Difference between revisions of "Shadow Rising/Chapter 2"

Latest revision as of 05:46, 22 May 2013

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Sparhawk was, at last report, standing in front of the Nurse's Office door holding a photo and offering it to anyone who preferred to not bust into a probably-traumatic scene. Shi is, as was the case before a nonanthro period, a well-armed and many-weaponed hexataur gryphon.

Loki was last clutching the door of the office, the thing locked, contemplating how to best enter. Likely by smashing.

[Outside] Taggart is crouched outside the entryway to the school, sipping his water.

[Outside] Cilan continues wandering outside of the school grounds, her inquisitive hazel eyes scanning the distance for any possible threat, whether it be simply a feral, or perhaps even Ferox, her rifle held firmly in her hands, prepped to be fired at a moment’s notice.

Grantok is looking through classrooms, peeking into the occasional one, trying to find out which was Ferox's.

[Outside] Apostasy is standing near the entrance to the school, keeping a constant watch on the surroundings.

REDACTED is back with Spar, enraptured in the dream memories, the dream being vivid, and painting its own light on the school. She frowns, remembering Ferox's path through the school.

There's a strong, almost overwhelming scent of fire in the distance outside, it's getting worse along with the wind. The wind pushes dirt around into the air, putting a fine layer of brown on practically everything.

Loki thinks for a moment, fiddling with the lock for a second, and then sighs, scratching the back of his head before concentrating for a moment and ramming the door with his shoulder in an attempt to force it open.

Sori gets to one side of the door when Loki moves to force it, expecting a shot of blast but knowing its too late to warn.

The door thuds open, the hinge popping slightly and the handle falling off. The door creaks open.

Narg sits to the other side of Loki pistol raised for any trouble.

[Outside] Noting the increased strength of the wind, which is starting to whip up the dust, and with it the stronger smell of smoke, Apo speaks into her radio. "Guys, the wind is picking up out here. Smell of smoke is getting stronger too, that fire is headed our way. More importantly, the wind is kicking up dust. It gets much stronger and things are going to get unpleasant out here."

Sori listens and sniffs.

Sparhawk gives a light chirp at Grantok, but Loki's loud banging interrupts whatever shi was going to say. "Didn't we discuss traps when we came in here? Might be wise to not blunder through while everyone's standing around, before we're ready."

Narg peeks her head inside the Nurses office looking around

Sori earflicks, then lifts her radio. "Is there anything to burn other than the buildings? If not... It's not natural and get ready."

Grantok spots one of the high school rooms, and shrugs, before sliding the door open. Almost immediately in response, there's a loud explosive noise that erupts, and throws Grantok back away from the door. Splinters of the door fly all over, sending the shrapnel in many directions.

Sori spins at the sound of the blast, and heads towards it!

Loki shrugs in response to Sparhawk, and shakes his head. "See? Its fine! and why would somebody trap a locked door that locks from the inside?" he shrugs, a slight yawn escaping him afterwards, and then pokes his head within the room.

[Outside] "No idea, the fire is off somewhere to the west. Don't think it's reached the town yet. Just be aware." Apo says in reply to Sorien. Shortly after she finishes speaking, she hears the explosion, and grabs her radio again. "What the hell was that? Is everyone alright?"

Narg pricks her ears at the sound of an explosion "what the hell, did anyone else hear that?"

Sori says, Don't know, checking!" Over the radio as she moves.

[Outside] Taggart glances over his shoulder at the sound of the explosion, face darkening as he crackles over the comm. "Din't I tell ya, ya bloody sods!? Fuckin' granades!"

Sparhawk grinds hir beak and dashes over to Grantok almost before the cat's done falling. "Just--like--that." Hir wings mantle over the explosioned adventurer as shi rummages out hir medkit.

Grantok is laying half against a wall, covered in splinters, largish pieces of wood sticking out of her flesh. Her left foot suffered most of the damage, the explosives clearly impacting there, the thing is hanging off at a strange angle, barely attached, and the rest of her leg is covered in burned flesh.

