тonιgнт, we are yoυng; ѕo ι ѕeт тнe world on ғιre [chris; nolli; lara]

The Metro Station always seemed to have a certain distinct stink; that of coffee, sweat, and vomit. Maybe it was the homeless that seemed to gather in it on rainy days, or the drunks that road the trains home. Or maybe it was actually himself, Chris, that stank so bad, because god knows, he had neglected to shower for four consecutive days, and the tequila shots that he had taken earlier (he still had half the bottle in his backpack, along with a new pack of cigarettes and his favourite lighter) seemed to reek from every pore in his body. And his shoes. Good thing he was getting new ones, because he didn’t feel like walking around with some chick’s vomit on his feet forever.

It had been a hell of a night, but that wasn’t saying it had been a good one.

He had been tipsy by eight, and by one he was drunk out of his mind, calling all of his old friends or exes and asking them to blow him, or telling them just how much he actually hates them. It had only gotten worse when some crazy chick had whispered in his ear at one point that she had no panties on and was ready to go at it, and wouldn’t leave him alone when he replied that didn’t want any piece of that, drunk or sober. She had repeatedly tried to grind him, right before her stomach gave out and her dinner ended up on Chris’ shoes. It was at that point, when he went to go clean himself up in the upstairs washroom, that he caught his friend and crush passionately sucking face on the master bedroom’s bed. And somewhere along the way he had gone streaking around the block while people took pictures, and someone had conveniently stolen his pants, so he was currently walking around in a pair of bright pink boxers and over-large grey hoodie.

As a train rolled up, he stepped aboard. He wasn’t sure what train it was, or where it was going, but it had seemed like a good idea to get off the station platform as soon as possible when he noticed two rather large and scary looking men sizing him up. On any other day, Chris might’ve been able to take them on, but he was shitfaced and doubted how well his abilities would do for him in the circumstances.

The train it was rather empty, but that was usually the case when you were riding it at three in the morning. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be out and about this late at night. All the others from the party simply stayed over to avoid taking the risk getting home. But Chris was rather stupid and had over exaggerated how well he could put up a fight if he was mugged.

So there he was, on a train to who-knows-where, vomit on his shoes and alcohol in his system, and ready to take a nice long nap on those cushion-y blue seats.

A nap. It sounded like a brilliant idea.

He paid no attention to the few other train riders (and what the hell were other people doing out at this time anyways?). He just stumbled over to the nearest bench the train offered and fell face first into it. He feebly rolled onto his side so that his back was to the wall, and pulled his knees up onto the bench so he was curled up in a ball. He pulled his hoodie up, pulled the drawstrings, and laid his head down on his arm-pillow.

“Good-nigh’ e’eryone. I love you,” he mumbled loudly to the other people. He yawned, farted, and let his droopy eyes close, just as the train came to it’s next stop and the doors opened.

Nolli stood on the platform of the station and looked down thoughtfully at his shoes. Today, or rather, tonight, he'd chosen to wear his favorite pair of flip-flops along with a charismatic pair of leopard print socks. Nolli looked up as the train he was to board came to a gradual halt. Just as the doors opened, the smell of fresh vomit wafted out and seemed to cause physical impact when it hit him. He stumbled backwards, his eyes tearing. "Sweet Jesus," he muttered. Despite the smell, he boarded the train for the next one wasn't for quite a while. The train was nearly deserted with the exception of a few late night party-goers or workers with late shifts. One guy, in particular, stood out from the rest. Seems like an interesting specimen.

Now accustomed to the rancid smell of the train, Nolli took a seat next to the head of the "interesting specimen." Every now and then, Nolli would nonchalantly glance down at the strange green haired guy. So these are the kinds of people who board the late trains... Normally, at this hour, Nolli would be sound asleep or viewing funny cat pictures on the interwebs. Tonight, however, he'd decided to go out for no good reason. Pulling out the previous day's paper and a cheap ball-point pen, Nolli got to work on the unfinished daily crossword. Fart. Nolli looked down at the green-haired party-goer and scooted over to put some distance between him and the source of the new aroma that now filled the stuffy train car. "...That was a juicy one," Nolli mumbled to himself.

When Chris heard the approach of someone else, he didn’t look up. He continued not to look up, perfectly comfortable just lying there and trying to keep down nausea, until he had let another loud rip go and he couldn’t ignore the mumbled remark. He opened his eyes and lazily turned his head to his bench companion.

Chris grinned, but it looked more like a constipated grimace with his squinted eyes and furrowed brows. “You like that one?” he slurred, and made wafting motions with his hand (the one not currently being used as a pillow) towards the guy. “I-I’ve got plenty more where tha’ one came from, eh?” He let out a chuckle, that ended in a belch.

He puffed up his cheeks, then let out a long sigh. It took him several long heartbeats to notice the open paper in hand. A faint dribble of spit leaked out the side of Chris’ agape mouth before he could find the words to use.

“Wha- whatchu doin’ dere, huh? Why you reading the paper?” He made a fish face with droopy eyes. “The paper is bo-ring. Ain’t nuttin in that piece of shit.” He had begun to shake his head and squirm drunkenly around on the bench, until his head was dangling off the side of the seat so that he was looking up at the ceiling up the train compartment and his arms and legs were sprawled out, so that his fingers just skimmed the fabric of the other guy’s pants.

Chris probably knew in that back of his head that he shouldn’t keep talking, that he should just Shut up, Chris!. But the words were tumbling from his mouth and once they started, he couldn’t stop them.

