway?" Vincent asked after Christina had described the previous event.
"Um..." Christina began.
Before the conversation could continue, a bolt of purple lightning pierced the sky, striking a house across town. It immediately started burning, along with several other buildings hit by lightning soon afterwards. Ominous looking clouds rolled over the city, adding to the new terror of the citizens on the street.
Christina and Vincent observed the unfolding chaos that had spread throughout the city. "It doesn't look like it's been a good day for anyone," Christina mumbled to herself. Abruptly, they heard a deafening crash nearby. The lightning ignited flames, rapidly destroying the museum. Several people and officers ran out screaming in terror, followed by the museum staff. The employees were trying to preserve as many relics as they could hold, but it was in vain, for a fallen pillar collapsed the building before they could rescue the other artifacts.
Inexplicably, a few of the running people suddenly started screaming in agony, and once they regained their poise, their eyes began glowing a ghastly red color. Several started glaring at those unaffected, slowly advancing on them.
"Run," Vincent whispered instinctively, pulling Christina off the bench and down the street. Split seconds later, a riot broke out. The cops tried to subdue them, but were unsuccessful. Luckily, none of the possessed followed the escaping people, but Vincent and Christina weren't out of danger yet.
Immediately after they turned the corner, they heard a painful shriek. "What's going on? This doesn't make any sense!" Christina rubbed her head, perplexed by the entire situation. Seconds later, her question was answered. A woman with blonde hair and red eyes had just knocked away an elderly woman, who was now moaning in pain several feet away.
Vincent rapidly tried to comprehend the incident. All he could discern was that the people with red eyes were not safe to be around. He was able to identify one of these red-eyed people as the famous singer, Venus, now advancing towards them. The once beautiful face was now adorned with grotesque lines. Her eyes were unnaturally emitting a crimson aura, and her hands were slowly balling up into fists. She growled viciously, completely out of her usual character. Christina screamed and kicked her in the stomach, knocking the singer's light frame down easily.
"Follow us!" Chartreuse yelled as his group passed Christina and Vincent. "It's not safe out here!"
"Right, safety in numbers," Christina agreed, and she and Vincent quickly joined their run. I hope my parents are okay, she prayed, trying not to think about her leg.
The party rushed into the Fourside Department Store to take cover. Most of the customers had already fled the building when it had caught fire, but staying in the slowly burning building seemed much safer than remaining on the streets.
Ness pressed his hands against the window and stared mournfully at the possessed citizens. "We have to stop this," he whispered. "We have to find Raltise."