After the call for agents, a group of foxes and other canines scramble to organise their gear. Amongst them is one who clearly looks like the leader of the expidition, a fox with a clipboard and a slightly dishevled casual attire. She's female and the half-worn shirt reveals a breast. "Come on everyone, get this place cleaned up and ready to go!" The fox is making notes on her cliboard, but looks stressed.

The others gather up and pack their backpacks with various instruments and documents, but it takes time to carefully pack the equipment.

Zophah arrives as her usual vixen self, wearing a flame patterned bikini wiht a labcoat over it. Her mailbag pack is full of gear and gadgets, ready to do what needs to be done. She then goes to adress whomever is in charge. "All set to work. Any ideas on what we'll encounter?"

Nena saunters lazily onto the scene, taking a long drag from her cigarette. She stops to appraise the group, combing her fingers through her unruly mane of hair before flicking the butt on the ground, snubbing it under her shoe. "Hey there. This is the expedition group, yeah? Just making sure I didn't wander into the wrong team." It was hard for her to say, given the... Unprofessional attire some of them wore.

Anderson shoulders over his backpack and shotgun, happy that he has yet to need it or his bag of light-ordenance during the travel. His outfit wasn't exactly flashy or all that cool, but it conveyed what was most important: the cobra was with RSX and he had gear for clearing powerful mutants. He glances over to the others nervously, but waves to the vixen leader of the expedition. "A-Agent Anderson Dansky. RSX s-sends their w-... well-wishes," he hisses, doing his best to sound professional. "I'm h-here to help h-however I can."

T'was two'oh'five, what a time to be alive, for one dragon on a quest to ring some more light into he lives of the locals. Small things, you know? Get this or that to aid in a project, a piece of work, a scrap of salvage, a kind word here or there, or just a watchful eye to endsure the innocents are not being needlessly assaulted.

The sun was not with him today, it would seem... Haze hung heavy over the terrain, thick and misty as soup, not suffocatingly so, but... concerning nonetheless. It hindered one's vision and deprived the earth of the sun's glorious rays, keeping it cool and sickly moist. The sounds of thrusters resonate in the distance as Magnus makes his approach. This marvel of transportation his father had so enthusiastically devised had proven quite useful on many occasions, and now it was his to use as he willed.

With a light thud does Magnus land not far from the scene of the hustle and bustle, expecting to be greeted like any normal grunt, t'was gruntwork after all. His gaze scans over the agents present, none seeming familiar, not a one. Still, opportunity lied where unfamiliarity stood, no? He notes the rather obvious chain of command and makes his way towards the fox in charge, casting nods and greetings all along the way. His gaze wanders over a particularly lovely set of beuties, different in form, size and shape most certainly, but beauty was in the eye of the beholder, no? Once he does reach the fox in charge, his head bows in recognition and acceptance of her authority over the expedition to come, before words flow out, a tone as deep and smooth as though it'd been dipped in honey. "I hear there is work to be had here. You folks habe an opening for another soul looking to make a few creds?" The male wasn't all that heavily armed, no flashy bangy rifles or high caliber firearms, though one could probably guess there was more to his attire consisting of a loose white cotton blouse, and dark linen slacks covering all but his oddly armored feet. Were... were those thruster nozzles?

Epsilon was just arriving by, followed loosely by the stench of skunk that she got drenched it before she reported for what seems to be like a mere escort mission. Still not quite at ease given the sudden last ditch blasts, she simply sits nearby the fox team and the gathered crew, paying rather little attention to her direct surroundings. With a loud harrumph, the plump kaiju spider being shakes her head, before she says, 'Sorry for the smell, kind of got swamped into smelly situations.. I hope y'all you don't mind.'. For a moment, she peeks at a random place before she asks, 'What are you doing, by the way? Researches? Didn't paid too much attention, now that i think about it..'.

Another merc joins the growing group, this one arriving on a long, slithering snaketail. Lilac moves in with a swagger, the side-to-side motions of her body leaving S-shaped indents on the soft soil where her lower half treads. From the waist up she's an affable bovine, clad in heavy armor of Zephyr make and branding. She hefts her rather oversized gun to rest over her shoulder and puts on a bright smile as she regards the others around her. "Hello everyone. Lilac, reporting for duty!"

Lilac takes her time analyzing each of the others, nodding approvingly at the group, before her gaze settles on the vulpine leader of the expedition. "The notice I recieved was a bit scant on details, but if there's any way I can help other than shooting things, I'll be happy to do so, as well!"

