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!'.

The dragon sighs deeply as he sees the scene before himself. His senses were as sharp as a surgical blade, and he knew well enough he'd be getting backup pronto. So... he moves in and snags the female otter of the lot, hoisting her over his shoulder, while his other hand lifts and directs his ink blaster to coat the remaining ferals in thick, viscous... ink. Mind out of the gutter! While the lot of the ferals are trying to get ink out of their eyes, he watches the fox dash off bareback on a bear, then snatches the equipment with his now free hand and heads back towards the encampment. No rush, and he had a cuddly little friend to squeeze against himself now too. "All yours!" he yells to Epsilon along the way "Don't want them following us back, right?" Too true, and it was only a matter of time before the ink falls off too...

Anderson

While on their way back to camp, Zophah quickly notices Jake's wounds and broken bones with her biomonitoring sight nanomagic. With barely a wave of her hand, she uses her medical nanomagic to mend Jake completely. "Were here for you. Going to drop you off at base camp where you can be taken care of." She then plans her next task, not skipping a beat.

The group of mutants barely get a chance to charge at Magnus as one of them is held and the others are blinded. While Magnus distracts them, Zophah successfully evacuates Jake, though the swift movement makes him howl in pain. The blinded mutants thrash wildly towards where Magnus was, but only manage to injure the once captive hostage as the dragon makes a run for it. Still blinded somewhat, the mutants are left with Epsolon. Someone who they are quite keen to take their aggression out on.

Caramel looks worried as she takes notes. Some of the team members are using long-hafted tools to check the flow of the river in various places, some are anchored to trees as they use a simple boat to hold themselves as the sample more areas of the water. Soon, the otter that Magnus threw away makes its way downriver and encounters the group. Lilac is the first to notice as the otter swims his way towards the boating researcher.

Lilac rolls her shoulders as she keeps watch, the weight of the heavy gun starting to take it's toll even for the towering cowsnake. She glances over at the water and pauses, noticing movement in the water. Her eyes flit, noticing the researcher, and the boat. She taps her commlink as she starts moving down the slope towards the riverbank to cry out. "Feral in the water. Watch out!" She hefts her gun and takes aim, angling the shot high to deal with the gun's severe drop-off.

The absurd device whirrs into action with the crackling of accumulating power as the cannon powers up, giving Lilac time to aim the shot. She past the swimming otter, trying to shoot not to hit, but to put the gravity cannon's center of effect behind the swimming feral - a warning shot, and one far away from the boating researcher, she hopes. "Heads up! Incoming!" With a whine and a screech of the nanite-powered cannon, she discharges it.

Epsilons swipe of her claws hits the blinded waterdragon dead on, knocking it around of off hir feet. Epsilons swipe also managed to nick the male otter in the gut, wounding him with a decent gash. The still mostly untouched otter, now able to soo somewhat, sees enough to know that he's not going to win any battles and flees from the area, abandoning his comrades.

Magnus meanwhile was taking things a lot easier than thelot of his comrades. He eventually arrives back in camp, either before or after Zophah, it doesn't matter. Protecting the scientists seemed well in hand, though using high-powered weapons to fend off things as cute and innocent as otters seemed, fron-worthy to him. Even so, he delivers the lost gear to the fox in charge, his feral otter captive still in his other arm, carried around like a teddy bear, pressed against his chest. So soft... though she did smell like, well... fish. "Jake should be on his way, or already here... I think he's... yeah. Zops got him. Anyway, here's the gear." he offers her the bag of mcguffins, then bows away and takes a seat to relax with his snuggly new friend.

Nena perks up when Lilac calls out the incoming, and looks over- But the otter was in the river. She wasn't going in there if she could help it. Maybe if she had some kind of gun. As is though, she stays where she is and keeps eyes on it, in case it proves to be a distraction to lure her away from another threat that might approach from her end.

Anderson perks up at Lilac's call to action. Still... Maybe they'd need his help. The cobra bites his lip and remains on post, just in case there's other ferals coming in from the other directions of the expedition.

Epsilon pounds the now kneeling down dragon, using the made opportunity to pin hir down, ignoring the cowardly otter, to focus, with an hateful gaze, on the wounded remaing otter, quickly flashing her right hand as an intimidation act, until another spurt of infection goes by, catching her offguard, trying to steel herself from the familiar feeling. 'Urf.. Don't.. you dare.. Getting in our way! Flee. Before i personally kill you.', followed by another grunt.

Now that Zophah has Jake secure and healed, she goes to help the researchers. A seasoned scientist herself, she leaves the protection to the fighters and goes where she can to maximize her effectiveness.

The blast from Lilac's gravity cannon is expertly placed. It pulls back on the otter while allowing the boating fox to flee from the aggressive male. Despite it's struggles, it fails to get to the fox in time and instead redirects its attention to Lilac in anger. Caramel watches from the shore, but is startled when Zophah's totemic bear delivers Jake. Rushing over, she drops her notes aside and take Jake off the bear and set him on the ground. "Jake? JAKE?!" She gives the fox hybrid a slap on the face. "Jake!" Jake slowly stirrs, "Ow!" The fox yells out, his surroundings still coming into focus.

