• The ceremony was to be expected, and didn't surprise anybody. It's was the same affair the last 4 years as well. The community award was just a small thing, and nobody really took too much interest. More people cared about the ball game being played afterwards, and thus more people showed up for that. That was about an hour after the the awarding of the "honorable community member" awarding. Nobody knew that an hour would be all it took to change things so that the world would not end, even if most people had gotten off it beforehand.

    As people may be wondering why on Earth, or Mars as it may be, the world is ending it would have gone a little something like this:

    "Great going, jackass! Now look what you've ******** gone and done!" Dom didn't much care for Ryan in the first place, and now Ryan was being more of an idiot than even his best friend could forgive, despite being dead. The orb of light heading to the core of the Earth now would not stop for anything, due to misuse of power.

    "I didn't know!" Ryan yelled back, almost in tears at blunder after blunder he keeps making. "I didn't ask for these powers!"

    "Yes you did, A-hole!" Dom shouted, much less frustrated than he ought to be. "And now you have gone and had every human marked down for death. I hope you are happy with yourself!"

    Just as Ryan decided to attack Dom, Trey had finally caught up with them and distilled the ray of fire easily.

    "Ryan, just stop making mistakes already. Just go, already. We can't fix this anymore, and I saw what you did to the I. Pr-V.B-i--N" Trey still had a hard time saying the name. So did most people, and it was just called the Pyrm." The pawprint medallion gleamed threateningly at Ryan, and he decided it would be best just to leave. Trey held on to Dom, and they teleported off to the intended ship that was meant for all important people.

    So, now that you know a little about what would have happened should Dom not have waited for the distraction, let us see what the one second of difference does.

    Ryan looked at his medal while walking to the ball game, and smiling slightly because he was remembering just how he had earned it. The officers were on the lookout for the man Ryan had described, and thought him to be around here, as there were the most hiding places in a back pathway like this one.

    "Don't go too soon Dom, just wait for something else to happen." The small voice whispered in his head again. Sure enough, a bottle dropped off a window sill soon after and Dom took his chance. Both officers turned around, Dom charged at Ryan and pinned him on the ground.

    "Remember me, jerk?" Dom said with a small blue aura around his two out-held fingers. Dom jabbed them on to Ryan's chest and started draining the mana from him. The two officers then swore out loud.

    "What the Hell!?"
    "God Damn!"

    Ryan had suddenly gained a good deal of fat, and Dom knew exactly why. As one lost control of their power, they could get a few effects from it. This also includes randomly altering their own body or appearance. As with Ryan, it was that his body mass had shifted, and due to no control over his power whatsoever it has shifted into the most shapeless thing possible in a human, fat, and indeed the fat that didn't really keep one shape, but made you look like a blob. As Dom kept taking his mana back, Ryan seemed to deflate.

    "Ok! Ok! Just stop whatever you are doing to make him look like that. We will give you deference from the law!" Dom smiled at this, as he knew this was too perfect a situation to give up on, epically not when unnatural powers were going to become involved. He decided to play the police chief, everybody knew that the chief himself went with the winner of the award each year, and see if he was going to stay on his word. Dom used a bit of his regained magic to give his eyes a creepy look to them.

    "I'm glad you know what you are messing with, but what's wrong with playing a little now and then?" Dom was quite impressed at well he managed to sound creepy as well as look it.

    "H-h-he is expected to play in front of the whole city soon, besides it's just not natural to do that to a man." The officer sounded scared, and Dom knew it was a strong self control that kept him from smelling it.

    "Oh, alright. I won't play with your puppet any more, you can have him back. But I expect you stay true to your word." Dom hissed the last sentence, and then with a mighty effort he pulled all his own mana back into himself, watching as Ryan deflated quickly in some sick parody of a balloon. "I will catch you later then, sweetums." Dom chided, becoming invisible as he walked away, quite enjoying feeling slightly more whole again. "You don't know what he has done, though. I wonder if you ever will, but I don't think he really knew what he had signed up for." Dom chided, making his voice echo around them.