The City (IC) [M]

[techmaster-glitch]

Around the corner from city hall

  The quick braking and speeding maneuver seemed to work, there was a wrenching sound and Traxen saw some scuffs appear on the ground ahead, just as PAMCAWV rolled forward...and a satisfying thumping sound as the whole van rocked about.
  The voice over he radio began screaming. Rather annoyed at the distraction, Traxen toggled his voice input to the radio. "Excuse me, but I am a little occupied at the moment, whoever you are. Standby." He toggled back over to PAMCAWV with the command "Pamcawv, full stop! Full reverse on command word 'Pull'."
  The van came to a stop again, and the turret turned to look behind itself. Traxen watched the field behind the van intently, zooming in and looking for the slightest trace of motion; a puff of dust, a peddle shifting, or even a little twitch of that snack cake again (if it was even still stuck to this invisible creature). Traxen didn't want to take any chances, he had to make sure it was dead, or at least not bothering him anymore. If he saw anything move, he'd immediately open fire again, then shout the command word he just set--hopefully causing PAMCAWV to ram the creature. The nice thing about the electric motor drive on PAMCAWV was that it could move the same speed forward or backward.

[Cogidubnus]

Giles didn't seem to pay his surroundings much mind. He walked forward slowly and stolidly, generally unconcerned, with his ubiquitous cigarette smoking slowly at his lip.

Perhaps, however, he was more aware of his surroundings than he appeared. Giles sensed the slight change in atmosphere - he was definitely in the city now, not the outskirts, and there were things here less friendly than the leech friend he'd just left behind.

He exhaled, a blue curl of smoke twisting in the air, and then dissolving in a slight breeze. A fine layer of dust around him rose, spinning around the blackguard just subtly. A faint shimmer of heat distortion formed around him. Dead plants swayed in the sudden, invisible breeze.

He took another breath, and kept walking, the faint shimmer following him. He'd rather not find out who or what might be living beneath and around the highway, although laundry implied things that fell somewhat short of 'eldritch horror'. The skyscraper, though, seemed nearly as bad.
It might offer a pretty good view from the top, though. Although he was trying to get lost, a view might not be bad.

With heavy steps, he started walking towards the seemingly abandoned tower.

[Angel]

Both kids shielded their eyes from the flash, waiting with muscles tensed for whatever should come their way. Once it died down, they saw the others running forward, across the bridge. Not stopping to wonder why they hadn't waited to see what was under the bridge and whether they could take it on, Mykst and Kali followed suit, dodging debris and keeping their eyes on those ahead. They were keeping an even pace with the rest of the group, but neither one could help trying to see what strange beast had come up from below the bridge. Though they looked back at different times once they were about halfway across the bridge, they saw the creature at the same time, and reacted differently.

Mykst let out a short yowl and his fur bristled. HOLYGODWHATISTHATTHINGGOTTAGETKALIANDMEAWAYFROMITNOW! He grabbed his love's arm, but she wasn't following. "Kali, COME ON! We can't even THINK of attacking this thing till we're at the minimum safe distance AWAY from it!"

When Kali had looked back, she'd let out a roar - not because she was scared, but because instinct told her to either call for help or scare this...thing...away while running. But once she'd got a look at the thing's face - er, faces - she hadn't been able to look away. Mykst's voice jarred her out of her shock, and soon they were both catching up with the group again. Kali made a mental note to ask a few questions when they got away from the creature - to the only people that she knew always answered truthfully.

[Boog]

Bridge

Ed's blast struck against the creature, the explosion of magic splashing off and rolling over its hide as if it was a water balloon.
Whatever the beast was, it seemed to exhibit standard predator behavior and went for the most obvious, easiest target. In this case it was the yelling thing that had to be dragged along by the rest of the pack.
The faces creature swooped over Black Magic and Mykst, reaching out for them. The first missed, falling short of Black Magic by a matter of feet. It was close enough for her to see the tendons standing out in the crook of the elbow, the additional tiny open-mouthed faces along its fingers. It swung back along the bridge wires and came around again, the cables screaming like they're about to snap.
It was worth noting that it was still quite a ways across the bridge.
--

The Church in the Suburbs

It wasn't hard for Mao to make his way across the room, staying out of the floorthing's reach. For anyone who'd had the appropriate sort of childhood it was essentially a very high-stakes game of "the floor is lava," well within the scope of his abilities. Until eventually, he was by the door.
And Jinx was still in the middle of the room.
The scratching noise changed directions abruptly, speeding towards the assassin. At the back of the man's head something snickered and said "Uh oh..."
--

The Waterfront Office Building

The first floor was, frankly, boring. Discarded papers, the remains of another campfire. Large and grand with lots of smooth black stone, obviously intended to give off that professional sort of intimidation large businesses were so fond of. The elevators weren't working, so the only way to get to any real vantage point was via the stairs.
This building had apparantly been used for office space despite its incompletion. It was full of the remains of former employees who'd died there, possibly all at once. A skeleton hunched over the front desk was still wearing the decayed remains of a low cut blouse and short skirt. A stockily built badger slumped by the door of his office, preserved in the sterile glass room.
More worrisome were the less recognizeable skeletons, such as the occassional knee-high humanoids, with stunted arms, enlongated heads and piscine teeth. None of these had remained unskeletalized. In one of the break rooms there was another odd skeleton, strangely oversized. The pelvis was like that of a gorilla, but the ribcage itself was a good five feet long.
Amidst the more macabre wreckage was the more recognizeable kinds. Desk brickabrack, little figurines of saints on this cubicle wall. Another one with tacked up pictures of the owner's drakes. A corkboard wall with little notes delicately pushpinned into place.
Out a nearby window, this being only the second floor, Giles couldn't see much farther than he could at ground level, but something being sized and shaped was passing by a few blocks away. He only saw it a moment, all that really stood out was the banded fur pattern and shock of green hair.
--

