Eternal Rains (IC) [M] - Closed

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq paused for a moment to catch his breath as the group stopped outside the junkyard. Carefully, though: the smell wafting from the other side of the fence was enough to stun a Gryphon. Much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, the days when he could toss high-powered spells freely then run half-way across town to escape were a few too many years in the past. Perhaps, when this venture was done, he should look for an apprentice again, instead of a minion who could be easily disposed of if necessary.

The mole watched intently as the mysterious cloaked and hooded figure, who he suspected might be some kind of Mythos, pushed the gate barrier up with no apparent effort. Someone to keep an eye on, definitely. He strode through the open gate and followed the others into the junkyard.

[Cogidubnus]

Rifling through the police officer's pockets, Witt couldn't help but notice a bulge in the officer's coat pocket - a bulge which quickly revealed itself to a firearm of some sort, attached to the officer's body by a shoulder-holster, the sort with the adjustable strap that was designed to hide underneath an overcoat of some sort. The gun gleamed wetly in the evening light of the Island - large, bulky, and somehow powerful to simply hold. The sort of pistol that one could use to club down an assailant if one ran out of ammo. A pack of .44 shells was quickly found on the man's belt, and upon further inspection the gun revealed itself to be some sort of revolver weapon, a stylized J&W etched onto the barrel. It appeared to be sized for the .44 rounds found in the officer's belt pocket.
The hedgehog had pocketed them both, too quickly for any of the other party to say anything or object, had they even seen.

Walking as far ahead as he was, Cogidubnus certainly didn't see the hedgehog rifling through anything's pockets - although the grating sound of the guardhouse gate opening was enough to cause the wolf to jump and whirl around, eyes wide. He stood there like a deer in the headlight for a moment before inhaling quickly, giving a sharp curse.
Just that damn whatever the hell it was...

Cog looked at the hooded figure for another moment, and glancing quickly up at Keaton paused to give a stare at the cloaked figure. He stuck his hands in his pockets, wincing as the rough fabric of his pants brushed the oddly inexplicable wound on his thigh.
"Look, I...thanks for your help back there. I don't have any money, though. Hell, I'd give you a light if she hadn't taken it all." he said, looking at the hooded figure for a few moments. She didn't respond.
His eyes narrowed. "Look, I told you, I don't have anything." he said, his voice getting defensive. He scowled. "Just who the hell are you, anyway?"

[techmaster-glitch]

   As the party starts to migrate into The Junkyard, they find that it is an utter wasteland. Lifeless brown earth covered in hills and mountains of rusty scrap and junk. Anything organic is almost nonexistent. What with the quasi-supernatural weather that ever-pervades the Isle of Rains, anything metal left in the place rusts amazingly fast. Even stainless steel will look as if it has sprouted reddish-brown mold after just a few days. The place smells like a mechanic's worst nightmare; the fumes are intoxicating. Some of the party might be able to see small streams of an unidentifiable glowing green and black acidic liquid, made from the morbidly desolate rain runoff, tons of bad oil, and a subtle, gruesome magic that permeates the place. All the members of the party can literally feel the malevolence in the air as they walk in.
   Suddenly, a shriek pierces the air. It is a scream of someone who is in a terrible agony.
   A shadow shifts slightly behind one of the scrap mountains. Something is watching everyone.

(OOC: sorry for the cliche scream, but it happened for a reason)

[Paladin Sheppard]

As Paige followed the group through the junk yard, she thought about the others she had seen on the outskirts of towns she had visited. 'Why they don't just hire a mage to convert it to something useful I have no idea...Its what we did at home at least...'

As the scream echoed around them, Paige reached up and placed a hand on her swords hilt ready to draw it should she need to.

"What was that."

[bill]

Back in the bar, Navarro, who had left a while ago, was taking another drink at the table in the corner. He was thinking about many things, none of which was the fight on the docks, or the job. He was back to his habitual staring at the ceiling when a rather old-looking being sat down next to him, without saying a word.

