The City (IC) [M]

[Kafzeil]

Normally Jinx could keep his composure.

This however did not constitute normal.

To make a long story short, Jinx panicked, Flipped the Fuck Out, whatever the Hell you wanted to call it.

The assassin screamed in purest terror,  aiming his revolver at wherever the Hell the Thing In the Floor was fired all six shots in quick secession, backing up as he did, his scream falling silent as he heard his weapon make that infernal "click" sound.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Meanwhile back at the inn...


The diminutive Tazzy Devil sipped at her latest drink, slightly bored as Raeleg had disappeared without taking her to Ed for some unknown reason, despite it being its stated mission.

She wasn't upset at that for she knew that Warp-Aci are fickle creatures of magic, and prone to wandering off task.

"Hey Moze, is it too late to go back out or should I wait here?" Ephrael said with a small grin at the innkeeper.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha's eyes widened as she listened to the rat in front of them speak about the shrew he'd just killed.  And more and more, she was getting confused about just what she and Gareeku had gotten themselves into.

But he did attack, and the panther was at least bound to follow through on her own threat when that happened.

Just as he readied and tossed the javelin, Aisha herself, quick as such a weapon, rolled under it and towards the attacker, tossing her boomerang through the air.  She didn't know if the rat noticed the spinning, flashing sawblade of light coming at him from behind...but if he did, Aisha would be ready if he turned his back with the Dragonblade.  The wolf meanwhile, his own sword drawn, rushed around in a half-circle and came at him from the side.

"There are other, less violent ways to do things!" Aisha roared.  One thing she certainly didn't tolerate was dealing pain and death to someone who--if they weren't innocent--were unarmed.

But it doesn't seem like this one is the type to consider it.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Just after traxen deployed the drones and they wafted or scuttled towards the Hall, Traxen thought he heard something. No, scratch that--he knew he heard something, from right under the van's floor. Traxen's eyes shot around to a few screens as he pulled up the underside camera and few low-set cameras on the van's skirt, rewinding through the last few moments they caught.
  Nothing.
  "Pamcawv, maximum scan, all sensors, focus in a ten-yard radius and on yourself."
  As the van started diverting processing power towards the task, the drones had finished the external model of the Hall, and began searching for entrances. Readouts from Pamcawv's scan started appearing on one screen.
  Still nothing.
  "Damn it all, is this another invisible monster?" He muttered darkly to himself. There was no way he was going to let 'just hearing something' go, not in this place. The fact that he couldn't find anything did not bode well at all, either. The presence of a second invisible monster would mean the first was not an anomaly, and that Traxen would be effectively blind in this city, thus making this place an area he simply was incapable of operating in, and he would have to move on. So dissapointing, but this second one was not confirmed, yet... it could've just been a squirrel that the underside camera had managed to miss, and just ran off.
  Yeah. Right.
  Traxen relocated the van, pulling out of his parking spot and moving to another side of the building. As the van drove itself there,  Traxen finally really took a look towards the back doors of his van, for the first time since he had entered the city.
  Three robots, almost the size of a person, and essentially looking like a shield on four vaugely insectoid legs were folded up against a rack for storage. They were his turretbots, true autonomous robots, and Traxen's only way to exert force beyond his van. They were used to support allies, primarily, generally not tough or powerful enough to handle a full combat situation on their own, though they could sometimes engage individual targets (provided said target was not a Creature, usually).
  "Pamcawv, bring Turretbot One online."
  There was a clacking and whirring sound from the first unit in line as it went through its start-up protocols. After a moment, it detached itself from the rack, standing in the very confined space between Traxen and the read doors.
  Traxen picked two hefty devices off a shelf. Both were machine gun modules, designed to be attached to either side of the turretbot. Traxen affixed one after another, then retrieved two ammunition pods from the micro-fabrication unit towards the front of the van, and slotted them into the back of the turretbot, on the rear of the "shield" face. He then had the rear doors opened for a moment, just long enough for the turretbot to step outside and take place right behind the van. From the command consoles inside Pamcawn, Traxen set it to sentry mode. It would stand in place and fire on anything non-friendly-tagged that moved. It also was fed data of the surrounding area of Pamcawv itself, so if Pamcawv detected anything outside of the turretbot's firing arc behind the van, the turretbot could reposition itself.
  "HORP!" *thwack!*
  Traxen whirled around at the sudden sounds that came from the speakers behind him, just in time to see one of the camdrone feeds going bonkers, before it went blank with a "SIGNAL LOST" alert replacing the feed. For what it's worth, agression against his technology is one of the few things that got his adrenaline going.
  Another voice emitted from the speakers, this one muffled-sounding, as if the source was distant in relation to the drone's microphones. "Thumpy! Down! He told us they'd be there, put it down!"
  The remaining camdrone and the spiderdrone in the same room got bits and flashes of whatever it was that destroyed the first camdrone. Something about it said "ape" to Traxen, but like everything else in this blasted city, it was ugly and mutated. It also didn't seem to listen to the other voice, because it snatched up the camdrone and spiderdrone and started wandering with them, muttering to itself.
  Traxen quickly cycled through the status and locations of the rest of the deployed drones. It seems that the upper window and the front door were the only possible entrances, which was quite disappointed. An entire collum of his drones, cam and spider, were at the front door, following the man who greeted them. With such limited options to explore, Traxen glumly recalled about half of them, leaving four camdrones and two spiderdrones. He also switched on the remote speaker on one of the last remaining camdrones.
  "Uh, pardon me, but it seems your...pet...has destroyed one of my drones and taken two others hostage. I said I was sending in proxies, this is very irritating and doesn't reflect well on you. Of course, I expect the drones to be returned, including the damaged one for salvage." Traxen's voice definitely sounded unhappy.
  Traxen also noted, as the drones followed the man inside the building, that there were few lights on, and it has hard to see details on the man (and the environment around him).
  More inconvenienced than curious, Traxen activated the light-enhancement mode on the camera of the lead drone.