City Hall Gates

Traxen's car was RIGHT outside a rather grandiouse city hall building, that had apparantly been built up over the years into more of a fortress. The windows had been boarded up into slits, barbed wire adorned the tops of the fences, and the place had so many enchantments and curses on it that it smelled like ozone. Whether the van's assailant was injured or not, it had vanished without a trace, and Traxen didn't even have the chance to exhale in relief before the radio crackled again.
"If you would look to your left you'll notice one of the windows of my residence glowing red." It crackled, in the same cultured, restrained voice as it had earlier, the enraged yelling of a few seconds ago seemingly forgotten. "That would be one of my employees readying a rather nasty spell. Identifications, please."

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace lashed her tail and snarled when she realised Payden wasn't the one in the most danger from the weirdly deformed creature. "Pick up th' pace, both o' y'!" she called to Black Magic and Mykst. "There'll be time t' saunter along an' fool around wi' each other later — move!" Her last word came out in a roar, at a volume a non-leonine drill sergeant could only envy.

When she saw Edaric's magical attack splash apparently harmlessly off the creature, Andrace decided it was time for her to act. The lioness came to a sudden halt, planted her paws firmly on the road — through her paw-pads she could feel the bridge quiver — and drew her gun. As she half-turned and raised the weapon, a quick flick of her thumb-claw took off the safety catch. She lined up the sights on her wildly swinging target and curled her finger gently around the trigger. The range was a bit too long to try any sort of fancy shot, she decided it would be best to just aim for the body. She held her breath a moment, used her sword held in her other hand as a counterweight to steady herself, and pulled the trigger —

Back in the Last Chance, Payden's gun had made quite a racket when it exploded. Andrace's hand cannon was even louder as she fired two quick but carefully aimed shots.

>BOOMBOOM<

[Cogidubnus]

"Hrmph." Giles said, eyeing a small bobblehead of a blond-haired boy, dressed in blue. He appeared to be carrying a small machine gun. Sprawled out dead before it was the skeletal body of a standard cubicle slave, complete with nonconformist bugs bunny tie. He narrowed an eye.
A few small pictures of various drakes, in various states of frothing rage. A corkboard sign denoted that friday was casual, in return for the hours of unpaid overtime the team had put in over the last month. A little saint was missing a head.
"Even in death, this shit is irritating." Giles said, ignoring a rusted no smoking sign and approaching the window. "I hate offices."

He stared out the window for awhile, wondering what exactly had caught his eye. Too quick to tell. Alive, whatever it was, or at least alive-looking. Mobile.
"Who the hell has green hair anymore, anyway." he said, standing in front of a closed window and yet smoking in the wind. Time had not been kind to this place.

He considered his options carefully, and started heading back down again. "Could be a warning, could be a trap. Something is up with this place anyhow. Makes me...nervous."
He paused, by the little bobblehead figurine, and after fidgeting for a moment put it in his bag.
"Irritating as hell..."

He headed for the direction he saw the green-haired person flee.

[Myr]

You know, the lupine troll thought as the creature moved past them and went straight for the two younger felines, I should have stayed further ahead.

Then Raek's ears flicked back at the blast of noise from his employer's weapon-as a troll, he had rather good hearing, which was a natural advantage when sometimes your prey masked their scent, hoping a normally somewhat stupid Mythos wouldn't find them. That racket hurt! Not enough to stop him, however, as he decided on what to do in that well-known 'snap decision' fashion.

Up came the axe as his posture shifted into a style more suited for sprinting. He didn't need any urging, despite his loyalty being mostly towards the lioness wielding the firearm. The beastly fellow knew this would be entirely chance, and that his throw would reach...though it might cost him his weapon.

As it was, he lunged forward, picking up speed as he brought his weapon to bear and hurled it at the monster's back in a manner that reminded one of throwing a ball overhand faster than most beings could have thought capable.

Just where-and if-it would hit, he didn't know. Raek wouldn't have been surprised if the weapon sailed past and cut one of those cables, such was the force of his throw. And if it did hit the intended target, he had that impression he probably wouldn't do more than bruise it, given what he'd witnessed so far.

Of course, the Mythos didn't relish the thought of his axe bouncing harmlessly off the thing's back or where-ever it happened to strike....

But, until then, there wasn't much he could do except cast about, looking for something else that could serve as a weapon while keeping an eye on the creature to see if his attempt did anything....

