The group gathers at the edge of the Fairhaven bubble, the usual summer weather getting cold and calm. Standing professionally is a human-sized storm dragon wearing a blue jumpsuit. "Just here as a representative of the Prometheans to answer some questions and give you the mission. There has been sightings of multiple ferals stalking around the edge of the bubble, all of them in drasically mixed forms. From witness statements we can tell there are no two alike and that they all flee when discovered. Your job was to track down where they are and hopefully make peaceful contact, but just yesterday there was a report that one of them acutally kidnapped a half-husky male from the wastelands so now we need you to rescue him. Any questions before you go?"

T'was a fine day to go hunting, well... if you like mist it would be. For one dragon with a knack for stealth and a thirst for danger, ANY day was a fine day to go hunting. Strange request, though... just a pack of ferals, a handful of sand grains on the vast expansive beach that was the feral populace... why? What made them so significant? Magnus had little to nothing in terms of details, but the job promised to pay well and he had a house to build, damn it! Curiosity also played its part, and while it may have killed the cat, well... we shall see how the dragon fares, no?

With a skip in his step, a smile on his face, a knife at his side, and a song in his heart, Magnus advances towards the rendezvous point. T'was a little hard to see with the dense fog shrouding the land in such a way, but he did his best not to bump into anything nonetheless. As the bubble's effects start to fade, so does Magnus feel a sense of unease. Truth be told, he'd never been outside... not like his reckless family members who seemed to rob and loot the fertile depths of the unchewed by the nanites lands ahead.

Casting his sense of dread aside as naught but the nanites screaming for him to give them their precious server signal, the male soldiers on, until he spots the crowd. Nodding his head in greeting, he barely has enough time to make sense of the faces he was seeing, before his attention is drawn away by a storm dragon nearby. Listening closely to his words, Magnus nods in understanding. "Approach the ferals, put them on ice if they're aggressive, rescue the captured. What are we expecting to face? I need to know their weaknesses. Scaled, furs, amorphous blobs, smoothskins?"

Arris is the second to raise hir hand after Magnus. "Also, how many of them can we expect, what forms should we be looking out for, and do we know about the area where we should be looking for the kidnapee?" The gator adjusted the strap of hir bolt-action rifle over hir shoulder, glancing between hirself and the group surrounding hir with an air of nervousness - sie never liked having to leave the comfort and partial safetiness of the bubble. Sie pats hirself down to make sure sie had brought everything sie needed: triage kit and shield drone were the most important, though it had been so long since sie stepped out the bubble that sie forgot if the drone worked outside it or not. Nonetheless, the small drone was deployed out, rotary fans buzzing as it whirred to life and floated in place. "If you can, it would be nice to provide as much intel as you guys have on hand."

Fenris comes jogging along through the wastes, his sword and spear jingling merrily on his back. He is dressed as a cowboy today. Well, from the waist up, at least. The burly tanuki is wearing an open, plaid shirt tucked into a heavy gun belt, though it seems to have only a number of pouches on it and one small firearm. He also has on a very nice, white stetson and a permanently pleasant look on his round face.

He listens amiably to the explanation, then shakes his head. "Nope," he says, "Ready to go make friends!" It must be nice to be so pleasantly clueless.

Sondra scratches at the ruff of fur along the back of her neck, while the other readjusts the rucksack slung over her back. Aside from the standard load-out - the sidearm, vest, plated fatigues - the pack is on the lighter side this time around, but stocked with 'a little bit of everything' as a just in case measure. Dried foods, boiled water that has since been cooled; the kind of things that would make a difference if something goes real wrong real fast, and forces the lot of them to remain outside the wire for a prolonged period of time.

Helpful that most of it can get stowed in a hurry if need be, so it's no longer weighing her down. One way or another, however, were it not for the rucksack, there's a sense she'd be standing at parade rest, given the ramrod straight posture that runs only partly contrary to a build meant for all fours. Her expression is impassive, and she gives little more than an incline of her head towards Magnus and Arris, respectively, when their own questions are raised.

