The heavens themselves seem to have opened, thunder cracking, rain pouring down and wind billowing harshly through the wildlands, truly a terrifying time to be outside. Among it all, several protective pergulas were set up just at the entrance of the city, where a small crowd had gathered in eager anticipation for the upcoming event. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" a voice booms amidst the gathering situated right at the city exit. "WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO THE THUNDER GAUNTLET! Well... I mean it's more a race, but THERE WILL BE PERIL! There will be TERROR! There may even be... BLOOOOOOOOODSHED!" Magnus' distinctly sharp tone fractures the already chaotic surroundings. "IT'S A QUARTER MARATHON THROUGH THE DEPTHS OF THE WILDLANDS, the appropriately dubbed CREEPY FOREST, someone was VERY unoriginal with that name, but hey... IT IS WHAT IT IS AND THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT THAT, except ofcourse..." his finger shoots towards the starting line "SEND FOUR RECKLESS RUNNERS THRRRROUGH ITS FETID, DARK, DANGEROUS, FERAL-INFESTED ABYSS WITH ONE GOAL!"

Magnus then snickers and utters an uncannily loud, yet eerily calm "Survive." The crowd goes quiet for a few moments as the big-eared fox steps out from under the protective pergula, and points out... "I wouldn't wanna be out in this either, folks! But the life of a scout is HARD!" Magnus points out, a crack of thunder crossing the sky as rain pours down harshly overtop him. In mere moments, he was soaked. "Today our runners will not be having it any easier, I assure you, it will be a test of will, a test of fortitude, a test of observation and caution! Dexterity and guile, wit and cunning! AND! To make things even MORE interesting, our skillful Eureka trappers have done their job AND SET ALL SORTS OF SNARES, TRAPS AND OTHER DEVIOUS MACHINATIONS IN THE AREA! A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR OUR DEDICATED HUNTSMEN AND HUNTRESSES!" Magnus booms, and a round of hand clappings follow. Now all they needed was the racers, perhaps some of them had already arrived, and heard everything...

A wolf girl wanders up through pouring rain and windy sky's not seeming bothered, moving along at a steady pace as they look around, almost looking lost as they check to see who else is around them, it's unlikely that they didn't hear the speech given they had to be in the immediate vicinity but they don't seem disheartened by it either. As they wander ever so steadily towards where the race is meant to start.

With news of a race through the woods mentioned in certain circles he was associated with, Zen decides that he would go and see what it was all about. He was confident in his survival and navigational skills, and while he wasn't the quickest person he knew, he certainly wasn't the slowest. With it being organized by a search and rescue group, he was slightly worried about the 'rescue' part. Searching the woods comes naturally with his choice of professions, but rescuing people is... certainly something he could use a bit of work on.

Arriving at the designated meeting point, Zen walks up with his numerous tails flitting curiously behind him. He was dressed in his usual attire, but there was an olive-green, water-resistant poncho worn overtop to try and keep himself dry from the stormy weather. He arrived just in time to hear a bit of the opening announcement, grinning ear to ear with news of potential obstacles that had been set to impede their progress. Spotting Magnus, he would give a wave before shouting over the winds, "Here for the race! Figured an honest scout would do well here. Heh, maybe even get to see if the other hunters and trappers did a fine enough job." He wanders towards the place marked as the starting point, taking off his pack and poncho and leaving it by the side.

"Wait, a QUARTER MARATHON??!!", exclaims the surprised jello-tailed lamia with a panicked look on her face. She definitely didn't expect this! Her expression quickly changes, however, the challenge only improving her determination. Before returning to her stretching routine with doubled effort, the redhead girl adds, "Fine! I didn't come here to lose!" When the another contestant gets to the starting point, she smiles and nods in a greeting. "Hi! Good luck!"

What sort of nut flies in a thunderstorm?! That's a question to keep on pondering as Ebreus arrives by foot, drenched, his wings held close to his back. The big Equinox Reaper probably isn't here to show off any sort of scouting skill... there's no mountains that sneak but his participation will certainly help highlight the difference between a scout running the gauntlet and a combat agent.