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Once the flash-bang faded and the bridge remained standing Sister Alex picked up the skirts of her habit and began running, the traditional bright blue stockings of her order showing just a bit with the rapid movement. The bridge started creaking and shaking a little but the nun wouldn't allow herself to look back. Experience told her looking back was a bad plan. That is until she heard the others shouting and calling out orders to each other. When she turned to check the commotion Alex understood why Black Magic had frozen. Even in her years of adventuring Alex hadn't come across anything approaching the monstrosity rapidly following them. The faces were particularly hard to gaze upon. Regaining her composure quickly she tried to decide on a spell against something she had never encountered before. Her glance was caught by the small eddies of sand and other debris that always accumulated against the edges of the roadway. Letting go of her staff she began folding the paper in her hand. The staff began to fall then righted itself, hopping in place and giving the impression of being rather impatient with it's owner.

The paper was folded into a fan, even more quickly than angel reflexes could account for. Once the magic was begun it had a sometimes annoying tendency to help itself along. The fan even managed against logic to create itself a jaunty little tassel on it's handle. With a pen produced from somewhere inside her sleeve Sister Alex added the symbol for amplification to her creation. Pointing the fan at the road dust Alex flicked her wrist in the monster's direction, then repeated the action a few more times. The sand couldn't really harm anything, particularly not in these amounts, but one grain of sand in the eye or on the tongue was incredibly distracting, and the monster had multiples of each. A few seconds distraction would give everyone a head start to getting off the bridge.

A wind began to rise. The eddies of sand altered a bit. Then a crushed cup labeled "Burger Emperor" began to tumble. By the third flick of the fan the wind was strong enough to pick up the sand and carry it in the direction of the monster. Thankfully all of Alex's companions were inside her radius, where the winds were too weak to affect them. Then the troll began to run towards the creature. Four magic-users in the group and he stepped into spell range. Alex allowed herself a mental eye roll, then added a mental penance for her unkind thoughts.

[techmaster-glitch]

City Hall Gates

  To Traxen's great relief, whatever was attacking him didn't seem to bother anymore. He pressed a few buttons and held himself close to the crossbars as the "seat" below him folded away, and he dropped down from the turret into the rest of the van. The voice came over the radio again, actually directing his view towards...
  Traxen glanced at several of the screens on his wall that showed the external cams, then to the screen that held the map. Well, how about that! He had indeed come right up to the front of the gate in all the "excitement". But of more interest to him was the fact that the city hall was more like a barricaded bunker, and had telltale glows in several places. The van wasn't currently sealed, so the smell of the outside seeped in a little, too. And, sure enough, one of the few non-boarded up windows had a very clear and strong red glow.
  Traxen put his face in one of his hands as he sat down at the wall of screens, took a deep breath, an let out a long and colorful stream of expletives in that one breath, ending it with "...magic!"
  He then looked over the screens again, and considered the situation carefully. The warnings of the bartender and his daughter were still fresh in his mind. Not to mention that any sane person wouldn't be trying to stay in this horrible City at all, the thing had actually called the Hall its "residence"...and had even said the words "government property" earlier. As there was clearly no extant government here, the voice couldn't possibly be an entirely rational person. Therefore, whatever this voice was, no matter how reasonable it sounded, it was most likely a trap, an abomination, or an insane survivalist. Either way, that coupled with how the Hall was converted...meant that the information Traxen seeked was almost certainly beyond his reach now. Wonderful.
  Still, there was the vaugest improbable possibility that this voice was not inherently malicious... and Traxen really didn't want this to be a wasted trip. Still, absolute caution was called for. Even if not malicious...the voice could not be trusted.
  At all.
  Traxen toggled his radio back on. "Hold your fire. I'm nothing more than a salvager from outside this City. Who are you, though, and what in Furrae are you doing here? Why are you in this City?"

[Lisky]

Ed watched as the small, dark, silvery bolt slammed into the thing, exploded in a violent cloud of darkness, and the dissipated completely.  There should have been a hole, a dent... some sign that the thing had even been remotely injured.  He wasn't the most skilled of mages, sure enough, he was a rogue... But still... it should have done something... or so he kept telling himself.

The bridge creaked and groaned under the beasts movements.  "We need to take that thing down before it drops us in the river!"  He shouted, while pivoting around and to watch for the creature again.

He waited for the next support collumn.  Something large enough for him to disappear against, as he melded his color-pattern into the structure.  His tentacles swarmed around sharp edged waiting to entangle the beast.  Eyes are almost always the most sensitive part on any living thing.  The eye itself is laden with pain-triggering nerves, and very little in the ways of defense, especially when directly assaulted.

If the thing got close enough, Ed was going to try and hook the great toad-beast with as many tentacles as possible, then grow clawed hands and gouge at as many of the faces as he could.  Crude, but efficient.  At the very least, it should probably serve as a good distraction.  or so the feline's thought process went.

[Boog]

City Hall Gates

"What am I doing here... Well, frankly, sometimes I wonder. That is... A long story." The voice over the radio replied, obviously choosing their words carefully. "As for who I am... I'm the mayor of this fair city." Now, this did not seem like the voice of a man prone to sarcasm. Indeed, sarcasm lacked dignity for one of this voice. However, there was at minimum a SARDONIC edge to the way he'd said the word fair.
But not sarcastic. Oh no.
Voices were becoming noticeable in the background of the transmission, hisses and mutterings. The man wasn't alone, whoever he was.

