Central Park – Angel of the Waters Fountain

Christanna ran. She ran faster and harder than she had ever ran before and it was all because of something she had done. Well, at least that is what she thought. He could not shake the feeling that she had done something back there. When her father grabbed her, she simply could not take it anymore. The last time he touched her like that, the man had broke her arm and she had to be in a cast. She was sworn to tell that she fell down, that she had been being her usual, “clumsy” self and injured herself. But that was not the truth. The man could appear to be a saint one second, and in the next, become a true monster. She had first hand knowledge of that. That was why the second she was grabbed, she just snapped.

But what was that pain in her head?

She winced as she finally forced herself to stop. The sound of the water up ahead was murder on her ears. Ever since that funny light her head had been splitting, but it was now finally going down. The worst thing was that everyone was acting so strange around her. People seemed to become their costumes! People really thought they were vampires, pirates, knights, celebrities, monsters, whatever they were dressed as! They became these personalities.

Christanna gasped for breath as she came up to the bridge. The sound of the flowing water was a little louder now. As she followed it, she was startled by the appearance of someone sitting in the corner, in the shadows. She stepped closer, but the person did not move. Then, as she advanced further, she noticed the wood paneling and the sharp angles that were on the costume. Slowly she realized that she was staring at a costume of a dresser. She paused again as she crept up and saw a man sitting in the costume, a vacant look in his eyes.

“Of course…you’re pretending you’re a dresser, right?” She then shoved him. “Snap out of it! What’s wrong with you!?”

She started to cry as she ran from the man now, back towards the roar of the water fountain. Why was it that everyone suddenly went nuts?! Was this some kind of massive prank on her? What was going on? It was like ever since that incident with her dad, and that light, everyone just lost their minds.

Then, as she slowly came to stop in front of the massive fountain, a thought occurred to her. She gasped as she thought back. This did all start the second that that light erupted from her head. At first she did not think anything of it. She merely figured that she was mistaken where the light came from, but maybe…maybe she did cause it. After all in a city full of mutants, why not her? Why couldn’t she be one?

It was then that she retched…into the water fountain. The stress of this revelation, the amount of running she had just done, even the sound of the thundering water just made her sick. Before she knew it, she was bent over the edge of the fountain, hurling her guts into in. After she was done, she gasped as she wiped her mouth and sat there exhausted.

“W-What have I done…?” she muttered as she collapsed onto her knees and began to bawl once more.

“My…goddess?” a timid voice asked.

She jumped and spun around. From behind her came that familiar Bela Logsi costume and the eyes of a cruel man. She whimpered as she began to back up, but the vampire dressed figure of her father only bowed down low, averting his eyes.

“Please, do not run away again, oh Goddess of the Night. I only seek to serve you!”

Christanna paused as she slowly stood up. There was such conviction in her father’s voice. Apparently he truly meant what he was saying. But why was he calling her a goddess? She was stumped until a stray glance to her clothing figured it out for her. She was still in the Nyx Goddess of the Night and Dreams costume. But why would that make her father so docile? The costume! Vampires love the night so they would worship a night goddess!

Christanna stood there and stared at her father. The tears slowly stopped, the anger for him began to cool and her fear melted away. Her father was bowing…to her! So many times she had day dreamed about that and never thought that it could truly happen. Then, she watched as several more darkly dressed figures began to step forward.

From the shadows they all came. People dressed as vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, any creature associated with the night or the stuff nightmares are made up. And each and every one of them bowed to her: the skinny ones, the muscular ones, the meek ones, the intimidating ones, all of them seemed to kiss the ground she had walked on. Very slowly, a smile crept across her painted lips as she stood back and regarded them all. Then, her father spoke again.

“I have been spreading the word about your arrival, my Goddess. Increasing the number of your loyal followers. All of us…well…we are all so pleased to see you are amongst us!” he sniveled as he respectfully crept up to her on his knees. “Please…lead us my Mother…my protector…!”

Christanna / Nyx smiled at these words. For the first time in years she smiled and she actually meant it. It was a strange feeling, but one she could definitely get used to. She nodded as she slowly stepped forward and placed her hand on her father’s forehead.

“I-I will lead you.”

A riotous cheer roared up from every man, woman and beast present. They snarled, bit and bellowed out in success that they now had their queen and goddess. Nyx, in the mean time, once shy little girl only grinned wide. She was not crazy like them. She did not believe she was actually a goddess. But that did not matter and they did not need to find that out. After all, it was far better to rule in Hell than serve her father.

“What shall we do to serve you?” cried a rather nasty looking demon creature

The twelve year old smirked as she climbed up onto the ledge of the fountain and addressed them all. She winced slightly in pain as a nasty lightning flash of a headache struck her brain, but it quickly went away. It was then that she relaxed and addressed them all, including her father, very firmly.

“We shall take back the night! Gather more! Bring more followers to me! We shall march on this city and topple everything my father has built!”

They screamed in unison, approving her plan. It was a roar that would be heard throughout all Central Park, and shake every citizen down to their cores.

(Finale has NOT STARTED yet.)

(OOC: Finale is now OPEN. So far signed up are: Jorge, Mama T, Faye, Lance, Kate, Kaitlyn and Locke)

Christanna grimaced as she paced the ledge of the water fountain. A splitting headache had suddenly come upon her and all she wanted was for it to just go away. The pain was tremendous and felt like a lightning storm crackled and crashed instead of her brain pan. The attacks were getting more frequent as the night went on and despite her need to try and ignore it simply hit her harder and faster. That was what was happening now. She paused in her pacing and winced as another sharp pain coursed through her mind. It rolled over her like a thundercloud or isolated earthquake and all she saw was red.

