Once more, Gloriosa, with the feels.

She sneezed. A high scream sounded next to her. “Oh no, you’re infected, aren’t you?” The woman had shouted pointed at her with a shivery hand. The yelling had gotten the attention of two police men who now made their way towards the two. Hastily Zahra shook her head and waved with her hands.


“W-what? no,no, no…I’m just having a slight cold,” If she had been lying she was caught now. She sneezed two more times with an impact that could have caused an earthquake. A slight drip of blood left her nose, not the first time that happened she didn’t even notice it. The woman screamed once again and stumbled backwards in a terrible attempt to run away. Zahra reached out, trying to safe her from the fall but it was too late. The woman fell backwards right against one of the police officers. His gun fell to the ground going off and shooting the other officer in his leg. “AH!” The man fell to the ground with horrid screams, clutching his hit leg. At that moment two men in hazmat suits grabbed her by the arms. She tried to struggle free but it was no use. “It’s just a cold,” she objected, neither one of them listening to what she had to say.


“If it means anything, I’m really sorry.” She yelled to the policeman while she was dragged away.
 
Alani cringed slightly as the woman grabbed on to her arm as though it were a lifeline against the fear of the crowd and the horror of being trapped this close to the explosions. Even so, it would seem that her presence was less than welcomed by a rather disheveled young woman who smelled quite strongly of her … recreation. This kite high chick claimed that the punk girl her survival buddy. Apparently she wasn’t too keen on sharing either. Selfish …


As she opened her mouth to snap, however, a scream from the pierced girl on her arm made her jump almost clear out of her skin and handily broke her train of thought. Turning quickly to look at what had caused the sudden outburst, the science major felt her jaw drop as she witnessed the freezing of officers in the mob scene and the small explosions that followed. “God fucking Christ …” she murmured as all blood drained from her face. Almost instantly her head was on a swivel as she watched more outbreaks in the surrounding crowd. Turning back to the group she had walked up to, she let out a low whimper as she watched the shrubs of someone’s yard start to entwine the apparent druggy.


Instinctually she curled around the distraught woman who clung to her, turning so that she could put her own body between this woman and the plant girl. “Stop!” Apparently that was all it took. The vegetation that the miss-matched fume head had been wrestling with dropped away at so simple a command. Wait … it listened to her? Did this mean she was somehow involved in whatever had happened?


Oh fuck this shit! Alani was having trouble remembering to breathe due to the shock of it all. Her eyes sought out the last member of the original group of 3 that she had approached, and she whimpered again as she watched another man touch his shoulder and somehow reconfigure his appearance to become the guy. “Hey! Watch out, dude!” she screamed in his direction as an all-encompassing terror rooted her where she stood.


Aliens! The popular meme, unwanted and totally out of place in this situation, flashed vividly in her mind as she held tightly on to the woman who had been using her as a lifeline up until this point. Wait … WHAT!? She was a science major, dammit. That meant that science and logic were god, and aliens were … well … not as unlikely as she had originally thought given the state of things. They made a decent scapegoat for the multicolored kaleidoscope of lights and the weird phenomena occurring in this quarantined sector of the city. Aliens didn’t explain, however, why the girl with the plants had seemed frighten by something she had controlled or her subsequent musings over it… It seemed apparent that the plant whisperer was just as confused as she.


With her free hand, Alani slapped herself hard and stopped such thoughts dead in their advancement. “Alright listen up, sunshine and weed chick,” she snapped, throwing as much authority into her tone as she could manage. Even now, however, she had not torn her eyes from the bearded man and his doppelganger. “It’s only a matter of time until the police pull weapons, now … and we are talking big fucking weapons if they wanna deal with that fucked up bullshit. Even then the people we’re stuck here with – like doppelboy – might well be more deadly than their bombs or guns … we need to fucking get free of this shit … or at least find somewhere to hide until it dies down and we can try to surrender. Now … where the fuck can we go?”
 
As much as Lizzie wanted to smile and tell her daughter that everything would be alright, she couldn´t. She couldn´t lie to her daughter, promise her something she couldn´t do as the second waves of explosions came around. Her heart beating at an alarming rate as she took her daughters hand, ignoring the complaining doctor which was examining Ann for any injuries. "This place isn´t safe..." A man ran by her with eyes of horror and tried to get out of the CA with failure as an result. "People aren´t safe, Ann..."


People were swarming around, screaming, panicking while Liz herself only thought of her daughters safety. Ann simply nodded at her long-time friend and took her other hand in her grasp. "Good that you know, now let´s get Amber away from this; shall we!? Get some ice-cream while this whole mess gets cleared?" A chuckle escaped Lizzie because of her friends constant energy, even though they were in the middle of the chaos. No worries had struck her until the riot started, weird things appearing as she saw people freeze to ice-cubes.


Amber had been shaking of fear, tears running down her cheeks; amplifying Lizzie´s motherly instincts. She observed her surroundings noticing a small group of people forming together. They weren´t the calmest of the bunch but certainly more calm then the rest of the people around her. Her stupid plan but nonetheless a plan was to stick to them and with determined steps, Ann and Amber in her grasp, she tried to walk over to them. "Miss, please come with us to the medical tents." An officer of sorts stood in her way but as she was just about to complain, he was joined by a few others.


A sigh of frustration and anger escaped her as she walked over, safely protected and trapped by the soldiers, to the tents. Her eyes roamed the place, keeping her child close. "What is going on? Can you tell me?" She glanced at the long man which had lead her there. With a shake of his head, he was gone; getting other people, panicking people to calm down before escorting them to the tents.


The stupid rioting people started to notice that and decided to come over willingly, making Lizzie roll her eyes. She wished to punch the wall, to crush someone´s skull and perhaps throw a car on a freaking window if she could. Her thoughts were a mess.


"Mommy, Amber scared!" Lizzie´s head snapped over to her sweet angel and she squatted down. Currently they were standing in a line, waiting for someone to examine them. Lizzie had so far only seen one or two people getting taken away, lowering the chances of her or her family to be among them. "And why is that, hun? Nothing will happen to you. Not while I´m here." She cooed to Amber, pinching her cheek. "Or don´t you trust mommy?"


The three-year old shaked her furiously at her mother. "O-of course, Amber d-do! M-mommy... M-mommy I w-want n-no hurt!" She tried to convey her feelings to Lizzie with her squeaky voice, trembling with small sobs. Lizzie eyes softened as tears lined the lids at the words of her daughter. "I won´t hun, I wo-"


"Miss, Please hand over your daughter and step to the right. We will examine you separately." A doctor with a small smile motioned to his right then to his left as he instructed Ann. "And the next lady on the line, please step to the left."


Lizzie gave Ann a glance before giving the man a hard glare. "If ANYTHING and I mean ANYTHING happens to my daughter, I swear to the almighty lord that I will break every bone in your body. Got that?" The doctor eyes didn´t change from their soft state as he nodded, a friendly smile gracing his lips. "Understood Miss, please trust us to do our best to keep both you and your family safe."


