Catalysts: IC (Oh the thread is slowly dying...)

Steph patted his shoulder, sliding her hand around his shoulders. "You've done a lot to help, you should let others help you for a while." She casually wiped the spots of blood away with her bare toes. "I'll find Bloom, have her fix you up, okay?"

Nox called out for help. This godforsaken basement. Terrible. The lights would go out soon, and god knows what he'd see. He pulled out something one should always carry: a lighter, he flicked it on. Little lights.

"No! No.. I'm fine.. It's.. It's kinda CUZ of her my lungs are having trouble.. You remember that uh Nox guy right..?" He leaned in close for this bit whispering. "He was dead.. We brought him back to life.."

He looked at Aeron and smirked.

"Y'hear that boy? I managed to help bring someone back from the DEAD."

Nix began screaming hysterically. Soon the lights would go out. He didn't want to face the demons. Evil, intangible, sanity destroying demons. The lights flickered a little. Nox screamed even louder, even injuring his throat. Now, with each renewed scream droplets of blood struck the carpet.

"I *AM* the dead." Aeron spat some blood himself. It was actually running down his teeth. His body was regenerating, slowly, very slowly. His bones were all fine, obviously. His muscles were slowly repairing themselves. He wouldn't really be going anywhere anytime soon.

Steph stood beside Aeron for a few moments. "Thank you, for what you did there. I mean, that must've taken a lot of guts and all. I really appreciate it." Touching his shoulder, she slowly left the room to begin exploring her new home. Best to become familiar with the place and pick out a spot before it was claimed after all.

He stood up and looked at Aeron, pouring in a bit more energy to speed the regeneration process. He walked to the doorway and stopped, turning his head back and gritting his teeth.

"Thank you. What you did was both defensive and.. Well.. To be honest.. Awe inspiring. I'm sorry your body's in this condition, we'll try to fix you up as soon as possible."

He walked out and started to pick at the shards of glass in his arm. Pesky damn things, plus a small bit of shrapnel attached to his forearm. Damnit all..

The lights flickered again, and this time stayed off. On the far side of the room, Nox saw the familiar orange eyes. Why now? Of all times! He curled up into a ball and began to cry. That mixed with screams of fear. He tightly closed his eyes. The darkness began to burn at him in an oh so familiar sensation. His eyes reddened once more...

Steph spotted a room that looked decent enough. Taking her jacket off, she left it on the doorknob and returned to the main section of the Plaza, where he was removing bits of glass from his arm. "Here, let me." She carefully took hold of the shrapnel and used the same technique as before on her own shoulder, though this time taking more care to bring it out slowly.

He winced but got used to the pain. He had to hold himself up and breathed a bit heavily wincing. He hadn't slept in quite some time, and it was a miracle he could stay awake, but still he kept on. He smiled at her and his eyes widened.

Fuck.. Oh fuck.. What if she finds the serum? Or my dossier?! I haven't even gone through it myself..

Ray somewhat followed them to the metro tunnel, but didn't go in. He didn't exactly like tunnels, wormholes, or stuff like that. He chuckled to himself and walked away. "La la li da di. I wonder when they are going to notice the guy in the ruins." He said as he inspected the piece of stonework that had fallen on the entrance. Well... I suppose... What the hell is he screaming for? Oh wait. He is kinda trapped in a cave of sorts. "What to do what to do..." Can't mve the stone... Ummm... I have a flashlight, but how do I get it in there... God this is a weird situation.

Steph looked at the wounds for a moment. Opening her mouth, two thin fangs protruded from her jaw. Cupping her hand under the tips, she slowly let a clear fluid drip from them into a small pool in her hand. "This is the painkiller solution. It'll be most effective if I pour it right into the bloodstream, but only if you want me to."

Nox grabbed his lighter and a box of paper. He lit the paper on fire. He needed light. He found the blocked exit again. He pushed against the hard rock, hearing the footsteps behind him getting nearer. He could hear a dissonant ringing in his ears now. He flushed with all his power, and the rubble finally shifted. He scrambled through the tiny hole and ran to the metro. There, he walked into his room without a word and collapsed on the cot.

