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There were voices.

He could hear them but he couldn’t make out the words. He didn’t recognise what he could hear anyway, he didn’t really expect to, he was alone here, for the time being, alone in a very strange and intimidating school, a school which hadn’t specified nets, or pain, or what felt like dying in their prospectus. He lingered as long as he could in the limbo between sleep and waking, trying to piece together what had gone on to land him here, trying to do a damage assessment.

He felt like he had lost a fight with a bag of hammers. Every single inch of him ached, a raw and primal sort of ache, an ache which had moved in, built a house and was in it for the long term.

Oh Jack did he intend to write that complaints letter.

Slowly thoughts returned to the void of his mind, groggy memories of a chase, a broken pen, even an attempt to attack – though that hadn’t gone well. And then the strange man with the scythe, and the odd students. Odd, not because of their unfamiliarity, everyone was unfamiliar here, but odd because of the way they acted, what they spoke of, as if everything was just some bizzare game for them, a quest to capture the non-caped students.

He wished he knew what it had all meant. He’d thought it was a class, right up until the fire. No teacher would be mad enough to try and kill their student would they? The unfortunate truth was here, he didn’t know.

Finally the world of waking had intruded too far on his last clinging attempts to stay unconscious, and he had to grudgingly open his eyes, pupils shrinking to slits immediately as even the dim lighting of the room assaulted his senses, making him outright groan in surprised pain as his eyes also joined in the aching. He rolled onto his side with a weak grunt, barely registering the various bugs this action disturbed from their places. Still squinting things came into view slowly as he looked around realising as he did so he was far from alone, the voices he’d heard had been of the other students. Some of whom he recognised as on his side, whatever his side was in the fight. Seemed like the fire, whatever the hell it had been had wiped them out and sent them all back here to..to where? It looked like a hospital. At least no one was captive anymore by the looks of it, there were no red capes either. He was going to be phobic of those things for a long time.

Maybe not as long as he was going to be phobic of fire though.

He just hoped the others he’d been speaking to before all hell broke loose were alright too. He didn't think he could see any of them right now.

When Mac woke, he could still feel the incredible sting of the flames that literally burned him to dissipation. His nerves were all on end, his entire body covered with pins and needles, but as he sat up he had more important worries; Lizzy, Amphi, Mot, other people...where the jack were they?! It didn't take him long to realize that the huddled group nearby was surrounding Riley, and from what he could see between the bodies, it wasn't good. At all.

Hang in there, he urged her mentally; he wasn't sure if he could hear it, hell, he didn't even know if the whole mindspeak thing worked both ways, but also because he couldn't bring himself to talk. The Reaper didn't like Riley. In fact he was pretty sure she ranked somewhere in the '******** off and die' range of his hate list, but despite that he really didn't want her to die...at all.

He heard Lizzy speak shortly after that; he didn't hear his name but he heard her call for Amrita, and that was good enough for him. So he looked around for the others on his list; Mot was gone, but...ah, there! Amphi! Despite feeling like pins and needles, the Reaper strode over to the ghoul, leaning. kneeling, whatever he had to do to get close enough to her, to slide his arms around her and hug her gently, lightly patting her soft hair.

"I'm sorry, Amphi. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to drag you into it, I just..." Mac wasn't a stranger to the feeling of guilt, and he hated that this was yet another ghoul he was experiencing it with due to his actions. Why, Why, Why! "I'm so sorry..."

Shehk took her hand from Christof's shoulder to pull Jericho into a hug. It wasn't a strong one, able to be pulled from, but still the pricolici extended that offer of comfort to the dragon. She didn't try to whisper things like 'it'll be ok' and 'it just looks bad' because...well..... she wasn't exactly one who was going to try and sugarcoat how bad everything looked with something that could possibly end up being a lie.

And she only wanted to offer comfort, not false hope.

Still, the pain that still lingered in her own heart, even after trying to swallow it down came back and began to throb in her chest...but she wouldn't cry. She wasn't going to let Riley wake up to tears from her. She refused.

Though it really seemed that the spot next to Riley's cot was turning into a giant emotional worry-fest.