(OOC note: after menatlly wrestling with many different acronyms, I decided to call the combat units "turretbots", because that was really only meant to be a placeholder name. I'm updating my profile and previous posts to reflect this.)

[Boog]

City Hall

"We really are sorry about him." The Mayor, or the person claiming they were the Mayor, replied over the radio, sounding genuinely mortified. "Thumpy can be... Tempermental, and doesn't like new people. He's a sweetheart deep down, we swear. Just... Prickly. A few years ago we told him to guard the facility from all unfamiliar persons during a time of crisis and he doesn't seem to want to stop. He seems to be simply bringing your devices to me. Everything will be returned to you, I assure you."
When the lights went on in the main hallway he could tell that their guide was human, and young. Red hair that looked like it was going grey a little early at the roots. Dress shirt. Eventually they reached the door to what was apparantly the main office. The boy turned around and slouched next to the door, revealing himself to probably be no older than 19, tops.
"Mayor's through there. Try to be polite." He grinned with an awkward friendliness common to interns everywhere. "Good luck."
Inside, the mayor's office looked like it had never been touched. Everything was pristine. The lights were on, the files were neatly put away, the front desk was clean and tidy save for a coffee mug which said "world's best boss" in a depressingly cheery font. And situated behind the desk, so still he could be mistaken for a wax statue, was the Mayor. Another human, with a face as strict as his voice. A thick grey mustache, grey eyes, and a plain grey suit with a grey bowler hat. Every inch sensible and proper. The only sign that this room was even in the same city at all was the boarded up windows.
"Welcome. Again, I apologize for the reception. May I ask why you moved your car? It's no trouble, I'm just concerned about the noise from your engine. Attracts notice, don't you know?"
Meanwhile, under the van, this time his cameras DEFINITELY caught something. It appeared to be a cockroach, but it was only on the screen for a second.

--

The Museum

The rat managed to evade the boomerang and craft another javelin, at the cost of a good chunk of a nearby sculpture. By the time he had it raised, however, there were blades at either side of him. The rat looked from Gareeku to Aisha, realizing that somewhere in the past twenty seconds he'd made a mistake that could cost him his life. His face was the very picture of the decision making process.
Finally he dropped the javelin, and raised his hands slowly.
"Foine, we do it thet way."

--

The Bridge

We fell.
Years, many years, as we all fell and sank...
Nothing like us.
We fell.
Everything like us.
We fell.
The more Black Magic listened to these, the more she got the impression that she wasn't dealing with complete entities. They didn't act like any ghosts she'd heard of, after nonspecific revenge for their murders. They seemed more like broken recordings, or imprints.

There are few things less healthy for vertigo than watching an object, in this case your own vomit, fall all the way from you to the ground, or in this case water. However, Payden could make out some sort of activity where it'd splashed. Roiling, like a school of pirhanna's. And... Was that a giant leech? Something black and slick, with eyestalks, surfaced briefly and sank back into the water.

--

The Waterfront

"Marya Zyrlomi," the mongoose replied, visibly relaxing at the phrase 'shittin' ya.' "Former sin eater, presently realizing there's no such goddamn thing as a former sin eater, unless you count the dead ones." She turned and went back into the warehouse, a pitch black maze of crates, theater props and abandoned bad art cut with musty light from cracked windows. "I'm looking for a... Thing. About yea big, yea wide, should be all black and slick and stuck into a wall. Veiny. Gimme a hand?" She held her hands apart, describing an object the approximate size and shape of a small melon. "And, ah, look alive. It probably heard me say that."

--

The Church in the Suburbs

Jinx's firearm actually managed to get some results. Cracks and chunks were blasted out of the floor, revealing brief flashes of something incoporeal and chitinous. Off pink in color, like the smears on the walls. Puffs of pink smoke rose where he'd managed to shoot it while it was in the floor. There was another series of scratches vanishing underground, and the church was silent again.
Quiet reigned over the suburbs again.

--

The Last Chance Inn

"Ehhn, if yer quick you could probably catch 'em," Moze smiled at Ephrael, cleaning a glass. "I give tours of the suburbs, I could give you a lift."

