Northern Winds [NC-17] (IC)

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel was suddenly blind to the world around her, but she could still hear the approaching fires. One spark even met her shoulder, making her yelp. But before she could grope her way more than a few feet down the bar she was tugged in the opposite direction. She tugged back until Ignaz's voice urged her to follow. It seemed like quite a long time before her guide pulled her into the light. She stood still for a dazzled moment, not having a third eyelid to protect her from the sudden light in her disguised form. She took the moment to put her disarranged dress back into place and brush the ash from it.

When Ignatz informed them they were exiting via the window Mel's wings reformed on her back. At the same time her fox form subtly morphed to the snow leopard form she had worn when she first arrived and the short white dress turned foggy and shimmering. When the fog solidified it was in the shape of her sturdy grey suede jacket outfit. Properly prepared her step from the window was a pleasant hop to the ground aided by wings and flight magic.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog took a stumbling step forward, and then another as the bat's tether pulled, dragging them all out of the darkness. He tripped over a broken piece of table, taking a few hopping steps as he regained his balance, and then managed to keep at a run, exiting the darkness with the rest of them.

Stygian informed the rest of them that they would be jumping out of a window to escape. Cog looked back a the receding bubble of darkness, narrowing his eyes, and pausing for a moment took a slow step back towards the bubble. His hand tightened on the hilt of his blade.
Before he went back into the darkness, however, the wolf stopped again. His eyes flashed behind his shades, a gleam entering into his eyes, and with a small nod he turned from the bubble and back to the window.

Cog wasn't in possession of anything that could help him make such a fall, and staring down at the concrete pavement of the alleyway for just a moment, marking how strangely small the dumpster seemed to be, he jumped.

[Stygian]

The fall was a bit long, and when the bat's feet hit the ground it even took a bit of the air out of Kerya's lungs. But Stygian seemed to have no trouble with it whatsoever. 'There we go,' he murmured as he released his grip on the stoat and stood back up, moving out of the way to make room for the others to land. Turning quickly, he was just about to break off at a run, when he heard a yell from further down the alleyway. One that sounded familiar. Frowning, the bat dashed off.
   Fire flared up in the gryphon's hand, and blows were exchanged, the both combatants leaping in a deadly dance. Stygian cursed, and for a moment he stopped outright, watching them. They were quite close together, and if he pulled them apart they would only struggle. What he needed was shock and awe. Because stopping the fight there was no question about. At least, neither of them seemed to have noticed him.
   For a split second, Keaton and the gryphon moved a bit further apart, and Stygian took his chance. He swept his hand forward, and another wing-like sweep of darkness seemed to burst out from his back and along the side of his arm. Then, with an audible crack, the thing lengthened into a pitch-black lash that rushed down the alley, ripping up the ground as it went, leaving a purplish-black streak behind it for a moment. It whipped right between the two fighters, spraying them with tiny pebbles of pavement and hitting Deirdre's sword with a hard metallic clang, knocking it from her grip, just as it almost made Keaton hit her own head with Catastrophe.
   'What the fuck is going on?!' Stygian snarled at them both, walking closer out of the shadows as the black streak vanished, his face a thunderhead.

[Tezkat]

The jaguar bit back a curse as his enemy casually destroyed yet another of his extended limbs. He was down to half strength--with injuries that could take days, if not weeks, to regenerate and nothing to show for his efforts. Even with his level of mental discipline, the pain had become difficult to tune out. He extinguished his flaming aura and sprang back to evade the grasping fingers. His remaining tendrils, useless against this opponent, withdrew and melted into his body.

"I really don't have time for this shit."

Edge barked words of power and extended his palm towards the entity blocking the door to his exit. Shockwaves rippled from his fingers. The atmospheric distortion passed right through the insubstantial monster with no effect. But the creature hadn't been his target. The windows in the room beyond shattered, raining thousands of tiny shards onto the alley below.

And then a second, significantly more intense shockwave rocked the building. That one wasn't him.

The panicked crowd had moved far enough from the club that Edge could feel his own fear under the tidal wave of their terror. The delicious sensation strengthened him. Sharpened his senses. Edge enjoyed taking risks--he loved the challenge and potential rewards--but he knew when to cut his losses. This monster wouldn't be here without Ashtareth's blessing, and he had little desire to face her again under these conditions.

The panther matched the ghost's surprising speed and lured it farther into the hall. When it finally cleared the doorway, he blinked out of view. A brief rush of air marked his departure, and then he was gone from the club.

+ + +

We're clear. Where to, boss?

Anywhere but here, Ky. Anywhere but here.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton and Deirdre:

Blow after blow swept through the air, blade and club uniting again and again in a cacophony of shrieking collisions, sparks leaping from where Deirdre's sword occasionally grated against Catastrophe's crown, yet the sword never seeming to dent in the slightest. Its edge was probably magically reinforced or just extremely durable, not to mention the way it sliced through the air was impeccable; as though it were perfectly made for gliding and lashing with  swift efficiency. The Gryphon handling the weapon was relentless, recovering from each singing strike, her face a schooled mask of determination as she observed Keaton from behind the flicks and swipes of her customized blade. Grunting slightly, Keaton twisted the handle of Catastrophe and thrust it forward, deflecting an attack, then took advantage of this momentary break in composure to swing it around in a wide arc, aiming deliberately for Deirdre's side.

