Mystic Syn

Ji began to slow. He tried at his power again to summon anything––preferably that gauntlet he had earlier––but it was still too fuzzy to firmly grasp. It was almost in reach, but always managed to slip whenever he tried to use it. The world spun under his feet, but he remained standing, still shooting at the enraged Deathgranter. The blood streaming down his arm made his grip on the gun slippery, yet he held onto it. He pointed it at the Deathgranter, raining bullets, though he seemed to be missing every shot, or the Deathgranter dodged or deflected the bullets. The Deathgranter grew faster, noticing Ji's slowness. He closed in, grinning madly as he continued to dodge Ji's sparse bullets. Ji breathed heavily, his lungs threatening to give out on him if he continued to do this, but he just ignored them. He backed up slowly, clicking the trigger of the now empty gun. Cursing softly, Ji threw the gun aside, clattering on the tile. "All out of tricks?" the Deathgranter mused, twirling the knives in his hands. "I was just getting started." Ji patted himself for anything on him, his knees wobbling beneath his weight. His hand found the knife that the girl had stabbed him with, still embedded in his side. He wrapped his fingers around the handle––knowing the world of pain that he was going to experience––yanked the bloodied knife from his aching side, and threw it at the Deathgranter. It sailed cleanly over his shoulder and through the window that Ji'd shot earlier. The Deathgranter watched the knife fly right past him, then turned back to Ji, the mad grin taking up his face. "You're going to have to try better than that," he tsked. Ji gave a weak grin, then pulled his hand towards himself. Ghostly blades sprouted from the Deathgranter's chest, one of them penetrating his heart. Dark blood dripped from the blades, falling to the pristine tile. A small gasp came from the Deathgranter as he looked down at the blades protruding from his chest. Ji clenched his hand, the blades digging deeper, causing the Deathgranter to gasp again, falling limp to the blades. The blades disappeared, letting the body fall to the ground in a bloodied mess. Ji stood, adrenaline and his Mystical power running through his veins. He turned to the table where the gun had been placed, hobbling over to it to search it some more before his body gave up on him. He took in a breath after another, rummaging through the various supplies, then caught sight of bandages. Ji immediately snatched them up, then pulled his hoodie off as he lowered himself to the ground, wrapping the bandages tightly around the arm where the Deathgranter had touched him, then moved to his gut wound. Blood soaked through the bandages, but he held it there with what remaining strength he had. His vision darkened as he muttered to himself, praying to whoever was listening for the bleeding to stop. Ji reached up to lift himself up with the help of the table, but slipped with his bloodied hand. He cursed, then saw something from the table fall to the ground next to him. With a small burst of strength, he picked the thing up, bringing it close to read. A frown pulled his lips downward as he folded the card and placed it in his pocket. He moved to the girl he shot, lightly frisking for her comm. Ji held the little piece of technology in his hand as he inched himself slowly to the wall behind him, laying against it as he continued to hold the bandages over his gut, silently cursing stabbing in general. His breathing slowed, but Ji refused to give in as he wrapped the bandages around himself. Gunshots sounded in the distance, but it was too far for him to care about. He looked down at the comm, then weakly reached up and placed it in his ear, tapping it on to listen in to whatever the Mystic's conversation was.

Oh, most of the recent pieces are not from the bus But ye. Feel free.