The chaotic blowing of the wind does catch the big guy, how could it not he's huge, but it only seems to slightly slow him. Instead the mud seems more of an impediment to him, throwing chunks of it behind him with every step and each new step sinking his paws into it just as much as they were before.

Stepping into the pergola Ebreus looks around and smiles, "Here for the race. Should be some good exercise if it's that long." he bellows right before beginning a few simple warm-up stretches. "I wonder how many classic bear traps they've used or if they've gotten all clever with every trap..."

Looking around the group, Magnus shakes the water off, then snickers. "There'll be a lot of that where you're going." His hand waves them to the left, where a large table was situated. Four backpacks rested there, small waterproof ones, no bigger than a bookbag, except worn on the back. "Rule one. No equipment. You'll be given standard scouting gear to make do with." Magnus snaps his finger towards the arge chests at the base of the tables. "There is a small button on your backpack's right side, it is an SOS transmitter. Pushing it will alert the rescue teams to come bail you out, though if you are bailed, you are also disqualified." Magnus explains as he paces around...

"RULE TWO! No flying. Not that you'd wanna fly in that." Magnus snaps a finger upwards at the atrocious weather conditions. "Yes, the scouts fly, but this fucking race would be a HELLA lot lamer if it was a straight zip through the air, so yeah... you fly? You're DQed. RULE THREE!" Magnus snaps and rubs his hands together. "Gladiatorial clashes are in effect. You ARE allowed to use those... nanite... power...things, and magic, since there's nothing we can do about THOSE outside of strapping you with electromagnets, but those are HELLA heavy and would defeat the no equipment rule, so... go wild I guess." The fox shrugs deeply. "Regarding the gladiatorial clashes, fight it out all you want, you won't get DQed for that, mortally injure someone though... well... you don't want that, trust me." The fennec snickers.

"OBJECTIVES! You head East!" Magnus snaps his finger directly in that specific cardinal direction and explains. "Reach the end of the forest, make a 180 and turn back... first one here scores big. BONUS OBJECTIVES!" he'd pluck a small satchel and *swish* cut it open with a blade. Out pour a cascade of sparkly gemstone-like minerals. "Treasure Bags! Find them! Bring more back? SCORE BIGGER! Don't finish first but bring bag lotsa bags? You might win anyway!" Magnus explains, then sets the bag down off to the side. "THIRD OBJECTIVE! Disarm traps! Find a trap? You can disarm it, or run away from it! Disarm it? Score! Run away? No score... simple, right?" The fox waves a hand around, then gestures to the starting line for them all to line up. "Any questions? Make it brief. We have a crowd to entertain..."

Miya seems a tad confused at all the rules but looks all glittery eyed at the shiny gemstones as she makes her way over and picks up a bag, and putting it on backwards shifting around uncomfortably as she makes her way back to the starting line, trying various different tactics on how to make this device function comfortably, one arm...no...her legs...definately not...eventually settling with wearing the backpack on her back, who'd have thought that would be the most comfortable way of wearing it.

Looking over the other arrivals, Zen rolls his neck and limbers himself up. With a glance to Uvi's greeting, he responds with a smile and nod. "Yeah, same to you... But, this 'is' a race, so don't wish me too much luck or you might regret it." He answers with a sly grin. With the heavy footfalls of Ebreus's arrival, Zen would look back to give him an appraising look. "Difference between a combat agent and a scout you say? Heh, well I'll be looking forward to seeing what sort of path you cleave ahead." He says to the one towering about the others. Looking towards the wolf girl that was picking up a pack, his eyes narrow a bit with. "Well, this is sure to be interesting... Heh, glad there are some other ways to score up some points at the very least." He says before moving over to a pack and searching through it to see what he was working with. Strapping it on his back, making sure it fits well enough, he then takes his place back at the starting line.