The vixen notices agents start to gather together. She gives them a look-over, but then realizes that her shirt is haging off her when she receives various lascivious looks. caughing she fixes her shirt, covering her breasts, and muttering under her breath, "Shit... Just what my day needed." Clearing her throat, she looks to the gathering of mutans as her team packs up the various instruments. She finally address the group, "Right then... seems you lot are more prepared than we are... it seems that nobody remembered to set our alarms so we're running behind schedule." She sighs, rubbing the bridge of her muzzle. In an attempt to look somewhat profesional, she stands straight and quickly gets her clothes in order. "Thank you all for coming. As one of the closest and largest rivers near Fairhaven, my team has been assigned to collect as much data from several points as we can. This will be an all-day task... Though, I doubt you'll be needed for all of it. We need you, agents, to help keep the local mutants off our back as we collect samples of the water and test the flow of the river in multiple spots. "Should you have the ability... you can also help us collect some data, but it's not needed." Taking a look at the team, they seem almost ready to move, but one approaches the vixen. "My name is Caramel, I'm a sci-" The approching team member whispers into Caramel's ears, as she listens, the ear on the other side of her head starts to droop and her face scrunches up into anger. "HE WHAT?!" She yells loudly. She holds back her anger before she addresses the gathered group. "ONE of the team members, Jake, seems to be missing. He has expensive equipment on him, and he's alone." She sighs again. "We'll finish up getting ready to go, I need you all to go after him and make sure he didn't get himself turned into a mindless otter."

As the group speaks up, so does the dragon's smile widen ever brighter, the locals' enthusiasm truly encouraging. It was unlikely to be anything too exciting, but knowing he had a team eager to get the job done was quite heartwarming. He casts the serpentine one an odd lok upon her arrival, not one of disgust, not even close... rather, bewilderment. Nagas were not something Magnus had seen before... not often at least. Feral ones were rare enough as is, but to see one mixed in with bovine features, well... what's the word that comes to mind... "Exotic." he murmurs, nodding to himself as he regards Lilac with a gleaming smile.

"That's the spirit." he gives her a friendly, if a touch heavy slap to the back. "I didn't know we'd be doing any shooting, though... still, a means to an end." He casts Zophah a glance and crosses his arms, "Asking the right questions. Otters is what I normally see around the river areas in town, but those are a pushover, so we should be fine. Now if we are talking water dragons instead..." a sharp whistle parts his lips, his gaze averting towards the human in the group. "Might want to snuff that out. The smell gives away our location more than you know. I have this thing for a reason." the dragon reaches into his pocket, revealing a tiny black coin-like device. To those who do not recognize it, he explains "Masks all the uh... aromas, one gives off. Keeps one under the radar." Back into his pocket it goes... and his eyes snap onto mister Anderson! "I recently wrapped up my agent training wih you lot. How's the Sergeant? Still getting his kicks out of making the new recruits do pushups in the mud?" Magnus cackles "Nice to meet you, Mr. Anderson. Look forward to seeing you in action." As the skunked one arrives, he takes in a deep breah and tries his best not to gag. Hey... it was pretty intense... "N-no... problem." a thumbs up given. Before more could be said, his attention snaps back onto the vixen. Shit was happening, and action was needed. "Point the way. Where was Jake headed last?" he asks, seemingly ready to bound off.

Epsilon

"I won't be helping with your data. I can't say I have the mind for it. I'll help how I can though." Nena brushes her hair back and thumbs her glasses up her nose, before lifting her arms high, stretching out. "I am Nena, by the way." She looks along the riverbank, before her attention flits towards Magnus. "Already did, don't worry. Okay then. Which direction are we going? I'll let someone else take the lead. I'll just do... Stuff. When there is stuff to do."

Anderson looks up to the boistrous and jolly-sounding dragon and returns a shy wave to Magnus. "Th-thank you, Magnus. I... I th-think Sergant John i-is... p-probably just t-trying to make u-up for turning into a m-mouse," stutters the serpent. "N-not that h-he's n-not a good agent l-like us. He... h-he still has a better a-aim than m-me."

As Caramel speaks, Zophah does some stretches to get ready, appearing to probably the least-threatening one in the group. She pulls out a notebook when Caramel mentions collecting data, bright eyed at the idea of doing science. But when it's mentioned that someone is missing, Zophah uses her nanites to grow a pair of phoenix-like wings and shows Caramel her comm number. "Well, I'll help with that. Here is my contact to give me details on the search. I'm starting now." Zophah then takes to the skies, scanning below with her biodetection nanomagic on.

