Issue 1 Downtime

Regan was asleep. She had been working on a painting of a fat man vomiting in a gutter when she had just sort of nodded off.

And now she was dreaming.

She was walking through a desert of blue sands on a starless night. The only source of light was a moon that hung in the sky like a silver lantern. The light reflected off the thin blade she carried in her hand.

In her dream, she fell to her knees as her vision blurred. Her blood spilled against the glittering sands as it poured from a wound to her stomach. In the distance, a wolf howled.

Regan turned to look to the sky. She reached up and plucked the moon from the night sky before hiding it in her cloak. She made her way to a nearby outcropping and pressed her back against the stones, waiting in complete darkness for the wolves to pass.

In the real world, Regan looked quite distressed. She started thrashing and talking gibberish in her sleep.

"Regan, shut up, 'm trying to sleep..." Kay mumbles.

Regan responded by throwing a shoe at Kay.

Okay, it wasn't on purpose. The shoe just sort of....threw itself. Still, it wasn't very nice.

"Ow! What the hell!?" she says, sitting up, suddenly wide awake.

The entire room looked a little hostile at the moment. Anything that wasn't nailed down was hovering a good six inches in the air. Shadows flickered out of the corner of Kay's eye and the indistinct sound of growling could be heard to be coming faintly from somewhere behind the walls, slowly circling.

"R-Regan, what's going on!?" she shouts, clutching her covers and sliding back on her bed until her back is against the corner.

In response, Regan lets out an ear-splitting shriek.

Kay puts her hands over her ears and closes her eyes. Clearly this is just a horrible nightmare.

And that's when everything drops to the floor.

Oh, and Regan bursts into flames.

"Justadreamjustadreamjustadream!" though when she still isn't waking up she scrambles to her feet and makes a break for the door.

Regan draws her sword. Some sort of runes glow silver along the blade.

"Azh'ir uv-al nutarus. Azh'ir mudas ethanul. Dalektharu 'il dask daku. Riftuuz 'e thara, samanar ut-amus. Elas umanes azarathan rak'as ibna," Regan says, her eyes still closed.

Kay bursts out into the hall, freaked out beyond belief, stumbling backwards until her back is against the door across from her dorm.

Regan follows her out of the room, sword drawn. Her footsteps leave black marks on the carpet.

She raises the sword and brings the point to just above Kay's neck.

At which point it's Kay's turn to let out a loud shriek, simultaneously bursting into spikes.

Jesus, no wonder Brigid got pissed at me...

Haley rolled over when the scream was now just a door or two away from her and clearly out in the hall.

...the fuck?

Now a bit on edge, she got up and headed for the door, opening it as Kay was pressed against her neighbor's door. Her eyes widened

"Holy shit, Regan, what the fuck are you doing?!?"

Regan turns and slashes right through Haley.

Of course, nothing happens except for a slight tingling sensation, but it probably is pretty surprising.

"Haley!" she screams when Regan strikes at her, though she seems to calm down a little when Haley appears to be fine.

Haley shrieked, too surprised to get a shield up. She shuddered as the sword went through her, but the surprise quickly turned to anger, her eyes narrowing at Regan.

"Okay, bitch, that's enough!"

She made a rough ball of TK around her fist and tried to slug Regan right in the stomach--and after Roland had gotten through with her, she had pretty damn good form.

Haley punches right through Regan, dissipating her for a moment. As she passes through, Haley is suddenly flooded with Regan's thoughts and memories. She can see Regan's childhood, Regan being a cheerleader, Regan's disastrous attempts at romance, her attempts to intervene in the lives of suicidal mutants, and even her death and journey through Limbo. Every experience, good and bad, hits Haley at once.

Regan re-materializes after Haley passes through and falls to the ground, apparently unconscious. Or whatever the equivalent is for spirits.

Haley gasped as the memories filled her mind as if she was experiencing them herself. She stumbled forward and sideways, falling into the wall and sliding downward onto the floor, tears starting to blur her vision.

"What the... Haley are you okay!?" Maybe being run through by a ghost sword isn't consequence-free after all.

Haley tried to respond, but nothing came out of her mouth as tears started to run down her cheeks. She slid sideways and downward against the wall, curling into a ball on her side on the floor.

"Ah crap... Haley, what's wrong?" she gets up and walks over to her. She wants to put a hand on her shoulder but stops when she sees the spikes on her arm. "Do you need help?"

Regan slowly started to wake up, drifting off the ground once again.

"What's going on?" Regan asks, "I had the worst fucking dream....Christ...my head."

"I...saw....everything," she finally got out, now just sobbing on the floor.

"What the hell is going on?"

"That's a good fucking question," Regan says.

"You were on fire!"

"Yeah, that sounds about right these days," Regan says, more than a touch of sarcasm in her voice.

"You were. On fire. And you hit Haley with your sword!"

Haley continued to sob on the floor, visions of what certainly looked like Hell to her juxtaposed with crushing loneliness and rejection, all vividly imprinted in her mind.

"I don't know anything about that, but my sword doesn't do anything to people," Regan says, "Haley! Stop being a crybaby. You're embarrassing yourself."

Haley pushed herself up, shoulders still heaving, but she was fighting to stop sobbing

"I seem to recall you crying a lot harder, for a lot longer, when Kelly ripped out your heart in front of the entire squad. And you weren't exactly in a great mood when *he* did all those things to us after you died, were you?" she hissed, seeming to be owning the memories a bit more than she should.

"So since I feel like all of that JUST happened to me, all at once, I think you can cut me some fucking slack. Or should I tell everyone in the hallway what makes us sad now?"

Regan's jaw dropped a little bit. She looked confused, angry, and scared all at once.

"...Fuck you," Regan says, blinking back tears, "Stay out of my head, you telepathic bitch."

"Would anybody tell me what the fuck is going on!?" she yells, her spines bristling.

"Kay! Are you alright?!?" Christie said as she rushed out of her room and to Kay's side.

"She's fine," Regan says, sounding annoyed.

"No thanks to you." she frowns at Regan. "You were going all Carrie on me in there."

"Sorry," Regan mumbles, looking a bit sullen.

Haley drew a shuddering breath, shaking with a mixture of anger, sorrow, and fear, pushing herself to her feet.

believe me....I didn't want those memories.... she thought towards Regan, who she wasn't even really sure could even hear telepathy. ...for what it's worth, I'm sorry... No one deserves what you've been through.