[Cogidubnus]

Giles tilted his head.

"...hm." Was all he said, before reaching behind him for the spear slung across his back. The ember-hot spearhead glowed dimly in the semi-dark. "'Bout how...non-dead does it need to be?"

Fire started gathering around his feet, dutifully ignoring the flammable materials on the ground to coalesce into what looked like a widening gyre of fire. The shadows flickered in firelight.

"Also, regular, or extra-crispy?"

[Paladin Sheppard]

The Inn

The Fiery haired Adventurer smiled at Moze, with enough candle-watts to outshine the sun.   "Really? That would be fantastic!"

It was probably a good thing there was a bar between them, else Moze might have had a hard time breathing from the enthusiastic embrace Ephrael tended to dispense when excited.

Instead Eph checked on her gear making sure her pistols were strapped in and her daggers and bow were snug in their sheathes.

[Myr]

Indeed, this was rather strange, wasn't it?

Those strangely pale eyes watched as the one sick-seeming feline recovered enough to cast a spell. Whatever it was, he didn't see the results himself-but the reactions he observed clearly said something had happened. Maybe not what they were expecting, but still. An ear perked towards the sound of further retching briefly; it seemed the man with them was feeling a bit queasy himself.

Understandable, given the circumstances.

As it was, the lupine troll's sense of smell was slowly returning, and everything else was moderately recovered to where he could be of use. Now he just had to get his axe.

Looks fine enough, Raek thought to himself as his eyes locked upon the gore-smeared weapon in question, but it seems like I'll have to take steps to clean it. Just...not here. Or on himself, for that matter-while the stuff didn't seem deadly to touch, he didn't know that. Just like he wasn't aware of the clotted lumps sticking to the back of his vest like some loathsome glue.

Ah well. So far they weren't doing him any harm...and he was more concerned about seeing if it'd be safe to handle his weapon of choice while it looked to be moderately clear.

The wolven Mythos approached it cautiously, before digging into one of his pockets and pulling forth a rag that looked so worn it may have well just be a mass of unwoven fibers. This was tentatively wrapped about the hilt where he normally gripped, before digging out another cloth to clean it.

"Pagh," he huffed at the splotches upon the axe as the ooze was wiped away-they tinged the metal to a sickly green hue...and though he didn't know yet, it had acquired a faint reek like that of stale cheese.  Joy. Well, at least it was usable now, and that was what counted. Now to see what they did next.

"Ma'am," The troll-wolf said gruffly as he picked his way over to Andrace, "What next? My sense of smell might be shot for the time being, but that's beside the point. You're the one paying me, so do we go onward, head back, or hold out here and see if killing that attracted attention?" Very serious questions, those...but he was willing to ask them.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace cocked an ear towards the wolf-troll, then directed a did-I-really-hear-you-say-that look at the feline 'Cubi. "No, Edaric, we're not goin' t' warp back from here," she said firmly. "When we come back in th' mornin', that warp-aci drops us off in th' exact same place, in th' middle o' th' river wi' our tails hangin' out for anyone t' see... or shoot at. Let's at least press on t' th' other end o' th' bridge, mebbe a bit further, an' see if we c'n find someplace sheltered or eas'ly d'fended. Ev'ryone done throwin' up? Then as soon as th' spooks've had their say, we're movin' again!"

The lioness waved her free hand in a hurry-up gesture, keeping one eye on Black Magic's progress with her spell, and the other watching out for anything else approaching. Her tail-tip flicked back and forth impatiently. The others seemed to be mostly recovered apart from Payden, who was still leaning over the bridge railing feeding the fish. Her own queasiness hadn't completely gone yet, but she wasn't going to let that slow her down.

[techmaster-glitch]

City Hall

  Even still frowning, Traxen nodded to himself as the "mayor" spoke over the radio and exaplained the situation. So, the thing was just overzealous. Inconvenient, but reasonable enough.
  The lights inside the building came on just after Traxen activated the light enhancement on the camdrones, which threw him off for a moment, but he quickly disengaged them and things settled into normal vision. Traxen suddenly realized that this must indeed mean that, this building at least, had power. The human intern, for that's what he was, led the flock of drones down the hallway, before stopping at an important-looking door and opening it or the drones, and offering a tidbit of advice.

===

  As the door opened to the Mayer's office, the four camdrones gently whirrred their way in, and the two spiderdrones scuttled around. Ther spiderdrones did at least seem to refrain from touching or climbing on anything, for the moment, thoiugh three of the four camdrones wafted around, seemingly examining the room's decor and features. The fourth difted toward's the mayors desk. As it got close, the wind from its propfan started lifting up the edges of a few papers fourtunately held down by paperweights, and the camdrone backed off. Traxen's voice emitted from the electronic speaker onboard this particular camdrone.
  "Whoops, sorry about that." In reply to the "mayor's" inquiry about his van, he said "I thought I heard something out here...and my van hardly makes any noise, or it shouldn't at least, it's all electric. I--wait,"

===

  Traxen was staring at a frozen image on one of his screens with a weird look on his face. "Damn bugs, tripping the sensors..." he muttered, starting at a small and blurry copckroach. He didn't even bother trying to get a lock on with the van's other sensors, they weren't capable of tracking something that small. It seems like it really was just an ordinary cockroach...and then, of course, Traxen thought about where he was, again. The cockroach could be ordinary, or it was likely bad news, but there was hardly anything he could do about something so small, it wasn't worth it. Still, Traxen couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen...
  Traxen spoke back into his headset. "Sorry about that. Anyway, where were we...ah, yes. I'm here because I need data, but you want me to do something for you in return. Fair enough, but I'm not agreeing to anything yet. What kind of deal are we talking about here?"