Lilac smirks at Magnus. the cow-lamia replying by patting the gun. "Just security, really. I don't plan to use it much, but.. with the kind of troublesome ferals that can be found around here one can never be too careful. I-" She stops her sentence as she looks over to the expedition leader as she and Caramel converse the cow-lamia grows visibly worried. "Ah, and there's the trouble." She hefts the gun again and shifts it to a forward grip, nodding at Magnus' words. "I assume Jake isn't very experienced out here in the field. Is he likely to hide in case of trouble, or try to fight?"

Then she blinks, the cow-lamia catching a whiff of skunk-musk and visibly gagging at it. She scrunches her nose and shakes her head quickly, trying to drive that away. "Ugh.."

"Then... do something about that. Someday you'll see you may well be a better deadeye than him." Magnus nods and pats Anderson's back. "He is a good man, either way, but enough chatter." His gaze follows Zophah as she flies off into the air, a smart approach. "I'll track him on land, I guess. We already have a pair of eyes in the sky it seems. So where was Jake headed last? I am not exactly good in the wilds..."

Epsilon Seemingly been the last to have come to the party, Epsilon, nonetheless, pay attention to what the lupine leader's reviewing speech, a bit swayed away by the shown bit. Followed by a frown as for the blunt reaction. 'Gotta pay attention y'know.'.

She stands up as she heard that their goal was merely defending stuff, using her impressive stature as a fair warning for potential annoyances. After the sudden news, she stretches a bit, showing off what seems like a smirk on her face, adding,'Jake, huh? Can promise to bring alive and whole. Can't promise for the rest.. Nor for my smell..'. She mutters under her breath about taking a bath.

Before we set off to find the missing one. Name's Epsilon. And i'll.. probably attract trouble.. Just tell me if you need someone to watch your back.'.

Anderson returns to attention at Caramel's exclamation. He hisses, "W-We'll do we can." After Zophah takes off and Magnus says he'd track the land, the snake speaks up. "M-Maybe we should h-have most of u-us here keeping th-the rest of... the expedition s-safe? Zophah is... f-from what I've heard, a-a very seasoned agent, so... We p-probably would be b-better to not splinter."

Nena tucks her hands in her pockets and shrugs idly. "I can't fly, certainly, so I suppose I'll join you in the ground search. If you want. Or I can hang out with the expedition group here. This isn't my usual kind of dig, so I'll leave it to people that know better to put me where I'll be most useful. It seems like several of you are old hat at this kind of thing."

Caramel rankles her nose as Lilac makes a remark. "I'm glad someone else said it.." Rolling her eyes, she points the crew upriver. "Try looking that way." She points east up the river. "He's a fox, like me. He's not a fighter, either. He's some scrawny scientist that got average marks on his tests. He won't last a minute out there." She explains as moves to start collecting her own equipment. She's helped along by some of the other team members, but her pack is the largest of the bunch. Even with her pack worn, she keeps a hold on her pen, notebook, and clipboard. "I really don't know where Jake went off to, but we still need to prepare. Good luck with finding him!"

Lilac looks up at Zophah as she takes off in clear flight, frowning slightly. "Well, we certainly won't be following her into the air.. or at least I'm not." She smirks at the others. "Could never deal well with heights." She looks over at Caramel as she gets a reply, and nods. "I'll stay and defend. I'm not the fastest after all, but I can hold my own. Jake might try to jump in the water and swim here, so I'll keep an eye on that as well." Turning to look at Magnus, she adds with a smile. "Move together as you scan the forest, don't want to have to come find you myself." With a cheeky grin, she starts to slither down towards the riverbank, wanting to find a place where she can keep an eye on the scientists and the murky water all at once.

Anderson hisses, "I'll d-defend the expedition, t-too. I'm... I'm n-not as good at searching a-as I should be..."

"Very well." Magnus nods, and in the blimk of an eye, he is but a blur, an act of magic perhaps, well... definitely. You don't just do that you know... His footfall is silent and his gaze intent as he scans the area for clues, signs... anything. A lab rat by nature, he has had little time to actually BE amond nature itself. What would be clear tracks to a seasoned hunter prove difficult to find for him, wasting precious time, but he finds them nonetheless... Following them upstream, he follows his nose for any signs of vulpine scents...

Epsilon says, 'With my great height, i would be better off searching for the missing guy. It should make the task somewhat easier if anything.'. She glares, as she spots a member missing, 'And probably make some's job easier..'. With a sigh, she sets nonchalently off toward the east, as pinpointed, trying to seek for signs of passages and/or lupine beings. 'Let's hope for him he didn't found trouble. If he's really that bad, then he'd be mince meat.'.

