Nico dodged out of the way hitting the wall immediately, gods damn it he should have taken a moment to look behind him. E.J. approached slowly thinking that Nico was trapped, Nico's breath came in short bursts now because of the smell, ten times stronger now that E.J. was so close. Nico doubted any of the others would come to his aid, he needed to show E.J that he could fight for himself, or he would just be back next time Nico was on his own. With that in mind Nico tried to stay calm as his mind scrabbled for a plan. He then noticed the glint of something metal, a scalpel, in E.J.'s hand.
It turned out Nico didn't have to plan, as soon as E.J. lunged again Nico's body took over, instinct and training moving his limbs on their own. Nico dropped to the floor to avoid the blade and kicked out at E.J's legs, missing the knee but making a solid connection with the shin. Nico heard a grunt and E.J. stumbled back a couple paces, giving Nico the room he needed to roll to the side farther away from E.J.. Nico leapt to his feet and stepped away from the wall so it was no longer at his back.
E.J. made a small snarling, gurgling noise but seemed hesitant to attack Nico again, Nico glared back. He knew he could be quite scary when he wanted to be and right now he did, he relaxed the hold he kept on his power most of the time. The room darkened slightly moving out from Nico's body, and everything seemed colder. His eyes blackened with anger, sadness, and the feeling of death that made most people feel uncomfortable around him intensified.
"No matter how tough you believe you are you are still just a mortal. Do you really want to pick a fight with someone who is half God?" Nico asked coldly, staring at E.J. with dead eyes. E.J. took a involuntary step back, hesitated, then took another.
"Maybe not." He said nodding slightly. "I can see now why Slenderman is so interested in you, I think I too would like to study your powers from the outside for a while. Though, I can't promise I won't try to dissect you again at a later date." Nico couldn't tell if E.J. was joking or not, but he had the feeling he wasn't. It didn't matter for now though.
"It was nice to meet you." Nico said crossing the room to the doorway where Masky and Hoody still lingered.
"It's almost supper time, so I'm sure I'll see you again soon." E.J. said turning back to his cleaning. Nico made himself wait until he was out of the room and a little ways down the hall before he slumped against the wall. He was exhausted, he had thought he had used the last of his power to summon the cat for Slenderman, but then instinct and desperation had made him call on more and now he felt empty.
"Are you alright?" Masky asked as Nico breathed deeply straightening his back against the flat wood of the wall.
"I've used more power today than I knew I had." Nico said softly frowning. "I'm sure in the long run it will help me have access to more, but right now I feel empty, I don't know if I've ever felt quite this bad before." Nico knew he hadn't but very little of that actually had to do with his power being gone, so he didn't mention it.
"Oh." Masky said shifting awkwardly, neither he or Hoody had any powers at all that Nico knew of, so he supposed they wouldn't understand, it didn't matter.
"Where did Toby go?" Nico asked suddenly noticing the twitching boys absence, he had seemed pretty keen on following them around earlier why would he have left. Masky and Hoody both shifted awkwardly and exchanged a look through their masks.
"Well you know Toby's crazy... he has voices in his head, they're the ones who tell him to kill. Most of the time he gets along with them... they can sort of compromise, and Toby sort of functions in his level of insanity. but sometimes he kinda... goes sane I suppose? He starts trying to fight the voices in his head and get back to who he was before his sister died. He stops functioning for a bit while that happens for a bit until he gives up. and he and the voices go back to co-existing. That's what was happening when he was muttering at the wall earlier, so he's had to go back to his room till that's over. Sally's gone with him because if Toby was left alone when he's like this he'd probably bite his hands off."