Atmospheric day out today it seems. Though it was drawing ever closer to fall, the human couldn't help but scratch his head as he walks along to the meetup point. Riot armor strapped on tightly, the pale human huffs as he hefts his quiver of blue arrows before his walking brings him up towards the growing group of people. Can't say he recognizes too many people on this group, but... Oh! Smiling, the human pads up towards Arris to plant a short kiss to her cheek. "Heya sweetheart!" The silver eyed human smiles to the gator before he turns his attention forward towards the jumpsuit wearing dragon.

Tilting his head at the information given, the human scratches at the back of his head a moment before he shrugs. No questions from him, though he does listen quietly to the others as he looks the others over curiously. Honestly should see about getting that kemonomimi optional item. Being able to sprout bunny ears in human form would be pretty nice sometimes. Still, the human takes a moment to adjust the strap of his polearm. Given the mission description, can't say he can rule out the possibility of violence, so better safe than sorry. Hope he ain't the odd man out in this situation.

Approaching from inside the bubble, she spots a gathering group. Curiosity gets the better of her, so she changes course to to meet them. Once near the gathering she looks at the bunch and waves. "Oh, hello there." She pants lightly. Despite the roundness of her bottom half, she doesn't seem much at all bothered by the running. "What's going on here?"

Answering the group, the dragon replies: "Witnesses are hazy on the details, but we can assume that there can be as many as twenty of them or as few as three. And when I say 'drasically mixed forms' I mean it. At least one report has the sighted feral being a cross between a red dragon, a flowering hedge, and hornet. I can't make this stuff up. As for where the captured man is, we don't know. We're hoping you can find him once you locate the ferals responsible." As he gets ready to leave, he adds: "I hope you do find him. Some of these reports make the ferals sound really bad. Like, EVIL bad. Be careful."

Arris is surprised lightly by the kiss from Anbessa, but goes back to smiling once sie recognises his voice. "Hey, hun!" Sie chuckles a little, leaning in and returning the kiss to his cheek - or, well,

"Alright then. A bit of everything." the dragon nods, uttering a silent slew of profanity in his own head. He wasn't ready for this... Still, he swallows the worry and glances around the group, his eyes drawn to the final newcomer. She was... well, quite shapely. Her plumage was something to behold as well. At first glance one might assume she was not well prepared for this venture, but looks were deceitful. For all Magnus knew, she had more ability than all of them put together. There was one way to find out, so he casts her a smile and explains. "There was a call sent out, some rogue ferals have kidnapped a half-husky. You got the gist already, but... we're off on a search and rescue." he casts her a charming wink, "Coming?"

Once all was said, he looks around the rest of the group and addresses them all at once. "Right, we have a mission and we have all the information we can get. Tracking isn't really my forte though, so if someone else more skilled in the art can point the way?" he suggests, his hand reaching out towards the vast expanse before them. Gods knew where those ferals were... one can only hope their captive still has all his wits about him.

Arris is surprised lightly by the kiss from Anbessa, but goes back to smiling once sie recognises his voice. "Hey, hun!" Sie chuckles a little, leaning in and returning the kiss to his cheek before stepping back. The appearance of Anbessa does lift hir spirits, at least until...

The gator frowns at the mention of 'EVIL bad', lowering hir gaze to think for a moment. Either one by itself would be enough. "Hm, I'm not sure what to think of this. I wouldn't describe ferals as being 'evil', normally. Something's up, so we should all stay on our toes." After a second or two, sie glances back up at the rest of the group, first at Magnus while he gestures vaguely to the horizon. "...anyone else got any bright ideas on where we should go?"

Fenris whips off a lazy salute. "As careful as I can be!" he says happily, then saunters off beyond the bubble. If he is bothered by the sudden lack of nanites, it does not show. Nor does he seem all that concerned at the direction he is going.