[Outside] Cilan brings her arm up to cover her mouth, and nose, in an attempt to block the sand, and smoke, coughing occasionally, though she says nothing over the radio, at least until the explosion is heard, causing her to jump in surprise and call into her radio, "Holy shit, what was that? Everyone alright?" concern easily evident in her voice.

Narg shrugs and stays next to Loki seeing that the noise is already being investigated "Loki shall we investigate the Nurse’s office or wait?"

Sori gasps at the scene, and immediately starts what treatment she can, including trying to use her nanite-based healing ability.

The odd sparkle flows from Sori, starting to knit the injuries and heal Grantok's mangled foot.

The nurses office opens into a horror scene, there are bare skeletons with teeth and claw marks in the bone. The window to outside of broken open, from the inside.

"No," responds Spar's voice over the radio. "There is rather a lot of damage to Grantok, but we're on it. Like the man says, Fuckin' Grenades." Shi shifts to let Sorien under the wings, working to pull the debris out of the wounds as carefully as possible.

Sori nods to Spar in thanks, and does whatever she can to get the healing Grantok comfortable. "We should get her to the bus, or maybe there's at least a cot in the nurses office...

Grantok groans, still somehow conscious, her eyes completely unfocused. Spar's treatments involve pulling out the largest shrapnel pieces, while Sori works on her foot, managing to get the main ligaments and muscles to mend.

Narg steps inside the room, her face looks thoughtful "Hmmm well it's pretty much what i expected, just bones" she takes a sniff of the room to catch any local scents in the room.

[Outside] The Irishman's face is still dark, shaking his head as he finishes off his first bottle of water. Taggart pulls his handkerchief free from his pocket to tie around his mouth and nose like a mask, trying to keep some of the dust and smoke out.

[Outside] "Can you stabilise her?" Apo asks, with some concern in her voice. She's muttering, keeping her mouth closed as much as possible against the dust in the air.

The nurses office smells strangely sweet, almost like candy. It's cloying, and yet, strangely mouth watering, although the source of the smell isn't obvious.

Sori says, "Can you let them know she'll be okay, Spar? I don't have the free limbs..."

Loki is frantically scrambling around the nurses office, completely oblivious to the skeletons for the moment, searching for medical supplies before he blinks. "Oh... right.. bubble." he murmurs, then turning to the skeletons, frowning slightly as he goes a little nearer and observes the marks on the bones, trying to glean thier origin.

[Outside] Taggart glances to Apostasy, mood still obviously dark and voice muffled slightly behind the kercheif. "That's wut happens... when ya don't listen ta me and underestimate'er."

"Yes, but one down already." Sparhawk waves at the shrapnel bits and sends hir own glittering cloud at the metal, nanites devouring them and feeding Spar. As shi has done for many months. "We'll bring Grantok out to the entrance, then return. Can the people doing the blundering STOP for a minute?"

REDACTED shakes herself out of her daze and says, "If she's okay to move, I'll carry her. I need to clear my head anyways."

Narg looks around the room for a filing cabinet or desk to search through records making sure to check for the tell tale signs of traps "Smells delectably sweet in here it does"

"You get her shoulders, sweetie, I'll get the legs." Sori waits for REDACTED to be ready for the transport."

[Outside] Cilan breathes a pained sigh, or at least attempts to before a lungful of dust and smoke has her coughing momentarily, finished she shakes her head of it and continues the patrol outside of the school.

[Outside] Apostasy looks back at Tag. "It's also what happens when you don't check things properly before messing about with them."

Sparhawk points at Sorien and REDACTED. "Carry her gently to the entrance. I don't think we'll do any irreversible damage that way. I'll go find...Loki and Narg when we pass. Oh dear."

REDACTED moves forward and takes Grantok by the shoulders, lifting the frail woman into the air. Grantok groans, and then her eyes roll up into her head. She waits for Sori to grasp the other side before she moves.

Sori lifts with REDACTED, and they head for the entrance.

[Outside] Taggart smirks, but it's hidden by the mask, gently shaking his head. The man pulls out a second botter of water and pops the top, lifting it beneath his mask to sip.

