[E] Spiderweb

[Nightmare]

[atrb=width,440px,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] [style=margin-top:10px;]BOSS LEVEL {2000} [/style]

The noise that assaulted the ears of everyone in the town had an appearance to match. The sky was torn open under claws that glowed like barely-contained embers, and the nightmare pulled itself from the ether. The thing looked built from mashed-up remains of metalwork and flesh, punctured by bolts and nails and chains that fastened it to itself. Tattered and bloody, the creature practically breathed corruption, and looked on at the city below with glowing and unblinking eyes.

The sound died down to the silence that preceded it, but the moment was short lived. The gargantuan nightmare let out a growl from deep in its chest that wasn't enough to cover up the rumble that was building up from outside of it. More to ground level, a deep discolored mist rose from beneath the earth, and the ground gave way underneath an entire city section's worth of buildings. The circle of restaurants and diners that had composed the Food Court crumbled and fell into themselves, plummeting into nothingness and leaving behind a swirling void in its wake. It didn't go unnoticed; the once competing Dreamwalkers cried out in anger and confusion at what had happened. They tried to gather their bearings, tried to run away as they did so. The Nightmare was quite aware of it all and yet, it was still. Waiting for something, or charging up, who knew?

[Morgan Evans]

Were Morgan in the kind of mood, he'd have made some witty quip about how 'Shit just got Real' and punned all over this predicament, but instead he was left gawking at the scene unfolding, how the Nightmare obliterated a whole block without so much as a real warning. He made an uncharacteristic whine and backed away towards White and Niko in some strange hope that maybe they had some kind of answer for what was going on, all while other people in the town were running for their lives. They should have been running too, come to think of it.

He pointed over his shoulder at the beast a distance away. "You guys got any idea on how to take that down, or no? Pretty sure I never saw that in the notes," he said, throwing any thoughts to the fore that didn't amount to 'HOLY SHIT' and 'FUCK we are SO doomed'. Maybe if he tricked himself into thinking it wasn't a big deal, then it wouldn't be a big deal? Right? Heheh, heh, heh. . . . . oh who was he kidding, he looked devastated. The only thing that made this occurrence slightly better was that their section of Alamira was closed off and emptied out beforehand. The most the nightmare did was blatant property damage, but that wouldn't last. Someone was bound to do something, or the Nightmare would act first and wipe actual people off the map unprovoked. The dread of that was gnawing at him.

[Nikolai Carmens]

Aaaaand Niko's brain broke.

The Navigator was left a petrified, gawking mess as the humongous abomination burst forth from the abyss to lay waste to this reality. The only sign of life from the poor sod was that his mouth got a little more agape when the monstrosity utterly obliterated the entire Food Court by simply landing there. Even Morgan's completely understated response to the catastrophe unfolding before them garnered no response. And that was saying something. Seriously, that was full-on snark fodder that Niko would have otherwise loved to bombard with all his snarktastic power.

Given a few more seconds, his mind seemed to reboot. Niko blinked away the fogginess from his thoughts, though was no less shaken now that he could fully comprehend the situation. "I'm going to say 'No.' Definitely no. Maybe we should head to the Base or something." That suggestion was directed more towards White for confirmation, seeing how he was obviously the most experienced out of all of them.

Then, despite his own horrified shock still going strong, he gave Morgan a weak smirk. "Then again, didn't you say you wanted to go after the big points?" It was a bad joke, but still something to stop himself from screaming like a little schoolgirl and shrinking into the fetal position.

[Fatalis "White" Niveus-Aquila]

With that ending of the sound, White willed himself back to reality with sobering thoughts of biology class dissections, of which he had proved effective with steady precise hands. He took in a deep breath, held it then released it into the air and began to take stock of the situation to begin a proper response.

Big ugly metal monster, most likely ready to kill and/or eat us. Morgan. Niko. Green Haired girl with wire web. Himself with two revolvers.

He looked to Niko once the suggestion of returning to the base was made. That offered some practical use, a defensive spot till they could garner a proper response. He looked at the beast's legs or rather, the lack of them, trying to assess the movement speed. How did it move anyway? Could it move?

If it could outrun them, there would be no point in a retreat, it'd just swoop in on them with their backs turned. Maybe split the party, White could attract the beast's attention with gunshots while the others made their retreat.

Could it be lured into the spider-web the green haired girl had constructed? Would it even register White's standard ammunition as an annoyance?

His mind was all over the place as it tried to find the proper response. So many things to consider, so much of a need for information and proper equipment.

