Eternal Rains (IC) [M] - Closed

[techmaster-glitch]

(note, I'm not godmodding, I just talked to Cog. The group also needs to be moving along; you need to be deeper in The Junkyard before anything actually happens)

   As Keaton and Cogidubnus continued forward at the head of the group, circumventing several junk piles, they stumbled across something that most definitely would catch their eye, as well as that of the rest of the party.
   Rounding a junkpile, the two stopped dead. What met them was a truly gruesome horror show. It was a corpse, but not an ordinary one. The best way to describe it would probably be...a body that was shoved through a meat grinder and still came out in one piece, barely. Nearly all the flesh and innards were shredded in scraps and hanging off of a skeleton that seemed broken in a few places. It was impossible to tell what race or species the poor sap used to be. But that wasn't the worst part; the worst part was that the corpse was not on the ground. It was suspended in the air...by the right wrist and ankle. The wrist had industrial-strength steel cable tied to it, while the ankle had a thick electrical cord wrapped around it. Both went up and were wrapped around a bent and rusted girder that was jutting out of the nearest junkpile. The rest of the limbs hung limply. There was a pool of dried blood on the ground beneath the strung-up body.
  Judging by the flesh and blood, the corpse was fresh...as in, less-than-an-hour-or-two fresh.


Center of The Junkyard

   Arcwelder stood up from leaning over a steel gurney. On it was the freshly-dead corpse of a teenage girl, who was missing a leg, had a metal arm, had random plates bolted to her, and a face contorted in terror and pain. She had died, as all of Arcwelder's experiments had before her. She had also let out quite a beautiful scream when he started working on her, with the tools built into his own metal right arm. On a gurney next to the one Arcwelder just finished with, there was a teenage boy in a similar state of dismemberment. Arcwelder had caught them on the outskirts of his home, and decided to bring them in. There was a third boy, but he was killed by one of Arcwelder's creations before he managed to get his own hands on them.
   Behind Arcwelder, a small thing rushed in from around a junkpile, chittering madly. Arcwelder turned to face it, and it stopped in front of him. It was a quadrupedal robot that seemed to be sculpted from skeletal rusted metal. It had jagged blades on the plates that were it's front feet. A single bulb was perched on top where the head might be, which glowed a strong, evil green. Sparks of green electricity occasionally crackled along its back at irregular intervals.
   The zombified robot seemed quite agitated; it repeatedly pounded the ground with it's front legs and emitted a menagerie of strange metallic sounds. Arcwelder observed it, almost as if it was trying to communicate, and he could understand it. After a few moments of this, Arcwelder's eyes went wide.
   "You must be yanking my cables!" He said, with an astonished look on his half-metal face. "This is incredible...that many?" He started to pace around. "I get new test subjects rare enough, I was lucky to get two at the same time. But now, an entire batch? Fortune has never been kinder to me!" He stopped pacing. "This is a momentous occasion..and deserves something special..." A truly demented grin spread across his face.
   Behind him, two more zombified robots inched up to the two gurneys. One of them was big and had a very large maw, and the other was covered in spikes. The quickly cut the bonds that held the two corpses down. The big one with the mouth grabbed the head of the girl in it's jaws and pulled--and the head came off. The robot then dropped the head and bit the torso, pulling the corpse down. The one with the spikes impaled the other body in the thigh with a spike at the end of one of its limbs and pulled it down. As they started to drag the bodies in opposite directions, Arcwelder, without even turning around, said "When you are done with that, gather everyone. We must properly greet our...guests."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt sidled up behind Keaton, and glanced idly over at the corpse.

"Well, that probably wasn't the source of the bloody scream - been dead fucking too long. Not a lot we can do to help the poor bastard, either. Good thing we're not staying. Shall we move the fuck on before we end up stretched out like that as well?"

He nudged Keaton, gently, and kept watching the surrounding area for movement.

[Tapewolf]

"It's only death," Cross said.  "A horrible one, I'll grant, but at the end of the day, nothing worse.  However it makes me wonder again how Cog managed to avoid it in his own peregrinations... indeed, a less trusting mind might almost wonder if he had made some kind of a pact with the one who did this - but that wouldn't be a very charitable question to ask.

