The Lurking Fear - Group 1

[cityship]

It begins. It happens very suddenly. Shadows moving up the hallways where shadows shouldn't be. For a moment, as they all stand where they stand on the ship, the ship--the universe--moves around them, and they're transported somewhere far away. Just for an instant.

On some worlds that were, some versions of Earth, a man tormented by night terrors wrote of it once, wrote of things revealed under the light of a greenish moon: corpses of dead worlds with sores that were cities, charnel winds that brush the pallid stars and make them flicker low. Beyond the worlds vague ghosts of monstrous things; half-seen columns of unsanctifled temples that rest on nameless rocks beneath space and reach up to dizzy vacua above the spheres of light and darkness.

There are pipes, pipes in the darkness, the whine of droning flutes, and far off, the muffled, mad beating of drums.

There's a bright white flash, blinding, and those that have tongues will taste static, and then reality boils and runs and reshapes around them as their nightmares and worst fears become reality.

[roster: Leader - Mal Reynolds, Grim Eyes, Kate Bishop, Kaylee Frye, Princess Projectra, Sawyer]

Comments

[fiercerhyena.livejournal.com]

Nothing was right. Around her were the rocky, craggy mountains at the outskirt of her territory, and she stood on the precipice looking out over the rolling hills that led down toward the village. All of it was wrong, it smelled wrong, the air tasted wrong... and in the distance, Grim Eyes heard the sound of drums.

"So, they challenge us to a war do they?" Grim Eyes asked, snorting to herself. The humans... yet again, they moved on her kind. Yet again they meant to force the Fierce One's daughters out from the rightful land of their birth, and yet again they would fail. She gripped her spear and threw her head back, letting out the call of a scout who had found something, and then began making her way down the mountain.

"Alright you mange-ridden excuses for hunters-" she began, well into her usual form of berating her hunters into doing what they should, but the words died in her mouth before they were even fully formed when she saw the figure standing at the base of the mountain with the hunters fawning around her like a cadre of flirtatious males. The strong-shouldered form of Blood Eyes stood there and, as Grim Eyes watched, she turned an imperious look on her daughter.

"I'll be having my spear back now, child," she said.

Grim Eyes shifted nervously, coming into the circle of her hunters and watching their gazes turn on her like she was yesterday's news, her spear - well, her mother's spear - held loosely in her hands. "Mother," she said. "You've heard the drums-"

"Of course I've heard the drums, do you think I'm deaf?" Blood Eyes asked, a fire creeping into her gaze that made Grim Eyes swallow, handing the spear over suddenly. Blood Eyes sneered at her. "As much as I would expect from you. Look at you - unable to rise to your mother's glory. I would expect my own daughter to have risen higher than hunt leader. Is this how you meant to honor my legacy?"

Grim Eyes' ears went flat on her skull and she shifted nervously again. "I- hunt leaders are important to the well being of the tribe-"

Her sentence was cut off abruptly by the smack of a spear haft to her jaw, sending her staggering and reeling and falling into a steadying crouch, one hand on her jaw and one hand on the ground. She shook her head, blinking, practically seeing stars, and looked up to see Blood Eyes looming over her, having caught her full in the jaw with the butt of her own spear. "Look at you sniveling like a coward." Blood Eyes' eyes narrowed. "You have the look of your father about you."

Grim Eyes' lips curled back from her teeth in a snarl, her mane rising. "I have no father." Blood Eyes caught hit her with the spear again, and Grim Eyes fell onto her back, raising an arm to protect her face.

idk how you want to handle this, so hopefully this is okay....

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

Mal didn't recognize the creature who was about to be attacked, but that didn't stop him. He caught the tail end of their conversation, but didn't stop to listen as he threw himself in between her and the other who was doing the attacking.

He held his fire long enough to glance back and see if Grim Eyes was all right, which she appeared to be, and then sent off a few rounds at her attacker.

Works fine. Have a pissed off hyena.