White looked to his gut instinct and felt the urge to call his mother, strangely, and let her know how much he loved her and how much of an evil woman she was and that her Caesar salad was terrible. That was not a good sign. Even his instincts lacked hope of any sort and were going for broke.

He placed himself back into rationality, summoning up the infinite power of the stiff upper lip. He felt scared and hopeless. He shouldn't show it or let it affect his thinking. Was there anything they could make use of in the city? Construction equipment?

Had to make a decision, he thought to himself. Couldn't hesitate any longer. He looked over his shoulder at the wire web then at his companions. He sighed and reached inside his white ragged trench coat, his hand going to the handle of his revolver, the silver .500 Smith and Wesson Magnum revolver, and released it from its leather home, bringing its sights over one of the heads of the creature, his finger on the trigger and ready to fire. It occured to him that he could draw his second and aim for the second head but...Well he probably wouldn't have time for that

"Gentlemen and green haired lady, I believe a tactical retreat is in order. We'll use the web to cover our escape. Let's get the bloody hell out of here." he said clearly in gaps between the vocalisations of the hellbeast

[Nightmare]

[atrb=width,440px,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] [style=margin-top:10px;]BOSS LEVEL {2000} [/style]

The nightmare watched on as the little things scurried off to save themselves. They were barely the size of its fist. It could crush them, add their blood to the slew of colors that trickled down its dessicated skin. Yes, that sounded appealing to the base natures that governed it, but. . . not yet. They needed to squirm more. It let out another defeaning wail then tensed, curling up into itself. The air shifted around it, and in the blink of an eye, the nightmare vanished as if the abyss it had come from decided to swallow it back in. The creature was gone, but it left a trace, a clouded curtain of colors and muffled noise that glowed with the ethereal light of something hidden behind it.

The surface broke once more, and six-headed hydras burst through, driven by blind fury, their wings beating fast. They spread all along the streets, each of their heads retching out flames or cutting gusts of wind that took down dreamwalkers and other nightmares alike by the tens and hundreds.

Some escapees attempted to fight back, trying to pin the one monster down under a hail of gunfire and explosions, but to no avail-- the dragon lost five of its heads in the assault but lashed out with its remaining one and caught a dreamwalker in its jaws. The hydra seared the hapless Fighter from the inside out with its poisonous bite while his companions left him behind, and any sign of struggle was snuffed out in that moment. The nightmare's heads grew back as if nothing had happened, and it tossed the limp body aside and continued on with its destruction, soon catching the others and searing them alive without a second thought.

Each hydra had seemingly found scenery to raze or victims to slaughter, but one of them took to skimming the rooftops. This one was looking for fresher kills, and found them in a group of four dreamwalkers still unharmed. All six of its jaws snapped in anticipation, and it leapt down to land in front of three of the group. The white one with the gun looked most dangerous, and one head attacked the man with a sudden jet of water. The others fixed their stares towards the two younger ones as if daring them to do something.

[Morgan Evans]

Morgan wasn't surprised to find that Nikolai was just as shocked as he was about the whole thing, but he suggested that they escape to the Base and straighten out their affairs. Well, he hadn't said that directly, but he damn sure implied a straightening of affairs was in order. Some wills needed to be written and property bequeathed to anybody that was still alive to take it.

The brunette gave a weak smirk and made a tiny joke about Morgan's previous plan, and despite the blond's horror and his having half a mind to berate Niko for saying something so terrible, he smirked back in the same way. He couldn't help himself, nor the twisted thought that perhaps Niko genuinely deserved to be called 'Captain', at least this once, and that now was a better time than any to say something corny like "If none of this works out, I wanna say that it was an honor being your sidekick-slash-pain-in-the-ass, however long that lasted".

White seemed to be the only sane man out of any of them, but not by much. Morgan had heard some mutterings about an escape in his periphery, the words sounding rather hollow and echo-y. His attention was focused on Nikolai and that stupid little smirk of his, of all things! But when he finally turned to focus on who was speaking and the words had registered, he saw White pulling out his revolver and aiming it at the nightmare a distance away from all of them. The smirk went clear off of Morgan's face, not even a vestige remaining of any forced (or not) light attitude over a joke.

"Are you fucking crazy, man!? You can't distract that--"

A scream pierced the air; the nightmare had 'spoken' again. Morgan staggered back, covering his ears once more and fixing his eyes towards the hellbeast coiling in on itself and vanishing, leaving behind some swirling mass of. . . something.