Her walk then turns into a soft job, while following the river.

Zophah swoops down from her altitude, scanning the forms she detected for the missing fox. She draws her totem bear from within and deploys her shield drone from her pack, both acting as extra sets of eyes in her search. "Come on... Got to find you fast." She mumbles to herself, doubling up on her detection ability by also using her actual sight.

Lilac waves Anderson closer, urging the cobra to join him by the riverbank in her overlook position. "We best leave the searching to the fliers and invisibles of this world, hm?" She adds with a smirk. "I'll keep an eye on the river, if you could monitor the scientists and make sure nothing's getting around or behind us." She returns her gaze to the river, scanning slowly for any danger, while hoping for none of it.

Caramel shrugs to Anderson. "I'd appriciate the extra eye to keep the mutants off us, so if that's what you want to do..." She looks to the group as they scatter off into the surroundings. "They'd better find him." Looking at Lilac and Anderson, she points out some piles of equipment. "If you want to help, pack those backpacks and be careful about it! Make sure the instruments are packed last so we can get to it."

The area around the river is a mix of signals, Zophah's efforts show that the forest is populated with creatures of various kinds, but aside from a few clusters of mutants, it's hard to tell one way or the other.

Magnus's search doesn't yeild much, but the tracks continue up the river.

Epsilon walks along the river, going in whatever direction as Lilac and Anderson stay behind to protect the main team.

Nena does she what does best: Looking busy, without actually doing much. She mills around the researchers, wandering from person to person, observing, watching how they do what they do. Maybe offering some token assistance when requested, but otherwise staying out of the way. She liked getting to just observe.

Anderson nods and slithers over to the backpacks at Caramel's direction. He makes a double-check over the gear to be sure it's suitably stowed away for their travel, and then makes a head count of the scientists.

Frustration built as the trail ran cold. Magnus retrieves his comm unit and pings for the presence of local ones. What does one do when nature fails you? Use technology ofcourse. The dragon retrieves his own comm unit and starts scanning for emergency broadcasts, S.O.S alerts, distress signals and so on... when an agent falls their comm unit was a dead givaway, as intended. Now he just had to hope luck was on his side, and this Jake person wasn't some radical man-child who didn't abide by the rules of on-duty safety. Alas... scant information. No blaring save me beacons, just a modest readout that informs Magnus his target was by the river. So the drsgon goes along, upstream, looking for his target. "JACK!" he calls out, hoping for a response... or a feral to vent his frustrations on.

Epsilon sighs. Nothing of interest. And no sign of the missing fox either. Which makes the kaiju to stop for a moment to asserts her options. Odds are that the fox wouldn't want to stray away from the river too much. Likely. Still..

For a moment, she thought of roaring. But decides against, as the fox would be probably scared as well. Instead, she presses on, frowning upon the loud call, before getting distracted by sneaky mutations, as an aftermath of previous recent fights. To a fault, she decides to join in the calling attempt, yelling, 'JAAAKE!?', as well.

Lilac looks after Anderson as he moves off to help pack the boxes. She frowns slightly. Still nervous of a possible attack she decides to stay the course and keep watch. She's here to keep the researchers safe, after all. She slowly slithers down the riverbank until she's nearly at the water and scans around, before leaning down to peek into the murky depths. "Hrm.." She reaches over to tap at her comm to address the group. "Any luck finding him? Nothing at the river just yet."

Caramel gethers up her stuff as the rest of her team finally get their things together and mobile. Each of the members get near Caramel, expecting her orders. "Alright everyone..." Caramel starts in. "Jake is still out there, but we have most of the equipment we need. We'll start east at point 2." turning towards the east, she starts to walk away from the camp and the others follow. The faint cry from Magnus makes her ears twitch as she sighs. "I hope you bunch can beat up mutants, because this is going to be a hike."

As Magnus follows the trail east, his shout catches the attention of a honey otter taking a drink by the river. It approaches him, looking for an easy lay, juding by the erection between his legs. Meanwhile, Magnus hears a panicked rustling in the foliage some ways along the river's shore to the north-east along the bend. They still, but Magnus hears a faint whimper of pain amongst them.

The calling out from both Epsilon and Magnus stir up some mutant attention, bored or aggressive mutants begin being drawn to their locations.