[fiercerhyena.livejournal.com]

Grim Eyes, curled in a ball to protect her face and her ribs from her mother's rage, didn't see what happened at first. She only knew that the blows had stopped, so she peeked out from her protective ball cautiously, in case it was a trick-

And saw, right there in the midst of them, the human attacking her tribe. Grim Eyes let out a snarl that would have raised the hair on the back of a lesser man, and leapt for Mal's unprotected back. "How dare you raise weapons against the tribe!"

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

...Well, that did not go as planned. Mal barely had the time to jump out of range of Grim Eyes' sudden attack, but even so, it was a very narrow miss.

"Whoa, calm down, I didn't know!" Didn't know what? That she was going to be protective even though she was on the verge of getting attacked? Mal kept the gun in his hand, though he didn't want to shoot her if he could avoid it. "I was tryin' to help you out, not attack anyone!" Mal got the feeling that he was doing a really bad job of this whole rescuing thing, but there had to be some way to get the irate creature to calm down and see reason.

[fiercerhyena.livejournal.com]

"I do not," Grim Eyes said with a spitting snarl, "require help from any human male."

The hunters, those who had followed her into anything, now circled the two of them in an intimidating crouch that only another hunter would recognize - they looked at the two of them like prey. The mane along Grim Eyes' spine rose and prickled. There was Skull Ridges at their front - but that was impossible. Skull Ridges was dead.

"Blood Eyes is right," Skull Ridges sneered. "Look at how she cowers behind that male. Look at how she pins her ears down when Blood Eyes approaches. What cowardice and dishonor!"

Grim Eyes' mane went straight up and rigid, her ears forward in challenge. "Say that to me again closer, where I can rip your tongue out of your mouth and cram it down your throat," she growled.

Skull Ridges snorted. "Like you would have the courage - getting humans to fight your own battles."

"A coward like her father," Blood Eyes said, and Grim Eyes whirled, stammering, sure that her mother had been gone a second ago. "Too dishonorable to fight like a warrior, resorting to tricks and prey to win-"

"Digger is of the tribe!" Grim Eyes shouted, stung. Whirling on Skull Ridges again she said, "She avenged your honor."

"I would rather be a trash person than to be avenged by prey!" Skull Ridges said, and was followed hard by Blood Eyes saying, "Did you care to avenge me? Your own mother?"

Grim Eyes pinned her ears to her skull and put her hands over them. "Shut up, shut up! You're dead, you're both dead!"

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate was watching the ships coming in, the attacks from the Skrulls starting. Only somehow, there were several heroes there, but they were all gearing up to fight each other, not even paying attention to the encroaching threat. She looked for her friends, but she couldn't find them in midst of the chaos and destruction. She turned and somebody grabbed her foot to drag her down. She shot an arrow at the attacker, and turned to run, finding an alley near the Tribeca part of Manhattan. She slipped on some blood, and found her mother's body laying there, just like she was when she was murdered. She backed away, only to step near a body.

No, Clint came back, he survived somehow. Yet here he looked like he'd been through an explosion.

His voice was raspy as he spoke, and again she felt bony hands grabbing at her ankles to pull her down again, "It's the name you see. Brings us down in the end. They don't trust us and then they kill us. Especially for you. Like mother, like daughter right?"

She struggled to get away, and the hands were dragging her down, grabbing for other parts of her body. She screamed and fought to get away, even as they continued reaching higher and higher on her.

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

This time, Mal didn't stop and wait to ask if the woman being attacked needed help. He just stepped in, and aimed his gun at the hands that were dragging her down. Problem was, they were moving too quickly for him to get an accurate hit, and he didn't want to hit the woman either.

So he stepped back, quickly reassessed the situation, and shouted in Kate's general direction, "None of this is real, it's only a nightmare meant to mess you up." Not the best explanation ever, but he needed her cooperation to get her back to reality, and he figured that shooting the person who was grabbing at her wasn't the best idea, especially if he was someone she cared about.

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate struggled to hear the shout, and even then it took her a moment to realize it wasn't Clint, or whatever was grabbing her. Their hands reaching ever higher, some clawing into the skin and leaving jagged red ribbons. Luckily the cuts were shallow and thin. She struggled to curl into herself, and drag one of the hands away using her arms. A few started to break and splinter. That's right, it's those nightmares again. She fought harder, one of her legs driving her heel down to crush bony fingers under her heel. Kate then rolled to the side, getting out of the way of most of them.