Either fortunately or unfortunately, the Gryphon noticed the attack and jumped out of the way, keeping her wings folded against her back. One of the spikes encrusting Catastrophe's head grazed past her front, cleaving a jagged line through her shirt and jacket on her abdomen and barely opening the skin underneath. Encouraged by this almost-successful attack, Keaton grit her teeth in a barbaric smile and lifted her hand, which surged with red and purple electricity, preparing to conjure up the shadows behind Deirdre as she raced at her--

The two were so engrossed with their battle that they didn't notice Stygian arrive. Not until something--something too fast for either one of them to see--barreled past them, knocking both weapons upright and jostling the combatants' postures. Deirdre yelped and struggled to maintain her balance as she swaggered and watched with shock as her sword was went flying; Keaton growled indignantly as Catastrophe jerked and nearly, uncontrollably hit her in the head.

Then both women heard Stygian roar at them.

Two pairs of eyes, one membrane-caked and the color of sulfur, the other mismatched and chocolaty, swiveled simultaneously around to stare at the bat. In spite of how intimidating he looked, Keaton felt her face break out into a wild grin, the meaning of which was obvious. Stygian had made it out of the club alright! Not to mention everyone else probably did too, she hoped, but right now she desperately needed someone to deter this messy confrontation. She had no qualms with taking down Deirdre, but it was too inopportune for her liking, not to mention the Gryphon was surprisingly and disarmingly aggressive in her fighting style. Not like how she remembered...

Meanwhile, Deirdre's eyes widened in shock as Stygian advanced, looking thunderstruck. The bat from before. The one in the club. He was the monster. Deirdre glanced, horrified, between Keaton and Stygian, then, disregarding her normally tame language, cursed. "FUCK," she hissed.

"It's about time..." Keaton exhaled gratefully.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya came out of the zone of darkness with an irritated scowl creasing her muzzle. She swiped her claws at the shadow-things as they dissipated, then took a moment to smooth her ruffled tail fur. Her grip on her staff tightened when Sebastian picked her up and led the way out of the window. I really must find out what is wrong with my Levitation spell, she thought just before their landing knocked the breath from her lungs. Oomph... one more thing to ask Sebastian about later. Then she paused for a moment. Had she really seen the white vixen sprout a pair of wings, then change into a white leopard and fly down to the ground? She looked around at the others: the vixen was certainly gone, and the party now included a snow leopard who hadn't been there a moment before. A wingless snow leopard.

The little stoat gave herself a quick shake. Worry about it later. She followed Sebastian and the others around to the front of the building, arriving just in time to see the bat break up a fight between an odd, birdlike winged creature with an implausibly long sword, and one of the people who had gone into the back rooms with the bat: she wielded an equally hefty mace as if it weighed nothing. At least, she wore the same dress and had a similar expression: on a second glance, Kerya realised she'd turned into a jackal.

She strode forward, to a point just behind and to one side of the bat. "Sebastian, do you wish this... big angry turkey... securely bound for a little while, so we may flee safely?" she asked. She held her staff in the crook of her arm again. Her other arm was pulled back, as if to throw a punch, and small streamers of multicoloured light crawled over her clenched fist.

[Stygian]

The bat glanced sideways at Kerya for a fraction of a second, then returned his glare to Keaton and her surprise assailant. He was fairly sure he had seen that one inside the club earlier. He closed his eyes and shook his head. 'I'd have done it myself if I thought it necessary. We can't mess around,' he muttered, and then directed his pitch-black eyes at Keaton. Deirdre could just catch the slightest glint off his hidden pupils. 'We need to go, Keaton. Come on.'
   The bat turned on the spot and started jogging back toward the other part of the alley and the others.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha had an incredulous look on her face, regarding the window.  "Jump.  From two stories up."  Her voice turned into a mutter as she held her forehead between two fingers, glancing at Gareeku to see his reaction to all of this...however, the club's apparent quaking beneath the feet of the group was quite the incentive to leave.  The others were jumping, and certainly, the panthress wasn't one to be left in the dust.  When it was her turn, she sidled toward the window and peered down with narrowed eyes.  Peh.  It's a good thing I've leaped from trees that were higher.  Just a little harder landing.  She had her boomerang in one hand then.  And then there's more creative approaches.

One foot on a quaking sill, followed by the other, the panthress crouched and seemed to take on an appearance in the darkness like that of a feral jaguar.  Had it not been a dangerous undertaking and a fight that they were running from, Aisha would have worried about her dress catching on something...one can decide for themselves whether it was good or not that the fabric ended a little short for that.  With a whip of her arm, the boomerang flew through the air...and with another whip, came back and struck the side of the building just a bit below the level of the window.  It made for a relatively short platform to aim for.

With that, the panthress leaped, bounded quickly enough from the edge of the trinket with one foot that the weight wouldn't stress it, launched toward and bounded off of the opposite building with the other foot, and landed with less-than-perfect grace on the garbage and dust-strewn ground.  She called the enchanted saw-edged blade back to her grip.