“OH god! Make it stooooop!!” she cringed as she collapsed onto the ledge and held her burning skull.

But as soon as she went down, she was overrun with images that she could make little to no sense of. Images of people she never knew from someone else’s perspective and worst of all were the thundering sounds of millions of voices all clamoring together inside her ears:

>> “… I feel like being generous tonight. For example, if I were to catch two underaged teens drinking alcohol, instead of hauling…,”[/i]

>> "No, I don't really want to be here. I mean it's cold and over exaggeratedly silly. I'm not one for Halloween I don't think…"[/i]

>>"Listen I like you, and I think you like me too…Your not like other guys”[/i]

>> “And it’s not a friar costume... it’s a Star Wars Jedi costume.”[/i]

>> 'Capital, now then I wonder if you two could do me a little favour?'

>> "If K-Kaitlyn gets to stab zombies with her spear…”

>> ”It’s not really monkey brains, is it?”

>> "It is Halloween. We could skip the main course and go straight to…."[/i]

The scream that issued out from Christanna was enough to wake the dead…well the few undead soldiers who stood guard near her. She ground her teeth as she felt like her head was going to split. Instead she forced it back down as she shook her head. She wanted the pain to stop! Why wasn’t it? Why was it instead getting worse? She would blame it on having too much candy but none had even passed her lips. Instead she sat on the ledge of the fountain, rocking back and forth, trying to consol herself. Then…slowly the pain backed off. The images fluttered away into the darkness behind her eyelids and the voices slowly dropped to a murmur before disappearing completely.

The attack was over but she feared when the next one would come. Instead finally opened her eyes and looked up. Her “royal guards”, two men dressed as zombie soldiers looked at her curiously. She waved them off and stood up from her seated position. She gulped hard as she leaned over, cupped her hand into the waters of the fountain and splashed some of it on her face.

“Where’s my asprin?” she muttered to herself. As she looked over across the fountain area, a small smile did play on her lips.

All around her denizens, her minions were readying themselves. More and more of these nightmare dressed creatures had appeared. Her pathetic, vampire-dressed father had done what she told him. He had gone out and gotten followers. Many of them were gathered all around. Some fought amongst themselves, others tortured victims they had managed to find wandering around the park, and the rest simply waited around, though antsy. They wanted the action, the battled and the blood gore she promised them. They would get that and so much more when she was done. The whole city would. But for now, she wanted their numbers to be big.

This is crazy, a small voice in the back of her head muttered.

Christanna snarled as she shook her head, arguing with herself. “No, it is the only justice. This city deserves to suffer for letting my father do what he did to me! They all need to! I’m tired of crying in the dark! Everyone will pay now! Everyone!!”

“Goddess?”

She spun around and found a man who had startled her earlier. Still dressed in his M-R-O shirt and clutching onto a ball of thread, he held out a small white bottle. He clanked it from side to side to assure her that it was full to the brim with pills. She quickly snatched it from him and popped open the Children’s Tylenol package. Apparently it was all the man could find. With a twist of her wrist she cracked open the bottle and chewed the medicinal grape flavored pills and willed it to protect her from further attacks. They definitely were not of a strong dosage but she hoped they would at least help.

She sighed as she turned back around and found her father groveling to her, next to the MRO man. She could definitely get used to this type of behavior, pain or no.

“What is it?” she asked suddenly, her eyes sparkled with white light.

“G-Goddess, all preparations are made. You’re horde is ready to lay siege,” her father announced as he slowly stood and kept his head bowed respectfully.

Christanna/Nyx looked about and eyed her army. The legion of costumed, yet maddened people, all seemed to be looking at her now. They stopped their individual feuds and tortures and instead seemed to be looking at her, their Goddess, with anticipation. The sight simply made her smile deep inside as she glanced around. She did not know how long they would all be affected like this. She only hoped that it would be forever…even if that meant a lifetime of pain on her part. So finally, after a moment of thought, she grinned as she waved over two of the larger demonically dressed men.

“They we shall begin. But first, a sacrifice for your goddess,” she smiled diabolically as her embodied Nyx. She pointed towards her groveling father and muttered coldly. “Strap him down and slit his throat.”

“W-What? But….mother! Goddess!!” her father screamed. It was of no use though.

Before he could comprehend, her two demonic sentries grabbed the man hard and pulled him over towards the fountain. They bent him over and extended his neck over the glistening, cold water. Nyx smiled wide as she watched one of them produce a knife from the folds of their cloak. She slowly sauntered over as her guards each looked at her inquisitively. Their slobbering mouths were wide, ready to taste the blood that was to come. A wide, creepy grin inched its way across her face she stepped over and leaned down to look at her father’s sweating face. His make-up was starting run off and his false fangs were half hanging out of his mouth. She noted the look of utter fear on his face. A look that told her that he would surely do anything in order to not be harmed.

But Nyx only smiled as she gently reached over and stroked the back of his head. “Don’t worry…I won’t embarrass you anymore,” her smirk turned angry as backed away and nodded to her guards. “You can’t embarrass the dead!!”

She turned, a headache coming on which caused her eyes to flash an even stronger white. She heard the slash, the gurgle for breath and finally the sound of blood spilling into a fountain of water. Her whole body twitched, angry that the man had dared to give her such a look. But her angry melted when she heard that roar of approval from all her gathered minions. They screamed a battle cry that could only be issued out from the very pits of Hell! And it was a music that Nyx was only too happy to hear.

A steady breath and once more the pain subsided. As the clamor around her died down, she smiled to all those gathered and yelled out.