“The only good shit in that piece of shit paper is the comics. I-I like the comics. Comics make me happy. Happy, happy, happy…” He said the last part in a sing-song voice, and continued singing it (“happy, happy, happy…”). He didn’t notice the other guy’s odd attire, or that the guy wasn’t actually reading the paper. It was his own brain being a douche bag and slowing down on him, but certainly the effects hadn’t yet reached his mouth.

As soon as the last word left Nolli's mouth, the green headed guy opened his eyes and turned his head to face Nolli with a constipated grimace on his face. The stranger's slurred comment was barely coherent through his drunken stupor. “You like that one? I-I’ve got plenty more where tha’ one came from, eh?” The stranger burped. Oh my... Just when he thought the smell couldn't get any worse. Nolli stared at him, dumbstruck.

Though he was quite hard to understand, Nolli continued to listen to the drooly stranger as he rambled on about the newspaper he was still holding. The man, apparently uncomfortable in his previous position, shifted in his seat in such a way that his fingers brushed against Nolli's orange-plaid cargo pants. Nolli looked down, mortified. I must burn these pants, Nolli thought to himself.

Nolli began to feel a slight tingling sensation in the place the stranger's hand had brushed him. Oh god, it's just your imagination, it's just your imagination.... The germs aren't seeping through your pants... and into your flesh... it's not real... His paranoia was interrupted by the strangers semi-audible singing. “happy, happy, happy…”

Amused by the guy's shit faced singing, Nolli grinned forgetting about the imaginary vomity-drunk-guy germs that were making their way into his blood stream. "Ha ha ha, what an interesting character," he said.

In the same second, there was a deafening crash and the train came to a screeching halt. He and the drunken stranger were thrown out of their seats and onto the disgusting floor of the train. "There's no way we're at the next stop already... we're still in a tunnel" As if replying to his comment, the lights of the train flickered and died.

Temporarily forgetting his slight germophobia, Nolli crawled over to where Green Guy now lay and lightly slapped his face in attempt to call him back from the depths of alcohol land. "Ey man, come on, snap outta it."

"The train just crashed."

It had been a night like any other night, Lara was on her way home from a day of freelancing it around the districts and was finding more and more reasons to commit to one side already. Not that she needed much convincing in the first place, she had already set her eyes on Solstice but wasn't quite ready to take on the challenge. Lara knew her time would come, but it wasn't just this second, right now all she wanted to focus on was getting home. She hurried onto the platform as the distant yet extremely loud screeching of the train signaled it's arrival, she wasn't about to miss it when she was this tired and the station smelled this bad. Seriously it smelled like a frat party rolled on by leaving their garbage and bodily fluids behind.

As she walked into a fairly empty cart a whole other rainbow of foul odors hit her like a ton of bricks, but just as she turned around to hurry to another cart the doors slid shut locking her and the smell in. With an agitated sigh she slumped her tired and aching body down onto a seat in the corner, as far away from the people occupying the cart as possible. There were the usual people you would see in the train, some business people in monkey suits, a few teens who looked like adults, a few adults who looked like teens, some questionable individuals who were either sleeping or possibly dead, and maybe one or two harbingers. She paid no mind to the little chatter going on between some of them, instead she laid back against the wall and tried to rest as best she could given her current location and surroundings. It wasn't like her to fall asleep in public, but for once she was tired enough to dose off. Her eyelids felt like they had weights on them and she began to grow surprisingly peaceful, and she was almost out when SCREEEECH! "UGH!" Everyone grunted and screamed as the sudden stop forced their unbalanced bodies to the ground.

"Ey man, come on, snap outta it." Lara looked to her side and saw she landed next to a couple? Or maybe friends, either way one of them was totally wasted and the other trying to get him to come to. "The train just crashed." Her eyes widened as she finally realized what had happened, but after a moments thought she became puzzled. If they had crashed at the speed they were going, surely they would all be dead, or at least very injured from the damage that would have been done to the train. "Hmm." She jumped up to a window and could see no damage at all, which must have meant the train had been stopped not crashed. "We're trapped!" Someone cried out as they frantically banged on any possible exits, causing a panic. Lara could have walked right through one of the walls and been done with the whole situation, but for some annoying reason (possible suspicion on her, or maybe pure curiosity) she decided to try and get them all out. "Everyone calm the fuck down!" Once she got their attention she continued. "We didn't crash but something's off so we need to get out of here, trust me I will leave your asses if you don't cooperate so listen up! Does anyone have anything we can pry these doors open with?" She pointed to the sliding doors and waited for a response.

Nolli was still trying to wake the drunkard when an authoritative sounding voice called out, "Everyone calm the fuck down! We didn't crash but something's off so we need to get out of here, trust me I will leave your asses if you don't cooperate so listen up! Does anyone have anything we can pry these doors open with?" Ah jeez, no need to be a dick about it, but at least someone has enough sense to keep order. Nolli looked up to see the speaker, it was a girl, perhaps 1 or 2 years younger than himself. He couldn't tell for sure. "Uhhh," Nolli looked around the train. He himself wasn't equipped with anything remotely useful in this situation, in fact, he had nothing but the clothes he was wearing.