--

The Bridge

The sand kicked up by Sister Alex's spell whirled around the creature, and it fell back from Black Magic and Mykst with a multi-voiced whine to shield its faces. Andrace's firearm most certainly didn't make this an easier process. Indeed, the bullet visibly went straight through the creature, puncturing next to one of the larger faces and erupting out the back of the body in a golf ball sized mess of stringy green gore. If one had particularly good eyes or presence of mind they'd see the massive bruise forming around both entry and exit wounds...
Raek's axe struck the creature squarely at the center of its back, to alarming results. The monster split open like a mellon, the axe seeming to sink further in than would be appropriate on any creature. Was it mostly soft tissue? Regardless, it seemed it had one further defense. While it hadn't been noticeable from the bullet wound, whatever materials filled the creature reeked horribly when exposed to air. The beast's very BLOOD was a thing of stomach-churning vileness, almost debilitatingly noxious. A couple flying drops landed on the hood of a car next to Payden, where smoke began to rise like the delicate tendril's from a lady's cigarette holder.
Ed then proceeded to sink his wings into the monster in several places.
On the plus side, his initial attack was HIGHLY effective. Hooked tentacles tore at the creature's too-soft hide, pulling out chunks and dragging himself closer to the monstrosity. It had received far more punishment than it had expected, and began climbing up toward the tops of the bridge's columns. However, the longer his assault continued, the more the smell of the monster got to Ed. His stomach did gymnastics, his limbs felt weak, he began to break out in a cold sweat...
And the creature was climbing higher.
Now Edaric was at least a good 60 feet in the air, teathered by fishhooks to something that wanted to do him great harm. The monster raised one titan fist, ready to come down on the incubus in a hammer blow...

--

The Waterfront

On street level again, the place was just as deserted as it had been a short while ago. Giles made his way around the corner where he'd seen the green-haired... Thing, and as he did fancied he heard someone humming. The tune was familiar, and for some reason reminded him of the trapper-keeper doodles of seventeen year olds.
"Hm hm hmmm, hm hm hmmm, hm hmhm hm hm."
There was the green haired thing. With this better look he could tell it was a woman. A banded mongoose, with obviously artificial lime coloring green hair. She tugged at the massive locks on a warehouse door, briefly, before picking up a nearby length of pipe and wailing at it. It took her three blows to break the padlock off, and she ducked inside.
"Hm hm drink, go to shrinks, hm people as pets."

[techmaster-glitch]

City Hall Gates

   Traxen listened carefully to the voice's words. He seemed a bit reluctant to talk about why he was still here, but... he was the mayor of the City?
   Oh, wonderful. Either it was a long story, or this guy was just a loon who didn't want to abandon "his" city. Either way, Traxen didn't have time for the story.
   "Listen, uh... mayor... I don't have much time." Traxen glanced at the falling sun. "I have to be out of here before nightfall, can't do any night runs. I'm here because I need data. As this city is quite modernized, it stands to reason that the administration matches. I'm looking to get a complete map of the city, as well as any other information on various sectors of the city by copying and downloading the information from the administration's data server computers. Will you allow me to get the data I seek?"

[Lisky]

It had ignored him as it chased the little ones.  So far so good.  Just a little closer, just a little closer... NOW!  Springing his trap into motion, Ed's tentacles dug deep trenches in the flesh of the creature, far more damage than he'd expected.  Wrapping his tentacles further around the thing, he thought he'd done enough damage to it that perhaps it'd weaken the monster... he was greeted with both an unexpected, and unwanted surprise as the noxious fumes had the feline gagging, loosing his concentration as he was suddenly launched skyward, dragged by the great best thing.

Ed's stomach was mostly empty, besides a single drink from earlier, he'd been living off the emotions of others.  The fist suddenly came into view as he dangled helplessly.  He did the only thing he could thing of.  Dropping the barbs and reeling in the tentacles, Ed Kicked off a nearby pillar, he quickly formed a spell, tentacles still reeling in, the feline tried to blind the beast with a blackened cloud.

As long as it didn't catch one of his quickly forming wings, Ed figured he'd be able to glide ahead of the party, land in a shoulder roll, and reform the tentacles to help cover any stragglers.  His tossing stomach making every movement keenly aware of just how bad the monster smelled.

[Myr]

Oh, joy. Within seconds of that weapon sailing from his hand, a gust of wind blasted sand into his eyes!

Granted, it wasn't on purpose, and the damage-while severe-wasn't permanent...it still hurt, far more than that blast of noise from Andrace's weapon. Not to mention it was more crippling at the moment, since he needed his eyes to follow and see how and where his weapon struck, if at all. Still, the lupine Troll had at least one thing that was still in relatively good working order-his sense of smell.

So Raek stayed perfectly still, his slightly deafened ears perked as he shut his eyes and-putting his free hand up to shield his nose from the sand, started sniffing the air to get a general idea of where everyone was.

Some say the senses of a troll are incredible, despite not being on par with those of a Demon or Angel. While they couldn't see in the dark, nor track the warmth of living things, it was said of some that they could hear a heartbeat within twenty paces, or smell the faintest of odors and thus unerringly locate their prey within five times of that distance. And while barely intelligent, they were horribly and uncannily cunning, able to learn and change tactics in seconds if the usual method didn't work.

Still, it turned out to be a mistake, unwitting as it was.