With that Liz went through quite the procedure, getting her clothing dusted by some weird cloth, multiple blood tests and some few questions to answer. It was a female doctor by the name of Nina that had the honor of taking care of Amber, which had been placed in the same room as Liz. She had screamed, and fought to keep her daughter in sight. Ann on the other hand was passed onto as normal after a few minutes and was brought to them to keep Amber in check as Lizzie´s tests were much more... Detailed.


She remembered how they, after taking a blood test, looked to their left then upwards to the right. Like a signal, a few doctors joined her original assigned one to test her. Not taking much care to it, Liz laughed and chatted with her sweetie and friend. "Then the bunny JUMPED! Mom can you believe it? CAN YOU!?" Amber´s eyes were excited beyond normal making Liz shake her head, exaggerating with her voice. "I can´t believe it! OH GOD, IT JUMPED! A bunny jumps... Amaziiinggg!"


Lizzie wanted Amber to continue with her amazing story about the child-zoo her kindergarten visited the other day but an doctor approaching caused Ann to smile apologetically at Lizzie before taking Amber away. "Miss, we´d like you to come with us." Those words uttered coldly and almost as if she was inhuman made Lizzie frown. Amber screamed as an officer grabbed her and Ann. Lizzie jumped up to throw the doctor on the floor trying to reach her daughter but multiple arms caught her.


She hadn´t passed. She was separated from the people she loved to be taken away to another quarantined zone a bit away from the crowds. It was full of frightened people. Lizzie screamed at the men at the barricade as they didn´t let her out causing people to pay attention on her. She was full out cussing at them but they never even blinked and feeling violent she wanted to throw her shoe on their faces, showing them she wasn´t some obedient child.


A frustrated tug on her hair made her turn around to face the people staring at her with a roll of her eyes. Walking over to some random man, which had been ushered over here a few minutes before her. He had dark hair and a beard with some Russian traits.


"Got any idea of what the heck is happening here?"
 
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On what remained of the campus, scientists had arrived and set up medical tents to perform some sort of blood testing. Jevel couldn't ascertain what it could possibly be that they were trying to prevent, but he was extremely curious.


Survivors were asked to stand up and were formed into lines leading into the tents. When they emerged, they were either allowed to walk back out into the field, or were ushered over to a separate section who had apparently failed the blood tests. What could possibly be wrong with them? Why would they be checking for blood anomalies? It didn't make any sense to Jevel.


A few moments later, nothing made sense anymore.


An argument apparently broke out between two of the survivors. One of the survivors was shouting one second...and breathing fire the next. Screams of fight rang out, other people shot to their feet, and the next thing Jevel knew, he was surrounded by pure chaos.


He was about to run for his life when a piercing pain shot through his skull. Dropping to the ground, Jevel clutched his head and groaned in agony as the scene of dischord around him raged like a wildfire.


Then suddenly, the pain was gone. Jevel slowly got to his feet. He felt...different, somehow. Something had changed, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. His thoughts were interrupted by the fire-breather who had started the riot, who, in his mindless anger, was still unleashed blasts of flame from his mouth. The police had already drawn guns, and had formed a small defensive line in the direct path of the biggest area of chaos in the quarantine zone. If the firebreather didn't get a hold on his temper soon, the police would surely shoot him.


Jevel, acting completely on impulse and ignoring how unbelievably dangerous it was, ran as fast as he could up behind the firebreather and laid a hand on his shoulder.


"Hey, excuse me, perhaps you need to calm down!" Jevel shouted over the chaos. His hand began to tingle, and he felt a strange feeling as if he was draining energy from the man's body.


The man stopped, turned around, and, with a look of complete insane rage, attempted to open his mouth and breathe fire in Jevel's direction. However, nothing happened. No fire erupted from the man's mouth, and Jevel was not roasted to a crisp.


"W-what?" the man stuttered, switching from rage to confusion as the police took the opportunity to rush up and seize the individual, dragging him off.


"Many thanks, sir," said one of the cops to Jevel.


"No problem..." said Jevel, who was just as confused as the firebreather.


What just happened?
 
(Joint post Mitheral and Sharlene)


Character Images: Duncan and Lori

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Duncan replaced the manhole cover calmly. There hadn’t been any telltale yells to halt. Noone running toward him when he last scanned the alley. So he calmly returned to Lori. He wanted to avoid seeming worried around the woman. It was going to be hard enough to move a couple blocks underground. The place wasn’t exactly built for handicapped access.


Lori provided a manually cranked LED flashlight to provide illumination. A few squeezes and they had enough light to move about. Not the greatest, but it saved their stronger illumination for later.


He had picked their route with a degree of intelligence. It was along the shortest path from the Pit to the Thames. This was to avoid running into being washed away by any surprises. Second, if there were any gas leaks this would give the greatest chance for ventilation. Third, on the off hand chance they were washed away it would be directly to the Thames. And fourth it seemed to be the route most stable and least likely to have suffered a serious collapse.


As it turned out, he had been right three out of four times. They hit the first collapse about 50 yards along their route. This one was a minor collapse - a few boulders of concrete that he rolled out of the way. The second collapse was far worse. The street had partially dropped. There was early morning light filtering around the corner of a car that had dropped its rear axle in the hole. There was so much debris that Duncan realized he would never clear this. Instead he was going to have to carry the girl and her wheelchair over the pile of debris and under the car.


He told Lori to hang on - quietly so as not to be heard above. It didn’t sound like there was anyone up there, but he wasn’t taking chances. He curled Lori and wheelchair with ease. Then he shifted the weight all to one arm. He was amazed at just how light she was. And that worried him some. If she was that light her health might not be the best.


Once they had navigated the larger collapse it was smooth sailing. The further they went, the fewer signs of damage there were.


As things smoothed out from the last collapse and they left the opening behind them, Lori spoke softly. “Nice job. I can’t believe you could hold me like that.”


Duncan hesitated before asking. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but how much do you weigh?”


Lori actually laughed softly. “I have no idea. it isn’t as though I can stand on a scale.”


“Oh crap! Sorry, I never thought of that.” Duncan mentally kicked himself.


“Most people wouldn’t,” Lori responded. “Anyways, I would guess at least 120 pounds?”


“That much?” He hastily added. “It didn’t seem like that much. I mean, I lift weights a lot. But it was like … you know when you are on a Universal machine and some idiot friend resets the pin to 10 pounds when you aren’t looking? It was almost like that.”


Lori held her breath for a moment. Her dream. Had it actually been a dream? “Uhm … what IS your name? I’m Lori.”


“Oh … Duncan.”


Lori wave off any further chatter from Duncan. She had a point to ask about. “You know much about Fringe science?”


“Like the TV show? Sure, I’ve read a couple libraries full back when I was a kid.” Duncan looked at her wondering what she was getting at and what it had to do with her weight? “Are you saying you can fly?”


“What? No! Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe you can move things with YOUR mind. You saw all the government types surrounding the area. They set up a Hazmat station awful fast. Look we need to get out of here. I want to try a few tests of our own.”
 
It wasn’t long before they arrived at a manhole cover well outside the cordon. Duncan climbed up and lifted the cover to check to see if it was a good spot for an exodus. He figured they were at least a good block outside the cordon. And the manhole was in another alley.


“You ready?” Duncan asked.