He sighed, this night has been going nothing but down hill. To top it off, he forgot his blood pressure medication at home so not only was the night taking a turn for the worse, so was his mood. Trying to be polite, he continued, "Look, I understand that you would like everyone to cooperate, but the way you're doing it isn't going to help the situation." He paused. "How about we start like this: Hi. My name is Nolli, what's your name?" He, personally, didn't want to take orders from someone who wasn't even polite enough to introduce themselves (much less yell at him rudely, but he decided to let that one slide taking their situation into account). The people on the train, with the exception of the shit faced stranger; the blonde girl; and himself, all wore looks of panic and virtually radiated tension. Further stressing them out could cause even more trouble than they were already in.

Chris had been quite caught up in singing his happy little tune and ignoring his new companion’s remark on himself, when the train had given the whole compartment a startle by abruptly stopping, flinging everyone to the floor in the process, and flickering lights finally going, plunging the compartment in darkness.

Chris had landed face first onto the hard floor, his nose pressed against the ground and arms and legs sprawled, so that he was in the shape of a star. He mumbled incoherent words into the cold floor and fought back nausea. Beside him, he could hear his companion trying to persuade Chris to get up, but keeping still was probably the only thing that helped keep his stomach down.

That was when he said it. “The train just crashed.”

Chris sobbed into the compartment floor. Loud, disgusting sobs. “I-I died! I’m dead! I‘m sorry for fucking your girlfriend, I-I‘m so sorry. I didn‘t mean to, I just-just love you so much, man.” He choked out the words and looked up at his oddly dressed companion, who’s girlfriend he did not fuck, but for whatever reason the alcohol supplied him, he certainly thought so. “I just-just-just l-love you so, so, so, so, so, so much. I- dunno. I just- ugh.” He had finally sat up, and tried to hug the other guy and press his wet with tears face into the guys chest, but had missed. Before attempting again, he became aware of a girl’s commanding voice.

He stopped crying and stared at her. When she stopped talking, he hadn’t taken in any bit of information she had said, except for the last bit.

“I got something that can-can pry your doors open with!” He called out when she had stopped talking, and with much effort, got to his feet, dangerously swaying to one side.

"Look, I understand that you would like everyone to cooperate, but the way you're doing it isn't going to help the situation. How about we start like this: Hi. My name is Nolli, what's your name?" Chris looked over at his companion- Nolli- and shook his head.

“Don’t mind ‘im, I know your type. You like a re-real man. And here I am,” he grinned and tried to push away Nolli. “I-I’m Chris, but you can call me whatever you want, baby.”

“I-I died! I’m dead! I‘m sorry for fucking your girlfriend, I-I‘m so sorry. I didn‘t mean to, I just-just love you so much, man." The guy was in tears. This is pathetic... I just-just-just l-love you so, so, so, so, so, so much. I- dunno. I just- ugh.”
"It's okay, bro, I love you too, just take a deep breath, okay?" Nolli patted the guys back in attempt to calm him down.

“Don’t mind ‘im, I know your type. You like a re-real man. And here I am,” he grinned and tried to push away Nolli. “I-I’m Chris, but you can call me whatever you want, baby.” The guy's attempts to push Nolli away were futile. His mood turned from bad to worse. "Chris was your name, right? On second thought, perhaps it'd be better if you went back to lying on the floor." Nolli did an inner face palm. This is just what they needed, I sure hope this guy sobers up soon.... "Excuse this guy's behavior, he was already drunk as fuck when I boarded," he said addressing the girl. Nolli's attention was drawn back to Chris as he watched him sway drunkenly from side to side. He let out an exasperated sigh. Anyways... He turned to the girl, "Back to the situation at hand, rather than find a way out of the car, I think our main priority is to get the rest of the passengers situated."

And just like that, Lara was already regretting staying behind. This Nolli guy needed to care less about her tone, and more about a way out, although admittedly he was probably right about a calmer approach. She opened her mouth to reply when his drunk friend emerged from some kind of frantic episode about being dead and being sorry for fucking Nolli's girlfriend or some shit like that and decided to offer some of his drunken insight. What followed was somewhat expected, but still annoying. She rolled her eyes and took a deep breathe, trying to keep her cool. "A real man huh? Honey, you can barely even stand straight let alone think straight, so why don't you take your friends advice and go visit your old pal the floor." A threatening look befell her face for a moment as she got dangerously close to the unstable drunk. "And just so we're clear, if you try anything I won't hesitate to pry your head open with my bare hands."

She turned to Nolli, still not able to bring herself down to the level of calm she wanted. "It's Lara, and you can situate them all you want, but we need to find a way out because I'm not about to spend my night with crazyass broccoli man over here." By the look of things they really would be there all night, maintenance was nowhere in sight and it was a ridiculous hour of the night when only the crazies were out, obviously. She just knew she should have bailed, I mean she didn't owe these people anything right?

Lara was scanning every inch of the cart and pandering whether or not she should leave when she thought she saw some shadows running along the outside of the train, it startled her and she gasped before running up to one of the windows to try and make out what it was, but to no avail. 'Shit. Now I'm going crazy.'

"A real man huh? Honey, you can barely even stand straight let alone think straight, so why don't you take your friends advice and go visit your old pal the floor." Nolli snickered inwardly at her remark. "I think you've misunderstood, he and I are definitely not friends," ignoring the the girl's subsequent comment about prying heads open. Being grouped with this Chris guy just didn't sound very appealing, especially in his current state.