The second he started scenting the air, his axe struck home and the most hideous of stenches filled the surrounding area. Instantly both ears flicked back, flattening against his partially bald skull as he nearly let the sack of supplies drop and his eyes snapped open. If one had watched, those pale, currently sand-scourged eyes very nearly rolled back into his head as that massive hand clapped firmly over his muzzle.

What is that?! he thought, turning away and definitely a touch queasy. Despite it being interesting to see a brute like himself that could eat almost anything, no matter how rotten, look sick...well, he had a point. The thought that it was due to his weapon striking that abominable beast hadn't occurred to the Mythos yet-he was more concerned with keeping his currently empty stomach under control, as well as hopefully regaining his sight before something happened.

Now he only had his recovering hearing to depend on, despite being quite distracted and far from paying attention to it at the moment....curse his sharp sense of smell!

[Angel]

Kali was almost beginning to get back into the proper mindset of running like crazy. But then The THING behind them lunged at her and Mykst and the faces on its fingertips and the veins on its arm were in front of her and oh my God what was this thing... She would have frozen again if not for Andrace's roar, but she still wasn't running at full speed. It was Mykst who yanked her forcibly along, snapping her out of it yet again and nearly pulling her arm out of its socket.

The kids felt their instincts kicking in at last, Kali's powerful leonine muscles going into overdrive as they drew closer to the group. Each one noticed the spells being thrown at the creature, but they were focusing more on the fact that they could still hear and feel the creature so close to them, and so far away at the same time. It was hard on the instincts for Kali - she didn't know how fast she should be running if she didn't know how close the creature was, but she knew she had to get away from it. Sister Alex's attack knocked it back a good deal, and also nearly blinded the kids and everyone around them. They could hear the wolf-troll snarling, and Edaric's wings changing form as he attacked, but they could only run straight ahead.

Mykst needed to attack. He had to save these people, but he knew he couldn't look back without becoming as vulnerable as Kali had. He didn't even know if he'd be ABLE to see the beast, if the sand was still raging. He hadn't let go of Kali's hand or his staff, and he hadn't wiped his eyes yet. Without really thinking about what he was doing, he let go of Kali's hand and tightly linked her arm with his, using his now-free hand to grip the pearl hanging around his neck. Mother, he thought, thank the Gods you don't know what I'm facing right now.

Pausing for just a moment so he wouldn't lose the only shot he had, he swung his staff-holding arm around and aimed to his side. He then yelled out, "Anyone behind us or above us, get out of the way! Terra sacra, frange advorsarius meus!"

At those words, the ground on one side of the bridge shook for a bit, and then a large rock rose out of the water. Still clutching pearl and staff, Mykst then flung the boulder up at where he guessed the monster could be, now that Edaric was (hopefully) out of the way. And though he wouldn't notice it until later, the pearl he always wore felt remarkably warm in his hand as he cast the spell...

[Boog]

City Hall Gates

"Hrn, my maps aren't entirely up to date. Things have gotten slightly out of my control, it's a problem I'm working on... Although you do appear to be well equipped. Hrm..." The voice crackled over Traxen's  radio. "Tell you what. I can give you what little I have that I know for certain and can... Afford to hand out for free. After all, one cannot simply grant access to government intelligence to whoever. But in exchange for your investigating what I'm not up to date about, I'm sure some manner of trade can be arranged. In your vehicle, you should be able to be safe while doing at least cursory investigations, although it would be better if you could enter buildings..." The voice trailed off, leading to some hushed conversation in the background. "Come inside, we've much to discuss."

--

The Bridge

The creature had been barely keeping itself together after Myr's axe blow, and wasn't entirely able to keep a grip on Ed. It bellowed, preparing to throw itself back down to the surface of the bridge and smash whatever got in its way. On the way down, the incubus was almost able to pick up thoughts behind him, something to the effect of Wait, guys, hang on a sec. Is that a rock-?
The loudest and stickiest splash Ed had ever heard, like a rotten pumpkin hit with a fastball, sounded off behind the incubus, and bits of the creature began to splatter to the ground. Mykst's spell had gotten truly dramatic results. Those who weren't too horrified by the smell would notice that, amidst the stringy green pulp, there were no full sized bones. Just several complete humanoid skeletons, of varying sizes and species, slapping and shattering on the asphalt and car hoods. Plus one large, trollish axe, thunking neatly into the ground next to Payden.
And then it was quiet.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace bared her fangs with a satisfied growl as the smoke from her gunfire drifted away, letting her see the effects of her shots. That quickly turned into a snarl of annoyance, though, as she realised the critter didn't seem to be badly hurt, or even slowed down all that much. Damnit, she had to have blown holes she could poke a finger into through at least a couple of vital organs... if it had organs, vital or otherwise. And to top it all off, Raek and Edaric were too close now to risk another shot. The lioness holstered her gun and resumed her backwards running, keeping pace with the critter as it advanced. She glanced over her shoulder a couple of times to check on the others, and to make sure she wasn't about to trip over something or fall off the edge of the bridge. In this situation, either would be as horribly embarrassing as it was horribly dangerous.

