Below the Earth

I cringe as his voice rises, the anger in his head sharp lines of red and fierce blue-black. Damn, damn, damn not this again! Behind me, I can hear Liam's running feet. The air smells sharply of lightning before it strikes under the stink of smoke. White fire sparks and fizzles through Edgeworth's mind, his brand of magic burning in the air. In a moment somebody is going to get badly hurt.

Through the smoke and the heat the soldier inside of Nick comes back. He knows the hydrogen in the air was barely enough to concentrate and crate a smokescreen and that's exactly what he wants. Nick paces silently, waiting for the tell-tale signs of the man. He hears the lightning crackle and he peers through the smoke.

In an instant he explodes, rushing forward to dive at the man's feet. In an instant nick breaks apart the molecules of the ground underneath the man and slams them back together in their mostly original form around two thirds of the man's legs. The smoke clears and nick sits against a stalactite his fingers moving in circles. "The lady says don't piss you off. That's not very gentlemanly, neither is shouting at a bunch of sleeping people. I've fought monsters darker and deadlier than any man on this earth." Nick's tone turns deadly serious. "Hitler's boys did a number on my squad, I won't let that happen again so I say this to you. Stand down, there is no fight for you here."

I look down, and see my legs trapped in the rock. I let out a sigh, and simply raise an eyebrow.
"That's a fuck up private. I don't give a damn what Hitler did to your boys, but your gonna find out personally that I'm worse than him." reply. I slowly raise my right hand, and point my palm at the man. I then raise up my left hand and point that palm at him as well. The right hand shoots out fire like a flame thrower, and the left shoots at electricity at him as well.
"You will learn quick Private, I'm not to be taken lightly. Today, we learn about hand to hand combat." I say loud enough for everyone to hear.

Fast as I can, I grab the thin man's hand, and step us Sideways, flickering out of the world and back in again. The air of the room smells scorched, and the Priest's hands are still fizzing with fitful sparks. "That's enough!" I say sharply, pouring power into my words. "Both of you. These are not the acts of an honorable warrior. The soldier does not attack those who are not his enemy. The warrior uses prudence. Stop." My words ring in the air, and for a long moment both men are still as the stone about the Priest's legs. I meet Priest's eyes. "Priest...Victor. I am not a soldier. We are not in a war. Remember where you are. We're in the Nightside. I am Liv. You and I have met before. We're not the enemy, Victor. You calm down, and we'll undo the rock around your legs. Okay?"

I let out a chuckle.
"Really now. And what do you know about war lass? Come on lets hear," I snort. "Oh as for the rocks. I can take care of them myself."
The room begins to heat up fast, and the rock around my legs begin to melt. I pull myself out of the rocks that become liquefied enough for me to pull myself out. I crack my neck and my knuckles as I step closer to them. I then stop and drop to one knee and begin coughing. I quickly shoot a hand into my jacket pocket from the inside of my coat. I begin fishing around till I grab something that rattles. With shaking hands and constant coughing I pull out a small medication bottle. I with fumbling around the cap I am successful with taking it off and taking out a pill. I then quickly pop it in my mouth, and send my hand straight in my coat pockets again and retrieve a flask this time. I open it and down the liquid along with the pill. After a few moments the coughing subsides, but the panting and heavy sweat on my brow remain there. By this time the liquid rock begins to quickly harden. I slowly put the flask away and the recap the pill bottle. I wipe the sweat my from brow and curse under my breath.
"Damn..it..all to...hell." are the words I pant out. I lean my head back and take a big gulp of my own Silva.

Nick blinks a few times seeing the molecules within the man shift and chemicals rush to his brain. "Enough then." he ducks around the edge of the stalagtite near him and sits down. Lighting up another cigarette he takes a deep drag and exhales. Thoughts of the war swimming through Nick's head as he tries to clear it.

"Not again. No more war, I'm tired of this." he says as he takes another deep drag. "I want no more war"

I sigh quietly. "Come on. We haven't got any food, but Liam and the man you just tried to attack had a fire going before; we can build it back up. You can come and warm up." He's about as safe as wolverine and twice as crazy, but we can't really leave him out here in the dark. Not in the state he's in.
Everyone stares at the Priest as he takes his seat by the fire Edgeworth's got going again. Kaija's hand runs along the hilt of her knife, eyeing him like a cat. Djhuety watches him carefully, his eyes turning to a bruised purple color in the firelight. The Priest drops down, acting happily unaware of the attention. Edgeworth slumps down beside the fire, staring out into the darkness, the only member of our party not watching the Priest for an explosion of some sort.