"It's Lara, and you can situate them all you want, but we need to find a way out because I'm not about to spend my night with crazyass broccoli man over here." said the girl, turning back to him. "Pleased to meet you Lara, even if our circumstances aren't exactly the best." He held out his hand to shake, not really expecting her to return the gesture. Nolli watched as Lara scanned the car and decided to take a few moments and calm down the other passengers. Trying not to sound as agitated as he was, he said, "Alright everyone, please understand that this situation requires everyone's utmost cooperation. If we could all just sit down, and try to think this through logi--" His sentence was cut off when Lara ran over to an open window with an alarmed expression. Shit, what is it now...

"Did you see something?" he asked, coming up to look out the window. As he peered into the darkness of the tunnel, he sensed what had caught the girl's attention. "Dear god...," At this hour, the possible identities of the mysterious figures were limited to gang members and other potentially very dangerous types. Obviously, hiding was out of the option and the remaining solutions seemed incredibly risky. Perhaps more choices would become apparent if one of the passengers had a useful Harbinger power? Nolli turned back to the interior of the car, sounding as calm as he could he continued, "Alright folks, I need to know what type of resources we have, please come forward if you are in possession of any useful materials, or 'useful abilities,'" emphasizing the last two words in order to get the point across.

"And just so we're clear, if you try anything I won't hesitate to pry your head open with my bare hands."

Chris looked into luminescent gold eyes and nodded, understanding all too well. He suddenly felt rather sober as he stepped back with a scowl and sat down in a nearby seat. The conversation after that between Nolli and the girl- her name was Lara (how cute)- seemed to finally get the situation to dawn on him. They were stuck on a train, with no means as far as they knew to get out. And he was sure that if they stayed any longer, there would be more vomit on his shoes than before, the nausea was getting so bad. Well, fuck me. I didn‘t ask for this.

He sat quietly in his seat and kept frowning. How the hell did they expect to get out? Whatever Lara’s power was, it probably wasn’t useful if she hadn’t used it yet. Chris, his power. Well, maybe. Shit out a few clones. And what then? What could he get his clones to do?

He looked up when both Nolli and Lara looked out the window with horrified faces. He didn’t understand why, but didn’t really want to know, either. There was a lot he was trying to take in for someone so intoxicated and something distracting outside the window didn‘t seem important enough.

“Alright folks, I need to know what type of resources we have, please come forward if you are in possession of any useful materials, or 'useful abilities,'" sai Nolli to the crowd, and it took a few moments for Chris to catch the last part, but once he did he spoke up in a rather sober voice than before.

“I don’t have any items or anything, but I can make clones and shit, if tha’s gonna be any help,” he said, sitting back comfortably on the bench. He stared unblinkingly at Nolli, hoping that, after the brief episode with Lara, he could prove himself helpful and not a complete drunken dunce.

“I don’t have any items or anything, but I can make clones and shit, if tha’s gonna be any help.”
Ah, clones, that might be useful. Nolli looked around to see who the speaker was. The voice came from Chris, but it didn't sound like Chris because he could sense maybe a hint of sobriety. "Alright, Chris, that may come in handy." Nolli paused, in thought. He was already formulating a plan for if they were, in fact, in the worse case scenario; but he needed more information. Nolli looked around for anything else that could be of any use. Then he spotted Lara still peering out the window. She was a Harbinger too, right? He began to apprach Lara, hoping to find out what her ability was when another passenger came forward.

"How long do you think we'll be down here?" the passenger asked. Nolli looked at the woman, it seemed that the others were also getting over their prior shock. "I don't know, the metro staff should have realized something is off by now, but for all we know, the tunnel could have collapsed or something..." The "something" that is what made Nolli very uneasy. What were the shadows that were lurking outside of the train? Nolli patted the passenger's shoulder in an awkward attempt to provide some comfort.

Putting Lara aside, Nolli scanned the other passengers. It seemed that no one was seriously injured. Perhaps a few bumps and scratches here and there, but no one looked as if they were going to die in the next 10 minutes. Good...

Nolli looked back to the more sober Chris. "Hey Chris, what would happen to you if one of your clones was to be killed or seriously injured?" Not that such a thing was going to happen, Nolli just needed information when planning for the worst possible scenario.

BOOM!! A deafening sound shook the car, Nolli struggled to keep his balance. Then he heard it, the noise of what sounded like a collapsing tunnel. Did those things outside...just blow up the tunnel? Nolli swallowed hard, "Someone should go and check, but I think we might be trapped..."

Out of the corner of her eye Lara could see and hear that Chris's demeanor had changed almost in an instant, was it something she said? If it was she felt almost.. bad. But that was absurd, I mean someone had to give it to him straight right? She knew she could get pretty intense at times, but she honestly couldn't help it. She had to grow up with a constant shield to protect herself from, well the world. In all honesty it was the happy and light spirited people she could never get along with, she always ended up taring them down. Anyway surely that wasn't the case with this guy. Pervs she could handle, but this guy needed to sober up and realize just how serious their situation was, so if anything he should be thanking her! BOOM - Just as Lara had successfully made herself feel better, the sound of a not too distant explosion literally shook her out of her daze.

"Someone should go and check, but I think we might be trapped..." She looked to Nolli, who she half heard working out some kind of plan. He had the same suspicions she had, and he was collecting information from Chris about his abilities. Cloning wasn't it? While a very handy ability, she just couldn't see how it'd get them out of there, so she decided to leave the planning to Nolli for now. He sounded like he actually knew what he was doing, and she worked better alone. "I can phase." She finally chimed in. "I'll go see what's going on out their and report what I find when I get back." She had to say that last bit out loud so it'd sort of hold her accountable, because she couldn't even promise herself she'd be back. Trust issues you know?

