It's the edge of the Fairhaven bubble, and the nanite signal can be felt weakening as the group aproaches the outer rim. There is no greeting agent this time, just a gathering place for agents who accepted the call sent out on comms. Once confirmed, the mission details give previous knowledge on the ferals, and includes the route to the feral's nest from the gathering point. It's just up to the agents to be ready first. It's warmer and sunny for a late January day, hopefully the weather stays that way.

Arris shuddered lightly as she left the bubble, giving her pockets a brief pat-down as she approached the gathering point. The gator had been out on one of these ventures in the past, and decided it would be best to help, based on her prior experience. She double-checks hir pockets - knowing how freaky these creatures could get, she had gotten some specially-crafted ammunition for this exact purpose. Now all that was left was to wait for the others to arrive at the meetup point, and she re-examines the route once more on hir comm.

"Skipper's in the wardroom drinking gin!" Magnus would sing a merry tune, his stride wide and his face graced with that ever-present smile of his. "Hi-ho, chicken on a raft!" his wee footpaws would impact the ground in time with the rhythm, "I don't mind knocking but I ain't going in!" his attire was fairly modest, just a jacket and some pantaloons, the former a smooth leathery brown while the latter were well, denim! "Hi-ho, chicken on a raft!" 'Jimmy's' laughing like a drain!" he'd keep on singing as he approaches the meeting spot "Hi-ho, chicken on a raft!" Once he spots arris, he'd quickly blurt out the rest of the lyrics~ "Been looking at m' 'comic cuts' again. Hey -oh, chicken on a raft!" hefore moving in to give the gator a quick hug! "Hey there good lookin' whatcha got cookin?"

Gliding low as he approaches the large winged Hellhound makes his landing at a jog as the nanites slowly thin out to the point his wings refuse to work properly. Drawing them around himself as if a cloak the 'hound, toting a rather large shogun and no doubt several other weapons concealed in his coat, the infernal canine comes to a stop at the meeting spot... third to arrive. Shrinking down from the grand size he usually sports to one more appropriate for staying alive without the Nanite Soup he clears his throat and smiles. "Nice to see some familiar faces on the job." he says, repositioning his shotgun to be balanced on his shoulder with just one hand on the stock he continues, "So... the job called for six people. Are we a bit early, or are we undermanned?"

Time passes as the three stand waiting for more agents, but none arrive. Eventually the comms beep with updates on what to expect, the path to get to the mission location, and a short message to stay on the lookout for anything valuable to bring back if anything is found.

*beep beep beep* "Ack... this blazin thing again?" Magnus huffs as he looks at his comm unit. "Wait... just us three then? Alright! Let's make this a good one then!" the fox... actually smiles about that? Well, then again given his last blunder outside the bubble's reach, he'd reminded himself how poorly he functioned in large groups. A soft rub to his bicep would serve as a chilling touch of bitter recollection, not something he'd be forgetting anytime soon to be sure. "ALRIGHT!" he'd sound off. "WE HAVE A JOB TO DO! Let's make this quick, keep it simple and try not to get horrifically massacred by whatever it is we might encounter out there!" The fox would yip sharply, give Arris a quick hip-bump, a nod to Ebreus, then head off towards their assigned destination with a wide and jovial stride. Adventure!

Arris gets bumped a little by Magnus hugging her, but laughs it off. "Ah, not much is really goin' on with me... if that's what you're asking, that is." She bumps him away with her hip, spotting Ebreus after she does so.

Shortly after, hir comm would beep with the new information recieved. "Be on the lookout for anything valuable, huh..? Well, I suppose looking at things is one of my expertises." Adjusting the position of the rifle slung over her back, she gives the two others a nod. "Alright, let's go." The nod sent Magnus' way is interrupted by the hip-bump, and she just gives him a chuckle.

"Say, Ebreus..." As the group walks, Arris drifts closer to him. "I don't think I've seen you on the last mission, so I can give you a bit more briefing if you need it."