"As Witt says, we must get to Pandora as soon as possible, but there is a point which no-one else has yet mentioned.  Whatever kind of a shack she lives in is unlikely to house all of us - so most of us will be left outside at the mercy of this... person... while Cog negotiates with his... friend."

[e_voyager]

Poor thing. what ever it had been it was not any longer. But  Cross was right there were worse things then death. he'd been living one for he didn't know how long now.. well at lest it didn't seem to be a zombie as well that was good news.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Keaton remained close behind Cogidubnus during the group's expedition through the junkyard, still keeping Catastrophe out and readily prepared at her side. During his relatively restrained, but tense exchange with Cross, Keaton surprisingly didn't concern herself with separating the two, or demanding that Cog behave himself. She was too concerned with monitoring her surroundings for any indication of their hidden predator's approach, from the stirring of the putrefactive garbage to any incriminating sounds disturbing the pestilential air. On edge as she was, though, she was wholly unprepared for the immediate sight of what rested on the other side of a mountain of junk the group was bypassing.

Particularly, the desiccated and decomposing visage of a dismembered corpse, mostly mutilated beyond recognition. Its chest was a gaping maw; flesh split open and bone-white ribs agape, its contents strewn in bedraggled clumps and shredded scraps around the body from where it was suspended like some sick marionette over the junkyard. Apparently something had been feasting on it, or had been using it as its personal toy, since Keaton couldn't possibly imagine how the body could get so wantonly flayed - not to mention how an eviscerated carcass could be found in a junkyard of places was past her comprehension as well. Keaton let out an incomprehensible, but revolted retch and withdrew, her ears flattening. She cursed abjectly under her breath, the obscenity disguised behind an exaggerated exhalation.

Being mostly inured to the sight of mutilated corpses, Keaton reacted little more than that single retch. Despite that, the sight was still quite disgusting to Keaton's eyes, even with her thorough experience of bloodshed. For some reason more explicit scenes involving intestines invoked a stronger reaction than, perhaps, blood, which she had little objections toward.

While everyone in the group individually reacted over the cadaver, Keaton felt her disgust transmogrify into rage. Why didn't Cog tell her they were walking into a madhouse?! It was one thing to be cavorting through a cesspool of garbage. It was another thing to be cavorting through a cesspool of garbage which was home to a maniac who enjoyed fettering his victims in mid-air as grotesque trophies, or declarations of power, or some crazy-ass reason Keaton couldn't understand. Now wasn't the time to fume at Cog, regardless. They had to get out of the junkyard, fast.

Keaton whirled around and yelled to the group, "We have to speed up, NOW!" She jerked her head toward Cog, snarling, "You, HURRY UP!" Her hands clamped on his arms and she spun Cog's emaciated body so he was staring into her glowering features. Once the point was conveyed, Keaton released Cog again and nudged him between the shoulder-blades.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Aisha deCabre]

Yeah, yeah, I think we get the stinkin' idea, Aisha thought with a roll of her eyes as she quickened her pace along with some members of the group.  Mostly it was at the suggestion of their two supposed leaders, but also because anyone with half a brain could tell that, unless one was a rat or a roach, the dump wasn't a good rest spot.

Especially when one had a scream to concentrate on...

So slowly she got to be towards the front of the group, but still hanging about their outskirts so that she wouldn't prick anyone with her arrow...which was still sitting in the bow and at the volition of her fingers.  Her eyes darted left and right, searching for any alien movement.  No doubt by now she was quite used to the smell, her focus on better things.

Maybe I should scout a-- "Shit!" Aisha barked and suddenly jumped back, having seen something dashing through her line of sight.  Her eyes weren't quick to catch what had burst out from a junk pile, but it was certainly noticed, for after hearing the scraping of metal and shifting garbage, a few yelps were heard as it ducked straight out of sight.

...That was NOT a rat or a roach, the panthress grimaced.  There it was, all the more reason that their trip through the dump be a quick one.