He nodded, smiling. He tipped her hand slowly to pour the painkiller solution into his bloodstream and winced. He heard someone run in and turned quickly noticing Nox.

"My poor brother... He's gone insane at this point.. Oh well... C'mere you cute little snake.. This is private enough.."

He leaned forward and kissed her again, wrapping his arms swiftly around her back.

Hidden away in the back of a department store, a small blue slime creature was hard at work. With the blinds drawn and the door having stayed locked for days, no-one was likely to find it. Besides, the apartment's occupant was still in the hospital.

Or at least, that's what everyone had thought. After getting a pad of paper, Rodney had drawn the slime and switched places with it, then summoned himself and left his doppelgänger on the bed. He'd then slipped out through the drain and snuck back to his apartment under cover of darkness. Since then, he had been busy drawing one thing and one thing alone, nearly without stopping, on the canvas that now took up most of one wall. This was a set of three life-size full-body nude portraits of himself, referenced from dozens of photos and rendered to the best of Rodney's artistic ability - which was pretty damn well.

But this version had some changes. This version was just subtly better-proportioned, with those little tiny faults about yourself that nobody else consciously notices taken out, some more symmetry, a better figure, a better tan, etc. All the little vanities that added up to make Rodney look considerably better than he used to; the painting could probably make a magazine cover if it were done in a better pose.

Right next to the painting, on a set of outlines that mirrored the three portraits, were a new set of full-body tattoos. But these weren't normal tattoos. They were odd and esoteric, like a handgun (not a very stylized rendering, but a schematic), a riot shield, body armor, a truly disturbing goo monster, a bear, and a Rottweiler, among other things.

And it was almost done.

Nox grabbed a calligraphy pen. He blacked out. What had really happened was that he had stabbed himself in the arm with the pen, and written on the walls and in his journal with his own blood. One phrase. I have seen him, and he knows me. I fear I shall not wake.

Steph returned the embrace briefly. She leaned back to take the chance to speak. "I still feel... nervous in public. But uh, this is... great." She kissed him back, using her free hand to nudge one of the snakes away from him. How quaint, in just a few hours, she'd gone from total loser to hot shot's girlfriend.

Aeron was alone. Despite this he spoke to the air quietly. Perhaps it was his brain trying to be less active. "I'm just gonna... Sleep now or something..." He then passed out again. It would be a while before he awoke.

He noticed the snake and chuckled in his mind, opening his mouth and parting her lips slightly; it occured to her that he was almost blind to his actions and all this was on instinct and what he had seen in his sappy movies on the system in the "living quarters".

"Well I guess that means he doesn't need the flashlight. He must've been scared to death too." He chuckled too and looked up, the sky... it was moving. Far faster than it should be. He for the first time so far took off his amazing shades. Bees. That's weird. He went back to the where the metro tunnel was, seeing the guy scramble into the tunnel. "Let's see where this goes eh?"

Steph enjoyed every moment of it. Still, she couldn't ignore the unsettling feeling of doing so in an open area. "I know somewhere more private..." Her snakes promptly settled back down as she willed them to. "Since you seemed to like the feeling of my scales and all."

He grasped her hand and nodded for her to lead on to where she felt was a more private area. He knew Aran would no doubt be walking about the base anyways, so he smiled.

"Lead on then.. I'm interesting in what you're talking about.."

Steph smiled as he guided him back to the room she had picked out. Leaving her jacket on the doorknob, she closed it promptly behind him, before kissing him once more. "Well, I think for someone I've known for just hours, we've gotten quite close, that tells me a lot really."

He followed suit, his mind half empty, acting more than speaking. He returned the kiss and smiled at her raising an eyebrow.

"Oh? What does it say to you then, hm my Medusa?"

He stroked her gothic shirt playfully and laughed, almost in a drunken state.

Sitting down on the bed, she stared at the wall directly in front of her for several moments. "I'm sure you can work it out. I mean, what better way to celebrate the first victory of survival, than getting to know each other?" She narrowed her eyes at him teasingly.