The big tanuki glances around as he walks off into the wastes and starts to whistle a jaunty little tune.

Sondra's lip curls slightly at the description, just enough to show teeth, a subtle rumble audible in her throat. She's already got her head lifted and her nose put to work by the time the word 'evil' is floated out there, a couple steps taking her away from the group in general, gaze set out on the territory in front of them, looking for-- well, god only knows what. Divine intervention, maybe.

One way or another, she turns to look to Magnus, inclining her head in the direction that Fenris walks, wordlessly indicating that the tanuki's already got a bead on it. "I can track partly by scent from here on out," she says simply, her voice-- startlingly human, to those that haven't heard her speak, the cusp of growling at the edges forcibly curbed. "'Evil' may not have a smell," she says mildly, "but 'utterly broken' tends to."

It's with that that she begins to head in that general direction, resettling the pack on her shoulders, apparently bound and determined to make the bulk of this height on two feet.

Smiling to Arris, Anbessa chuckles softly as he pats her back lightly in return. Though the human does perk up curiously as he hears the dragon, tilting his head. "Evil? Gonna be honest, that's the first time I've heard someone describe a feral that way..." He points out, takinga moment to adjust the straps on his polearm and bow n' arrow to get them comfy before he returns his attention forward. If anything, gives him good enough reason as any to have brought his weaponry. Though as Sondra speaks up, the pale human watches curiously as the wolfess heads off in a direction. Glancing at the others for a moment or two, Anbessa shrugs before he follows after the wolfess. Hopefully it won't be too big of a hike. Slipping a hand into his pocket to take a swig of builder nanites from a vial before he leaves the bubble. Hopefully that will last him for the mission.

Parsnip looks to the others and listens for an explanation. When she gets one, she nods and looks around. "So someone went missing?" She thinks for a moment. "I'm not sure how I can find them, but I'll try." She makes an attempt at finding something of note, but with all the tracks in and around the group, she doesn't make out anything in perticular. "Well... I hunt on my own... but I wouldn't know where to start looking." She shrugs, "I'll follow and help where I can, though. I can at least carry people without trouble, if we find them."

Tracking down the ferals' trail is child's play for the Tanuki, Fenris leading the group. It does take hours though, all of the afternoon taken up walking to what looks like an abandoned town. Over a decade of neglect has caused this small town to become just as empty as the wasteland, the chilly air hanging still and foreboding. Even the slightest sound carries through the empty buildings like a lost echo, as if anything greater than a whisper would draw in terrible danger.

The trek was filled with idle chatter for the most part, a few words exchanged, a soft humm to make the trip less tedious, but for what it's worth, Magnus was glad they had a good tracker in the group. Once they arrive at their destination, the dragon's nose starts to twitch. "This is definitely a very bad place to be." his voice sounds. Hushed, careful as though unwilling to alert anything that might be in the area, and for good reason too. As they walk, so does he point out the details others may have missed.

Blood stains here and there, crimson residue of dried up sanguinara. Claw marks lining the walls from place to place, but worst of all... "Keep your weapons ready, we're being watched." he warns, certain that they were not alone. Something draws his keen eye, and in a few moments... "Ah... shite." his gaze is all that alerts the group to the presence of a severed limb nearby. "Great..."

Arris follows after the rest of the group, straggling a little bit behind the rest of them, bolt-action at the ready. Hir shield drone, however, stays near the front, as well as its hovering propellor blades can follow after the lead person.

Soon, the gator would approach the border of the abandoned town, still hanging at the back of the group. Taking a cautionary glance around, sie takes note of the general state of the buildings surrounding hir... and then towards the severed human limb in the middle of the street. Sie takes a few steps forward, glancing between the members of hir group, then would do a 'finger walking' motion before pointing towards the severed arm. If the group got hir cue to start walking towards it, sie would follow after them, rifle held at the ready and aiming in any direction sie could guess a feral would charge from.