Andrace looked back up at the critter just in time to see Edaric being tossed away: she hoped his wings were more than just decorative. Her whiskers twitched from the stink as a splatter of gore landed on the roadway a few yards upwind. She heard Mykst begin a spell, and just managed to see it's effects out of the corner of her eye. She sucked in a deep breath to shout a warning to Raek —

>SPLAT<

Just a few drops of the critter's gore had been enough to turn her stomach. None of this deluge splashed on the lioness, but there was enough of it to clamp her throat shut from the stink, and sand-blast a path from her nostrils to her lungs. The thick-as-molasses stench brought tears to her eyes. Andrace staggered, barely able to cough, and scrubbed the back of her free hand across her eyes and muzzle. It didn't help. She could almost feel her whiskers curling. Things clattered and smashed on the road, among the sickening noises of critter chunks landing nearby. It sounded like bags of bones. This was even worse than the time her sister Eugenia had tossed a blasting spell into a group of half-rotted Undead and they'd all had to wash the disgusting mess out of their fur.

Finally the stink faded enough to let her speak, although her watering eyes were still near-useless. Or maybe her nose and tongue had gone numb. "Ugh, can't see," she croaked, "Ev'ryone okay? Shout out if y're not. Nothin' else comin', I think, can't hear anythin' apart from us."

[Angel]

The explosion was something like what Mykst had been hoping for. The smell was not. He and Kali had hit the ground soon after they heard the splatter of the creature's body. The stink permeating the air combined with the sight of the mess around them was too much for Mykst to take. He fell to the ground and retched, his eyes welling up and squeezing shut.

Once he was certain the soup from moments ago was gone, he noticed that his stomach and chest were still being squeezed – by Kali, who was holding on to her sweetie as tightly as possible, gore, stink and all. She was wearing all of her cloak except the hood, so she didn't care about the mess anyway, and a few tears had sneaked their way onto her face, which quickly dried in her fur.

"You are the bravest, smartest housecat who ever lived, and never let anyone tell you otherwise," she said, though it was sort of muffled in her arm.

Mykst blushed a little, and wiped off his mouth. "Er, thanks," he answered. "I'd hug you back, but I'm kind of still covered in goo."

Kali blinked her eyes open, and seemed to remember what had just happened. "Right," she said quickly, standing up and releasing Mykst's ribs as she removed her cloak and shook it off, holding it well away from her good shirt. Mykst did the same with his, then started cleaning the front of his poet's shirt of some stray drops of muck.

The lioness looked over her shoulder and saw the remains of the creature. Her gray eyes boggled when she saw what it had truly been made of. That thing used BEINGS to keep itself alive?! ...Wait a second. This could be useful.

"I'm gonna try something. It may not work if they don't have brains anymore, but it's worth a shot," she said to the group, moving a little closer to the skeletons with her staff in her hand. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she spread out her arms and spoke. "Mortuis nobilēs, respondēte si quibitis." Then, she was quiet. But she was thinking, to the now (hopefully) telepathically receptive dead: What did this to you? How did you become that creature?

[techmaster-glitch]

City Hall gates

  Traxen frowned slightly at the first thing the "mayor" said. "Not up to date? It's not like some of the city just decided to rearrange itself, is it--" Traxen suddenly cut off, and pressed a hand to his face. "Don't answer that."
  He also listened curiously as the "mayor" proposed a trade of service for knowledge. To this, Traxen replied "I promise nothing, but I'll hear you out..."
  Traxen the took his van across the gate threshold, and parked it up near the Hall's front door. "And I apologize, but I can't leave my van. Do no be alarmed, I am sending in some proxies..." He wasn't going to enter the Hall in person, there wasn't a chance of that. Instead, he began activating drones.

***

  Outside the van, a hatch opened up and disgorged multiple drones. At least ten of the disk-like flying camera-drones--about half of his cameradrone stock--and a couple of spiderdrones. The cameradrones floated up to the Hall, looking for open windows or doors. Where none were found, a spiderdrone would crawl up and open anything they could to admit the cameradrones first, which slid in and began mapping out any room they entered. The van's sensor stack constructed a rough 3-d wireframe of the Hall, and the cameradrones sent back more detailed information that corrected any misalignments and began overlaying images over the wireframe, giving traxen a manipulable photo-realistic model view of the inside as if he were there, in addition the active video feeds.
  The cameradrones and spiderdrones worked in a leapfrog method; the spiderdrones opened up a few windows or doors, and the cameradrones went in. They mapped out everything they could, and when they could map out no more for dead ends and further closed doors, the spiderdrones moved up and opened more doors, giving the cameradrones access to more area. They continued this careful examination, but didn't interact with anything but doors, and they stopped whenever they found something that was moving or talking...

[Mao]

Once he was to safety, Mao looked back into the room to see the feline fellow still standing in the room.  He balked.  "What is he doing!?" he thought to himself in a panicked state.  He began gesturing wildly for the fellow to follow him, staying well out of reach of the doorway.  A part of him steeled itself for what he felt was, however, inevitable.  He wasn't sure of the fellow's mental stability to begin with and he feared that this was the unfortunate confirmation of his beliefs.  He tried to think if he could, even at his fastest, save the fellow but he could not possibly carry another out and still move at the same speed he had used to get away initially.

[Myr]

Well, at least a certain brute had managed to keep himself in check-outside of reeling as the odor increased in strength, becoming like some sort of foul wind heralded by gobs of clotted rain. On the bright side, his eyes were feeling better-much better, in fact. The lupine troll blinked repeatedly to remove the last of the sand, even as he realized his sense of smell was effectively dulled after getting a whiff of something that could be likened to the odor of someone blowing up a watermelon stuffed with freckles.