“Tonight…we take every back! We topple everything my father donated with his dirty intentions and bloody money! TONIGHT we make this city pay for EVERYTHING HE HAS EVER DON – GRaahahhh!!!”

She scream as her white eyes flashed and a long, thin crack appeared on the top of her skull. Hair singed and fluttered off into the night as a beam of light erupted from her scalp. She gasped horribly as another crack, and another all fissured across her face and head, each released a ray of light as if she contained the very energy of a star. It was a sight that could be seen for miles and one that each of her minions bowed in fear to.

Total anger fueled with pain and torment shook her down to her core that the throng of voices made her ears ring. But she was not going to stop now. She needed to issue the commanded. She needed her revenge and now was the only time she would ever get it. With a scream, she addressed all her minions as she blindly flailed about, light erupting from her scalp as the personalities of all she had taken from park struggled from freedom.

“ATTACK! BURN EVERYTHING TO THE GROUND!!!!”

>>“Tonight…we take every back! We topple everything my father donated with his dirty intentions and bloody money! TONIGHT we make this city pay for EVERYTHING HE HAS EVER DONE... ATTACK! BURN EVERYTHING TO THE GROUND!!!!”

Now that was a very bad case of the *** hitting the fan if Gemma had ever seen one.

It wasn't hard to find the sounce of the light; the crowd, the screaming, the blood, and, well, a little girl with the same light coming from her head kind of gave it away. At the first moment when the scene opened up before their eyes, Gemma felt like she was about to faint. Eyes wide with shock, she stared at the nightmare vision before them.

All the people who believed themselves to be creatures of the night, doing things horrible beyond sanity. Some of them looked over at Gemma and her mythical companions, but they didn't pay much attention. There was still enough of the costumes left.

It was a girl. A child.
And she knew what she was doing.

Reaching out, her hand found Jorge's and squeezed it. She took a deep breath to calm herself down. She looked around, searching for familiar faces in the crowd; she was hoping hr students would not be there. And at the same time she was hoping they would.

"Jorge, I need to get to her. Now."

If Poseidon had any previous doubts that this place could ever be confused for Tartarus…those misconceptions were thrown out the window now. The ocean god stared around in complete surprise at his surroundings, this world apparently reordered in the name of madness. Mortals, which he was not sure the vast majority of them were, all ran about and acted as evil as possible. Many seemed to be sacrificing innocent people, others were simply snarling and gnashing their teeth at one another. If ever there was a place that embodied the true meaning of Hell, this was it.

Slowly the ocean god walked into the hellish realm, along with his niece Athena and the mortal queen Gemma by his sides. He tightened his grip on his makeshift trident as he glanced about. So far none of the creatures had dared to advance on them. Maybe they had sense enough realize they should not challenge the power of the Gods. But they were trapped in human vessels. Their powers were limited, especially in the presence of the human queen.

It was then that he felt Gemma’s hand tighten into his.

>> "Jorge, I need to get to her. Now."

At first Poseidon had no idea what she was speaking of. Of any of the creatures here, why would she want to associate with them? But then he saw the light. There was a glare, a piercing beam of white that reminded him of his brother Zeus and his lightning bolts. He watched curiously as creatures began to move out of the way and there he spotted here. It was a young human girl, or at least something in the guise of one. The child was in agony, but she stood, eyes sparkling white and fissures of white light illuminated her scalp. But must malevolent of all was the look on her face. There was no compassion or sympathy, only pain and anger mixed together into a very volatile combination.

It became obvious that she was the source of that power. The energy the fluctuated off her small form was enough to make him cringe. But one look at her attire and he had to shake his head in surprise.

“Nyx. That…is my grandmother,” Poseidon muttered as he looked between Athena and Gemma. “Primordial goddess of the Night and Dreams! She has become the cause of all this…Sh has become…mad.”

It was then that her last echoing command seemed to stir everyone to move. Before he could comprehend of it, the entire horde that was gathered were on the move. They snarled and snapped before they began to turn on every structure around them. They broke and smashed everything and everyone they could. Then…they began to charge. At first they had paid no heed to the trio, but now they wanted only blood.

Poseidon held it trident up defensively as he pushed Gemma as far back behind him as he could. He did not want to lose her, she had his blessing, but he needed his abilities right now, even if they were dampened by the human vessel.

“Stay behind us Gemma! Don’t get too close!” he shot a glance of understanding at Athena and nodded his head.

With that he suddenly held his trident up and summoned to him all the water he could feel within his reach. He was still weakened, but it should be enough. All he needed was enough to confuse and distract them and that would be what he would get. Within fractions of a second, water flooded around him and became whipped up into a dangerous whirlpool and spun fast. His eyes flashed with anger as the water spun faster and faster and faster. A few of the oncoming horde watched in surprise but Poseidon gave them no chance to understand what was happening. Instead he lashed out and sent break neck fast jets of water out and struck every beast it could.

The next War of the Gods had started.

Anakin, Alice and the barbarian had just destroyed a cell of evil cultists they had inadvertently encountered in the woods, when another strange discordant wailing pierced the forest causing the Jedi to tighten his hold on the barbarian’s wrist. Ever since the incident with Beiber, the strong urge to protect the barbarian had not loosened its grip on the young Jedi. Sensing imminent danger ahead of them, Anakin mentally debated the pros and cons of taking the barbarian with them to their final destination. On one hand, leaving the barbarian in the forest would protect her from whatever danger that lies ahead. But then again, if he leaves her in the forest, there was the danger of the Sith Lord finding her. In the end, Anakin decided on taking the barbarian with him. At least, he would be there to protect her from the dangers of that world. The Jedi could not explain why he was feeling that way towards the barbarian. The only other person he had ever felt the same way was towards Padme...

