[center][h3]Nick Waller[/h3]
[hr]
[/center]

Nick was by no means surprised that the Mirror Dakota didn't accept his reasoning. However, the fact that their problems were physical in nature rather than mental or emotional was a big hint as to what those troubles were. He didn't appear physically disabled in any immediately noticeable way, so it was probably some sort of medical condition or disease that didn't present outwardly visible symptoms. Of course, that left about seven fucktillion different things that it could be anyway, but Nick wasn't all that concerned about the details right now, on account of the violence being inflicted on Mirror Dakota by their giant walking punching dispenser. 

Honestly, that was really satisfying to watch. Nothing against Dakota Prime, but the Mirror version was a dickhead, so this was fine. Dakota Prime taking up arms against his Mirror Entity was a bit unexpected, but hey, fight the power, right? Nick was about to hype himself up to get a follow-up in when he saw the Mirror Dakota grab the swinging mic stand with a single hand and stop it with little difficulty. That definitely killed the mood for him, Nick stopping and watching in a mixture of confusion, fear, and existential [i]dread[/i] as the Mirror Dakota surged forward, choking the Prime with a [i]motherfucking eagle talon[/i]!

The Mirror Monster turned to them as it manhandled the real Dakota without a care in the world, lecturing them on why Dakota was apparently a whiny baby or something. To be quite honest, Nick wasn't exactly 100% focusing on the words coming out of the Eagle Monster Dude's mouth, instead trying to comprehend the transformation. Watching the prison guards, faceless beings for all intents and purposes, transform was one thing, but to see a doppelganger of their companion partially transform into a monster was digging further into Nick's already-fragile mental state. For a moment, he just...stood there, processing the information in front of him. 

It was about the time that Dakota started talking back that his brain was roughly rebooted, and Nick realized that he definitely missed some Tragic Backstory Material (TM), what with Dakota refuting the idea that he was using Nick and Vincent. Using them for what exactly? To feel better about himself for being a Nice Guy? For some sort of protection because of his problem (Nick vaguely recalled hearing something about a lung in there)? 

Nah, not important. What was important was Dakota getting yeeted back over by the big guy, and Nick responded by quickly dashing to them and offering a hand alongside Vincent. Once Dakota was up and they were able to watch the thing's further transformation, Nick forced himself not to think about exactly what the fuck was going on around him right now, and focus on surviving it. 

Dakota called out the lighting fixtures forced Nick to look at the thing and really take it in. Feline legs (Nick was enough of a cat lover to tell that much), feathered body, talons, wings, and a tail. It was like a Gryffon. A fucking mythical creature. Like the Cerberus they'd seen before. Ironically, that actually made this easier to comprehend than the weird lion-wheel things. His brain could categorize this as a fantasy creature he was familiar with. 

Taking a moment to follow Vincent towards the back of the stage, he saw the larger man grab a mic with a long cord. Getting the idea, Nick decided to do the exact opposite and grab a guitar that he could use to put a little distance between himself and the creature. Running back to Dakota, Nick gave his fellow student a nod. 

"I think the big guy's got a plan. Let's, uh...let's not die." 

Not his best work, really, but uh. Brain no do word good, alright?