Navarro stared at him for a second, and looked away.

No reason for him to do that. Unless...

Casually, Navarro put his hand on the pistol in his holster. He braced for an attack when the being suddenly, and calmly spoke.

"Give me the envelope, scout."

Something about his voice made it clear that he was in authority, so Navarro quickly pulled the envelope out of his pocket, and gave it to him. The being took it, and put it in a satchel he was carrying. He spoke.

"We saw your meeting with Little Miss Psycho a moment ago."

Well, shit.
Navarro took a deep breath, and quickly spoke.

"Nothing came of that. I didn't eve-"

"That's your new assignment."

Navarro stared for a second.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"If this operation succeeds, we're going to want at least one of our guys in there, so we can take credit, now, don't we? Do you have any idea how much leverage we'll get if this goes through?"

Navarro spoke back.

"So you're concerned with business."

He bit his lip, and smiled.

"I think I can live with that."

"You better." The being put down a large rifle case on the table.

"I went ahead and took the liberty of getting your rifle for you. I do hope you don't mind the broken window."

"You broke into my home?"

"We deemed it necessary, yes."

Navarro sighed, and slung the rifle case over his back, and got up to leave.

"They're in the junkyard. Better hurry."

Navarro got up and prepared to go for the door, when the being spoke again.

"One last thing."

"Sir?"

"Do make sure this goes through. World like this, I doubt everyone there's in it for the good of the mission. Make sure nobody tries anything stupid. We'll be keeping an eye out, but because of... restrictions, we aren't allowed to act. Understood?"

Navarro nodded.

"Good. Off with you."

Navarro left, and headed quickly toward the junkyard.

[Tezkat]

"You couldn't afford me, sweetheart." Edge's grin twisted into a veritable smirk at Witt's question.

The strange winged fox deposited the injured bear at his feet. Three nasty bullet wounds in the chest and one in the leg. Edge gently rolled the bear over. No exit wounds. Patching the guy up with lead still inside wouldn't be doing him any favours, but Edge's knowledge of surgery extended primarily to techniques that his "patients" weren't intended to survive intact. Had the fox dealt with that already? Edge couldn't recall. Fang had been lost in the Harpist's reverie at the time. The entry wounds were already closed, at any rate.

The jaguar shrugged. Not his problem. He pried the bear's mouth open and carfully dribbled the grape potion onto his tongue. The magical regeneration would kick in soon enough.

Edge stood. The winged rabbit who had healed Keaton was up. Kind of him to wait for Edge to use up the potion before stirring. The panther rolled his eyes.

"The bear still has some serious injuries, if you--"

An agonized scream echoed through the night air. The jaguar spun to face the source of the sound. Leaving the rabbit to sort things out on his own, Edge crossed the open gateway and followed the rest of the party into the junkyard.

[e_voyager]

for the past several moments Epyon had felt ill at ease as he fixed his body. he thought about the bear and their suicide squad that was working this mission. how close would the get him to his goal? then he thong about the new comer and the so called mythos that inhabited this  junkyard. there smell of death was here that much was certain. he cold detect it with= ease for form the looks of his companions as they entered the placer there were smelling a lot more then death., an none of it pleasant.  the living were so frail but at the same time so much more alive then the dead. he looked at the cloaked new arrival as well as his partially opened eyes would allow. she was a mythos an insect  of some sort he was sure. if not here her silence and bountiful body he might had thought her an over grown arachnospearean

he was still contemplating this when a scream rang out and force him to his feet eyes oped and scanning the area he could see for trouble.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt glanced up at the scream, and sighed. He paused to take the gun and holster out of his pocket, remove his jacket, and put the whole lot on, then put his jacket back over the lot, shrugging it into place.

He pulled the gun clear, opened it to check it was full, and put it away again. Shit. He didn't even manage to pull the damn thing out. On second thoughts, he pulled the gun and kept it in his hand, eyes tracking the scenery warily. With his other hand, he moved the shells to a more convenient place, attaching the pack to his belt, then moved on after Keaton and Cogidubnus, eyes watching for movement.

