Ren pretended he didn't hear what the men said. He thought of taking a step forward, maybe bolting through the door like lightning.
"I said put your hands up where I can see them," the voice repeated.
Ren hesitated, his eyes darting from the men to the door.
They focused their guns on his head.
"Make any moves and you'll be taken down."
The man's voice was almost calm, but Ren felt he wasn't bluffing.
Ren raised his hands slowly, his eyes not leaving the armed men. Two of the men spread out behind him, and then approached one step at a time like they were approaching a frozen bear.
The fat antique dealer was pressed against the counter, looking pale and sweating as he watched them.
"What's this about?" Ren asked, even though he already had a little clue what it could be.
The officer in front stepped forward. "You match the description of an unregistered Awakened who threatened the life of a normal citizen and attempted to attack A-Ranked citizens."
"What? I never did any of that."
"You will surrender yourself for questioning and core verification."
The officer glanced at the bag at Ren's feet. "I could bet a thousand crowns that you stole that from normal citizens too."
Ren was about to say something, but the man didn't let him.
"On your knees!" he barked, cutting the words halfway Ren's throat.
Something in Ren snapped then. It felt like the same quiet thing that had cracked inside him at the mines when Torrent punished him with a whip. It was like a spark that jolted through his whole body.
His pupils flared with a scarlet colour and his palms felt hot, so hot that they looked red.
"I said, get down on your knees now."
He looked down as he slowly lowered himself. A plain white card emerged from thin air, hovering just over his hand. There were no symbols or markings on the card.
'What is this? Where did it come from?'
"What is that?" one of the officers said.
Ren jerked his head up, but did not answer. He did not know how to answer when he was also as clueless as they were.
He reached for the card. The men adjusted their guns at him.
Immediately his finger touched the card, a line of fire crawled from where his finger was like it had been waiting for him to touch it. The line of fire carved a spiral on the card.
When the pattern was complete, the card flared brighter, flames licking his fingers without burning him. His heart pounded so hard that it hurt.
"Drop it," the officer shouted.
"Drop it right now," another officer yelled.
Ren threw it at the boot of the officer in front of him.
The card struck the floor and exploded, first with a loud crack like bone snapping, then heat roared outward.
The shockwave flung bodies back like rag dolls. Ren was tossed back too. Glass shattered, shelves collapsed and Hardy ducked behind his counter.
Ren struggled to his feet, although he couldn't hear properly with all that ringing in his ear. His vision blurred at the edges as the room filled with smoke. The officers groaned as they too began to get their balance.
Ren rushed for the the door.
Another card appeared in between his finger without him thinking about it. Then another.
An officer lunged for him. Ren swung his arm on instinct. One of the flaming card flew out, sticking to the man's neck and detonated. It went off and hurled them both apart, the man's internals shattering into a thousand black pieces and raining down in the store. Ren slammed into a display case, crashing it, and rolled. His ears rang, skin stung and he smelled burned cloth, blood and the horrible smell from the man's burnt entrails.
He stumbled to his feet and bolted out the door.
People screamed and scattered as Ren burst out into daylight trailing smoke. ZeCO officers poured after him. They were now three of them left. The one who had been commanding had blood coming out of his nose and some burnt marks.
He placed his finger on his ear, "Code R! I repeat, code R. Send back up. We need aerial cover."
"Stop him!" he shouted, increasing his pace.
Ren ran until his lungs burned. The other card in between his fingers had turned to ashes, blowing away as he ran. He looked back, the officers were still tailing him and they were gaining in on him.
Another card flickered into existence in his hands like a nervous tick. He threw them blindly over his shoulder.
Explosions erupted behind him. He shielded his arm over his head as the shockwave shook everywhere.
One officer caught up to him near an alley.
The man grabbed his cloak.
Ren panicked. Another card appeared in his palm and flared up with a scarlet fire.
The man yanked Ren back and he fell backwards and the officer was beside him, pointing a gun to his face. Ren stuck the card to his boot and rolled away. The man tried to peel off the card from his boot, but it was as if it merged with it.
The card went off. The officer dropped to the floor, screaming, with his legs gone and his intestines spewing out from his right side.
Ren staggered back, unable to get his eyes off the man who wasn't moving anymore.
The other officers appeared at the corner and shot at Ren. Two blue beams flew at him at once. One missed him, but the other struck him on his back.
Ren shouted as he fell down. He felt his entire body vibrate from inside as if it was going to shatter. He focused on his hand even with the pain and a card appeared in his hand. He tossed it behind him without looking. The explosion helped as the vibration stopped.
He struggled to his feet and ran down the alley. Looking behind him, he saw the officers firing more shots that kept hitting walls. Sirens wailed somewhere above him.
A teenager stood at the end of the alley. He was tall, with an athletic build. He watched Ren with wide eyes, then stepped forward.
Ren skidded to a stop. He glanced back, the officers were still running after him.
"Get out of my way."
The boy lifted one hand. Gold flashed and a large ring shot toward Ren. It split into myriads of smaller rings mid-air. The rings snapped together around Ren's chest and arms with a metallic crack and merged into a chain. It all happened in a blink.
Ren sucked in a sharp breath.
'This jerk.'
Ren twisted against the chain, straining to free himself from the tight grip of the chain that was now burning his cloak and his exposed skin. The ZeCO officers had slowed down, watching the boy torture Ren.
A card formed close to Ren's palm, but his fingers couldn't close around it. The gold cut into his arms as he strained to touch the card. Ren yelped as blood dripped down and dropped on the floor.
The card slipped over and slapped against his side, finding bare skin beneath his torn fabric.
Ren froze. The card stuck there, glowing, heat pressing inward instead of out.
His heart slammed.
'Shit! It's going to blow. It's going to blow me up too!.'
Ren squeezed his eyes shut and fought the chain with everything he had, but it was no use.
Scarlet spirals crawled across the gold chain. They carved lines into the rings like a brand. The chain sizzled for some seconds and then it shattered with loud burst.
The blast hurled Ren into the wall. The impact knocked the air out of him.
ZeCO officers were thrown back as shards of dead metal, stripped of all gold, tore through the alley, clattering, spinning, and crashing into everything.
Ren slid down the wall, coughing.
He opened his eyes.
The alley was a mess. One of the ZeCO officers had a shard of metal stuck in his forehead, while the other one clutched his side, groaning in pain.
The boy who had launched the ring laid on the road at the end of the alley, clutching his shoulder. Blood spread fast through the sleeve of his shirt and a line of blood also rolled down from his nose. The boy spat when he noticed Ren staring at him.
Ren sprang to his feet and ran towards the road. The other ZeCO officer—the last man standing—staggered to his feet. He was obviously more furious now after he had lost his colleague to the random, careless attacks of some card thrower.
Immediately Ren emerged at the other side of the road, suppression nets dropped from above, blue glowing lines snapped tight around him. He hit the ground hard, breath knocked from his lungs. Hands pinned him down. Rods crackled with electricity as they touched his body. Pain surged through his entire body like lightning.
"Secure him!"
Ren screamed as they zapped him with their rods. He struggled to summon a card but nothing happened. Darkness followed next.