I13DT - Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

[Steve Jones]

Steve spotted the odd glow and had a plain old non-prescient bad feeling about it.

That didn't glow before...

[Kay Haddock]

"What's wrong?" Kay asks and 'swims' down to where Miranda lands.

"Haley?" she adds when she notices the glow.

[Calvin Strong]

Cal, naturally, noticed it too. What're you doing, babe?

[Haley Crusek]

Haley looked down at the amulet, looking just as surprised as everyone else.

[Narrator]

The amulet suddenly seems to develop even more of a life on it's own, levitating out of Haley's shirt, though it's still hanging on her neck, faintly tugging her forward. But more importantly than the faint tugging are the symbols on it's back shining brightly and projecting a summoning circle onto the ground. The circle spreads, lines moving in strange ways until it encircles the group of students, leaving only Nailah and Emily outside of it.

[Nailah Weaver]

Finally noticing that something is happening Nailah looks over and runs towards the group, only to be lifted into the air and thrown back the moment she even comes close to the arcane circle.

[Calvin Strong]

"Well, this isn't ominous or anything..."

[Haley Crusek]

...well shit

Haley grabbed at the amulet, not really sure what to do. While she didn't especially like Nailah, she wasn't especially sure she could help the rest of her classmates get back to reality.

[Brigid Plunder]

"...what the crap, Haley?"

[Narrator]

The amulet doesn't seem like it'll budge from where it is floating in mid-air. Meanwhile the vegetation in and near the circle quickly shrivels up among a smell of sulfur that seems to seep from the symbols.

Dusting herself off and slowly edging as close as she can get Nailah shouts something at the kids but it sounds far away as if she was standing at the other end of a football field and not just ten yards or so.

[Calvin Strong]

Shit. Enhance and replay. Use word recognition if you have to.

Code: Select all

Acknowledged

[Haley Crusek]

"She gave me the fucking thing!" she protested, pointing at Nailah...who they could barely hear.

"Shit..." Haley tried to rip off the amulet.

[Brigid Plunder]

"Then why is it repelling Professor Weaver?"

[Alex Carpenter]

Alex just looked around, trying to take everything in and figure out... SOMETHING to do. Which he realized would be hard since this was totally not his area of expertise. Not that he really had an area of expertise.

[Kayla Turnbull]

Kayla scowled, readying her giant fishing net, twirling it about her head as she attempted to engulf the amulet.

[Haley Crusek]

"Fuck if I know!"

She was getting to be an exceedingly good liar.

[Narrator]

Kayla's net seems to have a strange effect. As it settles over the amulet a fishnet-patterned forcefield seems to become visible around them, which seems to be what is keeping Nailah at bay.

It takes Calvin a moment to figure out what Nailah is saying but after a couple seconds he manages to replay it.

"That's a summoning circle! Get out of there now!"

And that is when the ground gives away underneath them and the world seems to fold in on itself around them. Space seems to fold the Sea of Tranquility away and instead the kids might catch a glimpse of their sleeping bodies in the real world rushing towards them as they go tumbling towards a red glow...


((New thread incoming))

[Calvin Strong]

"...Well, at least it got explained," Cal sighed as they were swallowed up by the summoning.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah wakes up in the almost empty room. Her eyes dart over to Emily, making sure the girl is waking up as well and then notices the pendant left behind in Haley's seat. Grabbing a pen from the whiteboard she walks over to it and lifts it up with the pen. Quick thinking, Kayla. Kept it from getting dragged along as well.

She turns around to the waking Emily. "We need to hurry. Could you do me a favour?"

[Emily Inque]

"I am not broken," Emily says with a nod.

[Nailah Weaver]

"No you're not. You need help, but you're not broken." she says, carefully studying Haley's amulet. "But first we need to get everyone back and I can't use this on myself. But I might be able to send someone else through to get the kids back. Go find Ryan Gabriel. Tall, blond, sometimes he sports wings, kind of smarmy? Tell him to come here."