Without hesitation or a second glance back, Lara stepped through the wall of the cart. When she was on the other side she immediately went into stealth mode, but still relished the feeling of being free from the cage of people she had left behind. Making virtually no sounds, Lara finally managed to reach a good vantage point. 'Crap.' Just they had expected, it was a heist. There were barely visibly figures moving about the rubble quickly. She couldn't tell, but it didn't seem like they were robbing the passengers, so maybe it was a sabotage job? Or maybe they wanted to block off the tunnel first and then make their move on the passengers, or maybe they were even here for one passenger in particular. Either way she wasn't going to stick around to find out, better safe than sorry after all- 'Oh wait, what about the others.. ugh I know I'm going to regret this again.' Taking as little time as possible to think about it, Lara forced herself back to the cart she had previously occupied.

Slipping right back in, she quickly pulled aside Nolli and quietly explained the situation so as not to cause more panic. "I don't exactly know what's going on out there, but I do know this was no accident and we're definitely not alone."

"I can phase." Still standing in the middle of the car, Nolli looked over to Lara. Her ability probably couldn't be better suited for this situation (unless of course, it was teleportation, but then life would just be too easy).
"I'll go see what's going on out their and report what I find when I get back." Nolli nodded in her direction, "careful now, we don't know what's out there." He was completely aware that she could just leave and throw him and the other passengers under the bus, but she'd stayed this long. That was a good sign. He'd just have to trust that she would return because as of right now, things were definitely not looking up for them.

Nolli stared, fascinated, as Lara stepped through the side of the train. The things you could do with an ability like that, he thought to himself. As soon as the last of Lara disappeared into the darkness outside, Nolli got to work checking the passengers for new injuries. A few were rendered unconscious due to the impact of the explosion, but it didn't look like anyone in their car had been wounded fatally or killed. The other cars, however, he was unsure of. If the tunnel had collapsed onto one of them, it was very likely that someone had been killed. Nolli excused the morbid thought. He began to contemplate the supplies they would need if they were to be trapped for an extended period of time when Lara stepped back into the car. At her return, a look of relief shown on Nolli's face. It almost seemed as if she'd forced herself to come back. One of those self-preservation types, I suppose. But then again, he couldn't blame her, in fact, had he been graced with such an ability, he probably would have up and left the minute the train stopped.

Lara pulled him off to the side, "I don't exactly know what's going on out there, but I do know this was no accident and we're definitely not alone."
Nolli seemed to freeze at her news. It was clear from the beginning that they were not the only ones in this tunnel, but Lara had just confirmed his suspicion. This was no accident. That meant that the perpetrators had a specific goal in mind. Could it be a person? Maybe the route of the train? The metro itself?

"There's no way they'd be stupid enough to trap themselves in the tunnel along with the rest of us," Nolli muttered to himself. The fact that they were still in the tunnel meant that they either planned to get caught, or that they already had an escape route. Nolli decided it was about time to make the other passengers aware of the situation. How was he to do this without causing a panic...

These people had maintained themselves well enough through the past couple of events, but Nolli wasn't sure how they would handle the news of company. Not including Lara, Chris, and himself, there were five other passengers on the car. Eight people all together. Nolli looked to Lara and Chris. They had to figure out what their offenders were after. In a hushed whisper so the five others wouldn't hear, he said,"can either of you think of ANYTHING that would make these people blow up this tunnel?"

"Hey Chris, what would happen to you if one of your clones was to be killed or seriously injured?"

Chris cocked his head to one side and his eyes drooped, as if he was going to go for another snooze. Then with eyes closed, he drawled out slowly, as if trying to think of every word carefully so he wasn’t saying more stupid things, “Uhh, it’s never happened… But if my clones get hurt… I don’t… I just get worse headaches, y’know?” He scrunched up his face. Yeah, and a much greater urge to hurt myself. He honestly didn’t know what would happen to him if one of his clones died. Maybe he would have to hurt himself badly, more so than he normally has to. Or maybe nothing.

"Someone should go and check, but I think we might be trapped..."

Chris tried to look alert as Lara answered to Nolli’s suggestion. “So that’s what she does, huh… Kinda hot.” Chris said aloud, a few other people stared at him, as Lara stepped through the wall as if it were just air. He didn’t get it, why she stayed. The only reason he assumed was that she was a good person. A little too good, because here she was, wasting time in what was probably a fruitless attempt for escape.

When Lara stepped back inside the compartment, she announced, "I don't exactly know what's going on out there, but I do know this was no accident and we're definitely not alone."

Chris was surprised, even if Nolli didn’t seem so. “Why the fuck are people out there?” He said to no one in particular. “Did th-they stop-stop the train? Fuckity fuck fuck. I want out.” Chris stood up, and as before, swayed on the spot, before falling back into the seat. Nausea was coming back up, and he forcefully swallowed it down. Ew.

The next minute, Nolli was talking to him and Lara. "Can either of you think of ANYTHING that would make these people blow up this tunnel?"

Chris’ mouth made a wide “O” shape and shook his head. “Are they a-a gang?” He was suddenly scared. His mother had warned him not to interfere with gangs, and they were always said to out and about in the dead of night. “I don’t know why they would be here… I didn’t do fucking shit!” Which was probably wrong, since just the other day he had pick pocketed a couple of gang members from the east with his clones, but there was no way that they would’ve seen him, or even gone to these lengths to hunt him down… It was something else, but alcohol was blurring the edges of his thoughts and he couldn’t put anything solid together. It was up to the other two to come up with something and create a plan, because he felt as useless as a bag of dog turd.