The female otter in Magnus' arms seems like she doesn't want to be there, but even she knows that with what happened with the others and the number of people around her, she'd best sit still.

Caramel waits for Jake's senses to return, but quickly thumbs through the equipment and gives Magnus a breif look, but returns her attention to Jake as she stands over him with a scowl.

The hostile otter gets closer, swimming fast towards Lilac. When he reaches the shore, his intent is made clear with the cock bobbing in front of him as she makes a dash for the cow snake hybrid.

The cow-snake's heavy gun hisses as it vents the excess heat from the shot. It will need to cool down somewhat before it can fire again, certainly not quick enough that she can fire at the charging otter moving with such velocity in her direction. She sets the gun down atop the nearby rocky outcropping she was using as vantage point, and raises her fists as she gets ready to defend herself.

Back near where they found Jake, Epsilon pounds the water dragon into submission. The remaining otter is left to hir own devices. With the wound in her gut, she doesn't feel like figting kaiju's with claws bigger than her body, especially with the threat of death from Epsilon. Now limp against Epsilon, the water dragon whimpers pittifully.

Rising back onto his feet, the dragon drapes his captive over one shoulder, then draws a gun what looks like it were designed by a mad scientist for a mad scientist. The bazoka-like barrel starts to rumble and glow out the nozzle before what appears to be a massive shock wave parts it. The concussive force sweeps past Lilac and bowls over the charging feral, knocking it back, and down. Who knows, maybe the wave also causes some more damage in their favor along the way...

Epsilon relaxes at last, believing that the bulk of the threat has been sucessfully culled down, she undoes her pression off the dragon, before she carefully grab the beast and heft it atop her shoulder, keeping hold of hir with her left hand.

She makes her way back from where she went, unaware of the attack that took place by the rest of the team, pondering what to do of her newly captured catch.

"Oh hey, you got the guy back. Good work," Nena comments before her attention is stolen by the otter now on shore. That was something she could reach, now! She moves closer towards Lilac, ready to help defender her should it come to that, but before it does... "Hey there," she greets the Otter with an amicable smile. "I know how you feel. I don't suppose I could convince you to wait, though, hmm? If you wait for this work to all be over, maybe one of us can pay you a visit and you don't have to fight for what you want. I mean look at you, you've taken a few knocks already, surely you would be better off waiting." She was lying through her teeth of course, but who cared.

Lilac flinches as the concussive blast roars past her, the lamia shying away from it and shielding her face with her forearms like a boxer about to soak a punch. She peeks between her forearms to see if the coast is clear, then tries to play it off cool as she pats herself down and reaches to grab her gun again. Everything's fine!

As the male otter rushes at Lilac, a precise blast knocks the otter back with enough for to slam against a nearby tree, rendering him unconcious. The otter in Magnus' hold lets out a confused and alarmed yelp as something happens behind her. She is not however, easy to let her guard down around Magnus, instead keeping herself passive in his presence.

With the hostile ferals take out of the picture, Caramel is free to stare daggers into Jake. Jake doesn't get to focus on Caramel before she screams at him. "What do you think you are doing?! You could have gotten yourself turned feral or worse! Stupid motherfucker! What were you trying to pull, huh?!" The vixen shouts out with her muzzle barred at him. Jake whimpers in response and looks like he's about to cry.

Once Epsilon picks up the dragon like it were a mere toy, it starts to attempt to wiggle out of her grasp and flee for its like. It takes Epsilon some time to return, but by the time he does, the captive dragon on his shoulder is still struggling.

The rest of the team is distracted by the display from Caramel, but a few stay with Zophah as she assists them in the efforts, glad that someone is keeping things moving, at least.

Zophah continues with her help of the researchers, making her own notes in nanite-sealed paper. Her tendancy to provide leadership and work ethic seems to be what they needed for the time being, focusing on the tasks at hand.

Magnus sighs softly and moves off towards the river. He releases the female back i to the stream, reholsters his firearm and takes a steat dead center in the camp. Crossing his legs in the lotus position, he lets time pass him by, likely to awaken if really needed for one reason or another.

"So much for talking them out of it," Nena mumbles as the otter is sent off to dreamland. She clicks her tongue and fishes another cigarette out of a little case, turning away from the group to return to her post as she lights it up. "Overall, I'll rate the day a six," she decides quietly to herself as she returns her hands to her pockets.

Epsilon is annoyed that the dragon doesn't stop squirming, but her grip remain firm, and her strength allows her to easily keep the captor in her grasp.

With a hint of detachment, she takes the sudden yelling episode with less care than she probably should, partly thanks to her attention being used elsewhere. 'Hey.. No need to get angry.. We got him and he's.. mostly fine..? All is well, no?'.

Then she squirms, harrummmping as she feels yet another wave of heat raising, making her precipitately sit down to try to calm down.