“Not yet. Now for those tests. I was thinking while we moved. It wasn’t me flying. You moved those concrete chunks easy too, didn’t you?” Lori looked sharply at him.


“Yeah, come to think of it. Like I said, I have a regular workout schedule.”


Lori nodded vigorously. “Of course. Look … something weird is happening. You heard all the commotion at those medical tents behind us? And you saw the weird glows? I think something weird happened to me too. I just thought it was a dream - until you started showing unusual bursts in strength. You shouldn’t assume only your strength has improved…”


“About what happened to you?” Duncan prodded before Lori started to ramble.


“Right. Uhm, I woke up in the middle of the street and a utility van drove through me. Oh, correction. I was standing in the street.” She paused to let that sink in. “Noone seemed to notice me. And trust me, they should have noticed.”


“Why …? Oh.” Duncan grinned as he caught Lori’s ears turn red. He fought to stop, but didn’t quite succeed. “Astral projection?”


Lori was starting to really like Duncan. He wasn’t just a dumb jock. “Exactly. That’s why I wanted to try to put it to the test down here. I need someone to watch my body. And odd as this sounds, I trust you. And I rarely trust anyone at first sight.”


Lori allowed herself to relax and enter a meditative state. Her breathing slowed until she appeared to enter a coma like state. Lori stood up and looked over to where Duncan was checking her pulse, then placing his head against her chest to listen for her heartbeat.


“Hey!” Lori swatted at Duncan’s head and some of his hair actually moved just a little.


Duncan’s hand reached up sharply to check his hair. He’d felt that! “Lori?”


Lori looked down. This time she was dressed. That was a plus. She rose off the ground. Yes indeed! She could fly. A slow grin spread across her face. Then she stuck a hand through the wall. She was a ghost of sorts. Okay … time for a little recon.
 
Thought Gerry's eyes were closed, there was still a faint buzzing behind them, almost as if he could still feel the movement of the shapes he'd seen seconds ago. Before he could gather the courage to open his eyes on his own, however, he was being pulled up to his feet. Another man. Gerry didn't bother to look at him at first, but as they walked and the man said something about medical tents, he looked over and felt a lump knot hard in his throat. "That's... not somethin' you see every day," he croaked, looking at a mirror of himself pull him along toward the crowded tents. There was a light surrounding this guy too and it pulsed curiously. Gerry noticed, though this man looked to be his twin, their auras were nothing alike. His own was panicked and the others... well it almost had a calming pulse about it, as if the other had a plan.


Looking forward, he hardly had time to react before more auras blinded his vision and chaos erupted into panic. A particularly panicked individual had seemed to freeze himself and two police and someone else pelted part of the street forward. Though all this was completely crazy, Gerry felt an odd sense of clarity wash over him and he stopped, tugging himself away from his doppleganger. "You're off your knob if you think I'm heading into that mess," he exclaimed and turned quickly, not even bothering to look at the other as he darted his gaze around towards the 'group' he'd been separated from. "There."


The words were thought aloud as he saw them, the girl with his bands shirt and the stoner... and one more. A lady he'd not seen before. The stoner had backed away and, unsurprisingly to his shocked mind, had been enveloped by bushes. He snapped back to the punky-chick and groaned as her aura assaulted his eyes. Panic, fear, emotions he knew well, but felt hollow in his state of shock. He hardly heard the third woman yell something like, "Look out!" to him as he pressed forward on weak legs, coming upon the pierced girl first.


In an almost instinctual fashion, he set a hand on her shoulder. "Not just you," he murmured bluntly, meeting her eyes for the second time that day with his now-crimson toned orbs. "Something's happening to the lot of us, I think. Don't go bonkers on me, yea?" he said with a half chuckle, humor the furthest thing from his voice. He meant to say something to the baked-gal as well, but the new bird stopped him, addressing the other two first and leaving him to reply.


"We gotta' go somewhere away from that bloody cluster**** behind me," he said with a dry smirk, eyes seeming to flicker with renewed livelihood. "We should take the other-me with us, too. Seemed he was aiming to help before..." Gerry turned his head partially back, yelling out to who he thought was still his twin. "That is if you're alright with that, 'Other-Me'?!"


Gritting his teeth, he looked around and tried to 'push' with his mind, fighting to get the spinning and churning lights in his vision to dim. Surprisingly, they did slightly and the male let out a small yelp of victory. He could still see the energy in the air around him, but it was less of a hassle and becoming more of a help. Looking around, he noticed that, even through solid objects, he could 'see' the auras of people, brighter outlines around human silhouettes. "As silly as this sounds... I might be able to help get us away from anybody lookin' to find us. If we aim to sneak about, that is." He huffed a bit at this. "Given what the bloody hell we're up against, I don't think running around like headless chickens'll do us any favors."
 
Robyn knew something was up when the white rooms of the care facility were plunged into darkness, a confusion settling, and quickly turning to panic. The elder and mentality-unstable care facility was understaffed, and it was a day like today you could really tell. Immediately, when the elders started to panic, the nurses rushed in to take care of them. Meanwhile, Robyn was perfectly aware of a good opportunity when it happened, and when the floor started to shake, she saw her chance.


There was a large beep that came from the bracelet on her arm, as she hurried out of the common room and towards her own. She pushed up the bracelet as far as it would go and pulled down the sleeve of the scrub shirt she had to wear. In her room, she finally had a chance to see what was causing the shaking. A building was crumbling to the ground, making larger tremors pass through the building, stability being put into question.


Immediately, Robyn was more active in packing her satchel, grabbing everything that they stuck her in this facility with. The security system was still off, judging by the beep her bracelet was making that now spanned further and further apart. She had to get out of here, and judging by the panic on the street it would be a lot harder than just escaping the care facility. That needed to come first, and she knew that the nurses would have probably found their way to the front door now.


So instead, Robyn opted for the window, sliding it open much easier now that the security system was off. Sliding out of the first story window, she immediately took off from the facility; it wasn’t long before they took stock. Just like she thought, a quarantine zone was set up around the blast zone, explosions still very active. People were swarming at the health tents, and there was an overall panic over the crowd and the barriers placed around them. The bright colors were still spewing from the explosion zone, making her look towards it.


Suddenly, an idea sprung to her mind as people continued to spread out from the explosion zone… no police covered the area. Her mind was made up, taking off towards the explosion zone without much of a second thought. Clearly she hadn’t thought of the danger, the ground toppling her feet as it reverberated from another tremor. Forcing herself up again, she glanced at the debris’ surrounding the hole as well as the area inside.


She saw a bigger piece of the building, not even thinking once before jumping down onto it, and shimmying across a light post. She lost her balance momentarily, and slid down the wall, her foot catching on the roof of a car. Regaining her balance and trying to push away the fear, she backed up against the uneasy walls before racing down the car and jumping, hitting a pole with her midsection and clinging around it in both pain, and survival. The sewer system jutted out from the massive hole, and she knew that would be her escape route.


Sliding down so her hands were around what she guessed was structure from the building; she swung her body uneasily, trying not to look down. In the end, she did so, and flung herself with that fear, crashing into the cement. Groaning against the pain, she rolled around, she wasn’t quite sure what she had done to herself, but her arm felt very broken. Robyn guessed that was what happened when you broke your fall with such an appendage. Not to mention her ribs hurt a lot, and that was brought to the forefront of her mind when she kept choking on the dust.