Fuck. I hate this blasted place.

[Stygian]

Cogidubnus' question made the figure stiffen, then shake her head and raise her hands in exasperation. She clenched her fingers at him as if she wanted to shake him around a bit, then just let them fall and her shoulders slump. She was about to try sign language, almost knowing it would be a futile attempt and giving off dim waves of irritation and frustration, when she noticed the bear dropped to the ground by the smirking vulpine just through the gates. They had regeneration potion, which was good, because it would spare her the trouble and possible expense of wasting her own. But more often than most seemed to think, bullets and fragments that had gone in deeply were not pushed out of the body, but remained inside to cause residual damage later. And if they thought she would help if they found out what she was... But then again, that she was a doctor was easy to miss as most tended to focus on other things.
   Moving her hands up to the neck of her cloak, the figure looked further into the junkyard, beyond the view of the gate to where the jackal had already walked a bit. She was just about to pull the hood that shadowed her face back, when a loud scream rang out, and her gaze snapped around, staring in the direction of the sound. Instantly, she steadied her stance and, in lack of something good to touch with her hands, put her feet absolutely flat to the ground. If anything past the weight of a few pounds moved from there, she would most likely feel it. The problem was that the whole of the junkyard was laden with heavy objects, and while metal was good at transmitting vibrations, there was more than just solid pieces of metal in all the scrap around them, and in random heaps like this it could only obstruct her senses.

[Tapewolf]

"Oh well," Cross said as the scream rang out.  "Sounds like Cog's friend just died.  Shall we go home, then?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

At the sudden scream Penny moved closer to the center of the group. She took a tighter grip on her pistol crossbow with one hand and fished in her pouch for some of the more interesting bolts with the other. She was lucky that the boss had her generous moments with her magic and that both the bow and the bolts were enhanced.

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq was uneasy about sauntering so openly through the junkyard. Quite apart from the smell, the towering heaps of rubbish made it impossible to see anyone... or anything... approaching them: it was a good place for an ambush. In fact, he'd used similar places to set up an ambush himself, many times in the past.

His ears twitched at the sound of the scream. "I do not think that was one of us..." he said quietly. At any rate, he could still see Keaton and Cogidubnus walking up ahead, and a glance over his shoulder confirmed none of the party bringing up the rear had vanished... yet.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt raised an eyebrow at the coated wolf. Somewhat quietly, he muttered "Back through the bloody cops, Pettersohn? Sure. You first." He shrugged one shoulder, indicating, albeit somewhat muted by rain and distance, the blaring sirens, interspersed with the honking of the tug horns, screams of the police at various resisting bystanders, and general disturbance back in the middle of Holiday. "As for me, I think we should keep our fucking mouths shut, and concentrate on not bloody disturbing whatever gods-forsaken thing that motherfucker is on our way past its' door. With luck, we might even sneak past while it's busy."

He shook some rain off, palmed a knife into his off hand, and kept moving, making as little noise as possible.

[e_voyager]

Epyon looked down on his companions from the junk heap he'd climbed his eyes  glowing ominously. for a moment all four were visible then he closed two or them and pull out his pole  expanding it to it's normal fighting length.  he didn't liked this. that scream it didn't sound like a scream that the living made. But then he could just be imagining this.

As the looked around his wings half spread in case he needed to jump away form the junk he saw the hedgehog take a head count and chuckled as the hedgehog was apparently satisfied with the number he came up with. oddly enough in a group he was rarely if even noticed and almost never missed. it was convenient for working on you own but sometimes it made him feel invisible.  Moving slowly he moved as he looked away form the others his figure visible to any who looked up on the junk heaps.

as much as he valued his eyes. it was his ears that brought to him the next clue. either that or he was paranoid and listen to shifting junk in the yard. 