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

That was a good sign; she was fighting off the bony hands that were grabbing at her. Mal took it as a signal to get himself involved also, trying to keep the bone-things from getting a hold on her again.

But the minute he got himself within reach of them, they grabbed at him too, clawing and scratching at his unprotected arms. "Qù sǐ!" Mal's temper was reaching a breaking point as he pulled out his gun and fired a round at the nearest bony hand, sending it exploding into bony fragments that flew everywhere and left thin cuts on his face.

Today was just not going well. But if he could get people out of their nightmares, then everything would be worth it in the end.

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate yelled, and kicked, sending more bone fragments flying. She punched two more, and even shoved the reminants of Clint away. It's not him, if he was here, he was asleep in the pods with the other heroes. Had to stop this nightmare already.
WakeupwakeupwakeupWAKEUP!

One more yell, and it all vanished finally, leaving her panting, and still bleeding.

"Ok, it's ok," she reassured, getting her bearings again.

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

Mal was growing weary of the mental and physical tests that were being inflicted on everyone on the ship by the being called the Nightmare King. The last nightmare he'd had left him with frayed nerves and a very unsettled mental state. But his talk with Kaylee had helped calm him down, even though it had not solved everything. He continued his late night walks, this time prepared for any specters who might appear to antagonize him again. It didn't take long for the scene before him (an empty hallway) to shift and morph. But what was odd about it was that it was the dining area on his ship Serenity. He stood there in silence for a minute as he looked around, wondering who would appear this time and what crazed thing they'd attempt to do.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him, he didn't have long to wait, as his pilot Wash walked inside, caught sight of Mal, and crossed his arms with a frown. "I didn't expect to see you here, Mal. I mean, sir."

"Don't know why you'd have thought that, Wash," Mal replied, confused as to why Wash was acting so strangely.

"Are you serious? You're saying you don't remember what you did?" Wash was definitely not happy; he stared at his captain, waiting for his response. But when Mal simply shook his head, Wash cursed loudly. "Zāogāo, Mal! You took her from me. We were happy, didn't you know that? But you just couldn't leave us alone." Wash's voice increased in volume as his anger escalated.

"What are you talkin' about? Zoe's yours now, an' you know I ain't got a problem with that." Mal wondered what horrible thing he did to provoke this reaction in Wash's imitation. Not that he really wanted to know...

"Just stop it, Mal. You know what you did," Wash spoke in a clipped tone before suddenly reaching for a butcher's knife that had been sitting on the nearby table and lashing out with it at Mal. Completely unprepared, Mal threw his arms up in front of his face, wincing as the knife cut deeply into his skin. The blade flashed brightly as the enraged Wash brought it down onto Mal's unprotected arms several more times.

Ignoring the blood splattering onto the floor, and the knife that was still being swung around, Mal reached for the gun he knew he'd brought with him, and waited for a break in Wash's attack. When it came, he acted quickly, and brought the gun down hard onto Wash's head, sending the man crashing to the floor.

Mal's weapon fell from his hand then, as the scene shifted back to normal; he leaned heavily against the nearest wall to catch his breath, and figure out how to quickly stop the cuts on his arms from bleeding.

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

The Nightmare King was growing more and more powerful as the days went, and the bruises on her neck were a decent reminder that Kaylee couldn’t trust people as much as she might have before. Half of them nowadays were illusions, and far too many crew members had gotten into trouble from following those illusions.

River wasn’t an illusion. She would have been able to tell if her best friend was real or not, right? But there she was, overlooked somehow, dressed in her plantsuit, and bare feet moved quickly towards Kaylee as they spotted each other.

“The little dog is found!” River laughed, and grabbed Kaylee’s hand. “Get her home!”

Mal would be happy to know River was here, Kaylee just knew it. Both of them grinning, the two ran the halls toward the docking bay, where Serenity would be waiting for them.