The casing on her bracelet was also cracked, but still very much molded around her arm. At the moment, Robyn didn’t feel like getting up, as even breathing hurt at the moment. She would have to move soon though, as the bottom of the pit glowed strangely. Fear for another explosion forced her up, and she cried out as she bared the pain and limbed away. Was her leg messed up to? She wasn’t sure...she needed to get that fixed.
 
Emilyn looked between the bearded man and the woman next to the pierced chick. She totally agreed that they needed to get away from all the cray-cray junk that was happening only feet from them. "Oh yeah, I mean plants are turning into like, little shop of horrors around here, dude." She said with a gesture towards the bush. She still wasn't fully sure if it was her or what but, she wasn't comfortable taking all the credit just yet.


"I'm uh, I'm Emilyn by the way. If we're going to be surviving this... whatever it is together I feel like I should be able to refer to you people as something a little more than bearded man, pierced chick and woman next to pierced chick." She added before taking one more look towards the medical tents. As she looked up another man who was previously helping a restrain a woman with a child and other people looked in their directions and started walking over with a few officials.


"Excuse me, have you four been checked yet? We'll need you over here ASAP." The man demanded and gave some sort of signal to the officials around him to advance on us.


"We may need to get going now." Emilyn suggested a bit more calmly than what the situation called for. She squeezed puddin' a little closer to her as she backed up a few feet, hoping the others would catch on and lead the way, she had no idea where to go, unless they wanted to hide out in her work place, which I'm sure they didn't.
 
Alani saw the chance before her and grabbed at it with every ounce of false sincerity she could manage. “You again!” she muttered, abruptly letting go of the punk girl in order to turn her attention to the man in the lab coat. “Yea, the five of us had gotten through just before that third ex-explosion.” The slight tremor in her tone was natural, she promised herself as she offered him a weary smile.


“I did try, by the way … to follow your advice I mean. I tried being the picture of compliance … but,” the girl gestured back towards the riot as she shook her head. “That last blast nearly got us all trampled … I ended up pulling some toddler and her dad out of the way in time to avoid the stampede. This lot had their hands full getting the kite-high girl out of the tent before any major damage was …” Her story was cut off there as a man knocked her flat on the pavement as he rushed to join the increasing chaos at the barricades. Alani gave a small squeak as she fell before her eyes glanced pleadingly up at the labcoat and his minions.


“Please, dude … We just w-wanna fucking survive,” she muttered as she pushed her terrified and battered body back to a rather haphazardly balanced standing position. “We did our t-tent time, and now we just need somewhere to fucking chill until this f-fucked up riot settles … any ideas?”


For a terrible moment the man paused. Then, after looking back over his shoulder at the chaos, he walked forward and put a hand on her shoulder almost comfortingly. “Look,” he offered in a fairly hushed tone, “all I know is some of them are bloody dangerous … Don’t know why … wouldn’t even tell us, to be honest …might have something to do with whatever weapon did that to those poor officials. Just keep your heads low and find somewhere you won’t be crushed by rubble in another of those rumbles or caught alone with the likes of them, got it?”


With that he turned and headed off to another group that looked coherent enough to be reasoned with in the chaos. The officials with him glanced over the group once more before following him. … Honestly though, she couldn’t believe how much fortune had smiled on them that it had been that doctor who had approached them. Although, if she were coherent enough to think of it, she would have realized by now that he seemed to be the public face of this group of medical tents. As she watched them go, Alani saw little grey spots dancing over her field of vision and fought to keep standing. Now would be a horrible time to faint, she chastised herself as she swayed a bit where she stood …
 
morning hey "Did you hear" "How are you doing?" wat r u wearing "Oh my god I can't believe that she" "Blood tests?" stock mkt crash following "Going to lose my f***ing" gotta b a j/k and the bloody images kept coming, x-rated pictures, images of facebook, twitter, pinterest. Visions of the sky which was no longer shining like a rainbow, visions of people's faces lit up by dull blue lights, of other body parts lit up by dull blue lights.


What the f***? The question kept reeling around Sebastianne's mind. Against the dull roar of all the things she could suddenly hear, the next few words uttered by her newfound companions were lost. And then her anchor withdrew, leaving Sebastianne to stumble to the ground, nearly falling ontop of Isis, who yowled in displeasure.


Sebastianne tried a few calming breaths and dug her nails into her palms. With all of her willpower, she forced herself to focus on the situation at hand. But she could still hear the garble and see the images. It was like trying to follow a conversation while a hundred different movies played in the background, accompanied by a hundred cd's and while looking at a hundred different books while the pages flipped of their own volition. She squinted at the lips of the people who spoke around her, trying to narrow her field of vision to just these particular people, but it wasn't any use. The images played on.


And then the officers came around. That got her attention.


Musn't faint. Musn't faint. Don't wanna go with the officers. Don't want medical attention, don't want people to think I'm crazy. Act normal. Normal. Normal..


And as she heard the words "Excuse me, have you been checked yet? We'll need you to come here ASAP", Sebastianne realized that all the sounds in her head were not sounds she could hear with her ears. It was like the sound that one imagines when they listen to a song that's stuck in one's head. You can "hear" every chord and every lyric, but--


"It's not real," Sebastianne whispered incoherently as the woman spoke to the officers. Sebastianne still had a difficult time concentrating on the visual aspect of the conversation, but she was able to listen-- really listen to what they were saying.


"Just keep your heads low and go find some place you won't be crushed by rubble in another of those rumbles or caught with the likes of them, got it?" Sebastianne heard the police say. When they walked away-- or at least, when she no longer heard them talking, Sebastianne spoke up.


"There's a---" Sebastianne's eyes fluttered open and shut for several seconds as she tried to process the overwhelming amount of information that kept flooding into her head. "Everyone is staying away from the crater. And-- across the crater, on the other side of the cordon zone, there's-- the buildings next to it are empty, I think."
 
Lori shot up through the manhole cover and into the air overhead, looking down at the lay of the land. She made a mental note of the nearby buildings, then shot further into the air and out over the cordon area. This wasn’t exactly her first attempt at astral travel. She would have guessed that many an accident victim confined to the harsh reality of a wheelchair had tried. This was her first success. To be honest she still harbored some doubts about her sanity. But she also tended to have a very open mind to such possibilities.


“Just go with it,” she told herself. “What’s the worst that can happen? I wake up and find out this was all just a dream?” She thought about that. Yeah, that would pretty much sum it up.


Her first stop back in the cordon area was her apartment. The place wasn’t even listed as a residence. But if the authorities were looking for terrorists that wouldn’t stop them. If anything it would be a convenient place to hide. She had already partially burned the trail. But there had been no time to wipe prints or clean. Of course, she could always hope her prints wouldn’t register. She had no records. And even if they did show up it wouldn’t be as Lori Stevens.