With the waiting and then finally the message acting as their briefing Ebreus shakes his head, "Right so undermanned it is." he says. Taking the shotgun from his shoulder he stretches as he's bumped by the smaller man. Flashing a wider grin to him a moment before turning his attention to Arris, "Yeah, I hadn't had time to read the report of the previous mission so the bullet points would be helpful... I assume this can't be worse than the CoT but I've been wrong before.... and of course they'd want us to grab anything valuable we're bein' sent out by Zephyr." And with that the hound does a few simple stretches and follows after the Fennec.

The trip to the nest is uneventful, but is quite a walk away from Fairhaven. A couple hours the route leads to the desolate town where the nest was known to be. 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.

Magnus meanwhile had pulled out a flute to play a tune on, the very same he'd been singing on his arrival. It was his way to pass the time and keep his steps even, his stride energetic and his advance tireless. He kept his ears perked though his eyes seemed to wander more often towards the clouds than anything else. It was a warm and sunny day, the kind of weather that Magnus would thrive in, energizing and soothing all the same. Once they'd reached the town however...

"Aw, man... I didn't know we were headed to Gloomsville, USA. Heck, I didn't know it was a place to begin with!" He'd spot something in the shadows, though makes little sense of it. "We got uhhh... snakes? They might be the locals. Poor sods, living in a dump like this..." Magnus would raise his shoulders, then continue playing his song as they advance.

"The 'see-oh-tee"..?" Arris raises an eyebrow before shaking her head. "Well, the basic gist is that, y'know, they're flesh abominations. And that obviously means they're bad. Uh.... let's see, what else... oh, right, there was a room that looked like someone's chest cavity, but big. And a goo blob thing that sucks you up and drags you to the chest cavity room to be, y'know, deformed into a flesh abomination, because I guess the nanites watched too much of John Carpenter before this place was made."

As the group approaches the town, Arris hushes up and unslings her rifle, fixing a supressor to the end of her rifle as sie follows after the others. "Sssh, Magnus. I see something else..." Loading an incindiary round into the chamber, she takes aim at a feral she spotted, lurking in the shadows; after lining the crosshairs with its back, she pulls the trigger, aiming to blast the wings until they're of no use.

Morale kept my the pleasant tune on the hours of walking the still quite large Hellhound keeps pace with the fox just fine, covering distance in great strides that would be short leaps to most. Nodding as he's given the jist of the last mission he replies, "So don't get sucked into the giant chest cavity... good to know." he says. He snickers lighly as Magnus describes the place... only to immediately quiet himself when Arris tries to quiet Magnus. Bringing up his shotgun he scans the area down the sight of his scattergun as Arris fires her silenced shot.

As Arris fires off into the bushes, a roar of anguish echoes out through the town. Jumping away is looks like a hedge in the shape of a dragon with a wasp stinger. As the incendiary rounds continues to smolder through it's fiberous wings, the mutant starts running away. As for the other mutant mentioned, it doesn't seem to move from where ever it is.

"Perfect..." Magnus sighs and shakes his head. "Well if there was any doubt they didn't know we were here, now they certainly do, and they think we're hostile too." Magnus casts Arris a disappointed look and puts his flute away, muttering something about an itchy trigger finger. "Since you two are very well armed and ready to fight a war by the looks of things, I'm gonna use the commotion you just caused to see if I can slip in undetected and get a bead on any valuables worth looting."

The wee lad proceeds towards the nearest wall and takes a leap into it, latching with those nimble fingers of his onto the cracks and even faintest of imperfections in its surface. The ruins he was using for his ascent were nigh ideal for the purpose.

He'd scurry up the sides with great rapidity, almost crawling up their surfaces as he moves quickly toward the roof of the first, then takes a leap to the second and advances up the side of a third structure, taking a dive into one of the windows to emerge out another and proceed all the way onto the chimney of the nearest and tallest structure in view. There he'd perch with his hands and toes, looking over the better part of the city. Seems he'd found something, or so did the expression on his face suggest. Taking out his comm unit, he fiddles with it for a few moments before sending pictures of the town hall, and streets leading toward it from his vantage point.

Arris gives a nod Magnus' way. "Sure. Would probably be better that way, if I sniped for you as you got in and pinpointed the exact location we need to go to. Try to stay in locations I can see you from - it's safer that way." As the fox set off, Arris loaded a normal round into the sniper rifle, keeping Magnus in the center of her vision and a watchful eye on everything else, glancing back to see if another feral she had spotted before hadn't already escaped her sights.

