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[Cassandra]

She turns her head, making sure she is between Buckler and her master.

[Spinal_Taper]

Tyrion bolts down the rows, heading for the lobby.
But if it's the manipulator
The buckler behind Maria suddenly vanishes, as does the darkness around her. It's like someone turned on the lights in a slightly creepy dream, exposing it to be a nightmare. In fact, that's precisely what it is. The impeccably clean and empty pods from before vanish, to be replaced by cracked pods, with torn, bloodstained innards filled with inhuman monstrosities. Their limbs look to be mostly sown back onto shrivelled, dying corpses. The limbs are off all sorts, as are the carcasses, except that each one, no matter how oddly it's shaped or maimed, always keeps an element of humanity to it. Their piercing expression of sheer agony. But only for her

Davi tries to sing, but nothing comes out right, like the wires leading from her brain to her mouth have been crossed. Bucklers cannon whines again, and it whines again.

Camille suddenly feels a pain in her arm. Lucas is trying to kill her. He has forgone firing his weapons, opting instead to simply bash Camille with his rifle.

The Buckler in front of Barth and Ke barks, and his rifle whines as it charges.

[Cassandra]

Her mind stirs, and she tries to protect Barth from whatever mental attack just occured. She knows SOMETHING just happened.

And Ke tries to push Barth out of the way, staying inbetween him and the mechanical dog. If successful, she would move as well!

[Caellath]

"Gods." Barth drops and rolls sideways, out of Buckler's line of shooting and into cover.

[Twi]

Maria laughs again. "Oh, how nightmareish! Barth! It's just an illusion! You  should run, though."

Her ticking suddenly turns very loud. TICK. TOCK. TICK. TOCK. It seems to be some sort of concentration aid for her. She reaffirms to herself that her mind is made of gears and shall not be tampered with. And oh yes, she runs for the lobby, too.

Encouraged by the ticking, Camille speeds off with the supposedly murderous Lucas in tow (ignoring the pain in her arm for the moment, she's felt worse), and even snags a surprised Davi on the way, quickly making it allll the way back to the hospital lobby (unless something manages to obstruct her at 100 miles per hour, and she doesn't slow down for things like walls, real or illusionary.)

[Caellath]

Maria laughs again. "Oh, how nightmareish! Barth! It's just an illusion! You  should run, though."

"We don't know which one is an illusion, the true monster may still be around, amidst all tricks of the mind." Bartholomew says, still in cover. "We should still be cautious."

[Twi]

"But running away remains a good idea."

Maria is still doing so.

[Spinal_Taper]

Diaena feels in Barths mind. Something's wrong. Something's horribly wrong. But it's not psychic. His mind is being toyed with, pupeteered, but not psychically. But whatever's going on can't effect her. That is, not the illusions. Whatever those things in the pods look they could still effect her.

The Buckler trailing Barth fires as Ke pushes him aside. Barth sees Kes abdomen get hit by a gauss cannon round. Ke looks down at herself, and sees a hole. She feels nothing. No pain, except from her smashing into the ground.

Camille hauls Davi and Lucas into the lobby, whereupon Lucas pushes off of her, rolling into a standing position and pulling up his rifle. He moves with swiftness, but not that of anger, that of an utter lack of emotion. He lines the rifle up directly with Barth.

As Maria runs through the rows, she suddenly sees someone in front of her. A tall, man wearing a coat, a respirator and glasses stands in front of her, wearing a black glove on one hand and holding a rapier in the other. The knuckles of the glove are tipped with postage-stamp sized yellow squares.

Suddenly, the world breaks. Everyone sees it as Maria does, the macarbe ruin of a medbay, and Lucas goes limp for a moment. Then, everything comes back, and Lucas whips his rifle back up into a firing position. Tyrion trips over a pod, then yells something at Maria.
"Watch his glove!"

[Twi]

"I see i-"

"Warning: Excessive mind-altering radiation detected. Eliminating source."

The interruption is accompanied by a pair of antennae appearing on the sides of her head...and her movements become far more...robotic. It's like she stopped having higher brain functions. ((Which she basically did. Basically, this is 'Something's managing to screw up the thoughts= Turn off the thoughts, seek out the source and KILL IT DEAD'. ))

She stiffly runs at the tall man and tries to cut the hand with the glove off.

Meanwhile, Camille pokes the 'standing' Lucas.

^{"Stop that."}

[Caellath]

He wasn't sure if it was an illusion or not. But it didn't quite matter.

"Ke?! Can you talk to me?"
Bartholomew runs over to Ke, touching the area he saw being shot.

[Cassandra]

She's thrashing on the floor, with a hole blown through her stomach. Not the best of shape, but she's also growing larger, screaming as her body starts to twist. Metal plates abrubtly obscure the hole from view, although it seems severe even as she shifts. The screams end, before the forced transformation does.

[Spinal_Taper]

Barth watches Kes thrash on the ground, and he yells at her. She doesn't respond, all Barth sees is her thrashing slow down, growing weaker and weaker before eventually halting eventually. Her entire body relaxes.
As Maria comes at him, the man flows like water, dropping like a stone beneath Marias blade and sliding beneath it. He springs up, taking the blade around and jamming it where the heart would be if Maria were human before turning around and ripping the blade back out of her. Tyrion keeps walking towards their fighting, stumbling over pods and trying to avoid imaginary obstacles.
"He specialized in melee. He's damn good."

The worlds shatters again as the man turns back around for his blade. Tyrion looks around hurridly. Barth sees nothing but the floor, and the tip of Kes tail as she shifts. Ke notices there's no hole in her stomach, but the sight is only temporary, and the hole reappears a moment later, as does Kes carcass. Buckler barks again.

[Cassandra]

She tilts  her head oddly. Then she looks up, coming off of the ground. Her claws begin to glow brightly, although she seems bemused by the conflicting images...

[Twi]

The man manages to take the rapier out...but discovers that he no longer has a blade, only a stub. It must have gotten shredded by the gears inside. In fact, it's rather amazing that he got it out at all: if it was strong enough and sharp enough to get in, it seems like it would have gotten jammed by said gears.

"Understood. Switching to secondary combat mode."

The book on her waist glows orange as she begins to chant robotically.... and the man discovers that his hand is disappearing under that glove as Maria focuses her anti-heal. She's also just doing it faster than normal.

[SomeStupidGuy]

James opens his mouth to ask what's wrong, but soon finds the question answered.
He draws his sword and tries to figure out what's actually happening and what isn't.