Pushing the thought away, Anakin quickened his pace, half-dragging the barbarian behind him.

As the trio reached the edge of the forest, they were greeted by the sight of an army of hellish creatures, which had gathered at the foot of the low rise they were standing on now. And in the middle of the throng was a being of light or someone who was emitting light. Somehow, the light seemed familiar to the Jedi, but for the life of him, he cannot remember where he had seen it before.

Whoever the light-being was, it seemed that she was the one in command of the army... another Sith Lord or an apprentice seeking to move up the ranks, it did not matter to Anakin now. What mattered was the grave danger they have found themselves in. He was confident that Alice can, at least, hold her own against the army before them... however, it was the barbarian that worried him the most.

Monstrous screams erupted from the army somewhere to the right of their location. Training his sights towards that area, Anakin saw another group of individuals who were fighting the assembled army from that direction; their elevated location afforded the Jedi a chance to better make out the members of the second group. Among them was the Earth queen who had commanded him to keep his two companions safe.

A desperate plan began forming in the mind of the Jedi. Anakin moved back a bit to the shelter of the woods, taking the barbarian with him and motioning for Alice to follow.

Once safely within the forest, but still within sight of the hellish army, the Jedi turned to face Alice, ”You need to make it to their location.” he told her, pointing towards the location of the Earth queen. Anakin kept the volume of his voice slightly above a whisper to keep from drawing unwanted attention to their location. ”I’ll draw their attention to give you time to make it to your queen safely.” the Jedi added.

Turning towards the barbarian, Anakin leaned in to whisper directly into her ear, ”Stay close to Alice. She will protect you...”

As he moved his head away, Anakin did something he never imagined he would do, nor be able to explain why he had done it... the Jedi leaned in once more and kissed the barbarian on the lips. The connection lasted for only a few seconds before Anakin moved away.

Turning towards Alice, Anakin ignored the look that she was giving him. Instead, he entrusted the barbarian over to her, as he quickly moved in the direction of the left flank of the assembled creatures.

Before leaving the forest, the Jedi tilted his head towards the two females, ”Remember, you two MUST make it to your queen. She said you two were important and maybe you two are the only ones who can put an end to all of this craziness. When you hear the screams of those creatures, quickly make your way towards your queen.” With that said, Anakin quickly exited the forest.

A few moments later, howls of pain erupted from the assembled army as the ground and trees shook from an unknown force.

It wasn't just because he had the costume that Locke dressed up as Jigsaw. He admired the guy. Not that Locke had any desire to lock two people up in an unsanitary bathroom and force them to choose between a slow death and sawing off a foot with a dull blade. John Kramer understood more about how a human worked than those psychologists that Locke was forced to see. The man was as logical as Locke, able to apply science and math in a real world setting (not only for his traps and tests, but the guy was an engineer), and odd as it might sound, some of their beliefs were similar.

Especially that murder was inexcusable. From his hiding spot Locke witnessed the foul act. It wasn't the first time he'd seen someone die. It was something he'd experienced before. Locke had witnessed the end result of Saph on a rampage, and because of this knew what brain matter looked like. The only deaths that he remembered now though were those of his test subjects who were missing that vital piece of human nature that made you survive no matter what it took. His heart held no sympathy for the girl who commanded the army of "undead". She must be dealt with.

Which begged he question of how. All of his tests so far had been in a contained location, someplace that he could set things up far in advance. Strangely enough it was not the crowd that concerned him. They were just fools caught up in an illusion like the doll girl that he had left behind. All the vampires would fall victim of gravity when they tried to fly. Zombies and mummies might be a bit more difficult given the variations of them. Jigsaw/Locke knew that these were actual people, and he knew that he was missing something important about himself. Maybe it was that who he believed he was had been killed.

Oh, how Athena missed being tall!

In her diminutive mortal vessel, the goddess couldn't see much of what was happening. From what she could gather, though, a large group of insane mortals seemed to be taking orders from a glowing being that sounded like a child. If this child – who sounded even younger than Athena's mortal vessel, was actually her great-great aunt, and if the magician-queen needed to approach her for whatever reason, the deity could only take their word for it.

Since the mortals had all calmed down to congregate around Nyx, though, at least the trio wouldn't have to--

>>“ATTACK! BURN EVERYTHING TO THE GROUND!!!!”

Never mind. Those words from their leader were all that it took to turn the massive clump of grotesquely costumed humans into a frenzied wave of destruction, which swept over the land towards them, engulfing and ravaging everything that it touched.

It must have been Athena's mortal vessel which was terrified by this sight. Normally, she wouldn't even be fazed. She was the goddess of wisdom and war, who could put mortals down with a mere thought! This was nothing for either of the gods to fear.

>>“Stay behind us Gemma! Don’t get too close!”

The two deities shared eye contact for a moment, the elder of them nodded, and that was all that needed to be said on the matter. Athena understood what needed to be done. With hardly a moment to spare, the tiny redheaded goddess of war charged past her uncle's whirlpool and straight into a thundering stampede of cruel costumed characters that were each almost twice her size.

This wasn't a fair fight by any stretch of the imagination. Once she was within reach of their violent, grasping, tearing claws, it was all over.

CRACKOOOM

The destructive force of Athena's divine might warped the very air that the monsters were breathing as it swept over them, knocking many of them off their feet and into various levels of injury and unconsciousness. A good chunk of them wouldn't be getting back up by themselves.

