95This looks to have once been a crown jewel of bioadaptive research, one
94that now lies in utter silence. The air is thick with golden dust, a
93pollen-based mist that smells like perfumed rot. Steel hallways have burst
92apart beneath the pressure of living things that resemble bone-barked vines,
92weeping with red sap that twist through broken lights and splice through
93ceilings. The many security turrets have been overgrown with flowering
94tendrils while walls bloom with mural-petals with flat, pale blossoms.
95Bags of meat that resemble human shapes are rooted between some of the growth.

It is about 65F(18C) degrees. The mist is heaviest At Autumn and Lake/span>/spanThe reflection of the mirrorgate continues to shimmer behind the group as they make their way into the Zone. If one were to look back behind the reflection of the mirror gate, they would see a tunnel that leads into darkness. From the ceiling, there is bright-lights that shines over golden spores that hang into the air, and it’d be easy to figure out that this is behind whatever restricts access to the area.

Lykaia glances back to Catrina, Kai and Avalon, voice muffled by her gas mask. “Don’t remember the building plan. Might have changed.” Her gaze turns back, forward again. “Turrets should be inactive. Was here specifically earlier. Make sure entry point is usable.” She gestures forward, down another hallway where the metal plates of the ceiling look to barely hold on. “Should be a way down. Think we find most in old data-center. Be a good distance of walking. Be careful with the vegetables.”

Glancing around, Catrina raises a hand to wave it through the spores. “They’re, kinda pretty. But, what are those vegetables? And what happened here?” Moving forward, she stops just behind Lykaia, peering in the direction she gestured to.

“Acknowledged. No enemies detected. Scanning,” Kai responds to Lykaia in his robotic monotone as he steps a bit away from the group, glancing about curiously, his hands in his pockets, “Status: Hungry. Protein levels: Low,” he turns his head to squint at some of the golden spores, “Query: Spore samples needed for retrieval?”

“Just whatever we do, don’t break the mirror- We don’t know how many more there might be” Avalon comments under the gas mask, a hand vaguely motioning behind them before he glances around the room, resting the top of the hammer on the ground and leaning to a side “Now, if this is a tech thing, don’t count too hard on me, I’m good with hunting and smashing, not…” There’s a brief pause as he listens to Kai and then he adds “That… What’s with that?”

Catrina’s shoulders relax, and she glances back. Her face is hidden behind her mask, but the jolt, and subsequent step closer to Lykaia, are indication enough that she didn’t find what she expected.

“Oooo,” Kai lifts some petals up to his hands and murmurs, “Hello little friends,” to them to see how they react to his voice, hazel eyes bright with excitement behind his gas mask.

“Affirmative.” Lykaia says, now reaching around to retrieve her rifle, holding it in the low-ready, and treading on, down the hallway.

She sounds pained when she begins to answer Kai along the way down the hallway. “This was Project Nachtblume. Don’t ask me why they’re called Nacht this. Nacht that. I don’t know. It’s dumb.” The steps are careful now, light. The ground does not muffle steps so much. “Aim of facility was a warfare initiative, create, study, resist mythological encroachment. Fae was selected as primary study.”

They other hand of the hallway looks bright. Still full of the golden pollen, and they get closer.

“Was part as test subjects under directive of TF-V. Was found to be kontaktfaehig. Compatible. Designation was K-four-one-six.”

“What’s Nacht? Sounds like night,” Kai tells Lykaia as he trails along with the group, brushing the petals off to his left arm, glancing at them as he speaks, though the rest of the time he’s looking all around in excutement.

“So these are supposed to… resist Fae?” Catrina asks, following just behind Lykaia and keeping an eye out, especially behind her.
She’s trailing so close behind Lykaia that she might even accidentally step on her feet on occasion. She reaches up, rubbing at her throat and shifting uncomfortably, hooking her fingers and tugging at the chain of her medallion lightly.

Avalon takes a second to look at the ground beneath his feet, lifting the hammer from it and then slamming it back down, as if hitting something “Great, it’s breathing” And with that he is set in motion again, following behind Lykaia and glancing around “Expected” He answers Kai, before in a gruff commenting “Don’t try to understand and resist the fae, that’s precisely what they want… That’s precisely what allows them to win”

The group moves closer to the opening, which gives way into a much larger room. The first that greets everyone is a groaning-noise that comes from a corner, a nearby sack of meat. An arm is sticking out, wiggling left right left right.

“Accurate. Bad choice of study. All compatible subjects were disallowed leave from testing facility.” She relaxes her stance more. On one side, the door’s overgrown, on the other, it looks like a jungle over-growth instead, but in hallway format. Ahead, seems to leave into some great chamber, garden-like.

“Lounge point A for security staff.” She nods to the overgrown door. “To central research distract. We’ll need to find a way around.” Then a nod to the other side, the overgrown side. “Security wing.” And then forward. “Main facility area. Gardens, depths, test subject residence.” And then “Any preference we attempt?”

Kai wanders over to the table near the bag of meet and extends his non-petal covered hand to pull a sheet of paper on it closer to him, he brushes off errant spores and dust to better read it and leans down, squinting.

“I don’t have a preference… but what exactly happened here?” Catrina asks, looking at the meat arm as it waves. She even offers it a wave back. “You said the subjects were disallowed from leaving, then how did you leave? And where are the subjects now?”

With a tilt of his head, Avalon spares a glance at the sack of meat by the corner “If every residen-” He begins, but then stops upon listening to Catrina’s question, eyebrow perking underneath the mask that half muffles the sound coming from his mouth “They tried to fae proof things, that’s what happened… And now” And a hammer pointed once more towards the sack of meat “Never goes well”

Catrina says “What is that?“

“Uhh, looks like a bit of a field report…” Kai says distractedly and leans back, he takes a picture with his phone, only then noticing that Avalon and Catrina are stabbing at something or other, he draws a knife from his sleeve, “Oh my fuck!” he yelps in surprise.

Kai is looking down on a piece of paper, picking it up – and the bag of meat in the corner begins to drag itself across the floor with arms to assault him!

Rushing forward, Catrina flickers from view briefly, before she drives her knife into the meatbag.

“Siiiick,” Kai says as he takes a couple of quick steps backward, squinting at the bag of meat, “Have you guys ever seen Audition?” he wonders and looks back to the bag of meat, not yet certain about throwing his knife at it, “Hello! Are you able to communicate? Give a thumbs up if you are FRIENDLY.” he yells, while speaking slowly, nevermind that his companions have already commenced with hitting and/or stabbing it.

Avalon continues “Anyways-” But once the sack of meat begins moving again, he simply approach and slams the hammer against it, seemingly having no sympathy for the thing “Probably just meat… But you never want to leave anything alive in your escape route… As for route- If we cannot brute force the way we have to go… Probably the best route is the one with the least flora. Fauna can be dealt with, flora is often trickier”

“Okay, not friendly…” Kai supposes and steps back a bit more, his eyes narrowing in focus as he rears back one arm.

Kai draws another knife and whips his hand forward, arcing another knife forward at the bag of murderous meat.

fires off a few shots at a twitching bloom of meat that writhes on broken limbs, but she’s clearly too close.

Kai wanders over to the corpse and yanks his knives from it and nearby it, he wipes them off on the back and stows them away, “Do I have time to cut it apart?” he asks Lykaia and Catrina with an excited tone, his hazel eyes bright, grin mostly hidden behind his gas mask.

Avalon drives the hammer once more onto the sack of meat, finally ending it and more likely than not splashing some of the creature here and there, walking back towards the group and shrugging his shoulders “What for? It’s likely worthless… And we have other things to do”

“I dunno, seems like fun,” Kai tells Avalon and nudges the meat sack with the toe of his sneaker.

Stepping aside from the meatbag, Catrina shakes her knife. “Eww. Filthy thing.”

When Avalon’s hammer smashes one more time into the meat, it makes an ugly squish sound, and out falls a single slip. Looks like a badge. Lykaia stares at the thing, too, fallen to a quiet before she lets out a rather unhappy “Fuck me.” Groan. “Okay. First. Kai, what did you find? Next. We decide where we want to go. Doubt we got a solution for the door. Looks like too much. If no one brought a bunch of explosives?”

“It’s already dead, no fun in butchering it if it doesn’t feel it” Avalon replies to Kai as he shakes the weapon around a bit, trying to clean off any leftovers from it before, tilting his head towards the hallway once more “And we still have other things to do” His gaze falls on Lykaia for a moment before wandering to Kai once more “He has explosives…”

Bending down, Catrina plucks up the badge before returning to the others. “I didn’t. Your the explosives one between us…” She lifts the badge to take a look at it from a little closer, wiping away any nastiness still clinging to it.

“Dr. Markova was giving a report on Corruption Pattern Theta, she says they deployed remote spectrography, whatever that is, over Sector three east. The scans show a bunch of overgrowth matching Echoflora signatures, dunno what that means… and the emergence of the titular corruption pattern theta. It’s like… a fungal lattice around a ventilation tower. I think that means like a cocoon or something like that,” Kai says as he reviews his picture rather than the paper that’s right there, looks to the group and nods at Avalon, “Yeah, maybe, but I want to see what’s inside it,” he looks to Lykaia and Catrina, “I just have smoke and flashbangs, nothing really great unless you know how to repurpose the shit in them?”

Lifting the badge, Catrina shows it to the others. “Guessing this is the Doctor. Looks like she got a little close to her research. Shouldn’t have messed with the Fae…” There’s just a hint of pleasure at that last bit. “So, sector what was it? We should avoid that I’m guessing?”

“Or it’s the origin of all this shit and maybe it’s exactly where we should go. Hard to say,” Kai nods to Catrina thoughtfully and stucks his hands back into his hoodie pocket.

“Not familiar to me. But east-” Lykaia chimes by, and glances around, back the hallway they came from. The very distant mirrogate there. “Should be that way.” She nods to the heavily overgrown door.

“So we either go away from the scary…” Catrina points to the other two options. “Or toward the scary.” She waggles the badge at the door.

Kai wanders around the room, searching for something, “We need like… a flamethrower, or at least an axe or machete to clear the way. I guess I could saw through all that shit but it would take a while,” he pauses and turns to Catrina, “Actually, could you do something about those plants in the way?” he gestures to the overgrown door.

The walls begin to cry. Not water, but sap, sweet and… red.

“Uh…” Catrina looks at Kai, pointing to herself. “Me? How could I do anything?”

“Oooo,” Kai becomes distracted and turns toward the walls, he wanders to it and asks Catrina, “Can’t you control plants?” he asks over his shoulder and leans in to squint at the fluid coming from the walls, “So cool… the Catholics would cream their jeans if they saw this.”

Avalon goes to cover his mouth as he lets out a yawn, but well, the mask covers it for him, somewhat. He then glances at a wall and sighs once more, telling the others “Well, decide on something already and let’s go, this is not a field trip” And just as he says that, he grabs ahold of his hammer once more and slams it against one of the walls

“No? I can call flowers, but that’s about it.” Catrina tells Kai, walking to the nearest wall and poking her finger at it.

“Don’t think we got a choice.” Lykaia says, for those that can make out her expression behind the gas mask, the blood sap makes her look worried. “Let’s move ahead. Ignore the overgrown door, and the hallway.”

“Okay Avalon, you look nice and strong. Go rip that door open for us-” Kai trails off when Lykaia speaks and he nods, “Okay, let’s mosey,” he agrees and prepares to follow along with her, stepping back from the wall he sees her worried expression.

Wandering away from the wall, Catrina nods, falling in again right behind Lykaia. “Alright… if you say so.”

Avalon hits the wall once more for good measure, and then rejoins the rest of the group as the get ready to proceed, telling Kai “Thought we were leaving the door alone… Though seeing half the place is alive, maybe it could be tortured into opening” He supposes, but doesn’t stop or make any movements towards it, happy to just leave the possibility up in the air while the continue through the hallway

looks particularly cautious about the red sap, making sure to not step back into whatever that is, and then on. The next room is a large hollow, and the sky looks to open up above, though there are no skies, no birds up there and the growth clings along the stone walls along it and stops there. At the corners, the leaves touch over the overhead screen.

Growth has twisted around several corpses that lay twisted and scattered across. Many of them in pools of red, next to weapons, in combat gear. There are no flags that stick to them, nothing that marks them of any affiliation.

“Project Nachtlied sent A couple teams down here. Previous attempts. Secure. Contain. Research. Or something like that.” She keeps away from any of the corpses, and sways towards the right, gaze drawing over the walls. “Think you’re right, by the by. Need to go into East-Three. Was main research body.”