Lara passed glances between the two, she was glad Chris was at least grasping the situation at hand, and Nolli was trying to get them somewhere, so maybe there was hope after all. "It could be any number of things, a robbery, sabotage, an assassination attempt, who knows." Her words probably weren't as helpful as she hoped, but it was all that she could think of, and besides what else could this be but some kind of gang activity? "And relax kid, if they'd have been here for you you'd be dead already." She said to Chris while pacing the cart and examining it yet again, and after a few minutes of feeble attempts at finding a possible exit something, or rather someone, caught her eye.

In one of the corners a man with an off-putting look of paranoia sat crouched over, clutching something to his chest as if his life depended on it. "You!" Lara headed straight for the man when she was cut off by a tall slender woman in a suit, the only other person in a suit now that she thought about it. "Leave him alone, can't you see he's scared half to death already? He doesn't need any of you ravenous animals threatening him right now." Lara's eyes widened and glowed a sharp gold, and she was about to show this lady ravenous when she saw it, the man was handcuffed to his briefcase.

"Hey!" The lady cried out as Lara pushed by her and grabbed the man by his collar. "You've got something we should know about in that case of yours?" The man swallowed hard, forcing any words he might have wanted to say down, and possibly his dinner on the count of the color draining from his face and cold dripping sweat. "Well- !" Her tightening grip suddenly became lose as the calking of a gun rang through the air and a cold chill ran down her spine as the hard metal object was pressed against her head.

"It's a sabotage you morons." The woman from before spoke from behind Lara, gun in hand and a determined look on her face. "This package needs to be somewhere very important very soon, so unless you can get us out of this shit hole within the next 20 minutes I swear I'll blow her brains out." She shot threatening looks to the dead silent few occupying the cart, then took a hold of Lara by her hair and shoved the barrel of the gun under the blondes chin. "You better hurry, I have no problem ridding the world of one more low life freak."

Lara clenched on to the woman's arm, trying to get a feel for her strength. She could easily phase through her strong grip and even a bullet, but she only had that left in her. She was already feeling weak from phasing in and out of the cart just moments ago. 'Great idea by the way.' Even if she managed to escape the woman and bullet, there was nowhere for her to run, if she even could run after it was all said and done. 'Shit.'

Nolli stared, wide-eyed, at the recent, unexpected turn of events. Why hadn't he noticed these suspicious characters earlier? How could he have been so stupid? But at least now they had a clear motive. He scowled and swore under his breath. The night had long since turned to shit and it was only getting worse. Fuck. Wanting to keep things as civilized as possible, he addressed the woman with the gun, a hint of anger in his voice, "Ma'am, we want to get out of here just as much as you do. So instead of threatening to shoot other passengers, we should all sit the fuck down, and work things out." The fact that the woman was in possession of a gun meant that she was either an official, or a high-ranking gang member. Most likely a gang member at this hour...

Instead of lowering the gun, the woman pointed it at Nolli's forehead. Tsk, Figures... Of course lady wouldn't put the gun down, that would just be way too easy, wouldn't it? But then again, Nolli had hoped for this to happen. He was well aware that, unarmed, he wasn't of much use in this situation (he wouldn't have been much used armed either). However, if he could draw her attention away from the Harbingers and the man with the briefcase, Lara and Chris might be able to figure something out. Nolli rose his hands to show that he was unarmed. Very subtly, he rolled his eyes over to Lara and then briefly flicked his gaze to the man with the briefcase. The look he gave Lara was barely detectable, especially in the dark, but in the event that she noticed it, she would know that it clearly meant, Do something about him.

Almost instantaneously turning his attention back to the woman in the suit, he kept his hands raised and spoke slowly, "Ma'am it seems you know who is behind this sabotage. Would you so kind as to tell us, so we know who, or what, we're dealing with?" Trying to get answers while buying time.

Nolli figured the chances of actually being shot were pretty slim. For one, she seemed to depend on them to get everyone out of this mess. For another, with the rarity of guns in the city, and all the cameras in the Metro stations, it wouldn't be too hard to narrow down suspects if he were to be killed. His death, or anyone's for that matter, would only by a hindrance to her. He hoped for all their sakes that the lady was smart enough to figure this out.

"Gang members, that's all you need to know," the woman snapped. No shit, lady. That much was obvious at this point. Considering their location, somewhere between the East and North district, there was a high likelihood that the antagonists were affiliated with Oblivion. It was either that, or the place the gun-toting stranger and Briefcase were heading was affiliated with them.

"Look, are we dealing with Harbingers, or not?"

The sudden unexpected turn of events left Chris quite dumbstruck, as if he wasn’t enough to begin with. The appearance of a gun was a surprised. Guns weren’t allowed to just anyone. So, who were they?

The fog that had been clouding Chris’ thoughts seemed to disperse as he was shocked into sobriety. With the gun pointing at Lara’s head so threateningly, he didn’t want to dare utter a word in case it would make her pull the trigger. Especially when the woman with the gun didn’t seem to care if a harbinger- a freak- like himself died. He looked over at Nolli, praying that he had a giant plan unravelling and he would work it all out.