A high pitched ringing noise filled her ears, flooding out every other noise. Though her vision was hopelessly blurred, the goddess could tell that she had a clear line of sight towards the glowing being that had been the center of the mad mortals' attention earlier. Hopefully, the goddess had punched a good enough hole through Nyx's ranks to let Gemma and Poseidon through; until then, it was enough trouble for the diminutive deity to worry about staying standing up.

Stupid mortal vessels can't handle that much divine power.

((OOC: Hope it's okay you all, but I'm going to move out off a posting order. It's already middle of november and I really think this story needs to reach a conclusion. Post away!))

Madness and chaos. That was the only way to describe the events that unfolded before the ages old lord of the oceans. He watched as swarms of vile creatures, men dressed in costumes came charging their way. He was quick to defend, sending jets of water out and around, striking foes between the eyes and quasi-drowning them until they collapsed into unconscious heaps. But he was barely making a dent in their numbers. Apparently Nyx had managed to gather a vast majority of the denizens and hellish creatures of the night to her side. Poseidon normally would be only too glad to wipe them off the face of the planet, but Gemma, the mortal queen, had revealed to him that they all were simply men in costume. Humans who did not know who they really wear.

To be honest the Ocean God could care less. If they treaded too far…he would make each and every one of them pay for it.

He stood as still as he could, water flowed dangerously around him in a shield that looked almost impenetrable. Any creature that came too close were knocked by the force of water that was equivalent to a fire hose releasing a torrent. He then watched as his niece Athena charged out into the group. Blasts of divine energy send the hordes flying in all directions. A small grin played on his lips as he watched her disappear into the crowds. She looked so innocent and small in that vessel, but any who dared to underestimate her, he was sure would suffer for it. He only hoped that her human form would be able to handle her abilities. He feared her burning out from other doing it.

“Athena! Be careful! The human body you inhabit may not be able to withstand a constant use of your divine abilities!” He knew his voice was lost, so he would have to keep Athena in his line of sight.

A glance back and he saw that Gemma was still behind him. So far he and Athena managed to hold the line rather well. Bodies of fallen creatures lay strewn about them and ahead he could see still that flare of bright white light. That was the one Gemma said she needed to get to. He did not know what good that would be but he hoped whatever she had planned, it would help.

Another look back to the mortal queen and Poseidon, the bringer of earthquakes and tidal waves charged into the fray. His shield of water dropping down, he ran forward, staff spinning around him expertly. The first to make the mistake of getting too close was a rather dangerous looking character. It was a man in a strange, white mask with holes drilled into it for breathing and sight. He wielding a dangerous, one sided axe that seemed to already be splattered with blood. The lumbering fool was quick to try to hack into the Poseidon’s skull, but the ocean god was swift. A quick twirl of his staff and the metal bar struck hard, smashing into the side of his opponent’s face.

Poseidon watched the man go down with a whimper and he was quick to step over him. He lashed out, struck and drenched to the best of his abilities but the opponents kept coming. He hit hard and fast, trying to making an opening. They had gotten the villains attentions now. He could not see Athena anymore, but he saw her aftermath. Bodies were strewn about, broken and bleeding and though Poseidon tried his best to keep from harming these people too badly, they were making it difficult. It came to the point that this was simply going to be about survival now. It was either him or them and he was not about to allow these creatures to overcome him.

A sudden outshoot of his hand and he screamed as he sent another torrent of water out into a group of rushing villains. They were getting closer to the source of light, he could see Nyx, his grandmother, looking panicked as cracks formed all over her face. She was screaming orders, trying to send more of her troops on the attack and questioned who these interlopers were.

Nyx panicked as she climbed back onto the ledge of the water fountain, standing high up and glaring out over the group. Her reinforcements were rushing back in from the corners. They would be upon them in seconds.

Poseidon yelled as he felt another of her minions slash out and scratch his arm. He ocean god snarled as he shoved the beast back and cautioned another look back at the mortal queen.

“Gemma! Prepare yourself!” he yelled as he then turned and pointed his staff directly at Nyx. “Grandmother! You’re madness must en-!” He was abruptly stopped when another of her servants, a greasy faced man where a strange black tunic with the letterings of M-R-O etched upon it. He started to scream and smack the ocean god over and over again on the forehead with his ball of thread.

“Leave her alone!”

Poseidon stared up at the person in disbelief and struggled with him. Whoever this MRO was, he was heavy and had a lot more strength than he originally let on. The ocean lord struggled as the MROer tightened a grip around his throat and continued to beat him with a ball of thread upon the forehead.

His normal equipment was in short demand. No effective weapons, no jars of nails. Locke had spotted several of his puppets shortly after leaving the confused doll girl behind, but those he recognized as imitations, not his actual work. The puppets annoyed him, for it was yet another person or persons attempting to be him and doing a sloppy job of it. It offended him as much as the title “Jigsaw Killer” did, and he had not bothered to grab a single one. If you were going to teach and save the way that he did you had to have certain standards and not be sloppy. In the past he had such a copycat killer into one of his apprentices, but Locke did not trust Detective Hoffman entirely, much the way that he did not trust Amanda entirely.

There had been rooms where he had left the doll girl that would serve the purpose of holding the murderess until a test for her could be completed. If he could not find a suitable one from the blue prints that had survived Detective Matthew’s rampage, she would be suitable as a part of the lesson for Trapp. Although he had memories of his death at the hands of Jeff, and although what was happening in his head had been severe enough to hinder his vision, Jigsaw Locke felt full of life. Enough life to be able to pull together something for the girl once he got to her.

