[Salone]

"Meat."

Lev snarled, backing up a bit as he leveled his revolver on the blind man once again. His sewer was quickly filling up. He was employed by one and in debt to two. This new addition was quickly grating on his nerves.

"Meat, why do you follow? You no take her. I see to that."

[Espy]

Inhale....exhale...Don't let your anger get the better of you, Dante...

Slowly, cautiously, Dante pulled out the two handguns and tossed them towards where he thought the man's feet would be, then reached for the dagger. He dropped it into the muck a couple of feet in front of him.

"Look, I...don't want another fight," he muttered, putting a finger to one of the long jagged scars that had skinned over but still stung. "I don't want to die either, at least not today, and the whole city's bristling with guns."

He held his arms up slightly. "All I really want right now is to get out of here, alright?"

[Salone]

"Okay, Meat. No one in sewer die today. Let me check with map about leaving here."

Lev bent down, pulling up his pants leg again so he could consult his crude map. He fingered it a bit, feeling the lines of raised skin. In his mind he tried to remember every detail he could. Dead ends were the circles, and...

Remembering his way, he stood back up. He confidently strode ahead of the group, feeling sure of himself that his navigational skills were proficient.

"Pick up weapons. You might need them. Sewer is scary place. I spent two days in here. Took long time to make map. Hurt, so had to get right the first time.

[CupcakeDolly]

Rue rolled her eyes - at the men standing off against each other, and at the crowd growing increasingly around her. Just when she'd thought she'd left her troubles behind, they somehow found a way to catch up with her. She followed Lev, only half trusting in his "map" and his ability to read it.

"This is no time to be fighting anyway. If we absolutely must, we can do it when we are clear of this battlefield." Rue reached her psychic presence ahead of the group, wondering faintly if she would even be able to recognize the difference between humans and the creatures which possessed their corpses. Given the nature of most humans she had encountered in her life, the possibility of confusing the two entities seemed entirely likely.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Shealtiel eyes the Artificer askance, wondering if Courage Capsules aren't defective; he's never taken one, himself. He won't last five minutes against that hoard... He knows Michael is a psychic, but that will only make him a beacon for the Emim; he'd never be able to match even one of them, unless he has reserves he hasn't revealed yet.

And yet, Shealtiel is at a loss as to how to convince the guards to open the gates -- is there even anyone manning the walls? He can't see or sense anyone up there, and his MID is completely lit up with the psychic energy the Emim are putting out.

He considers screaming that he is a Servant of Sheol, to open the gates and give him room to face the horde, but... knowing these people, they'd likely think he was the cause of this and shoot him on principle.

Grunting, he steps up next Michael. "If that's how it's going to be, then..." he mutters. He prepares himself for battle, entering a sort of meditative state that will let his body withstand for of the shock and strain Sheol inflicts on it. He'll have to be quick if they're to survive, banishing any spirits that Michael parts from their hosts, and exorcising as many Dybbuk as he can.

His senses don't indicate the Rephaim's presence nearby; it may be coming at Corinth from another direction. Detecting the Emim is harder, as they're more psychic than spiritual in nature. He isn't sure if any are close by.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

The door to the Ecumenical Office is thrown open, and mayor Galena bursts in on Saint Typasius.

"What are you doing still here?!" she screams. "Don't you know what's coming?"

Typasius eyes her coldly, serenely for a moment. "Yes." He says at length. "I've sent word to Saint Georgius and the Sanctorium in Paris. They're mobilizing a response as we speak, though it will be hours before they arrive, even with the Alliance on call to ferry them here."

"Hours? We don't have hours! The Dybbuk--"

Typasius rises from his desk, appearing utterly unconcerned. "There is no need for you to worry. You, and this city are under my protection. I suggest you look in on Saint Acacias, he was wounded earlier. I, on the other hand, have the Wrath of God to bring down. If you will excuse me."

[Espy]

Running his hand through the grime, Dante found his weapons. He wiped them for a bit on his narrow cloak before putting them back into his holsters, then stiffened suddenly.

"What's this oppressive aura that's heading straight towards us? This is not a trap, is it, Mr. Lion?"

[CupcakeDolly]

Rue began to feel colder, which came as no surprise at first, being underground. She soon realized, however, that the coldness didn't originate in her body - it was an icy feeling at the edge of her psychic senses, the coldness of death approaching. She shivered, hearing nothing that even resembled human thought, only the sheer willpower which moved empty corpses.

"We very well may be," she eyed her bodyguard, wondering if he was shrewd enough to have purposely led them into danger, "... a trap for the city, at least. It seems the Dybbuk - or whoever is controlling them - is ensuring that there is no escape for anyone."

[Salone]

Lev stumbled, a first from hearing his name called out and from the word 'Dybbuk'. He turned quickly, eyes jumping back and forth from the girl and the blind assassin.

"Dybbuk in city? We need leave then. There is one then there are many. Let us go.

He started off again at a trot. At the back of his head a voice screamed at him to run. He had had nasty incidents with Dybbuk in Tsavo, and childhood memories were pressing at the corners of his currently well-adjusted psyche. Well, well-adjusted enough. As an afterthought, he tossed a few words over his shoulder, keeping his eyes directly in front of him.

"I would not call me that, Meat. That is not good word where I come from."

[Espy]

"And I'd rather not be called that either...Makes me sound like a corpse," Dante replied, grimacing. "What's your name, anyways? Seems like I'll be tagging along for a bit, if only to pay the girl back for not killing me back then. Although," he added with a ghost of a smile, "that wouldn't have been quite fair."

