Iktomi raised his head slightly to respond to the two hosts that had joined him in cutting Robert down, but he found himself too weak to respond. His vision began to fade slowly, and then all at once. The last thing Iktomi remembered was Arianna's voice before he slumped against the wall, unconscious.

Julian walked over to the man and frowned, "Ay, yulie, you a frienda' his? Brotha's over exherted himself... Looks weak." Arianna frowned lightly and knelt down next to Iktomi. She took his chin and helped prop his head up against the wall so it wasn't bent at an awkward angle. Just in case, she pressed two fingers to his neck to check his pulse. With a sigh of relief, she looked up at the host that approached them. "He's fine. He probably used a lot of spirit to kill the boss." Her eyes darted around the room, wondering which one had been the boss. "My name is Arianna," she said as she stood, eyeing the two hosts. "Yes, I'm a friend of his." At that moment, Ishigo approached the group. He, too, was beyond fatigued, but he hadn't exerted himself nearly as much as Iktomi had before he entered the boss' layer. He leaned against the wall and began to speak between pants:

"He's... ugh... experiencing Hypoanimatic Shock..." he said as he looked down at the pale man. [b][i]He hit stasis pretty hard...[/b][/i] came the voice of Jin, who shared Ishigo's fatigue. Julian raised a brow and looked up at Ishigo. 

"Hypoanimatic Shock? Mind givin' me a refresher, brothah?" he said as he knelt down by Iktomi and Arianna. He had noticed that Iktomi had broken into a cold sweat, and it appeared as if his veins were emitting a distinct, dark purple glow, as they were highly visible through his skin. 

Ishigo nodded, "The kage's refer to it as 'stasis'. According to my kage, Jin, it's basically... well.." he took a moment to analyze what he had just heard from his kage. Crossing his arms and squinting as he focused in on Iktomi, he continued to speak:

"It's a self-induced coma caused by an extreme over-exhertion. When a kage's bond with the host strengthens, there comes a point in which the spirit flows as if the two were actually one. At this point, the host feels a greatly reduced amount of fatigue for using his or her powers. It feels as if the hardest tasks take the most menial amounts of spirit, but that's not exactly what's going on." 

Julian nodded and curled his mouth to the side as he thought about what he just heard. "So it's as if... the kage is the one in most control? Because, I mean, maybe it's like the kage wouldn't feel the same amounta' pain for using 'em powers, aye?" Ishigo nodded at his assumption, "Right. The host feels completely normal, but in reality, their body is being torn up at both the phyiscal and spiritual level. Because once the combat ends, the kage-host bond must return to normal, and that leaves the host with their own individual spirit. It's like the end of a long adrenaline rush - all the pain comes back at once. In this man's case, it was enough to trigger Stasis, in which the... spirit "debt", if I may, was too much for him to handle. At this point, he is a corpse with a trapped, receding ember of a spirit found within. If that spirit manages to survive and regenerate, he will live. But were it to go out - well, regardless of how strong the kage is, this man would die."

Julian's face grew tense and he shot a look towards Iktomi's pale, cold figure. He then looked at Arianna, "What do you suppose we do, then, yulie?"

Arianna moved her gaze from the host that explained "stasis" to Iktomi. She noted how sick he appeared and felt worried. "I need to get him home so he can rest," she said, wondering exactly how she would do that when he was unconscious and Kisheto was injured. She thought about asking the Golden Mercenaries, but she wondered if they'd even bother helping her. Ishigo knelt down slowly, reaching to get a grip on Iktomi's lifeless body, but just then, he heard his Holopad beep. With a quick press of the handsfree device on his ear, he answered the call:

"Speak." 

On the other line, Hector answered: "Ishigo, where the hell are you? I told you, we're heading out NOW." 
Ishigo sighed, "The web-man hit stasis. The kage-coma. We need to get him to safety, Hec-"
"NO!" Hector demanded, "That shady webslinger? We have hundreds of civillians to look after Ishigo. This man can do fine on his own, he sure talked tough."

Ishigo understood Hector's hotheadedness. He had just lost many great men. "Listen, Hector, he needs our help. He could be an ally. And what about the other kid, he-"
Hector interrupted him once again, "No means no, hermano. If you want to stay there and die, be my guest. But we are MOVING OUT. Now I trust you, you're smart. We need you, and I hope you make the right decision. That man, didn't you see the look on his face? He's obviously a conduit, we can't trust him. And you have a new host on you."