Ebreus shakes the water out of his fur after the stretches and plods over to the backpacks, grabbing one and immediately opening it to look through what's in it. He really isn't a scout if he has to double check what 'standard scouting gear' is isn't he? Satisfied with the gear that he's got he puts his pack on, "So... do we get points by disabling a trap through setting it off," he asks, "or just points from showing off the ability to take traps apart without hurting ourselves?"

Either way the Reaper looks over his map, "So... nanomagic? Comm-pics? Use of a Comm intigrated into the NICE, Ok? I'd guess on the some principle as powers but gotta ask." he asks as he strolls to the start line for the race, putting it away before taking up his starting position. "I wish everyone plenty of good luck in finding traps... and ill luck on detecting them." he chuckles, "Nah, just good luck and may the most skilled agent win."

Uvi the jellosnek has many questions, but she thinks that asking some of them maight disqualify her on the spot. Can she press SOS buttons on other contestant's backpacks? Can she steal their maps? What if she doesn't focus on being first, but instead try to disarm all traps in the forest? Are these gems edible? What? They look tasty after all, like candy! Anyway, she slithers a short distance to get the backpack, peeks inside and mumbles to herself, "A wrench, hmmm.. Good for disarming traps and hitting people on the head, good, right!" She puts the backpack on, adjusts its straps and signals that she's ready by giving a thumbs up.

"Disabling it. You get your leg broken in a bear snapper, you ain't getting jack shit for it. The rest is alight. I mean..." Magnus pulls out his dagger and twirls it around in his fingers. "I can try to do some quick surgery on you to get that comm unit out! But I don't think either of us want that do we? So we'll make do with your head-telephone! Everyone on your places now!" The fox then looks around the others. "Well you look as ready as any of the new bloods they send into the woods, PERFECT!" He'd hop back and stand right on the starting line. "You're outfitted with tracking devices, by the by... don't think you won't be slapped with a penalty if you try and start heading back without reaching the end of the woods. You can trick each other, but you can't trick the judges. ON YOUR MARKS!" Magnus bellows... drawing in the crowd's attention. "GET SET!" he'd yell, before raising his fingers in the shape of a pistol and *BANG*. Where did that sound come from? Well, that was the starting fingergun!

The woods before all four of them were dark, terrain drenched and muddy, slippery, cold... they had the same direction to head in, but the woodlands seemed to span a very wide area. A straight dart in the exact cardinal direction needed was logical, perhaps... too logical...

Miya at that bang would hesitate a moment looking confused at Magnus then fearfully at Ebreus, though as soon as everyone else starts to move she'd bolt out of the gate and zoom through the forest faster then a speeding car looking like she's going straight for the finish line, much too fast for most speedy mutants to even dream of, though noone else would know it the real little wolf herself would be invisible and sprinting more casually towards a sort of side route to see if she could find some shiny bags!

Running over a few different strategies in his head, Zen decides that he would go for a blended approach. Of course, this is a race first and foremost. While there may be easter eggs and side objectives, he wasn't going to let them distract him too much from making a path to the finish line. Sure, he could spend all that effort looking for traps and goodie bags, but with the weather as it was, he didn't want to endure it any longer than he had to. To the eastern edge of the forest and back? That didn't sound all too terrible. The question was whether or not he could manage to pull ahead.

With the starting mark given, Zen makes a bolt for the treeline. His goal was to carve his own path through the woods, using his senses and scanning nanomagic to help him identify and potential traps or places where others might have stashed some of the bonuses. After all, he was told that there were others who had been moving around these forests beforehand... it might be likely they left a few tracks of their own to follow.

Uvi starts slithering as soon as the bang sounds, wiggling her hips, swaying her arms, her long serpentine body following after her in a wave-like motion. Deciding it's better to not exhaust herself at the start, she keeps a steady tempo. Let the other racers fight and get into traps first, then outrace them!... But wait, what are these weird thoughts in her mind? Are they supposed to be scary? She has seen scarier things in the bathroom! She shrugs them off like if they were nothing and continues slithering. It's good to have a long tail like that - it definitely makes moving in the muddy environment much easier.