[Angel]

Black Magic tried to glean more information from what the spirits told her. She had a feeling that if she just asked the right questions, she'd get some answers. but the more she talked to the ghosts, the more she began to realize that these shades weren't giving her answers fast enough, and that something worse than them could come along at any minute. So, solemnly, wishing she had more time (or possibly more to work with) she ended the spell. I thank you for your time and answers, noble spirits. Please move on with the grace you deserved when alive.

With that, she opened her eyes - and felt Mykst's warm paw on her shoulder. Remembering that she's removed her cloak to shake the muck of the creature off of it, she smiled at Mykst and gave him a quick hug before draping her cloak back over her shoulders without really closing it. The stars on the shirt underneath blinked weakly with the faded light of day.

"They said that they fell into the water. They didn't all die at the same time; I think what happened to them just happened to anyone who happened to fall in, over time. They said that it tasted funny to them...oily. They were down there a long time and got...mushed together, somehow, into what we saw. They didn't really tell me what was up ahead." She propped her staff over her shoulders and hung her hands over the edges. "In any case, I recommend we don't drink the water here, or bathe, or go swimming. I don't trust it after what I heard."

[Aisha deCabre]

The two warriors were relieved, seeing the rat drop his crafted javelin.  He was fast, and dangerous; but the two of them together were also fast, and formidable.  Gareeku had strength and speed, and Aisha had speed and many tricks of her own on her side.

They ended up on either side of him, the wolf with his sword tip at his neck, and the black jaguar with the Dragonblade leveled diagonally.  They wouldn't strike...he was unarmed and only in a position to answer to questions.

"Alright, no more cryptic bullshit..." Gareeku growled.  "You're going to tell us exactly what's going on here.  Why that girl needed to be locked in a coffin and attacked once out."

"And what you know about this situation," Aisha added, remembering the riddle told them of a pair in black and white.  "Why are we here, and what are we expected to do?  We'll listen before judging.  But remember that at the moment you look like quite the bad guy here, if the demons crucified outside are your work too."

The eyes on both adventurers narrowed, focused and unwavering, and determined.

[Boog]

The Waterfront

Marya wince and started gesturing at Giles to cool it. "Raw, thanks. I need it alive. Just disconnected." She turned and led the way into the dark of the warehouse, keeping an eye on various areas of exposed wall rather than junk piles that anything could hide in. "You ever done one of these before, or do I gotta tell ya what to look out for? How many days you been in here?"
Softly, like the whisper of a crocodile in a river, stones ground against each other in the walls of the warehouse...

--

The Museum

"Th' devilboy was before me." The rat replied, casually dropping the pejorative into the conversation, "Some previous owner a' this little number," He held up the hand with the belt wrapped around it, revealing runes glowing on the buckle. "Buggered if I know what it was first used for. Probably some blacksmith's favorite toy- waitaminute, y' don' know about the girl?" He blinked, "She was this town's last prophet. She saw all this comin'. We were keepin' her here to get us to keep predictin' for us, see if we can control what's to come. Thing is, girl didn' like sharin' what she knew, and if we gave 'er too much free reign she kept tryin' to escape. That's why they eventually handed 'er over to me. The museum's been Mine awhile, thanks to a few... deals with the right people. An' provided I never fuckin' leave. I got a big compound to keep 'er in, and plenty of material to keep 'er imprisoned. Even in the coffin with nuthin' to work with she kept gettin' out somehow, so I took to doin' some damage every time she did. Worked a treat, every time it was longer and longer 'fore 'er next attempt."
Noticing the looks he was getting, the rat sneered, "You asked. I gotta do what I gotta ta fuckhin' suvive in this town, don't you judge me."
"Anyway, she had a bunch a' prophecies. Girl published 'em in pamphlets, and there's a bunch more that she was keepin' to herself. But all the ones she ever shared were proved true, from the destruction a' the old hospitals t' the rise of Fairchild. An' she said that the comin' of a pair in black an' white would be the 'harbingers'. The first drops of the deluge, the ends a' kings and the starts a' change. And she never said which kings or for who. There's probably more, but I sure as hell ain't one of the people important enough to get tole 'bout it. I just do what Fairchild says, keep my deals w' Silas, and it keeps me from comin' down with a debilitatin' case a' dead."