While doing so, Aisha looked around at the others gathered, among those a stoat, a snow leopard that had to be Mel, the once-temporarily-absent Undead, and somewhere nearby she could hear the voice of another stranger.  The panthress leaned against the wall, indignantly brushing the edge of her dress down again while everyone gathered.  "So I guess we have more poor saps stuck with us," she said, a smirk on her face to denote she was joking, while replacing the weapon on her belt.

[Boog]

Poor saps sounded about right to Richard as he brushed himself off, grumbling. The clamor down the alley caught his attention briefly. With the way things had gone so far, it was probably more trouble.
"You folks seem to attract poor saps. I miss anything interesting?" He double checked his tomahawks, Yes, still tucked into my belt loops. Thank god. Marya woulda killed me. "Manage to blow anything up on the way here, kill anyone famous, stuff like that?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel turned and saw Ignatz had broken up the noisy fight and was returning along with Keaton and the little mage. If it weren't for the chaos of the burning club they would be the main attraction of the milling crowds.  "Ignatz, any specifics you would like to share for Plan B?"

[Cogidubnus]

 Silenced by the bat's spell and trapped by darkness against the stone walls of the club, Leartes roared silently and invisibly as the bat made his escape. The priest wrenched his hand, freeing it momentarily from the grasping darkness, and used what little free movement he had began to hack at the paralyzing shadows. The light on the blade of his scythe flared invisibly as he cleaved at the darkness.

In the back of his mind, the Jackal could feel the oncoming rush of...something. Some presence was coming, and despite his...loathing to leave the bat, he couldn't fight all of them at once. Even the bat, who had proved far more resourceful and resilient than he'd thought, was running.

Laertes pried himself off the wall in short order,scything his way through the darkness and then out of the receding bubble of umbra. Taking a moment to stare at the darkness, he let go of his scythe, the thing fading into the air, and began to cast his own recall as well. A few short moments and mystic passes later, and the Jackal simply disappeared.

* * *

Cog leaned against the wall, his face neutral. He raised an eyebrow and turned to look down the alley, pushing himself off the wall to see Keaton and some gryphon fighting in the middle of the street. Pausing for just a moment, he started forward, a sigh on his lips.

He stopped, Stygian and that ferret woman from earlier breaking Keaton and this strange avian up. Cog leaned back against the wall, his face blank again, and behind his shades he looked around, taking count of the party.
Aisha, Mel, Stygian, Keaton...uh...Gryphon, Ferret, Richard...hm.
"We're missing the other Cubi." the wolf stated, his voice calm. "And the other wolf."

[Sunblink]

...Keaton and Deirdre:

Aside from their previous exclamations, both women were utterly paralyzed as in how to react to Stygian's appearance, if only for a little bit in Keaton's case. Resiting the urge to grin maniacally at this favorable turn of events, Keaton swept Catastrophe around in an elegant arc and tucked it behind her back with one arm, smirking offhandedly at Deirdre. The Gryphon was too stunned by Stygian's arrival--and their increasing audience of ragtag adventurers and assorted Creatures--to react, initially petrified, but soon thawing as she steadily began to observe her options.

More people. Apparently allied with the jackal. Excellent odds, that--excellent. Deirdre hadn't taken on so many adversaries at once before. She was, after all, only one (retired upon the doctor's insistence) Adventurer. Despite her meditative state, however, she couldn't help but feel indignant at Kerya regarding her as a "big angry turkey," which was immediately reflected in her appalled expression.

"What?!" she demanded, outraged.

Keaton laughed hysterically, flashing Deirdre an arrogant grin which further riled the incensed Gryphon's ire. "Seems they have you down pat," she smirked. When Stygian stated that they had to leave, Keaton's grin vanished altogether and she nodded affirmatively to him. Darkness slipped in thick tendrils onto her body, then knitted together to form a holster for Catastrophe to fit snugly into, which she quickly occupied. Once unarmed, she dusted her hands off.

"Right! Understood! Just one minute!" Keaton called over, then spun around to face Deirdre, a surprisingly placid smile on her face. For understandable reasons, Deirdre didn't like the look of it one bit--it was clear that something was wrong. Unconsciously, she groped for her belt, only for her to realize all over again that the bat-monster had unarmed her.

She realized it just as Keaton's fist came flying toward her face.

There was a hideous, crepitating crack and a cry of pain as Deirdre went flying backwards with force almost disproportionate to Keaton's diminutive frame, limbs not even reacting in the slightest until the moment she hit the ground, side-first, a few inches from her discarded blade. Agonizingly, she took a shuddering breath, twitching, then went limp--not dead, but subdued. Quite efficiently subdued. Looking just the slightest bit satisfied behind the thick layers of grim, fatalistic calm, the aftermath of the once insane look which hellishly illuminated her face during the impact of her fist against Deirdre's face, Keaton fanned her hand out, flexed the knuckles, and turned around to face the others.