They would find a few weapons - but nothing illegal, just the usual non lethals that any civilian could buy like a few stun prods and pepper spray canisters placed in convenient hiding places throughout her small apartment. She mentally kicked herself for not taking time to put on her Type III vest. But at the time she had expected to get stopped and searched - and that would have been tough to explain. Damn it, the thing had been hard to come by.


If she couldn’t go back it would be a setback. There was a rather large sum of cash hidden carefully - oh nothing in the millions, but enough to set up a new place. While she still had plenty in accounts under alternate ID’s usually invested as retirement savings or trust funds, it still meant having to access those funds. Then there was the matter of her conspiracy boards where she had been trying to link various politicians to mafia gangs - and alien visitations. Her favorite alien conspiracy was the Reptilians. Her place had been filled with stacks of books and magazines collected over years. Those would be lost too.


She close her eyes for a moment and calmed herself. She mustn’t linger or dwell on this for now. The worst might not happen.


Her next target was the medical tents. This was a focal point of activity. If the authorities wanted to look people over for some virus of radiation, she needed to find out what. On the way there she spotted men frozen in their tracks - literally. She glanced around for some logical reason - a liquid nitrogen tanker that might have exploded, something like that - but there was nothing. The weirdness was getting worse. She she floated through the tents she found one with lots of frightened or angry people.


One scene gave her pause - a young child being torn from her mother. For this Lori stood and hovered in the air, a cold anger washing over her. Then she descended with every non corporeal ounce of her being bent on vengeance. She hardly noticed the lights flickering as she passed by. All she could really do was stand by and watch helplessly. That didn’t help at all. So she hauled off and took a few swipes at the men. Of course, being no more than a spirit her hands did even less to these men than they had with Duncan.


After several attempts, all in vain, she stopped and looked at the mother and daughter (at least she assumed it was the girl’s mother). “I’m sorry. I wish I could do more. But if you get out of here, head toward the Thames.” Her jaw clamped shut. It wasn't as though they could hear her. She forced herself once more not to let her sentiments rule her actions. She was here for recon. Meanwhile Duncan was stack back watching over her body.


Lori shot up through the roof of the tent and skirted the riot, not wanting - even as a spirit - to get too close. She didn’t especially like crowds. But now the crowd flow was exactly what she wanted to observe - or rather irregularities - people moving against the flow. Those would be the ones capable of thinking for themselves and not caught up by the mob mass mind. It struck her that the mob might not even be a natural event, but created in self defense by someone evading capture. Of course, maybe she had watched a few too many movies.


“I am flying through the air as a spirit. I am thinking those movies could be called research.” Lori looked down and spotted a small group moving roughly in the direction where Duncan and her body were, albeit over land. That wasn’t the interesting part. What was interesting was the twins - a pair of bearded men. They were hard to miss. Then there was the girl with so many piercings that an electromagnet could have picked her up if the jewelry was steel. Lori could only imagine what the girl went through at airports. Then there was the lady with the vacant look of a stoner. Altogether they were a pretty frightening group. Hell if she were the police, she wasn’t sure if she’d stop them or nervously wave them on.


As she shot back toward her body Lori passed through a redhead sliding down a car into the sewers. At least this girl looked halfway normal. But if Lori wasn’t mistaken, the girl would arrive at her body in several minutes - assuming she didn’t get lost in the darkness. As much as Lori didn’t really want a bunch of tagalongs, she didn’t care to leave them to the mercy of the government.
 
The man adjusted his glasses as he was getting makeup put on him. Power was slowly coming back on, and he of course, being the master of the media circus, was getting ready for the first soundbites of the event. Amongst other things, he was a lawyer, a good talker. He was made for the media in all kinds of circumstances, no matter the media. And he had a good agent. Himself.


The explosion had been set. The surrounding area had it's excuse to riot, and police were not doing what they could to keep the peace. Money moved mountains. Enough could get you anywhere. Now he was just doing his job, making sure the government was kept off balance. This little sortie onto television was just another job in a long line he had to do.


He drank deeply from his hip flask, smiled as the last touches were done, and he was settled with his statement to be asked, having the questions he needed fed to him. He let his mind go on autopilot as the questions were asked of him.


"Well Stacey, my condolences and best wishes go to those in the affected community. In fact, I was only there eating last night, in fact. Every citizen, for right or wrong, should try to help out, in fact, I have already opened up an account for donations. A Charity for those who may been displaced, a charity for those affected by this disaster."


At the bottom of the screen, the name Garrick Rake flashed below, a phone number and a website, all perfectly sound and legal for anyone interested in checking.


"But the question I wish to pose is, what is the government doing about it? They've cordoned off a part of London, they have doctors and police there, but more should be done. What sort of stability is there now? Where are the studies about people who might now be homeless, unable to work, to go to school, well, I suppose some of the kids are a little happy about that. But because the zone is officially quarentined now, what about food? Are we just going to build a wall around them? Starve them as people did during the plague? That is inhumane. That is disgusting. Most importantly, it is just morally and ethically wrong."


At that point, Stacey cut to developing news of the riot that had broken out, and Garrick excused himself. He had other appointments today. Including a shopping list that was going to cost him a small fortune.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Horace blinked at the other me comment, but it didn't really matter as much as getting his in the back of the head by a rock from somewhere in the crowd. He wouldn't turn, although he felt warmth dripping down the back of his neck, matting his hair. He would move with the man, a faint smile on his face.


"You realize, it has been years since my last riot, and then they only wanted their money back."


A bitter smile flitted across his lips, as he helped the man back to his friends, only for them to get called by someone who looked far too official for anything but one of the Authorities. A twinkle in his eyes.


He let go of the other man, another sharp all over body pain as his clothes refit themselves snugly. Well then, it seemed that there was a problem, women were there, and of course he cast himself in the role of defender. He wouldn't give it a second though.


"I'd suggest getting a move on, if you're going. I'll try to catch up. "


He would look back towards the medical tents, his face set. There were more people in there, and they were not the sturdiest of structures. He would roll up his sleeves, and with the manners of one who was about to do some serious kicking, he would stalk after the official. After all, to look official, one needed a uniform, or at least a clipboard.


Besides, it was remarkably hard to become a martyr if people didn't know what you were doing, and there was no quicker way to immortality than that. Besides, the chances were slim, they hadn't called in armed response yet, and besides, every eye on the riot were looking for violence, not looking for someone willing going to the medical tents for a breakout.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The crowd was swelling as it started to overpower the easily spotted men and women in uniform and HAZMAT. The entire situation was ugly, people fighting, trying to get out to loved ones, to find them in the press of crowd. A nearby loudspeaker blared the same monotonos message spoken by a bored looking sargeant.


"Ladies, Gentlemen, please remain calm. You are only injuring one another."


It was a beautiful outbreak of panic and fear, bolstered by the few overt powers being used flashily, a sparkle of some kind of pyrotechnics stopping a squad of police in riotgear in it's tracks long enough for the mob to, well, mob it. Some people were moving to 'liberate' the people in the medical tents, trying to free those presently in them.


All in all, it was slowly growing and gathering, drawing more of the police off their areas of the cordon to try to contain the riot before it got even more out of hand.
 
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Duncan jumped half out of his skin when Lori suddenly moved again and grabbed his arm with a strength born of years of using a wheelchair. “----!” But judging from her half grin he suspected she had done that on purpose.