[Aisha deCabre]

A little way into the junkyard, not only did the atmosphere smell malevolent...it also began to feel like it.  Aisha certainly didn't mind having a portion of silence, after the raucous at the docks.  But there was a moment when the silence had just become...what was a word...

Eerie.  Si, best word for the moment, the panthress inwardly shrugged.  Usually she was the one who liked to cause the prickly sensation that goes up one's back when they were being watched.  Not the other way around...

The scream caught all who heard it off-guard, including the hunter.  But only for a quick moment as she drew her bow and one of the arrows that she left without poison.

Shoot to wound if they appear...she grimaced, keeping the feathered end of the projectile gripped tightly on her fingers and sitting on the string as she padded slowly onward.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

For someone who wading through an ankle-deep quagmire of assorted filth, Keaton seemed perfectly unperturbed by her current surroundings. Well, to an extent. She actually was quite repulsed, nearing the verge of wanting to vomit whenever she bypassed a particularly disgusting article of garbage, but kept those impulses restrained thoroughly enough, to the point she seemed to be made of stone amidst her determination.

It'll all be worth it, Keaton told herself. It'll all be worth it.

She heard something sickening crunch underneath the weighty heel of her boot. Her first instinct was that it was something made out of bone, due to the near-crepitating sound it elicited and her personal experiences.

Keaton didn't stop to look down at it, but she still felt discouraged, an exaggerated expression of disgust flickering across her features. It'll still be worth it, she mentally stated again, attempting to kick the unseen piece of trash off of her heel without looking at it. Fucking HELL I hate this place! I HATE HATE HATE this place! What kind of retard would live in a fucking DUMP of all places?!

With one, final kick, the unknown-but-undoubtedly-hideous object went flying off of her heel. Once bereft of that weight, Keaton settled her boot back on the ground and started to walk again, oblivious to to the independent activities occurring between each individual party member. She started to survey her surroundings for any variation of settlement, or something equally sufficient as residence. Nothing. Keaton sighed and let her ears droop. When I find that bitch, I'm going to light everything in this shithole on fire.

Just as she took another step forward, she heard the scream. Surprise spiked in the pit of Keaton's stomach, her ears flattening and her eyebrows rocketing to the top of her forehead in shock, pupils shriveling into little brown dots. "Holy -" she stammered, swerving around to face the group collected behind her. Like many other members of the party, her first instinct was to check to see if the scream originated from someone in their group. "What the fuck was that?!" Keaton demanded. For once, she didn't seem enraged by that earsplitting sound - she just looked shocked.

Along with that scream had came a deluge of enough agony to feed a drove of starving Cubi, something which would normally incapacitate Keaton from how overwhelming that overflow of emotions was if it wasn't for the presence of the mind-shields and filters fortifying her mind. Fortunately, it seemed nobody in the group was responsible. Keaton didn't sigh in relief yet, though - her hand grasped Catastrophe's handle and she whipped it from its harness on her back, leveling it to the ground. The reverberating emotions died down along with the remnants of the scream, leaving only that stillborn silence injected in the atmosphere.

Keaton looked to Witt. Her breathing decelerated to an ordinary pace as her adrenaline rush petered away. "I - I gotta agree with Witt here..." she ran her hand through her hair, though at an angle which wouldn't make the voluminous sleeve of her shirt slump down her arm, and consequentially her wrist. "Though we gotta stick close together. If there's some kind of threat here we'll have a better chance of killing it if it decides to do the same to one of us." Keaton narrowed her eyes, and threw her gaze about the garbage, listening to any impending sounds in the air. Keeping her weapon drawn, Keaton started to walk again, albeit at a faster pace. "If it's close, though, it's going to get a fucking nasty surprise. Right now, we gotta move faster."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

  It seemed like the cowled figure was about to make an attempt at rushing Cog for a moment there, her apparent irritation with the wolf practically palpable. The wolf tilted his head, taking a step back, and was about to try and run ahead of Keaton when an earsplitting shriek pierced the fetid air.
Cog's eyes widened, his gaze darting about as fast as his head could turn. Without even waiting, he began to walk even faster, only glancing at the trenchcoated lupine to his side once, making an nasty face.