But if that thing wasn't enough incentive to get everyone moving, then the next sight was.  It was recognizable right over the garbage stench, a most feared smell and yet enticing for the scavengers buzzing about in little black clouds, scattered as one of the living set foot in their surroundings.  It was the smell of death.

The corpse hung for all to see, like a sick display of public art.  Not even the demoness could stop from getting a rough feeling in her stomach...the thing that got to her was the way it appeared.  Tortured and done without even a hint of ceremonious respect.  Most murderers would bury their quarry, and most who killed to survive never wasted flesh like what was seen in front of them.  Again the scream came to mind.

What the hell was here?

Keaton had put it best after that.  They had to get going.  There was a pause before Aisha carefully loosened her grip on the bowstring and set the arrow back into her quiver...in favor of one of the poisoned ones.  Then, she bounded ahead with it ready.

Screw 'shoot to wound', bato, I'm shooting to kill.

[Tapewolf]

"You're going on?"  Cross asked Keaton.  "Has it occurred to you that whatever did that has probably killed Pandora and is now waiting in her house for us?  Entering the junkyard was madness!  Look.  There are at least four of Us in the party.  Surely we can teleport everyone to a safer place somewhere off the island?"

[SpottedKitty]

Huffing a little, Fal'taq finally caught up with Keaton and Cogidubnus as they stopped at a point where the path kinked around a pile of junk. Then he saw why they'd stopped.

"Hmm... interesting..." he muttered thoughtfully after a brief but intense, dispassionate look at the virtually disassembled corpse. "These are knife cuts, not claw cuts, and I do not think magic has been used at all. I may have to reconsider my speculation as to the nature of the "junkyard monster" — perhaps it is not a rogue Mythos after all, a Mythos would have used claws." The mole looked over the gory remains for a moment longer before returning his attention to the surrounding junkpiles. Whoever, or whatever, created this cheerfully welcoming scene might still be nearby. He whistled a tune — slow and ponderous, although if it were faster it would be quite sprightly and bouncy — quietly to himself as Keaton expressed her uneasiness in typical fashion (and volume).

[Stygian]

As the figure observed the situation, and the group's internal responses to it, she could do nothing but peer out at them from the small recess of her hood, and shake her head. These people were loony. Between the one wolf's paranoia, the other's apparent uselessness, the clear aggression of one panther and the moronic smirking and dawdling of the other, and then the jackal's craziness... She gave them half an hour under pressure and a day, perhaps, out of it, before they started beating on each other or stealing each other's stuff back and forth. She had seen that before.
   Still, if there was any imminent danger - and the presence of the absolutely mauled corpse, a sight which not so much frightened her or put her off as disgusted her with its crudeness and brutality -  she would be happy to fall back to a safe position and then mostly wait it out. If they dealt with the trouble, good. But if not, they would have exhausted whatever resistance they might face, and she would get the loot. It didn't really strike her as a great possibility that it would matter to the police that she would tip off later. She felt a little unsure of whether if it really was a good thing to do, but seeing how these people acted and what they said, and the fact that it also seemed little good was to come of anything there, it was easy for her to quell that emotion.
   Again, they began moving, and with another shake of her head the figure fell into step, this time close behind the panthress. That one seemed to know quite well what she was doing. And if she became edgy from having someone at her back, she had no real reason to. Being guarded from your rear was always a good thing.

[Cogidubnus]

 The wolf really was trying to best to ignore Jakob, at least until they reached a point where a yelling match might not attract any more attention to the group than they already had, if that was even possible. As the trechcoated lupine spoke, Cog's mouth kept twisting further and further into a sour snarl. The wolf's yellow eyes were watching Jakob out of the corner of his eyes, so much so that he didn't see the corpse before he practically bumped into it.
  "DAMMIT!"