--

The Last Chance Inn

Moze shook his head, "Amazed you wanna head back in so soon, but I've never been one to turn down a girl in need."
Jezebel, who happened to be passing behind Moze on the way to the kitchens, rolled her eyes and shot Eph an apologetic smile.
"Gimme a bit to get my things together and I'll meet you by the car."

--

City Hall

"A simple exchange of information, young man. You investigate, accompanied by one of my employees, return here with the info, such as a description of circumstances and some complete videos or maps of the area, and I share what I know. I will call on you for legwork, you call on us for our files. I can provide you with a means of contacting us, although if you want copies of the files themselves you'll have to return here."
The door creaked open, at this point, but only a crack. "Thumpy," had arrived. The Mayor hurriedly took the drones, including the damaged one, through the gap in the doorway, holding them deliberately pointed away from the creature. Looking through the crack in the door, one of Traxens drones could see large, hairless knuckles that brushed the floor.
"Well done, Thumpy. You've done VERY well. Now, run along. I believe that your 'Puppets and Friends' cassettes are in the top drawer of the video cabinet in the archives, why don't you go help yourself?" There followed a delighted "HORP!" And the rumble and banging of something large and ungainly trampling away down the hallway in some delighted zeal. The Mayor sighed and shut the door.
"As mentioned, his heart's in the right place. You just need to get used to him." He placed the recovered drones on the floor nearby. "I'll have someone bring those out to your van when you're ready to leave. Do you have any other questions?"

--

The Bridge

All was quiet. The city loomed ominously before them, and the suburbs sprawled languidly behind. The very fog around them seemed like it was waiting for something...

[Kafzeil]

whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhathefuckwhatthatfuckwhatthefuck?

Mind racing, hand shaking, and without a damn clue as to what the Hell was wrong with this city, Jinxquickly opened his revolver, shook the casings free before jamming six fresh new bullets to the chambers.

Maybe he should leave, get the Hell out of this city. Toss himself in the loony bin and get it over with.

But...these couldn't just be hallucinations...could they? The line between his own insanity and whatever the Hell was wrong with this Hellhole  Magic gone wrong? Mutations?! Someones own mental delusions given form and now roaming the streets?

Shaking like leaf, heart loudly beating in his chest Jinx quickly moved towards the door.

"I'm fucking mad. That's all it is. This...is is really bad nightmare! Yeah...I got piss drunk back at the Inn and now I'm in bed, dreaming up all this shit!"He muttered to himself, his words of reassure very, very empty.

[Lisky]

It was still quiet, the large lioness was clearly not paying attention to Ed's playful advances.  As such, the cubi contented himself by strolling on a little ahead of the others. "Alright, then lets get going.  We want to be out of here before sun-set, and the further we get, the further we start tomorrow.  Hopefully that fool who charged on ahead hasn't turned into meals on wheels just yet."

The fog seemed rather thick.  It felt like something was watching them through it, yet, nothing could possibly see through that murk. 
He turned back, looking at the group and gesturing for them to move.  He shapeshifted the small flap of skin out of his nostrils so he could smell again.

Reaching out with all his senses, Ed continued down the bridge, slowly, quietly, and sticking lower to the ground.  His large, leathery wings were already partially formed as tentacles, the draconian heads peering around corners, and checking for surprises as Ed kept himself near the center of the road.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Traxen took a deep, slow breath, sat back in his seat, and slowly ran a hand over his face. He fully considered the rammifications of what the "mayor" was proposing. In the meantime, "Thumpy" had arrived, and deposited the three drones. Traxen stared randomly at the wall of screens in front of him idly, his gaze focusing on an external camera, showing the sun on it's path downwards. Finally, he sat back forward, adjusting his headset...

****

  The camdrone hovering in front of the "mayor's" desk broadcast Traxen's voice. "I'm sorry. I must decline your offer at this time. As it stands, a return visit will not be possible. This is a big city, and from what I'm told, practically every block is infested with horrors. That's what I expected to find here. I was willing to risk coming this deep into the City only once, because the chance of getting the data I'm looking for was worth the risk once, with my plan of entering and exiting rapidly, stopping for nothing so I don't get cut off and trapped in here. That, and I need to leave right now to get out before the sun goes down. I'm not going to risk this again. I won't be able to return until I've at least secured a sufficient number of safezone checkpoints from the city's entrance to here, and I think both of us know that is going to take incredible work and time, if it's possible at all. My apologies for disturbing you, I will take my leave now. Don't mind my drones, I'll have them show themselves out."
  And indeed they could. The undamaged camdrone and spiderdrone Thumpy dropped off twitched to life, with the camdrone joining all the others in floating towards the door. The reactivated spiderdrone and another of the ones in the room scuttled over to the camdrone Thumpy had damaged, hooking it and dragging it across the floor. In short order, all drones had vacated the Mayor's office and were heading down the hall to the exit.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Sister Alex didn't like the look of the encroaching fog. Water vapor didn't have a right to look so... greasy. But if there were books to be rescued forward she had to go. Pulling fresh paper out of her pouch she firmly made herself walk forward. "Come along children. We don't want to leave anyone behind in this place."

