Netherworld

Suke

The teenage looked around at the others. Let's see what I've got to deal with. Perky girl. Annoying but seems harmless. Japanese man. Even more harmless. Seems friendly. The one who held up the sign seems friendly. He could be the boss type. I don't like the odd looking one with the scrubs. She paid close attention to the items he placed on the rock from his pocket. She also studied the man's mannerisms and expressions. Not a well man. I'll watch out for him. She looked at the man who suddenly walked over, and her eyes automatically filled with disgust. those piercings, tatoos everywhere, the close, and that hair? Oh no. Why did he give me that look. I'm definetly going to keep an eye on this one. I've still got my reproductive organs, so he's probably still got his. She gave the whole room, and the other members of the group one last look over, and sighed. Why me? "So...Where's this 'parent'?"

GORN

"Finally," thought Mr. Carter. "It seems everyone got done with the screening before I did. Now, what's this?" he thought as he looked at the board. "So. It would appear that they've made my friends for me. Well," he mused to himself as he scanned the room and found Desoto's sign, "I suppose I should get to know them."
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?"

Khan

"Hi! She's Ramona, I'm Judy. Nice to meet you." She shook his outstretched hand vigorously. "He seems nice. And that Damien fellow seems tolerable. This turned out to be a pretty good group." She had not yet seen George.

GORN

Taken aback for a moment, Mr. Carter quickly regained his composure. "Charmed," he said. "Mr. Kimura?" he said as he turned towards the Asian man that had his arm in Judy's death-grip. "A pleasure," he said as he extended his hand, not knowing if he should bow instead of giving a hand shake.

LordBlah

"Did I overhear Judy and Ramona? It seems I am paired with these comrades." Said Alexander, approaching the group upon hearing Judy's comment. He was still a bit newvous, but was glad to find the rest of his group at least slightly normal. He relaxed a bit more, and put his headphones back into one of his many pockets in his coat. He noticed it wasn't nearly as cold as he normally was back in the alley, but he ignored it for now, and simply unbuttoned his coat. It had far too many important things in there to take it off now.

envydei

Desoto seemed to ignore the new arrivals as they appeared, instead looking at what the other groups were doing. Most of them had been approached by a person that didn't look quite human and were being guided off.

"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.

Khan

Judy shrugged. "Let's go!" She let go of Kiyoshi and ran after the others.

She paused a moment as she saw the people below. ". . ." She looked away and started running again.

GORN

"How odd," thought Mr. Carter. "Well, I guess business will have to wait."
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."

Suke

Ramona probably was the last one to start moving, except for maybe George. She sighed and began running in the direction of the others. As she passed the bodies, she paid it no attention, only looking forward.

Oushi

Kiyoshi was having a good time introducing himself and shaking hands with everyone, he seemed to be making friends, and there was only one person left who he'd yet to address, a troubled looking young man in black who'd yet to say a word. "Maybe he's scared, poor boy." Kiyoshi looked sympathetically at George and began to approach, but a sudden gust of wind and a new voice distracted Kiyoshi from his mission of kindness.

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."

Clix

George watched Nick prance around. Is everyone here in custom or something? Seriously, what terrible theme park did I wake up in? George still didn't know he was no longer in "Kansas." Before the bastard could make more notes about his new comrades, he noticed that Nick started to run. Now we're racing? Damn, how lousy is this park? George just stood there for a minute until he noticed that everyone else gave chase. Wonder if I should follow. I still need to get some crack from the Mex. If anything, George could use a good run. Even though he was the last to follow, George soon caught up with the others and surpassed most of them.

LordBlah

Alexander ran close to the others, keeping up a good pace. He was surprised to see the sickly being executed along the way, but he was so deadened to the violence that he just saw it as a passing spectacle. He kept on running.

envydei

Desoto kept on running as the others past by him.

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.

Suke

Ramona climbed down right after Desoto, talking note of the hugeness of the city. She scoffed to herself when she heard the shouts and screams of the people of Crowley.

GORN

"Extraordinary," thought Mr. Carter as he climbed down after the others. "This city. . ." his thought was cut short be the sounds of the mob. "Hm," he thought as a slight frown came across his face. He quickened his pace.

Bolts

After he had checked his supplies, Damien acknowledged Kiyoshi's existance with a returned hand shake. "Bloody hell did I get stuck with a friendly crowd?...." The vet sat in silence as their guide arrived, thrusting compasses into their hands. For what reason he didn't have the slightest clue though he followed either way. When the group finally reached the fire escape, Damien was beginning to questions dear old nick's leadership skills. That is until he caught wind of the angry mob approaching their rear. Having been the last to hear the death threats, Damien was the last one down the fire escape and thus the closest to the mob. "Oh for the love of our planets dead god can you people run any faster!?"

envydei

Nick was the first off of the fire escape, and he began running through the streets of Crowley. Desoto followed, looking uot to the main streets through the alleyways, he saw other humans running and screaming, many were being hunted down by beasts of all sorts. "Nick!" Desoto said in a controlled whisper. "Where are we headed!?"