Something caught his eye in the window and he briefly looked over his shoulder to see it, but not wanting to take his eyes off the gun, he looked quickly back, just after he recognized the shadow of several people (four, maybe five) run past, ever so close now to the compartment they were in. Shit, shit, shit.

He wanted to try and signal to Nolli or Lara of what was happening just outside, that they were coming. They were coming. But the lady with the gun had spoken out, and Nolli was busy trying to get answers.

"Gang members, that's all you need to know,"

"Look, are we dealing with Harbingers, or not?"

Chris wasn’t sure about if they were harbingers, but whatever they were, they were suddenly making some faint noise outside the compartment. It slowly grew louder, louder, louder. Until he was sure they were at the compartment door, trying to break inside.

Chris stood up abruptly.

“Look- uh- ma’am,” he tried, and cleared his throat. His voice overpowered the noise coming from outside the compartment, and he was momentarily grateful. “We don’ want any more trouble. We’ll get you both out. But shooting someone that’s essential to our escape isn’t gonna do no good. Just- please- put the gun down. We’ll get you out.”

He was praying she wouldn’t point the gun at him next. He didn’t want to use his powers. And didn’t want to find out what happens when a clone dies tonight. But she didn't move her aim, and he sighed.

Spoiler:

Lara was surprised, these guys she just met were trying to save her, or maybe they were just trying to save their own asses somehow, she really didn't know. Either way, whatever they had planned was working. Nolli managed to distract the woman and get the gun off of Lara, and Chris had managed to keep the woman from noticing the movement and sounds coming from outside. Maybe they could all get out alive after all.

The woman was becoming overwhelmed as time ticked by, so with some hesitation, she threw Lara into the two men addressing her. "There you have your essential team member, now get us the fuck out of here!" She was very jumpy as she kept the gun held out at the three of them, Lara figured this would make her aim extremely inaccurate. Still, she didn't want to risk someone getting hurt or even killed.

"You!" She pointed the gun at Lara again. "I saw what you did earlier, take us out there with you!"

Lara raised her hands and spoke calmly, not wanting this woman to crack and start shooting like crazy. "I can only take myself and objects through, I've never tried one person let alone two." Sure she had thought about it before, but she never actually tried phasing other people, she hated contact to begin with so she never bothered.

The woman's eyes shot back and forth as she processed what Lara had just said. In a hurry, she ran over to the scared little man holding the briefcase and snatched it away from him. Lara rolled her eyes as the woman took her again, gun held to her head. "Time to learn a new trick." The woman held Lara in front of her as she stood up with her back against one side of the cart, gun still held against her captive.

On the opposite side of where they now stood, the doors began to slowly pull apart, and flashes of shadowed figures could be seen on the other side. The woman's eyes widened and she shoved the gun hard against Lara. "Take me through now!"

"Fuck it." Lara said in defeat, as she pressed hard against the woman, pining her against the wall. Her hands slowly made their way through the solid wall, but that's all of her that could make it out because of the body in her way. She concentrated on the woman's body against her own and tried to keep from passing through her, but rather to become one with her. Their closeness allowed her to transfer her unique molecules to the woman, and to Lara's surprise they both started to pass through.

"Stop!" A voice from behind them called out. It was the one of the dark figures, they had managed to open the cart doors. Lara continued on, and before the figure could reach them, they were out. "Get them!" He yelled as he hit the wall they just passed through. "Don't lose the package!"

They both fell to the floor hard, and while the woman was able to get up and run, Lara couldn't bring herself to move much at all. She became extremely light headed and felt extremely weak. She had done it, she had phased someone through, but it was far too strenuous for her body to handle. All she could do was lay there, lay there and hope she'd gain some of her strength back soon.

Spoiler:

Wooww, dumbass, thought Nolli, referring to the woman that'd just phased through the train with Lara. Good luck facing however many guys out there alone, in a presumably sealed off tunnel nonetheless. Though he was incredibly curious as to what was in the briefcase, safety took top priority. Phasing through the wall with the woman was probably the smartest thing to do. It was only a matter of time before the shadowy guys got the package; after they'd gotten what they came for, Nolli and the others just had to watch how they'd get themselves out of the tunnel. Presuming the shadowy guys didn't kill everyone, they were also left with the option of waiting for help to arrive, this was public transport after all.

Nolli rushed to the window to see how Lara was doing, if she couldn't get back in, the only was to get to her at this point was to find a way around the train. Knocking on the window to get her attention, he mouthed, "We'll be over in a sec." From what he could tell, she was alright, just drained. There was no way to know for sure however, unless someone could get to where she was. The black shadowy figures had done them the favor of prying open the door and were currently in pursuit of the briefcase.

Cautiously, Nolli made his way out of the train to see if there was any way to get to Lara. Going under wasn't an option, and slipping between cars was damn near impossible as well. At this point, they'd either have to dig a tunnel, which was a bit unrealistic, or climb over. Without help, climbing over was about as possible as going under or around. To get over the train and back, two people would have to be helped over so that one of the person would be able to get back; but then that left one person stuck on the other side of the train. Chris. Heading back into the car, Nolli located Chris, who now seemed far more sober than before, good.

"Ey Chris, we have to get over the train in order to get Lara, but we need at least three people." In this type of situation, Nolli probably wasn't strong enough to hoist himself up, let alone help Lara back over the train. You might be able to do it though...

He hadn't recalled Chris saying how many clones he could make, but they'd need two minimum for this task. "About your clones, do you have to be near them to, uh," Nolli searched for the word, "re-absorb them?"

