The man hid behind a corner wall, and watched as he saw several people hastily making their way to an emergency exit of the underground complex that they inhabited. It seemed there was one person being violently ushered along... even forced to move... by 2 people, while a 4th one, the clear leader of them all, was screaming at them, and the one they were moving.

"GET HER OUT OF HERE!" she shrieked. "JUST GET HER AWAY FROM HERE!" she hollered further.

"T-to where, mistress?" one of the two underlings asked.

"WHEREVER!" she snapped back. "JUST GET HER AS FAR AWAY FROM HERE AS POSSIBLE!" she commanded. "Let her die somewhere that isn't HERE!" she finished violently.

"..." the man that had been watching this from afar just sighed quietly, stopped watching, and started to slowly walk away, down the hallway.

'...I get the feeling this isn't the last we've seen of this problem...' he thought to himself ominously, as he already started to make future plans regarding this... as best he could.

- - -

Hal and Hollie were resting on the couch in the den of Hal's home, just enjoying an evening together. They had ordered in food for dinner, as well as some dessert, and now they were watching television, with Hal sitting at the end of the couch, and Hollie leaning up against him. They had just started watching a crime drama, when the program was suddenly interrupted by an emergency news bulletin.

"Oh, come on, we were just about to see who the victim was." Hal muttered. "Wonder what this is about...?" he then asked quietly.

The news anchor was reporting that strange weather-related phenomena were happening around the world. They mentioned that several areas were experiencing earthquakes, while others had severe tornado warnings, and tropical storms were rising in other parts of the planet. While the areas were known for these events, the strange part was that they were happening all at once.

"Huh, that's weird..." Hal commented, before the anchor was handed an update.

"This just in, it's been reported that Mount Vesuvius in Campania is showing signs of activity." they said. "Scientists and Geologists are saying that, while activity is not surprising, the sudden appearance of it is-" they continued, before being handed another paper. "And THIS just in... it seems that the supervolcano, Yellowstone Caldera, in Wyoming, is ALSO showing abrupt signs of activity." they reported, continuing with the story, and clarifying what that meant.

"...okay, that's not good." Hal said, his voice far more serious now. "What is happening with the world, suddenly?"

Hal nodded in response after she kissed him, and smiled.

"All right." he responded. "I do hope you manage to get some useful information." he told her.

"In the meantime, I'm going to check a few mage channels and boards, and see if there isn't any information circulating about this sudden turn of events." he informed her further.

Hollie nodded, and vanished from where she was, appearing beside a nice little townhouse... but there was something that was making it seem not so nice at the moment. Inside, she swore she could hear... voices. Loud voices.

And crashing. Crashing, yelling, smashing, thumping... it seemed like there was massive destruction happening inside.

Normally that wouldn't be as alarming as one would initially think, but... something seemed different about this. One of the voices, the male one, she thought she heard... desperation in his tone?

The brunette was silent for a moment, before rolling onto his front, and coughing... to the point where a large splattering of forest green liquid was spat out from his mouth. She knew what it was... and it was alarming.

"H-Hollie?" he asked, looking at her, and then looking around.

"Where's Anna?" he asked her.

"I sent her somewhere else in the house." Hollie responded. This seemed to cause Andrew's eyes to widen a bit.

"Ohhhh, she won't like THAT..." he mumbled.

"Hollie, you need to get out of here!" he exclaimed. "NOW!" he yelled.

"Something reeeeeeal screwy is happening!"

Andrew shook his head.

"No. I don't." he said.

"All I know is that suddenly-" he went on, before he tackled Hollie to the floor, as thorn-laden vines shot out from seemingly nowhere, and barely missed them.

"Anna, please!" he cried out in desperation, getting off of Hollie.

"Not Hollie!" he pleaded.

"Our connection to the planet is going haywire!" he told the mage, as he started to erect his own walls of vines to try and stall his lover.

They could feel Anna behind the vines... and she was not happy, to say the least. Hollie had never seen her or heard her this irate, this violent before. It was... frightening, actually.

"I meant what I said!" Andrew replied, putting his hands on the floor to try and maintain the vines... even though they could start to see them rotting away from Anna's mana.

"We're connected to the planet, and the planet seems to be unstable!" he told her.

"Making US unstable!" he went on.

"What about your calming mana?" Hollie asked. "Shouldn't it be working on her to calm her down?" she asked further.

"...it IS calming her down." Andrew told her, his tone dead serious.

"...." Andrew was silent for a moment.

"...kind of." he said.

"It's... it's one of the reasons that Anna is as violent and angry as she is." he told her, as the throwing got more violent, and the screaming got more intense.

"When I say the planet is unstable, it's... it's almost like something wrong with the c-" he started to say further, before a thorny vine suddenly emerged from the floor beneath them, impaling Andrew through his side, and slashing at Hollie's torso, as she was standing close to him.

"AGH!" Andrew cried out in pain, as his concentration waned, and the vines started to weaken and wiggle, losing their structural integrity.

Hal was silent for only a moment... not even 2 seconds, before he snapped his fingers.

"Done." he said.

At the same instant that he did that, Anna burst through the weakened vine wall, and she looked ready to tear Hollie limb from limb. However, just as she was about to crash into the mage, Hollie saw her fall unconscious, and she disappeared from where she was, appearing in the den she had just been in.

She knew that back at the house, from what she had seen, Anna would, indeed, be unconscious. Out cold.

And so was Andrew. To which she then really and truly recalled how he was covered with cuts, gashes, bruises, and it even looked like there were places where Anna had used her rotting ability on him... however, those looked to be shallow and superficial, thank heavens.

Still didn't change the fact that he looked like the victim of a brutal assault. But the stasis would help, at least.

"What the hell HAPPENED!?" Hal exclaimed when he saw her, and the wound she'd received.

"....." again, Hal was silent.

"Yes. You DO need to go." he told her. "To the hospital." he said further.

"Look at what those damn savages did to you." he then growled, pointing at her torso... before he then paused, and looked away a little, a puzzled expression on his face now.

It seemed he had a moment where he'd thought 'why did I just say that?'

However, he shook his head a little, and looked back at her.

"Hollie, you're bleeding. Badly." he said. "If that's not tended to, you may very well bleed to death." he went on. "From what you've told me, and from what I've seen of draydins, the wounds they inflict are more often than not more than what meets the eye."

Hal just sighed.

"We can talk about my comment later." he said.

"For now, yes, you need medical help." he went on, rising to his feet.

"And I do. My own head medic, Angela, and her team will be able to mend you pretty quickly." he assured her. "Maybe not as fast as your regular doctor, but their record speaks for itself." he continued.

"As for discretion, all those that work there are under STRICT confidentiality agreements." he then stressed. "I can mana us there directly, and less people will see you through the hallways and corridors." he added, before thinking about it.

"...even better, I'm texting Angela and asking her to reserve a room for us to teleport right in, so NOBODY sees you, except those that tend to you." he then said, taking his phone out and sending the request text.

Hal just cursed at the response, and called her.

"Yeah, hello." he said when she answered.

"Looks like a slashing wound across her torso, which may or may not have additional effects in it." he told her.

"Hard to tell when dealing with draydins." he muttered.

"So yeah, some advice on first aid would be greatly appreciated, and the faster, the better." he continued.

"She's losing energy and strength as we speak."