It was like some sort of freakish exchange-he gets his sight back, and his hearing was fine now too...and he couldn't so much as smell himself at the moment. Nor did he pay attention to the fact his back was covered in gobs of that nasty paste raining from above.

Could be worse, he decided as he eyed the spattering, rancid-looking gore that still lanced through the air in smoldering trails. And acid? That was something to worry about! He couldn't heal easily from acid burns, unless the offending liquid was washed away...and then it would be slow and uncomfortable. He looked around uneasily, more concerned for those without his ability for recovery in light of this discovery than in himself.

He wasn't in pain, afterall, and it seemed that the creature was dead-whatever it had been. Either that or it had fled-he'd find out soon enough as his newly-healed eyes looked everyone over-namely his employer.

She seemed fine, if rather queasy like himself. And there was his axe, as if to contradict what he'd just seen! Well, that was a nice bonus, though he was uncertain if he wanted to touch it right away-just in case. Then his ears perked at her words-he was reasonably fine, so he didn't need to call out!-before he turned his attention to the others. One of the young felines looked to have been noisily sick, and was being comforted by his companion...as to the others...well, he'd see that soon enough, one could suppose....

[Lisky]

Using his wings to glide, Ed took a somewhat steep dive at first, putting as much distance as possible, before somewhat levelling out.  His glide took him past the group, by a little ways.  Banking towards some of the support structure near by, the spotted feline grabbed some cable with a winged tentacle, and swung down.   The smell on the ground assualted his nose, and if it weren't for his ability to shape-shift, he probably would have fallen to the ground, he caught himself on a tentacle, and shifted the inner-passages of his nose to that of a species with a known lack of smelling capablilities...

Even with the dulled smell, it took a concentrated effort not to go into a fit of dry heaves.  Perhaps even loose the drink he'd gotten at the bar.  The others were worse off, though.  They lived on food and drink... they had to fighting down their last meals before going on this little escapade.

"Fine over here" Shouted Ed, as he steadied himself.  The area was quiet, the creature slain, and Ed in desperate need of some fresh air, "Are we about ready to call today a wrap?  Perhaps go and reach the end of the bridge, warp somewhere safe, and pick things up from here, tomorrow?"

[Cogidubnus]

Giles stopped to consider before following this green-haired person. He'd heard of those who keep people as pets, and he'd frankly found the idea strange, if not disturbing. It seemed a bit low-key for this place, though. He detested psychologists. Drinking, however, was one of his great loves, and he would forgive much for it.

"Seems reasonable enough." he said, and followed the mongoose, fully expecting to get mauled in the face the first second that he stepped into the warehouse. His footsteps left little puddles of melted tar on the asphalt, and the smell of burning dust.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace's vision was beginning to clear, but her nose was still mercifully numb. Had any of that gunk splashed on her muzzle after all? She flicked one ear towards Black Magic as she heard the young lioness begin an invocation. Good idea, girl, she thought, but don't take too long 'bout it, 'less what y' shoulda asked first was, "are there any more at home like you?"...

The sooner they were moving again and back on dry land (and in clean air), the happier she'd be. Was that movement she could feel through her paw-pads? Hopefully the bridge was only twanging from the force of the monster's attack and Mykst's spell, and not actually on the point of collapse. She blinked the tears from her eyes and blew her nose loudly as she looked over her shoulder. The youngsters were all right, as were Raek and Edaric, but where were Sister Alex, Kyirri, and Payden? If any of them had caught a faceful of splattered critter, they might need help.

[Boog]

The Bridge

As the last words of her spell left Black Magic's mouth, a blue haze surrounded a few of the nearby skeletons... But not enough of it. Fog only she could see surrounded skeletons and solidified into eyes, ears, fur and muscle... But only in patches. They were ghosts, yes, but they were... Fragmented. Damaged.
One sat up over its own shattered skeleton, a polecat man with a spear across his back that marked him as an adventurer. He was frantically mewling to itself, trying to pick up his own skull and put it back into his spectral head, getting more distressed each time his fingers passed through old bone and monster bits. He seemed to be slowly drifting upward. A fox girl just lay there, superimposed over her own complete skeleton like a medical diagram, half her face just slowly dissipating fog. Her one eye stared straight up, and she kept muttering to herself. Occassionally she'd mutter something to the effect of "lights, the neon lights..." The ones with no complete skeletons simply drifted upward, trying to scramble and reach for the ground. Like they were scared of where they were going...
A couple seemed coherent though. A border collie and an iguana, lying across the hood of a car and draped over one of the girders respectively.
We fell.
We were pushed.
The water tasted funny. Oily.
We sank.
And on the bottom, we were pressed together...
It took years.
Many years. All of us just mushing in closer...

--

The Waterfront

Giles wasn't disappointed. The mongoose was waiting right there, staring up at him as if daring him to notice how far she had to crane her neck. The pipe was still in her right hand, gripped in what could be described as a very competant manner.
"Who th'hell are you?"