Crimson-glowing eyes immediately catching the movement of the fleeing abomination the 'hounds inclination toward science kicks in and he scrutinizes it's form, taking note of all the different mutations present and how the mix is very unlike what can be done back come. "Strange hybridization they've got..." he says. He blinks and his eyes glow brighter as he scans the surroundings for anything giving off heat, they may be able to hide in the visible spectrum but infrared may reveal them. As he scans he mutters something about Magnus and his father.

As his enhanced sight picks something out he slowly steps forward, continuing to look down the sights of his scattergun as he moves, lingering on one spot and returning to it periodically... is he trying to indicate something... if so maybe not the best way of doing it.

The screeching of the fleeing mutant echo in the empty town long after it leaves line of sight, fading away until the town lies silent once again. A chill wind blows through, and the second spoted mutant seems to stay immoble and quiet.

The fennec in the far distance meanwhile reaches into his pack and pulls out a pair of binoculars. He'd spend a few seconds fiddling with them to adjust the magnification and focus the lenses, then spend a few good seconds peering down towards their objective. There was no way he could send magnified pictures to his team, nor was he about to jump down there on his own, but at the very least he could let them have as much information as they possibly can.

Once he'd seen as much as he can see, the fox puts his specs away and dangles down from the chimney, one hand gripping the edge, his feet propping him against the side opposite the town hall, and his other hand grasping his comm unit. He'd ping the others and let them know, "That's our mark, there aren't any ferals in the area, none that I can see at least... there's some strange frog of some sorts, metallic somehow... it's in the building. Be careful, guys. This smells like an ambush six ways to Sunday."

Seeing that Ebreus has now spotted the feral she saw earlier, Arris does a focused look around to try to see if any more ferals are present before her sights settle back towards Magnus as he drops down the chimney. The comm message comes shortly after, and Arris stands up from her position, rereading through the pile of images sent to her via comm; once she approaches the town's roads proper, she clicks her tongue to discreetly get Ebreus' attention as the gator steadily and quietly made her way towards the town hall. "A metallic frog..? This, I'm curious about, now."

Slowly moving toward the hall as the images come to him he studies the images, mental for him as his comm is integrated into his NICE. He tries to remain quiet as he studies them and as Arris speaks something occurs to him and his eyes widen for just a moment before returning to normal, "Metal hide... shot'll probably ricochet off." he says, "It is curious, and dangerous." he says. *Also, if you can, using the comms would probably be safer... never know we may be dealing with something that has very keen hearing.* He taps his temple to indicate his comm is in his head as he slowly turns around to check behind them then to the other side before continuing toward the Town Hall.

Making their way to the town hall no other ferals are found, but it's clear that the second mutant is following them from the shadows. As the afternoon wears on, the sun hangs lower in the sky, lengthing the shadow cast by the old town hall.

From up high spotting their follower, especially with a sturdy pair of binoculars proved at least manageable. Considering the possibility that these things were sentient, Magnus starts a gradual, and quiet descent downwards, weaving and ducking among the rubble to intersect paths with the strange creature stalking his team. He'd drop down with a soft gust of air around a corner among the alleyways, in a good place to ambush the beastie.

As it rounds the corner, he would silently leap, cling to a space in the wall before dropping down onto the serpentine entity. Alas, at the size of an adolescent, all the agility in the world could not help him right now. The so called monster thrashes and flails, its strength overwhelming his, proving fierce and slippery enough to force him off. Tucking and rolling as he impacts the ground, Magnus is given but a half-second's time to react once the beastie lashes out at him with its tendrils.

Here, at the very least, a nimble body proves useful, as the horrid creature strikes naught but air, no matter how hard it tries. The fox huffs and folds down his ears, then reaches into his coat to pull out a menacing looking wide-nozzled pistol-esque device. Aiming however was difficult under the barrage of swipes from its stretchy limbs, for now...

Arris tsks, observing the sky as she steps up to the town hall. "I'd bet that the mutants around here have improved night vision. Going out in the dark might be dangerous." Just before entering, she takes a quick glance around the foyer of the town hall, starting with the ceiling and going down from there. "Step 1 is to always look up. Faceless soldiers in the bad guy's army always forget this and miss something crucial."

