Magicka Corrupted

[Gifted]

Why were people moving away? Was it over already? She tried to push her way through to find Red and figure out what was going on. She hoped she hadn't missed it.

[Raven]

Red's voice was a bit clearer as he said, "Do it." Abruptly, there was a scream, followed by three piercing cracks. For a moment, the crowd seemed to freeze, and then there were renewed efforts to leave. By that point, however, she had reached the edge of the crowd, just around the corner from where Red was waiting with a radio in his hand. A muted voice came over the radio, "Red? Thomas? What's-" it cut off. Then, alone with his thoughts, Red laughed. It was a brief moment, and it was quickly over as Red began to quickly pack his things so he wouldn't be found camping there by the authorities. As the crowd quickly dispersed, it became easier to see brutal scene in the square ahead. Police officers with batons stood with two of the familiar faces from the base on their knees in front of them, bruises already developing and blood welling from some of the worse injuries, while a third, hardly recognizable due to the damage done to her face and head, lay on the ground, unmoving.

[Gifted]

Natalia froze. Her whole world seemed to stop. Her brain was moving at a tenth the speed, and she couldn't process the sequence of events that had just gone on in front of her. What were they doing to those three protestors? Even the police couldn't go this far in front of people, could they? And why did Red laugh? Where was he? Why wasn't he helping them? Red's laughing face was burned into her retinas, his voice repeating "Do it" in her ears. Had he known about this? He ordered this? Those people had no idea what they were getting into, they'd just wanted to fight for a cause they believed in and they... was that girl even still alive?
Someone hit her shoulder as they ran by, jolting her back to her senses. She couldn't stay here. She couldn't get caught here. By Red or by the police. She turned and took off, blending into the crowd. Natalia ran and ran, not stopping until she made it back into the safety of her mothers home and locked herself in her room.
She had no idea how Red could do that, just order policemen to kill mages fighting for his own cause. But she knew one thing; that had not been a reluctant act of hard sacrifice for the greater good. Those Black Mages hadn't volunteered, Red had not hesitated to do that. He had laughed as his compatriots were beaten down. He had ignored their cries for help. He wasn't in this for the cause or to help his fellow mages like he'd planned; like the rest of the establishment, he was just using them to get what he wanted. What did he want? Power? Who knew. But she couldn't let him get away with this. Those had been good men. God damned good men. No good change could be made out of this. But what was she supposed to do? What the hell was she supposed to do?

[Raven]

Raven had never been in a city as large as this one before. He'd hovered around the edges for a few days, not used to such a mass of civilization - not used to regular civilization at all, if he were honest. He knew enough about the world outside of his home to know that he hardly knew anything. However, after poking around, he was determined to learn what he could from this city, and from people on the roads and around the outskirts, he'd gained a name to start with: Amy Masumoto. It had taken a bit more digging to figure out where he could find her, and nervousness bubbled in his stomach as he knocked on the door. What if she didn't want him here? What if he wasn't supposed to know about this place, whatever it was? He pushed it down and breathed, focusing on looking around at the outside of the house instead. Just in time, he severed the magical connection and made his eyes go back to normal, determined not to give any excuse for her not to like him.

[Gifted]

The building was a massive structure of metal and glass in the heart of downtown, and when Raven came to knock the glass door slid smoothly open on its own. A clean and open lobby stretched out before Raven, a desk drawing his attention in the center of the room. The desk was decorated with the large logo of a top news organization, and a smiling woman was sitting behind the desk watching him as he came in. "Hi! How can i help you today?"

[Raven]

Raven looked uncertain, but he smiled warmly. "Hi. I'm looking for Amy Masumoto? I was told I could find her here?"

[Gifted]

"This is the station from which Ms. Masumoto works, yes. What do you need?" The receptionist asked.

[Raven]

"I was told she was a person to talk to about the idea of Soul Magic," Raven confessed.

[Gifted]

The receptionist quite obviously rolled her eyes. "I'm afraid Ms. Masumoto is busy right now, but if you want to talk to any of our staff we have an e-mail to communicate with the public. If you have any questions about one of our broadcasts you can e-mail us at-"
Raven probably didn't have the life experience to realize quite how lucky he'd gotten when Amy came around a corner.

"-us to cover the story that works, but we're going to have to finalize it within the next couple weeks so we can get on a plane." She was saying to someone who hadn't followed her out. "Anyway, talk to Chris, I'm gonna go see my sister while I'm still in town."
"Alright, See ya, Amy."

[Raven]

Raven narrowed his eyes at the woman who was trying to claim that Amy was busy as someone said her name. "Amy Masumoto?" he asked, turning away from the receptionist.

[Gifted]

Amy looked up. "Yeah, hi. That's me." She said.

[Raven]

"I'm Raven Muir," he greeted. "I was told you were the person to talk to about the concept of Soul Magic?"

[Gifted]

"He's one of your nutty conspiracy theorist fans." The receptionist rolled her eyes.
"Chelsea, would you just stop? I'm well aware of your opinion but I know what I saw." Amy said coolly, like she'd dealt with this before. Then she looked to Raven. "Uh, can you walk and talk? Let's go, I want to get home."

[Raven]

"Yeah, alright," Raven agreed, heading towards the door without looking back at the receptionist.

[Gifted]

Amy threw on a jacket and stepped out into the street, throwing on her hood to try to keep herself from being recognized. "So you heard about my story online and decided to track me down, huh? I gotta say, you look more normal than most of the people who believe me."