"Pandora doesn't scream. Trust me, she doesn't flinch at...well, anything, really." he said, making footprints in the mud. "She's not real far from here, just outside the far side of the junkyard."
No one had really asked him what that might have been, so he kept his mouth shut, instead moving past even Keaton in his attempts to move forward.

* * *

As Navarro walked through the town, he distinctly got the impression that he'd probably left the ground at just the right time. Every police officer that he could recognize, and some that he couldn't, all seemed busily engaged in searching the alleys and backstreets for everyone who had been remotely involved in this catastrophe, and more seemed to be showing up by the minute.
Most of them seemed to be headed for the area right outside the docks.

It wasn't a far walk from where he was to the edges of the junkyard, however, and fairly soon he found himself staring at the chain-link, barbed wire topped fence that separated the junkyard from everything else on the Island.

[Tapewolf]

"How is your dealer going to help us, Cog?"  Cross asked, clutching his gun tightly and feeling in his coat for rounds.  His voice was calm and neutral, as though he was discussing the weather or a mathematical conundrum, not squelching his way through a heap of debris and shit.

[techmaster-glitch]

   As some of the group started to move again, all of a sudden, something burst out of the bottom of the metal scrap pile that Epyon was currently perched on. It didn't burst out toward the group, rather off to the side. It moved so quick it would be difficult for any of the group to see it. Before anyone can get a good look at it, it was already bounding between scrap mountains and out of sight. As it dissappeared, a brief, yet hair-raising screech came from it. It sounded something like metal scratching metal, only distorted. Then it was gone, and The Junkyard was silent again.
   All anyone would have been able to see was that it was a reddish-brown color, and probably somewhat skeletal. All Salticia would be able to discern with her obscured tremorsense is that the something was moving on probably four limbs. Epyon should get the feeling that sitting on what could have been it's home isn't too swell of an idea.

[Snuggles]

Anton, still recovering from his injuries, was very surpised at what just happened behind him. He jumped forward, to get out of the way, and turns around as the sound of metal scratching metal dissipates. "OooooKkkayy... What was that?" Looking around a little bit. "And who's brave enough to go check it out?"

[e_voyager]

Epyon felt the rubble shite and caught a glimpse of something moving quickly away from his  now shaky perch. "oh shit" he says and he jumped  away form the junk pile flipping in mid air and spreading his wings so that he'll glide down to the ground. 'that this was fast' he though though he'd not actual gotten a glimpse of more then a shadow before it's taken cover again." you can go looking for it if you want but i think i'd rather get out of the junk yard with my hide in tact unlike how it was at the docks"  looking at the cure Epyon makes the sanest decision possible and decides to stand net to the fight loving hedgehog know that he'll attack anything before Epyon is even sure it's a foe an that that will probably be whats buys him time fore either the kill or the escape. which ever is best at the moment.

[Cogidubnus]

Cogidubnus caught the trenchcoated lupine's mockery out of the corner of his ears and gave a small snarl. Fangs bared, he hesitated responding to the grey wolf for just a moment, nearly dragging his right foot as he walked forward. His fangs disappeared - and far in the distance, another set of sirens could be heard going off, not quite distant enough to be comfortable.
"She's not my fucking dealer." he said, taking a step. "You can call her what you want, but I wouldn't let her hear that if I were you." he said, doing his best to shake the feeling of eyes all around him. He gave the wolf a slightly irritated glare before turning to look at the rest of the party.

Most of them seemed to be languishing about the entrance, as though this was a safe haven of some sorts. Another flash of irritation passed over the wolf's face, and in his eyes a bit of panic. He stopped, waving at them.
"Hey! It's not like the cops won't arrest you in here! They'll just probably not look." he said, hoping he got his point across. "And whoever the hell was screaming isn't anymore." he paused to let that sink in. "This ain't exactly a rest stop. Let's go!"

