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As he walked towards the group, he smoothed his hair back and straightened his tie while making a mental note to try to put each name with a face. As the businessman knew, first impressions were important for doing business.
"Mr. McClellan?" said Mr. Carter as he raised his arm for a hand shake. He also squinted his eyes slightly to make his smile appear genuine (psychology in action!). "Excellent. I'm glad to see you got everyone else in our group."
He turned his attention toward the teenager. Extending a hand, he bent forward ever so slightly and asked her, "And who might you be? Are you Ms. Harris or Ms. Sparks?"
"I guess we just wait for the 'parent' now." He said, sitting down.
"No need to wait." Called a voice. "Good to meet all of you, name's Nick." A rush of wind flew by the party. "First time seeing humans, so excited."
"Sentence fragments..." Desoto mumbled.
Nick suddenly appeared in front of the group. "Name's Nick Eckleburg. A pleasure." He said giving a slightly theatrical tilt of his fedora. "I've read up all your reports, looks like we've got some bad karma in the mix..oh well, that just opens up some new interesting things.. and makes things more interesting for me.." he grinned. "ALl right, first thing's first.. we need to get you all out of Crowley... don't ask questions, do what I say, and you'll stay alive long enough to get some food." He said as he seemed to be hopping around. "Ready? Here's a compass, if you get separated from me, just head where it points, it'll lead you to Ecklesax." Nick did not stop for questions, instead, he simply ran off. For a man wearing a suit, he was incredibly fast.
Desoto shrugged and began running. He wasn't a particularly fast guy but he read Nick's expressions and found out which way he would take off in, and already began running before Nick could finish.
Desoto exited the room throuugh a small, hatch-like door and found himself on a bridge-like walkway overcoated in glass. He looked down into the courtyard below and saw that those who had been deemed too sick were brought to a courtyard and killed. What surprised him more, however, was that they did not kill with guns, but by releasing beast-like creatures at the poor humans and having them ripped apart.
Desoto did not think long at this, he was horrified, but the words of Nick seemed urgent. He simply continued running.
She paused a moment as she saw the people below. ". . ." She looked away and started running again.
He ran after Nick and the other two, taking note of the beasts devouring the sickly. "Efficient, I suppose. Yet rather gruesome, if you ask me," he thought. "These Necros folks must not think too highly of us. Making it here might be a bit harder than I assumed."
Upon hearing that this new arrival, Nick, was their 'parent', Kiyoshi turned his attention away from George and moved to shake hands with Nick. However, as soon as Kiyoshi began his approach, a compass was shoved into his hands, and Nick ran off. Kiyoshi blinked, but suddenly he was one of the few who hadn't given chase. Not wanting to get separated from his new friends, Kiyoshi ran after the group.
"I wonder why we must run. Kiyoshi pondered, but then the scene below caught his eye, unfortunately. He slowed for a bit a watched the brutality unfold, utterly horrified. He covered his mouth and tore his vision away form the violence, shaking his head and running after Nick with renewed vigor, "Is that why we must run? I fear I may have been too optimistic about this land."
Nick soon led the others to the second building, through this building, Nick began running through many twisting tunnels before coming to a side door and stopping. He waited for everyone else to catch up.
"Once we exit this door, we'll be in the city of Crowley.. the citizens of Crowley have heard of your arrival and a lot of them aren't too happy about humans being back in our world.. A lot of them may try to kill you before you even get out of Crowley.. I'm here to help you make sure they don't." Nick said as he opened the door, leading to a fire escape on the side of the building.
Desoto eventually caught up and looked outside, he hadn't seen much of it due to his attention being caught by the execution earlier, but now that he looked outside, he saw just how large Crowley was. Buildings were strewn about everywhere with highways above and below ground intertwining through them. In the distance was a large skyscraper that easily trumped even the Patronas towers if they were stacked atop one another.
Nick began zooming down the fire escape, leaving the others to follow him.
Desoto heard a voice call down the hallway, it sounded like a mob. "Find all the earthlings! kill them all!" The angry voice screamed, backed up by dozens of shouts.
Desoto began climbing down very quickly.
"The subways!" Nick called back. "We should be more safe there as we head back to Ecklesax..The humans who survive this trial are the ones who are cut out to be in our world.. I'm going to make sure you all are among that group." He called back.
Nick eventually ran past a pole and hung on, swinging around in a near 180 degrees so that he could head down a flight of stairs that lead to the Crowley underground.
Desoto hopped the gratings on the other side of the staircase and landed, taking off after Nick.
((since the other posts are almost certain to just be running, I'll throw something else in))
As the party continued running, they came across an abandoned subway train. "You all are lucky.." Nick said, catching his breath. "they don't figure you'd take a subway.. so all the hunters are above ground..." Nick took off toward the front of the train. "Get on." He advised the others.
"DON'T THINK THEY'RE ALL UP ABOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!" Screamed a voice.
"Oh crap." Nick said. "Brace yourselves.."