Holding the door for Ebreus, Arris enters the room. "If you have a way to hold the doors down temporarily, one would be appreciated. I saw a big-ass bug on the way here, and I don't like bugs." Her gaze once again moves over the rest of the room, and eventually she spots the stone statue from last time. "...ah, Ebreus, there's that goo ball thing I was talking about before, it's pretending to be a statue. Hang on, I think the Zephyr scientists might want to take a closer look at this, so one second..." A nanite collecting-vial kept in hand, she cautiously approaches the statue, preparing herself to dodge on the spot if need be.

Ebreus follows close behind Arris as she opens the door, "Yeah..." he says as she reiterates one good tip for dealing with situations that may, or definitely, have creeping horrors. He takes a breath as she holds the door stepping inside, "Didn't bring any nails... if you can make a nanite field I could glue-" he cuts himself off as the sound of combat reaches them, "Damnit Magnus." he says and grabs the door handle, "Hold up on that." he calls to Arris as he exits the building, bounding out toward the sound of combat and quickly arriving at the fight between the creature and Magnus, "If you can understand me freeze!" he demands, "You don't want to feel what happens when I fire." he adds and gives the beast a second to process what he said... and with it continuing to attack his teammate a loud blast rings out from his scattergun as metallic shot quickly impacts and cuts into the creature.

The naga-millipede attacking Magnus screeches in pain as the shot tears into its back, and starts to flee toward the town hall where Arris is. Meanwhile, with Arris left in the hall a stone statue seemly comes to life, jumping like an amorphous slime and coliding strait into Arris. As it pins hir to the ground, shi sees a robot-like frog jumping to the top of the front hall's stairs, firing off what looks like a glob of latex that further pins Arris down.

The moment a familiar figure pops into the scene, Magnus was out of there. Ebreus needed no help, but his big ears were acute enough to tell someone else did. Bounding over and under the wreckage of the town, rolling with the terrain, he outruns the injured feral heading towards the hive and arrives just in time to see Arris in her predicament. Raising the weapon in his hand, he once more folds down his ears and braces himself. Pulling the trigger, the kickback from the device is enough to force his light frame back a few inches, his footpaws sliding over the ground from the pushback as his weapon bellows out a concentrated shockwave potent enough to bowl over most foes. Unfortunately, his target ducks for cover and avoids the worst behind a bannister.

Arris falls right on her ass as the goo pins her to the floor by her abdomen. Letting out a yelp, she immediately begins struggling free - though its usefulness was debatable, it's further dampened when the latex glob smacks against her leg, pinning it down and preventing use of it. "Hey, when I said I was curious, I didn't mean I wanted to go this close!" The first nanite vial gets dipped into the latex glob and pulled out before Arris caps a cork onto it, and another one is pulled out to scoop up some of the concrete slime's goo. Both are rolled off to the side for a temporary safekeeping, and the gator returns to struggling. The most important part was to keep all the goo off her mouth and nose - based on her past experience, she remembered seeing a friend's head get stuck in it, and since she needed air unlike him, being suffocated was a bad thing.

The loud sound catches her attention. "Hey, careful! I can handle myself, if the things here planned on directly harming me, they would've done it already! Just handle the feral outside!" She begins making an effort to escape the globs of slime, and failing that, would at least attempt to prevent the concrete from spreading over her head.

"Oh no you don't!" Ebreus yells at the wounded monster as he swings his scattergun like a greatclub, nailing it in the middle of the back and knocking it down just long enough to follow up with a strike to the back of the head rendering it unconscious... or at least the 'hound hoped that hit wasn't lethal when he saw it stop moving but there was no time to check as he was quickly off... not as fast as his fox friend but, hopefully, not too slow to not be helpful he rushed back toward the Town Hall now that the naga-millipede had been dealt with. "Da fuck?!" he says seeing how the situation has deteriorated since when he left to aid Magnus, Arris fighting the good and mecha-frog

While Arris manages to pull the slime off of hir, the metal frog on the second floor fires off another latex glob, sticking to Arris. As this combat progresses, the town hall starts to feel 'funny'. A nanite signal starts to spread through the building, everyone's nanites 'itching' at this wierd signal.