Ishigo was on the brink of losing his cool, and his slightly irritated voice showed this. "There's a young GIRL with him! You want me to leave her, too?"
Julian sighed and shook his head, realizing that they wouldn't have much choice. It was nearly night time and regardless of their manpower, the chances of getting home safely were already slim. Hector responded even sharper than before: "LET HER CARRY HIM, THEN! Damnit Ishigo, just listen!" 

Ishigo turned off his comm and clenched his fist. "I..." with a quick turn of his head, he looked to Arianna with an expression that screamed "I'm sorry." He then pulled Julian up and began dashing back to the entrance, not having it in himself to look back. Julian didn't even think - he felt the pull and began running alongside Ishigo. "Pray yulie finds the light home... pray...." he said softly as he looked back with a regretful expression. 

Arianna opened her mouth to say something, but the hosts had already gotten up and left her alone in the corpse-ridden room. She swallowed lightly and sighed, closing her eyes. What was she going to do? Surely they wouldn't make it back to his mansion before nightfall if two of them were injured. They were too vulnerable, and she couldn't defend them all if she was carrying Iktomi. She felt panic begin to set in and she clenched her hands into fists. They were done for. Even if she used her telekinesis to move him, she would be using too much of her spirit that she might go into this "stasis" too. The poor girl felt sick. The journey to Iktomi's mansion seemed impossible, and the corpses around her didn't help either. They couldn't stay in the mall, but they couldn't go unprotected, especially at night. 

"THEY LEFT ME? WHAT?!" Kisheto's voice pierced the silence that was slowly beginning to fill the once war-torn air. He appeared out of the rubble on the side of the room, having discovered a second entry to the lair from outside. His body had healed remarkably and he ran up to the carnage as if he had never been hurt. "YO! That's not fucking cool! THEY LEFT ME TO DIE!" he cried out as he paced back and forth near Arianna.

Arianna jumped lightly when Kisheto's voice filled her ears to the brim. She looked up, noticing how he acted as if he'd never been hurt. Maybe there was hope for them, after all. She stood, her hands still shaking from the fear she'd felt a few seconds ago. "They thought you were a goner. The leader, Hector, I think, sounded upset about how many of his men had died." She glanced at Iktomi, hoping he would be alright. "They were too busy to help Iktomi and I."

Kisheto's distraught quickly receded as he looked at the near-dead man who lay on the ground near Arianna. "Oh.... damn, what happened to him? And whoa whoa whoa, they just LEFT you? What the fuck? They're supposed to be heroes! Saviors! THE GOLDEN MERCENARIES, YO!" as he spoke, using energetic gestures, his voice grew more and more excited. "Alright, alright, hmm... let's think..."

Just then, his eyes lit up and a bright smile crossed his face. Despite the turmoil he had just faced, he remained as pumped up as ever, as if nothing had ever happened. [i]'Yo... this is my chance to finally be a hero![/i] he thought as he smirked. "Alright, Arianna, I gotcha! I'll help you and Ikcytome or whatever."

Arianna looked around as he spoke of the Golden Mercenaries. She, too, thought that they were at least more compassionate and caring than the leader of the Golden Mercenaries was. She wasn't completely upset about their reaction, though. The leader had been right about how Iktomi could be a dangerous person, and as she looked at him now, she thought of his thoughts during his battle. He was thirsty for more power, and it worried her. What if he one day thought that she was in the way of his power? What would he do? Did he really care about her, or was she just another pawn in his game of chess?

She was suddenly wrenched from her thoughts as Kisheto volunteered to help her. "Can you carry him? You were shot multiple times," she murmured. "If you think you can handle it, I can keep guard. It'll be even more dangerous since it's almost night time." Her gut wrenched at the thought of being out in the dark streets of Sovereign again, though.

Kisheto chuckled, "Psh! Hell yeah I can handle it!" He then walked over to Iktomi and placed a hand on him in preparation, but raised a brow instead. "Whoa... dude's a mixture of hot and cold... what happened to him? And why is he all... veiny and shiny?" With a grunt, he heaved Iktomi's body over his shoulders anyway and sighed as he stabilized his weight. He then looked to Arianna, still curious as to why he was in this state.

Arianna pushed her hair back from her face and sighed. "Apparently he's in a stasis. It's when hosts use too much spirit and go into a comatose state." She sighed softly. "He needs to rest and hydrate, but we need to get to his mansion first."

Kisheto chuckled, "No prollem, yo. Just lead the way. I'll carry yah freakshow friend here, heheh."