  Cog jumped backwards, practically shoving himself into Petersohn behind him as he took in the gory sight. Little more than a gutted piece of flesh on a hook, the body was barely recognizable as something that had once walked and talked anymore. The internal organs had been removed, leaving a gaping hole where the stomach would have been, the white bone of the spinal cord peeking out between the tight-stretched flesh between the back of the ribcage and the pelvis. The heart and lungs, the intestines, everthing seemed to be already been removed, the skin itself flayed off until the corpse was little more than a red, slightly marbled piece of meat. Sightless eyes stared out of a still-dripping, bleeding head.
Cog choked back a bit of bile creeping up his throat. He bent over, putting his hand on a nearby piece of junk, a rusting car that creaked as the wolf put his weight against it.

He heard the other's talking, and then Keaton speaking her own proclamations. Grabbing his arm, Cog was twisted around until his face was in brought line with Keaton's, into a position where he could see the brown awls of her eyes digging into his skull very clearly. She hissed her instructions to him and let him go, spinning around and walking past the dangling body.
He swallowed, and was about to follow her when that damned, trenchcoated wolf started talking again. And talking. And talking. Cog's lips curled up over his fangs, and his yellow eyes narrowed.

"Will you shut the hell up?!" he said, spinning on the wolf and nearly grabbing his collar. He stopped himself just short, instead contenting himself with yelling at the verbose incubus. "Dammit! Pandora doesn't live in here, you ignorant shit, she lives past here, she doesn't go in this gods-forsaken junkyard unarmed, and whoever the hell the junkman is, he's looking pretty fucking reasonable right about now, wouldn't you say?" he said, stabbing a finger at the dangling corpse. Sirens continued to blare in the distance. "If you want to go fuck-all and walk your merry way there through the thoroughfares to her house, you're welcome to gods-damned try, and I hope that idiot with the anti-fucking-aircraft gun shoots you straight up the ass!"
The wolf's eyes gleamed. "IF you can fucking find her house in the first place, asshole. And don't fucking think you're teleporting off this Island without all of us."

He pressed his point. "Who the hell do you think those guys at the dock were? The gods-damned Salvation Army?" he paused, his eyes almost feral. "They've seen you. There's a reason people don't fuck with Sabanethei, and that's because that bastard can take on a gods-damned militia, and will sure as hell wipe you off the boot of his shoe like a fetid piece of shit." the wolf's tone rose. "So get your head out of your prejudiced, 'Cubi ass and smell the coffee, because we're all in this shit together, and running off just means it's all the easier for them to kill you, and that's a death more certain than whatever stupid sunuvabitch lives in a pile of rotting, shit-smelling, motherfucking junk!"
The wolf raised his voice at the end of his rant, and slamming a fist into his elbow he gave the incubus a hearty salute before spinning on his heel and rushing forward to catch up with Keaton, muttering obscenities under his breath the whole way.

* * *

Around the group, the sound of sirens began to get closer as time went on, and among what streets were still within eyeshot the sight of red and blue lights flashing could be seen passing over the dirty brick walls. The former guard of the guardhouse still lay prone on his stomach, and the the gate to entryway was still left wide-open.

  From where Navarro stood, he could still hear the distant sounds of argumentation. About thirty feet away from him and the fence was a dumpster, which had been pushed up against the side of a shed for ease of access. Behind the shed, a large, broad tree had taken root, with wide and sturdy branches that just almost touched the tip of the inside wall of junk.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt snickered evilly, his eyes still watching everything around him.

His voice rose cheerily after the retreating lupine: "No, don't hold back, now. Tell us what the fuck you really think."

Followed, of course, by Witt himself, swapping hands on the knife and gun, again.

[Tapewolf]

Cross' face remained impassive and still as Cog lashed into him, just as it had when he'd seen the horrifically mutilated corpse.  That was perhaps more frightening than any expression he could have made.

Sticking his gun in the wolf's face would have been a somewhat hollow gesture unless he pulled the trigger as well.  Indeed, others had been found dead - and without their ears - for much less... but he had to remain on reasonably good terms with Keaton.
Besides, he'd need the bullets if they did meet the junk-monster.

"I wasn't talking to you," he said.  And horrific agony washed through Cog's skull.