The fox puts his pistol away under his coat and reaches towards his back, drawing a baseball bat and flicking a small switch at the handle. The barbs around its head light up in a flurry of sparks. "Here's Maggie!" the fox hisses menacingly before bounding sharply towards their attacker. He leaps against the wall, and bounces off its surface, contacts the bannister with one foot and changes direction, not once touching the slime before scoring a landing right next to the frog. What follows is a series of pained croaks, the rough noise of metal being pounded mercilessly, electric discharges in the form of sharp crackles and whirring hisses before the mutant is flung downstairs, battered, bruised and unconscious. Now then, about that treasure...

Splat! The latex hits against Arris' chest, weighing her down quite a bit, but at least she had managed to free herself from the concrete goo. Though still weighed down by the latex that pinned her leg, she manages to stand upright and put some distance from the concrete goo - and then, the strange signal courses through her body. "Whatever you guys do, don't use anything that relies on nanites! The weird bubble signal here is going to mess it up!"

Now, the gator was staring down the large concrete goo blob, waiting for it to make a move. Slowly, her hand reached behind her back, reaching for the acid gun she brought for this occasion and slowly pulling it out from the gooed-up holster she kept it in. She wanted to spray it down, but also, wanted her sniper rifle back. The concrete goo had enveloped it alongside her abdomen when it first attacked, and she wanted to avoid having to clean it out or get replacement parts, but if worst came to worst, the acid gun would be used instead.

As the weird nanite signal starts up the Hellhound sets his sights on the mecha-frog... flicking his fingers and- quickly stopping himself from activating Electrical Assault as first Magnus leaps into action blocking his shot, and as it turns out saving his ass with the revelation from Arris that the signal is bad. With that revelation and the frog taking quite the beating from the smol fox the hound opens the breach of his shotgun and loads the next round, "You're outmatched, stand down!" he yells at the goo as he brings the sights back up aiming at it, ready to fire when it ignores his demands... and just as expected as he's ignored another blast echos forth from his boom-stick as metal pellets are accelerated at great speed towards his target.

The shot hits the goo right in the middle, and the goo seems to go down in one blow. And with the frog not moving either, it seems the front hall is cleared for now. There is sounds of something upstairs and arris is still pinned with latex and goo slime, the strange nanite signal starting to push Arris into possible infection.

With his baseball bat slung over one shoulder, the fennec fox leaves his companions be for now. They would be fine on their own, and they had a job to do. Hmmm, now what sort of funny knick-knacks could there be here? They were told to loot the place, but surely no one would notice if a few things went missing, especially given that no one knew what was to be found here to start with, right? Magnus' suspicions proved correct, in fact. He rubs his hands together as he spots an active terminal in the distance. Seems it was powered by some sort of battery source. Hmmmm... shiny knick knacks indeed. Standing so near it made him feel... uneasy, even a little sick to his stomach. Still, he starts working, quickly dismantling the device and setting the best components aside for himself. Within moments the device is rendered non-functional, stripped of its power source and core components. These will catch a good price, yes yes.

Arris lets out a sigh. Hopefully none of those bullets landed onto her AW. She approaches the goo blob, pulls her rifle from its slime, and rechecks her nanite collector, pressing it into both the slime and the frog to make sure it adds the vials to her NISD. While she uses it on the frog, she strokes the KOed feral's head lightly. "Aw, poor thing. ...I shouldn't say that, it's not fair to the ferals outside that aren't given the luck of looking not gross." The gator looks around. "...we should go find that family that got stolen here. If I'd guess right, they're on the chest cavity room on the second floor."

As she climbs the stairs, she approaches the room she remembered was full of flesh. "Get ready for anything, everyone. I'd guess they've prepared a surprise for the second time agents have stormed their home."

Ebreus watches Arris collect samples, "If you don't mind a double set is probably prudent..." he says. "I didn't damage your rifle, did I?" he asks. He takes a breath as Arris mentions their objective, "Right, lead the way. We should hurry... save them from this... distortion if at all possible." he says as he sticks close to the gater girl.