With the hood of his coat pulled up Locke could hide in the shadows caused by the girl’s brilliant light. The main force of her brain dead servants were not focused in his direction, allowing for a level of stealth. Locke’s mutation did not like him heading towards such a dangerous position. It was the part of him that kept him safe, and he was ignoring it. As he drew closer his powers started acting up. Locke simply thought the reason why the world was growing fuzzy was that he grew closer to the bright source of light. Had he known what he was doing Locke would have been aware that something was very wrong with the way the earth was responding to him. By the time he had gotten within range of the fountain there was a loud and destructive… well noise that drew him out of himself and the fountain that his mind was in. He was pulled back into reality, a portion of the fountain exploding into a shower of stones. For a change the stone hit him, and it hurt.

This isn't right, Locke Jigsaw thought as a pained yelp escaped him. It wasn't right with who he thought he was, and a part of him could feel that this pain wasn't suppose to be there.

Faye was dragged through the woods by The Boy by her hand as they fled from the raised stage where they had encountered the dark altar and the people that cavorted around it. The encounter had all left them injured, Faye herself sported painful cuts that bled freely from her fight with Britney and her deep knife strikes across Faye’s thigh and arm.

The three of them where heading towards a bright white light that seemed familiar to her but she couldn’t remember where she had seen it before. Then they were out of the trees and looking down at a huge fountain surrounded by a horde of creatures and fiends that raged and fought amongst its self. The Boy caught her attention and pointed off to their right where a group of people seemed to be assailing the monsters. She didn’t recognise any off them but the Woman With Skin Like Night that had taken her fire square off of her what seemed an age ago.

Back in the woods The Boy outlined his plan; She and Alice where to run down to the Queen, as he called the dark skinned woman when the fighting started while he distracted the monsters.
It was a stupid plan, Faye didn’t want him to go away and leave her and she certainty didn’t want him to get hurt or worse. She was about to voice her opinions when The Boy surprised her by leaning in and kissing her on the lips, stupefying her and leaving her lips lingering on air as he ran off.

“No! Come Back!” she shouted as he disappeared into the bushes
“Why?” she asked Alice.

She felt like crying and not just from the pain of her cuts. Without The Boy nearby she felt vulnerable and that scared her more than the thought that she was about to run headlong into the middle of the creatures around the fountain.

As if reading her thoughts the ground started to shake and a great eruption of noise came from the bottom of the hill. Sneaking out to look Faye saw that the small group around the Queen has begun to make headway towards the fountain, A man and small child stood at the front of the little group and where they looked no manbeast could stand for blasts of energy that ripped through them flinging slow moving fiends into the air or gouts of water that forced the horde back and threatened to drown those that didn’t get out of the way.

Faye swallowed the hard and took one last look at Alice, offering a week smile before she started running down the hill.
She made it down the bottom and started weaving through the few stunned manbeasts that remained. At first they didn’t seem to notice her for the carnage that the small child and the man wrought but as she got closer to the group she was suddenly knocked off her feet and sent flying through the air by the edge of one of the shockwaves.

Landing hard she screamed out as a great pain shot through her injured leg, dizzy she tried to stand before her leg collapsed underneath her. Biting her lip she reached down and felt her leg, her hands came away bloody from where her wound had started bleeding again. Closing her eyes she let her head slump back down on the rumbling earth, her breath came out in ragged gasps as the pain washed through her body.
She became aware of someone standing over her and looked up through teary eyes and the figure above her.

Was it The Boy? Had he seen her fall and come to rescue her?

Smiling through the pain she raised herself up on her elbows and reached out to him but he didn’t help her up.
Confused her lips formed a question but before she could ask it the figure stamped down hard on her chest forcing her back down hard, a strangled cry of pain escaping from her lips as her head bounced of a rock. She tried to rise again before the foot descended on her throat pinning her to the ground.
Struggling as her breath left her she clawed weakly at the figures leg as the edges of her vision began to darken.

They were reaching the darkest moment of the nightmare. There was struggle and figthing all around; dozens of people knocked off their feet and hurt from one single... whatever that explosion was from the little girl. She herself seemed disoriented from the blast. Jorge fought like the god he believed himself to be; step by step, they were getting closer to the fountain.
Gemma stayed behind. She allowed the two of them enough space to use their powers if they needed; she held the gun ready, but didn't shoot anyone.
She could make out familiar faces in the crowd for a few moments every now and then; if the Mansion kids were still in there, they must have been fighting for their lives. She resisted the urge to go and help them; the only way to rescue everyone at once was to turn the light and the mutant girl off.
And she was the only one capable of doing that.

The closer they got, the harder it became to move. The creatures of darkness sensed the threat to their goddess and got more and more fierce in protecting her; Jorge was getting tired, and she couldn't see the girl anymore.
Just... a few steps... closer...

>>“Gemma! Prepare yourself! Grandmother! You’re madness must en-!”

Jorge went down, fighting a guy who was hitting his head with... was that a ball of yarn?
Oh well. It could have been an axe too.

Gemma took a deep breath, and ran the last few steps she needed, leaving Jorge behind.

The white light was blinding as she got close; she had to close her eyes, and trust her instincts in the last few moments.
Stepping up onto the edge of the fountain, Gemma threw her arms around the shining girl, and as the momentum carried her on, she pulled her down into the water.

Nyx watched as her minions fought on, ready to rend everything in this city apart when suddenly people began to intervene. She had no idea what they were doing, why they were fighting her. But whatever the reason was, it seemed as if they had some real power behind them. They were mutants, they had to be! So far most of the people she met acted like their costumes but none of them actually had any of the powers that came with it. It did not make any sense to her. How could these mutants in costume suddenly challenge her?

She snarled as she tried to think of what to do next. The twelve year old had gotten so caught up in her schemes and the blinding pain of her migraine that she was not paying attention to the scene as it unfolded in front of her. With a gasp she pointed at one of her demonic guards and aimed him towards the fighting group.

