Catalysts: IC (Oh the thread is slowly dying...)

Nox saw the moon sink low in the sky. He would need a day of sleep. But he was far too worried with thinking to sleep. But then he remembered the benzocaine. He saw no future need for it. He cinched the belt tight around his arm. He grabbed the vile and the syringe. He injected the benzocaine, and let the intense drowsiness wash over him, leaving the syringe and vial right next to him. The syringe was capped.
He dreamed. He dreamed of strange things, and he had many a thought. There was even some measure of lucidity in the dreams. In one, he soared upon the wind; he was so undeniably free but so inconceivably tethered.

In the morning, Winter was predictably cramped and crabby. However, she was glad to be rid of the world of dreams and return to her familiar reality.

It was a fairly sucky reality, too, but anything was better than dead rabbits that moved.

She groaned and stretched, or rather, exited the hovel and then stretched. It was far too cramped in the hut to extend her muscles to any level of effectiveness.

Savoring the cool morning Air, Winter took a second to simply drink in her surroundings. It was dark out, yet getting brighter, with the sort of pleasant gradient that made many aspects of life seem not as harsh as they might have in a different lighting. Wind was present, and chilly, but relatively lenient regarding force and frequency. Dead leaves and old newspaper clippings were swept up in its tendrils and ushered around the abandoned city. The familiar, dusty smell hit Winter's nostrils, and within a minute she had gotten used to it, as she did every morning.

Perhaps today would be different.

But then, perhaps it wouldn't. Winter felt this way nearly every morning, and it was beginning to grow old.

Nox awoke from his knockout. He looked at the sky. Daylight was nearing, and in light he was powerless. He groaned and rolled over, his arm aching in protest of the recent injection. He needed air. Yes. He tried to stand up, staggered a few steps, then fell over. The world seemed to be tilting in mocking circles. He staggered or crawled to the foot of the stairs. He managed to crawl up to the halfway landing, and he attempted to stand. As he did, the ground seemed to fall from under him and he blacked out, not before shouting a single curse.

A relatively nearby shout pierced the tranquility like a needle would fabric. Winter, recognizing Nox's voice, gave a start. Was he in trouble? Would she get there in time?

Moreover, did she even care? She gave it a few seconds of thought and decided that, yes, she did. Why not. He could be a potential ally, and allies were few and far between in these times.

Winter set off at a brisk jog through unfamiliar parts of the ruinous metropolis in search of Nox.

Nox twitched about in the blackout state. He dreamed of happier times, back when his parents were still alive and around. He dreamed of cold, and time spent planning and building. The schematics. The hunt for all the materials. But now all he had to do was build it. The hoses and vials would work in an array, developing- wait, were those footsteps? Maybe. He tried to wake up, staying awake for seconds at most.

Upon reaching the suspected spot, Winter looked around warily. It suddenly seemed a lot more threatening in the old ruins.

She debated whether or not to call out, and decided against it. Nox had exhibited an uncanny knack at being able to find her in the past, and she had no reason to think that that would change.

Unless he was actually in trouble.

Pushing away the thought for the time being, Winter simply continued walking, making sure to closely examine each alley she passed. None seemed to contain living beings of any sort, least of all a certain shadowy man.

Nox tried to wake up again. He managed to sit up and stay awake this time. Observing his surroundings, he saw he had only fallen five steps, most of which having been a roll. Then he remembered the footsteps. Not trusting his legs very much after the fall, called out "Is anyone there?" it was then that he looked at his leg. His ankle was angled oddly. This wasn't working out well.

Pandora walked through the city streets, confident none would try to stop her... or atleast that they wouldn't succeed. She wandered the streets, searching for a promising target. eventually she came across a still-empty subway station, only a few operators opening the place up. She found a smashed window, pulled the security screen out of the way, and slipped in.

She wandered over to the tracks, jumping down into the trench and setting up several bombs under and near the track, each one with a timer set to go off in an hour and a half, right in the middle of the morning rush. She made a few more deposits of varying sizes, and once again snuck through the broken window once more and pulled the screen back into place before heading for a nearby building, climbing 4 floors and pulling out a pair of binoculars to watch the show.

"Nox? Is that you?"

Winter hurried her footsteps until she came upon the man at the bottom of a small flight of steps. "Now what the devil are you doing, lying there? You're not in trouble, are you?"

She offered him a hand.

"I may just have hurt my ankle. By the way, did you know narcotics are bad?" He groaned an tried to stand up, but had to stand on one foot. He wobbled uncertainly, and then sat back down. He touched the offending limb and he felt searing pain.

"Oh... oh dear." She knelt down to examine Nox's ankle.

"It does seem to be, ah, broken. How did you manage this?" Winter briefly considered... no, no, that wouldn't work.

Though it wasn't so much that she doubted her ability to will the bone to wiggle back into place so much as she really, really did not want to.

"Look..." Winter sighed. "I might be able to help, but it might be freaky and it might screw you up."

" It may or may not have to do with that needle over there. And I'll be fine with it." This seemed like a bad idea. First coming off as awkward and now a drug abuser. He wished he hadn't just injected that. But there's no use wishing after the cards are dealt.

