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

He snapped back out; the fuck was happening? He was in a cage..? Bones..? Oh shit. The golem.

"HEY! LET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! C'MON, I PROMISE NOT TO KILL YOU! YOU WON'T LAST OUT THERE Y'KNOW? THE MILITARY'LL FIND YOU. THEY'LL KILL YOU. THEY'LL TEST ON YOU!"

The coughing returned; this was like having pneumonia mixed with fucking TB. Not fun, to say the least, more irritating than damaging as well.

"Fuck you! Like I give a shit! I was better off without you lot." Aeron's bones shot out of his wrists and curved like a onesided pick axe. He plunged them into the ground and pulled himself slightly faster. The unneeded bones all decayed away.

"You're dependant on us now. If you leave, they'll get you; and if they don't, birds will EAT YOUR FLESH. I suggest you come back, release me, and get back on your god damn morphine drip before I get pissed..."

He tried to sit up, with negligible success. He was sitting on the edge of the bed. The glowing orbs were still flying around. We'll be safe, dear. You mustn't get up, you'll hurt yourself. Now look what you've done. Despite what the voice's best intentions, he staggered out into the hall. There was a massive commotion. He staggered towards it. No! It's not safe!

"I don't need you! I don't need your fucking morphine drip! I don't need anyone of you! I'm not dependent on anyone but myself! If you're so strong and powerful, get yourself out!" Aeron yelled. He kind of wished someone would just come and help him up. He hadn't really gotten very far. Couple yards maybe.

He pushed at the bones and sighed, kicking at the "bars" to break loose. Eventually he got free and walked to the hall. Aeron hadn't gotten very far. He hadn't expected him too. He walked forward cautiously and attempted to lift him up. Whether or not he helped was based entirely on Aeron's reaction.

David, you can not go. "But I have to!" You WILL not go. "You're not me!" Am I not? "No!" If you say so. Imagine me as a halo, then. The last shred of reason in your insane little head. "I'm going!" Don't get us killed.

Aeron slapped at Ragnarok. "Don't touch me," he spat, "You've done your damage." he continued to crawl across the floor. It was kind of pathetic, to see him drag himself inch by inch across the floor. The half-picks were helping slightly, but not really as much as Aeron would have hoped.

"I have this strange craving for Pineapples..." Ray said, walking around looking for civilians to question them both about the Abandoned station, and the "Catalysts" as they called themselves. He reached into a portal in search of pineapples. He didn't find any. "Drat." The sun had set some time ago, and Ray was still walking the streets. This meant police officers would be wandering around of course, and with the events that had been occurring recently, this also meant that soldiers would also likely be involved. He continued walking, thinking up a story in case he should run into them.

He came across a group of men, huddled in an alleyway around a burning trash barrel, their hands held out to catch the heat. He got behind them, and listened to what they were talking about. Nothing of any importance to him. He choked on some spittle and hacked some. It had the desired effect as they moved a bit.

"Hello gramps, a little late for you to be out don't you think?" Ray looked at the man, who was scruffy and smelled of booze.

"Yes, out a little later than usual, I lost track of time watching the deaths of some relatively innocent policemen." The men looked back at Ray. "The catalysts, they were calling them."

"Yeah, where you been old man? They've been tearing apart the city for a while now."

"How long exactly?" The fire popped for some time as the men tried to decide on a number. Counting their fingers, and such, they finally had it straight.

"Several Days. Where have you been old man?" Ray thought of a plausible excuse.

"Off of the island, the government is keeping it under wraps pretty good, only heard tales that the city was bombed. Now to come back and find it was. Tis a shame."

The men around the fire nodded, and were silent for some time. "I lost my house in one of the explosions. I just wish they could put an end to this." The group nodded their approval. Ray nodded too.

"I heard they were holed up in one of the old Stations. Anyone know if that's a fact?" The group looked around... no one seemed to be willing to talk though. Ray reached into his "back pocket" and pulled out a wallet. Inside were several of each kind of bill.

"A hundred to each person that gives me information, perhaps?" The group immediately loosened up and told him anything he needed to know. "Good good, here a hundred for you, you, you, you." He nodded his approval, and thanked them for their information. "Don't spend it all on booze, you hear me?" They laughed a bit as the Oldman!Ray walked off.

Some time later, he was spotlighted by a couple of policemen on patrols. He told them his story... but they wanted to see papers. He didn't have any papers...

He was in handcuffs and being walked down the street like some child. Luckily he filched the key off the policeman and dropped it into a portal. They lead him to a police station where he was sat down. They took off his fake beard, his hat, everything. "Best to wait it out I suppose..."

"This is for your own safety old man. Those... would be revolutionaries are tearing up the streets. Killing innocent people." The policeman chuckled slightly and closed the door.

Great... just great. Break out and kill a bunch of people, or slip out somewhere naked. Might as well spend the night here...