--

City Hall

There was a slight skittering noise under Traxen's vehicle, but otherwise things went fine. The drones entered or found their way in nicely. Most of the windows were shut or barricaded tightly, but there was always the front door, and one upstairs window. Through the front door a man was already waiting for them. It was hard to get a look at him- the place was kept VERY dark. He had an average height, and an average build. Judging by his sillouhette he was probably human. He simply nodded once, and led the way down the hall, quickly adding "Stay near me."
The team that entered through the window, a mere two cameras and a spiderdrone, managed to make their way down a brightly lit hallway, a little ways. The standard bland ornateness of a government building. The occassional marble bust of someone that few people remembered, doors open into offices. The offices had apparantly been ransacked, by either people, time or wildlife. Apparantly anything non-essential to survival had been abandoned or, by the looks of one of them, converted to dormatories...
SOMETHING swatted one of the hoverdrones on the upper floor out of the air, destroying it with a harsh bellow something like "HORP!" It grabbed another, and on his cameras Traxen got a brief view of an eye rather like that of a human, but too SMALL, and with the skin around it shaped wrong, like it was stretched over a different skull.
"Thumpy! Down! He told us they'd be there, put it down!"
Someone out of eyesight, speaking over the intercom. The thing looked up, then glared at the little drone, picking up the other in its other hand before it could turn around to get a better look at him, and plodded its way down the hallway with big, heavy footsteps.
"Horp dorp. Rude to pry. Horp dorp." It rumbled sullenly.

[Cogidubnus]

Wait. Wait, he knew this one.

"Lo, for I ride a pale horse, and Hell follows with me." he said, the sound of flickering flames dancing through the intonation of his words, like the sound of wind trying to extinguish a gas flame. Blue fire danced up from his feet, spiderwebbing across the cracks of his armor like intricate runes of engraved lapis, glowing eerily, as his eyes took on a red, bloodshot hue. He cracked a grin.

And promptly turned off the fireworks.
"Ah, I'm just shittin' ya. Name's Giles Monterrey. Former paladin, now just a poor, wayfaring stranger. You?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Alex was busy dry heaving from the smell. She had a pretty impervious stomach and olfactory system so the smell had to be really bad. The time spent in the tannery learning to make the leather that would be turned into book bindings generally cured the initiates of any delicacy of constitution. When she managed to get herself upright again she found her staff hopping in impatient circles around her. "Right, right," the nun muttered almost under her breath. "Is everyone okay? Does anyone need healing?"

[Lisky]

Brushing himself off and using some subtle shape-shifting to corrected the bruises his muscles had sustained, Ed quickly cleaned his appearance up, and moved to rejoin the group.  Seeing as the others seemed rather distracted with the usual, the spotted feline made a B-line for the lioness adventurer.  It was rather difficult to judge his expression, he seemed alert, attentive, and serious... yet there was a bit of a playful edge in the way his tail flitted back and forth.

As he passed, a hand playfully danced across her mid-section, but for a moment.  Ed knew better than to tempt a volatile individual too much.  "Having fun with some toys i see? Little bit a muscle work there, with a lot of precision...  just gives me the tingles thinking what else you might have hidden in that bag a yours"  Ed teased, in a sing-song voice.

He returned his colors to normal after a bit.  It seemed the camouflage didn't help all that much.  "perhaps we should keep moving... no sense dawdling with what little time we have left."  He took the time to observe the rough position of the sun, trying to gauge just how much time they had left before dusk.

[Tipod]

The idea of several helpless people being compacted into one bodyhorror was disgusting enough.

The actual smell pushed Payden's stomach over the edge as he leaned over the bridge's rail, retching into the abhorrent waters below. He wiped his mouth with a sleeve, coughing to clear what bile remained in his throat.

"...I'm fine." Though he knew damn well he wasn't fine at all. That whole fight, he'd been trying to draw a bead on the bizarre monster, but his hands just couldn't keep up. Something about this place was already getting to him. Sure, he'd faced Creatures before over his long and illustrious career, but these things? All the monsters he'd ever faced were almost laughable in their vile manners and mindsets.

These were just horrors without any sense of purpose, and the concept alone was causing his heart to pound in both ears.

[Angel]

Black Magic opened her eyes and almost gasped aloud. There were SPIRITS in front of her. Rotting carcasses and skeletons, she had seen plenty of times, but spirits? She had never seen them before. And she now had proof positive that there WAS another world. This was amazing! She was confused, though. What had caused the spell to look specifically like this? She supposed it was either the fact that these bodies were freshly dead, or that they weren't buried.

She looked around. Some of the spirits seemed frightened, or unaware of what they had become. She couldn't help but feel sorrow for those poor ghosts - transferring to a new life while still alive was hard enough, but to accept your own death so quickly? She couldn't imagine what that had to feel like. She shook it off, though, remembering that she had specific questions to ask.

Did all of you die at the same time? Are there more creatures like you ahead? There were thousands more questions buzzing in her skull, but she reasoned that since only two were coherent, she should limit herself to two questions at a time.

---

Mykst watched Kali, knowing enough about her magic not to touch her until the gray eyes he loved so much stopped glowing. Instead, he turned to see how he could help the others. He swallowed, reminded himself that he'd just killed a monster that would have slaughtered them all, and spoke to the group. "Um, Black Magic's spell will take a while to complete, depending on whether the spirits of the bodies stay or leave. I...I think we should stay here until she's done." The idea of staying here wasn't any more pleasant to him than it was to the others, but if they wanted any kind of help, they had to get information from...."residents of the city", so to speak.