[e_voyager]

"Soulless dead." Epyon muttered looking around. he really did want out of here. as long as he moved he was lily a target. still "closing his eyes he relived the moment that they junk monstrosity had  blurs past his ling of vision.  it had almost glinted in the moon light. he didn't like this place and liked it liked with every passing second.. he reopened his eyes and continued to walk within the group near there center. he hoped his pole would be enough. oh gods he hoped it would be enough because if he had to pull his sai's god's help him. gods help them all.

[Snuggles]

Anton was taught not to relay on sight because i could deceive you at very important times. His very long ears were up trying to hear out the small signs of the junkyard. His ears shot back as he heard Petersohn getting chewed out by the one of the leaders. Great.... one of the wisest people here getting chewed out by the leader... I don't know if he is going to survive this. I don't know if we all are going to survive this. He quickened his pace to get caught up with the rest of the group but his ears still up and scanning for anything ready to defend against anything that might come out of the junkyard.

[lucas marcone]

Dani was awake and sore for a little while but then he heard Keaton yelling inside the dump. Huh? damn! He got up and tried to figure out where he was.

It was quickly appearnt he was at the dump and the others were inside, but where? He started running into the dump, albeit slower than usual because he was just so damn tired.

He then heard Cog yelling and he had a rough idea where they were. Past the dead police man he ran. heh ole officer Jones shoulda known better than to take bribes from one of the weakest families.

Then he saw the corpse dangleing from the girder. He came to a rolling stop takeing in just how magled it was. Soon it was out of sight and he was running again.

He ran with all his energy. Then he collided with someone, a liveing someone, a small someone. He has tripped over the small rabbit

"WAHOOOF! Who? Anton is it? Sorry I didn't see you there."

[techmaster-glitch]

   The ragtag party moved on, at a slightly faster pace thanks to the hung up corpse. Problem was, it wasn't the only one. There were more. All flayed and torn in the same way as the first. All hung up in various grotesque ways; by a foot, by an arm, by the waist, by the neck, or by various combinations. And they all had one main difference from the first once: They all had some sort of metal replacement attached to them in a place of some body part. Most of them were limbs, but sometimes it was covering plates. Also, while the deeper the group went, the older the corpses got, non of them were actually decomposed. In the case of where the metal met flesh, the flesh was sickly yellow and green, and inflamed. The other strange thing was; while the flesh and body was always ruined with careless ferocity, anything metal was always very carefully unharmed. The corpses were also never hung up by a metal limb. If whatever was doing this had any reverence for anything, this was probably it.
   On the outskirts of the junkyard, there was heaps of random fetid garbage mixed in with various other things. Deeper in, there was less, and then no more garbage, and nothing but rusted machine carcasses, fried electronics, and other technological junk and scrap. Instead of smelling like a dump, it now smelled like mechanic's hell. There were also a few small crevices with a faint unnatural green glow. Anyone who looked over the edge would find the crevices to be very deep, and at the bottom ran small streams of a green-black acid, for the crevice walls all were glass-smooth, as if they were melted through. However, the biggest thing was, the deeper through the junkyard everyone moved, they would increasingly feel the malevolent atmosphere.
   Finally, as the group was passing between four large scrap piles with a larger one ahead, everyone felt a...presence...approaching. One that was tied to the same fell animosity that permeated The Junkyard. Everyone would individually feel that bolting wouldn't do any good, as they would feel that the presence knew exactly where they were, and could pick them off one by one if they ran.
   Suddenly, in the scrap piles all around the party, green electricity started sparking and exploding, sending showers of sparks everywhere. The bolts ran throughout all the metal and electronics, and spread outward in the Junkyard. Without any power, every audio device turned on. Car stereos, radios, home speakers, any device that could produce audio activated. In perfect synchronization, so that the sound seemed to come from all around, and not from any one source, a techno-synthesizer started playing. It played for a few moments, then an electric guitar and drums started and broke into a rock-metal song, with the synthesizer continuing support. It played for a bit, and then the lyrics kicked in:

All that is dead,
around me.
Lifeless in the wake
of catastrophe.
Burning in my mind,
I am not decieved.
Judgement into my
own mortality...

Now...that the soul is free,
I severed ties,
of man and machine!
NOW! That the soul is free!
I bled my heart,
of all it CAAAAAAAN
bleed!

The song then cut back into intrumental for a little bit. Aside from the music, nothing else notable happened.

[Tapewolf]

Cross could feel a mind.  It was distant and vague but it was there.  And it knew they were there too.

The flash of magic took him by surprise, but he didn't show it.  Hmm!  Good job we have a band of Creatures with us.  "I'll free your soul all right," he murmured.

Tempting as it was to call out something like "Take us to your leader," or "Come on... show yourself, we don't hurt you" (yeah, right!), that was really Keaton's prerogative as leader.  So checking his gun, and mentally going over a few handy spells, he glanced at the jackal to see how she'd handle it.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cogidubnus walked away from Jakob muttering under his breath about the general arrogance of Cubi, and generally expressing his feelings mostly to himself, when the wolf simply stopped, and for lack of a better term fell onto the side of a pile of junk. It groaned as the wolf hit it, the top of the pile wobbling dangerously, but the wolf paid it no mind. His hands slammed into his temples and wrapped around his head, and after a short outcry of pain Cog simply fell silent; a high-pitched whine that faded into silence. The wolf shook, his eyes dilating as horrific pain shot straight through his brain. A sudden outburst of agony, like a thousand shards of glass being ground into his brain with a boot.
He almost seemed to collapse, for a moment, sliding down the side of the pile of junk before catching himself again. His eyes snapped open.

His eyes seemed unchanged, on the surface, but, there was something...feral, in those yellow orbs. Malice gleamed out from them, like the eyes of a demon, and the pupils of his eyes seemed pits of utter darkness. They flitted about, seemingly disoriented as Cog stood himself back up, and locked on Petersohn. They paused, as though surprised to see him there.
The pain ended.

Cog blinked, and gasped. Almost as quick as it came, the look in his eyes disappeared, and Cog managed to pull himself back up and off the pile of junk. He glanced at Jakob, terrified - and giving the incubus only a momentary glance, gingerly began to walk forwards, still dragging his leg. His arm trembled.

* * *

They passed more bodies, and the stench of garbage faded until it was replaced by the acrid smell of rotting oil and rust. Cog was silent on the way forward, barely paying any of the corpses any attention at all - the wolf seemed truly shaken.
The sudden music got his attention, however, and he paused with the rest of them to glance worriedly around the clearing. His eyes widened in terror, and he simply swallowed as he looked around - and kept his gaze on Keaton. He'd start forward again when she did.
As much as she beat him, she was the only person he really trusted here.

[e_voyager]

Epyon did not like this. for lack of a better better explanation he was scared. he'd seen the corpses. they were not only mutilated but being rebut into some kind of monstrosities. it was a living death that was worse then living death and one that he wanted no part of. he wanted to run but knew as he did before when that thing bust out from beneath him that he'd only get so far. this was a den of some sort. you could skirt it on you own and hope to survive but once inside  only the gods could help you if you were alone. the grip on his pole became a death grip and how he wished he'd never followed those running canines to that ally. Or to this place.

[lucas marcone]

Dani sped up to keep pace with Cog. "Don't think I can't spot one of our own. Know this, if you try to kill me I will not hesitate to kill you." He said this in a low wisper only Cog would be able to hear.

As Dani walked on loading the clips for his hand guns there was a jolt of green lightning, Dani dropped gun clip and the hand full of ammo to bring his shot gun out amazeingly fast. Nothing happened during or after the song, so Dani put it away. "Looks like we got an emo on our hands boys." Dani laughed jokeingly.

He picked up his gun clip and what bullets he could and started reloading.

[Snuggles]

Anton was a little bit slow to get up. The shiver of the magic course through the of the metal in area they were in made him get a little more serious. He got back to his feet after the song. "It is alright Dani as long as we get our selves out of here in a quick time i think i don't mind being scuffed up a little bit." He shot a message through to Cross. This is not going to be good if we stay. We need a plan to get out, now. He follows behind everyone else his hand glows a bright blue color and a shimmer appears then dissipates from view as a magic shield gets thrown up for him. His hand then moves to a dark dim reddish color and keeps it contained in his hand. He learned from a past experience and is not going to leave anything up to chance.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny felt a little green at the sight of all the corpses, but contrarily it steadied her nerves rather than rattling them. Having a goal affected her like that. She pulled several more of the special bolts from her pack, mentally thanking her boss for both the bolts and for enchanting the crossbow for extra power and speed loading.