Bullets flew past their heads as they rounded a corner, and both somehow managed to fall back. “In the way,” River moaned. There was a gun in her hand now, and she peeked around the corner. Kaylee watched bullets narrowly miss her friend, watched River stand disappear around the corner. Three gunshots, and all was silent. It took Kaylee a few moments to work up enough courage to glance around the corner and check on River.

She was standing there, plainly looking at the men she had killed. There were three of them, all spread apart. The mechanic blinked--this was all too familiar. “You alright, River?” she asked shakily, trying not to look at the corpses.

River remained silent for several long moment, before turning back toward Kaylee, teeth showing through a crazed grin. The gun came up, pointed at Kaylee. “Four.”

The sound was deafening, and everything seemed to slow as pain exploded through her left arm. Someone cried out as she fell, and the image of River and the corpses slowly began to fade.

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

Mal couldn't keep his heart from sinking when he realized that Kaylee was trapped in her own mind. He stood transfixed for a minute or two, watching as the scene played out and then turned bizarrely into River pointing a gun at his mechanic.

Panic struck him as he realized Kaylee had been shot, and before he really knew what he was doing, he was running towards her, shouting her name and grabbing her uninjured arm. He needed to get her back to reality before anything worse happened.

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

River was walking closer now, a look of absolute fascination on her face as she watched the blood running from Kaylee's left arm. "Missed it the first time," she mumbled to herself, though whether she was talking about the first time Kaylee was shot or about missing her heart was not something Kaylee had the mind to think about.

Slowly, River leaned down, idly switching the gun to her other hand, and opened her mouth to speak again.

Someone was tugging at Kaylee's right arm, but her vision was too blurred to really see who. She knew the voice, though. River glared up at Mal, and the dream was gone as quickly as it had begun. The mechanic was drawn out of the shock of it by a terrible pain down her arm as blood pumped through.

"She..." Kaylee felt beyond sick, sobbing and clinging to Mal's arm with her right hand. "She..."

;___; *snugs Kaylee forever*

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

Mal didn't say anything, just nodded to show his understanding, and pulled the girl into a hug. "Saw what happened there, Kaylee. Must've been hard, knowin' who was pointin' that gun at you, but you know it was only a nightmare."

His grip on her tightened, though he was careful not to hurt her arm. "And even if it was real, you also know I wouldn't let nothin' bad happen to you." Then, he reached for her hand, and gave it a squeeze. "If you need to talk, or anythin', I'll listen. And when you feel ready, we're gonna make a trip to the medbay to get that arm of yours taken care of," he said with the warmest smile he could manage right then.

*cliiiiiiiings* ;_;

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

The shock of it almost hurt more than her pulsing arm did. River had shot her--River, her best friend, and...

But Mal was right. It hadn't been River. It had been a dream, another gorram nightmare, but she couldn't bring herself to do much more than shake against Mal, lost somewhere between whimpering and crying out. Eventually, she nodded against his chest, and let him help her up.

If her dreams were this bad, others' were probably worse. Kaylee could barely find it in her to stand, but she managed it. "Gotta help folk," she forced out through gritted teeth. "There're more...."

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

He raced through the jungle, pushing branches and massive leaves out of his way with his forearms as he weaved between the trees. His heart raced, pounding so hard he thought it might just beat itself right out of his chest. But as much as he wanted to stop and rest, he couldn't, and he couldn't let the others stop either. Behind them, an ominous tick-tick-ticking sound accompanied by the slow grown and sudden crash of entire trees being up-rooted and knocked to the ground continued its pursuit. No one had yet seen the beast that leveled sections of the forest on mere whim, at least, not anyone who had lived. And Sawyer had no desire to join the club of those who had.

"Come on!" he barked, a tinge of annoyance--brought on more by fear--seeped into his voice as he urged the others on. "Buddha, you better move your fat ass or I'm gonna...," he began but was cut off by a loud shout.

"Sawyer! Kate!" Hurley cried out.

Whipping around, Sawyer managed to turn just in time to see his fat buddy being dragged by his foot into the brush. Kate stood frozen and wide-eyed in the spot where she'd come to complete halt the moment she'd heard Hurley's cry for help.