She didn't even stop to look at them when she bypassed the group, following Stygian.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

Adressing Mel, Stygian spoke hurriedly, slowing down to a marching pace when he came closer to the rest of the group. 'Get the Hell out of here, basically. The city. I will get my bike, you jack a car and then we can catch a ship, perhaps,' he said, then seemed to think the better of it. 'No, a train would be better. Faster.' He headed toward the other exit of the alley, when suddenly something drew his gaze and he stopped.
   At the very end of the alleyway, a figure was standing, somehow standing out against the background though not apparently odd in any fashion. It seemed to be the lighting, somehow. It was a man, a canine, dressed in strangely old-fashioned clothes, staring around confusedly, slightly hunched and tense as if expecting to have to run at any moment. When he turned around to look at them, and they could get a look at his haggard face, his eyes widened in shock as they fixed on Stygian. For a short second he seemed to flicker, somehow, and then he opened his mouth, letting out a terrible cry of fear that seemed to travel worlds before it reached them, and turned around. His figure glowed like flame, became almost translucent, and then he ran right through the wall behind him, disappearing.
   Stygian didn't even flinch, but his eyes traveled instantly to the sky, already darkened somehow. Something cracked red up there, and the bat gritted his teeth.
   'Too late.'
   The ground shook, and a crack formed right down the alley. The surroundings seemed to darken and grow dim, slowly but surely. And then the end of the alleyway caved in, dust blowing and stone crumbling and clattering. A pair of roof tiles fell to the ground next to Richard and shattered. And even as the shaking stopped, scraping noises were still heard from the hole that had formed in the street. The voices from behind them, coming from the club entrance, rose prominently.
   'Back the other way! Go!' Stygian shouted, and spun on his feet, breaking off at a run as a shadowy form began rising from the rubble.

[Boog]

Richard turned his attention toward the fiasco at the other end of the alleyway, catching the end of the discourse between Keaton and... that gryphon from inside the club? A look of surprise crossed his face at Keaton's out-of-nowhere strike. He looked away and pulled his coat closer around his neck. Bah. Probably none of my business. Just because I didn't run into her inside the club doesn't mean she isn't one of probably numerous employees of Stygian's ex. Why else would Keaton attack her?
Briefly, he considered the multitude of possible answers this group was likely to give to that question up to and including 'I like the feel of broken beak on my knuckles.' He sighed and turned around, passing by Stygian and Keaton wordlessly. Damn, this is just too goddamn sappy. You know what? Our heaviest hitter got shrugged off like he was nothing to Laertes. We can't afford too many more enemies. That's why I'm doing this. Yeah. Rationalization; a tricky process for a misanthropist.
"Hey," He reached out to Deirdre, "Need a-?" Wait. A man who hadn't been there at the other end of the ally a second ago was attracting attention. And then he screamed, and things went to hell again. "Gah!" the undead jerked away from tiles falling from the roofs, the ground split, everyone charged toward him.
The dead man blinked once and groaned, grabbing the gryphon's shoulder as he turned to run. "Aw fuck, what'd they do now?"

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya let the spell in her hand dissipate and turned to follow Sebastian. She kept an ear cocked for any sign of further trouble from the bird-creature, but something made her turn her head just in time to see the other fighter, the jackal, flatten the creature with a single punch. She perked her ears at that — the jackal didn't seem to be that strong — then resumed walking back down the alley towards the others.

The situation chose that very moment to take yet another turn for the worse. Something happened at the other end of the alley, that she couldn't see because of the people in the way. She heard a scream, then the alley was split in half by a long fissure in the ground and the rumble and crash of collapsing masonry filled her ears. Kerya turned and ran, right behind Sebastian and keeping an eye out for anything falling from the roofs on either side.

[Stygian]

Before Stygian had taken even half a dozen steps past the others, a horrid shrieking sound, not shrill but terribly cruel and loud, rose from the pit, soon followed by another. The shadows at the edge of the hole looked up, and gained eyes, scrambling out with hissing breaths even as a larger form rose behind them. The air seemed thick and heavy around them, shadows deeper and lights sharper and more lurid, as if they were watching a dream. It was the same feeling that they had perceived on their way to the club, magnified several times over.

[Sunblink]

...Deirdre:

From on the ground Deirdre remained eerily and moribundly still, the disarrayed and limp locks of her now-disheveled, boyishly-cropped hair concealing her face in tufted clumps. To the untrained eye she looked dead, but in reality she was just recuperating, stunned; and most certainly battered after her impromptu cranial introduction with Keaton's fist. Richard's first attempt to rouse her was met with initial failure, though a second later the Gryphon erratically stirred, twitching and stretching. Wearily, she lifted her head, exposing the thin trickle of blood oozing from her nostril. Appearing rather unfocused, Deirdre reached up shakily and clutched at her head, moaning incoherently. Her other hand groped for her sword, which lay a tantalizing few inches beyond her arm's reach.

Finally her fumbling hand's digits furled around the pommel of her sword just beneath its pappenheimer and she attempted to lift it. Mind was caught between swaggering drunkenly and attempting to conjure up intelligible thought, her thoughts and actions still sustaining an air of prolonged and emphasized dizziness to them, but such deliriousness vanished the instant the ground quaked and split open and the tiles rained from the rooftops. Instantly Deirdre was jolted out of her sluggish state, pupils pinpricked and body hastening to scramble to her feet as she was eased back up by Richard, momentarily stumbling on her heels but recovering a second later. Just in time for her to glare about, shocked.