Winter, raising an eyebrow, stood up and crossed her arms. "I see." She'd encountered many an addict in her day, and certainly did not have a problem with them, except for the severely-affected individuals. Sometimes, the drugs could send one into an oblivion of hopelessness after they wore off, and many a vagrant she'd encountered who begged her for more.

"Do you want me to help, or not?"

"Yes please, ma'am." He had sensed the dissaproval in her voice. "It was just as a sleep aid, I swear." He was, of course being sincere, but he hoped it wouldn't sound too bullshit-y.

"Alright."

Winter resumed her kneeling position by Nox's leg and gently laid her hands on his ankle.

She rested for a moment, closed her eyes, and gathered her energies. This was the first time Winter had done anything like this before - she was scared, yet oddly excited as well.

Reaching out to that strange area of her brain, the grounds where the weird and nameless thoughts floated free, Winter felt the regrettably-familiar sensation.

Things threatened to get out of hand from the start. She felt Nox's ankle, composed of uncountable hordes of already-living cells, gain a sentience of its own and begin to writhe. She squeezed hard, feeling with her mind, seeking the bone marrow - and, surprisingly, found it.

There was a snap, and a horrible, grotesque squelch, and Winter jumped back.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... Did it... Do you...?" she babbled, hands over her mouth.

"It's fine. It worked. I think so, anyway." He stood up to assess the issue. The ankle worked, with only a dull ache. He turned to Winter. "Thank you." He gave her a hug.

"Taken off-guard" was an understatement to how horribly unprepared Winter was to be on the receiving end of a hug. Indeed, it was her first for about a decade and a half.

Which isn't to say she was particularly grateful. With a half-squeal, half-mmph, she excused herself from the embrace in the most politely firm way possible and muttered an excuse about hunters and rabbits before stalking off.

What the hell is up with the world these days.

Nox walked up the stairs. It had been quite some time since he last saw the city. He was going to see the sights, talk to some old friends. But first he had to get through the woods. He walked through the abandoned woods, and made it into city limits safely. He stopped in front of a subway station.

Pandora's gaze wandered through the early morning crowd, and checked her watch. 30 minutes till the bomb is set to go off. perfect. she returned to scouring the crowd for interesting... there. she watched him wander into the square, and stop in front of the train station. she briefly wondered how he knew about this, or if it was just random luck. She'd seen him before, though never shown herself to him. He seemed willing, or maybe eager, to kill, but also like some kind of goody two shoes. She scowled. She HATED goody two shoes. if he looked like he was going to try and interfere... well, she'd just have to do something about that, wouldn't she?

As his gaze drifted around, he noticed a set of binoculars looking through a window. He noises that for some ungodly reason they were in the garage. Someone was watching. He walked as nonchalantly as he could up to the garage, only breaking into a run when he was out of sight.

((OOC garage on the fourth floor? switch it to a construction site or office building, that way the binoculars are out of place but it doesn't conflict with my prior posts))

Pandora watched the goody-goody approach her refuge, and briefly considered facing him directly. she thought briefly, considering what impact the fight could have on her plans, and decided against it. she waited until he was undoubtably half way there, walking non-chalently to the far side of the building, before jumping. She hit the ground with a curse as the bones in both legs shattered, briefly glad for the dark alleyway, and pulled a needle from a pocket, quickly injecting herself with a narccotic strong enough to put the average human in a coma for days.
She was not an average human.

Her crippled limbs quickly regenerated, the bones moving throughout her legs severing arteries and veins which simply reatached themselves once the obstruction was removed, and she was off again, moving slowly but purposefully away from the building, hoping to circle around and find a new vantage point.

He found the area unoccupied. The situation was altogether shady. He entered the subway station, but altogether shaken, he didn't want to stay in there. He noticed someone moving down an ally. He slipped into the shadows and followed whoever it was as quickly as possible.

Pandora glanced around, sure she had heard something. Seeing noone she shook her head before continuing onwards, subtly dropping a proximity sensative mine in her wake. At best she'd kill someone trying to sneak up behind her, at worst she'd end up killing a random civilian who happened to wander down this alley. Really, it was a win-win.

Nox heard the clink of something falling on the ground. He didn't exactly trust this unfamiliar territory. He jumped onto a dumpster and continued following the figure. He noticed a small plate shaped... Something. He didn't want to get hurt, so he decided not to trust it. This person seemed really shady. He unsheathed his katana, accidentally clattering the sheathe.

That time she was sure. Twisting about Pandora pulled back the protective sleeves from her gloves, showing the glint of brilliantly pollished and sharpened metal. She glanced in the direction of the sound, quickly spotting a familiar glint. It seemed the goody-goody had thought to stalk her, but underestimated her perception. she sighed dramatically, before saying "Well, if you're going to be so obvious you might as well come out. I mean, honestly, you go to all this effort to hide, wearing naught but black and moving practically silently, then knock around pieces of metal and use a sword that lacks a blacked out blade? Come now, surely you can do better than that."