The blond couldn't even entertain the idea of just where that thing had gone to when something potentially worse took its place. Hydras broke out of the Dream World and attacked at random, the screams of many rising up as they fell under flame and wind.

Soooooooo the nightmare was sending in MORE nightmares and slaughtering people by proxy. At that, Morgan's brain broke, flipped a table, threw up its hands and called it a day. It couldn't take anymore.

Before he even knew what was going on, he was yanking Niko towards him and trying to run away to any direction that could at least keep them from dying for just a few more seconds than normal, but he was stopped before he could get anywhere. One of those dragons landed between them and Meri, its six heads paying attention to them all separately. One of them attacked White, and a vague recollection of the Navigator notes registered in Morgan's mind about the heads being able to control the elements. Not that it would do them much good aside from having potentially four ways to die.

But if he was going to die, he could at least entertain one more crazy thought. He let go of Nikolai's hand (he'd forgotten how tightly he was gripping it; poor Niko), pulled off one of his cleats and let the footwear fly at one of the hydra's heads.

[#@rand#=71.61561431223527%@]

Morgan could swear he'd heard a boom when the shoe struck home, but regardless of whether he'd heard or not, the hydra reeled from the impact and the head the shoe clocked fell limp. The other ones turned to look, their expressions coming close to human shock, then they zeroed in on the blond and his outstretched hand.

". . . Uhm, we should. . . probably get another shoe ready."

Preferably before the monster ate him alive.

[Nikolai Carmens]

Oh good, for once someone was agreeing with him. It might have been the last time anyone ever did that, buuut...

He gave a skeptical look at the guns White whipped out. "Yeah, here's hoping you won't need to use those." Looked like Morgan was sharing the sentim-- OOOHHH GOD there was that noise again! Niko went right back to clamping his palms over his ears, looking back at the Nightmare to see what it was up to now. Besides triggering absolute pandemonium and a bloodbath to boot, the aberration looked like it was... phasing? Once again the Navigator's mouth dropped as it beckoned a freakin' Hydra to enter the playing field. Then before he knew it someone was grabbing at him again.

"Hey-!!" Oh hell, he couldn't even argue against Morgan dragging him around at this point. It at least snapped him back into reality -- or rather, what was left of it at this point. So Niko was more than happy to start running as fast as Morgan's feet could carry them. At least until the Hydra crashed down right in front of them. This time around Niko wasn't afforded the grace of standing there stupidly. The Hydra was attacking White and giving them the death glare at the same time, and Morgan took initiative.

With a cleat.

That worked.

'Oh come ON!' Okay, he didn't have the time to question Morgan on whether he was loading those damn things with Essence of Nuke. Instead he scrambled to unlatch the bottom of his backpack and untied the smoke bomb that'd been set up to trigger if anyone tried to open the pack from the top (his only moment of wit gone to total waste).

". . . Uhm, we should. . . probably get another shoe ready."

"Or this."

Before the Nightmare could recover enough to retaliate, Niko chucked the smoke bomb at its heads. Hopefully with all the eyes simultaneously glaring at Morgan, the resulting cloud would manage to cover over all their visions. After that, it was the Navigator yanking at the blond's arm, bolting out of the narrow alleyway.

"Move move move move!" Hopefully White and Meri were keen on listening and following after them. He really didn't wanna be in the same position if the Hydra starting shooting off every damn element at where it would have seen them standing last.

[Fatalis "White" Niveus-Aquila]

When the damned beast had launched a jet of water at him, White's mind flashed with the facts of water at high pressure as his honed reflexes took control and he lunged forward hopefully out of the way of the water's edge

The fact it could cut through...A lot had made White extra hopeful that he would not get hit on that but still, he managed to find time to mentally berate himself for dodging forward although...With the look of the hydra's neck, moving its aim to the side or upwards would have been a simple feat so White calmed down, knowing it was the tactically best method of evasion.

It also gave him an amazing view when the shoe struck the hydra and seemed to decimate it, if only a little.

That, was a good shoe right there.

White listened to his comrade's intentions to flee and agree in his own thoughts but with his position closer to the beast, he was at a disadvantage...But he had the beast's attention.

Could he occupy it for better safety of the younger three? Should he focus on keeping himself alive? Should he go on the attack?