Kai pauses and steps over to the dead meat sack, he draws a knife, steps on one of the limbs and slices off a little hunk of flesh, then spears it with the tip of his knife, he wanders over to the wall and presses the flesh into the blood-sap gunk, squinting his eyes to see how the flesh reacts with contact to the fluid, lingering behind after the group for a moment while he conducts his little experiment, though he nods at Lykaia, “Okay,” he agrees, “Well, we know where we’re going,” he says, following the group, the sap-coated meat still on one of his knives, he bends down to pick up a radio device by one of the corpses as he catches up and says, “Cat, check this?” as a heads up before underhanding it her way.

Catrina’s hand darts out, catching the radio in her palm and looking down at it. “Its… a radio?” Catrina asks, fiddling with the thing. “What am I supposed to do with this exactly?”

“Never goes well with monsters…” Avalon comments after Lykaia’s explanation of the attempts at contention, shoulders shrugged and the hammer lifted to rest on top of his left shoulder “Would probably had more luck burning this whole place down, at least it would have cleansed it some”

Poking a little at the radio, Catrina eventually locates the play button, likely by accident and in the form of pressing it with her probing fingers.

“Scan the frequencies, see if there’s any messages coming out, maybe say hey on each? Maybe there’s survivors or something,” Kai offers and rubs the back of his non-knife wielding hand against his chest to scratch it, “Ugh, I think I have allergies to the spores or something,” he grouses quietly.

narrows her eyes under her mask when Kai walks into the middle of the corpses, and then to Catrina on the radio device, and then to Avalon. “Was my recommendation. “They did plant something in some of us. The way it felt then, that it would not in the dark…” And then Catrina presses the pay button on the device itself.

“Entering South wing now. Air tastes like mint and copper. Nevarro says he hears birdsong. Weird freak. We found a child’s drawing pinned to the wall with a spine. Depicts a man with branch arms giving floowers to soldiers. Helmets full of bees. Navarro then stopped at the mouth of Corridor L and stares. Reporting anomaly with her shadow. Wasn’t hers. There are doors…”

“If he’s caught something, how contagious is it?” Avalon asks Lykaia as he points a thumb backwards towards Kai, rolling his eyes a little bit “You said this is some illness you have, but this place is made for fae, yes?” The noise coming from the recording catches his attention, listening in for a couple seconds before telling Catrina “Play that again?”

Kai tosses his knife with the chunk of meat and blood sap toward one wall where it’ll be out of the way once his experiment is done, he glances down at the corpses and heads back to the group, “Hey Avalon, break the corpses’ knees and elbows for me?” he asks Avalon and rolls his eyes, “If I caught something, we all did. We’re all wearing gas masks,” he notes to Avalon.

“Alright…” Catrina nods, trying a few times before she gets it right, rewinding the recorder and pressing play again.

“But we’ve not all been playing around with meat, weird liquids or the spore plants” Avalon simply replies to Kai with a shake of his head, not even bothering to look back at the man, but the breaking request he does follow, letting the hammer fall from his shoulder onto some poor corpse’s legs, shattering whatever might have been left of it, before driving it towards the other leg “Why though?”

“I’m getting… zombie vibes, I don’t know,” Kai tells Avalon, “Maybe pop their skulls too,” and he points out, “I’ve been -experimenting- and I’m being careful… I didn’t touch anything with skin,” he says, as if that’s so safe and careful, he grins behind his mask and sidles up to Catrina to listen to the recording once more.

This time, the recorder plays something different:

“-requesting full withdrawal. Roots breached coldwater tank. The reservoir’s become an orchard-lake. Pale bone and white. We’re underground. Non-contaminated area East-5. Saw someone move in it. Wore my face… Don’t drink- *static* The fruit *static* eyes… Breach from east 5… *static* to Center-6”

“Mask’s necessary. Contamination happens when in contact with infected areas. Spores should only affect minimally. From tests recovered from a… friend.” She looks at Catrina then.

Lykaia says “Spore contact with skin specifically.“

Kai beckons to Lykaia Catrina and Avalon to come closer, he types out a word on his phone and says, “If we aren’t sure we are who we say we are, this is our safe word or whatever. Code… word,” he turns his phone and it reads Multigrain, “Everyone got it?” he asks with an excited little grin, his eyes bright.

“Well, that’s a fae” Avalon/span>/span“Well… that’s different.” Catrina mutters, holding the recorder out to Lykaia. Scanning the word, Catrina nods. “Okay… I guess?”

Kai shrugs and nods to Avalon, “I’d rather be super paranoid. Don’t say it though. There were petals that responded to my voice. I don’t want to risk that they could uh… hear it and understand,” he says.

Lykaia makes a nod to Kai but does mention “I- know where center-six is. Could take the breach. Enter the orchard. Oppositions, find another way?” Lykaia asks, looking away from Catrina to then Kai and then Avalon.

“That’s probably our best bet.” Catrina nods. “The petals sound like these ones that Kitty took me to see. They stored the secrets of those that were killed on the field where they grew, and then whispered them on the wind.”

Kai turns from the group and murmurs a soft word of power, some air bursting out away from him and toward the wall, he gives his hands a firm shake and turns back to the group.

“If they can hear, what makes you think they can’t read?” Avalon prompts Kai, nodding his head back towards the corridor they came from “Meat bag was a person at some point… Things going haywire was a fae… Chances are, whatever you’re trying to trick with your word, can- Well, shit, look at these guys” He says driving his hammer into yet another skull, but, seemingly bored of arguing the point, he simply shrugs his shoulders and keeps walking from one body to another, mangling them like he was asked to “How long ago did this all go to shit?”

“I haven’t seen any evidence yet of them responding to visual stimuli,” Kai says with a shrug to Avalon, “But they for sure could,” he admits, “But that’s like, the best way I could think of to communicate the word since I’m not telepathic,” he grins after Avalon slams another skull, “Awesome,” he says in approval.

After his declaration, Kai starts to turn his flashlight on and off at the wall, then down at some of the corpses. Squinting as he performs another little amateur experiemnt. What a weirdo.

“Even if they didn’t… What happens when we have to share the word? Then suddenly you have to utter it aloud” Avalon replies to Kai, letting another yawn, and turning his head towards Lykaia, asking with a mild tilt of his head “Is that center six thing the way to go to the data thing? We were only here for that, yes? Not to find whatever happened here”

“Well yeah, it’s a one time use kinda thing,” Kai nods to Avalon in agreement and looks to Lykaia after the man asks her his questions.

“Okay. This way.” Lykaia says, and then beguns to go into specific direction, this one familiar to her. Her steps are quick, and she fixes a bayonet to the barrel of her rifle.

“Central-6 lies behind central-5. Central 5 was keeping section for contact-capables.”

The Fauna stays as it is, covering the floor, the walls, and somewhere, very very distant, there is a sort of hum. “East-wing will have data. Rest of the way is simple. Stay away from meatbags if you can.” She tells.

The rooms are less pleasant. The metal corridors lie cracked, with roots tendrils wiggling their way through. Flowers bloom on some of them.

On some side, through an open glass window, there is sight of what resembles children rooms and there is definitely the right sized… bags of meat. Twisted, heads split open, where nature makes its way through, pierces through caved in skulls.

“Kids screamed the loudest sometimes.” Lykaia comments, without looking at them. “Way is over there.” She says, turning around a corner and then onwards. Here… there is violet… ash? that lies sparkled along the walls, the ground and ceiling and the sound grows stronger… it goes into a boiler room, and then into a broken open one. Roots having crushed their way through into.

Purple barked trees form an orchard together, but there is nothing here and Lykaia just makes a disdainful sound at them before circling around them, not giving a chance to recoup or talk of them. Another door through and it opens up again into the research wing…

The area consists out of containment labs that lie fossilized in their own failure. Glass walls have turned milky with moss. Desiccated research personnel, still donned in lab coats, are pinned to growth-thrones of antlered fungus, their fingers split and entwined into vines, motioning and… working. Moving vials of glass filled with liquids to and back to and back to and back. One smears endlessly on a piece of paper and one… stares… directly down at the group. Behind him opens the heart of the facility: A complex of an Hollow Orchard with pale trees that are leafless and bear fruit of flesh and crystal. And they all hum with a low, polyphonic chord.

The headlights are running…

“Badass,” Kai mutters quietly in awe and lifts his phone, taking a few photos. His flash is off, but the shutter sound effect goes off a few times as he takes in the view. He glances at a likely nearby computer and heads for it to check if it’s locked or not, “Did they have any like… quarantine protocols or that kind of thing that you know of?” he asks Lykaia on his way to the computer, an eye kept on the moving corpses to make sure they aren’t moving in the group’s direction.

Following behind Lykaia, Catrina jolts when something catches her attention, footsteps quickening for a moment before she forces herself to slow, just before she would’ve passed Lykaia by. “This place is…” She trails off, rubbing the goosebumps that have prickled up on her arms.

Avalon follows the group wordlessly, head panning to the sides every time the enter a new room, and his eyebrow perks slightly at the sight of both the tree and the fruit, somehow the still moving corpses is what he seems to pay less attention to. Staying close enough to the entrance, and most likely also the exit, he takes a deep breath into the gas mask before saying “Alright… Can you get what you came for from here? If so, do it quick so that we can get back to the mirror and out of here…”

“Quarantine protocols… Was TF-V. Task Force Vela. Black-Op team I can’t talk about here.” Lykaia explains, keeping her eyes forward and then back to Catrina before she starts to move forward again and this means directly into the orchard. Computers lie placed all around on the sides of the room. Bags of body cluster in corners along the ceiling and the ever motioning researcher all suddenly draw to a still. The rotting meat rattles, and they twist their heads around and begin to stare at Kai. “Let’s look around. This should be it. Brought a drive.” She looks at the body bags. “Secure my back? I’ll download the whole system. Far as I can get access.”

Kai nods to Lykaia firmly and draws a knife into either hand, “Yep,” he agrees and looks to Avalon and Catrina, she climbs up and onto a table and looks around, keeping his gaze on the nearest sets of meat sacks, “This shit is so cool…” he murmurs in excited awe, his eyes bright through his gas mask.

“Got it.” Catrina nods to Lykaia, moving to place her back to Lykaia as she surveys the room?and the researchers especially?with her knife drawn.

“It’s so cool, but I’m not above leaving people behind if this gets ugly…” Avalon replies to Kai, a bit drier than before, hammer going into the bag and instead moving to hold his rifle, not really moving too far away from the entrance even now “So, don’t touch anything… Get whatever data you need from those computers and let’s get out…”

has to whack away a bunch of plant-matter, but she quickly finds a functional USB port and sticks that thing in. The download bar shows on the screen… 1/… 20/…

Some old machinery begins to hum… And the body bags begin to stir and move.

Kai nods to Avalon and peers from the man to the meat sacks, “Try… to avoid using guns until you have to,” he suggests, “Honestly, I probably should have been quieter too,” he peers at the incoming sacks and glances down to Lykaia, “If we had to, could we just yank the whole tower, or is it like connected… to… the cloud?” he asks, clearly he has no fucking clue what he’s talking about, even if he has some vague concept of what he means.

Catrina’s attention suddenly snaps to the hallway. She takes a step forward. Then another. “Kal—”
Her voice breaks for a moment, and then…

She sprints for the overgrown hallway, completely forgetting any of the others in her desperation.

is busy at the pc, but she gets raked by them and grimaces. At least all of those rakes hit her force shield only lightly.

Avalon groans, having to replace the rifle with the hammer once more before stepping forward “Alright… Do that- If you can take the thing, just do it”

“Tch,” Kai mutters when they get close and he moves in to guard Lykaia, slashing out with his knives.

Kai is slashing between the sacks of meat, rather than focusing on a single one, in an effort to keep them away from Lykaia while she works.

leans over the damn machine, dropping more and more files over.

Catrina continues running, abandoning the others to the fighting.

“Anyone get any open wounds?” Kai asks as he kicks one of the meat sacks to make sure it’s dead. He leans over it and slams his knife into the back of its skull, then repeats the process with the other two, feeling around to make sure he gets the skull and not some other hunk of flesh.

Just as the next drop and Catrina is running down the hallway, another electric shock goes through another part of the ceiling. Those look like they are bigger, more dangerous as they begin to drop one by one.

4983/12043 files copied, says a prompt on the screen.

Without slowing for an instant, Catrina turns the corner, chasing… something.

“None… They were too slow” Avalon groans towards Kai after smashing the already dead piles of meat, eyes wandering towards Lykaia still working with the computer. He then watches Catrina leaving down the hallway and he groans yet again “Great, and she’s” But he’s forcefully distracted by the new threat

Kai lifts his free hand and blows a gust of wind into the sack, he chucks his knife at the sack and draws a pair more.

“You cover her, I have Lykaia,” Kai requests of Avalon with a grimace.

In the middle of her mad dash, Catrina is stopped by a creature, her knife coming out as she slashes wildly at it.

Kai bends down to quickly collect his knives from in or near the meat sacks, wiping them off on the sacks themselves before sheathing them, “Good thing you’re here,” he tells Avalon with a firm nod, “Thanks,” he grins up at the older man.