"What the hell?!" she exclaimed, clenching her grip on her sword. Deirdre, despite all instincts yelling at her to fight, abandoned her aggressive Adventurer methods and pursued the others.

---

...Keaton:

Keaton had caught up with Stygian a moment or so after she deserted Deirdre's battered body, briskly jogging within his range and staring, concentrated, about, scouting for any potential threats or menaces. As he listed the ways that they could escape Keaton kept her brow furrowed, teetering in and out of focus as the rain pummeled at her side. It was getting increasingly difficult to keep herself latched onto this current subject, and natural 'Cubi lack of attentiveness wasn't just to blame. No, that never came into play when their asses were on the line.

All attention was directed to the ghostlike hound standing at the other end of the alleyway, and the melancholy, horrific cry he emitted. That hideous shriek seemed to be the harbinger of the catastrophe--the groove which suddenly split the concrete-laden earth and the thundering in the clouds suspended overhead, the sudden pandemonium that raged and rampaged throughout nature itself, manipulating all logic and reason to achieve its frightening design. Stygian yelled at them to run, and Keaton knew better than to disobey, spinning around with a look of horror on her face as she whipped Catastrophe from its holster and dashed in the direction he had commanded for them all to run.

As the myriad of wicked voices and sounds swelled and gradually became more and more cacophonous, Keaton found her senses start to become overwhelmed by the bombardment of howls and whines and weeping cries. All horrid. But there was no time to stay and to marvel. All that mattered was to keep running.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

 The pavement, cracked and rent with this sudden...presence, and this sudden infestation of things and shadows terrible and frightful to see cast a decided pall on the otherwise unremarkable alley, the mood changing from immediate, sheer terror, to sudden disarray and then back to terror, ominous and dark. Shapes and forms moaned in the darkness, broken and eerie hands rose up out of the shadows, followed by yet more terrifying apparitions attached to them. Dead or living, Cog wasn't sure.

He could hear the crack of Keaton's fist on the strange newcomer's skull, and the proceeding thump of the avian's fall. Keaton's quick steps away were quickly followed by Richard's efforts at helping the Gryphon back to...its feet. A few drunken, or possibly stunned paces later, it began chasing after the others. Cog took a step back as well, his eyes peering into the darkness.

The wolf, still strangely silent, took another step back and then turned, quickly following the retreating Stygian.

[Stygian]

Skittering claws sounded through the alley as Stygian ran past Deirdre and into the street, looking back and forth. He needed to get to his bike, but the others...
   'Get a car!' he shouted back over his shoulder. His call was almost smothered as panicked people ran past him. Something was clinging to the wall of the club, holding a poor thrashing and screaming captive by the head with a clawed hand way off the pavement. Red light cracked in the thick clouds above and voices and screams were thick in the air.
   The things that had emerged from the hole behind the rest of the group were closing in, apish figures nearing them in front of some horrid, arachnid-like thing clawing its way out of the ground. It was strange that it should be so dark, especially with fire blazing out of every window of the club. Yet the one thing they all saw clearly were the yellowish glowing eyes of the nearing abominations.
   Before anyone of them could reply, Stygian had thrown himself through the commotion and past a screeching, honking car in the street, heading away.

[Sunblink]

...Deirdre:

Any numbness or disorientation Deirdre felt after her valiant struggle to rise to her feet had evaporated altogether when she realized the calamity that was unfolding around her, her body instantly lurching into motion and clumsily forcing itself into relatively graceful motion--and failing. Mobility was gained, but at the personal expense of any and all stability in her posture, though at that moment Deirdre didn't give a rat's ass about whether or not she looked like a competent Adventurer or a moron. All that mattered was surviving. She was not going to die here. Not now, not even when she was teetering on the precipice of Hell itself.

As she fumbled with her sword she instinctively reached behind her as she ran and snatched Richard by the sleeve, dragging him along with her during her mad dash for freedom. Deirdre assumed it would be appropriate--after all, the Undead had bothered to assist her, so why couldn't she assist him? She relinquished his arm, shouting, "Come on! You helped me, I'll help you. Get your ass in gear!"

In the midst of that conclusion she stared around, frantically in search of her destination. There was no hope of fighting all these--things. Her only option was to escape.

Trying desperately to ignore the screaming of the stampeding people and the hideous sounds the creature terrorizing them was eliciting, Deirdre continued her search until her membranous gaze landed on a familiar red blur parked nearby. Immediately, Deirdre's expression brightened. Her car. Perfect. Running up to the vehicle, Deirdre quickly scooped her scabbard off the ground from where it was resting against the bulky car's wheel and sheathed her sword, then rummaged through her pocket for her keys. A second later she resurfaced with the key in hand, and unlocked the car doors with a press of the button on its activation pad.

Hopefully the Undead would've followed. Deirdre scrambled around the side of the car and leaped into the driver's seat, throwing her sword onto the chair beside her. She closed the door and prepared to rev the engine...