[Emily Inque]

"As you wish, Mistress," Emily says.

[Ryan Gabriel]

It wasn't too much longer before Ryan finally, having left Emily behind out of pure frustration, made it into the room. "Professor?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Oh good, you're here." she says without looking up at Ryan. She seems busy drawing an extensive summoning circle on the floor, occasionally glancing at the amulet played in the middle of it.

"I need your help getting the kids back."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, closed it again... then turned around, thumping his head into the wall a couple times.

Then he took a deep breath. "What happened?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Miss Cusek was wearing something that held a nascent portal to Limbo. And to answer your follow-up questions. No I don't know why or how. Because it is warded against me. And because they know and trust you and because if I'm sending anybody into Hell it certainly won't hurt to have it be an angel. I hear they're rather superstitious down there." she says. It seems she doesn't care for sticking to the regular flow of conversation right now.

"I've reconstructed most of the circle thanks to Miss Turnbull being clever enough to ground the amulet here so what'll happen is that I'm going to slingshot you there, you'll have a couple minutes to gather everybody up and then you'll be yanked back here."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Okaaay...

"Do I have any more questions?" he asked.

[Nailah Weaver]

"I don't know, do you?" she asks, standing up. "Oh, they might have moved but they should be the only thing even remotely alive in the usual sense of the word so they should stand out like a sore thumb to you."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Right. So it's going to yank me back after a few minutes... any way for me to keep that from happening before I've got them all?" He caught himself, then held up his hand to forestall the inevitable reproach, "Aside from hurrying, which I'm already going to do?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"It'll feel like a strong current. You might be able to fight it but don't escape it completely or we'll be right back where we started minus one X-Man."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Right. Anything we can do to keep me from breaking free of it very easily?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"You'll just have to feel your way through it, I'm afraid."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"One of those missions. Got it."

"And if they're too separated for me to get all of them, is there any way for me to send the ones I can get back without me?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm afraid not. If you can't get all of them we'll try again."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Nothing for it, then. I'll just have to make it quick."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Go ahead and stand in the middle then and pick up the amulet."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan walked into the circle, picking up the amulet. He looked it over, wondering what, exactly, this was going to be like.

[Nailah Weaver]

"This will only take a moment." Nailah says, putting the last finishing touch on the circle and chanting something in Ancient Egyptian. It's probably good Ryan can't understand them because they sound a little too much like funeral rites to be comfortable. And then the world suddenly fractures and melts away as it folds itself in around Ryan. He'd feel like he's falling without any particular sense in what direction, only that it feels like it's rapidly getting warmer. And then he suddenly comes to an abrupt stop and reality flashes back into existence. A rather messy reality as he might find, because the floor of the demonic church he's standing in is covered in the guts of the demon guards that are lieing on the floor. Around them a small group of rather angry looking demons are standing, talking hectically in some guttural sounding tongue.

[Ryan Gabriel]

The sense of falling, Ryan endured with only a mild discomfort owing to the directionless nature: any flyer worth his wings should be acquainted with the feel of free-fall. He was more distracted by a strange tugging in his chest he felt at Nailah's chanting... but then there was no time to consider such things.

He took one look around him, and that was all he needed. Light flashed as his wings spread behind him, eyes glowing furiously. It felt like a fire was igniting in his chest as his eyes lit up, his glare daring any of them to come at him.

[Narrator]

Heads turn and fangs are bared as the demons snarl at him, even as his wings unfurl. But after a moment something seems to change. There's a strange hum in the air and the demons suddenly stumble backwards and towards the door, paying little regard to each other as they flee from Ryan. They shout something unintelligible over and over as they flee out the door, leaving behind one of the bulkier, slower demons who falls to it's knees a couple steps from the door, clutching it's horned head. Suddenly he seems to go slack and crashes down to the floor with a thud.