Avalon finishes fighting the meat bags and before Catrina can start dashing away again, he reaches with a hand towards her shoulders, holding onto it with impressive strength before asking in a not so cheerful tone “Where were you going?”

And then, for a moment there is silence and Lykaia pulls the USB stick out. Under her mask, she grimaces as she looks over the bodies, but there is another electric shock that goes through… the golden pollen in the air begin to grow more and more and more… “Time to go, everyone. Let’s GTFO.” She urgently tells to Kai, Catrina and Avalon being somewhere else all on their lone for now.

“Yep,” Kai nods to Lykaia firmly sidles up to her, knives in each hand as he watches for any further danger, “Let’s catch up with those two and get the hell out of here. It was a fun trip, but maybe we bring a flamethrower next time,” he suggests with a little grin.

Struggling wildly against Avalon’s hold, Catrina swings out with her knife, though its so sloppy in her desperation to escape, that it hasn’t even a chance of hitting Avalon. “Let me go! She’s… she’s going to leave me! Let me go!” Her voice rises with panic on each word, until its barely more than a shrill squeak.

Not presenting much of a reaction to the knife, Avalon simply rolls his eyes at the response Catrina gives, glancing briefly towards Kai and Lykaia and listening to the okay to go, he, instead of simply letting go the woman he’s holding, instead shoves her towards Lykaia and tells her, as he begins to leave through the path they had walked to get here “Control your gal before she loses it, if she is left behind or deviates on the way back, I’m not coming back for her”

Kai starts to reach up to push his mask off as he lets out a yelp of surprise, but he stops himself just at the last moment and starts to snap his teeth wildly within the mask, pausing in his stride as he deals with whatever is going on with him.

It is as it turns out, not just Catrina who behaves a little oddly now because once Lykaia says “Cat. Won’t leave you behind. Come, let’s get Kay.” Her hands reach up, as she begins to urgently move down the corridor and removes her mask. When she breathes in, the Pollen do go through her nose, and do not come out when she breathes out.

She moves quickly when it comes to leaving, pollen sticking to her hair and skin as more and more begins to grow in the air. Behind them, it sounds like drips of water landing on crystals that then reverberate along the hallways and corridors.

The purple orchard is where violet ash rises into the air and covers everyone, covers the eyes on the masks, and if wiped away, do so again.

The open area where the corpses lay is now more overgrown, as the smell of rot rises into the air.

It is only the room back where the sap began to fall that everyone comes to a stop. The ground was soaked red and makes a light zishing sound, like acid burning away what lies before them.

Catrina is, assumedly, being pulled along. However, for a long while she keeps struggling to go back to the tree, until, eventually, she stills, once reluctant legs now moving easily to keep up with the rest.

“Fuck,” Kai mutters and sheathes one knife, he bends down to scoop up a piece of paper as he looks to the others, “Put your mask back on,” he says with a lisp, like he bit his own tongue and looks down at the paper when he isn’t looking at the way forward as he tries to herd Lykaia toward the mirrorgate with Avalon and Catrina.

Once things start getting out of hand, Avalon starts losing whatever decor he previously had towards the others and focuses on leaving himself first and foremost. Making sure to keep his mask on, he moves along the corridors having to wipe the eyes of the mask every couple seconds. Once the group reaches the acid though, he sighs and tries to locate the mirror they had arrived through, focusing on it for a couple seconds before actually trying to rush for the thing before the acid can affect him enough.

Avalon sprints through. The acid stars sizzling his shoes away, and just as he gets to the mirror gate, they managed it past the soles and leave him with some pestered and red skin. The immediate area around the mirrorgate reflection looks otherwise safe.

Stopping when they reach the acid, Catrina considers its surface, then, with a deep breath, she prepares to make her own attempted run across the liquid, though hers is assisted by her tossing down a small vine clipping, blood dripping to land on it as she calls forth a large thorny feline. Reaching out, she grabs the tail of the creature, then, with another deep breath, she points to the mirror. “Roseling, go!”
And while she isn’t too fast, the thorncat certainly does possess some speed, at least, more than she does.

Kai attempts to follow the group, though he doesn’t plan to leave anyone behind, so if Lykaia isn’t moving her ass on her own, he reaches out to try to wrap an arm around her and pull her along with him. He isn’t much stronger than an average person though, so. Who knows if he’s able to get her to join the rest of the group at the mirror gate, his features less bright now as he tries to keep control of his rising panic.

attempts to remove Kai’s mask from his face!

In the meantime, Catrina has far too easy of a time. She finds the right hold over her feline root, and the root does not seem to be affected at all. She is safe and entirely unharmed with the mirrorgate and Avalon.

Kai leans his face back in an attempt to keep away from her grasping hands and he calls out, “Stop fighting me and get us out of here!” to her as he tries to drag her along with him.

Avalon groans in complain as he watches his barefoot all red and half corroded, standing by a side of the mirror and glancing back towards the arriving Catrina and then to Kai and Lykaia struggling, in his gruff voice complaining with a little “I’ve lived more than a century, not going to stand around and die for these two…”

blinks when Kai does his instruction, and once they step into the acid with the struggle, perhaps by accident, it burns and smokes for Kai, but less for Lykaia, and she, again, attempts to remove Kai’s mask from his face!

“Wait, your that old?” Catrina asks, patting the thorncat gently between its flower eyes. “Good work Roseling.” Rubbing in a small circle on the creature’s face, Catrina lets the vine shrink back down into her palm, before tucking it away. “I can’t die here. But…” She sighs. “Should we just… leave them or?”

Kai groans in frustration and his eyes widen when his sneakers start to smoke, he lifts his foot and then brings it back down, “Lykaia, we’re going to melt if we stay. Let’s get out of here and I’ll take my mask off then!” he exclaims.

“I’m that old…” Avalon says without thinking about it too much, and putting his hammer back inside the bag, he reaches once more for the rifle “Your friend might as well already be dead without her mask…” He says, muffled from his own, still holding on to it “But they are both Court too, so gotta do a bit… And if they die after the help, they are just incompetent and we leave to safety…” And after saying that, he lifts the rifle and takes aim towards Lykaia, trying to shoot her in the shoulder to put a stop to the struggle

blinks again, but this time she starts to dash through the damn acid. Her boots sizzle, but not so much as they would as for Kai if he does not back off from them.

“Actually, Kai is Conclave so…” Catrina shrugs. “And Hand. One of the Shadows. Which I suppose means he’s my responsibility…”

“Oh, he’s not with us? Then not my job to deal with” Avalon opines as he slowly lowers the rifle and approaches the mirror, telling Catrina “And your friend might already be poisoned to death so…”

“Fuuuuck!” Kai yells as he runs after Lykaia, right through the acid, unless he can circle around, in which case he definitely takes the seconds of delay that would cause to do that. He tries to jump more than run to keep his shoes as off the acid as he can as he runs, aiming his hands straight down and exclaiming a word of power to try to use the gust to propel him forward, but he frankly isn’t that talented of an aeromancer yet, so that may do little to nothing, he’s just panicking at this point.

calls down back “Remove the darn mask, Kai!”

Lykaia did so.

And so, someone manages to make his way back as well. Wind buffets him and Catrina’s feline sizzles its way through, too, and offers more pathway for someone. He arrives near the mirrorgate uninjured. And then it goes back to the gate, and to start the way back. Pollen do hang against clothes, but that can be resolved soon. With water. They won’t cluster anywhere… right?

And so, Kai manages to make his way back as well. Wind buffets him and Catrina’s feline sizzles its way through, too, and offers more pathway for Kai. He arrives near the mirrorgate uninjured. And then it goes back to the gate, and to start the way back. Pollen do hang against clothes, but that can be resolved soon. With water. They won’t cluster anywhere… right?

Regardless, on the other side, middle of Hand headquarter, there is definitely some house somewhere on that side of the gate. And some minions to remove and handle disposal.

Kai seems more than a little hesitant to take off his mask, he does, however, and immediately reaches into his mouth, searching for something, panting heavily through his nose.

“You can keep the masks. Thanks for the assist.” Lykaia says, holding up the USB stick. “Will hand it to my contact. Get everything sorted. Kai… tried to get you to remove the mask because it responds less to ones it identified as its own… You’d be infected. But we are looking for a cure. Immediate affects would have been… more… But it shouldn’t beyond finding a cure anyway. So you would never reach the slow-dying stage I’m in.”

Avalon removes the gas mask only once they are past the gate, groaning some more and dusting off himself “Fucking… Well, we all made it back? Yes? Great… Another panic situation like that and I’m just leaving without you” He tells the three of them, seemingly lacking any sense of tact in the matter “Anyways, whose headquarters are these again?”

Keeping her mask firmly in place, there is still pollen after all, Catrina nods. “Well, I think its better to not even get started. That acid stuff looked nasty and…” She trails off, swallowing hard. “Did any of you see… a woman? Violet hair… she was walking down the hallway…”

“…Yeah I don’t know,” Kai replies to Lykaia and sighs, he looks to Avalon and Catrina, nodding to the pair, “Glad we all made it out,” he says and starts moving his grenades into hie backpack, but he just lets his mask rest atop his head.

“Hand. I’ll guide you outside. Court also has a mirrorgate. Owe you one, Sir Avalon.” Lykaia says, making a nod to Avalon. “Cat, Kai. Coming along?”

Kai nods to Lykaia in agreement and exhales a sigh as he prepares to follow the group out.

Catrina nods to Lykaia as well. “Yeah… I’ll follow along.”

“Ah yeah, better get out of here then… The Hand doesn’t like me all that much” Avalon comments as he approaches Lykaia and likely the stairs

Avalon says “I’ve been Hand a couple times“

Kai pulls a couple of things out of his backpack and tucks them into his hoodie pocket, he starts to stretch while he waits for the mirror to bend enough to pass through, he lifts first one leg, grabbing the toe of his shoe and does the same on the other leg. Once he’s able, he follows the group through, his hazel eyes bright with excitement.

The moment the group exit the mirror, Roberta goes dark; Small as she is, it’s easy for her to vanish into the shadows of Lykaia, Kai and the three thugs. Charms active, Roberta and the muscle don’t show well on cameras, which is a sign of the professionalism involved. Revolver upto one shoulder, cane across her body in a low guard, Roberta moves silently, ready for Lykaia’s directive.

The mirror begins to reflect the image of their destination, after most of the explanation is done. Then it is through the mirror gate, Lykaia taking the lead as she slings her rifle around her body, and raises the silenced barrel up. The location they end up in, turns up to be a relatively spacious storage room. The mirrors are blackened, and the main-building is visible just down a thin pathway, leading up to another door. “Camera outside the storage.” Lykaia tells quietly to Kai and Roberta. “Down the path, should be clear. Everything beyond, unknown.”

Kai gives a firm nod to Lykaia, he walks along with her, keeping his hands free for the time being, though his features are tight with his focus as he extends his magical senses out, trying to fill out that gap in their respective talents, his bright eyes scan around. For his part, he’s inexperienced and a novice aeromancer, so he’s just along to support and try not to fuck anything up, which becomes clear as his attention as he sticks to Lykaia’s ass like glue while following her as quietly as he can muster. Which is admittedly not one of his strengths just yet.

Roberta takes note of the equipment, Lykaia’s words and Kai’s nerves. For her own part, the vampire appears indifferent, though how much of this is affectation, and how much is the lack of need to exhibit physical tells for emotional responces is unknown at this point.

Lykaia opens the door leading outside, and just pulls a cable from the camera to shut it off. Then it goes across the small path to the other door. And as far as it goes, Lykaia moves on quickly over. The other door on the other hand, finds itself locked sadly, and she glances to Roberta. “Bobby. Door’s locked. They’ll probably send someone to check on the camera. But we got a few.”

Kai takes up a position to one side of the door to keep an eye out, he’s murmuring almost inaudibly under his breath, the air pressure subtly building around him as he does so, his gaze dancing about in one direction then the other.

At the call, Roberta steps in gracefully. Even as Lykaia handles the cams, Roberta is kneeling, an ear to the door, thieves tools out and chosen as she begins working the door. It’s the roll of a dice, of course; Roberta is professionally not a thief, but the next best thing, and these places tend to have complex systems. To such ends, preempting the failing, Roberta holds out a hand, one of the thugs handing over a lock brace explosive, charged but not ready to use unless it becomes necessary.

It barely takes more than a few seconds before the lock makes a click and the door can be opened. Lykaia keeps her gaze down the other way. In the distance, there is the faint humming of something that is approaching. It is still far away.

Kai leans out just a bit to look in the direction of the humming, his head cocked just a bit, like a puppy that just heard something interesting, he hears Roberta pop the lock and nods to her in approval, a little grin on his face, his cheeks a bit flushed with his excitement.