Out of one of the doors on the train crawled a snake-like creature. It measured at about 15 feet long and 2 feet in thickness. However, halfway up the body, the snake-similarities ended and a humanoid body grew. The arms however, were very spindly, long, and clawed, and the face looked skeletal with a jaw that seemed almost unhinged. "DIE HUMANS!!!!!!!" The creature screamed, nearly blowing the party away with its voice.
"THIS IS BAD!" Nick said as he re-met with the party... "I wouldn't suppose anyone here knows some holy mantras..." Nick looked back at the group for aid. "I could use some to help go against this thing.. though any help would be nice..."
The snake-creature slung it's tail around to whip the party, throwing many of them aside and into the wall with some force.
"Good job kid!" Nick shouted as he dodged the snake's tail. "I'd advis you don't get too close to it's head though!"
His words were falling upon deaf ears however, as due to the snake screaming, all other noise was being canceled out. The snake sent a quick punch sailing into Ramona, which, in order to prevent her from clinging on, the snake sent it's punch into the wall as well, hoping to crush Ramona's spine against the sides of the subway station.
"FEAR!!!" The snake shouted so as to demoralize the party, the blood-curdling shriek echoed throughout the station. "Doctor.... got any syringes of adrenaline?" Nick asked as the sound wore off.
The snake slowly approached Ramona, it's mouth hung wide open in preparation to eat the now demoralized girl.
He reached inside a procured his faithful o-juzu, a string of 108 beads used during his prayers. "Holy Mantra...I think I know just the one." Kiyoshi took up his o-juzu, ready to begin his chant. Kiyoshi tried to shout over the cries of the beast, "Everyone, focus on The Buddha and chant these words: Namu Amida Butsu!" Kiyoshi tried to fall into his meditative state, tried to surround himself in thoughts of Buddha and the Pure Land. He began chanting, "Namu Amida Butsu" turning a bead in his o-juzu with each chant. His chanting was more like shouting, though. In case no one else joined him in his chant, ten he would chant loud enough for them all!
...And, at the very least, maybe it would distract the beast from eating Ramona.
Immediatelly the change took place. He was rid of fear, pain, joy, he was ready for the fight. "Capoeria, 6 Dan." he said. Immediatelly he launched himself at the snake, launching a spinning aerial kick at the monster's head before it could get close to Ramona. He landed on his feet, arms raised to half level, dancing on the balls of his feet. "Well then, the fight begins."
"Hoo-boy," thought Mr. Carter. He was rather intimidated by the creature, and the noise wasn't helping him think. "Wait, that's it!" he thought. Mr. Carter rushed over to the praying man and woman. "What were their names? Kiyoshi, and. . . Judy, that's it." He thought.
"Kiyoshi!" He shouted, placing a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. "We have to get it to stop screaming! We need to get it to choke on something!" As he shouted, he pointed at the monster and made the choking signal, just incase he didn't hear. "You tell Alexander while I try to distract the thing!" He turned to Judy, "Get Ramona out of there!"
He began walking towards the beast. "I might not be a good fighter," he thought, "but I bet I can land a couple good blows on it with my briefcase before we figure out a way to choke it."
Nick however, was fast enough to get Damien's cyanide syringe and rush along the monster's side for a weak spot before jamming the syringe into it and pushing the plunger.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" The monster screamed, temporarily deafening everyone present.
Desoto covered his ears, he could not do much, so he began to search the train and try to figure out how to operate the thing. Miguel was a mechanic and a car-thief for a living and he had learned a few things about hotwiring from his friend. "Lucky" Desoto murmured as he began to tool around with the subway train's wires.
The snake meanwhile, began to not look so hot. The cyanide had begun taking effect and made the creatures movements uncoordinated. In addition, the chant began to make it's actions feel weaker. "All right, let's confuse it a bit more." Nick said as he began dashing around the creature, causing after-images of himself to appear.
"Alexander, was it? Give that thing a good couple of kicks and finish it!" Nick yelled at Alexander at each rotation by him, he used body language as well so that hopefully, the message would be conveyed.
He leaped into the air, aiming a spinning kick at it's head, followed by an axe kick on the way down. The snake was large, but he was relying on it's weight to be it's eventual downfall, and aimed the kicks for the soft spots on the skull, or more accurately, where he thought they would be.
Nick panted. "Good job, guys.." He said as he hurried onto the train.
As soon as the party had loaded up, Desoto finished tinkering with the train and was able to get it running. Nick made his way to the front and helped guide the train to A station a good bit away from Crowley.
"Here we are, Ecklesax station." Nick said as he departed. The town before the party was fairly large, not nearly as large as Crowley, of course, however, this town had atmosphere. The sky was a dark hue above it and all the lights of the town were red. "I'll take you to a good place to eat." Nick said as he guided the party to a large metallic bean-like structure. "Here we are." Nick said as he entered the structure.
"Welcome back, Mr. Eckleburg." The hostess said as Nick entered, I'll bring you right to your table.
Nick and the party were led to a small table and were all seated. "We'll be right with you all." the waitress said as she walked off to tend to other guests.
"All right." Nick began calmly. "Now that we're absolutely in the clear for a while. questions."