He ran, back into the alley, towards the spider web. He continued to run, thanking his PE teachers where ever they were, for all the rugby they made him play. Military training was also thanked as he ran belt out towards the webbing. And another thanks was to be given to Niko, most likely in the form of a drink when all of this was other; whether it was his favourite bar in Alamira or the bar in heaven (if that was to occur, he hoped there would an angel lady there, with long legs as radiant and shiny as her halo), was still up for debate

Stopping at one point, despite all of his best instincts, he raised his revolver once more and aimed it towards the beast's torso, where he believed the heart would be. Biology lessons remembered, the best place for any heart is at the centre of the body. He almost begged whatever powers that be, that this thing had a heart. Somehow, his eyes seemed to discern past...No, through the smoke, allowing him to aim unimpeded. And quickly. Pulling the trigger, the recoil hit him like a old familiar friend he would sometimes get into playful scraps with.

[#@rand#=168.48025186546147%@]

And of course, the bullet struck true, simultaneously making White wish the revolver could take a human form so he could kiss it without feeling insane, fearing the all mighty power of the firearm and a little bit braver...

He quickly crushed all those feelings as he returned to his escape plans, heading away from the hydra as quickly as possible with the cover of the smokescreen. If every bullet struck strong like the first did, White was sure things would not be so bleak. Maybe they had a bigger chance than they thought... He ran quicker

[Nightmare]

[atrb=width,440px,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] [style=margin-top:10px;]BOSS LEVEL {2331} [/style]

The hydra was struck in the heart and felled quickly, no longer a threat to the dreamwalkers it'd tried to besiege. While it could be counted as a victory for the group, they still had others of its kind to contend with. Or perhaps not, as a strange chain reaction had started and spread across the city-turned-battlefield. Other contestants gathered their strength as well and put up a valiant fight where they could, and the hydrae fell one by one.

It didn't help the monsters that their arrival had involved attacking other nightmares-- a stone golem had turned and crushed one hydra under its heel just as it was about to breathe fire on a group of Imaginers and their Navigator. To that group's relief, the golem went on its way with an attitude approaching indifference (at least until the next one showed up). The nightmares aware enough for self-preservation did what they could against the swarm of invading enemies, at least for their own sake.

Nothing like that was going on to help the group of dreamwalkers fleeing the alleyway, though. Their situation was about to get worse.

Two of them were ahead of the others, trying to escape with what they could. Their escape would be blocked by something bigger than a simple hydra. Much bigger. The same glowing claws from before tore out of the street ahead of them, and the hellbeast pulled itself up from the newly created void, making its home right in their path.

Earlier on, it'd given the impression that it waited for something, motionless as it was before phasing out of existence for a moment. There was nothing like that here. With an unearthly howl, it swung its claws at the humans with the intention of gutting them open.

[Morgan Evans]

Thank goodness Niko had had a better plan that wasn't "more shoes". He tossed a smoke bomb to distract the hydra and blind it, but before the blond could take in the priceless look on the hydra's other five faces, Niko was yanking at his arm and urging them all to get away; but Meri was still stuck in that web, wasn't she? But White was there too, with her, not too hurt. Those expert reflexes of his kicked in and saved him from the water attack, come to think of it. Great! Morgan wouldn't have been able to forgive himself if they'd actually left half of their team behind at the mercy of whatever.

The gunshot and the sharp cry of the hydra echoing from the alleyway further alleviated some of his fears-- that thing must have died just then, or at was in a serious amount of pain, at least. Good White; Best Teammate. He and Meri would be catching up soon, then!

Morgan found out much faster that they'd be there sooner than he was comfortable with, what with their escape cut short. The blond returned the gesture to Niko, grabbing on the brunette's arm and tugging him back from the torn-up asphalt ahead of them just before the Nightmare erupted out of it. He couldn't figure out what part of the mess he was supposed to be more unnerved by: the fact that this Nightmare actually worked like one and was everywhere they went, or the fact that they'd only been a few steps from certain death.

The nightmare made the decision for him.

He saw the claws bearing down on him and Niko both, and he wasn't sure what he did then -- whether he pushed Niko out of the way, or he stood in front, or he cowered back, or was too scared to move at all-- but whatever other thoughts he had scattered away, except for maybe one. A simple reflection:

I sure did hear a lot of screaming today.

He hadn't expected himself to be part of the noise.

[Nikolai Carmens]

He was almost disbelieving that the idea was actually working. The smoke bomb struck true, blinding the Hydra and preventing it from pursuing them. Niko was hoping the other two were following behind, but looking back proved they hadn't gotten the incentive. The ring of gunfire only confirmed that White really stayed behind to take the Nightmare on. Niko was on the verge of spazzing.

