183 Near Disasters

[cal_sitter]

[New York City rarely lies in true darkness, and this is true of the city as Niko dreams it. The lights of Manhattan shine below him by the thousands. Millions more are aglow beyond the portion of the island visible through the tinted penthouse windows. Artificial illumination inverts the night sky, blocking the natural stars from view and

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[71_chevelle]

Bobby's not sure where he is, that's the first sign that this ain't somethin' normal goin' on. Still, he walks around looking for some sort of landmark, or a familiar face.

[cal_sitter]

What he gets is a body being thrown through the window of a bar. The wings strike the wall across the street first and shatter with an audible series of cracks, and then the peri drops to the sidewalk, drawing his last breaths before the puck, already dead, is thrown after.

[71_chevelle]

"What in th' name of Christ!?"

Bobby spares a glance at the mangled and bloody bodies, vaguely recognizing one as the new resident of Niko's place. Whatever was going on, it wasn't good, an' there was a good chance someone he knew was part of it. Another glance at the puck told Bobby he was far beyond help - and whatever did that to him was strong and angry.

Cautiously, unsure if Niko or his brother are in trouble, or if they're the cause of the carnage, he moves to the side of the bar and a side door. he knows better than to walk in where someone was thrown out.

He enters, and heads toward the main room.

[cal_sitter]

All of the patrons are dead, as well as the peri staff, their wings now visible and mangled. At the back of the room, draped over the bar's counter, is the body of a woman. Promise was ripped apart, and a handful of her pearls is scattered and bloody on the floor beneath her dangling feet.

There's movement in a corner, a slight body, pale-skinned, with gossamer hair, gleaming red eyes, and serrated teeth that reflect the bar in their metallic surface when the creature smiles. It drags something forward: Niko, bleeding and weaponless. Another of the creatures laughs from the shadows, and young man with the same pallid skin but dark hair and eyes as grey as Niko's throws himself against the monster's restraining hold, spitting words at it that sound like glass against the ears.

[71_chevelle]

Bobby was used to a certain amount of carnage, but this was testing even his limits. Especially the woman on the bar. There was something that kept drawing his eye to her, like she'd been singled out. With a trained eye, he realized that she'd probably been alive for most of the damage.

There were demons that would draw the line at this.

He turns to see the thing dragging Niko. It had to be one of those Auphe things, had to be. He was weaponless - but he couldn't just let the thing do to Niko what it did to that poor woman.

"Hey!"

[cal_sitter]

The Auphe pause for a swift examination of the newcomer, delight evident in their eyes. It's enough of a distraction for Niko to grab hold of the nearest impromptu weapon, a shard of broken glass, and open the one holding him from groin to chest. Through a throat hoarse from shouting, he forces one word.

"Run."

Then all hell breaks loose as a dozen more Auphe surge out of the shadows to bring Niko down before he can kill the ones holding his brother captive. One falls immediately, a second is badly wounded, but the third catches Niko's arm and twists until it snaps.

[71_chevelle]

He had no idea where the others came from, but he didn't have time to wonder. He turned, but not to run, to look for a weapon. With the brief encounter he'd just seen, he had few illusions, but if he was enough of a distraction it might be just enough for Niko to get his brother out...and maybe for his brother to get him.

He doesn't get far, almost as soon as he turns, he's grabbed by those things, those Auphe, and turned to face Niko. Whatever's about to happen, it's evident he's meant to watch.

[ooc: And I'm off for the night. Happy carnage!]

[cal_sitter]

The gate that forms behind Niko releases the stink of sulfur into the room. Shimmering with putrid grey light at its edges, the passage opens onto a barren world with the yellow skies that precede a storm. That gate's manifestation prompts the first intelligible words from Cal since Bobby entered the dream.

"No. Fuck no."

A moment later, Cal is loose, and there are more Auphe dead than fighting. The younger brother breaks the neck of the one holding Niko, almost twisting its head off, and shoves his brother at Bobby. Even in a dream, Niko's little brother is foolish enough to think that Niko can survive without him. "Last train out of here. You'd better take it. Sorry, Cyrano. You tried, but you're just not good enough."

[71_chevelle]

Bobby catches the injured Niko before he can hit the floor and for a brief instant just stares at the carnage Cal's left in just, what, a few seconds?

He begins to drag Niko back to the door he entered through as a voice in the back of his mind begins to insist - loudly - that something doesn't make sense. He ignore it for now, calling out to Cal.

"Get out, Cal!"

[cal_sitter]

Niko throws Bobby off, snarling his own curse and pushing to reach Cal before the remaining Auphe can drag his brother through the gate to Tumulus. He's stopped not by the older, not by the monsters snapping their teeth at his brother, but by a woman who strolls into the room, trailing the smell of burned flesh and hair though there's not a mark on her. Sophia puts a hand against her oldest son's chest, and though she's a small, fragile-looking woman withered by time and alcohol, the mockingly gentle touch is enough to hold Niko in place. "I told you. Your brother's a monster. You didn't pay up. You don't get to keep the freakshow."

Then she shoves him backwards, into Bobby, knocking them both through the broken window of Ninth Circle, onto the street, an instant before the bar ignites.

[71_chevelle]

Bobby barely has time to wonder who the the frail woman was before she hurls them through the already shattered window. He lands with a jolt. "What th' hell is this, some kinda night - "

And there it is. That familiar sensation of not-quite-real that came from wandering in someone's dream. He looks at Niko just as the bar explodes into flames.

[cal_sitter]

Niko coughs and rolls up to his knees. They've fallen near the bodies of Robin and Ishiah. When his gaze strays to their limp forms, Niko freezes, then sags back down as his will leaves him. "Give me your knife, Bobby," he says, accepting the other man's presence without question as part of the dream.

[71_chevelle]

Bobby knows that look - he'd seen it plastered on Dean's face, sitting next to Sam's body. And there was no way in hell he was handing over a knife to someone who looked like that. Besides...

"This ain't real, Niko. It's a dream. Yer dreamin'."

[cal_sitter]

"It's not ending where it should. I think you've changed it." The younger man struggles halfway to his feet. "Now give me your knife." As though there should be no doubt that Bobby has one. There should always be a knife if the Auphe haven't killed Niko first.

[71_chevelle]

"Niko, kid, ya gotta wake up. You're brother's there, alive. An' that crazy guy over there." Bobby motions at the puck's corpse. "Last I heard he was still bitchin' about paying off that impressive bar tab 'o' his."

Bobby's not sure where he got the knife, since he's sure he didn't have it when this dream started - but he clenches his fist around it. "Ain't lettin' you do somethin' stupid, Niko."

He couldn't take the chance of something happenin' here affecting the real world.

[cal_sitter]

"Putting me back together isn't your job." He's upright now. In the sunlight on the sidewalk, the extent of his injuries becomes apparent. The Auphe tortured him after they brought him down, for the benefit of the effects on his brother.