Ronald watched the girl pick up a beetle and transform it into various forms. She dubbed her ability organic manipulation, which took a short chuckle out of the speedster. Technically speaking, most of the molecules she changed in that beetle were inorganic molecules after all. But he understood what she meant and didn’t want to dwell on it any further.
“Cool. That might come in handy.” he said genuinely. If she could apply her powers on a bigger scale with refined control, she could possibly transform anything according to her liking. Knowing she was accompanied by someone strong, Ronald took several seconds to scan his surroundings. He looked for wearing their faces with either masks or hoods. He was a stranger to this city, yes, but he didn’t think he would feel alienated to this extent.
“Be careful. Something bad happened here.” Out of nowhere echoed the Moment’s voice. Though she did not appear she had taken the opportunity to warn Ronald.
“Happened?” asked Ronald back.
“Sorry. Will happen.” replied the Moment. She was able to see possible futures and she often confused it with the present or the past. So she would sometimes get confused and use the wrong tense. The speedster didn’t ask for extra information. He had gotten enough info for the time being. He looked around once more, this time more cautiously. But yet again, he failed to catch anything suspicious. As he continued the lights started to fade and radial lighting became more apparent. A tune started to play, which he identified as Let’s Get Ready to Rumble from Jock Jams. A pretty popular song from the ‘90s movie Space Jam.
“Y’all ready for this?” yelled somebody from the microphone as the music continued. The lights started to flash in different directions before converging on the main stage, revealing the auctioneer. Meanwhile people had already started to end their personal conversations to listen to him and get closer.
“Welcome to the auction. Great to see everyone gathered up so nicely.” he said with a giant smile and received a round of applause. He was a man in his forties. He had short white hair that was combed back and thick brown beard. He wore a navy colored suit vest and matching pants, with a white shirt. He had rolled up his sleeves and was giving a serious aura despite his smile. Waving his hand and signing for the crowd to stop applauding, he continued once silence was established.
“I’m sure everybody knows what happened during the last auction. Apparently people got impatient with the big-ticket item because it was, as it traditionally is, at the end. I personally don’t think it’s a good reason for a fight to break out but you know…” he said and coughed.
“Anyway. Just because of that, this time we decided to ditch the tradition. Ladies and gents, for once we will be starting off with the big-ticket item!” he finished his sentence yelling gloriously. At the same moment everybody started to cheer and clap their hands. Ronald looked at them with wide eyes, unsure how to react. The man on the stage was an absolute showman and he knew it.
“Yeah, that’s right! Lights!” he yelled again and the lights started to move around and about. Once the crowd calmed down again the lights focused on the small platform in front of the man. It was empty before but now there was a silver colored case standing on it.
“Okay, so here it is. My card indicates that this case contains a quark sphere that will imprint the user’s DNA on itself and enhance their powers. It doesn’t specify how it does that though. Whatevs. Let’s start the bidding on the power enhancer, shall we?” he concluded and was about to signal the beginning of the bidding. But for some reason he couldn’t move his hand. It looked like his hand was paralyzed. Chattering noises started to arise from the crowd as they couldn’t figure out what was going on.
“Is this part of the show?” asked Ronald to May but before she could reply they would get an answer.
“I don’t think that will be necessary Roger.” said a robotic voice from afar. Suddenly the crowd would be split in half. To everybody it would feel like they were being pushed to either side by a giant invisible fist. After opening a path in the middle, the source of the voice walked towards the stage. He was a slim man though not much could be seen about his appearance, as a LED visor mask covered his entire face and his jacket’s hood covered his head. Though his arms had lots of tattoos on them. He jumped on the platform and quickly opened the case, revealing the
pentakis dodecahedron inside that displayed varying shades of blue, purple and red. The colors were constantly shifting.
“Interesting.”