I humbly accept her offer. As I sit down, I can slowly begin to feel my body relax. I take a deep sigh, and clear my throat.
"As for my MPD, I have found a temporary cure. However, the side effects are that I begin coughing madly. That pill I took is the only thing I have to try and keep it in check. Only time I know when to take one is when I begin coughing," I say out loud. "I'm telling you this, so you won't stab me in the back later."

"Don't attack me, I won't stab you." I snap back. Then I draw a deep breath. I can't let him get to me. "Sorry. Uncalled for. But considering the way you just acted, maybe you should up the dosage. You're still a little...off-kilter." There's a snort of derision from Kaija and a growl from Sylus.

I let out a sigh. Joy, this is gonna be fun.
"One pill does the trick, however at the last ten minutes I get loopy. The problem is, that sometimes a pill lasts a day or two, or a few hours. No clue when the dose is done." I reply with a tad bit of hurtfulness in my voice.

I raise a brow. "Oh. That's...nasty."
There's silence for a moment, in the circle of firelight. Not even the flames crackle. It's a silent streak of orange fire, burning seemingly on nothing; Edgeworth rigged it to burn on the air itself. I don't really understand what he said about it, but I'm impressed with the results.
"Maybe I could sing your mind into balance." I say quietly, thinking, "I could try at least. I've managed similar things before..." Then I shake my head. "Or maybe not. You're one of the few humans I've met that I can't really reach through my voice."
The Priest shrugs, as if it doesn't matter much. Once again, a watchful silence envelops our little group. Everyone has at least one eye on the Priest. I sigh deeply. Lovely. Now we're traveling with a ticking time bomb on an uncertain fuse. Wonderful.

I shift slowly coming back to myself a with a small bit of humming as my eyes regain their focus the first thing seen is the Priest sitting across from me "Bloody Hell!" as i start to fall backwards startled for a moment before regaining my composure "which one are you today?" my head tilted slightly to watch him he is different then he has been his scent is .... off

I roll my eyes. "Good morning to you too, sleep-like-a-log."

with a rye grin "wouldn't it be 'Like the dead' there girlie" with a wink before pulling out a small piece of wire and bending it into several very angular shapes before placing them near the fire to heat "besides it is more like deep meditation then sleep good way to kill boredom but it sometimes causes me to go a little too deep" with a smirk "remember the 'never rest' aspect"

I give him a wry glance. "Never rest? Right..." Then I stand,glancing around at the circle. "Well, if we're all awake, let's get walking. We might as well. We've got a long way to go."

rolles eyes "alle er en kritiker" I mutter taking the heated wired and pressing it against the spear haft leaving singed marks on it "alright leave us go eveyone?" as I lever myself up off my rather chilled posterior

In a few moments, the fire is out, the bedrolls packed, and we are walking. I step up beside Liam. "For secret caverns," I mutter, "these caves get an awful lot of folk wandering in."

I smile ryely and look at her "nightside what ever can go wrong will" I chuckle "besides we don't know how many enterances this place has or what the method by which the others have arrived by" i smirk "though we will need to find food soon" i say smiling

"Don't I know it." I say softly. "I'd give a lot to figure out how the bloody maniac down here." I watch the assorted lights we carry shimmer over the stalactites. "The last thing we need is him."

i smirk "no the last thing we need is the eldrich beastie from under the crater here with us" smiling "or other dangerous assorted issues that could come up" the spear makes a strange thump as we walk, though it slowly seems muffled until finally there is a small splash Looking around i realize our surroundings are getting more and more damp

I look up at him skeptically. "You just had to say that, didn't you? Just had to."

"yes i did" i grin "after all so far when the obvious invites it seems to scare stuff off here. ultimate bluff here: make them think they are the sucker" i grin

I smile slightly. "Good point, that. As long as they don't call the bluff." Then I grin. "Of course, if this were a horror movie, you would have just doomed us all with those words." Somewhere off to my left, there's a sound of water dropping into water. I glance over interestedly. At least we'll be able to bathe down here. And I'd love to swim next time we're stopped, if I can slip away long enough. "Plenty of water to drink." I say aloud. "That's good."

"all to true." each step gets a more and more squishy sound to it. I glance at the others "however i am worried, trying to figure out what our next clue will be" and worry about what we will encounter i don't add

"The song says it'll be a tree of stone. Turn west at the tree of stone, it says.I guess we'll just recognize it when we come upon it." As we walk on, little streams appear, running parallel to the path, trickling over the bare stone. There are small pools here and there.
My stomach twinges, but I pointedly ignore it. There’s no point in paying attention to a feeling you can’t do a thing about, and in this place, there's nothing we're going to be able to do about the lack of food.
"Well," I say softly to Liam, "there's one thing your state of being has going for it. You don't have to worry about hunger." Liam rolls his eyes.