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d**k

It seemed that the figure had returned to the spring, and d**k found himself frowning.

"Hey dickwad," Ha, "we wouldn't have even found this place if someone else hadn't come here first. Left the door wide open for us to walk in. Some 'locked away' you have going here." he said as he crossed his hands. "Clearly the ones who shouldn't be here?

You." he pointed at the stranger.

Radoch stopped running once he was inside the cave - the evil cave. He knew this place was bad - the singing water was not natural, nor were the writings on the wall - but it was till a part of Amityville and Amityville was what he would protect. Amityville was a part of him, like his horns or feet, and the Musimon took care of what was his - cloaked Reaper or not.

"You're just spouting nonsense; a scareling's bedtime story. Get out of our school, and we'll get out of your face. Should be simple enough, really. Or do you want to leave blood everywhere again like a woman?" Radoch sneered and spit, taking a platonic position near Pyre that would allow him to catch her if she lost balance.

"Don't overwork yourself songbird, you've gotta sit pretty at graduation."

She was going to die. Oh Jack, the pain was horrid, unrelenting, and everything took on a blue hue that threatened to overwhelm her into the darkness of unconscious or death - if death had a color she assumed it would be as dark as the Jackforsaken maze she had to hazard.

So it was with deep surprise that she gasped with when the pain disappeared. Surprise, relief . . . and suspicion. As Callie forced herself up with trembling limbs, picking up the sword beside her, she couldn't help but wonder as she followed the others inward. "Y-You didn't have to stay," she told Ashly in passing as they made their way, a little, pained smile on her lips. "But . . . thanks." It was good to know that in spite of their variety of personalities and amicability, Defenders knew how to back their members up. It was most of the reason she joined in the first place - she knew they were tight-knit, arguments or not.

And then that smile left her she they found the figure and listened to his story. Callie stood tense, all too aware of the tight grip she had on the hilt of her sword. When the figure finished, she paused for a moment to ponder, letting others contribute their comments first before she added her two seeds. Akithor was right, villains never gave the full story without some poking.

"That right? Oy, why don't you make yourself clearer, Reaper Man?" the golem challenged in a bolder voice than her weakened condition should've allowed, brandishing the weapon. "How about you give us some names. What factions? What war? You think we're scarelings who'll swallow that mud without asking questions? There's a quest here we have to finish, and part of it means getting you out of the picture, one way or the other.

"So! How about you take that hood off and come clean?"

"I'm fine I just..." Skylar paused, staring at the others in disbelief.

"Why the hell is everyone so quick to pick a fight?!" Skylar said aloud. The man was trying to meet them half way and what were they doing? They were acting like their usual selves. Stubborn! They needed to cool their heads and think for once! Try and look at the bigger picture here. What the man was offering was a compromise, a way to keep the peace between them. But no. Everyone was so determined to ignore this and provoke him even. All for the sake of a Jacking cave!? A cave that they knew nothing about. Not its worth. What was valuable about it. Nothing!

"Jacking idiots...!"

Moira, freed from the net, was much more capable of coherent thought - and, as she listened to the students around her, she had to agree. Peace, surely... ahh, there was a reason she'd nearly become part of DETH, but Defenders had spoken to her in the end. Still, did Defending mean provoking? She hadn't understood why it was so important to fight, why Red had launched herself at the strange Reaper in the first place.

She still didn't.

Cowed, she waited. If the reaper began attacking, then she would have a reason to fight; until then, the zombie felt trapped by her own confusion.

Kani was in the back, having moved her aching body from the ground to the crowd that had gathered once more before the figure. From their short time together, she could gather a few things. They were in an important cave. It was being hidden and guarded for a reason. The Reaper had a reason to be here. They lacked information. The Reaper could hurt them easily, yet was giving them more than one chance to back down. If he was just here to hurt them, he would have done so without letting them go.

"Guys. We're here to protect. I don't think attacking is bright."

She looked to the Reaper. "But we do need more information. Just something more." Just a bit of information, showing they were willing to listen, and she could leave without feeling as if she was tricked.

Rengath wanted to leave. In over their heads, way to deep. This was something they shouldn't be taking on. He was fine for a fight but now when he knew he was going to be outmatched. One dissapation had been enough for him thank you very much he didn't need anything else.

No more fighting thank you very much he could do perfectly well on his own.

On his out out of the cave.

Looking to the others he wondered if they had any idea what the reaper might be capable of. They had to be careful, the second this guy started talking about offers and truths and jack all...
"What did you do to the ones in the woods?" Rengath was trying to stay far away, he didn't want to risk getting ensnared. "Where are they?"

As soon as Vanth reunited with Argyle, she clung to the vampire like glue. If he had been in the nets like the others she'd stumbled past in her adrenaline-fueled horror, she didn't know what she would have done. If he had been dissipated. If he had been one of those lifeless bodies with their vacant stares, it would have been too horrible for her heart to bear. So she just hung on for dear life as though any moment he was going to vanish from her fingers like so much smoke.

There was nothing to go back to, if it was even possible to escape now. Only forward, to whatever horror awaited them. All of their classes, their imminent graduation, it seemed so forgettable when compared to the dangers that hid at the heart of the safest place in their worlds. Vanth cast a doleful look toward the survivors. The Defenders, ready to die fighting, even if it took everyone and everything else down with them. A few other scattered, perhaps all that remained of the notorious SCREAM. Some she knew well, DETH's many members assembled, maybe no longer to rescue, but to survive, together. Her friends, her allies.

Vanth couldn't help but feel enthralled, even for a few moments, by the Reaper's talk of a peaceful coexistence that had once been. It was her dream, wasn't it? And then she remembered the way the others collapsed comatose as they listened to his words, some protesting even as they fell, and she buried herself further into Argyle's jacket and scarf as her heart pounded in fear. Janus began to growl, a low rumbling sound.

"May," she squeaked quietly, muffled in the cloth. "May, I want to believe him too. But there's something wrong with this, with him. All the people who went to the forest were unconscious and pulled away in nets. The professor never showed up, we waited, and he never came."

"No matter what's down here, if he's trying to keep it a secret," she murmured with a touch of finality, her eyes sliding inexorably back to the situation, "I don't think we can really just walk away."