'Is he serious? He's going to get killed! Any second now that thing's going to... Oh wait did he kill it?'

Indeed, there wasn't any more sounds of a scuffle going on behind them. Either that guy had a serious killshot skill, or there was something strange going on... Well, aside from the chaos already surrounding them.

Like for example the huge construct that started all of this emerging right infront of them. The Navigator skidded to a halt as Morgan did, shock and horror riddling his face. And he continued scrambling for his senses as the blonde yanked him away from the Nightmare. Not fast enough, though. Niko was only then processing enough information to begin reeling around to make a break for it when everything got blurry.

Suddenly the brunette was finding himself lying on the concrete, unable to move, with a numbed pain that he couldn't quite locate -- not that he was wanting to at the moment. If he dared look at the gash on his chest, the intensity would only get worse. It only figured that the one time he did the smart, practical thing, it would result in him getting killed. The Navigator tried to move his head, tried to see if Morgan was any better off. The sight didn't please him. This wasn't fair to him. It wasn't fair to any of them.

[Fatalis "White" Niveus-Aquila]

White was a swift runner and quickly caught up to find the wounded Morgan and Niko and the beast before him. His mind flashed with images from past experience...They were so out of their depth it wasn't funny...

And White was sick of it. He had more than enough.

"Go to hell, bloody bastard" he grit out of his teeth as he tossed the BZ gas bomb straight at the monster's face. White raised his revolver just after it left his grasp and trusted his aim as he brought the sights of the revolver over the gas bomb until it arrived infront of the monster's face, at which point he fired the revolver, launching forth the mighty .500 smith and wesson magnum sword of justice through the gas grenade, detonating it and releasing the gas in perfect inhalation distance for the monster while the mighty bullet kept going to strike the monster.

[#@rand#=202.99526149220765%@]

And, lo it was good enough for now. With the gas hopefully in effect, he made his move. Holstering the revolver and taking a pair of blue potions from his coat pockets, he ran to Morgan and Niko, moving quickly and efficiently. He poured the potions down their throats one at a time, making sure they didn't choke. Morgan looked out of it but Niko might be able to get back in the game. He gave Morgan the potion first then Niko before returning his focus to Morgan. He was hurt. Bad. It wasn't fair, in White's eyes, to put someone so young and promising in that kind of situation. No one his age deserved that. Hoping the potion would take effect quickly, White set to work to give it what help he could.

First, he took out a bottle of disinfectant and pulled his head-bandana away, letting his messy white hair fall free from its bindings. Soaking the cloth in the disinfectant, he wrapped it around Morgan's wound best he could. Too vertical for a good binding. Tying it tight with a bow knot, if Morgan were closer to consciousness, he might be able to see the stitching "For Fatalis" on the ending of the makeshift bandage.

With that done, he looked to Niko and spoke

"Nikolai, we need to move. I'll take your weight but you'll need to move with me." He spoke roughly, with the voice of a soldier, not the retired police officer. If the shit got any realer, you people reading this would smell it by now.

He pulled Morgan onto his shoulder like when he had carried him home the first time they met, though the circumstances couldn't be any different. With one hand supporting Morgan, the other pulled Niko up onto his feet then hooked his arm onto White's shoulder and Morgan. White didn't like it. He was carrying a lot of weight awkwardly, though with memories of lugging around a sniper rifle, ammo, rations, side arm and a wounded man, he knew he could be useful in this regard.

One foot in front of the other, he thought as he tried to make his escape at the other end of the alley, away from the monster. Had to get Morgan to a medical centre. Fast. He was not losing them. He hoped the green haired girl was following after them, since he couldn't shoot with both his hands full now.

It was going to be a bad day, he just knew it.

[Nightmare]

[atrb=width,440px,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] [style=margin-top:10px;]BOSS LEVEL {2043} [/style]

Not enough. The Nightmare wasn't satisfied just yet. It pawed at itself with its newly soaked claws, adding the human blood to its ever growing collection of colors dried and caking up on its skin. A deep and low noise rose from it in quick bursts-- it could've been chuckling there, just having a good laugh at the expense of fallen foes and the line that looked about to form of tired human lives coming up with a wish to cut themselves short through an encounter with the worst Nightmare.

Something round was tossed its way, and the thing was nothing approaching human--
the shot rang out and the ball exploded into smoke and the paper remnants of the covering. The nightmare reeled back with a roar of pain, and its claws swung at the air. It tried to ward away the sedative mist or any more bullets that could potentially fly at it. The latter wasn't too much of a problem; the human stopped shooting at him. The effects of the smoke lingered on, however.