Holding her breath, Roberta devotes focus to the task ahead, exhaling the slightest breeze of breath, the action methodical, but time consuming. There’s some struggle, of course, the tip of Roberta’s tongue emerging as she concentrates, but in short order, the albino nods to Lykaia, the plastic explosive slipped into her cloak. There’s a resumed silent movement, and she holds up a finger to sign that she’ll go ahead to scout briefly.

Lykaia looks back to Roberta and makes a nod.

The door opens inward and gives way into an old office area. No experimentation here at all, but the corners throughout carry green led stripes. The computers look old, with big white blocks of monitors and computer cases that don’t resemble anything that is modern. The way ahead goes down into a hallway. There are no windows here, and no led stripes from the ceiling. No cameras in sight in the immediate area. The area carries a light scent of alcohol from cleaning supplies to those with an acute sense of smell.

Kai leans a bit aside, and up in the air, far away, he makes out four… birds? No, on a second look, those are drones that are inbound. They are coming a little closer.

Manifesting back at the door, Roberta reports to Lykaia and Kai, “LED stripes in the corners of the room. NOthing obstructive aside from that, but we need to move deeper in; A hall to take. I’d advise a smokebomb to mask our passing.”

Kai squints at the drones in the air and grimaces, he murmurs to the group, “Let’s get inside, we’ve got at least four drones incoming,” barely above a whisper, though his near inaudible murmuring starts up again as he focuses on the drones, he extends his hand from his hoodie pocket to offer Roberta the smoke bomb she’s advised, a firm nod given her way.

Pass the package to the one who can use grenades, and Lykaia is the hot potato. Roberta’s gaze goes up, following Kai’s gaze; Roberta’s own vision is not good, as is often the case in albinos.

A circular motion to the three thugs, and they wait for the bomb to be used, Lykaia and Kai observed in the time that passes. The thugs, even if not Lykaia and Kai recognize Roberta’s motions, it being well practiced as a unit.

“Are you both wanting to trigger the fire alarm?” Lykaia says, looking down at the grenade that she’s given, and just stepping forward into the office space, coming out of any sight that the drones may have been observing.

Kai tucks the grenade back into his pocket with a sheepish grin to Lykaia, though he continues with his soft chanting.

“I’m wanting to avoid the LEDs being motion detection or laserstrips.” Roberta whispers back to Lykaia. “Smoke shows lasers. I saw that on a show once.”

Roberta is however not well educated and didn’t even note that this would set off a fire alarm. This is why she deligates, apparently. This gal ain’t right.

The thugs and Roberta file in with Lykaia and Kai, and the albino slips once more into the shadows as they (hopefully) avoid the incoming drone strike.

The drones become louder, and eventually stop by the camera. No sight on the door at all, as a little hand pushes out of the drone to re-attach the cable.

On the other end, Lykaia begins striding down the hallway. Her own pace is a quicker one, but it also comes to a stop only a short distance in. Lykaia as well as Kai can see another camera down the hallway, towards the distant end. It is barely visible, does not peek into the hallway itself, but at a T crossing with paths turning left and right for the party. “Camera’s ahead. Either of you good enough to try pull the cable?”

nods. “I can give it a go unless Kai has some magic?” Roberta offers, glancing between Kai and Lykaia.

Kai looks around between the group when Lykaia asks the question, surely planning to shirk the responsibility onto someone else. But he ultimately doesn’t and nods to Lykaia, he interlaces his fingers and extends his arms out to crack his knuckles and starts forward, only to stop and nod to Roberta, “Nah, I was just gonna try jumping up, so you go ahead,” he grins a little.

Nodding to Kai, Roberta slips into shadows again, that charm of the blur putting in work as Roberta zig-zags her way down the corridor steadily, stealthily, and side-profile so as to make a smaller blurred target for anything to be picked up if at all– If anything, the hope is for the machinery to assume it’s a glitch. Though of course, Roberta cant be certain of anything.

Drifting forward, she reaches up, not with a hand. To the contrary, a thief tool that resembles a claw, the swift motion to tug the wire from its housing as the camera sweeps across the T-junction.

Kai inches up the hall, staying back from where the camera should be able to see, so he’s ready to move once Roberta finishes with the camera, he glances back over his shoulder to the door behind them before his gaze fixes on Roberta and the camera once more.

“Should be the black cable, bottom right.” Lykaia says, trying to make up the right cable in the green-light from a distance which is actually quite difficult. Maybe Roberta decides to pull a different cable by chance, or she decides it is the right one on the whim, but she pulls it. And the camera stops’s blinking red light stops. “Way shouldn’t matter too much. It will circle around now. We want to turn in the next door that leads inwards. Preference for direction? What’s feeling lucky today?”

“Righty tighty.” Roberta suggests as the three thugs run up, Roberta and the hired muscle waitig on Lykaia to make the final choice.

“Then the right side it is.” Lykaia says, taking point, rifle raising as it now goes down the right side. The corridor now begins to curve around. Still no windows that grant any sight to the outside, only for here, for the party. To eventually draw to a stop in front of a reinforced steel door. To one side, there is machinery that, for those who know, takes biometric data and by the looks of it, requires a vocal input. Embedded into the wall besides it, a corpse. Its mouth is open and it seems to speak, running along a harmonic line. There are slides on its face. “Don’t think we can breach that. Any ideas?”

“If it’s harmonics, I might be able to meet it.” Roberta suggests. “Perfect pitch.”

Glancing at the three thugs and Kai and Lykaia Roberta isn’t going to be winning any strength races– there’s a considering tap of the lips with a gloved finger again. “If not, we can blow it off the hinges. Biometrics isn’t going to happen.”

Roberta says, in a whisper, “Either way isn’t going to be quiet.“

“I could maybe blow… air through it… no, no way,” Kai decides after a second and shakes his head firmly, “I don’t know how I’d contract its vocal cords,” he hmms and looks to Lykaia, “Any chance /your/ biometric data could be the key?” he asks, though there isn’t much hope in it. He leans in to look at the machine a bit more closely, “The main issue is the voice,” he kneels down by the corpse, searching for anything of value on it, maybe even just a phone.

“Don’t know. Shouldn’t.” Lykaia states as she moves on towards the corpse. A hand touching on one of the sliders and pulling it up. The corpse on the other hand makes a sound, a sort of hum that goes a peak up and then stares: “Recognizing entities: Welcome to …. madam Roberta Pinn. Mister Kai Ashford. Madam Alina So-ERROR. Resetting harmony…” Lykaia bites her lower lip and takes a step back. “Think it’s broken. If no one wants to touch it, then there’s only loud.”

“Let me have a crack at it.” Roberta offers, though she waits for Kai to finish looking the corpse over. “I have an idea.”

Kai nods to Lykaia and steps out of the way of the corpse, for shits and giggles he lifts the slider and puts his hand onto it, “Open,” he murmurs, “Melon,” he hmms, “Friendo…”

Roberta doesn’t facepalm, though there’s a twitch of the lip that suggests entertained frustration. “Try swordfish.” she suggests to Kai sarcastically.

Kai takes the suggestion seriously, “Swordfish,” he murmurs to the machine quietly.

BEEP. Swordfish did it. Yes, it did. But there is noise that now comes to the right. A number of steps. People were approaching and Lykaia draws her baton.

Kai breathes out a sigh of relief and nods to Roberta, he holds his hand up in an OK sign and pulls his money clip from his hoodie pocket, extending his license toward the incoming security guards, “Hey there!” he greets the three with a chipper grin, “We think we have some intruders in the area, go check that way, a cable was cut. Then report back to central,” he tells them, keeping his license extended.

“Hands off rocks and on with socks, boys.” Roberta hisses to the three thugs. “Sick’em.”

As Lykaia preps, Roberta steps back, the thugs forward, and bandages are produced, along with Roberta’s revolver. A glance to Kai, and the albino quips, “Oh wow, James Bond wins again.”

looks to Lykaia for the go ahead to gun them down, but it seems like Kai may have it covered. Thankfully, Roberta is stealthy, and even though she looks suspicious dressed like a gothic jester, the thugs could easily pass as workers. They’re silently given the pause order to wait to see if Kai can talk this down before Roberta goes full o monster mode.

Kai makes his best attempt, and though they are fully geared, almost human, they are far more freakish. The dust that clings to their collar like pollen. The empty in their eyes. There is not even a look to the identification before they start assaulting.

Kai rushes in, “Fuck!” he says when his absolutely brilliant, fail-proof plan fails, he draws a knife in each hand and stabs one of them in the leg before hopping back a bit, circling to mvoe in and strike once more.

immediately moves to help protect Roberta and makes to whack at one of the officers. She’s without mercy and smacks to murder.

Lykaia immediately moves to help protect Roberta and makes to whack at one of the officers. She’s without mercy and smacks to murder.

Kai grunts as he tries to ward off the attacks while lashing out with his blades, “Damn mind controlled pricks!”

In the meantime, the guards are struggling. One loses their baton, it drops down and they die. More reinforcements drop by as Roberta makes her signals.

Kill’em, boys. Roberta orders the thugs, pointing to the officers.(Encourage)

Kai lifts his blades up in an X to catch one attack, though he grimces and lowers his blades to catch another strike, fighting wildly now.

Kai twists his knife in the guard’s right leg and steps back, panting heavily, he sheathes his knives and rubs at his thigh where he was struck, “Ugh… did we call down an alarm or… it doesn’t matter, we should probably mosey,” he says and leans down to feel around one of the corpses, searching for keys, keycards, a radio, shit like that.

Roberta nods to the thugs. “Good job, boys.” she tells them, as though she did more than circle fire until the chambers of her revolver were emptied. A fast reload, and she chambers. “I said it wasn’t gonna be quiet. So we have to move.”

And soon enough, the three bodies drop down to the ground. More ragdolling down, more as if they cease functioning fundamentally, rather than due to a loss of life. A small, green seed drops from their eyes down to the ground. Lykaia glances down the corridors, and then back to Roberta and Kai “Status?” She asks before grabbing one of the corpses to move it inside.

When Kai searches for one, he finds neither. No keys, keycards, radio, not even an identification. But when he touches it, he can feel the shiver of natural magic tremble through his fingers. “Would say, let’s get them inside, close the door? You… somehow found the passkey. Thought we’d need C4 the hinges.”

“It was all Bobbie’s idea,” Kai nods to Lykaia and grins at Roberta, “Pretty good!” he tells her and steps back to let someone’ goons drag the bodies, he sidles up to the door, ready to follow the others inside.

“It was all Bobbie’s idea,” Kai nods to Lykaia and grins at Roberta, “Pretty good!” he tells her and steps back to let Roberta’s goons drag the bodies, he sidles up to the door, ready to follow the others inside.

“Good.” Roberta announces, attempting the harmonics in any case, just as a personal challenge, and in the hope it’ll stop more guards from running along.

Kai pulls his phone out briefly because it’s been giving a recurring buzz, “Oh fuck I missed class…” he turns off the alarm/reminder thing and puts his phone away, “Oh well,” he mutters.

BZZZT, the door opens and closes behind the party and the deposited corpses. Now on the inner side, it reveals to a collection of hexagonal rooms. Five around, with walls that form a circle on the exterior. A window shines the way into the internal room.

Looking past that mirror reveals a room with a dais at its center. Faint scoring marks mar the floor around the dais. Claw-shaped. Human-spaced. Someone wanted out.

“Alright, this is it. Let’s start up the computers. Get the files from it.” She keeps looking into the central hexagonal room with the dais. “Nevermind. Think what we need is in there.”

Kai glances to the right and presses himself up against the wall to try to make himself less noticeable, he peers at the bubble, inching along the wall to try to peek into it.

“I didn’t need class and I turned out just fine.” Roberta quips after successfully emulating the harmonics required.

Roberta snaps her fingers, the thugs already moving the bodies after Kai loots them. Of course… that only proves Roberta’s claim incorrect. The quality of -friends- is low, clearly mobsters.

Stepping back, the albino leaves Kai and Lykaia to this next portion. Roberta has little idea about technology outside of stealing, fencing or breaking into it in the first place.

The thugs stand around, one to each Lykaia, Roberta and Kai, and at Lykaia’s instruction to head deeper, they each nod, even as Roberta does. “On your word then.”

Kai sees the bubble. Looks to be full of a white fluid, but there is no motion. The surface looks to more be like a shell. Hard to tell if there is anything inside it.

In the meantime, Lykaia moves closer to the door that opens the way to the center chamber. “Kai. Coming and ready?”

“Coool…” Kai murmurs softly, his eyes bright with interest, but Lykaia’s words draw him back to reality and he looks her way, nods firmly and starts after her, drawing a knife in one hand to leave the other free for now, glancing down into the central room curiously, “An abomination…”

Lykaia opens the door into the central hexagonal chamber. At first, it is quiet. Then, a low thrum. Glass shatters as this thing, previously invisible from above, falls down, just to float five centimeter above the ground. Crystals glow along its arms, and with it come seven frost-husked security drones that swarm out around it. “Fuck me.” Lykaia curses, watching the creature “That could had been me someday.” And she whacks for it. Combat starts.