---
...Keaton:

Another escapee amidst the chaos was none other than Keaton, the jackal losing stride sometime after Stygian had sped past her, shouting for them to get a car. Despite the severity of the situation, Keaton felt her expression fall almost hopelessly, a dreadfully fatalistic thought creeping into her head. Wonderful. A car. She didn't know how to drive a car--well, okay, she did, but not very well. At most she would probably crash it a few feet from where she had pulled out, but that was irrelevant. Where was she supposed to get a car? Their last mode of transportation had been decimated, along with their driver...

Then she noticed the Gryphon running past her, much to her irritation. What was that trannie bitch doing up so quickly? Keaton's eyebrow arched, facial features contorting into something akin to distaste that Deirdre hadn't remained as thoroughly subdued as she wanted her to...

But those thoughts quickly faded after she saw what Deirdre was running towards.

A car. Face brightening, Keaton's almost mad grin returned to its customary position on her face, and she gestured sharply for her companions to follow her. "Come on!" she shouted. Quickly, she formulated a plan. Deirdre would never let her drive. Especially not after she had suckerpunched her and--well, those memories were insignificant. So there was no other option than to take advantage of the chaos and Deirdre's lack of time. Questionable reasons for possessing such a large vehicle aside, the car was quite large, and could probably house all of them, if they all sandwiched close together...

After Deirdre jumped into the car and prepared to start the engines Keaton jerked open the door and bounded into a seat. Instantly noticing her, Deirdre's eyes widened, then narrowed, her beak baring indignantly as she glared virulently at the intruder. "YOU!" she growled, "Get the hell out! NOW!"

Keaton didn't even bother feigning a laugh. She kicked open the door and skidded to the side, making sure to leave enough room for the other potential occupants. With any luck, the missing Incubus and Gareeku would arrive in the nick of time. "Save your bitching for later. We need a getaway car. You have one. Drive."

"You punched in my face. Piss off," Deirdre hissed. "Or I'll make you."

"Oh please, do you think you have the time to fight me?" Keaton asked, trying to keep herself from sounding mocking. She had to strike some chord of reason within Deirdre's brain, and as tempting as it was to infuriate her for her sick entertainment, Keaton knew that wouldn't be prudent, given the circumstances. "Besides, these guys have nothing to do with you. Do you really want their deaths to be on your conscience?"

Ouch. Now that was a good way to stab at Deirdre's altruistic instincts. Tapered ears of mismatched hue flattened at first as though discouraged, then lifted a centimeter as determination flared in Deirdre's features. Her chest puffed out briefly, then she exhaled, scowling at the people who piled into the car. "Fine. I'll let you all come with me," she stated, "But if any of you attack me while I'm driving, I'd like to see any of you take control of the car as it goes off a cliff." Almost clinically, she turned back to the window, nervously fidgeting and wringing at the steering wheel. "Where to?"

"When everyone's showed up, follow the bat," Keaton explained. "You, and all of us, are as good as dead if you don't."

And you're as good as dead when this is over, too, she mentally added.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The sudden split in the earth of the alley and subsequent onrush of beasts got Mel running towards the front of the building but she was blocked from going any further by the screaming crowds dashing back and forth in the roadway in front of the club. Ignatz disappeared into that crowd, shouting back at them to get a car. They couldn't even get out of the alley, how were they supposed to get a car? Mel gave the few nearest a discrete blast of stinging ice to get them moving in the correct direction. The griffon dashed into the gap she had made and towards a red car. Keaton followed despite their recent fight. Mel followed followed both.

[Boog]

Richard ran alongside the gryphon, stumbling every so often as she tugged on his sleeve. He knew he wasn't moving at top speed, what with Ace sending her stiletto into his foot, but the tugging threatened to trip him. "Yessir getting ass in gear sir!" He yelped, lurching out of the way of some other horror. What was really unsettling was how, even in all the light of the burning Red Sands, one could discern no details of these creatures other than that they were violent. Something that ate and ate, even consuming whatever light tried to touch them.
Ye gods, but he hated them. They were like a child's impression of the worlds problems, simply occurring from nowhere to do harm. Ugly caricatures of true problems, trivializing what they were based upon in their display of brutality.
For the most part, this just made him run faster. He staggered around a fallen bystander, about to be finished by some other beast. He almost slowed, stopped, tried to do something... But there was no time. He always got confused, when he felt bad for people. He didn't trust them as a whole, and the ones who he actually liked could probably be counted on one hand. So why did he feel so shitty, then, about not being able to save them?
The musician snapped out of it by the sound of keys scrabbling into the lock. He clambered in with a yelp of "Thanks," and was soon assaulted by another problem. This problem, unexpectedly enough, was Keaton. He'd somewhat expected better out of her; she had also struck him as one of the less dumb members of this little expedition, and then he found out that not only was the person she'd slugged their best ticket out of this situation, but that she still persisted in pissing them off WHILE THEY HAD THEIR HANDS ON THE WHEEL. I must not strike her. Must not. C'mon, Richard, you've never believed in cruelty to the retarded before. The undead pressed his forefingers to his brow as he composed himself, sighed...
"Gryphon, ignore what she says save for the actual advice. It's pretty useful, although delivered inexpertly. Keaton," the zombie then turned toward the succubus, sunken-eyed stare as serious as the grave as his gaze bored into her eyes, "I know I shouldn't be asking favors after trying to wash my hands of all this, but I really need this from you. As a matter of fact, if you do this before me I think I just might never ask anything of you again. Keaton..." Richard paused, closing his eyes briefly as he arrayed his words in his head.
"I desperately, on a deep and personal level as well as a professional one, need you to shut the hell up."

