"Of course it's a dream," snaps Rush, unable to suppress the swelling surge of irritation. "Fucking obviously."

"He's Nicholas," announces the cat lazily. "I'm Arista. I'm assuming you're both familiar with the spatial-temporal anomaly that's woven its way through Manhattan?"

Rush stares at her with an expression torn between indignant and disgruntled.

"Dr. Nicholas Rush," he corrects, finding himself increasingly annoyed with his feline counterpart's apparent proclivity for informal introduction.