* * *

As Dani began to stir, the wafting, pungent smell of rotting garbage and acrid metal greeting the rousing bear, burrowing through his nose and into his brain as the injured ursine finally started to wake up. The healing potion, for whatever long-term effects it might have, seemed to have revived the bear somewhat.
The sound of a earsplitting shriek, and a sudden avalanche of metal also assaulted the bear's senses, and fairly quickly he was aware that he was in a junkyard, and that everyone seemed to be moving forward.

Rather than endorse his suggestion of going to find the source of the yell, Anton saw most of them trying to get through the junkyard all the faster for it. He heard Cog's yell, and the distant and yet building sirens.

* * *

Standing outside the chain-link wall to the rather wonderful-smelling pile of steaming garbage, Navarro was standing and mostly minding his own business when he heard an earsplitting shriek echo through the piles of garbage and junk, and shortly after that the sound of metal drums and probably very broken and now-inexpensive car parts clatter around on yet more junk.
From the edges of his hearing, he could almost hear that weird, druggie wolf yelling something.

[Tapewolf]

Cross raised his eyebrows.  "Why, then, would you risk life and limb crossing this pit of garbage all alone?"  Have you made some sort of deal with the thing that lives here?  Going to feed us to it, hmm?  He clutched the gun ever tighter.

[Tezkat]

Edge's nose crinckled slightly as the full force of the decaying junkheap struck his nostrils. He raised an eyebrow when screeching metallic thing appeared and then raced out of sight.

"Charming place for a first date. Are the natives always this friendly?"

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt, from his place slightly behind Cog, snorted, then addressed the dapper Jaguar over his shoulder.

"No, they built this fucking thing special, yesterday, just for you. You like it?"

He smiled an evil little smile to himself, and, without apparent effort, started rolling the knife in his off paw around, spinning it around his fingers in an apparently unconscious reaction to the tension - whilst his eyes never stopped scanning the surrounding junk piles for movement.

[e_voyager]

Epyon steeped a littler further away form the hedgehog to give him room to swing his pole. "Careful eager one. i  think there are too many things in this place that want to show us just how special this place is."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt stopped dead.

"Well, gee, d'ya think so?" The sarcasm just dripping off his words. "I would never have considered the fucking possibility that the bastards might be hiding under another fucking junkpile ready to leap out and make sure we never bloody leave. That'd be just totally against the evil reputation this gods-forsaken place has in town. It would come as such a surprise to learn that there might be some wanker here who means me ill."

He paused, scanned the area again, spat at one of the piles, and added "I mean, other than the rest of the bastards on my own fucking team, that is." He spun the knife into the air, switched paws with the revolver, and caught the knife again, moving smoothly back into spinning it around his fingers - not to show off, but apparently without even thinking about it. He slid off again, still moving quietly - in fact, the entire diatribe had been delivered just loud enough to hear, and at no great distance, either - and still watching in all directions.

[e_voyager]

Epyon smile to himself his upper eyes closed. he could still image the hedgehogs energy. nice and blue tinged with a growing read " ssh they may not have head you clearly. besides i'm sure and excellent conversationalist like yourself would b welcome company here among the violent and the dead."

just a little more he thought. just push him a little more and either they would attack aiming form the hedgehog or the hedgehog would attack and likely be thrown to the mercy of the junkyard beast as a decoy for the spell castes to orient on to blast the monsters

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt snorted. "Yeah, usually. Shush, we're not in the fucking clear here. If you want to banter, get back to me after we get out of this shit-hole."

"Well, if you're still in one bloody piece, anyway." He considered, and added - quietly enough to reach only Epyon's ears - "Or even several fairly large ones."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny moved forward with the group. She wasn't sure that this was a great plan but if she wanted to stay near the center of the group she had to move with them. When the whatever-it-was toppled one of the piles and ran off she made up her mind. She dropped one of the special bolts into her small crossbow. Then with a sigh, which caused her to cough from the stench, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her glasses.