[Aisha deCabre]

While she had waited in the alley, looking around at both the current company and the newcomers that would soon be with them, Aisha was getting somewhat worried.  The chaos hadn't died down, especially according to the argument her ears had picked up from the alleyway.  She watched the window that they had jumped from, hoping that Gareeku would join them soon.  A couple of people from the group were indeed missing, now that Cogidubnus had pointed them out.  All in all, it was quite a mess.

And that was when the bat returned with Keaton, and she looked up, listening to him answer Mel's question on what to do next...doubtfully she believed it would have something to do with getting out of that town, and quickly.  Her eyes widened at hearing what they had to do though.  I honestly do NOT think that some of us would approve of stealing a car...but...if it had to be done...

Then, courtesy of a stranger across the alley who turned out, due to the extreme disbelief in Aisha's eyes, to be a spirit, things went completely awry once more.  There suddenly came a feeling in the air...something she couldn't quite describe other than encompassing, sickening darkness... pervaded her senses.  Right after she noticed her enchanted tail ring flash blinding emerald, the ground had virtually split open...admitting shadows from the ground.  Rubble was raining on them from the sky.

Her heart started to race, and she had started to run with the group, completely confused about the whole ordeal.  She wanted to know what the hell was going on...and hopefully they would know soon.  But in her field of hearing, she could hear Stygian ordering them to rush out of the alley, as fast as they could.  But Aisha stayed in place, her hand on her sword, insistent.  "I'm not leaving without Gareeku!" she roared.  After all, she promised, and if he would come out after this hell...

But the insistence that they just run was too overwhelming to ignore.  The creatures were swarming the alley...the feeling was intense...somehow she just sensed that these were things that they just couldn't fight.  Even when the best fighters were running...

There was no choice.  She couldn't stay.  With a cry of frustration, Aisha ran after the group just as they noticed Stygian rushing off himself, and the crowd now dispersing from the club and running in sheer panic.  Aisha clutched her head, wondering what they were supposed to do.  Dammit, dammit...  Then she heard Keaton's voice, beckoning the group to follow her.  Looking in that direction, she saw why.  There was a car, a good size hopefully for everyone to just scrunch into somehow.

Aisha took one last look in the direction from whence they came...and thought she saw a familiar blur of white.  "Gareeku!" her voice rose over the panic.  "Hurry, this way!  We can't stay and fight them!  Let's get out of here!"

Hoping the wolf had heard her, Aisha waited for him before dashing across to the car, where Keaton was already "negotiating" with the driver.  Winded, the panthress nodded to the strange Gryphon as she arrived, next to Mel and Richard as well, while looking for somewhere for them to sit.  "We'll be grateful for the help," the adventurer addressed the stranger, with sincerity, and waited for the others.

[SpottedKitty]

Things got even worse as Kerya ran along the alley behind Sebastian. The noises behind them suggested something was following — something nobody sane would want to be caught by. It didn't help that as they came out into the main street, they were all held up by a panicked mass of people running back and forth. Sebastian vanished into the crowd, using his size to brush people aside as if they were cubs.

After a moment, a gap opened up. The little stoat had no idea where she was going, but if these people thought they could escape, following them as they rushed across the street struck her as a good idea. She came out the other side of the mob only slightly ruffled: her staff had seen some use as an "encouragement" to give her a little more room. The others were crowding into one of the carriages she'd seen all over the city while she'd been here. As the jackal held a door at the back open, she dove in, angling her staff so it wouldn't knock anyone senseless. The seat was already nearly full, so she wriggled onto a shelf behind it. There was barely enough room to lay her staff down: Kerya herself only fit if she curled up against the window at her back.

"What now?" she asked, with only a little nervousness in her voice and scent. They were still far too close to the burning building, and now that she could see some of the... things... crawling over and around it for the first time, she only wanted to get away.

[Stygian]

People were starting to disperse, scattering with that surprising speed that can sometimes be mustered from anyone when pressured or frightened enough. A few cars sped off, tires screaming, watched by prowling forms on rooftops around. People shoved into the group as they came into the street. And then there was Deirdre and her car.
   Richard had just finished his speech to the aggravated jackal when a sudden tug jerked out the driver door and a man with a desperate look on his face grasped and grabbed at Deirdre, trying to yank the gryphon out of her seat, obviously intending on taking the car. Before she could respond with more than a kick though, something heavy hit the roof of the overmotorized vehicle, reached down and ripped up the man's back, hurling him off. A pair of glowing eyes in an all too sapient but horridly fiendish turned toward the others, and the crouching thing hissed, baring long fangs and a hanging tongue. It reared and then lunged at Mel, the first one in immediate reach.

[Cogidubnus]

 The wolf walked forwards quickly, pausing only to stumble rather unceremoniously on a pothole situated right in front of him. He hobbled for a few steps, getting his weight back under him, and managed to stride out into the main street.