As Magnus loots what appears to be an improvised lab on the other side of the building, Arris and Ebreus get to the flesh room: opening the door the full effect of the corrupt nanite signal can be felt, and the room is filled wall-to-wall with pulsating sinew. Whatever this, thing, is it clearly can't leave the room, but tries its best to grab the two just outside the door.

Magnus hurries to dismantle that terminal and ends up with a pack too heavy to fit it all in. He could probably carry more, however his rule of keeping light was in danger of being violated quite thoroughly. The fox sighs and looks at the remainder of the salvageable components. He shrugs and re-assembles the rest of the computer, save for the most valuable components, the central processing unit and the graphical processing unit. The rest, such as the power box, the case, the hard drive and the motherboard he leaves in there, then picks up the shell and carries it over towards his team.

"I uhhh, found this thing. Anyone wants to take it?" he shrugs and leaves it on the ground. Sure, he had more space, but their expedition wasn't over yet. If there were other move valuable knick-knacks to snag, he wanted the wiggle room to do so effectively. Once they were greeted by a hentai surprise however, he takes a quick step back and places the bos on the ground, his hand gripping the fang of Jormungand in preparation to make old god kalamari out of that horrid fleshy abberation. Thank the stars however he was nowhere near the damn thing's reach, so all he could do for now was assist if needed.

As the fleshy tentacles burst forth from beyond the doorway the 'Hound being rather large has little room to dodge out of the way and is quickly grabbed but now, grabbed, Ebreus can use his size and strength to his advantage. Bracing his feet against the lower corners of the frame and the scattergun and his hands against the upper portion he holds himself outside of the room, the tentacle around hid midsection possessing insufficient strength to pull him through. "Eager girl, aren't you?" he says to the creature as he looks in at the monster room... a moment later a ping comes to both Arris and Magnus' comms. A pic of Ebreus, wearing his current outfit but holding the trench-coat open... though rather than being a somewhat sleazy lewd it shows where the holsters for several of his weapons are, amongst the visible weapons are a portable flamethrower and some sort of revolver with a rather large boar barrel. "Help yourselves, but get this bitch off me." he says.

The flesh room doesn't seem to pose any threat anymore, as Ebreus is too strong to be dragged in and everyone else is out of reach. A quick use of fire and acid renders the horror inanimate, and the unhealthy nanite signal starts to fade along with the creature's life.

"Soooo, how about we bolt, hmm?" Magnus raises his brows and opens his arms, then tilts his head. "A good adventurer might be bold, but they also need to know when to call it quits. I draw the line at regenerating flesh goo enveloping an entire room. If there were six of us maybe we could clear that out buuuuut, yeah... I doubt there's anything in there worth taking. Call it a hunch." Magnus winks, then hooks a thumb behind his back. "Let's go." he rides the railing downstairs and departs, be it by himself or with his team, and a bag full of salvage.

Arris lets out a sigh of relief. "Man, I hate this thing..." She spits disrespectfully in the direction of the flesh room. "It's gross and disgusting and eats people for breakfast. Come on, let's pack everything up and go home."

Arris stands at the front of the group as they walk down the stairs, stopping to make sure she has all four vials - two from the concrete goo, and two from the latex-spitting robot frog. Speaking of... the gator turns towards the KOed feral lying down near the stairs. She glances around before bending down and picking up the frog in her arms, carrying it. Maybe it would be worth bringing it back to Fairhaven to study it? If anything, it would be nice to catalogue its infection, at the very least.

With the horror quickly dispatched Ebreus brushes himself off as the tentacle falls limp. "Hold on Magnus." he says, "We didn't come here just to loot... and even then we're not done looting." As the two of them pass him he shakes his head and takes samples of the tentacle to bring back to Zephyr, grabs the remains of the computer Magnus hadn't looted, and seeing Arris toting the frog he says, "Good idea... we should grab the Naga too. They're probably worth their weight in Mako from research value." he says. "I could carry one of 'em easily enough if you two could get the other." he says and takes the frog, or Naga, as the team figures out which the big guy should carry on the hike back.

It's a long trip back to Fairhaven, made even more arduous carrying two ferals, a 1990's computer and lab equipment. But with everything retrieved, Zephyr rewards the crew and begins working on what was aquired.