He paused, working things out in his head, "I was thinking that you could send two clones over there, and have one of them get Lara, but with that plan, one of them would be stuck on the other side..."

If they were to even do this, they'd have to be extremely careful in case the shadowy guys were aggressive towards passengers. Nolli hoped, for their own sake, that they were still preoccupied with the mysterious package.

Spoiler:

After the escape of the woman with the briefcase, and finally the appearance of the gang members (who had successfully pried open the compartment door), Chris followed Nolli out of the train and into the tunnel. Despite still being quite under the influence, he seemed to follow Nolli’s eyes and clue in. There wasn’t any real way of getting to Lara, despite climbing over the train itself, but that would need a ladder, or more people to accomplish--

Oh.

He clued in faster than he thought he would, and was surprised with himself.

"About your clones, do you have to be near them to, uh, re-absorb them? I was thinking that you could send two clones over there, and have one of them get Lara, but with that plan, one of them would be stuck on the other side..."

Chris smiled. Now this, he knew he could do. “Nah, the clones dun’t need to be next to me. I can get ‘em back jus’ fine.”

He took a step away from Nolli to give himself some room, cracked his knuckles, and scrunched his face up in concentration (but it looked more like he was pushing out a big shit). He let out a grunt, and out of his shoulder grew a head, then a neck, shoulders, arms, a torso… until a whole bare-ass-naked Chris had grown from his body and detached itself. It took a step back, and grinned at Nolli. Chris underwent the process again, and the second clone stood back, hands on hips, perfectly comfortable being in the nude.

Chris opened his eyes and overlooked the clones, unfazed that they were flaunting his naked body. “Usually I can make ’em clothes too… Ah well.” He stretched, hiccupped, and looked at Nolli. In unison, Chris and the clones said, “Well?” and flashed duplicate grins. “This’ll do, yeah?”

Chris noticed the coming approaching figure of one of the gang members and tensed.

“Hey! What are you doing!?”

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit… Chris straightened up a bit and looked the man in the eyes. “We’re just retrieving our friend, she’s stuck, uh.” He gulped.

“You’re going to have to stay here. You’re not going anywh-”

In a swift moment, Clone One had grabbed the man from behind, while Clone Two and Chris punched the man straight in the face with all their force. The man slumped and Clone One dropped him. He appeared unconscious. “Sorry man. We gotta get her…

“Shit, shit, shit… Okay, this is gonna have to be fast.” He turned back to the train and with more speed than he would normally use, hoisted Clone One onto the roof of the compartment, and did the same with Clone Two. In the noise of shouting voices in the tunnel, he could faintly hear the shuffle of the clones climbing over the compartment, and the dull thud of them landing on the other side.

Both the clones found Lara rather easily. She was lying on the ground, rather pale and weak-looking. “Hey Lara,” said Clone Two. “I’m gonna help ya up, aight? And we’re gonna hoist you up and get back over.” He leaned over and grabbed her arm, swung it over his shoulder, and leaned her body weight onto him. He gingerly pulled her up and steered her towards the side of the train wall. He sat her down carefully so that he could be hoisted back up onto the train roof and pull Lara up afterwards. He was up quickly, and looked back down expectantly.

"We’re gonna get you up now, aight?” Clone One said, and crouched down, pulled her up into a standing position, wrapped his arms around her knees and lifted her up, just as Clone Two grabbed her and pulled her on to the roof.

“There. Easy now,” Clone Two said, and eased Lara across the roof and to the other side, where Chris and Nolli were waiting. “Help her down!” he called to the both of them as they got to the edge.

Lara was slowly becoming more aware of her surroundings, or maybe not so much? Because there were a couple of naked men coming up from over the train. As they got closer though she could see it was a couple of Chris's clones, but why were they naked? And touching her? She moaned and struggled a bit, she hated being touched, but they were there to help so she eventually gave in, now only struggling to gain some energy back so she wasn't completely helpless.

As the clones carefully helped her up and over, she couldn't help but feel touched.. not in the physical way, but the emotional way, and maybe it was just the fact that her mind was a haze and she couldn't think very straight, but she was actually really surprised and grateful to Chris and Nolli. They could have left her there, alone and weak, but they didn't, and by the looks of it they even risked their well-being for her because there was a knocked out gang member by the two bellow. It was all so foreign to her, no one ever showed her this kind of compassion, aside from her mother of course.

It felt as though she was as intoxicated as Chris had been earlier, and she tried her best to hold herself together, but as she fell into their arms she couldn't help but pull them both into a tight hug. It was extremely unlike her to hug anyone, or to show much emotion to begin with, but what with her current mental instability and this shock to her system, she couldn't do much to stop herself. "T-thank you guys so much." She said, hanging from them more then actually embracing them.

"Hey! What the hell's going on here?" Another gang member had appeared and was confused by the scene of two naked men who looked like one of the clothed men and one of his comrades unconscious on the floor.

A few more members appeared behind him, one carrying the briefcase from before, and the woman from before nowhere in sight. "What should we do with them?" Another one spoke up.

Lara flopped her head back to see where the voices had come from. She could only remember bits and pieces of all that had occurred earlier, but the fact that this guy was yelling at them made her angry. "Ey don't you be yelling at me like you know me or somethin' a'right! You're the one's who trapped us here for no good fuckin' reason!" Had she been more sensible she wouldn't have opened her mouth, of course.