Caramel loops to Epsilon, giving him a look, then looks back to Jake. "What do you have to say for yourself? Haven't you caused enough trouble for the agents we got to come along? You're lucky you just got away with some bruising! Just look at yourself. You're not even the fox you were this morning! Your feet are webbed and your tail is thick!" She sniffs the air, "Are those breasts? Do you have..." Reaching down, she lifts away Jakes small cock and balls to find a cute little vulpine spade between his sack and ass. "You're in heat! Dipshit!" Jake busts down in tears, holding his face in his hands. Caramel throws her hands out in frustration as Jake cries on the ground.

The dragon in Epsilons grasp eventually just gives up and lets her carry hir around to do... whatever she wants with.

The female otter quickly swims away from Magnus as she's let go, though she does glance back to the dragon before exiting the scene.

The male sighs deeply and rises back onto his feet. His hand meets the crying vixen's shoulder a d he gives her a soft smile of compassion. "Undoing these things is child's play these days. Maybe one of my companions here can do it." His voice booms out "Anyone here a coyote dedicant?"

Lilac finally reaches the rest of the group, again hefting the (now much less hot) gun to rest on her shoulder once more. "It happens.." She says with a smile, trying to disarm the tension. "That's why we were here, right? Just in case something happened. And everything's fine. We can figure it out later and-" She pauses, nodding at Magnus. "Or that, I suppose."

"Dedicant? I can't say that I am." Nena flicks a bit of ash onto the ground between drags as she turns. "Mmmm. RSX sells pills for that, too. I don't think I have any on my, unfortunately, and it's a bit far or I'd offer to go get some. I am sure you'll get it figured out, though. If not by the time we're back... Maybe you can catch a ride north.

Epsilon chimes in, 'Coyote? Sound like a cheap easy way to solve that, if you ask me. But don't get me wrong. It would probably be for the best. But shouldn't we ask the guy.. herm.. in question? What he'd.. *sie'd* want to do.'. She briefly pause, idly peeking at the dragon. 'And if worst come to worst, things can be undone. No need to hold a grudge.'.

Caramel looks to the rest of the team. "Everyone back to work, we still have a day ahead of us." Spotting Zopha she snorts. "At least one of you agents know how to take readings..." Walking over, she picks up her notes and brushes the dirt and grime off as best as she can. Jake calms down enough, but is still distraught. "I just wanted to help! I hate being the bottom of the group. I'm just slowing everyone down." He sobs. Caramel looks over and shakes her head at him with a sigh. "We can fix his body later... we have a job to do. He'll just have to live with a pussy untill we get back to Zephyr."

Lilac looks between each interlocutor, frowning slightly at the direction the conversation seems to be taking. "Back to work indeed. Let's gather up what we need and move on. Now that we're all here it should be easy, right?" She smiles, trying to lighten the mood. "As long as we don't do anything overly noisy or go poking things with sticks we should be able to finish up and walk away with no more trouble."

"Well lad..." Magnus sighs and crosses his arms "You can see where that got you. Had Zophah not found you, you'd have been feral and likely pregnant by now. If you want to pull forward, make sure you got what it takes. Train, study up, prepare, then act." The male taps his horehead, before stepping away to take a seat elsewhere, on the ground and in the lotus position as before.

Anderson stumbles back to the rest of the group, lucky that he hadn't gotten lost after most of the group had started moving on. He slithers along at the rear of the group, staying quiet as the others go about their business. Still... he felt bad for poor Jake. The agent saw a lot of himself in the mutated fox, but the snake couldn't really say anything that'd suddenly fix everything. Andy keeps to himself with the group, too shy to speak up.

One of the researches gives Jake a light kick to try and get him up. "Come on... we have a lot of work to do... girl." Caramel's ears twitch and her notebook lowers. She gives the team member a look that can stab. "Work. Now." She instructs, making him rush promptly into into getting readings from the river. Looking at the rest of the group, she speaks up to the group. "I think you've done enough here, if you want to stay and watch or help, you may, but for those of you leaving, I'll call someone over to take your place. I think most of you have had enough excitement for one day." Looking over to Epsilon, she isn't sure what to make of the captive water dragon. "Whatever you do with that thing, make sure it stays under your control. I will be reporting this so people know who to look if that dragon gets out of hand." With the commotion dying down, she turns her back to the group and gets busy writing information down. "Don't worry about Jake, he'll calm down eventually."

"Fair enough. Good luck to you." Magnus nods, then lowers his head for a moment, seemingly considering things. "I... eish to remain for a while longer. I will try not to be a bother." he asks of the expedition leader, before giving the other agents a quiet glance and a light smile. "It was nice meeting you all. Good work today."

Zophah continues to help where she can, not slowing down even as the day wears on. Only once she's sure that everything is begining to wrap up does she go on her way. "I wish the rest of you a good day, and good luck in getting that water turbine researched." With a wave, Zophah heads home.

Epsilon mostly idly nods to the following of the foxes' discussion, not without a hint of displeasure as of how blunt the reactions are, only to feel stupid, blushing, as she is dully being remarked of her.. unique newly-made 'friend', echoing with past mischevious acting. She stammers, 'I-i'll remember that..!', getting up too quickly for being completly honest.

Lilac stays with the researchers until they return to safety. Despite her earlier offer, she can't do much to help the actual research other than carry equipment or do other menial tasks, but she takes those tasks gladly.