Fenris spends much of the long trek providing an endless playlist of trail songs. "A Cowboy Needs a Horse," "Home on the Range," "Happy Trails," and "Highway to the Danger Zone," just to name a few.

As the group comes into sight of the ruined town, his singing falls silent, though the pleasant little smile stays firmly in place. "Well," he says, "Shall we see who is at home?" He unhooks his spear from his back and gives it a twirl before sauntering confidently ahead.

Sondra seems to weather the walk as best she can, panting every once in a while to burn off any heat to take the pressure off what few sweat glands she has left. Keeps it to a minimum, of course, and attempts to keep it contained to when she's not being paid any mind, but all the same. Might not be that hot out, but with a pelt like this-- yeah, it's hot.

Fenris, it should be noted, is shot a 'really?' look more than once, and even earns a growl by the time Danger Zone goes into full swing, but the she-wolf keeps largely to herself, otherwise. Upon entering the town, her gaze sweeps over the structures, angled towards any possible vantage points that might be seeing use in surveillance-- and any bottlenecks, besides.

Her attention is drawn towards the arm the moment it's noted, hackles bristling subtly. Her ears prick and tilt forward, the limb inspected with a couple cursory sniffs, at first, before the she-wolf hunkers down to start doing a more thorough inspection, and gives a snort once she's satisfied. "Been here since yesterday," she says, looking over towards the others. "They say how long their guy's been missing?"

After the hours of hiking, Anbessa couldn't help but sigh as he pats the belly of his armor. Hopefully the vial he drank will last him for this mission. Wouldn't do to get hungry when th- eep! The human nearly bumps into Arris' back as they pause, blinking in surprise. Is something u- Oh... Oh goodness. The human grimaces as he spots the signs of rather violent and grisly look of the area. Even if he ain't a rabbit, the scent of blood on the wind is always distressing as the human pauses as Magnus speaks up. Blinking and peeking ahead... And then letting his mouth fall open in shock. Is that a human arm...?

Drawing his bow out from off of his back and withdrawing an arrow from his quiver, he holds it at the ready as he follows after Arris as she tries to lead them towards it. Thankfully his nose ain't too sensitive from being human, but the scent of blood probably in the air wasn't going to be pleasant. "They weren't kidding when they said evil, huh?" Anbessa mutters to no one in particular, peering around at the buildings warily as he goes along. Listening to Sondra, the human perks up as he listens to the wolfess' explaination. "Well, lets hope this isn't a leftover from the half-husky we're supposed to be looking for..." Anbessa trails off, looking down at the arm with a shiver as he looks over his own arm, then shakes his head n' sighs. One hell of a place to lose an arm...

Parsnip slowly makes her way into the village, the sight of blood and violence around her makes her queasy. "Oh dear..." She'd keep close to the others in the group, but at her size, she'll just have to be comfortable being near. "Looks like... whatever is here isn't a friendly critter." She sighs "I hope at least some of us can fight."

From out of the sun's rays drops a heavilly mutated feral: the head and arm-wings of a hawk, the body and legs of a raptor, and the tail of a scorpion with the tip replaced with a barbed spike the size of a longswrd. It barely lands it's spike down the side of Arris's arm, missing from spearing hir through the sholder.

Despite it's sudden and silent attack, nearly everyone but Sondra notices the feral getting the drop on Arris, so it quickly tries to flee running in the opposite direction.

Though he had been distracted from the arm, he perked up as he head as he notices a shadow descend from the sunlight. The hell is th- yelping, the human stares in startled horror as Arris gets her arm nearly lopped off like the owner of the arm on the floor before them, eyes opening wide in bewildered shock before his teeth is bared and he draws his arrow back. Drawing back far, the human's blow colored arrowhead takes aim at the running feral before it is let fly. Even as the rest of the group get ready to move, the blue streak that shoots by flies like a bullet towards the feral's calf. The blood that escapes the feral soon after makes the human bristle with a tad bit of pride... Though he seems a bit stunned himself as he sees the arrow is still in the feral, but also with the arrowhead dug into the ground rather deeply at the opposite end. Smirking, Anbessa lets out a pleased chuckle. "Havin' trouble runnin', big guy?"

