Interlude
Nadia Starr & ???
"Countdown"
---Tires scream in agony as they pushed far beyond their limits.
Where a racetrack had once been a place of relative fun and safety, a haven for adrenaline-junkies and thrill seekers alike, there are now only winding empty streets... The track is broken in many places, blasted to pieces by the magic of a distant half-formed tower; it lurks on the horizon like an ominous eye, a massive structure of unknown purpose and make, a Demon Tower, summoned into the world by an unknown mastermind.
---Or rather, a pseudo-unknown mastermind.
"...!"
Turning the throttle as far as it will go, Nadia Starr races in the opposite direction of that distant malevolent tower; she had not originally intended to head in this direction, but having been asked to pursue this path by one of the two other Tamers she had run into in this space, the task of investigating that person she hadn't been able to feel initially, the only one who hadn't been evacuated with the rest of the non-tamer personnel, was a task that fell onto her shoulders...
Of course, the sounds of magic in the distance are turbulent and chaotic; the digital sky has become a swirling sea of grey clouds and flashing violet lightning as the world shakes every couple of seconds, shakes from the strain of being forced to endure something it had never been designed to endure, from a magical capacity that had become overwhelming long before it had stopped, before it had plauteu'd suddenly, as if something had stopped it's summoning in it's tracks...
...As stated before, the one who is behind this is only sort of unknown; if someone is voluntarily staying within this space without being a Tamer or something equivalent, than the digital world's safety mechanisms had either fallen apart or the person in question had suspect motivations, yes...
---It is likely that the Mastermind behind all of this is the one she is going to confront, even so...
With Jack complaining of a 'headache' from the strange droning sound the Tower was making, she was going to confront this person alone; if it was a frightened civilian, then escorting them out of here was the priority, if it wasn't...
Well...
She'd have to play it by ear...
"Are you alright?"
When she finally sees him, a dark-haired young man standing atop one of the many winding roads, her first instinct is to ask if he is okay... It is an instinct born from a naturally kind nature, or perhaps, from a sense of empathy that is so strong it has become a power all of it's own...
Yes.
She knows, instinctively knows...
That there is something wrong with the person in front of her, even though his expression is resolute as he turns to face her.
...And then she knows.
She knows without him telling her, that he is certainly the one connected to that distant tower.
"...No. Not really."
A simple answer to her simple question.
"After all... It seems I'm running out of time."
One she will not truly understand, but one that he seems to want someone to understand anyway, as he shows her the back of his hand.
---What exists there, is some sort of countdown...
She can't read the numbers from here... Parking her bike where it is now, knowing it will do her little good on all of this fractured ground, the crimson-haired girl can't see exactly what those numbers represent, not because her eyes aren't enhanced, but because...
It's a number that's diving downwards, one that had started at 999 and was rapidly descending...
She can't understand, she doesn't have enough context to understand, even so...
One thing is clear.
...She can't let him do whatever this is.
"...You are one of those "Tamers" correct? I would like to apologize for all of this, I'm sorry... I thought I had more time to figure something out, some other way, but..."
Spirit Power roars.
---It's dense.
---It's so dense, so heavy, that she struggles not to fall to her knees just from being around it.
Even so, she manages to straighten her back, even though just being around this youth makes it feel like her heart is gonna stop...
Even so...
"Guess that means... You're not gonna come quietly...?"
Her Spirit as a Tamer remains unbroken, her own -smaller- Reiki coming out to oppose something that was slowly rising past even the bizarre tower in the distance, and...
"...No."
The road explodes.
Interlude Out