After several minutes of waiting, Yǐn Cáng was tired of laying there trying to be still. Almost everyone seemed faintly familiar, so they had probably been caught up in the same burst of flame as he had. Apparently some had other injuries that were being tended. The infirmary, that must be what this place is. I am not infirmed.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position, looked around the room, and got up and left. He had no idea of where he actually was, but if he got outside surely he could find the Monster Dorm. And once there he was somewhat certain he could get to his room. Maybe. His whole body felt stiff as he moved rather slowly toward the door, when he got away from everyone he would need to do some stretching exercises, and then he desperately needed to work on his fighting skills, if that fight in the forest had been any indication.

He skirted around anyone else as he just wanted to process things, and figure out what questions he needed to ask. What had happened? Who were those people? Was this a normal day at school?

((Exiting))

Jericho didn't say anything. His gaze was fixed onto the floor as he was concentrating on keeping himself in control. He took several slow and deep breaths before hearing and feeling Lizzy right by him. Feeling her lightly pat his head, along with Shehk's small hug did help a little in terms of comfort.

Bringing up a scaled hand, he just wiped his eyes before finally looking up towards Lizzy and Shehk.

Nodding to them to show that he appreciated it, he just remained where he was. He could hear what everyone was saying around him, but right now, he didn't have anything to say. The dragon just wanted Riley to be alright.

It had taken a few moments, but Thackery was eventually able to calm himself down and make an attempt at not hyperventilating. The offending bug was nowhere to be seen, and the livening commotion was filling his ears with voices tinged with distress and defeat and annoyance, effortlessly blanketing any sound of little insect feet tapping along.

A little wave was offered back in the stitched-together boil's direction. It was obviously very tense here, but there was no need to be impolite. "Hey. Hey, um, you don't have to worry. I bet everything will be okay. You did a good job with the nets. You did the best you could." The smile that he flashed at the end of his attempted comfort might have shown too much insight into the fact that he wasn't sure whether or not he actually believed the words he was saying, but he didn't want anyone to feel bad or upset. They needed to pull together and be strong again. For Riley, this time.

He waited for someone with more knowledge than he to answer the other dog's question. He was sure the curious boil was someone he'd seen before, but he failed over and over in remembering his name. When no answer came, he made a soft hm sound, and slowly began to crawl to the edge of his bed. He wasn't sure how to explain it with any real facts or clarity, but he could explain what he saw. The other students needed to know that much.

Upon reaching the edge, he began to play a very clumsy game of floor-is-lava. That bug - and maybe more bugs! - was still out there, and he wasn't going to let his guard down. He'd had to brush his teeth sixty-three times after the Other Bathroom beetle. Not happening again. For once, he thought it might be nice to be a cat. Cats were made for this. Coming out of a stretched step that he had seriously misjudged, he tumbled next to the black dog, wincing apologetically before he began to recount the last few things he could remember.

"Well, there was this. Fe...nc...e?" Off to a good start. He had no clue what he was talking about. "And it locked all of the horsemen and us in it, but the horsemen and Riley and West were able to break out. I think it was eating our FEAR, because it started to hurt about then. So they all started to attack him, the one in the red cloak who was saying all of those things about us and Red. But he must be pretty strong. He had this knife and it had this...sort of glow to it? Then he was gone for a moment...I might have closed my eyes for a minute...and then he stabbed her with it. It made a bad noise. And...and she didn't get up. I don't remember much from there because the fence was starting to hurt worse than..." he tried to gauge it. "...anything. Almost anything," he corrected. That dagger probably was worse.

In a corner of the nurse's appeared a black and white loading bar that was intangible as it flickered dimly like an old skelevision running for too long. It was slow and the process was dismal but eventually it reached 100% revealing Pepin's figure floating weakly.

She groaned and rubbed her head but was in good enough condition to not need any immediate attention. "Ugh worst reboot.... ever. Just wanna sleep mode in room.." she pouted to herself.

Cricket didn't even look up when Malodore entered her 'domain', as it was, simply keeping at her task as it was.

"Riley has stopped leaking FEAR, but has not regained consciousness." she said calmly. "The first is good, the second is not so great. However, I do need to put some effort into trying to fix this wound." She seemed to purposely chose the word 'wound', though it sounded like she'd wanted to comment on the massive gaping hole in the student she'd already had to attend to once before.

"If you wish to help, check to make sure everybody is in one piece. If they are, they may leave when they feel ready. If not, they will remain until I can see to them. Then come and sit with her."

There was a strange softness at the end of that statement, but given what Cricket herself had gone through in the last month, well..... she wasn't making any promises of Riley's condition, as it was. She didn't expect to fail, but she also knew that all of the comfort the Mindflayer could have even in this state would help.