“Yikes…” Kai murmurs and launches a knife reflexively, he pulls out a few more and glances around for cover, but ultimately starts again.

Lykaia says “Drone’s are pissing me off. Yell when needing triage.“

Kai grimaces and stabs out at a shattered humanoid wrapped in bloom-crystal and glowing fluid, he nods, “It’s a lot…” he admits, “Cover Bobbie though, we need her guys.”

Lykaia says “On it!“

Lykaia says “Bobby. Status?“

Kai gurunts and tries to dodge, slashing out at the creature, he throws a knife to help with the drones and raws another, wincing as he’s struck.

Oh boys. Roberta bellows. “Kill.”(Encourage)

runs away from the humanoid, “Fuuuck,” Kai says as he skids and turns back to face it.

watches as Kai starts running away from the thing and Roberta’s thugs start shooting. She moves to quickly patch Kai up, then tells him “Smack the drones, Kai. I’ll try handle the motherfucker.”

Kai nods at Lykaia and runs off toward the drones, chucking knives as he goes.

Faster. Roberta demands, pointing to the drones. “These things are annoying.”(Encourage)

Lykaia raises her baton to smack the disgusting humanoid, baton coming up and trying to smack its head, but it parries, and then it counters and she needs to jump away, but a root wraps around her foot. She won’t be escaping.

Lykaia says “Motherfucker! “

Kai gets a nice slash to his side when he ends up skidding near a shattered humanoid wrapped in bloom-crystal and glowing fluid and he runs from him with a yelp, chucking yet another knife at one of the drones.

Moving back, then back again, Roberta aims to avoid the ice being shot from the drones, all as she orders her people to deal with the issue.

Lykaia says “Kai. Get a bit farther away.“

Kai grunts, his foot stuck to the ground by ice, “Shit.”

Lykaia says “Oh. Nevermind. You’re good.“

“The drones.” Roberta calls. “Get the thing after.”

Kai lets out a hiss as a piece of ice penetrates his armor, drawing blood, he grunts in pain and rushes forward, trying to stay on his feet.

Lykaia says “Kai, try get triage from Bobby if you’re hurt!“

Faster, boys. Roberta calls, gaze sweeping the battle field. “There’s a lot of these things (Encourage)

Kai nods at Lykaia, running toward Roberta, “I need some… bandages,” he tells her as he limps along.

Lykaia says “Managing to get past the fucker’s defenses!“

Lykaia says “Status? “

Lykaia says “Soon going to drop.“

“Hurting… four down, none of us are down yet,” Kai tells Lykaia and nods in appreciation to Roberta, “Thanks,” he says with a relieved tone.

“Shit, I can’t reach you!” Kai calls to Lykaia.

Lykaia says “Coming to you, Bobby. Need triage.“

Kai throws a knife at the shattered fellow and exhales as he urges a burst of wind at him to try to slow him as well.

Lykaia says “Of course they’re retreating.“

Kai nods to Lykaia and turns toward the shattered man as he lifts his magic shield to catch the ice shards at him, he brandishes his knives and runs at a shattered humanoid wrapped in bloom-crystal and glowing fluid, howling, “Die you fucker!”

Kai turns to run away from the humanoid after his poorly thought out assault to run back someone’ way, turning to lash out with his knife.

Kai turns to run away from the humanoid after his poorly thought out assault to run back Roberta’s way, turning to lash out with his knife.

Lykaia says “How’s it going back there?“

Kai grunts as he’s struck again and lowers his chin, blood dipping from his various wounds, but he’s only taken a really bad one from the ice, he turns and throws a knife to the drone, “He’s down!”

When the shattered humanoid is struck down by Roberta’s revolver, the crystals along of its body spark, the sound of cracking come from them and then, they explode into a million tiny pieces. The green tubes that fed the creature soil some of the ground near it and it lets out a wailing scream as it drops to the ground. Along where the crystals shattered, and the glowing green goo touches… a vibrancy of flowers begins to take root and bloom.

“Fuck me.” Lykaia complaints, eyes going around the mess they’ve created and made. The greenery, but then also the machinery. “Bobby, Kai, status?” She asks, eyes on the destroyed abomination.

Slapping Kai with a self-adhesive bandage, Roberta glances over to Lykaia. “God dam it. What are these people doing. It’s monsterous.” By which Roberta clearly means – ‘How dare they attack their betters.’

Moving next to the thugs, Roberta gives them each an once over before nodding with satisfaction. “Okay, no fatalities. We’re good.”

Kai reaches to his side where he’s got a deep wound, he grimaces and presses his hand to it, then starts to limp around to pick up his fallen knives, “I’ll be fine in like an hour, but I don’t think we have that kind of time,” he tells Lykaia, “You two okay? What about the guys?”

After looking to the thugs, Roberta calls over, “I’m good. Nearly wasn’t, but we’re all A-okay.” A thumbs up, and the suited men each stand, brushing themselves off.

“So, grab info and go?” Roberta asks Lykaia.

“Managed okay.” Lykaia admits, looking then over to Kai, her gas mask covered head making a nod to him before reaching up to remove that thing again, attaching it back to her sternum holster. “Good, good.” That is a note softer. Just barely and Lykaia starts to look around, and then, makes her way over towards the green fluid. “Will grab it.” Lykaia says and retrieves two vials from a pouch.

The other two on the other hand, once they look around. They can see a pyramid sticking out, next to one of the windows as well as a USB stick sticking out from another.

Kai wanders over to the USB stick, being nosy and curious, he glances back at Lykaia and grabs the stick to pull it out and palm it, grinning a bit as he lowers his other hand from his injured side, “I think I found some intel too,” he tells Lykaia and Roberta, rejoining them.

“Yoink.” Roberta announces, grabbing for the pyramid. “Let’s liberate this, too.” meaning of course, steal.

carefully gathers up some of the liquid into the green vial. It’s tricky, without trying to touch it.

Lykaia carefully gathers up some of the liquid into the green vial. It’s tricky, without trying to touch it.

“There’s something in that thing,” Kai tells Lykaia and Roberta, helpfully, and points to the bubble with the weird liquid in it.

Staring at the pyramid, Roberta makes what is likely a bad choice, telling it, “Might as well.”

Lykaia shoves some of the crystallized dust into the other vial and closes it. Then both into one of her pouches. “Kai. Up to you. Go… figure it out, murder it?” She asks, a bit carelessly, looking around the corpse and destroyed drones one more time.

“Nah… if we have what we need, let’s just get the fuck out,” Kai decides and glances to Roberta, “You’ve got the guns anyway,” he grins and heads over to rejoin Lykaia, “Whatever that is, it isn’t our problem or our mission, right?”

“So…” Roberta tells Lykaia and Kai. “You know how I’m dead and cant become infected?” she cheerfully goes on. “I just saw a thing. Maybe patient zero. I wonder if I’ll accidentally kill a lot of people.”

Wrong way to think about things, Roberta. That’s not normal. “Who else wants a go with the magic box?” Said -magic box- is held up and out.

“What magic box, Bobby?” Lykaia says, she for her own making her way towards the door and turning around. “Don’t hear any alarms. Or drones. Probably got time.”

Kai nods in agreement, “I’ll check out the magic box,” he grins and heads to Roberta to reach a hand out for the pyramid, his eyes bright with curiosity when Lykaia specifies they probably have time.

Roberta waves the pyramid, moving over to hand it over. “So, we’re gonna use this stuff to ice those whores in the C-suite, right?”

“Box looks like a data storage, madam. Don’t see how you would or could kill anyone with it.” Lykaia says to Roberta, reloading her glock 17 and putting it at the ready back into its holster. She does give the box that now Kai is holding a look.

Kai hmms as he runs his thumbs over the pyramid’s sides, he looks to Roberta and blinks a few times, “I’m… not planning any kind of coup,” he grins to her and looks down to the pyramid, murmuring to it, “Carry a seed?” he asks but extends it over to Lykaia, “It’s got telepathy or something, very badass.”

“Well, that’s anticlimactic and boring, but objective achieved.” Roberta sighs– There it goes. The potential to infect and mass murder gone. Hopes and dreams shattered.

Lykaia takes the box from Kai and looks it over, then back at him. “You sure, Kai? It’s just a pyramid shaped box.” She pouches it. “Bubble or we extracting now?”

One day, Roberta may even realise she’s part of the problem.

Kai looks to the bubble and tilts his head from side to side in thought, “Nah… I think that’s enough modified monsters for one day for me, but if you guys want to, that’s fine,” he hmms at the pyramid but ultimately hands it back to Roberta.

“Nah. I’m good.” Roberta confesses. “Let’s take this stuff back to where Ly needs it.”

“Alright, alright, madam Bobby. Can open the door out, please?” Lykaia asks, gesturing to the door. “I can’t sing.”

“You should take up the hobby.” Roberta quips, though she does step over to the door.

It takes a couple of tries, but as Roberta’s voice rises, it falls into that professional stage performer’s cadence, the harmony easily rejoined– Almost like that time she destroyed a building by singing, but less destructive.

Kai trails with Lykaia, Roberta and her goons to the door, he feels around in his wound with a grimace and then stops, just scratching around its edges instead, he glances sidelong to Lykaia then to Roberta, “So cool,” he grins a little as he waits for the lock to open from her singing.

“Thanks for covering us with first aid by the way, I definitely gotta take a class on that or something,” Kai nods to her and wipes his blood off on his hoodie.

After singing open the door and ushering everyone out like a twisted MC, Roberta holds up a gloved thumbs up to Kai. “You got it.” she tells him. “It should honestly be a requirement for any Operative.”

And with Roberta’s song, the door begins to open. It is not the quiet movement that it was before. The chamber shudders and emits a soft wave of light. The corpse falls to silence. A single look is given back, and then out of the chamber itself. When it closes behind the group, the LED lights in the edges of the hallways are not longer green. Now they’re white. And just as the doors close, a feminine voice calls out from within the closing doors “You shall bloom beautifully!”

The way back along the hallways is quiet. The camera in the T section is still off, no drone that is coming to repair it. Unfortunately that is not so for the camera that is hanging above the storage building that holds their mirror, but at this point, it does not matter anymore as Lykaia tells “Rush it.” And then rushes to the store-house. The alarm is raised, blaring and constant. The noise of drones draws from outside, lights sweep around. The building ends up drawing towards surrounded.

But the way back proves without another issue.

In a few days, the party may hear about trouble with fae flora in another part of the world and effort made to cover it up. An earthquake, is what it settles on with ‘specialists volunteering’. Of course it is a cover up. And the infections… spreads…

On the other side of the mirror, Lykaia glances to Kai and Roberta “I’ll deliver the items to Halberd. Anything you three want to have the favor repaid immediately? Or prefer to hold on to a favor? With your own mission, someday, perhaps?”

Kai rushes along, wincing as he jogs, once they reach the mirror and pass through, he shakes his head to Lykaia, “I’m good, I’m not counting favors with you,” he says with a little grim and scratches at his wound, exhaling a sigh of relief once they’re safely back within the Hand headquarters.

Moves, muscle in toe as the group rush into the building with the mirror. Once the mirror transports them back, Roberta removes the mask, swapping it for sunglasses. “I don’t need anything for now.”

There’s another snorted laugh from Preston as he follows along behind Lykaia, the rifle safety clicking off – and his firearm held at a low ready in front of himself. It seemed like he was going to make a retort, but instead he doesn’t, just turning his attentions to the matter at hand, all seriousness, all focused. Behind him, trails a man who’s rather intense looking with green eyes, and Preston turns his attention over his shoulder for a moment, nodding at him before sweeping his gas mask covered gaze forward.

Through the mirrorgate and Roberta does Roberta’s usual thing; As Preston, Kai, Lykaia and Roberta’s muscle move forward, the mistress of revels veritably vanishes into the night.

The other side of the mirror gate is about three hundred meters outside of the village, just behind a bush that would lead along an asphalt street and a sign that indicates Finsternau to be down the street. In the distance, a couple of figures are already visible, under the bare dark blue light of the setting sun. Lykaia leads the way through the gate, and then towards that street. “We’ll head down that street. Those things you see. They’re hostile. Think of them as Zombies. They’ll bite and scratch you.” She grimaces under her gas mask “But the bites won’t infect you. It’s the pollen they shed. Don’t let them find a way to rip off your gas mask.”

Preston says, slightly muffled, “Affirmative.“

Kai gives a quick nod to Lykaia and glances around, he sighs and sticks with the group.

doesn’t answer, she’s behind Lykaia, Preston, Kai and the hired muscle. She simply remains silent– Roberta’s job, though all three of the thugs give Lykaia a nod from behind their own gas masks.