“What’re you doing, imbecile! Attack them! Kill them now!!” she screamed and stomped like a spoiled brat.

The demon was quick to obey but had been thrown down by a powerful jet of water. Nyx/Christanna was surprised as she looked about and saw that many of her minions were either running past the attacking group or were falling to their expert hands. Then…the whole fountain broke. The earth tremored, hard! It was enough to crack the edge of the fountain. She was quick to jump off and scramble to the side just as a huge chunk fell apart and poured water out all over the scene. Nyx gasped and turned to look back at the advancing group.

>> “Gemma! Prepare yourself! Grandmother! You’re madness must en-!”

She turned just in time to see one of her cronies attacking a man with a badge around his neck, wielding a metal pipe for a staff. He must have been a policeman but…was he controlling water? Nyx turned to survey more of the group when another blinding pain coursed through her skull. She gasped and screamed out as more cracks appeared before her face. She wanted to scream until her throat was hoarse and raw and she could taste blood, but nothing came out. Instead as she looked up with blurred eyes, she noted the little girl far off to the side blasting people left and right, another man dressed as a Jedi and who knows what else all fighting back. But…as she looked forward, she saw the opening…and a single person heading her way.

Blindly she got up, gasping and rasping for air as her skull felt like seconds away from erupting into a volcano. Through her teary eyes, she watched the elegant, dark skinned, beautiful woman coming towards her. For a second she thought she was an angel, bathed head to toe in light. But as she came closer, she saw that her eyes were closed. She was just another one of them!

“NO! I have to do this! I need to destroy everything he maaade!”

But her voice was cut off. Before she knew it, the woman was close, the pain in her head paralyzed her and then…she felt those arms wrap around her body and hurl her back into the remains of the fountain.

The second the woman had seized Christanna the cracks, the brilliant display of light suddenly was wretched away from her head. It flung outward, out of the reach of the Adapted’s null field and suddenly dispersed. Another cobwebbed wave of brilliant, foggy white light poured out, rushing over and through everyone it came in contact with. Unable to be anchored to Christanna anymore due to being in a null field, the personalities of everyone she accidentally wiped flitted across the landscape of Central Park in a rushing wave of fog and light.

****

Jorge blinked…his eyes feeling raw and red and he stared at the night sky above him. He did not know why but his entire body ached. He felt like he had just run a marathon in the time it took to blink his eyes. Why did he suddenly feel so exhausted? The detective shook his head and felt more pain, more rawness and who knows what other sensations. He coughed as he glanced down, wondering why his hands were so heavy. He then jumped upon seeing it. The detective was holding a young man with the letters M-R-O etched across his t-shirt by the throat and had his other fist raised up as if he were getting ready to strike him.

“W-What the….?” he rasped as he suddenly let the man go and shakily stepped back.

For a second he had no idea what happened, then, his mind rushed as pain set in. Fragments, partial memories of running around, announcing he was Poseidon and attacking people. He almost felt sick to his stomach as he shook his head, as if trying to knock the bombardment of memories out. He wanted to scream but nothing came from his throat. Finally though, after a minute, the memories stopped, the pain subsided and he stared about. Other people were slowly coming out of it, blinking their eyes and looking away from the sky. It was as if each and every one of them had seen something brilliant for one second then returned to themselves.

The detective paused as he glanced about…only one thought on his mind.

“Gemma?” he asked hoarsely. “Gemma?”

Wave after wave of the hellish army swarmed towards the Jedi. And each time they thought that they would overwhelm him, Anakin unleashed the force on them. The attack caused the ground to shake from the amount of force the Jedi was using. His opponents however, did not seem to be daunted by the sight of their comrades scattered and lying unconscious on the ground.

The Jedi was slowly carving a path of destruction through the assembled army. His effort, however, was causing his throat to hurt. First, it started as a slight tinge of pain. But as he kept using the force, the pain became more noticeable. And now, even if Anakin is not using the force, the pain in his throat did not seem to go away.

Another blast of force made the Jedi grimace in pain. But, in spite of what he was feeling, Anakin could not... would not, stop his assault on the creatures around him. He had to keep their attention on him to buy time for the barbarian and Alice to make it to their queen. Hopefully, they will be able to put an end to this madness before he can no longer bear the pain.

Hazarding a glance towards the general direction where he had last caught sight of the Earth queen, Anakin hoped to catch a glimpse of Alice and the barbarian. But the throng before him was too thick.

In that single moment of distraction, something solid connected with the side of the Jedi’s head, which caused Anakin to momentarily lose his balance. A howl of triumph erupted from around him as the creatures swarmed once more trying to crush him under their weight.

Anakin was suddenly very angry... Angry at the creatures around him, but most of all, angry at himself for being caught off-guard.

The Jedi’s retaliatory response, fueled by the pain and anger, was a powerful surge of the force. Anakin did not anticipate the effect of the emotion-backed counterattack, nor the lancing pain from his throat, that sent the creatures sailing through the air and landing back on the ground, unconscious.

The other creatures seemed to have been suddenly sobered-up by the counterattack, that they kept a safe distance from the Jedi.

For his part, Anakin glared at the assembled army before him, daring anyone of them to try and approach him.

A flash of bright foggy white light suddenly erupted from behind the assembled army, momentarily embracing everyone in the area in its blinding glory before moving on.

Disjointed images quickly began flooding Anakin’s mind. The mental turmoil brought more pain to the Jedi, forcing him to his knees.

The remainder of the hellish army seems to have fallen under the same spell as evidenced by their screams and howls.