[Aisha deCabre]

As the two adventurers listened, they kept their minds open...but their swords steady.  It was a relief at least to come upon someone who was smart enough to not forfeit their lives to a couple of determined fighters.  But scowls did cross both of their faces when they heard what the rat knew.  And in a way, one could sense confusion and even skepticism in their expressions too.

A prophet?  In a world such as theirs, such a thing wasn't unheard of, but was still cause for caution and foreboding feelings.

There was a moment of silence in the room as the adventurers processed the information.  The wolf and the panther stole glances to each other and back to the rat, wondering what to do or say next.

It was Gareeku who broke the silence.  "So in other words, you're something of a power-monger."

"Or he works for one," Aisha pointed out, her crimson eyes narrowing at the rodent.  "Just so we got this straight; this prophet girl said that 'a pair in black and white', presumably us, are harbringers?  Starts of change?  And predicted that all this..." she looked around, "would happen?"

Gareeku sighed.  "We're supposed to reverse all this.  Like a couple of messiahs."  He bared his teeth.  "Hate to break it to you, but we're just explorers.  We just came here like any other adventurers do, to see what we can get into."

Aisha nodded, humming in thought, before glancing back up to the wolf.  "Looks like we found something to get into, amigo.  If this is true..."

"I don't think it is," the wolf interrupted.  "This place is probably unable to be saved.  Look at how ruined it is."

"It could still be something of importance," Aisha hummed.  "The danger levels, the people killed who came here before us."

The two of them had to admit, it was interesting, if downright crazy to think that they could change anything.  They glanced between each other and the rat again, wondering what to do.  They had options...walk away and forget it, go along with it...either way, he was dangerous and letting him walk away to where he could spear them when their backs were turned wouldn't be the best choice.  And either way, they had to be out of the City before nightfall, before attempting anything else.  They remembered the warnings after all.  They would have to knock him out at least.

But first, he was the only one they knew who had the answers.  They'd see how he'd cooperate.

Keeping their swords at the rat, their respective gazes reaching a silent agreement between them, Aisha cleared her throat.  "Well, you don't have your prophet anymore, so I reckon you probably have no more reason to stay.  But if you tell us who the hell this Fairchild is you keep talking of...and this Silas...we'll leave you be.  And if you don't tell us, we'd have to take you back with us."

"I'd rather he were killed," Gareeku muttered, remembering the crucified demon and the girl.

Aisha smirked.  "Your choice."

[Boog]

The Museum

The rat swallowed cautiously, trying to keep his adams apple from brushing too close to the swords.
"The prophesies never said you'd do anything, it was jes' a sequence of events. Some folks think that yer just part of the timeline, the egg timer goin' ding. 'They show up, an' after that this happens' sorta thing. Others are expectin' some religious uprisin'...  Others think it's all bunk."
"Fairchild was another prophet, a mediocre one. Rich parents got 'im into the Institute a' Applied Divination, but he didn't go too far. To become a diviner requires a hell of a lot of enchantments wrapped around yer own brainmeats, meant to amplify yer cognitive speed, memory... An' each successive enchantment's more likely to blow yer own head off. Rich boy didn't want that, he just had the first couple done. He could tell you the weather tomorrow, he could find trinkets, but overall he was nuthin' worth mentioning for most of his life. One day his helicopter crashes in the river. Most assumed he was dead, until he walked out of it three days later. 'Parantly he was trapped in an air bubble in the wreck for all that time, divinin' a way out. Nothin' but straight calculation an' prediction, until he figured out how to lever the wreck open an' float out without killin' hisself."
"Crazy bastard promptly sold off all his holdin's and started putting his cash into arcane research. Folks called him a man reborn. Skip ahead an' he's got an entire new school of magic, some offshoot of healin' magic. Viviomancy, he calls it. Starts putting out products soon as he does. Better cars, better computers, better houses..." The rat shook his head.
"Gets hazy at this bit. All I remember's one morning his face is on all the screens in Tourist Square, speakin' something that sounds like dronin' bees. There's riotin' in the streets... An' when I come to, the city's a tomb, I'm hiding in a downtown apartment under a half destroyed couch from some huge hungry thing outside."
"Silas started showin' up here." The rat went on. "Mad bastard, human, always smokin', always sellin' somethin'. Nobody's got an idea where he's from, what he wants, but he's made a lot a' folks very powerful. Just make a contract with him and whatever you want's yours, so long as you can keep it. Fucker's like a genie, whatever he gives you has a catch. Give a man a wife, take away love. Give a man knowledge, take away sense. Give a man a castle..." The rat gestured to the museum around them with a sneer, "Take away freedom to leave it."

--

The Suburban Church

"And now I'm in bed, dreaming up all this shit!"
Jinx's words echoed through the church, ringing back distorted and dreadful.
"And now... Bed!" "Dreaming!" "All this shit! All this shit! All this shit! Shit, shit, shit..." The doors slowly began to creak shut.
The bushes behind Mao rustled with the passing of some small rodent.

