Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tess didn't have a chance to respond to Lizzy after they stopped hugging. The next thing the winged ghoul knew, someone shot her friend. Crimson eyes widened in horror, "LIZZY!" turning towards the direction the shot came from. Unfortunately, she turned right into an attack. The flat of a large blade struck her full on, and without her legs to anchor her, she was sent right into the wall. She nearly blacked out upon impact, stars winking in front of her eyes as she slid to the floor.

Legs, who did not feel the pain her upper half had gone through, rushed to stand protectively over her upper half. Had Legs the means, she would most likely be giving Tess' attacker the finger.

HP: 6/40

((Entering from the Gauntlet))

Hel lunged into the tent, spear ready, though the sight that greeted her had her pausing as she reeled in shock and disbelief. The glimpses the Soul Harvester had given them were nothing compared to this. Dual-toned eyes widened as she took in the cages and the machinery that were harming and caging their fellow students an HallowenTowners. Luckily Willow had found a key to unlock some cages, because the Valkyrie was in no mind set to be looking for one. She was enraged.

At the sight of her sister, Lattice and Lizzy though, the reaper leapt into the air over other Hunters and students to land near Lizzy, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder. “Lizzy!” Hel cried out, her face etched with relief despite her furrowed brow. While she may have been irritated with the spider demoness earlier, it was nothing, and she could only feel glad that her hand was on the ghoul right now, and that she was out of that cage.

It seemed there wasn’t any time for talk, as Hunters started to attack students…and then a more menacing and imposing figure appeared. Hel whirled around, standing in front of Lizzy protectively, since her sister had Lattice, her spear outstretched. It didn’t escape her attention though, that quite a few Hunters were attacking her sister. “Cowards!” She sneered, “Harming another while she can not strike back!” As much as she wanted to try and take on the Hunters who were harming Freya…the target at the moment needed to be that one who issued the commands. Take out the leader and hopefully the rest would be challenged, right?

Hel pointed a finger at the lead Hunter, her spear clenched tightly in her hand as she cast her spell.

Aww, he wanted to clip the pretty bird's wings! Too bad, her face was much prettier when covered in blood. Elsie's spiked anchor was only drawn back enough to keep from toasting the girl; they had to hurt, not kill. As difficult as it was...all he had to do was drop Elsie on them, and they'd be done for. Two less disgusting creatures in their way...but alas, don't kill he said.

"Guys." The blonde Sun Hunter said, looking pointedly at Davey and Before. "I'll watch these two, go bring down some'a the healthy ones." He made a shooing motion with his hand, looking between his comrades and the halloween horrors. Freya and Lattice were, after all, too close to death to attack.

"Lookit the pretty bird." Jeremy taunted, holding onto Elsie's chain and taking steps closer to the pair he brought down. He hovered over the pair, looking down on them before gently resting his foot above a cut on her arm. "Protecting the pincushion, how sweet!" Grin twisting, Jeremy pressed down on the wound under his dirty sneaker. He kept it there as he leaned down, casually pulling something from his pocket.

"Polly want a cracker?" He sneered, offering a crumbling, lint-ridden cracker. It probably wasn't a good idea to ask why he even had one.

Freya felt the sting of Jeremy's boot on her arm punctures, and finally cried out for the first time when he dug his heel into the wound. Her grin was gone, if only because she was mad that she'd let him make her scream. Her weakness was showing, and it made her sick.

Her body was heaving up and down with heavy, quickened breaths. There was so much hate in her eyes when she looked up at him. What, exactly, had she done to this boil to make him treat her, and her friends this way?

Why was he being such a human?

"Yeah. Polly wants a cracker." She seethed out of her clenched teeth. "Why don't yeh comes here and feeds it to me, hah?" That's right Jeremy, put your fingers right next to her teeth. Freya doesn't bite.*

*This is a lie.

(( posting from phone, bear with me ))

There was a sick sense of satisfaction as the girl under His dirty shoe screamed. It was good to know they could be hurt, and he did enjoy every moment of pain that he could inflict. His only regret was that it wasn't Quasimodo or that lazy mud creature, but the pretty bird and her pincushion would have to do.

"Hrm..." The hunter hummed, tilting his head back to get a better look at the blonde. It was such a pity that she was a monster...she had a nice body (if you imagined everything else as cosplay). "Yanno what, I don't think I will." He decided, crushing the lint ridden cracker in his tanned fist. "Polly could stand to skip a few meals." That sneer was back, and this time his attention turned to the pincushion.

"I've been stabbed with pins before, and I gotta say, it didn't hurt then, you can't hurt me now." Golden eyes rolled, and he leaned further onto Freya's arm. "So how's about you shut your face before your friend here gets it even worse, hmm?" He sounded sweet this time, like he was suggesting dinner and not pain. His expression though, held nothing but malice.

"Davey!"

Pushing himself up, Gale launched himself across the tent floor, skidding to a stop directly in front of the one-armed Hunter. He swung the sniper rifle in his hands out, pointing it directly at the needle-armed creature - though it seemed there was no need. Jeremy was already there, his foot pressing down on one of them.

"You all right, mate?" Gale said to Davey, without turning around. He glanced down at the blonde haired one - the winged girl, and tilted his head, as if scrutinizing her as she pushed away from Jeremy's foot. Gale remained silent, however, gaze flickering upwards to Before and Bix, standing a short ways away.

"I already shot that one - " Gale jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the creature with the red spikes (Bul). " - I think there are a few more that have managed to slip under the radar, though."

The room had erupted into chaos. Prisoners took up arms readily against their captives, or were dragged to safety by friends. Then the hunters came running in, felling students left and right. As luck would have it, none of them had taken notice of the manticore ghoul milling around aimlessly in the middle of the battlefield.

That was just fine with Cady, but it did give her a LOT of time to formulate more questions. Questions like -

She couldn't help herself. Hollering over the din, she pointed at the one-armed hunter. "HEY, YOU! HOW COME YOU ONLY HAVE ONE ARM? Is it hard to balance? Can you do a handstand? Do you hit people cos' you're mad? Wanna fight about it?"

She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. She felt so much better. Now if someone could just tell her what was going on, or why they were here, that would be FANTASTIC. The trauma of the last few minutes had yet to catch up with her- sometimes being a little thick in the skull was a blessing.

Jeremy stumbled back as the pretty bird fought back, gripping Elsie's chains to keep from stumbling too far.

"Oh good! Polly's got some spark left!" When she reached up to push him, a free hand shot forward to knock her hand away, before returning to grab her throat. "But you know what you really are?" He said in a stage whisper, as though imparting some important secret. "You're scum." The Sun hunter informed her, golden eyes narrowed. "Your valiant attempts don't hide how pathetic you are." His free hand, though still gripping Elsie's chain, pointed at the pale, masked girl behind her, the pincushion that tried to get him to stop. "You can't even protect yourself, how the hell do you expect to protect your little friend there?"

Jeremy was absolutely loving this; being relentlessly cruel to a beast that meant nothing to him. It was almost relieving in some way. His attention moved once more to the pincushion that the bird was trying to desperately to hide. "But you know what? I might be able to help get your friend out, if you promise to be a good, pretty little bird." He didn't mean a word of what he said, but he sure put effort into making it believable.