"If you calm the hell down one of our group could expenentionally heal you with no limits. You'd just have to wait the hour or so for her to ge-"

Fuck. He remembered that Winter hadn't moved in or anything. She was still bound to that little hovel; had it remained from Aeron's glorious show of murder.

Nox staggered towards the exit. The only way out was through the medical ward. He would have to pass Ragnarok first. He was almost to the medical room door when...
No. Don't go in there.
Fucking lovely. Now it was that voice again. "Piss off! I need to go out!"
Don't yell at yourself like that.
"Myself?"
But of course.

Ragnarok turned, noticing Nox's odd speaking aloud to himself. Practically shouting. He put a hand on him and sighed.

"Calm down Nox, you're tripping again. Just get into the medical bay and rest a little okay?"

"No. I need to go out." He'd been underground for far too long. Far FAR too long. He staggered past Ragnarok and into the medical bay. He recoiled at the crawling man. He looked.. Ruined. He stumbled ours and up the stairs. He roamed the streets until he found the outskirts of the city. He headed out into the forest. He tripped. Your fault, dummy! "SHUT UP!" A man's voice spoke from behind him. "You alright, son?"

Ragnarok couldn't stop Nox; not when he was like that. Nox was insane when he was like this. And seeing as he was almost impossible to stop when he got pissed, Ragnarok decided it was best to let him be. His attention focused on how much of a shamble this place was. Nox was sort of the leader.. So.. Maybe a change in location would be good?

"If they cared they'd have done it already." Aeron mumbled. He gave up on crawling and just rolled onto his back. It was as bad as it had been before. He sighed. He wasn't even sure why he bothered at this point.

"She's not here.. I'm not quite sure WHERE she is. But Steph helped you out when you were passed out damnit, you owe HER at least. Don't be such a pussy. We provide more safety than jumping around on rooftops. I can tell you now, bones are NOT very rocket proof.."

"What?" Nox was confused. He was dizzy and tired and....
A hand clapped on his shoulder. He was spun around and faced with a policeman. He didn't resist. Not much he COULD do. The cop recoiled. He talked into his little portable radio. "Possible positive on David Cady. Found talking to himself. Confirm?"

She sat down on one of the benches, one of her usual 'phased out' sessions taking hold. It didn't concern her much, she wasn't one to antagonise people, therefore no-one would really bother to disturb her daydreaming.

"Have fun escaping. I give up on you."

Ragnarok turned on his heel and walked off in rather a spoiled manner. He was the judge of many people after all; it's like he told Pandora. Too much chaos would lead to someones death but.. maybe this loner thing was a very BALANCED position.

There was unclear chatter on the radio, before the policeman confiscated Nox' weapons and say him in the nearby squad car. He wa in a daze. They ushered him into a room with a doctor. She had a needle. She injected something in his arm. He felt very very sleepy.

Ray thought about his position for a second... they had said Goldman even after they had taken his beard... why would they do that? This troubled him. Either they thought he was some loon, or they thought he was some sort of... well loon. At the moment he didn't look much like The Thief, so he doubted they thought it was him...

The chuckling is what disturbed him most... why did they laugh? He knew the police in this city were not the nicest... but would they harm a man without identification? He knew the answer. If they come in here after him he was going to have to fight. He was not jumping into who knows who is watching naked. And by named he ofciurse meant without a disguise. What sort of police agency would strip their prisoners?

He decided; this Aeron fellow was perfect in his alignment. A balance of chaotic order. He was allowed to live then, for however long his normal life would carry him. He sighed and noticed Pandora snarling.

"Oh, look what the cat dragged in. A crazy fucking bomber putting bombs in our metro; this doesn't seem out of the ordinary at ALL."

He was halfway to the police station when it dawned on him. He had been caught. He was going to jail. Jail jail jail. Back to those damned halls. Was he to be killed? Incarcerated for life? They might even put him in a madhouse. Suddenly, the car lurched to a stop. "We're here."

That evening, after much drawing and self-tattooing, Rodney snuck back out to the old warehouse. The abandoned city was the last place he had seen any of the others - might they have been catalysts? - so that was where he was going to look.

He spent a good hour drawing himself a working motorcycle with a really good muffler, then rode out of the store. The sword psycho had mentioned something about a subway, so that was going to be the best place to start. He found the first station he came across, wheeled his bike down into it, and rode along by the tracks. That way, he figured he wouldn't miss any of the stations. And it paid off; before long, he heard talking coming from one of the stations, so he parked his bike and snuck in as close as he dared.

They put him in a small temporary cell. He felt like a deer in the headlights. But why a temporary cell? Suddenly, a new officer walked in. "You're being shipped to the DC prison." He had seen photos before. It was a massive complex, not so much prison as laboratory. They even had a catalyst program there too. Asylums, even.