--

City Hall

"I'm sorry to hear that." The mayor replied, sadly. "But very well. Keep us in mind, then, if you should change your mind."
The lights were off again as the drones made their way out, the briefest source of light being from behind a closed door.
"Hey everybody! Say hello to your favorite puppet friends!"
"Horp..."
The drones made their way back to the van without incident. As they loaded back on a cockroach crawled off of the turret drone and, before it could be responded to, clambered off amidst the mechanisms of the van and was gone.

--

The City Entrance

At long last!
Sister Alex lead the way to a land of skyscrapers, their tops shrouded by fog. A blanket lay in the entrance of one, covered with random trinkets. A monkey's paw, a glass eye, a mason jar full of what looked like water...

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Sister Alex quickly scanned the blanket and not seeing any books she turned to scan her companions to see if any had gotten separated from the group. While she couldn't spot anyone nearby she could feel numerous eyes upon the small group of adventurers.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Outside the Inn


Wanting to get a bit of air and being as usual a bit hyper, Ephrael went out and sat on the hood of Moze's car.

[Lisky]

Ed peered into the murk with all his senses, feeling for thoughts, searching for unfamiliar scents, listening for the slightest sound.  He was already on his toes, leathery wings folded into long tentacles, fingers adorn with scimitar-like claws.  The spotted feline continued to alter his orange and cream to better match the surrounding environment.  He kept the black spots... and made an effort to at least remain partially visible to the group with which he traveled... however, his main goal was stealth, and so, while trying to keep himself seen, he made every effort to keep himself from being heard.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Traxen watched the wall of monitors as, one by one, the drones docked with the hatch on top of the van and sucessfully folded into the storage unit. He was about to stand up and open the back door to let the turretbot when sudden motion on one of the monitors caught his eye...from the turretbot's camera.
  Oh, just that cockroach again. Wait--
  Traxen took control of the turretbot's camera and followed the cockroach as it started crawling back up the van again, then quickly switched to the van's underside camera. In a moment, the roach disappeared, wrigling into the bottom of the van.
  Traxen blinked.
  ...but the most dangerous stuff to keep an eye out for is things that look perfectly normal. F'rinstance, this right here? This was from what I thought was a pigeon...
  "Oh, hell no."
  Traxen stood up (as much as he could in the cramped space), and grabbed a few tools and materials out of boxes and hooks on shelves. With a high-density power cell, some wires and electrodes, a rod, and two prongs, he quickly assembled a rudimentary electric prod. He also took down a power screwdriver, kneeling down on the floor of the van. "Get the hell out of there, you..." With the power screwdriver, Traxen began loosening up one of the floor panels. It was bad enough that the bug was now crawling around in semi-exposed mechanisms of the underside of the van, which Traxen definitly did not want it mucking about with, but he also needed to get to it quickly before it could get anywhere else, especially -inside- the cabin. After he had the panel almost fully loose, he put down the power screwdriver and picked up the electric prod, carefully lifting the panel and prepared to jab at anything that moved...

[Myr]

A pale eye glanced at Andrace thoughtfully-he'd been nearly certain she'd want to turn back for now and plan a bit! Ah well, he was still being paid...despite not quite being in perfect condition. "Right then," the lupine troll grunted as he eyed his axe once again to be certain it was still usable. Looks like it's growing mold, he thought as he peered at the greenish stains.

Then he merely shouldered the weapon, made sure he still had their supplies, and looked to either side alertly-if only to be sure there wasn't another of those annoying things just begging to play. Granted, his weapon might have done impressive damage, but it had obviously not been enough to kill the thing!

If it'd even actually been alive at all in the first place, if Raek was understanding what he'd overheard correctly.

"Well, let's get going, I don't want to linger in this smell." Not to mention he was curious about that somewhat unwholesome fog he'd just noticed...it seemed to be waiting for them. Nah, it couldn't be, fog didn't do that! But it paid to be a little more wary, and he briefly watched as the feline 'cubi made his way ahead before making ready to walk near his employer.

Or at least as close as she might feel comfortable with a hulking brute of a lupine being, in any case.

So far, so good, he thought as he glanced at everyone with a flick of his nearly fluff-less tail and started walking, That could have been worse-instead if was more like a taste of what was to come...and needless to say, the stench alone tells me the entire meal might be nigh inedible. Hopefully I'm wrong. Blah, trollish analogies, they almost always seemed to be food-related....

[SpottedKitty]

Ever since they'd come off the bridge, Andrace was sure she could feel eyetracks on the back of her head and between her shoulderblades. She'd seen nothing moving, scented and heard nothing alive — or otherwise — but the lioness was still uneasy. Too many windows stared blankly down at them from the buildings all around, leaving her feeling horribly exposed. And anything could be sitting higher up, hidden by the fog. She walked up beside Sister Alex and took a moment away from scanning their surroundings to glance down at the objects laid out as if on display.

"Nothin' catch y' fancy, Sister?" she said quietly. "Gettin' late, we better not go much further. Start lookin' f'r a safe an' secure spot Edaric's warp-aci c'd use t' pick us up, b'fore th' light goes." Andrace took a more careful look around, to make sure no-one had managed to get lost yet.