As more images flashed, Anakin’s vision began to blur until he was finally embraced by the void.

Lance woke with a start. He was lying on the ground in the middle of several unconscious party-goers still in their macabre costume. How he ended up there, the teen could not recall. The last thing that he remembered was finishing off the booze he and Faye had bought.

The memory caused Lance to frantically look at the unconscious people around him... he was missing Faye.

Standing-up on wobbly legs, the teen momentarily stared at his costume in disbelief. The robe was badly torn and the armor beneath bore signs of damage but from where or what, Lance could not remember. Pushing the thoughts aside, he went about looking for his date as quickly as his aching body would allow him.

”FAYE!”

Shouting for his date caused the aching throat to stab Lance’s consciousness with pain, which caused the teen to wince. It was then that he realized that his voice was hoarse and that his throat was very painful.

Despite his unexplainable condition, Lance could not stop. He had to find Faye. He had to make sure that she was alright. That nothing bad has happened to her.

After several minutes of fruitless searching and painful shouting, Lance finally lucked out as he spotted a familiar animal print costume lying on the ground amongst several other unconscious individuals.

Filled with worry, the teen quickly made his way to where Faye was.

The scene before him was exactly what Lance had feared as he was searching for Faye. His date was bruised and had several cuts all over her body. The ones that drew concern from the teen were the two cuts in Faye’s right arm and the one on her leg.

Quickly glancing around the area for assistance, Lance spotted the familiar features of Mama T’s date. After the small incident earlier in the evening, the teen never thought that he would be happy to see the man.

Wrapping his unconscious date in the torn Jedi robe for whatever warmth the thing may offer, Lance carefully lifted her. He then slowly made his way towards Detective Cervantes.

>>"Gemma? Gemma!"

Gemma coughed up some water that tasted like mud, and sat up in the fountain. The light was gone, but her vision was still blurred, and she was cold and aching in so many places she couln't even count. She was still holding the girl; she felt small and fragile now, and she was limp in her arms. Gemma lifted her, making sure she was not underwater.
There was not much water left in the fountain. Sitting up, it was barely up to her waist; but it felt ice cold, and she didn't have the strength to stand up. She felt dizzy. Exhaustion and blood loss.
She listened to the voices, praying for everyone to be all right. And to be themselves.

When she heard Jorge's voice, she took a shaky breath, then let it out.

"I am here" she called out, as loud as she could; which was not very loud, considering how bad she felt and how raw her throat was from yelling all night "I'm here, Jorge. I'm fine. I've got her."

Her being the mutant girl who'd started it all.

Athena had punched a decent hole in the ranks of mortals, but once Poseidon and Gemma made it through, the hole didn't take much time to close again. The goddess simply stood in place, watching as a few of the mortals closed in on her, trampling over their fallen comrades in the rush for vengeance. Struggling to stand, she concentrated on gathering as much divine power as she could muster, waiting until they were just a few feet away to...

fwoop.

What the fierce deity managed to unleash upon these mortals was almost as powerful as a light breeze. Before she could even let out a disbelieving "What," a mummy had one massive hand around her neck.

Her own hands latched on to his forearm in a vain attempt to remove it. She couldn't breathe. Her feet stopped touching the ground as the toilet-paper-wrapped monstrosity hoisted her into the air. Ignoring the miniature Athena's kicking and struggling, his other hand retrieved what, through her blurred vision, resembled a dagger.

With a crack, the mummy let out a loud moan and released his grip, allowing the redhead to fall flat on her butt. Somehow, she had just broken his arm. Athena tried to scramble to her feet for a tactical retreat, but she was too dizzy to stand. The mummy was furious now, and he still had his dagger.

Then, everything was engulfed in light.

* * *

When everything came into focus, the first thing that Kaitlyn noticed was the toilet-paper mummy holding a plastic knife over his head like he was about to stab somebody. Well, that was the first thing that she saw, anyway. The first thing that she noticed was how much her head hurt, and how hard it was to breathe.

Plastic knife fell to the ground, and the mummy sat down, holding his arm to his chest and acting like he was in pain.

The youngest Orderling took some time to examine her surroundings. There were a lot of people wearing costumes in the area, mostly mummies, werewolves, vampires, and the like. Some of them were still standing, but near Kaitlyn, many of them were on the ground, some barely sitting up, while others looked like they were unconscious. A broken fountain was spewing water over its edge and onto the green grass of Central park. Everyone was confused, and many people were chattering to each other.

What just happened?

"The first and last thread that I'm ever going to be a part of, if I can help it." somebody said. Kaitlyn turned to see a young man with 'MRO' Etched onto his shirt. She stared at him. He continued to speak. "What? --Oh! Italics. You didn't say that out loud. Sorry. Here," he extended his hand and helped her stand up, then grabbed her shoulders and turned her around so she was facing the fountain. "Now, walk over there and talk to the guy dressed as Poseidon and his girlfriend. They might be able to help you out."

Kaitlyn didn't know what to make of this odd man's behavior. "Who are you?"

He grimaced. "I can't tell you that, but I can tell YOU--" he stood up, looking and pointing into the air at nobody in particul "Don't give me that, I'm not pointing at 'nobody.' I'm pointing at all of you. I don't want to have anything else to do with this MRO stuff. You hear that? Read it? Whatever it is you people do! I don't care. My life is enough to deal with as is." He stormed off.

Kaitlyn spent a few moments staring at the man as he left, then began to approach the group of people by the fountain. Crazy though the 'MRO' guy might have been, she didn't know what else she could do. She didn't know where she was, she didn't have any money, and she didn't recognize anyone nearby.