trans_9 | The Challenge From Beyond

Entry tags:

The Challenge From Beyond - Regroup

You're the ones who are good enough (or lucky) enough to be close to Escherville. You've had the good fortune to be scooped up and now you need to regroup and get ready to take on the Nightmare King himself. Time to reorganize and gear up as best you can with what you've got. The Nightmare King isn't going to wait for you.

Get moving.

_{((OOC: This is for the various groups/peoples who will be fighting the Nightmare King directly or assisting in that endeavor. If your character was in one of the Challenge from Beyond Groups, tag them in here! Feel free to do some tagging back and forth and enjoy yourselves. Please get tagged in by Tuesday night, March 2nd though, so we can get the Final Fight properly organized. ))}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She lets out a tortured sound like a cat being fed through a grinder and then Roxie falls flat on her face.

Blood quickly seeps into a pool under her, and all is quiescent.

For the moment.

Without a word, Cargn walks over to her...

...and flips her over using the tip of his armored boot.

He quietly looks down at her, a vaguely impatient look on his face.

"Roxie!" Daimon leaped forward. There was a look of shock on the Son of Satan's face- and what else? Was that concern? "What have you done, Seer?"

Cargn places the blunt end of his halberd in between Daimon and Roxie's body.

"Don't get to close," he says rather simply. "You wouldn't want it to attack you."

...wat.

"Cargn! What the Hell is going on?"

Kirk's hand was on his phaser. He hadn't reacted fast enough. Had this man just murdered a member of his crew?

"Perhaps you should observe your crew more closely in situations like this, Captain," he says, motioning to Roxie.

"Just watch, and you'll understand."

More blood seeps. There is no pulse or heartbeat—no brain activity—not even the slightest sign of life, now, in that little frame.

Suddenly, Cargn lifts his halberd up, the blade crackling with energy, bringing it down straight towards Roxie's neck, intending to bring out some kind of reaction.

And—

—the body twists, chittering on six sudden legs, and bounces up towards Cargn's face, one of the arm-leg-limb-things twisting into a disturbing parody of a power drill all made out of ivory—

—and there's a sound like a car backfiring, and the thing-that-is-Roxie-no-longer crumples and falls without outside intervention, twisting on itself like a dead spider. The thing's skin is white, now, cold as death, but black bursts have blossomed through its chest like mold bodies, hissing and spitting with overactive chemistry.

It's all very sudden and strange. Or, as some might say in response—what the hell was that all about?

Sheeana, herefore silent, steps out of the gawking crowd.

"I believe I can explain."

"That explanation had better be a damn good one."

Seriously, what the hell was going on?

Alessa watched on, fascinated. So this was what Nanoha had meant? She was impressed: SHE could have been fooled momentarily by this monster. A slow smile spread on her face: yes, she would memorize this thing. She wouldn't want the true version of it running around of course, that would be disastrous, but it didn't mean she couldn't make something similar with her own touches.

The idea of demanding explanation from the Seer were silly, of course. Only humans would think he killed Roxie in cold blood for no reason. It was obvious that he had the intentions of the crew at heard, however foolish she thought that was, and they acted typically of people with only five senses: emotional outbursts.

"I'd like to hear this too," Alessa said, with no trace of demand in her voice. No, this was no time for that, just cold, hard logic. That was all she needed.

"Tell me, Captain, Mr. Kennedy," Cargn says, now kneeling over Roxie's body.

"What do you think would happen, in a situation such as this, if one's greatest fear was oneself?"

Typical Seer. Answer a question with a riddle.

"Cho," Alessa murmured. "I see. So she hadn't lived her nightmare yet because of all that time spent in preparation and seals. But when the King's own seal started to break..."

Well. No more needed to be said. To be honest, Alessa did feel a tiny pang of concern for Roxie, which was why Alessa afforded a second glance at the girl's body. Would this happen to her if she became consumed by the thirst of demons and inevitability? Would she be afforded such a swift death?

No, not likely. There were too many waiting for her to slip up. She could see how ready some were to end her. For that reason, Alessa would fight until the bitter end. Her death would not be a quiet one like this.

"That's the problem with ye sighted people... Ye rely on it too damn much. Gives us an edge on ye." Blin walked over slowly, lighting a smoke as he went. He was still weary from his dream ordeal; he still wasn't happy with having given it up, and he needed to keep reminding himself of why he was better off in reality.

"Nice to meet ye again, Cargn. With flesh, no less."

"The girl has it. Did you see her eyes before she attacked the Seer?" Whom she trusted not at all. "She warned me about what happens when they turn white. The Cho are highly infectious. I suggest you all keep away from the body and incinerate it."

"No need for that, my dear," Cargn says to Sheeana.

Looking back down at Roxie's body, he speaks again.

"Do hurry up, child. We have more pressing matters to attend to."

Castiel appeared rather suddenly when he joined the group, right of thin air it seemed. He stared down at Roxie's body, his expression blank as always, then turned his attention to the group itself. He seemed to look through all the others, focusing his gaze instead on Alessa and the Seer.

"It is time to go," he said.

Alessa broke her gaze from Roxie to look at Castiel. For just a moment she had to adjust her look: one would have thought she was angry at how easily he brushed what had happened aside. Then again, time was critical, and she was sure Roxie would have felt the same way. So she kept his gaze, looking unimpressed as usual.

"Yes, that's right," she said, giving one last look at the girl crumpled on the floor. "We should be going soon."

Slowly, the crumpled body shudders and twists, though to all mortal senses it should still be rather dead right now.

An oily-black liquid starts dripping from its eyes (http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w285/BloodyJess/bloody_tears.jpg) and ears and nose and mouth.

"Well that's new," Alessa said, watching.

"Be quiet!" Daimon snapped. "I have heard enough of your prattle." The shock had faded and Daimon stood back now, watching.

"I wasn't talking to you anyway," Alessa replied, sounding bored. "So I don't care if you like it or not."

She was watching Roxie now. Was she still a Cho?

A hand, the arm visibly seamed down the middle from where it split into the arm-leg-limbs before, twitches erratically. The paleness of her skin is gone—Roxie, or her corpse, or whatever it is, the skin is starting to crust and boil in black scales (http://www.tigerproducts.com/store/images/T/CrocodileBlack.jpg), sloughing off material with half-dried blood.

It's rather icky.

"Will someone tell me what in the name of God is going on!"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject