[quote=@LuckyBlackCat][color=ff4f61]"Y'know Fluke, less talking and more doing would be nice!"[/color][/quote] [color=B6C6AB]"I'm doing!"[/color] Fluke protested. [color=B6C6AB]"I'm watching your back! You're welcome."[/color] [quote=@drewccapp][color=pink]"Uh... guys... Ruski has become a, uh, host for a Nox."[/color][/quote] [color=B6C6AB]"Whoa, is that what the mass panic's about?"[/color] Fluke hopped down from the weapons chest and began to meander through the running, screaming, shouting crowd, like a raging sea of billowing bright robes and fear-stricken faces. The sound of stampeding feet echoed in the square. [color=B6C6AB]"I gotta see this!"[/color] Behind him, Archer straightened her posture. She watched the fleeing people with a glassy shine in her helmet's eyes, like a deer that had spied a wolf, but she did not interfere. Not yet. [quote=@Grey Omen]Cedar moved closer to the body, motioning to shoo the armadillo away from it.[/quote] The armadillo jumped backward, wiggled angrily at Cedar's hand, then scuttled haughtily away through a cracked hole in the wall. What was left beneath Cedar's feet was a slightly misshapen form beneath the soil: a young man with a black ring on his finger, wearing the orange wrapped robes of the reservoir healers. His brown skin was cold. [quote=@drewccapp]She aimed for his mouth as she tearfully struck forth hoping she could end the Nox without ending Ruskali with it.[/quote] Ruskali reached for Listener like a man dying of thirst in the desert, while black ooze bubbled out of his throat and began to gnash bright teeth of its own. A wide perimeter had grown around them, littered with paper and food wrappers, while along the walls the people fled stumbling, their eyes averted from the horrific sight of a Nox being born-- Listener's shaking reluctance gave the Nox time to shift nearly out of the way, jammed against the roof of Ruskali's mouth like oily black taffy-- but the spear struck a quick long gash into the Nox and triggered a bright white flash like lightning inside Ruskali's throat: it shone in his eyes and glowed haunting beneath his skin for only an instant while the Nox screeched like a tortured cat. The ragged, tattered, injured Nox fled like torn paper out of Ruskali's mouth, desperate to get away from the fading light of Listener's spear, and it swirled over Ruskali's head in blind confusion-- [quote=@LuckyBlackCat][color=ff4f61]"Cover your eyes everyone!"[/color] she yelled at the top of her lungs, before bracing for recoil and firing.[/quote] The projectile thudded into the soil and [i]burst[/i] with a bright explosion of light that blinded the entire square. A few straggling passersby shrieked and ducked their heads under their arms while the Nox howled a long, low death cry into the white-blinding light. [quote=@Plank Sinatra]Iris reflexively lifted up one hand over her eyes, feeling the cool texture of her mask against her skin. She almost [i]felt[/i], rather than saw, the resulting muzzle flash from Steel Rose's weapon going off, but from her height above the rest of the team she wasn't as affected by the blinding light of her teammate's energy blast;[/quote] When the light cleared, all that was left of the Nox was a shimmer of dark smoke that dissipated into the air. Listener had nearly killed it, and Rose's flash had struck the destroying blow. Iris, from her vantage point, might see a shock of orange cloth in the alley, where Cedar and Rose had left the young man's body: the same color of the hooded figure from the roof. [quote=@Grey Omen]Dimly he was aware of Iris above them, but the issue that caught his attention more was Listener's clear reluctance to risk harming Ruskali. He didn't blame her, but he still moved closer, taking a combative stance as his vision readjusted slightly from the shot.[/quote] Ruskali was not dead. His eyes clouded haunting gray. Black and red mucus dribbled from the corner of his mouth and snagged in his scraggled beard. Tears leaked from his hollow eyes, and he sobbed quietly... ...then suddenly bared his teeth, his eyes widened in terror and fury as he saw Cedar's mask. Ruskali screeched a horrible manic noise and flung himself at Cedar, his thin hands striking at Cedar's throat with deadly intent to crush his windpipe in his grip.