The dragon sighs deeply as he looks about his surroundings. "Ain't looking too rosy for our lost husky. I'm gonna prowl around, see what I can see." the dragon whispers to the rest of the team. "Keep a sharp lookout, ain't gonna be long before something lunges at us if we stick around." Looking towards Sondra, he shakes his head, "Not that I remember, no."

With that, the male paces soft-footed off towards one of the alleyways. With a touch of grit and a little bit of monkeying around, he shimmies his way amist the rubble, on the prowl for predators. If anything, he had a good vantage point of the others, and his own cover to rely on. A feral mind used scents to guice thise destructive impulses, well... among other things. For now, the drsgon kept low, quiet, on the prowl for a stalker, or several as the case might well be. Alas... nothing. It was silent, a void amidst the rubble, no presences to speak of save the few instances that ran chills up Magnus' spine. He kept close to his team, unwilling to stray should the proverbial shit strike the fan. This... ultimately, proved to be a good idea, as within a moment's notice, they were attacked. Ofcourse! The sky! They were being observed from above! Right? It mattered not. With the attack proving ineffective, Magnus almost breaks his cover as lunges their first opponent, only to find his prey six feet under, skewered through the leg and cripplied. It wasn't going anywhere, so he slinks back into the refuge of the ruins, seeking a different target. They had a husky to find.

Fenris is not interested in following the fleeing mutant. If it is clever enough to stage a sneak attack, it is probably clever enough to stage an ambush. Instead he checks to see that Arris is unharmed, the walks slowly to an open area, keeping his eyes and ears open while the others deal with the attacking mutant. He draws his sword, now holding a weapon in each hand.

Arris approaches the hand following after the rest of the group... and then suddenly gets the overwhelming premonition that something was about to attack hir. Glancing up to the sky, sie spots the diving stinger just before sie lurches to the side to avoid it piercing the ground. Hir rifle raises up to the mutant's neck... but then sie remembers hir surroundings - any gunfire would attract a barn's worth of ferals surrounding hir. As it retreats, sie hastily screws on a silencer and re-aims... only to see that hir target had already been taken care of where sie was aiming. Silently cursing hirself, sie takes a cautionary look around hir surroundings for any possible incoming ferals before approaching the pinned feral, keeping hir aim steady on its other leg. "Alright, bud, we got you. What's the big deal?"

Sondra looses a snarl the moment she hears the ruckus, but it's by the time she's got the pack off her shoulders that the problem appears to have been dealt with. --Mostly, anyway. Her muscles relax, a glance cast around their immediate area for reasons not dissimilar to Fenris' own line of thinking, though her attention is ultimately claimed by the tail that nearly speared Arris in the first place.

"Give that thing a wide berth," she says. "Last thing anyone needs is either of you getting a shot of poison in your system." Probably not necessary to *say* but-- better safe than sorry, really.

Parsnip digs her talons into the dirt and pushes herself off to chase down the creature. She barely gets a few steps out before her target is suddenly shot through the leg. Her legs try to dig into the earth to try and slow her back down from her lunge, almost toppling over the process. Pulling out her claymore, she sighs. "Oh." After watching the critter for a moment, she returns to the bulk of the group and keeps an eye out for any other creatures. "Why was there a feral all the way out here? What would draw it here?"

The half of the group pushing forward comes across the delapidated town hall, which from the evidence seems to be the home of the creepy ferals. The front door is ripped open on the ground, and the lion statue ouside looks like it was deformed from heavy damage.