The person helped him sit down on a bench, laying his back against the wall. He laid back, his body breathing a sigh of relief as he slumped. Everything was far too hard for him to be doing this; it was already hard enough to stay awake, let alone breathe through this stupid mask. His mind flashed back to a few hours earlier when he could barely breathe. Ji instantly reached up, undoing the straps of the mask and ripping it off, taking a big gulp of fresh air. Everything was bright around him. He squeezed his eyes shut from the bright world. Ji rested his head against the wall behind him, feeling himself beginning to drift off. The sound of footsteps filled the room, but even hearing that was fuzzy. Voices conversed with one another, whispering quietly, but loud enough for Ji to catch little snippets. "... to ... party thingy?" "You ... masquerade? ... thing ... boss ... go to ... week?" "... that ... boss ... going ... there? ... said something ... that." Silence, then a single pair of footsteps moved toward him. "This'll ... you up ... okay ... that?" a voice said to him. Ji groaned, but nodded. Something wafted into his smell. At first, Ji didn't think much of it, till it started to burn his nostrils. His mind snapped awake, his eyes opening immediately to a bright white room. Ji sat up, rubbing his stinging nose as he squinted, letting his eyes adjust to the new lighting. As the details cleared, two figures became clearer and he realized... The Deathgranter who'd attacked them in the hospital stared down at him, his twisted smile gleefully touching his lips. A new scar inched down his neck, peeking its way onto his collarbone. That... was not there before. Another person was with him, someone unfamiliar. She cocked her head down at him, placing a hand on her hip as she watched him slowly wake up. Ji growled, then thrusted a hand out. But no blades came. He tried harder, but nothing came to view. Ji looked down at his hands, then tried reaching for his power. He looked up at the two of them, glaring at them. "What did you––" The young woman held up a vial filled with some sort of rocks that appeared to be glowing... Salt? The Deathgranter leaned toward Ji, glancing back at the young woman as his grin grew. "No," she said without him making any sounds. "We need him alive for now." "Oh, c'mon. Just a little bit?" "No, not a little bit." "Uhm," Ji piped in, causing the both of them to look toward him as he slowly got up on his feet. "'He' is right here, ya know?" "This doesn't concern you," the Deathgranter hissed. His eyebrow lifted between the two of them as they went on, bickering quietly. Ji caught sight of a table off to the right holding some sort of firearm. Despite his dizziness, he quickly, but silently made his way to the table. Before he could even reach it, the young woman glitched in front of him. Ji jumped back, cursing as he ran into the Deathgranter. Ji tried stumbling away, but the Deathgranter snatched his arm. "Caught you," he said, a grin twisting his face as the lacerations traced their way up his arm. Pain shot up his arm, but Ji yanked his arm out of the Deathgranter's grasp before the lacerations got too deep. Blood streamed down his arm, soaking his hoodie, but Ji bolted to the table, eyes set on the gun. He dodged the young woman every time she appeared in front of him, reaching over to the table and snatching up the gun. He picked up the magazine, carefully loading it before pulling the trigger in the Deathgranter's direction. The Deathgranter whipped out a knife, deflecting the bullet. He grinned, making his way to Ji, who fumbled as he shot more rounds at the Deathgranter. Ji kept light on his feet, but not as well as he would have if he weren't so dizzy. If he hadn't smelled those whatever that girl had put under his nose, he would be faring poorly. Ji cocked the handgun, shooting both the Deathgranter and the girl. A few bullets found their marks on the Deathgranter, but the girl always glitched out the way, coming closer and closer to him. He tried to run to the door, but his body just wouldn't respond the way his mind would. The pain in his arm made it hard to think, but at least his mind was much more clear than his body. The girl appeared in front of him, smiling slightly as he stumbled back. She dashed forward, ramming something into his lower right side. It pained him, making him gasp as his body almost stopped, giving him flashbacks of what'd happened earlier when he got stabbed by that Deathgranter girl. His breath caught, remembering very clearly of how he almost died. No. He set his jaw, pointing the barrel of his gun under the girl's jaw, and before she could process what was happening, squeezed the trigger. BANG Blood spurted on his face as the girl fell to the ground, red draining from her face onto the white tile, staining it. The glow of life left her eyes, leaving her body limp on the ground in a pool of crimson. Ji breathed heavily, adrenaline still rushing through him. It wouldn't take long for the pain to catch up, so he quickly turned around, and narrowly avoided the Deathgranter reaching out to use his power on him. When looking in his eyes, there was no twisted joy. Instead, it was replaced by a different emotion. Bloodlust. He leveled his gun, firing a bullet to the window. The glass shattered, falling to the faraway ground. Ji growled as the Deathgranter grew closer, but managed to dance out of the Deathgranter's grasp, shooting more bullets at the crazed man.

I mean, yeah. I’m on spring break, but I’m just hecka tired right now.