But now that the psychic had mentioned it, Dante did hear it: the dragging feet, the groaning, things only his ears could hear. He could nearly smell it too, the rotting bodies. "No escape for anyone, huh. That'll have to change."

A corner of his mouth twitched upwards in a smirk. "Let's go before shit happens."

[Funkduder]

On the exterior, Michael was looking down the hoard, almost laughing a hideous laugh that reeked of insanity. Inside his head, however, a battle between two Michaels threatened to shake the many resolves of all that granted him identity.
"You can't do this, Michael. You'll die!"
"But I am the greatest, and I have the power, you know that!" said a voice drunken with power. A female voice, cut in between the two, with a ghostly but attracting allure.
"Y-yes-ss. Show them your-r power-r!!!"
"Jez'ebel? Jez'ebel, damn you! Let go of me! Leave me alone!!!" The conscious mind of Michael grew furious inside the cage of the courage capsule. He became a different man whenever he took the capsule, and he knew so when he first took one many years ago.
"Relax, my child. I, the oracle, foresee that you'll live. Just relax, my child. I will take care of you... Michael began to grow sleepy at the sound of her voice.
"Maybe...maybe it will be alright. It's so cold here....so dark.... He was about to fall asleep when a trigger in his mind went off.
"No! I will not be a slave!!!" Jeze'bel's voice retreated.
Michael's consciousness returned to him slowly, as his insane laugh toned down to a confident stare at the hoard. He looked back at the crowd, who huddled together in front of the door. "Maybe they thought I could protect them," he thought. He turned back to the crowd and motioned them out of the way. Using a concentrated blast, he cut a hole through the door in which the people could get back into the city.
"Seal the hole," he told them after they had gotten through. Joining the servant of Sheol, who was meditating, he spoke to him in a normal tone. "Sorry about that. It always happens after I take a courage capsule. I'm fine now. How long do you think we'd last?"

[Serra Britt]

Feenai slowly dropped her connection to the Network, numbly taking in the scent of the sewer. "John.. are we really going to live through this? Dybbuk, sure... we could probably deal with them. The Emim and the Rephaim though? We can't fight those..." Feenai's eyes were already watering from the smell, and the fear of what was coming was very overwhelming.

Since her mental shields were already down, she briefly probed the minds of everyone here. The man who had been wounded before was still giving of waves of pain, even though it appeared that the gunshot wounds had been fully healed. The red haired girl had a shield so Feenai was unable to get much from her. The blind man seemed confident that everything would be fine. And her new friend, Jeanne...did not think she would die.

Emim give off a psychic fear... could it be affecting me? Feenai renewed the mental shields and immediately a small part of the fear dropped away; not all of it, but enough that she could at least stop panicking. I wonder if I could protect the other's minds, if it came down to it.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Shealtiel considers for a moment, or appears to. He may be lost in his preparations. Looking up eventually, he says, "Just the two of us? It depends. If we're lucky, the Emim will move right into the city -- walls won't slow them at all. Of course, that will be unlucky for the people you just trapped in there, but that's the way these things go. I can handle many, many Dybbuk, but I'll fail eventually. And you'll have to keep them off me. Strike at the flanks with your laser; I'll deal with the biggest clusters myself. And if things go bad, try to clear a way for us. There's a bigger meal awaiting them on the other side of that gates."

He furrows his brow, then adds after a few seconds, "That's assuming the Rephaim doesn't come at us itself. Oh, and if they seem to be getting past you, consider setting the gates on fire; that'll likely hold them longer than the gates themselves."

[Sage]

Jeanne nodded at Fee's question, though hearing that there were also Emim and Rephaim lurking around made her a little anxious. Still, she had no intention of dying. Though she planned to play a supporting role in whatever battle may occur - mostly healing and crippling bodies, as she had learned was best when dealing with Dybbuk - if she had to, she would take to the offensive herself. She just hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

"We should be fine," Jeanne said to Fee. "We're just a small group of fugitives in the sewers. Stronger enemies will go for more meaningful kills." The words sounded stronger in her head than they did out loud, and she began to worry that their group actually would meet one of them.

[CupcakeDolly]

"Fine?" Rue sharply addressed the women behind her for the first time since they had rejoined their little group. "You think you will be 'fine'? Perhaps you did not understand me before. Whoever is controlling those things is ensuring that nobody will escape. Do you really think that this man in front of us might be the only one to consider these tunnels as a means of escape?" Though she spoke with harshness, Rue carried herself with a nervous stiffness and worried her bottom lip with her teeth. She reached everywhere with her psychic awareness, searching for enemies hiding in the shadows. What experience she had with the undead had been unpleasant, and she dreaded another encounter - with an entire army of the beasts, no less.

[Salone]

Lev's blood began to boil, quickly getting tired of the overload of chattering and information that was coming from his motley group.

"Quiet, for one second! Sewer, it has one exit. Exits in to river. Before sewer exits though, water hits cleaning facility. Very large. There the water is cleaned, and dumped back in to lake. So unless Dybbuk tread water, they not get in. Not unless they tunnel in. Which I admit, is possibility. I spent two days down here getting lost. I think eventually I would have ran in to...to..."

He pondered something looking up as if the answer was above him. He checked his map again, tracing something. After standing back up, he quickly trotted off in a hurry.

"We must move very fast!"