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq continued to stare impassively at each new gruesomely mutilated corpse they walked past, whistling a few more bars of that tune now and then. The bickering between Cogidubnus and Pettersohn had been amusing enough while it lasted, but it was what happened afterwards that was occupying his mind right now. It certainly looked as if Pettersohn had caused the other wolf's brief moment of agony. Was he a disguised Creature of some kind? He'd shown no clear evidence of that in the fight back at the docks, but the fast-moving skirmish around that Insectis had been a little too far away for Fal'taq to see clearly. If Pettersohn wasn't a Being, though, that could mean a reconsideration of parts of his plans. Perhaps he could —

A mole's ears might not be large, but Fal'taq's hearing was excellent. The flare of magic and sudden blare of music — if it could be called that, Fal'taq certainly didn't — from all around made him jump, and he clamped down on his first reaction to fire off some variety of destructive spell in the general direction of the loudest noise. That would have been unfortunate, and (briefly) excruciatingly painful, for Paige and Witt, who happened to be standing in the way.

"Someone is playing games with us, foolish games," he growled, a murderous scowl on his face. In his mind he ran through a few more powerful spells, capable of unleashing rather more damage than he'd inflicted on the Insectis and that green mage.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt blinked at the music, but betrayed no other emotion, other than an ever-growing irritation at whatever it was lurking in the junkyard.

"Bloody emo bastard. When I get my hands on the stupid git, I'll show him dead." He began muttering to himself, quietly, whilst keeping his eyes peeled for anything actively worthy of his ire.

"I spose at least it's not that fucking llama song."

[techmaster-glitch]

   The song had continued in instrumental as the group talked amongst themselves. Then, the lyrics kicked back in:

Lighting the spark,
igniting the fuse.
Destroyed the lies
and saw absolute truth.
From out of darkness and
into the light,
the future is wide open
and is
on
my
side!

Then everyone would realize; the voice singing the song was not coming from the speakers. While the music was all round, the voice was very focused, and clearly coming from dead ahead.

Now...that the soul is free,
I severed ties
of man and machine!!

A silhouette slowly rose over top of the scrap pile directly in front of the group.

NOW! That the soul is free!
I bled my heart,
of all it CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN

The music stopped. The Junkyard fell deathly silent. "Bleed." The silhouette stepped forward. A small oil-fire burning in the scrap pile illuminated the figure. He, for it was just barely recognizable as male, was a furre with oily black and red-stained hair. His species, however, was virtually impossible to make out, due to his...disfigurements. The man had metal plates bolted all around him. His entire right arm and parts of his legs were made of rusted scrap metal, ditto for half of his whole head, not just the face. Where the metal met flesh, it was inflamed and infected, similar to the corpses seen earlier. An evil green light replaced an eye on the metal right side of his face. Green electricity, the same kind that had surged around earlier, crackled and arced around the metal parts of his body once.
   "Well...well...well." The man said in a slow, calm, yet clearly insane voice unlike the deep rocking one that was singing the techno-metal song. "What have we here?" He looked the huge party over from his high perch, what was left of his face contorted in a grin of madness. "So many specimens...traveling through my home? Unnanounced? Uninvited? How rude...Well, I think that owes a favor. But it need not be involuntary, oh no...Well, what do you say? Would you like to take part in my...experiments?"
   The grin grew wider.