Lykaia holds her rifle up when she begins her approach to the village. “You know. We probably could try lure them away. There’s going to be more of them in there. We could try bypass them. Not sure how. They’re a new strand. Or try to hit them from really far away. Opinions?” She asks, making her way over. The skies stay blue, and somewhere far away in the village a door SLAMS shut.

Voice muffled behind that gas mask, Preston replies, “Don’t think it’s a good idea to have to deal with the village itself. Looks tight in there, we’d probably have to clear room by room,” comes his reasoning shortly after. “It’ll be slow, methodical work. I think we try to lure ’em out, set up some crossfires?”

“Could we just sneak in, climb up onto a roof and go roof to roof, or… I dunno, I can’t tell the spacing from here,” Kai admits, he rubs at his chin, “We could also put a distraction out here, rig it to blow and move in while they’re distracted?” he suggests, pulling out a smoke and flash grenade from his pocket in either hand with a slight shrug.

“Maybe even in a two-fer. One thing to distract and draw them in and some C4 to blast in their faces when they get close?” Kai indicates someone for the second part of that plan.

“Maybe even in a two-fer. One thing to distract and draw them in and some C4 to blast in their faces when they get close?” Kai indicates Roberta for the second part of that plan.

Kai adds, “I’m going off of the assumption that they actually behave like literal zombies though where loud noises would attract them, et cetera. If they’re not as mindless then I could revise,” he supposes.

sneaking up, Roberta manifests beside Kai Preston and Lykaia again. Peering into the village– she sees… nothing more than she did, Roberta doesn’t have a supernatural sense of vision. “Stealthing through would be my choice, but I don’t think any of you are as quiet as I am. Circling around would take time, but it would also be the objective best method. If we stomp through it leaves us surrounded. It’s not ideal when there are so few of us.”

“Before I forget. Goal’s the theater at the center. Not sure why they’ve got one.” Lykaia remembers to mention, lowering her rifle a bit to come to a stop. One hundred and fifty meters away from the village. “From my previous work with Veta, it’s more a response to nearby nature. Up to a hundred meters. Could make a try. Draw closer. Damage it, rig something to explode, let them sprawl right into it. Won’t attract anything, but a good portion. Could try circle around at the side then, slide along the back-gardens and eliminate single targets as we find them?”

“Won’t attract everything rather,” Lykaia corrects herself.

Kai hmmmms thoughtfully and nods to Lykaia, “Sure, that could work. I wouldn’t mind us leaving a distraction out here though. Maybe we combine the two plans? Go in sneaky, try to avoid or kill targets that get in our way. If we get caught, set the distraction off so we can escape or continue easier, draw off some of the extras? I don’t know though. You all are my seniors so I’ll follow whatever you guys decide.”

Preston glances at everyone and lets out a grunt. “I’m a lot bigger than all of you,” the man points out to the small team, “Moving in and out of places with quiet, isn’t particularly my strong suit.”

“I could rig something, but drawing attention, even as a distraction only gathers our enemies into a larger cluster.” Roberta points out to Lykaia.

Serious today. That’s unusual, but it does go to show that behind the chaos goblin is a thinking mind, even if it’s buried deep. “They’re likely watching for the main roadways and alleyways– It’s what I would do. The gardens are going to likely have the odd patrol, but likely groups we can move through. But if the aim is the center, going over or under might be the best way.”

Taking a breath, Roberta offers a final option. “If we can get into houses, which should be easy, we can likely break our way through the infrastructure and straight through, but again, that leaves us with its own set of issues and we could be swamped if they were to gather around us.”

“Okay. Let’s… How about we throw a pipe-bomb where it should, theoretically, engage onto it. If they move, we know how they’re ‘listening’. And we can circle around, and try and make our way through behind them. Might get a good sense on numbers, too?” Lykaia proposes to everyone else. “Disagreements, better ideas? Village only held about three hundred people. Would be easier with bigger bombs, but don’t have those.”

“I do have military grade explosives. Tell me where you want them and I can set something timed. A pipe bomb is inexpert, but I can do it.” Roberta offers.

“I don’t disagree with anyone, I’m just throwing shit out there and I also want to see what it looks like when they explode,” Kai admits, his hazel eyes bright as he stifles a little grin.

“Prest, what do you think?” Lykaia asks, waiting now for him. On the other hand, in the distance, as the sun disappears further in the horizon, the light along the streets turn alight.

Thinking it over for a moment or so, “I don’t think we should be making loud noises.” Preston offers up in suggestion towards Lykaia, “Should be a last resort sort of thing, especially as loud as a bomb. Though, I feel like I’m missing a little bit of context on what you all deal with earlier.” Grunting a bit, he scans off towards the village. “Clearing it all room by room would be slow, bombs loud,” a silence from him for a moment. “We could just slow clear towards the center, not clearing the insides, but the outsides, and have one of us covering rear security?”

“Theater at the village center.” Lykaia makes a nod to Preston. She bites her lower lip thoughtfully under her mask. “Bobby has C-4. Okay. Bob.” She starts approaching the village. “Place C-4 over there.” She gestures to a tree, with a few flowers that just look dark in currentt light condition. They might be green or blue. Probably. “If shit goes to hell when we go in, and try to make our way through. You’ll remote explode them. Chase them away from us. We’ll pass through the gardens. Will be a way through. Satellite report data I could claim showed most of them on the inner streets. Less behind houses. A few but, manageable.”

Offering Lykaia a two-finger salute, Roberta drifts over, setting remote charges where instructed. Thankfully, she has night vision, so if she were so willing, she could actually use said information and report back on the color of the flowers.

Kai drops a nod to Lykaia and glances to Roberta and Preston, “Works for me,” he says and looks back toward the village, he presses his lips together and rolls both of his shoulders, loosening them up.

“Sounds good to me,” Preston comments, glancing towards Lykaia and then Roberta in turn.

And then it goes towards one of the gardens. Lykaia steers it to the left, behind a house that is of a blue painted concrete facade. Certainly not those stylish houses one may usually find in placed in Bavaria. The gardens vary behind the houses and of course, the first one has to be a hedge that the party needs to push through, and Lykaia does it, of course. And where everyone else draws onto their natural ability to see in the dark, Lykaia places a headlamp on her head and turns it on.

In the first garden, three bloomthrall wander about, and when the first person comes through the hedge, they turn to attack!

Kai draws a knife in either hand, his shield flaring out at he gets swarmed, slashing out at the weakened one before turning to aim a stab in the back of another.

“Huh,” Preston comments from behind that mask, “Those were a lot easier than I was expecting,” rolling his neck a little – he begins to re-sheathe his rapier, glancing between each person in turn. “We all good?”

Calling in one of her thugs, Roberta firest a single shot, retreats and leaves the thralls for Lykaia, Preston and Kai to handle; This isn’t Roberta’s job, so once they’re handled by the group, Roberta manifests once more, wiping her hands as if she did -anything- which of course, she didn’t.

“Numbers over quality.” Roberta suggests.

Kai looks around and presses himself up against the wall, wincing as that gunshot rings out, he looks up and down the backs of the houses, his eyes wide.

“It’s a twenty-two.” Roberta tells Kai. Indeed, the sound such small rounds make are only as loud as a boloon popping– still loud enough, but not as bad as it could be.

“Fair, it just sounded louder since we’re trying to be quiet I guess,” Kai murmurs to Roberta quietly with a firm nod, he looks around and squints at something atop the theater, “I think… I see two silhouettes on the theater… and that tree looks kinda fucky,” he indicates to the theater and tree, wiping off his blades on the grass.

Looking out over the village, Roberta nods in full agreement with Kai Roberta sees -nothing- but she’s perfectly willing to act as if she’s fully aware for the observers in Preston, Kai, Lykaia and the muscle.”Fucky indeed.” she announces, not looking at the right point at all.

A gunshot RINGS through the air, and hits the ground next to one of the bloomthralls, splattering earth all around. This follows by a low toned, brittle snap, and then something that sounds muted coughs. It’s elsewhere, farther away, but there is also weird dark trees that come together under some moonlight. They look like shadowed trees, moving in the distance. And then, there is shuffling behind the party, something smacks itself against the wall of the building they are in, and a look into its garden windows shows another three making there way towards the garden. ” Let’s try rush forward?” Lykaia suggests, blinking a few times when the other weird sounds ring through the air. “Let’s not test these.” She gestures to the windows

Except, further ahead are the two big pillary trees.

“Through the window, at the trees and leave someone to handle behind, or shall we drop the building?” Roberta asks Lykaia.

“Think they can break through walls?” Preston wonders of the group, glancing behind himself when that thing hits the wall. There’s an almost eagerness to his steps, to the way he carries himself. Cruisin’ for a fight, cruisin’ for a bruisin’ of something. Might be himself, might be whatever else was left behind. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug, or Preston is just insane. “I can cover rear, if we need.”

Kai lets out a muted yelp when a shot brings up a little plume of earth and looks to Lykaia, Roberta and Preston, “Less talky more runny?” he suggests, crouching against the wall of the building now, focusing on channeling his magic as he looks around with his hazel eyes bright with fright and excitement.

“Okay, Bob, level the building. Make sure you use the -right- remote, not explode the emergency distraction. Prest, thank you.” Lykaia says, and then moves forward, at a quicker pace. But this goes into the direction of the big two tower-trees. She doesn’t seem to be aware. “Kai, the two people. Any identifier?”

Kai leans out from the shelter of the wall to squint in the distance to try to make out any details about the figures atop the theater.

As with Preston, Roberta seems to be having a jolly old time with this. There’s no heavy breathing (of course), no look of fear– Only a slight vibration, that of either insanity or eagerness. Roberta is very much having fun in this reckless mad dash through enemy teritory.

Another series of charges are set– checked– re-angled to implode rather than explode, then the albino covers herself with her cloak turning away, hands over her head.

Before leveling the building on Lykaia’s instruction, she makes eye contact with the muscle, Preston, Kai and Lykaia, counting down from three on her fingers, and when the single finger is left, the explosives blow the building in.

“Blonde and brunette, brunette might have some blue or purple in her hair, they see us, they’re talking about us. I can’t tell what. The blonde is in a robe,” Kai relays to the pair after he finishes his little scan of the figures atop the theater, “Both female I think.”

“Copy,” Lykaia says, when the building goes BOOM behind them and she starts her dash forward “Let’s move it over, everyone. They’re definitely all coming for that building now.” She calls on over, running directly into the next trees which, who would have guessed, start attacking her.

Again not answering, Roberta nods, as do the muscle, and Roberta follows after Lykaia, right into that tree ambush.

Kill. Roberta commands.(Encourage)

“We better… leaf… soon,” Kai says as he steps away from the bark and crystal things, glancing to Lykaia with wide eyes and a grin to see if she gets the joke.

“Ah fuck me!” Lykaia yelps out when one of them smacks for her, and then try to smack for Kai and then back at her. Today she’s only bringing a short blade along and turns out, that’s not the most pleasing of it. She gets whacked, another shot RINGS out from Roberta’s firearm, which causes attention to be drawn to the party again. Lykaia lets out a groan when there is the distant noises of more coming. “You know what. Fuck it. Run for it. Run for the damn theater. Try cover another. Be fast.” She calls out when Kai suggests leafing it.

“They will have heard that.” Roberta hisses to the group as the final tree thing goes down, the thug stepping back into the shadows with the other two. “Yeah.” she agrees with Kai. “Better make like a tree.”

Kai jogs along after Lykaia, his knives held in his hands, pointed at the ground as he goes, glancing to Roberta with a nod and a waggle of his brows at her.

As Lykaia suggests it, Roberta in fact, runs for it.

“Why do we keep shooting..” Preston grunts in reply, wiping at his gas mask, glancing at Roberta and whoever else is firing shots off. “You all go fast and first, I’ll cover the rear as we move,” and Preston in fact does that.

As the three of them begin to book it, Preston does as well, stopping every so often – it’s a bounding maneuver. Sprinting forward a few steps, he stops, turns, and trains his MK18 behind, covering. And then he repeats, all the way as they run.

ignore that. Mistake

“Because I like to shoot things.” Roberta quips back to Preston. But even as she does so, the albino near vanishes, summersalting, weaving, darting and cartwheeling her way like a child in a mortally dangerous playground for the theatre. If only she were looking where she was going. It’s almost like karmic retribution.

Kai doesn’t do what Roberta is doing at first, he mostly is just jumping over shit in his way with some amateur parkour moves, but then he sees Roberta fucking around and he starts to do the same, doing unnecessary front flips, and cartwheeling around. This may contribute to any unfortunate incidents that happen to the little shit.

It seems Preston is the only one to actually make it? Stopping in his tracks, he pauses – drops to a knee, and takes aim. “Alright, which one of you needs to be carried. I can probably drag two of you.” Glancing towards Roberta and Lykaia both, the shorter and smaller ones.

At the front of it, there is Lykaia, trying to rush on forward firing a shot at some of what stands in the way. It is not flawless, some manage to get to her and take a nibble. Nothing fatal, but it doesn’t take an investigation to understand that she’s been injured.