N e v e r

I honestly cannot remember what day it is most of the time.

Ji's eyes fluttered open when John put the mask over his face. He couldn't see quite clearly; the... whatever that was in the air certainly didn't help. Ji slowly picked himself up to sit back on the alley wall behind him. His breathing quickened, sending his mind into flashbacks from earlier. Weight on his chest. His vision darkening by the second. His very lungs giving out on him. No matter how hard he tried to do a basic function to just breathe, it was near impossible. Ji reached up to claw his mask off, but someone stood right in front of him, distracting him. He looked up, squinting through his fuzzy vision and the air. Was that Elya in a gas mask? "Hey, it's okay," a muffled voice said. "We're going to get you out of here, alright?" Sure sounded like Elya, even through both the mask and his own muffled hearing. Ji nodded toward her, scenes of what happened earlier plaguing him. As soon as she touched him, everything stopped around them. The breeze that had picked up and moved the weird looking air around him halted. Ji shook his head. He must be really tired. After all, his vision was still blurry and he couldn't quite hear. It was best if he were to move out of the way of this weird air. The figure Ji assumed to be Elya reached down and picked him up, and began to bob and weave through the still people. "Thank you," he whispered, his head spinning. "It's my pleasure," she responded, entering the building before anyone could notice.

High up in the building, there was a glimmer of dark blue and violet. It was extremely hard to see what was above the blue and violet, but from what she could see, there was some sort of neutral color? Even if Grace were to squint, it was difficult what color was in their head. When she looked down lower, there was a small golden light closer to the ground floor. It moved around, inching closer to what was assumed to be a window. The colors above the gold was some sort of magenta color with the slightest hint of violet.

He slept peacefully. Everything John had said went completely over his head.

Saki Kasliua felt her Mystical power within her as she sat in front of an immobile Elya. She looked in between her and Ji, tilting her head at them as she got up. There was just one thing she didn't quite understand about them. Why would someone risk everything for just one? She took off, running off a distance just in case Elya spotted something out of the ordinary before letting go of her power. Everything and everyone around her started as if she took the television off of pause. She felt a slight jerk in her body as she forced herself back into the normal timeline, but didn't feel that pain she'd once felt when she'd first figured out her powers. Practice always made perfect in her eyes. Saki reached up for her comm. "Yeah, they're definitely planning an ambush of their own. ... Oh yeah, I expected it. ..." She stopped and grinned. "Yeah, I know just the thing that'll work."

He was already out. A peaceful expression replaced the exhaustion; very rare to see one of those on him.

Ji nodded, his eyelids growing heavy. He tried to follow the conversation, but it was just too exhausting to try.

He thought about it, then shook his head. “I don’t think so. I can barely do this as is.” Ji looked to John. “Killed who?”

He sat for a moment, processing what was happening, till he mustered enough strength to return the embrace, not even caring about his bloodied hoodie staining her clothes. “I said I would be,” he responded weakly, burying his face in her shoulder. “Did you doubt me?”

At first, nothing happened. Ji remained still with not even the slightest twitch. Till he gasped, then began coughing. Blood still came up, but it wasn’t as much as before. Slowly, his breaths became consistent and a little more even. He was still deathly pale, but at least he was moving. His eyelids fluttered open, if very, very weakly.

The girl grinned. “Good choice.” She glitched over to Elya, calmly taking one of her hands, and dropping the vial in it. “We’ll see you on the battlefield, hm?” the girl said, giving her a wink before glitching away. On the ground, Ji fell still, only his chest twitching slightly for a short intake of breath. “Oh, and–” the girl appeared on the window sill, walking across it “–I would hurry if I were you. Pretty sure he has less than a minute left… hm, or was it ten seconds? Guess we’ll find out in a few.” She gave them a mock salute, then glitched away.

“The fact that my colleagues haven’t killed you or I.” She squeezed the vial tighter, more cracks appearing. “The fact that I haven’t killed you yet.”

“Hmm, tempting. Very tempting.” She glitched next to Ji, squeezing the vial between her fingers, tiny hairline cracks forming on the surface. “My deal is still on the table.”