Pheres pulls his arm free from you and is stepping after Hinnom before you can even react. "Goodbye!" he calls over his shoulder, waspish, like he thinks you and Riccin are the ones being foolish.

"You can't outrun a culling sweep," you yelp, and the fear is rubbing off. You feels sick to your stomach, and the flash of gratitude when Riccin moves to intercept them doesn't do much to help: they're going to get themselves culled trying to escape. That's how people die. "You'll be fine! You'll both be fine, just --"

The world goes bright, bleaching out, and you think lightning must've struck, because the air feels heavy with something. Then the colour comes inching back, and you realises it's just Pheres, sparking like when you first saw him.

It's worse now, though, and the sparks are bright enough that it hurts to look at them. The first flare was the worst, and it's already dying down, like he can't quite sustain.. whatever it is that he's trying to do. "Please stop," you whine, glancing towards the distance. You can hear something buzzing. If the drones arrive and find them all fighting...

You're not sure what'll happen. But it'll probably be bad.