Roberta makes her way through, summersaulting, weaving, darting and doing other acrobatics, until one of her goons stands in the way, she trips, and falls right into three of those bloomthralls. One manages to take a bite before Preston or her goons shoot them down and the trip continues.

Kai makes his way on, but after a cartwheel, he straight up rams into something they hadn’t faced before. A bloom-thing, its chest split open. Grotesque. Something pierces nastily into his leg, it hurts. He’s slowed.

Somehow, Preston at the end, manages to get forward. Shoots down things as they come, probably helps the others forward a bit, but he overtakes them.

Preston is at the entrance to the theater, Lykaia, Kai and Roberta are slightly behind. And behind them, several of the infected.

“Fuck me.” Lykaia calls out, managed but struggling. “Kai!” She calls back, him turning out to become the slowest, starting to be surrounded by a hollowed bloom-thing with a split-open chest and a bloomthrall glistening with thorns and crystal spires. “Fuck.” She curses again. “Bobby, Prest, cover for him?”

Kai lets out a howl of pain, his thigh impaled, blood spurts and he holds his hand onto it, limping along with the group, he stops fucking around, of course, as he struggles to keep up with the group, “Ugh… sorry, sorry,” he mutters to her. Fairly quickly though, thanks to his regeneration perhaps, the bleeding has stopped, but his leg is still badly injured and he’s hissing out his breaths in pain as he tries to catch up.

“Get Lykaia and Kai.” Roberta calls to Preston without a thought; It’s not heroism. It’s quite simply logic. “I cant be critically wounded, but they could be– Then the next barrage enters the fight, and Roberta suffers a wound, which she hardly notices– vampiric inability to feel anything but the most severe pain in action, no blood, only a spray of glitter… It would appear that Roberta did go ahead with her threat to fill her flesh with glitter after all. “Idiot.” Roberta tells the thug. “Deal with what’s behind us.” – And she resumes her mad dash for the theatre, trying to catch up with Kai and Lykaia in meeting up with Preston.

“Bit busy,” Preston calls back to Lykaia – it’s either in reference to her shouted expletive, or to the question. It’s hard to tell, because the man is basically a ball of energy. Rattling shot after shot off.

“I’ll cover, yeah,” Preston calls back, quickly reloading – discarding his empty magazine into a carrier vest. As Kai limps forward, Preston shifts his gaze towards him. “KAI, LYKAIA. ON ME. I’LL DRAG YOU BOTH. MOVE IT.”

Kai heads to Preston, “Uuugh my leg hurts do you have any Advil?” he asks the man as he limps up and looks back at the infected, “Shit,” he peers to Lykaia, “How bad are you?” he asks, glancing to her injury as well.

Preston says “FUCK. “

Lykaia says “FUCK ME.“

Chastised, Roberta’s muscle makes a wall between Roberta and the on-coming monsters as Roberta makes it a few more steps closer, but it’s slow going.

She may not feel wounds, but they still inconvenience her, and though it will regenerate, Roberta needs to be out of the line of fire first. It is there fore inglorious as she continues to make her way closer, but Lykaia and Kai are faster than her.

turns and spins around, trying to cover others and uses her knife to stab out at one of them. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

Preston just wades into the fray, rapier held aloft, almost cackling underneath that gas mask. “Call if you need a bandage, yeah?”

Kai moves in to fight, he can’t run, afterall, so he aims a stab, then a quick slash and staggers back, blasting a gust of wind into another as he fights on savagely.

“Motherfucker,” Lykaia curses out when someone swings right against her chest, where she’s evidently injured. “Die!”

“Motherfucker,” Lykaia curses out when the bloom-thing swings right against her chest, where she’s evidently injured. “Die!”

Kai moves in to shank the bloom-thing Lykaia is battling in the back, but it doesn’t hit quite as well as he had hoped, he grunts in pain and slashes out with his other knife.

stabs against the bloom-thing, and grimaces as everything hits for her vest. At least it is her vest. Then one of Roberta’s goons kills it and she exhales in relief.

Get’em, boys! Roberta calls from relitive safety.(Encourage)

Preston says “WE ALL GOOD?“

Lykaia says “MOSTLY! “

Lykaia says “THESE AREN’T TOO BAD THANKFULLY.“

“Good.” Roberta calls

Kai stabs and slashes, panting heavily, favoring his left leg to keep pressure off of the right. Finally the crowd starts to thin and he joins the others in shanking the remaining one.

Lykaia pants when the last one finally drops, reaching a hand to her face that has her push against the gas mask for a moment, which then immediately stops. “Motherfucker.” calls out. Alas, in the distance there’s more. More coming. With a flash, the head of one of them gets splattered all over the cobblestone street, but Lykaia turns back to the others. “GET INSIDE!” She shouts.

Stepping back once more, Roberta’s thugs slip their weapons away as they nod to Roberta. They make a corden and after a couple of extra shots, Roberta makes her way to join Lykaia and Kai. There’s a large gash, but it will heal, even if Roberta is limping– trailing glitter in her wake.

Kai limps his ass inside the theater and drops his back to the wall beside the door, panting heavily as he looks around, “Ugh… this is bad,” he tells the others with a pained grin.

“Barker, Walker, Brick.” Roberta bellows as she limps to the theatre and its enterence. “You heard the woman, get inside. You’re not getting payed if you’re dead-er.” And so saying she slumps against the wall with Kai.

“Need me to look at it?” Roberta asks Kai, motioning to him as she draws out a triage kit.

“A bandage couldn’t hurt, or stitches,” Kai agrees, “If you have the training and we have the time,” he nods to her and looks about the interior of the theater, “There’s still the two that were on top of this, plus whatever else could be in here.

Once again, Preston is taking up the rear, making sure everyone is inside. There’s a beat from him, a pause, and then he shouts. “SAM! I KNOW YOU’RE FUCKING SHIT UP OUT THERE, BUT WE’RE GOING INSIDE. YOU MIGHT WANNA FOLLOW!”

As soon as Preston shouts, the sound of a shotgun goes off – loud. And soon there’s an intense looking man with green eyes, just barreling out of wherever the hell he was hiding, sprinting straight towards Preston and past him.

A few more shots from Preston and he’s ducking inside the theater, slamming the door closed behind him – throwing his weight against it. “Lykaia, or Sam, we need to barricade this door.”

As Lykaia and Preston and his muscle take care of that, Roberta shifts over to Kai. It’s a limp and Roberta seems to notice finally that she’s been damaged with a “God dam it.”

But there’s no time for that. Roberta makes some quick field fixes, swabs, spray cleaner, gauze, glue and bandage before looking up. “Anyone else?” she calls, knotting of the bandage around Kai’s wound.

Charing inside along everyone, Lykaia turns around, panting hard. She stares a moment when Sam comes running in, and when Preston talks about barricading it, Lykaia and Sam both look around, find some wood, and very much barricade the door. There’s also slottable lock from the inside, metal doors. That should last a while.

Lykaia breathes out, and looks to Kai, and then around.

The red faded curtains on the stage are ripped apart. There is hammering against the metal door as what’s outside tries to get in. But also some weird sounds like quiet coughing and then something slumping to the ground. Something else is trying to handle them all quiet as well, but who knows if they’re friendly or hostile.

Fortunately, everything going on right now is outside. Unfortunately, on the stage, stands a single, much larger towering tree. It doesn’t yet move, doesn’t yet seem away of anyone else that’s here. Golden pollen bloom all over the theater, and a porcelain mask sits on one of the benches for the crowd close to the party.

“Kai, Bobby, Prest, Status?” Lykaia asks, sounding urgent.

“Leg’s fucked but I’m okay,” Kai tells Lykaia, his features just a tad pale from bloodloss, he squints up at the giant tree, “I really gotta get a flamethrower.”

“Fuck.” Roberta calls, the kit is discarded- it can be grabbed again, the revolver comes up, a shot is fired.

Preston does a quick once over of himself, nodding towards Lykaia, “All good,” he calls out, stepping away from the door – carefully eying the tree. “Wait, hold on, Robbie!” The man calls out, but it’s too late, she’s already instinctively shot at the thing.

Lykaia touches over the back of her hair, and then Roberta suddenly moves and shoots at the thing on the stage. Her fire lets out a loud sound, and the thing moves right at the party. Unfortunately for Lykaia, its right on her. “Fuck me.”

“Okay, I’ll hold on.” Roberta decides, only after the thing’s downed. Roberta grins, obscured but audible beind Roberta’s mask, “I’m out of bullets anyway.” she shares, setting that hand gun up again for the next things in line. The kit is picked up again, slipped away and the albino glances around suspiciously.

Kai peers over at Roberta, “You gotta carry more ammo,” he tells her with a little grin and nudges the creature with one toe, “Rotten bastard,” he says and spits down on it. He sighs as he glances to Lykaia and Preston, then takes a few limping steps forward, “I guess… we should explore?” he asks, adding a belated, “Thanks,” to someone for the bandage.

Kai peers over at Roberta, “You gotta carry more ammo,” he tells her with a little grin and nudges the creature with one toe, “Rotten bastard,” he says and spits down on it. He sighs as he glances to Lykaia and Preston, then takes a few limping steps forward, “I guess… we should explore?” he asks, adding a belated, “Thanks,” to Roberta for the bandage.

“I got a charm for that, but I didn’t activate it.” Roberta admits. “I use it for hunting, but the boys should handle things like this.”

Lykaia stares at that thing when it just goes down as it does. Somehow, it was bigger, looked more dangerous, but then it just drops without too much difficultly. It still prompts Lykaia to let out a deep breathe and then look to Kai and Preston, then to Roberta. “Need to collect some of the Po-”

Clapping.
There is clapping.

“Alina, aren’t you a cute thing. Look at you, bringing people right here to me.” The feminine voice is bemused. A glance back to the stage shows a figure with purple hair under the theater’s limelight. “Which cuties have you brought me to eat on today?” She’s slim figured. Looks eerily happy and with eyes of a vibrant deep green. It feels wrong to be around her, her aura is dark for those with a charm to gaze at it.

“You mistake them for offerings, when they are witnesses. And you forget, but the stage remembers who broke the silence first.” White haired, golden eyes. Robed in White, standing at the side of the audience area close to the stage.

“Fuck me.” Lykaia mutters, much more quietly now. And behind “Now now, Alina, no need to be so rude, it’s only been a few years.”

“Who’s that?” Kai asks Lykaia quietly as he looks up toward the voice, his lips pressed together as he takes a few steps closer to the group. He may or may not be angling his body to be behind Preston’s as Lykaia and the woman speak.

It looks like Lykaia is swallowing another curse, but on a more quiet mention she does tell Kai “Purple hair. Family. Vaelira Nachtlied. Gold eyes. Pale Wanderer. Original name lost.” Of course it’s evident that their senses are acute when Vaelira, the purple haired coos “Good pet. Now what does a good pet do next?” It’s almost automatic when Lykaia turns around and goes down onto her knees to bow. “Yes, mistress.”

“Good. Now shut up.” She tells Lykaia, sharp, and then draws nearer. A hop off the stage, and a slow approach. The Wanderer remains where she is. “Now what do we have here?” Vaelira considers. “Oh my, the pet’s hanging around with her betters, the Hand! If only she wasn’t so inferior. Useless. Made to serve.” She scoffs, and then… smiles far too bright at Roberta, then Kai and then Preston.

“Not good,” Kai chirps when Lykaia goes down to her knees, he wipes the sweat from his brow with his forehead and looks from Vaelira to Preston and Roberta. The goons are given a glance as well, his eyes squinted as he tries to think about something while he lets his elders talk to the golden eyed broad.

There’s a grunt from Preston as he watches Lykaia drop to her knees and bows towards this woman. A low growl begins to build in his throat, like a tiger about to pounce.

Kai drops to one knee with a hiss of pain and bows his head to the golden eyed woman, one hand slips into his kangaroo pocket and the other rests on the ground in an effort to push up his body to take some of the weight off of his injured leg.

Voice raising, Roberta calls over, “Eat him, he’s expendable.” And a finger is pointed towards Kai.

Apparently, this is the point where the filter stops working and the actual monster comes out– It was good whilst it lasted.

If Roberta were taller, the contemptuous look she offered may be more impressive, but as it is, Roberta is a short ass, and even backed with muscle, that doesn’t change. But then, Vaelira begins to make her approach. Roberta steps forward.

Roberta demands attention– small but scrappy. “Oh hell no.” the albino tells someone in the kind of tone only used by a bitch in the bathroom when staring at the fat kid. “You discarded it. We found it. The law is very fucking clear on this.”

A hip juts forward, arms cross and Roberta’s chin raises– Roberta assumes -the- pose. The -I’m-better-than-you- pose.