And she had. Lori hadn’t been able to resist the chance to play a joke on Duncan. “Oh … sorry?” Her grin broadened. Then it faded. “We have company coming I think. Only I’m not sure if they have flashlights. I think this would be a good time for your bright one. But first, how about getting me up topside. I think there may be a larger group above ground - unless they spot the place where the car was half sunk into the sewer. I also have reason to believe something happened to them from the explosion. You’ll see what I mean.”


Duncan nodded. “You first?”


“Sure, then chair. If we get people here, we’ll need them to move near buildings until we are further from the cordon area. Otherwise there is a better chance of satellite imagery picking up on us. Whatever you do, don’t look up at the sky or at traffic cams.” She knew it was useless advice. There were simply too many chances for any security precautions she could offer to fail. Duncan was smart, but still very much an amateur. And the people headed there way? Add in her wheelchair and they may as well set off some fireworks and yell, ‘Here we are!”


Once Duncan had Lori topside he went back to the sewer with his industrial flashlight. This one was the small portable he almost always carried. While it wasn’t a 2 million CW, it was pretty bright and had an adjustable brightness. He cranked it as bright as he could get and aimed it back up toward where they had come from.
 
Jevel continued to run here and there amidst the campus riot, "deactivating" people with abilities that were being violent.


The police were lucky he was there, otherwise it was not likely at all that the riot would have been contained as soon as it was, or even contained at all. Once the more violent ones had been subdued, the rest of them began to shrink back as the police started utilizing riot control like fire hoses and riot shields. A few megaphones and calmed tempers later, the crowd of survivors had, more or less, returned to normal.


Exhausted from all of the running about, Jevel walked over to Richard and the professor to sit down, receiving thanks from a couple of the officers and turning down an offer to join the force.


Richard and the professor were, once again, engaged in conversation. They briefly acknowledged his presence and then returned to their discussion.


Jevel sat down next to them and looked at his hands. How had he gotten such abilities? He never noticed being able to this before...then again, he had never seen people breathe fire before either, or do anything else like that, for that matter. Jevel had, however, read ancient legends of people who could fly and perform miracles...nearly every civilization had them, after all. Who was to say that those legends weren't true?


"Looks like things are going to get a lot more interesting around here..." he chuckled, grinning to himself.
 
What Robyn could only assume was a cold breeze, pushed through her, she forced against the shiver to only find it hurt just as much. It turned out her arm was a lot worse then she originally thought, that is if the foreign object jutting from her arm was, in fact, a bone. Her wrist hurt, and her fingers felt all tingly but she wasn’t sure if that was her arm or she had hurt those too. The only thing she had managed to ‘walk off’ was the gimp in her leg, which now hurt to twist, but was fine otherwise. Still, she remained crouched, against the dark tunnels interior, her ribs feeling a lot better this way.


With her shoulder pressed against the wall of the sewers, she guided herself through the dark, not being able to see anything. Her leading foot would extend carefully, feel its way around before she took another step, not being able to use both her arms to feel around. There was a dim light in the distance, and she wondered if she had made a full circle back to the surface, but it seemed a lot smaller. When Robyn stopped, to take in a deep, shaky breath, the light moved around slightly, but stayed the same distance.


Friend or Foe?


She wasn’t quite sure herself, but there was only one way to find out, and that was to keep moving. “Hello?” her voice sounded very strange to her, when she eventually called out to the lamp. The light seemed to get brighter and larger with every step, but she could now see an outline, “Who are you?” she finally asks. “Are you going to take me back there?” is the next question, although she pushes away from the wall anyways. Wavering slightly before her legs seem to realize she is on them, she takes a few steps towards them. “Or is this my cue to follow the white light?” she wonders, not quite sure if she should be joking or not.
 
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Looking toward the blazed girl, Gerry gave his first real chuckle of the day towards her. Maybe it was her word choice or her attitude, despite all the insanity, but it seemed to lighten his panic just a bit. When she introduced herself, the bearded male gave a nod and was about to say something along the lines of holding up introductions until they were safe. Before he could, though, a group came over to them, lead by an official-looking bloke and his lackeys. Panic spiked the little of his aura he could see again, but before any of them could really do much to act, the new gal stepped up.


As she spoke, Gerry watched her curiously, trying to betray as little of his amazement as he could. It probably didn't help that she was knocked about by some idiot rushing to join the madness. "Ey, watch it!" the bearded male called after the other, dredging up as much false spite as he could to help 'sell' the situation of survival.


Surprisingly, the lab-coated man seemed to buy it and strolled away from them. As he did, Gerry looked again toward the new-girl and frowned. Her aura was thin and wispy, as if she was about to pass right out. "Hey, hey... stay with us, yeah?" he joked with a half-smile. "Might want to sit for a second, 'less you wanna' faint."


Giving a bit of a knowing nod, he turned again to the Divine Winter gal as she spoke, her eyes twitching open and shut for a second. When she offered suggestion of where to go, he turned toward the area and took a long look. Frowning, he squinted and pushed with his mind, intensifying the lights again. Breathing heavily, he flexed his mind more, looking through the silhouettes of the crowd and past them to clarify. There were a few scattered people, but mostly they were staying away from the empty buildings "She's right," he groaned and pulled back, vision going fuzzy for a moment as a line of blood dripped down from each nostril.


He didn't even notice it, trying to steady himself as his half-inebriated brain caught up with the situation again. A familiar voice caught his ears and he looked up, expecting to see the person that looked just like him. Instead he was greeting with a different face entirely. 'That was the voice from before, though,' he thought to himself curiously. 'The one that mentioned the tents. That's Other-Me.'





"Alright," he responded to yet another new face. "I think we should be off then. Just make sure to catch up, yeah?" A smile followed this as he gave a half-assed salute toward the other. "Just make sure you find us, mate. And thanks for earlier." Giving a backwards look to the ladies again, he shrugged. "Well, shall we be off then?" he questioned, still oblivious to the blood that neared his lip.
 
Duncan strained his ears to listen for conversation among whoever was coming. He tried to let his eyes adjust to the darkness. He thought he caught signs of movement against the dim light filtering down from where the car had been falling into the sewer and he had had to carry Lori over the rubble. He waited a little before speaking, so that he didn’t have to yell.


“Step into the light; Allllll are welcome,” Duncan couldn’t resist quoting Poltergeist, He chuckled a little. “We’ve been expecting you.” Of course, it probably looked like he was there by himself, hanging from the ladder to the surface. Lori was already topside. He had wanted to be ready to move if whoever was coming up the tunnel proved hostile.


One look at the way the new girl was holding her arm when she got close and Duncan could tell she was going to have some trouble climbing a straight vertical ladder without a lot of pain. He sighed and hopped the 10 feet down landing with catlike grace.


“If you don’t have a problem with it I’ll carry you up topside, like I did with my friend. Name’s Duncan. And don’t worry, I am used to working in environments like this. Now when you get up topside, hug the walls and use cover as best you can without drawing too much attention. My friend says there satellites will be watching the area. And with what is going on back there, I believe her.”
 
