Under Crimson Skies

Strapping her gun into her holster, Crystal heads for the docks at Whitesand Bay. She didn't get a wink of sleep last night, knowing today she'd find more information— or at least, she hoped she would. 

At first, she wondered how she would find Sylus among the civilians, but her ears pick up on the distant sound of a crow cawing. Her eyes turn to look, and she spots Mephisto up in the sky, looking down at her. Crystal sighs, before following his gaze.

Soon she comes across a small black speedboat, and looks in to see Sylus sitting at the helm, wearing sunglasses. A red button up and some dark gray slacks. It was... oddly casual, if she was being honest. 

"Ah. You managed to find me." Sylus speaks without looking at her, "Good job, Hunter."

"It was easy. Just had to follow the cawing of a certain crow." Crystal says, and judging by his chuckle, he found it funny as she climbs into his speedboat. "Didn't think you'd have a boat."

"Well, I have several." Sylus boasts a bit, "This is just the one I was more inclined to bring today."

"Oh, sorry, Mr. Billionaire." Crystal goads as she sits down in one of the seats near him, "Didn't know you had such a fine collection of boats." 

Sylus' eyes widen a bit at her cocky response, before he smirks wider, "Maybe one day I'll show them off. Consider it a lesson in power, Hunter." He starts the boat, and leaves the dock.

The ocean spray hit her face, sharp and stinging—just like the memories creeping in at the edges of her mind. A dull ache pulsed in her head, uninvited, and she let out a quiet grunt, her hand instinctively rising to shield her face. What she doesn't expect, is for a baseball cap to be put on her head.

"Here... to keep the water out of your face." Sylus says, his voice almost gentle. Crystal adjusts the cap.

"Thanks." Crystal says quietly, shifting the hat to help better cover her face. They soon pull up to the island, there's no dock to stop at, so Sylus looks at her with a pensive look.

"Hope you know how to swim. We'll anchor here and swim to the shore." He informs her, and Crystal looks at him.

"No need." She stands up and walks to the back of the boat, where there are steps down to the water. She steps down and then puts her foot out. Soon, the water goes completely still under her foot, and she tilts her head back to Sylus, "We can just walk to it."

"Oh? And here I thought you were a helpless hunter." Sylus goads gently, but he's unable to suppress a glimmer of appreciation in his eyes for her Evol Abilities. He walks over to her, Crystal's hand comes up to take his, before guiding him down onto the water's surface. "Walking on water is... definitely something I've yet to experience."

"The world is always full of experiences." Crystal says, "Some of which are new, and some old as time." She guides him towards the shore, the water only solidifies around them, behind them, it resumes flowing, simply allowing them passage.

Once their feet hit the sand, Crystal lets his hand go, not wishing to let the contact linger uncomfortably. She looks around the island.

"Come. Mephisto has spotted a building not too far from here." Sylus says, beginning to walk towards the tree line. Crystal follows him, flipping her cap to be backwards so it doesn't obstruct her eyesight. 

Soon, they do come across a dilapidated building, it looks like it was destroyed by wanderers. As if to confirm Crystal's theory, her hunter's watch begins to beep quietly, letting her know that there was lingering Meta Flux in the air.

"Sylus." Crystal says, gesturing to her watch, "I'm to assume there's a protofield here. We should be careful."

"Is the hunter telling me she's afraid of a wanderer?" Sylus teases as he walks towards the building, Crystal glares at him a bit as she follows him.

"No, I'm just saying we should be careful." Crystal argues, and Sylus turns to her, flicking her lightly on the forehead.

"Focus, Kitten. It's not the time to be so distracted." Sylus says, a teasing lilt to his words, but also a seriousness that makes Crystal focus on where they're headed. The door to the facility. 

Crystal doesn't flinch at the flick to her forehead. Instead, she just stares at Sylus, her expression as blank as ever. If she didn't already know his type, she might have questioned whether he was actively trying to get under her skin. But that was just Sylus—testing, teasing, always watching for reactions.

"That stare of yours is almost eerie, you know," Sylus remarks, before turning his attention back to the rusted doorway.

Crystal ignores the comment. Her focus shifts instead to the air around them. The stillness is wrong. Too quiet. The kind of silence that makes the back of her neck prickle. Even the usual sounds of insects in the overgrown foliage have faded, leaving only the whisper of the wind brushing through the broken structure ahead.

The hunter's watch on her wrist continues its low beeping, an occasional flicker of red flashing on the screen. Meta Flux contamination—likely residual from a collapsed Protofield. Crystal narrows her eyes, scanning the crumbling walls and shattered windows, trying to see what may be waiting inside.

Sylus, however, steps forward without hesitation, his boots crunching against debris. "Seems abandoned," he muses, resting a hand on the rusted metal of the doorway.

Crystal doesn't move immediately. A weight lingers in the air—like a place frozen in time, where the past still echoes. She wonders, for a brief moment, if this place held anything tied to her past. If EVER had been here before.

Pushing onwards, Crystal begins to search, using her watch's light to help her see. Soon, she finds some broken vials on the floor outside a room. Pushing the door open, it gives a loud creak. 

Inside, the remnants of a lab greet her. Testing tubes, shattered glass, scattered papers—signs of a place abandoned in a hurry.

"Tch. What a pain." Crystal complains.

