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<< Gabrian is entering from Room 12 >>

At first, there was only darkness, and then, a series of ear splitting screams, which not only roused the nix up from the depths of unconsciousness, but sent him into a state of panic. Upon opening his eyes, the serpent saw... iron bars and instantly noticed he was caged. Being caged was apparently not something that sat well with the demon; either that or it tugged at some sort of primordial fear, seeing as how his first reaction was that of aggression. Within the limited space of the cage, the nix hissed, aimed and then used his tail to hit the iron bars.

Unfortunately, not only was the attack horribly ineffective, but it hurt a lot more than it should have, seeing as how a jolt of electricity went through him upon contact. Instinctively, Gabrian hissed at the bars again, shoving himself far against the back of the cage. It was through the red haze he was seeing that he recognized the voices around him, "I'm fine, Ren, relax," that was easier said than done, but it still needed to be stated despite the fact the demon felt anything but relaxed, "I'm fine; we're fine. Don't panic. Don't give them benefit of seeing us panic," his attention turned to Tybalt as he spoke and then towards Jove as he rammed himself against the bars, which was almost as ineffective as his own attack.

For the first time in a very long while, Gabrian was genuinely scared. Why was it that filed trips always took a turn for the worse? He'd have given anything to be back in that water from before.

Tybalt winced as the two struck at the bars which apparently did nothing but hurt them.

"I think it's safe to assume that isn't going to work either..." He gave a sigh and scrapped his nails against the flat surface of the cage.

What to do? What to do..?

"Who do you think they are?" he asked, moving his head closer to the bars; careful not to touch them.

"I thought we were here for training or something... Were there supposed to be others here?" Then it finally occurred to him. He had met people very similar to the hooded figure with the large glowing axe before. In fact, it was during the last field trip.

"Ah! Do you think it's them? Y'know from the last time?" He asked again, this time pressing his nose too close to the bars and was rewarded with a strong zap. "Ow!" It stung more than he expected... "I hope I can find that little s**t who attacked me and took off afterwards. I want a re-match!" He complained while rubbing his nose with his hand.

(( Entering from group thread! ))

Coralie woke to the throbbing beat of her head and the screams of others. Jack damn it, did they have to be so loud? As she began to sit up she felt some of the cricks in her neck and other muscles. She had been sitting in a very odd position. It took her a moment to realize why, as her eyes had to adjust to the light and the headache. She was in a cage. She blinked.

"I know I'm up for experimentation and all that, but this seems a little aggressive," she grumbled.

It was then she realized that everyone else seemed to be in cages too. She didn't bother trying to stick her hand through the bars or anything-what good would it do? She was a witch, not a mouse-though she did inspect what little she could see from where she sat. It was the best she could do really, as she still felt rather battered. Physical resilience was not exactly one of her characteristics.

"Is all that yelling really helping?" she grumped at all of them. "You're no better than Wil-" she stopped. With a frantic jerk she took off her hat and looked at it. Wilfred was silent. And very still. She'd never seen the like before. "Wilfred?" she asked quietly, poking at him. Nothing. Damn.

She felt suddenly very cold.

"Shhhh, Ren, he's okay; if he's got enough strength to fling himself against these bars, chances are he's fine, relax," the nix tried to near the bars in an attempt to get a better look at the gryphon, or rather... so the monster could get a better look at him. It was almost like the demon was trying with all his might to comfort the other boil, despite the fact he felt just as scared and useless as the others, "Panicing isn't going to help us," he flicked his tongue out and in several times in an attempt to figure out what was going on outside, his eyes shifting to look at Tybalt as he too came near the bars, his nose almost poking out between the spaces, "They - I don't know whom 'they' are. They... whomever put us here."

He watched Cora as she woke up and reacted to the hollow feeling he'd felt upon being roused from unconsciousness but just as he was about to open his mouth again, something hushed them.

"Shhhhhhhhh."

Came the sound, and Gabrian slowly turned his head towards his right, trying to make out the outline of the shape he could only barely just see.

"Quiet. They'll hear you. They'll all hear you."

Again he opened his mouth, questions practically spilling forth, however, he thought twice about it and snapped it shut. Instead, the nix eyed the woman... no, wait, it was a child.... an old lady? Her form seemed to shift and it reminded Gabrian briefly of Tse. Silently, he watched the old lady, questions dancing in his eyes.

Footsteps were approaching now, a couple of voices arguing just outside the half-folded fabric of the tent. Two strange figures - Reapers perhaps- , garbed in white, though their faces were blocked off from view.

"Don't touch the settings on that, I got this." The voice came from further away, presumably where the two were standing.

"No, I already fixed it, I told you that already. Don't you have other things to do like, taking care of the injured or something?"

"You are a jerk you know that?"

One of the set of footsteps walked away, and then silence again.

The ghost that had warned them did not move from her spot, nor did she speak. She simply raised one long, spindly - as her body aged rapidly again - finger towards the other cages - eleven of them. The occupants inside were silent, though some of their half-obscured forms could be seen through the electric bars.

It wasn't hard to stay quiet at that point. Perhaps some people grew loud when frightened, but Coralie was quite the opposite. It was hard to know what to do, what to say. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been without Wilfred's country twang. She didn't think he was dead or anything, as he wasn't really alive, but still, his stillness was disturbing.

It took her a moment to realize there was a ghostly shape standing among the cages. She kept changing form, making her hard to focus on. Cora's eyes narrowed and she didn't move from where she sat. The numbness of fear was threaded a little with suspition. Why was she outside of the cages, while her fellow team mates, ghosts, couldn't leave? It didn't sit well with her.

Before she could think longer on it there was the sound of voices and what looked to be reapers. Her gut told her they weren't, though. They sure as hell looked like reapers, though, which was unsettling all on its own. Betrayed by her own kin, in a way? She wasn't sure what to think. If this was some kind of sick joke she wasn't sure if she could applaud or punch them in the face. When they left, all that remained was the strange ghost, whom Cora watched with narrowed, untrusting eyes.

No sooner had the ghost ghoul asked them to hush that voices began to drift nearer, and despite the fact Gabrian was straining to understand what they were saying... he couldn't really make heads or tails of the conversation he overheard. One of the figures (were they reapers...? The the demon had a hard time believing that they were) was pretty much dismissing the other one, but the way he was doing it seemed to indicate there were injured people; causalities. What was this, a war zone?

Where on Jack's pumpkin patch were they?

As the voices faded away, the ghost indicated to the other cages, and the serpent slowly raised his gaze to take note of them before looking back at the ghoul, "Open them," the words weren't spoken, but rather, mouthed silently at the ghost, "Please," after all, in their current state they could not really do much; they couldn't open their own doors, so how was knowing that there were other occupied cages going to help them?