The Nightmare hissed at the retreating figures and wound up to swipe at them, but an explosion from up above drew its attention away from White and the others. Another roar; the nightmare thrashed around under the weight of buildings that'd collapsed on it, slipping a little further into the rift it'd come from with each second and every new piece of rubble piling on. Its eyes followed the last of White and the group as they disappeared into the alley. They wouldn't escape for very long. The nightmare tensed like before, and phased out from underneath its trap.

[Fighter]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=style,width: 500px; height: 168px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;] "Damn, we almost had it," Zeph mumbled. His colleagues expressed their frustration much more loudly, and he couldn't fault them for it. 'Almost' wasn't quite good enough. But, he had his powers to make sure that there wouldn't be another 'almost'. The Fighter shook his familiar 8-ball and looked into it, trying to discern with his limited omniscience just where the nightmare would next appear. He could at least get that much. An image flickered behind the glass, and Zeph's one good eye went wide in shock. "Awwwwww man that thing is actually headed for the Base!" The other competition judges murmured among themselves, confused, before the words actually sunk in. They each took to their own actions, mixed and separate but all towards the same purpose. One raised a hand to her temple and shut her eyes. They moved rapidly behind the lids as if she were seeing past them and searching for something, for many things. Her eyes stilled, and her brows quirked up. "Hm, they've stopped what they were doing. They're trying to file out of the building now. Good job, Rena." Rena responded with a noncommittal "Hm," and focused her attention once more on her telepathy, trying to keep the Base workers from panicking. She registered their recognition when the other judges arrived to the compound through their own abilities in order to defend what they could and hold the beast off when it arrived. Good, good-- She couldn't keep the flat, neutral not-a-smile from coming up on her face or seeping into her tone of voice. "I didn't get all of them, apparently." "I can see that." Archer hadn't budged an inch during all of the commotion. Goddamn that stupid Imaginer. He gave absolutely no shits about what was going on, did he? Enough to casually explain the situation to someone else, sure, but there was a distinct lack of fearing for his own life that just unnerved anybody with normal functioning impulses. His detachment aided his work more than it did him. "What's going on, again?" "Archer isn't leaving the Base." Zephyr's face fell into a gawking, disbelieving, Are you serious? face. Who would have guessed he'd be taking time off from running his business to play babysitter to a guy that was older and somehow more careless than he was? "Well, uh, okay," he stammered. "We can work with that. I think. Let's pack the rest of our stuff and get out of here." They'd have to take a vantage point that was close enough for him to observe and safely direct the other judges. Still, he shook the eight-ball again, using his powers to check on Archer's future. Not a single thing showed up, and static filled his mind's eye. Not good, he thought, but put his worries away for later.

[/color]

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[Nikolai Carmens]

Another gunshot rang past the haze consuming his senses. Again Niko tried to move himself enough to witness what was going on, but no such luck. His body was quitting on him. It felt so odd, not feeling the full front of fear or despair or anything that should be prevalent in this most solemn hour. Maybe it was because at the moment he couldn't gather enough wit to know what to feel. But that didn't mean he wasn't able to know what he was tasting.

The green potion was poured down his throat, spreading warmth throughout his body as it settled. In quick order the blurriness was receding, allowing the Navigator to regather himself. There before him was White, helping him up and giving orders. Hoisted over the man's shoulder was Morgan, relatively mended and thankfully in one piece. A realization hit him: if Morgan hadn't acted at the last second the way he did, Niko would've been in an even worse state.. or dead. The brunette nodded to their righteous new Captain, murmuring a short "thanks", and started moving. His legs were shaky at first, and a sudden dizziness threatened to throw him right back to the ground. 'Oh like hell.' Keeping himself balanced against White for only a few seconds, the Navigator fought past all that nonsense and picked up speed to match White's own. His hands were grasping at the all-too familiar feel of the handles of his daggers.

"Stick to the alleyways," there was a small wince following the sharp pain of even talking, "Hopefully it can't get us there. We gotta head for the Base..."

He didn't even know where that monolithic horror was right now, and he didn't particularly care to look. What did catch the Navigator's attention was the sight of, off in the distance, Nightmares battling against the tremendous invaders.

"Could we get them to help us..?" Hardly likely. In any other case Niko would've scoffed at his own thought, but at this point he was willing to blurt out anything on his mind, while he still had the chance to.