[Boog]

The leader of the group had been preoccupied and Ty, assuming it would be proper, waited quietly for her to be free to converse. He'd hoped this would occur sometime around when the jackal stopped cursing. Rather surprisingly, the young lady didn't. He simply followed silently, and went largely unnoticed by those around him. He wasn't small or easy to miss; he'd had to get very, very good at being unintrustive.
However, his demeanor changed dramatically when they found the first corpse. This was not civilized conduct. This was something animals and savages did. His usual, proper posture shifted to a predatory crouch. His tail swished more often, and the reek of alcohol on his breath became more noticeable.
He almost laughed aloud as the singing started. Rapidly they approached ground all too familiar for him. The unknown land held by the enemy, obviously mad, ego gorged on his insanity. And to think, he once simply catagorized such individuals as 'crazy buggers I'm going to eat.' Such ignorance!
And yes, this one followed the same rules as all the others. The buildup meant to intimidate before the dramatic reveal. And, like the enemies he once fought, he revealed himself in plain sight.
When the enemy did this, Ty had but one reaction. It was reflexive, effective, and above all not particularly complicated.
The saurian's tail lashed out, curled around what had once been a shopping cart, and lobbed it at the grinning man at the top of the junkheap.
"Jackal!" Tyrannus growled, at this point assuming that it would be ruder to remain silent, "I am Tyrannus DeVerdele, and I find that our interests of late coincide. If I may assist you in this matter?"

[techmaster-glitch]

   Arcwelder was actually surprised when one of the larger members of the group suddenly threw something at him. But not for long. The top of the junkpile was pretty high, and just in the nick of time, Arcwelder's metal arm jerked up, firing off a bolt of green electricity, which stopped the piece of metal in midair. It dropped onto the pile. Then, he slowly began to laugh.
   "Ha ha ha! You are a fiesty one, aren't you? A wonderful specimen! I'll make sure you are kept alive for my experiments!" He shouted down to the large taur that threw the cart at him.

[lucas marcone]

"I can't speak for her,-" Dani, haveing put his clip away during the return of the vocals, almost pulled the shot gun off it's strap getting it into a fighting position. "-but, I for for now I'm inclined to follow suit!"  Dani took fourn not to particulary well aimed shots at the thing, but that was just cover to aim one really good shot at it's knee. Bang!

[techmaster-glitch]

   Arcwelder, even though he was now fully alert, was still surprised that another one of the potential specimens pulled out a large gun and aimed at him so quickly after the first one had attacked. Arcwelder tried to jerk out of the way as the trigger was being pulled. Fortunately, even though he didn't know this, shotguns weren't very effective at anything but close range, and he was a fair distance away. However, he got unlucky.
   The slug tore through the side of Arcwelder's right leg, an unplated flesh area, as he tried to jerk out of the way. He fell on his side, his injured leg now hidden to the group. Though no one could see this, it was bleeding, but what was coming out most definately wasn't blood. It was black and glossy. Oil.
   He was no longer amused. "That's it! FRIENDS! Come to me! Show yourselves! It is time to capture our specimens!"
   All around the grouped party, the scrap piles started to shift, and hidden shadows moved. Without warning, a number of...things crawled, limped, hopped, or waddled into view. They were all composed of rusted metal scraps; horribly misshapen robots. All were covered in rust and sharp, jagged edges. Some had spikes, some had saws. Still others had claws, some had jaws. Each and every one had at least one 'eye', which was nothing more than a bright green light somewhere on their bodies. All of them occasionally sparked with the same green electricity that Arcwelder had already demonstrated.
   Before anyone in the party could react, they had already arranged themselves in a rough ring around they party. They were surrounded. "There are too many to manage!" Arcwelder shouted. "Kill half of them! Bring me the rest alive! I don't care how damaged, just alive!"
   Then, the mostrous metal creatures started to screech. It was a hideous sound of metal grating metal, just like the sound emitted by the thing the party had encountered before. Only this time, it was more agressive, more dangerous.
   And very, very loud.
   The screeches began bad enough, but quickly rose in pitch, intensity, and decibels. They screeched and screeched, until the whole Junkyard was filled with metal wails.
   Suddenly, finally, they stopped.
   "GET THEM!!!" Arcwelder screamed.
   The rusted beasts charged. A few, however, hung back.

[lucas marcone]

Dani wouldn't go down without a fight. He unloaded the rest of his rounds into two bots infront of him. The he dropped the shot gun in favor of two 9mm.s.