She doesn't know where Sylus wandered off to, but she isn't concerned. Instead, she moves further into the room, careful with her steps as she kneels to collect the papers littering the floor. Scanning each one, she logs their contents into her watch, her expression unreadable as she sifts through the remnants of past experiments.

A glint of metal catches her eye. She finds a metal box, and opens it. The clicking of the clasps fills the lab, and she peers in, but... it's empty. Still, she doesn't leave it behind. Instead, she begins carefully placing intact vials inside, sealing them away for later testing. Whatever had happened here, whatever had been left behind—she would find the answers herself.

Crystal's watch emits another quiet beep, but it isn't just Meta Flux contamination this time. A shift in pressure. A warning.

Something feels wrong.

She turns, scanning the lab again—noticing how some of the dust on the shelves has been disturbed. Some of the scattered papers look as if they've been rifled through more recently than the others. Someone's been here. Maybe not long ago.

Crystal clenches her jaw and moves back to the main area of the facility. Sylus stands there, slightly dusty, flipping through a pile of papers in his hand. He looks up when she approaches.

"I found these, but this place is bone dry," Sylus says, handing them over. "Can't really read what's on them, though."

Crystal takes the papers, quickly skimming through them, her watch logging every detail. A few faded notes stand out—mentions of experiments, subject numbers, but nothing conclusive.

"It's not a lot, but every bit of info is valuable if you know how to piece it together." She exhales, "Let's go—"

She stops mid-step. Sylus does, too.

The surrounding silence is too heavy. Too unnatural.

Then, in her earpiece, Mephisto's voice clicks in.

"Intruders incoming. Another boat is docking."

Crystal's eyes sharpen. EVER? It has to be.

Sylus watches her reaction, then smirks. "You look like you're about to throw a fit."

She ignores him. "How many?"

"Two, maybe three. Light-footed. Not civilians." Mephisto's tone is clipped.

Crystal exhales. "Let's move. If we run into them, we're just sightseeing."

Sylus raises a brow, amused. "Think they'll buy that?"

"They won't have time to question it if we keep moving." Crystal says, already heading for the exit.

Sylus chuckles as he follows. "Lead the way, Hunter."

Crystal leads the way towards the beach, her ears on high alert. As they make it to the edge of the water, her jaw tenses, "Behind us." She says, turning, and she noticed Sylus had already been turned, his hands in his pockets.

"Who dares to interrupt my vacation?" Sylus asks, scanning the tree line, and Crystal reaches for her gun, ready to shoot at any given sign of danger. 

Leaves rustle. A shadow shifts. Then—

A gunshot rings out. Crystal dodges in a heartbeat, the bullet whizzing past her head. Her eyes narrow and she pulls her gun instantly,

"Rude." Sylus mutters, sliding a hand into his pocket as if barely interested.

Crystal's eyes flick toward their attackers—three figures in tactical gear, moving with precision, their weapons outfitted with suppressors. Not amateurs.

EVER.

"Who dares to interrupt my vacation?" Sylus asks, voice dripping with mock offense.

Crystal ignores him, assessing their options. Cover was scarce near the beach—the only real option was the water. But if they reached the shoreline, she could shift the tide in their favor.

"You taking this seriously or what?" she mutters.

Sylus smirks. "I was waiting to see what you'd do, Kitten."

Crystal exhales sharply. Fine.

She fires first, a well-placed shot grazing one of the enemy's arms. It's enough to make them stumble, but not enough to drop them. She moves, fast, dodging as another suppressed shot cracks through the air.

Sylus moves too—but unlike her, he doesn't just evade. He walks right toward them.

The first assailant barely has time to react before Sylus uses his mist to snatch the gun right out of their hands, twisting their arm with a deafening sound. A pained grunt—then a sharp crack as he dislocates their wrist before throwing them aside.

She rushes the second attacker, flipping her gun to strike their temple with the butt of the handle. They stagger, but before they can recover—

She manipulates the water in their body. A sharp flick of her fingers, and the moisture in their muscles seizes, locking them in place just long enough for her to finish them with a kick to the ribs.

Sylus whistles. "Effective."

"Less talking, more fighting."

Eventually only one remains, and Crystal's eyes narrow. She uses solidifed water to wrap around their wrists and brings them to their knees, "Speak." She says firmly, "What was EVER doing here?"

The man looks up at her with a mocking expression, "They were researching how to make water poisonous to you." He mocks, and Sylus steps forward, his right eye begins to glow red, his Aether Core allowing him to see into the man's desires and thoughts.

"He doesn't know much." Sylus says to Crystal, "But it does seem like he had direct orders to confiscate you."

Crystal's brows furrow, and she increases her Evol's strength, before the sickening sound of the man's wrist bones breaking echoes in the air, "Confiscate me?" She whispers out, "Why don't you go running back to EVER, and tell them that every time they try to 'confiscate' me, I'll be killing their men. One by one." She says the words firmly, before she closes her fist and slings the man out into the ocean. He'd live to tell EVER that, she was sure of it.

Sylus gazes at her, something unreadable flickering behind his crimson-glowing eye. He says nothing—only smirks as she solidifies the water beneath her feet, stepping toward the boat without a second glance.

When he boards, the only sound is the waves lapping against the hull, but the weight of the revelation lingers between them.

After a moment, Sylus breaks the silence. "You realize EVER won't stop until they get what they want, right? They don't like losing."

Crystal doesn't hesitate. "Good," she says, eyes fixed on the horizon. "Because I won't stop either."