“She who snoozes looses. And this is property of the Illusium Court’s Summer Queen, and is, more than that, property of the Hand, her betters. Any prire claims of -yours- were forefitted when you relinquished the object.”

Is Roberta treating Lykaia as though she’s not there? Dam skippy. Lykaia is property. Not a word of untruth was spoken by the albino, and she’s not going to bow.

“Kai, stand up.” Roberta vertually spits towards the little shit. “You’re not a lesser being. Act like the demon you are.”

Voice raising, Roberta calls over, “Eat him, he’s expendable.” And a finger is pointed towards Kai.

Apparently, this is the point where the filter stops working and the actual monster comes out– It was good whilst it lasted.

If Roberta were taller, the contemptuous look she offered may be more impressive, but as it is, Roberta is a short ass, and even backed with muscle, that doesn’t change. But then, Vaelira begins to make her approach. Roberta steps forward.

Roberta demands attention– small but scrappy. “Oh hell no.” the albino tells Vaelira in the kind of tone only used by a bitch in the bathroom when staring at the fat kid. “You discarded it. We found it. The law is very fucking clear on this.”

A hip juts forward, arms cross and Roberta’s chin raises– Roberta assumes -the- pose. The -I’m-better-than-you- pose.

“She who snoozes looses. And this is property of the Illusium Court’s Summer Queen, and is, more than that, property of the Hand, her betters. Any prire claims of -yours- were forefitted when you relinquished the object.”

Is Roberta treating Lykaia as though she’s not there? Dam skippy. Lykaia is property. Not a word of untruth was spoken by the albino, and she’s not going to bow.

“Kai, stand up.” Roberta vertually spits towards the little shit. “You’re not a lesser being. Act like the demon you are.”

“Can’t, leg hurts… too tired to stand,” Kai groans, keeping his head bent down, one hand in his hoodie pocket. He’s glancing around as much as he can from the awkward position he’s put himself in, still panting softly, his gaze often lands on Lykaia to check her expression.

“My god, you are so boring! But so obedient!” Vaelira glees and coos at Kai. ” Your branch must have taught you well!” She waggles a finger, her vibrant green eyes sparkle and look at Roberta. “Detty, I know, wonderful world! Pretty and dead combined!” She cheers. “Why don’t you hand that pet over to me. I’ll make her good and pretty. And you. You will get a briefcase with information you’ll really like. Help you in your dealings in that filthy city.” She winks and twirls around once. “Won’t come back too damaged. Promise! And then she can be all to yours.” She sounds joyously innocent. “And she’ll fit in so much better with obedient ones like you!” She snaps her fingers.

“Vaelira. Why don’t we make this a game?” The tone of the Wanderer is more slow and calm toned. Almost soothing. “There’s these humans that were with her those years ago outside. We make these three vote. We’ll activate her latent blood. Through you, she shall become the doll you always wanted.” Now she approaches, closer, through the rows of the benches and stops, still keeping a distance away. A silver scar lies across her throat. “In my hands, she will activate to her bloodline. And be radiant.” And then “Or. You will keep her, go with that noisy team. She’ll always be less. Latent. Never activate. The bloom prevented it. The bloom will forever prevent it. She may be cured, but never free.”

There’s a step forward from Preston, in front of the kneeling Lykaia. “Or,” the man chimes in now, interjecting himself towards the conversation. “Third option. How about you just fuck off, yeah? We can take Kaia with us,” the way he uses the name, it’s a nickname – but it seems like there’s a reasoning for it – controlled. “And we can all just pretend never happened.” Gloved hands come up, letting go of his rifle for a moment, to the tops of his carrier vest where he rests them there. “Honestly, that’s a pretty good plan to me.”

“No deal,” Kai says as he pushes himself to his feet with a grimace, exhaling a grunt of pain, “We’ll take her back with us,” he tells Vaelira and takes a couple half, limping steps toward Lykaia to be closer to her, one hand still in his pocket, “We’ll take her and just get on out of here,” he glances to Preston when the man tells the woman to fuck off, “Uh I’m not with him… so… Lykaia and I are just gonna get going then… and oh, I could use some help so Bobbie, you and your goons can help us out of here too?” he suggests, a chipper grin on his face that doesn’t meet his eyes as he glances to Vaelira.

Oh the curse of the gas mask. If Roberta’s gaze were visible, Kai would be pierced through with daggers at that, but Roberta works with what she has, and she’s not showing the same percieved weakness as Kai. That would be un-Hand-like.

Roberta remains standing there, beaten and broozed, clothing damaged, skin continuing to nit, every inch the queen on her figurative throne.

This though is a theatre, and Roberta is a performer.

Vaelira is annoying though– It’s because she’s trying the same jester act someone uses. Immitation is not flattery.

There’s the slight dip of the head as Preston steps forward– Coriography, staged perfection. This was always to be the way. “I have a better idea.” she tells Vaelira with a grin so wide it should tare her face in two– Too wide, too fanged, too capricious in only the way of the fae. “How about you go fuck a cactus.”

Roberta proceeds to ignore Vaelira from that point forward. “Your betters are talkin.” the albino spits. And with that, Roberta’s attention moves to the Pale Wanderer. “I don’t care if she activates or not. She’s property.”

“I would rather she remained latent as a blood doll, but what I want doesn’t matter. What matters is the will of the Hand, and the Hand sit in Venice right now. And they own this.” Only the slightest motion towards Lykaia, and it’s with the tip of a boot– Never quite touching. “So how about this as a game. Let’s play a game. You evacuate, you leave. You skidaddle and scram. And I’ll give this.” the same contemptuous bitch motion o the head to Vaelira “A head start. Then I call in the Keepers for the attempted theft of Hand property.”

Oh the curse of the gas mask. If Roberta’s gaze were visible, Kai would be pierced through with daggers at that, but Roberta works with what she has, and she’s not showing the same percieved weakness as Kai. That would be un-Hand-like.

Roberta remains standing there, beaten and broozed, clothing damaged, skin continuing to nit, every inch the queen on her figurative throne.

This though is a theatre, and Roberta is a performer.

Vaelira is annoying though– It’s because she’s trying the same jester act Roberta uses. Immitation is not flattery.

There’s the slight dip of the head as Preston steps forward– Choriography, staged perfection. This was always to be the way. “I have a better idea.” she tells Vaelira with a grin so wide it should tare her face in two– Too wide, too fanged, too capricious in only the way of the fae. “How about you go fuck a cactus.”

Roberta proceeds to ignore Vaelira from that point forward. “Your betters are talkin.” the albino spits. And with that, Roberta’s attention moves to the Pale Wanderer. “I don’t care if she activates or not. She’s property.”

“I would rather she remained latent as a blood doll, but what I want doesn’t matter. What matters is the will of the Hand, and the Hand sit in Venice right now. And they own this.” Only the slightest motion towards Lykaia, and it’s with the tip of a boot– Never quite touching. “So how about this as a game. Let’s play a game. You evacuate, you leave. You skidaddle and scram. And I’ll give this.” the same contemptuous bitch motion o the head to Vaelira “A head start. Then I call in the Keepers for the attempted theft of Hand property.”

Vaelira lets out a laugh when first Preston speaks and then Kai does, and his makes her laugh sit at a grin, and then another laugh at Roberta. But then, her expression drops into disinterest. Boredom, which she expresses in her tone in a monotone “You’re boring. Stupid. But she belongs to your branch. Not to mine. Or hers.” Probably meaning the Wanderer. “Fine.” She says, but her gaze fixates on Lykaia “You may go with them, pet. Make sure you’re expecting me on the next wild hunt. Make me have fun.” Her body begins to glow, and out of all things, she turns into an owl that flies to sit on an arm of the Pale Wanderer, whom only makes a nod to the party, then moves backstage.

The door behind the party hears a lot knock on the metallic door. “Open the door. Need you out there. Place’s going to be wiped clean with Thermite and an Iron dust dispersal bomb.” A feminine voice calls loudly over. It’s difficult, but people with acute hearing can hear as much very easily.

Kai blinks a couple of times in surprise when Vaelira claims she’s willing to let them leave, and with Lykaia, and alive. He bends down to try to get Lykaia up to her feet, grimacing a bit on his bad leg, “C’mon Lykaia, before she changes her mind,” he tilts his head at the knock, “Uh… looks like Team Vela is about to raze this whole village so we better get the fuck out of here,” he warns Preston, Roberta and Lykaia.

Once it seems that Vaelira is gone, and the Pale Wanderer is gone, Preston turns a bit and glances down at Lykaia. “Up we go, Kaia,” he orders. A captain voice. “You’re good, soldier. Let’s get moving.” At the same time as the commands go out, he reaches a gloved hand down, beginning to lift her up, grabbing onto that vest and hauling her upwards.

“And exit, stage right.” Roberta calls out. “I give it a C plus. The owl was a nice touch, but you ruined it by dropping the pretence at being amused. Your delivery needs a lot of work.”

Roberta cant help herself. “And my pet, not yours. You lost that right.” — What now– Roberta is monologuing. She listens, “Oh they’re blowing the place up with thermite- That could be fun.” Then she’s back to critiques.

“Your ensamble cast were gauche and drab, with no flare for the theatre, your minions were just twisted zombies, and your delivery was as good as an extra on the set of Glee. You need a new agent, new material and a new hair do.”
There we go, the status quo has been restored. “Get up.” i the next thing to emerge– It’s not as considerate as Preston, though there’s no venom in it, either. “We’re done here, and we’re leaving.”

Lykaia gets helped along by both Preston and Kai, up onto her feet. She isn’t more than mildly wounded, if someone were to look closely. It’s sort of more a weird state of shock if someone looked into her eyes, and a few steps down, she manages on her own again, but still looks a little out of it of sorts. Words don’t find her yet. The door opens simply when the lock and barricade is removed, and outside, there is four people kneeling down on the ground, each gas masked. One is kneeling on the ground, working on a computer that looks to be setting up certain coordinates. The other three stand around, firearms raised to glance around. One of them, the closest, turns to the party, looks Kai, Roberta, Preston and Lykaia over “Looking like shit. You should get out.” Then more fleeting “Shortie, should stay out of this. Your family is full of these bastards, don’t forget who they killed.” Its the same feminine voice, and she turns away. “Way down you came should be mostly clear. Nothing that can’t be handled. You got ten minutes.”

Kai lifts his hand in a two-fingered salute to the group, but it’s tired and half assed as he limps along with Lykaia, Preston and Roberta, “Let’s get the fuck out of here… and don’t leave me behind either,” he complains to the group, eying Preston in particular, though he wears a little grin on his face.

“Lyk,” Preston asks, tone soft, and still slightly muffled. “Ten minutes,” he repeats, just in case the state of shock she’s in has her trouble registering what’s going on. “We’re moving.” Then towards Kai and Roberta, “Let’s move, just be cautious.” Nobody has made him the de facto leader, but it seems to be the case.

“Yeah, after you tried to leave me behind? I have a half a mind to break your fucking knee and tie you up.”

“I didn’t know we were challenging the god child!” Kai blurts out to Preston, “Don’t break my knee or tie me up,” he adds quickly.

“You’re a resource under my protection.” Roberta tells Kai bluntly. “You don’t get to be left behind.”

She’s not so much challenging Preston for defacto leader, but she’s not letting it be, either. “Back to the mirror and back to the base. We’ll have no more bitching.”

There is a pause though as Roberta considers Kai. “If Blackwell wants to break your knee, he can. Keep up.”

Fingers snap and the muscle falls into step, Roberta ignoring the team setting up to ice the village.

“Fuck me.” Lykaia lets out along the way back to the mirrogate. There is a few, but Preston doesn’t struggle handling them at all. “Fucking god.” That is another when they reach the edge of the border. Others might say more, but she doesn’t look to pay attention, and it’s then halfway back to the mirror outside the village that Lykaia brings up “Will try get you something for the work. So you get something out of this.” Then silence again.

Fortunately… there is no more surprises besides for an owl. A few loud hoot hoot, from a nearby branch of trees, hidden behind a canopy of leaves as it watches the party makes for departure…

Sam and Preston make light work of the creatures as they move through the village, and back the way they came. “I’m not breaking your knee Kai,” he calls back him, informing him. “Just don’t try leaving your allies behind next time, yeah?”

“Fair,” Kai nods to Preston firmly and glances over his shoulder, limping alongside Lykaia, he sighs and shakes his head, “Shit that was a lot,” he mutters.

It should likely not be surprising, but even though Roberta offered terms to the potential game, Vaelira didn’t confirm if she’d accept them. That means that Roberta gets to cheet, and the ping is sent to the Keepers at head office along with a series of personal files on Lykaia that Roberta shouldn’t have, along with a series of other forms. Roberta keeps up with Preston, Lykaia and Kai, but the headhunters are sent out for Vaelira at the very least.

“Follow me… please,” Lykaia asks, when they reach the mirror.

Roberta says “Try Frozen. That annoys everyone.“