Right as the finger-gun goes off the Reaper begins his first dirty trick: Creating a aura of fear via nanomagic in an attempt to make his competitors hesitate as he bounds forward at a sprint toward the forest. As he approaches the forest he quickly rigs up a sonar-like ping system to the signal strength of the other competitors tracking devices... signal wouldn't be great in the forest in a storm but might just let him know with enough warning not to get ambushed when one of 'em was gonna try it.

Now onto the next matter of business: Combat Agent vs Scouts... best bet would be to incap the fastest scouts before they could get too far ahead. Zen and Miya... or rather in reverse order given how fast those two are moving. They're not too far ahead yet so a falling tree should slow Miya down... hopefully. And with that he swings at the nearest tree to cleave a chunk for it to fall in her direction.

The group would scatter inside the woodlands, some pursuing conflict immediately while others sought after their own path. The winds howl loudly amidst the trees, frigid waters blasting the agents even amidst the foliage. "GOOD LUCK TO YOU!" is heard from behind them, and soon enough the start line was a distant memory. Now all they had was their opposition, their objectives, and their tools of the trade. It is time to put those tools to use.

The small wolf would move along the side of the path away from the group where hopefully she'd have the best chance of spotting some of those shiny gems, the frigid rain matting down her hair and fur causing it to cling to her and chill her a bit slowing her down, though she wouldn't be detered in her attempts to find treasure, as she'd focus primarilly on that thinking that at any point she could just run ahead of the group and win the race anyway, perhaps a little cocky in her assessment.

Active and cannot immediately be used with other Active nanomagics |

that are Active.'

Setting a steady pace, Zen continues to scout around and look for traps and the like down the path he chose. His nanite scanning nanomagic doesn't really pick up anything too useful, so rather than keep it active, he deactivates it to focus more on his natural senses. He huffs a bit at the initial start of the race, having an attempt of fear thrust upon him was certainly unpleasant if nothing else. Also, judging from how fast the wolf-girl took off, he wasn't too sure if he'd be able to outpace her unless she fell into a number of traps. With that unpleasant feeling from before, he switches his concentration over to his awareness nanomagic, aiming to keep himself protected from other potential influences that might throw him off his game. It was then that he felt a sort of pinging that was quite irritating. Seems like someone wanted to keep tabs on him, and in a race through the woods where there was no clear path and no guaranteed visibility on the contestants, it was an advantage he'd rather them not have. Taking a pause to deal with the problem, Zen's eyes flicker with power before he focuses on damaging the source of the pinging. He wasn't sure what sort of effect it would have, but clearly he wanted to make sure it stopped.

Whether or not his attempt succeeded or not, Zen would turn back away and continue to move towards the forests. As he moved, luck would grant him a moment to react before triggering a trap. Deftly avoiding it, he makes a mental note to consider its dismantlement when he returns. Until then, perhaps it would prove to hinder any of those who would follow in his wake. Potentially, he gave up an opportunity to score some points, but unless another intervened, he would be able to return later and dismantle it.

Strands of Uvi's wet hair stick to her wet face. She's all wet, in fact. And cold. Very cold. Her tailtip is freezing, so maybe if she slithered a bit faster, moved that snek ass harder, she'd feel somewhat warmer? She travels through the woods, but hey, what's this OwO?! It's a bag of shinies, right there, in a hollow space at the base of a tree! She reaches for it with her delicate hand and promptly opens the pouch to check it's precious contents. She's about to test if the gems are truly candy, and as she holds the gem against her mouth, she spots another thing, right in front of her! It's a bear trap! Well, good thing that she's not a bear, but a lamia! Deciding that it's a good time to earn some more points, she puts the pouch into her backpack and takes out a screwdriver. After one precise application of the tool, the trap 'sproings', and soon after, she hears a gratifying *beep*. Where did it come from? Fuck this! Time to move on and find more shinies. Maybe even find some cool bondage traps! Let's go!