"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.

Suke

Ramona was already prepared when the snake creature barged in. Some kind of snake creature. Not very bright...Have to brace myself... Ramona clenched, but was still studying it's tail as soon as it made the beginning spinal motions signalling that it would whip it's tail. When it's large tail swung at her, bracing for impace, Ramona held on to the beast. While she had successfully grabbed on, the force still got her and she trembled, holding on to the very back on the beast. She was small, and there was plenty of tail for her to crawl on. She shimmied up to it's head. Bus she did so sneakily. Anyone bigger would have been caught before they got that far. Once at the head, she very quickly dug her manecured nails into the snake's eyes and pulling, jumping off quickly and running, being mindful of it's long arms.

envydei

The snake screamed as it lashed around for the offending party.

"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.

Suke

Ramona sat on the ground, in a bit of a fetal posistion. She was trembling, looking up at the beast. She had never felt this feeling before. She was afraid. Was it going to eat her? If this is just a sample of what Necros had to offer, how could she handle it all? A little girl? She couldn't move. The punch didn't crush her spine, but her back was in pain, as well as part of her face, which now had cuts and bruises from the impact with the wall. But that isn't why she couldn't move. She was experiencing fear for the first time, and she didn't like it. All she could do was scream, and she was mad at herself for that too, because at that point, she realized she sounds like a little girl when she screamed.

Oushi

Kiyoshi was slammed against the wall along with some of the others. His body slumped to the ground after the blow, being the peaceful man he was, his body couldn't deal all that well with violence. He crawled his way back up the wall, his legs shaking from the pain and fear. He leaned against the wall to give his body some time to recover. His hands slapped down on his thighs and he suddenly felt a familiar shape inside his pocket.

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.

Bolts

The "Doctor" turned towards Nick with a furrowed brow. "No. I never made it a habit to just carry that sort of thing around." Damien's eyes turned back to the unlucky girl, hands fumbling into his pockets. If he was going to survive in this world he'd at least need as many of them around as he could handle for meat shields. He quickly pulled out the pill bottle of cyanide tablets. The vet then proceeded to pull out the syringe from his coat pocket, dismantling the plunger of the device as quickly as he could. Damien then scooped up what little water he could from a puddle into the syringe before breaking apart three of the deadly tablets into the liquid. After reinserting the plunger and shaking it up thoroughly, Damien tossed the poisonous cyringe towards Nick. "Cyanide! All you should have to do is jam it in him somewhere."

LordBlah

Alexander did his best to take the blow in stride, spinning out of the blow and landing on his feet. He strapped on his gloves and put the familiar headphones on his head. Immediatelly, sound was replaced by melodic, orderly music. He spun the center wheel of the music player, creating a randomized song to appear.
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."

Khan

Judy was one of the last ones to climb down, so she was far enough back to avoid the attack. She could only stand and watch for a while, not really sure what she could do. Finally, she decided to join Kiyoshi. Judy quickly learned the words and began repeating them in unison with the Buddhist, pushing her hands together as if praying.

GORN

"Ohhhh. . ." groaned Mr. Carter as he came to. He felt his head for blood. "Nope," he thought, "no blood. Only a massive headache." He struggled to his feet before looking up. He saw a scared girl, a praying man and woman, a doctor with a syringe, a large man with head phones on in a fighting stance, and a huge snake-thing.
"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."

Clix

George had been the last to get down the ladder. On their way out, George stalled to watch all the sickly being execute. So that's where the Africans were. Content, George finally caught up as the death threats arrived. Come on, I haven't done anything yet. Kill me next week after I've earned this much attention. Like Judy, George avoid the initial tail whip. George watched the battle from the sideline. The boy had no plans to join in. Maybe if I had a chain or something. Overall, the boy couldn't do anything, so he leaned against the wall and decided to chill for now.

envydei

The naga-banshee noticed Carter, it turned away from Ramona, figuring it could eat her at it's leisure later. The beast started approaching the man.

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.

Khan

Judy continued chanting, pressing her hands to her ears to block out some of the noise.

LordBlah

"Affirmative." Alexander closed his eyes, spun the player in his pocket, and reopened them. "Jiujitsu, 5 Dan."

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.

envydei

The snake let out a load roar as it was hit by Alexander, it then promptly fell.

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."