Anderson replies, "W-Well, that's why we h-have equipment f-for that." He unslings his shotgun and holds it downward, ready but not aimed at anyone. The snake moves to bring up the rear of the group and hisses, "I-I think w-we'll be f-fine as... long as w-we stick together. I h-have rear g-guard i-in case things c-come from that way."

"I prefer to use my words, these days, but I can hit things if need be," Nena answers, sauntering after the researchers, hands still tucked in her pockets. "Maybe they will shy away from a group this large. Maybe not, but we can hope."

Anderson hisses, "M-most of th-the time, numbers are s-strength and it k-keeps most attackers a-away."

Cute little tyke. The dragon sighs and picks him up before he could use that cock, applies a firm noogie to he feral's head and then tosses the male back into the water. "Away with you, I have a job to do." he growls before moving over towards the origins of thst whimpering. It couldn't be that easy, right? "Jake, you sorry fuzball, are you here? Caramel's loking like she's ready to rip your whiskers clean off." he rumbles as he peers through the foliage.

Lilac perks up on hearing Caramel calling out, and sashays her way back up the riverbank to rejoin the scientists. She looks over to Anderson as he takes up the rear, and nods as she hurries to the front of the group, wanting to use her more imposing presence to draw attention from any potential attackers. She smiles at Caramel and nods. "Lead on, I'll be right here just in case."

Danger was coming. Epsilon knew it. Even if she couldn't tell from where. Attracting attention was always bound to be seen. And mutants always stand near within these places..

Conciously removing her glove off her right hand, she reveals her wickedly sharp-clawed appendice, poising herself into a fighting stance, lounging carefully toward the voices and thrown feral, ready to beat down any that would dare to tempt their luck against the huge spider. 'You'd better not miss me, y'all. Because i won't miss you. Nor that i will falter so easily.'.

Caramel notices the scent from Anderson and is thankful she's not receptive... but she is still feeling a little pent up. Toughing through it, she makes her way to the first survey point. "Here we are. Okay everyone, get to work!" Looking to Lilac, Anderson, and Nena, she says, "You three, drop our stuff and check our surroundings. If anyone makes any trouble, I assume you know how to yell for help." The rest of her team starts to assemble their equipment as a few take out a set of vials to collect some water. The vixen herself begins frantically writing things down in her notebook.

Magnus easily throws the otter aside. With such ease, the otter takes the hint and flees through the water heading west. As Magnus calls out to Jake before looking, it gives a water dragon and three of his otter friends, one of whom has a fish's ass, time to stare at Magnus, interupting their fun. In the center of the group of feral mutants, is a ragged heap of mostly-fox, his tail is that of an otters, but his legs are those of a dragon. The ferals growl and hiss at their interupted fun and start to approach Magnus. Luckily, Zophah comes diving in through the trees, but she arrives at the opposite side of Magnus from the group of ferals.

Epsilon shows his aggression to... nothing in perticular. There is some noise in the distance to the north-east where Magnus and co is presently.

Anderson hisses, "R-Right away!" With that, he sets down some of the science things by the other researchers and slithers about the perimeter. His thoughts do stray to Caramel and her rather attractive figure, even that of the other agents in the security detail, but Andy shakes it off and focuses back on warding off any ferals from the expedition.

"Right, right. I can do that." Nena sets down whatever she was carrying and stuffs her hands back into the pockets of her trousers as she turns to wander off to help secure the area. "Not a bad job so far," she murmurs to herself. "Don't even have to do much more than I usually do." The river was a nice enough place as far as scenery was concerned, to boot.

Lilac sets down the pack she had carefully picked up earlier, and resets her grip on her gun as she turns to scan the perimeter. With her attention diverted away from the researchers and onto the treeline, she slithers up to take position between it and the group. "Stay sharp now. We still don't know where the others are, after all.. "

Zophah dives right for the group man-handling the fox, using her illusion nanomagic to cause distractions. Her fast action and suprise gives her the oppertunity to grab the fox and start running. She hops onto the back of her totemic bear like a steed, running at full speed back to camp while her shield drone covers her. Within the seconds it takes for this action to work, Zophah shouts to Magnus: "Get the equipment, I've got Jake!"

Epsilon decides to ignore what there isn't within her sight, to rush toward the ruckus that seems to be going on, plowing her way forcefully through the trees, just to spot Magnus and Zophah around a group of mutants.. guarding something?

Blood pumped, and aware of who to strike, thanks to Zophah's maneuver, she swings wildly her right arm toward the mutant group, prioritizing the water dragon. 'I'll get them occupied! Snag the thing and scurry off!'.