[Boog]

Anyone see a parking spot?

There was plenty of shelter surrounding the entrance to the city. On this side of the bridge it was all skyscrapers and residential apartments. However, neither "safe" nor "secure" were words easily associated with them. "Crumbling" was more the word one thought of for some. "Dark." "Dangerous." "Probably-full-of-knife-wielding-hobos-y," if one felt like pushing it with the descriptions.
There were a few that seemed less hazardous than others, admittedly. The remains of an expensive-looking coffee shop stood largely untouched, save for the broken glass doors and smell of burned plastics, as well as an apartment complex that still had the lights on and a quite thoroughly looted thrift shop.
Distantly, Myr and Bas could make out some approaching sound. The crisp chemical hiss of an aerosol spray can, growing very slowly nearer...

--

OhGodI'veGottaKillitOrIt'llLIVE!

Traxen stared down at the roach, which had in typical roach fashion hidden in the shade when he'd exposed it to the light. In this case, that shade was from a cluster of sensitive electronics. One of those chips fried could short out the lights, disable the computer's auto diagnostics, or cause some other mess that wouldn't get sorted out for DAYS.
The little bug twitched its antennae, as if to say I believe we are at an impasse, good sir.

--

The Museum, for the last time I swear

"But listen to me, bitchin' and moanin' about the past." The rat fixed Gar with a snide grin, sneaking his thumb underneath the edge of the belt still wrapped around his hand. "You know what they say, fella. You gotta live in the present." As the runes on the belt flared to life he flicked the artifact at Gar and Aisha's feet, dodging backwards as he did so. "AND THINK ON YOUR FEET!"
The man had apparently set the blasted device to full power, because it gouged a hole both in the floor they were standing on and the parking lot below. Gareeku and Aisha fell in a hail of reshaped marble and asphalt, plummeting into the sewers below the city streets.
The water seemed surprisingly clean for a sewer, if slightly oily. Like standard swamp water, with a hint of chinese food.

--

The Last Chance Inn

Moze laughed, politely getting the door to the passenger seat for her. The car was comfy, with that smell that all cars well looked after by middle aged men seem to acquire. Age, cigars, air fresheners and a spent youth's worth of blissfully poor decisions.
However, there were small signs that the car belonged to an ex-adventurer. One of the cupholders had been modified to holster a small hand-axe, and there was a sawed-off shotgun tucked into the door storage compartment. The windows had been reinforced, probably at home in some friend-of-a-friend's garage, and even the dice hanging from the mirror had been wrapped around a few extra times, to make sure he could see.
"I usually give the tours in this. I'll get you too the bridge, I generally don't go farther than that these days." Moze flopped into the drivers seat on the other side, adjusting the seat a few times before the vehicle finally, at last, trundled off.
"Where'd you hear about our little tourist attraction anyway?" The orangutan asked, trying to make small talk. "Do most adventurin' circles still talk 'bout us?"

[Cogidubnus]

Giles turned the inferno down with a frown, and tapped his spear once against the ground beneath him. The metal made a nice hollow sound on the concrete.
"Couple of hours ago, actually." he said, looking around the room a bit more cautiously suddenly. "Can this wait? I get the feeling that whatever is in here wants to kill us."

His expression was oddly calm for what people assumed was a berserker warrior. He looked like he had some experience with group actions. "I help you out here, you tell me how to get lost and stay alive. Later. Right now, tell me how to help without killing us."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Sister Alex nodded acknowledgement to Andrace's request as her ears twitched at the hissing sound getting ever louder. "The coffee shop looks to be the most structurally secure choice. What surprises are inside we'll have to discover. But I'm thinking we should get off the street. I don't like that odd sound that seems to be coming closer." It sounded rather mechanical. Automated horrors were the most difficult to deal with in her opinion as they couldn't be frightened or reasoned with.

[Lisky]

"mmm... coffee wouldn't be half bad right about now.  Mind you, i wouldn't trust the coffee if it was brought to me by a harem of shapely, attractive young cult-worshipers who believe me to be their deity, let alone from a shop like that... but the sentiment is still there."  The speckled feline chided while turning towards the coffee shop.  He reformed his wings, cut the claws back and returned his colors to normal.

He was still extremely quiet as he approached. Feeling for anything inside, signs of thoughts and emotions.  He also kept an ear towards the hissing sound, but that was less pressing at the moment, compared to whatever was right next to them.  If nothing else, it'd be a good landmark to start at the next day.

"I don't like that sound either... we should probably head back soon and start planning tomorrow's adventure."

[Paladin Sheppard]

Moze's Car


Whistling in appreciation of the modifications to the car, the Tasmanian Devil took a few moments to answer. "Well to be honest I was hired to place this diamond in a magic font somewhere in the city, damned if I know where though." The Red headed devil pulled a massive crystal out of her travel pack  "Apparently its a magic trap."

"And the bridge will be find I should be able to track them down from there." Ephrael leaned over and kissed Moze on the cheek, "thanks for taking me there."