The feral struggles against the arrow in it's leg, making pained but monsterous noises that sound like shrieking and clicking. It lashes out with it's tail to drive away any of the group looking to grab it, yelling out with an echoing call. The feral's voice carries throughout the town, and an even greater ROAR answers back...

It was probably not a good idea to split up, but with the group handling the feral accompanied by a deadeye, it was likely they would be fine. Magnus joins the others towards what appeared to be... "Town Hall. I hate politics." he grumbles and crosses his arms as they approach. Once close enough though, he grabs the nearest person, likely Fenris given how the snapily dressed tanuki liked to charge forward confidently, and gestures for everyone to stop. His head nods towards the statue, a soft scowl forming at his face as a soft *click* of a grenade pin being pulled is heard. The moment Magnus throws it however, the once inanimate looking object springs to life, and dashes into the building before them. It was fast, almost faster than the eye could see in fact. The loud thump of the cryostatic chemical cocktail his grenade had unleashed yields no results, merely casting the spot where the "statue" stood in ice, the very air in the area bitingly cold. "Alright..." Magnus mutters softly and puts his grenades away. "Things just got a little more interesting. Think the husky, or what's left of him is in here?"

Arris keeps hir sights trained up on the feral, up until that second ROAR echoes back. "Welp, that's our cue to book it." And, book it sie does, racing down the streets, gaze bouncing in every direction, looking out for oncoming ferals - especially from the sky. Spotting the last members of the group outside the town hall, sie skids to a stop before raising hir rifle, keeping hir gaze up for any potential threats.

Fenris is still smiling, but the fur on the back of his neck is fluffed up and his ears are swiveling wildly atop his head after that last roaring exchange.

The burly coon-dog stops at Magnus's touch, and is glad that he did. "Wow!" he says, his face splitting in a wide grin, "That was a good trick! Glad you spotted him! Or her. Whatever." He looks pensively at the door, then sheathes his sword, keeping only his spear in his hands.

"Hello in there!" he calls, "we would rather not fight! I've brought tea and cookies, if you'd like to share." That said, the tanuki looks at the others, nods, and advances into the town hall with his spear held before him.

Sondra's teeth grit as the feral emits that wail, the one that answers getting her more immediate attention as she does her best to get a sense of where it's coming from. She curses under her breath, a growl added into the mix as Arris books it towards the sound, another glance cast towards the writhing feral on the ground.

"Little late to hope this thing's whining will lure anything out," she says. "It's got as much bait as it wants headed right for it." She looks to Anbessa, and says, "Put it down," before drawing her own sidearm, custom fit to accommodate larger hands and the deadly claws they sport. "If they run into trouble they can't handle in there, we should do what we can to give them a clear route out."

Though the human was still feeling proud of his shot on the fleeing feral, he pauses as he hears it roar... Followed by a second, distant but noticably more angry sounding roar. Blinking a few times, the human just lets out a 'Huh...' before gulping. Though as he is about to speak, he pauses as he spots Arris running off! "H-hey, Arris!" The human shouts after the gator before he grumbles. Though he does get ready to follow her, he pauses as Sondra speaks to him. Blinking, he glances between Sondra and the feral. He wanted the thing to be alive for the Prommies to capture, but... "... I think there ain't much point of putting it down now. We can leave it here for the Prommies to capture it later. Ain't like that leg wound it has will heal anytime soon, so lets try to get ready for what's comin'."

Being split up is not good, especially if that one storm dragon's report is accurate. As low as 3, or as high as 20 ferals... If they are like the one he pinned, then this is going to be one hell of a fight. Can't deny it is getting the blood flowing though. Still, best to prepare.

Breathe in... Breathe out. Focus. With how used to going in and out of Flow like Water form he is, he cannot help but smile and feel happy that the Weapon Master training really is paying off as he draws another arrow from his quiver either way. He does move up to Sondra to move with her after the group.