The gryphon that Keats had been beating on apparently owned a car - stumbling around in a rather unsettling way for only a moment, she centered in on a red-colored vehicle and pausing only to fish out her keys and open the door jumped inside. That zombie from before, Richard, practically leapt in after her, and Keaton followed shortly after that. A person stepped in front of him, however, and as a crowd suddenly passed by Cog lost sight of the car.

The throng of people was thick, and they ran and moved in a downright panic - trying to get through them was nearly impossible, and held the danger of possibly getting trampled. From the sounds emanating from behind him, though, staying was simply suicidal. The wolf took a step back, bringing his arms together, and taking a step into the crowd pushed outwards in an almost swimming motion, creating a small gap for him to wedge into. Pushing forward, the wolf made some headway to the other side of the street, catching glimpses of the red car as he got closer.

After much jostling and almost tripping several times, the wolf managed to get through, and had a clear sight of the car. Cog's eye narrowed. Someone had the driver's door open, and was trying to pull the gryphon out. Cog, still silent, simply grabbed at the sword at his waist and began to briskly walk towards the fellow. He stopped suddenly, however, his eyebrow raising as a large....ghoul, of some sort, fell without warning on top of the car.
It threw the man off the car with ease, shredding its back in the process, and turned it's attentions towards Mel. It lunged at the cat, long fangs bared.

Cog ran towards the car, breaking his silence and muttering a curse under his breath. It didn't seem like anything was ever simple with this group - he held onto the hilt of his sword as he ran, trying to get close enough to kill it.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel was standing beside the car when a desperate escapee from the bar shoved her aside, trying to pull the griffon from the vehicle. The disguised dragon was about to yank him backwards when something did a much more efficient job of it. Unfortunately it turned it's attention to her, grabbing towards her with long arms. Instinctively she jumped, up and backwards at the same time, wings reforming simultaneously with the leap. In her leopard disguise the wings were feathery, but larger than those of an angel. Now higher than the car and the monster she slashed outward, three pulses of air, each like a baby tornado if a tornado could be flattened into a disk as thin as a razor blade and thrown.

[Gareeku]

Seeing the approaching attack, Gareeku dived out of the way, before everything went dark.
"Fucking great." the wolf muttered. Suddenly however, he then felt pulled by something as voices whispered around him. Before he knew it, he and the others were standing by a window. Watching the others climb out into the street outside, Gareeku then searched the room. As far as he was concerned, if there was anything that would help to explain what the hell was going on, he would be glad to get his hands on it.

Realising after a little while that there was nothing, the wolf then jumped out in the alley below. Noticing the others had gone, he then made his way into the crowd.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog danced backwards, the dragon in front of him suddenly sprouting wings and leaping up into the air - and with a few deft movements called to the winds, sending three whirling discs of wind at the creature. Glowing faintly with the influence of magic, the discs made a slow zigzag through the air before coming together at different points on the ghoul's body.

They paused for only a short second, encountering the sudden resistance, before sawing completely through the body almost instantly. The wind, moving at such incredible speeds and narrowed to a razor-edge through the use of magic passed through the flesh only a little slower than it did the air. With a spray of blood and barely a scream, the zombie fell to literal pieces, the whirling discs separating its head from its body, and then its lower legs from its suddenly-divided torso.

Cog raised an eyebrow, looking up at the dragon floating overhead. A deceptively powerful spell - not to mention her earlier attack on the Angel. Cog nodded, grinning. She seemed quiet and meek, but the dragon definitely knew her way around spellcasting.

The car, however, was getting full - to his surprise, however, the shotgun seat was empty. Running around the vehicle quickly, Cog opened the door and only barely caught the sheathed pappenheimer-esque blade falling out - Cog raised an eyebrow, the inner swordsman in him noting the strange design for a blade with a pappenheimer hilt, and almost took another second to pull the thing from the sheath and examine it when he remembered where he was. Maneuvering the thing so that he could crawl and sit under the sword, the wolf practically lept into the front passenger seat, the blade resting over his shoulder.

He gave a momentary glance to the gryphon seated in the front seat, and then to the others in the back, noting all of those present. They still needed Mel, but that should take care of itself in a moment. He looked at the gryphon again.
"You have interesting taste in swords, good sir." he said, tapping the leather sheath.

[Boog]

Richard barely had time to finish impressing upon Keaton the utmost importance of tact in a "we're gonna die" situation when something ripped the door off the car. For a second he had the impression that the man trying to yank Deirdre out was the culprit, and then something threw him. Before the undead could so much as kick the thing away it took an interest in Mel, who dispatched it.
Meanwhile, more people had entered the car. They acquired a few more, and thankfully the more level headed members of the group he remembered. At least, he corrected himself mentally, I thought they were level headed. By comparison.
He watched the pieces of the beast on the roof fall away as Mel killed it. He moved about a little, noticing they were running out of space. This close in, the smell of all these people around him so tense, so mad...
So alive.
Alright, calm down Richard. Mind over matter. I'm better than my... The musician shut his eyes as tight as he could, wiped the corner of his mouth, Urges. He happened to glance at Kerya and brought himself under control, the fear evident on her face bringing him to his senses like a splash of ice water across the brain.
"Don't worry, they're not getting in here," he rasped, nodding toward her, "Just stay calm."