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The reference that Duncan made would go over her head, but Robyn slightly stiffened at the drawl of his voice. There was a slight hint of humor there, and she had to remind herself that she was friendly, and nice. A slight laugh escaped her, and although the tone was not quite realistic enough bemusement did slightly touch her eyes. The man, as she could now see him, was hanging from one of the ladders to street level, hopping down when she approached.


At his introduction, she smiled and inclined her head slightly, “My name’s Robyn…and if you would please, help me up?” she greets back. Robyn didn’t ask the million questions floating around her head, including why they were heading to the surface already. Instead, the redhead simply went along with the plan, she needed to be a follower, she needed to be liked. So when Duncan offered her his back, she awkwardly climbed aboard and noted ever so quietly she was ready.


When the man ascended the ladder and helped her up to the surface, she came face to face with his ‘friend’. Remembering the man’s words before coming up here, she remains closer to the walls, for cover before fully speaking to the woman. “Hi”, she’s unsure of the stranger, but Duncan had seemed nice enough… “I’m Robyn” she introduces, looking over the girl.
 
Duncan watched the visual exchange between the two young ladies. While he was far from an empath, he could sense that neither really trusted the other. At least that was how he read them. Lori, he had already gather, was paranoid. Robyn was understandably nervous around strangers. He decided to cut through a little red tape. “Robyn, Lori. Lori, Robyn.” He slid the manhole cover back in place and joined the other two by the building.


Lori was far from amused at Duncan giving out her name. But it was better than having to say ‘hey you.’ It was just that she didn’t like anyone knowing who she was. She had been considering activation some malware to knock out satellite coverage, but given the scope of the cordon it would have been a waste of time for a plethora of reasons. first, they probably had redundant coverage. Second, it was draw a lot of attention - assuming it even worked. Her plans had been for covering her own escape - just enough to scramble attempts to track her long enough to move before reacquiring her. This … was different.


One straggler wasn’t too bad. Lori momentarily regretted her use of the plural in describing, for now Duncan would be expecting to look for more escaping the cordon area. It was too late now to just let things go and run out of the area. Not especially pleased with the idea, she asked. “Do we risk waiting around to see if the others make it out? Or just move on?”


Duncan looked at Lori neutral expression. He had not liked the question. In his mind there was no question. If he had known about the kid in the medical tents it would have eaten him up not to do anything about this. “We help them. I am working on some ideas to help everyone. But I doubt they are practical. All this would be over before I could put any plans into action.”


Lori shook her head. “No heroics. We should get clear. I can go back and do more recon from a safer vantage point. If they make it, I can track them or relocate. If the military entrenches we can think about your ideas.”
 
It was a few minutes after the riot settled before Jevel figured out a way past the quarantine line.


Richard and the professor were chatting away as usual, and so Jevel was sitting by himself as bored as ever. Looking over, he spotted a small sewer lid on one of the nearby campus paths. It obviously led into the sewers, which led to all of the nearby area as well.


He told the other two that he was going for a small excursion and that he would be back in a while. Making sure no one was looking, Jevel lifted up the heavy metal disc, slipped down inside, and closed the lid behind him.


It would normally be pitch-black, but the tunnel was lit by a far off light. It looked natural.


Probably part of the ground caved in, figured Jevel. He decided to head that way. And so he did, making sure to step carefully lest he slip and fall facefirst into an unpleasant substance. He got a little excited feeling when he realized that what he was doing wasn't really that different from the kinds of excavations and explorations he usually did. Except this time, he had a pretty good idea what was at the end of the tunnel.
 
“Huh?” muttered Alani almost drunkenly as she turned her head in the direction of the bearded man’s voice while her balance caused her to sway dangerously on her feet. “Oh … yeah … I’ll stay with you guys …” Some part of her currently nerve-wrecked mind suggested that he hadn’t meant to physically stay, but that part was drown out by the current chaos.


What was she doing!?


These people were dangerous. That much was readily apparent even to her frayed sensibility, but there was something more here as well. To preserve what little logic she could in this fucked up morning, she would probably work to later convince herself that she had stepped up and sent the official away because the riot would have made listening to him quite dangerous. The act made sense if viewed under that light. In truth, however, her choice had been made for a far more complex and wonderful reason - There were more things in heaven and earth than were ever dreamt of in any philosophy, and this was her chance to experience something astounding - caution and self-preservation be damned! Alani craved to know more …


She shook her head and forced her mind to stop drifting as she watched doppelboy take his leave of them. For a moment she had almost considered stopping him but decided against it. The man frightened her. His nonchalant use of his shapechanging coupled with the fact that he was now calmly walking into the chaos spoke volumes to her. In her mind it seemed clear that he had something to do with all of this. Exactly what his role was, however, had yet to be determined.


Turning back to what she had to work with, she offered a weak smile to the remaining three of the group. It seemed that they had plotted out an area that they had felt would be somewhat more secure. Judging by what she could see of how they had worked this out, she assumed that the beard and the punk chick were some sort of psychics while the weed girl was a self-proclaimed ‘earth bender.’ What a strange and ironic mistress fate could be some days that a dedicated science major like herself would end up with the likes of them …


“If it’s all the same, I think I’ll wait to tell you my name for a bit,” she grinned sardonically as she worked on getting the pierced girl back on her feet. The cat in this one’s arms seemed rather less than pleased currently, but Alani had to admit that she was mildly impressed that the girl hadn’t managed to let it slip free just yet. “I mean with the state of things it would feel too much like a fucking ‘please remember me if I die’ powwow type thing … and I’m not fucking doing that shit …”


As she spoke, she carefully slipped herself under one of the punk’s arms in order to help support her weight. It was a rather simple task in theory. When she discovered that she had to be quite careful about it to prevent the girl from freeing her yowling feline, however, things got mildly more complicated. “In any case,” she continued after taking a deep breath, “I, for one, am ready to get out of this fucked up riot … so …?” She glanced up at the gorgeous display of multicolored lights and let herself sigh a bit worriedly before starting to walk in that direction while keeping her pace slow enough for the others to follow. Her body still shook slightly from the fear and shock of everything, but she felt slightly better now that they had a plan amidst the chaos.
 
She was in trouble now. She hated doctors and dentists and sewing clubs…everything that would get close to her with a needle. She didn’t have any idea what would go on once she entered the medical tent, but waiting for an answer wasn’t an option. Without a single thought she stamped on the man’s feet. In movies it always seemed to work, but this guy wasn’t really impressed.


He smirked at her, which she replied with a glare. She’d show him. Zahra slammed her elbow in his rib. Not much impact, she wasn’t very strong, but when she felt him losing grip she quickly took off.


She wasn’t very strong, but really fast if her feet let her the opportunity to still stand.


She saw a sewer lid. Her portal to freedom? She quickly removed it and entered. When she climbed down Zahra believed she just got lucky, but faith wanted it otherwise. She sneezed and fell down into the dirty brown water. Not even her raincoat could take a stand against this. Curse her immune system and curse flat shoes!