"We have to go back," the brunette stated, taking an immediate step in the direction in which Hurley had disappeared.

"What?!" Sawyer snapped, grabbing the felon by the arm and jerking her back. "Are you crazy? That damn thing's tearing apart this jungle like Godzilla to Tokyo and you wanna go after it?"

"I'm going after Hurley," Kate insisted, tugging herself free of Sawyer's grasp.

"He's as good as pork chops," he countered, glancing off into the direction of their pursuer. The ticking sounds were already growing more feint and from the sound of the trees crashing, he could tell it had started moving away from them.

"I'm not leaving him," Kate insisted, casting an angry glare at Sawyer. "You want to run away with your tail between your legs then go ahead. It's what you're good at, isn't it? But I'm going after Hurley."

Without another word, the feisty brunette turned on her heal and sprinted through the trees after their missing friend. Sawyer stood, his face twisted up in a mixture of frustration and annoyance as he struggled with the decision whether to go after her or not. She was crazy. Goddamn insane is what she was. What the hell did she think she was gonna do, track the thing to death?

"Goddammit," Sawyer cursed under his breath as he, finally, started running after her. "Freckles!" he called out, trying to follow the sounds Kate was making as she pushed through the brush as she gave chase.

"Kate!" he called out, still trying to get her attention and let her know he was coming. But she never replied. Gradually, the only sounds Sawyer could hear were the beating of his own heart and the snapping of twigs and rustling of the flora that he himself was causing.

Now where in the hell did she go. He stopped suddenly and did a three-sixty in an effort to get his bearings and listen for the stubborn brunette. "KATE!!!" he called out again. Still nothing.

"KATE!!!"

Over and over he called out her name but still nothing came. Until....

tick--tick--tick--tick--tick-tick-tick-ticktickticktickticktick

"Awww, fuck!" he cursed and pivoted back around and started sprinting back the way he came. Well, he thought it was the way he came.

The trees began to fall down again, crashing down and sending thunderous echoes through the jungle. But, this time, they were closer than before. And they were gaining. He continued to weave in and out of the trees, trying to get back to the beach, back to the other survivors.

tickticktickticktickticktickticktick

He never saw it. Only felt it as he grabbed a hold of his ankle and pulled him off his feet. He felt the air forced from his lungs as he hit the ground, then the roughness of the ground as he was drug back the way he'd come.

"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!"

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

Mal knew it wouldn't be long before someone near him needed a hand getting pulled out of their nightmare. He just had to wait and see who it would be.

But like he'd guessed, it was not long. First, he heard a soft ticking noise that repeated itself a thousand times over, and then he heard crashing noises and shouting. None of it was too disturbing, until a loud, drawn out scream broke out above the other sounds.

That was enough for Mal, and he took off running where the scream had come from. He was not prepared for what he saw next: a man being dragged away by some dark cloudy figure. It didn't look solid to him, so that eliminated gunfire...

He did the next best thing: chasing the monster that was dragging the man, in hopes that he would get a chance to interfere. How, exactly, he didn't know, but he'd make that up when the time came.

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

Sawyer's shouts for help were quickly muffled by the grass, twigs, fallen leaves and mud that slipped into his mouth as he was being dragged. He choked on the debris while he tried to grab on to something and try to wrench himself free. But everything he tried to grasp, be it rock or root or branch slipped right through his fingers or just outright disappeared.

"JA-JACK!" he shout again, spitting out a mouthful of leaves. "Get your ass over here!!!"

Suddenly, Sawyer felt the ground give out from under him as he was pulled over the edge of he thought was a cliff but would quickly discover to be little more than the edge of a pit. The smoke monster released him when he hit the bottom, landing on something soft yet firm. Pushing himself up into a push-up position, Sawyer looked down and his eyes immediately widened in horror as he found himself staring down into the mauled face of Hugo Reyes.

"What the--" he gasped, frantically climbing off the fat kid's corpse only to back right into another one. "Rose."

Sawyer's gaze darted around the massive hole in the ground, landing on nothing but the faces of his fellow survivors--all dead. Sayid. Shannon. Boone. Locke. Jin. Sun. Charlie. Jack. Claire. Even baby Aaron.

"Oh, fuck! What the fuck! Hell no. No...no this isn't real," he said, as if pleading for it to be a dream--no, a nightmare. Then, he spotted her. Her head twisted awkwardly on her neck, her dead eyes staring up into the sky. Dirt and blood caked her face, drowning out the freckles that dotted her cheeks. Kate.

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

Well. This was working out wonderfully, Mal thought sarcastically as he kept up his chase of the monster-thing that was still dragging Sawyer.

He shouted at people that Mal didn't recognize, but since they were just projections, he wasn't surprised that nothing happened. If the man was going to get out of this, he couldn't rely on figments of his imagination. But before Mal could do anything, the monster seemed to dump Sawyer into some kind of hole, and based on the man's screams, he was seeing something highly unpleasant.

Mal moved forward slowly, towards the pit, and stared down at Sawyer for a minute or two. Then, the pit's edge crumbled underneath him, and he slid down until he landed next to him. "Zāogāo," he cursed under his breath. But at least this would make getting through to Sawyer easier.

He leaned in close to the man's face so that he would be able to hear him, and stated, "This ain't real. It's another nightmare meant to make you go insane. Those people you're seein' ain't real either." Mal squared his shoulders, and continued, apparently unfazed, "Don't really care if you gotta blow them up or shoot them or whatever, but again, this is just a nightmare, and you're gonna have to get out sometime."

Harsh words, perhaps, but there really wasn't time to waste.

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

(http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd304/mysterio2000/sawyer/?action=view&current=Sawyer-Icons-josh-holloway-1215640_.jpg)

Blowing them up or shooting them would be great. Only problem with that is that Sawyer doesn't have a gun thanks certain members of the command staff. He, and a lot of other people, weren't armed. They were, aside from using their fists, utterly defenseless. And, let's face it, relying only your fists in this place was like bringing a knife to a gun-fight.

Not only is Sawyer sitting in a mass grave full of everyone he left behind on the island when Stacy kidnapped him, but now he had some jackass with bad breath right all up in his face. Clenching his fist, Sawyer swung--at Mal--clocking him good on the jaw.

A guy had to take out his anger at being tossed into a pit of corpses on somebody.

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

They had a central place to work back to now, somewhere they could meet and bring others back to if necessary. It was a somewhat secluded space, enough that they could keep their backs to the wall and watch down the approaching hallways. Easy to defend, easy to escape.

Kaylee sat on the floor, leaning back against the wall. The plant suit had regrown and thickened around the gunshot wound at her shoulder. At least, a happily noted plus side, she wouldn't have to worry about bleeding out before they found their way to the med bay. Not much of a comfort, but it was something, and her arm had numbed out enough that she could barely feel it any more. Now it was just a matter of staying awake and out of dreamland until everyone joined back up.

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate's own plantsuit was dealing with the cuts and scrapes on her legs and body. Should be ok until they could get to medbay, at least she can still fight in the meantime as she readied her weapons.

She took position to the side of the hallways where she had the widest vantage point for distance attack.

[am-alwaysfree.livejournal.com]

Mal was standing next to Kaylee, leaning against the wall, keeping his eyes peeled in case something should come down the hallway. No point in being caught off guard, after all.

He didn't feel much like moving anyway, as the plantsuit was working at the cuts on his arms and legs. He fingered the shallow cuts on his face, and winced. They were fine, just annoying.

Then, Mal glanced around at the people waiting around him. They all looked like they'd seen better days, but were still standing and that was important. Mal coughed lightly, giving himself time to think what he was going to say to them. Finally, he just gave up and said, "Well, nice shindig we've got here. Wonder what's comin' our way next."

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

(http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd304/mysterio2000/sawyer/?action=view&current=025.png)

Sawyer looked over at Mal with an incredulous look on his face. Great. Everything was just going hunky-dory--once everyone had been jarred free of their nightmares--and now dumbass had probably just gone and cursed them. Wonderful.

"Ya just had to go and say somethin', didn't ya?" he said.