“Gross..” she cried, as a child slamming her fist into upon the water. She looked up, it had been quite a fall, even though her neck now felt sore she thanked god for not breaking it. She stood up rubbing her neck on the sore spot. “And creepy,” she shivered remembering all the horror movies that she really shouldn’t have watched. Pennywise, anyone? “Okay, let’s see, I got in at Gordon street..” she muttered. “Which means that if I go left now, I’ll leave the block.” she frowned. “I think?”


Unsurely she started moving forwards.
 
"She's right." The Divine Winter Boy said, and then he groaned in-- in what? In pain, in confusion, in exhaustion, in delirium? Sebastianne tried to look at him, and saw something shiny and dark red dribbling from his nose to his lip, just like the images of blood spatters broken bones exposed cartilage and tendons and intestines and just people standing around generally bloodies and some not walking but running but it was hard to tell if they were moving at all because everything was happening so fast and yet everything was frozen and it then other times people were moving but not as often as when the visions were still-- as if one moment in all of eternity had been captured by one person and it was happening over and over with different moments inside her head.


Stop.


Look at him. Is he hurt. No. He's talking. Pay attention to him talking.


"I think we should be off, then. Just make sure to catch up, yeah?" Conscious. Not delirious. Good. Now, who was he talking about? As far as Sebby could tell the three people she had met were still with her-- unless someone else had come by while she had caught a case of insanity? She wish she had been able to listen to names that had been shared around. That was she would at least know how many people were together just a few minutes before. How silly was it going to sound when she told them all she took a few minute hiatus from the real world while she was trying to get her thoughts-- and everyone else's--- in some semblance of order?


On the bright side, it meant that she didn't have to give out her name either. Sebastianne. Could her parents have picked a name that could be more easily misspoken?


"I, for one, am ready to get out of this ****ing riot...so...?" New girl said. As the woman tried to help Sebastianne up, an interesting sensation overtook her. Just like her tear-stained cheeks that felt cool in the morning breeze, she was able to feel what was going on without having a firm view of what was happening. It was almost like being blindfolded by the images, and then told to walk forward. Sebastianne grasped her cat's leash firmly, and with the help of her companion, walked forwards, unsure of really where they were going and only hoping they were moving away from the crowds, thought it was difficult to be sure because she was still having a hard time figuring out which images were real and which ones were in her mind. There was one picture of three men stuck in an ice cube surrounded by masses of people that kept playing over and over in her mind. Sebby hoped they weren't walking towards whatever the hell that was.


Speaking of which-- "Hey, Divine Winter Guy. How did you know that I was right, in saying that there were no people on the other side of the crater?" If freaky sh*t was happening to him, too, maybe... Well, at least it would hopefully mean that she wasn't alone. Maybe other people were suddenly able to see and hear the things she was seeing. Speaking of which, what was happening?


As they continued walk downwards into the crater, stumbling over the rubble of flats and shops and cars and furniture and all the stuff that had once made up the lives of several thousand people, Sebastianne felt the air get denser and he lungs fill up with dust. She focused on this tangible thing, finding (ironically) some comfort in the fact that they must be heading towards where the earthquake and explosions began, even though it was still hard to see if that's what was actually happening. It was odd, though. If an explosion had happened-- wouldn't the air smell of fire and things burning?


"Hey," she started brusquely. "Did any of you actually see the explosion happen? Because this-- this doesn't seem like a normal explosion." To her companions, it probably sounded stupid, but Sebby wasn't even sure if she had really seen a rainbow sky or not.


Just as they were climbing the other side of the crater, Sebastianne and the travelling companion who was making sure she kept walking lost their footing on some loose shale and slipped about 20 feet into a shallow cavern. Sebastianne screamed a little as they tumbled down, her leg getting caught in Isis' leash, though thankfully she landed on her stomach rather than her rucksack. It was dark. Even with all the sounds and pictures running through her mind, Sebastianne could tell it was dark, but it wasn't cold or wet. "What the f***. Did we fall in to some sort of tunnel?"


 
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Yurev was lost in thought, he was trying to make sense of what was happening but couldn't. No matter what venue of thought he tried to take, he was detoured every time. Instead he settled upon confusion, better simply to accept hat he knew nothing than try to pretend he knew anything at all. He huffed indignantly, frustrated with his lack of knowledge. Then from out of the blue a woman came up from behind him, she asked rather stridently if he knew what was going on. She looked angry to say the least and he thought better of repeating the obvious.


I hav not a clue az to vuat iz heppening here. Iz confusing and very frustrating. I have family and vork to return to. Perhaps I should ask dees guards if anyone cen spek to us?


He looked from the woman to the authorities surrounding the area and thought he might take a shot in the dark. Among the guards was a woman but she didn't look like the sort who took any gruff from anyone and so he struck her from his list of possible people to talk to. Instead he struck up a conversation with an older cop, he looked tired and out of sorts so it might work.


Scuse me sir, iz there eny vay you could tell me vhat iz going on round here, people are worried you see, ve just wuant to know when we cen leave. Plez, I hev femily to care for and a job to do, iz there o way you can tell me anything?


Yurev kept himself as placid as possible, he didn't need to get beaten up today and miss another day from work. The officer looked him up and down somewhat suspiciously but shrugged as though it really didn't matter if he told one poor Russian immigrant who could barely speak English.


Well my friend, I couldn't tell you even if I knew but from what I can tell, the big shots are trying to keep you all here, they're spinning stories to the media. It looks like they might use that riot as an excuse to detain you all but I can't be sure. Here. Give me a minute while I talk to my superior, she might know something more.


Yurev was startled to say the least, from the man's face he expected a cold shoulder to his queries, instead what he got was service with a smile. The Russian man watched as the officer left and circled around the rea to stand in front of the woman he had avoided talking to before. A minute passed and already Yurev could see the woman was rather angry with her subordinate. She yelled at him some more until the officer he had spoken to before pointed a dejected finger in Yurev's direction. The woman vaulted the riling that fenced them all in and made a beeline straight for Yurev. However, before she got three step in there were people swarming around her. From the noise he could tell that they were not saying very nice things.


Yurev sighed and walked to another police officer, a young woman, she held a megaphone and was very attractive to say the least and had they been in a bar Yurev might have risked a conversation. It sounded like things were getting heated up and some of the officers were moving in with batons, after the things he had seen so far, Yurev was worried what might happen. The young officer was speaking harshly through the megaphone at the crowd.


Please disperse this instance or we will be forced to take action and forcefully separate you!!


Her words however went unanswered, it almost looked like she had just made the crowd even rowdier. It did not take long for the woman to place the megaphone on the ground and take up her own baton before she went to pull and push people from the group. Things weren't looking so good and Yurev was worried another riot might start. The only thing he could think to do was pick up the megaphone and try to calm people down.


Please everyone, we can all be friends here. Iz possible. Just calm down, the police are only trying to help us. Everyone please calm down.


One by one the crowd seemed to stop struggling, the police officers were all nodding at each other as if agreeing with him.


I am sure we can all be friends here, iz not impossible we are all afraid? Come, perhaps if we are calm enough the police will tell us what iz heppening, my friend here has already shared some of what he knows with me, perhaps if we give his superior the chance she might tell us vhat iz really heppening here.


By this point the crowd had already dispersed and were waiting for the rigid looking police officer to take the megaphone the Yurev was offering her.
 
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