The bones look very much gnawed on, the teeth marks are fairly typical for a predator, and a few of the bones are outright broken open, exposing where there was once marrow. There are at least 3 bodies between the bones, and one of the rib cages has large claw marks in it.

REDACTED and Sori carry Grantok very carefully, moving slowly through the building out to the front. REDACTED' eyes still look filled with sadness at this place, her morose expression is more than just a friend being hurt. Her ears are pressed low. The moving process takes a while simply because they are trying to be so careful about hurting the broken woman further.

Narg manages to locate a filing cabinet and investigates the cabinets for any wires leading from the handles ,just in case, before attempting to open the bottom drawer.

Sparhawk pads carefully to the nurse's broken door, ears flicking around madly as shi peeks around the corner. "Hey. Call out, local denizens!"

Sori watches REDACTED and her reactions as they go. "Pfennig for your thoughts?"

[Outside] Taggart stands from his crouched position at the movement of the doors, rifle quickly raising to point at the trio before he realizes who it is. Another scowl, visible in his brow and crinkling eyes as he takes sight of the injured Grantok in their arms. "Bloody git." He shakes his head and slips the rifle across his back, diagonally, reaching out to handle the feline himself with both strong arms.

Narg quickly turns around to look at Sparhawk "Eh? what's that about calling out?"

The files are still all intact, it looks as if this school hadn't computerized much of its data. Narg is easily able to locate a file under Ferox's surname, Masters.

[Outside] "We got her, sweetie. You've a longarm- keep it ready. We don't have range at all." Sori says.

Loki frowns, and rises from the bones, shaking his head. "Well... window broken from the inside... 3 bodies... one of them must have mutated here... although, this breed seems more... savage... than what we are used to... considering it likely ate them..." he murmurs, then sniffing the air, seeing if he can perhaps discern what the smell is.

[Outside] REDACTED helps to put Grantok down in a place out of the wind. She quietly says, "This was not good. He took something important from her. Something really important. I just don't know what it was."

[Outside] Cilan looks over to Taggart confirming Sorien's comment with, "Yeah.. gonna take more than just rifle to patrol this area.. and frankly I’m certain that the two of them can handle Grantok just fine.."

"Who did? Shadow?" Sori asks.

Narg pulls out the file under the surname of masters and opens it looking to see if that is indeed Ferox's file.

[Outside] A quick glance is all Apo gives Grantok and the others before she returns to watching the surroundings, one hand on the hilt of her sword. She's squinting to keep the dust out of her eyes, and calls back to the others, "Unless you want her injuries full of dust, I'd keep her inside for now."

[Outside] Sori nods. "Most of 'em are closed. We're in a bubble, a strong one."

Sparhawk eyes Loki and Narg. "Because there is rather a lot of danger in here." Spar pads into the nurse's office as well, scowling at the scene. Where Loki tries to determine their eventual species, Spar looks for how long the bones've been sitting there.

The bones themselves have been here easily for the time since P-day, clearly had been eaten long, long before.

[Outside] Taggart shakes his head gently and swings his rifle back around, glancing out toward the town. "Ya find anythin' good, then? Or it a dead-end?" He looks at REDACTED, eyebrows raising. "Wut'd ya see in yer dreams, REDACTED?"

Narg nods her head reaching up to her comm unit to relay that she has made a discovery "Found one of Ferox's files..... Do you want me to bring it out to you guys, or should we continue looking for more files and whatnot?"

[Outside] REDACTED' eyes answer Sorien's question. It's a bit before she can react to Taggart, and when she finally speaks, she says, "She came here first, found things that made her angry, I'm not sure what it was, but they made her deeply angry, until she went home. It got worse there."

Loki continues to search the room for the smell.

[Outside] "Then... We've probably found what's important here, and should head for her home." Sori says.

[Outside] Taggart glances to Sorien, one eyebrow raising. "Then wut'd we find? So far, we've got files... doubt that's wut pissed'er off."

Sparhawk peers over Narg's shoulder at the file for a moment, then rummages through the paperwork for whatever has the most recent date. Probably Feb. 11, but there's no harm in trying to verify conspiracy theories. "Presumably there was something behind the grenades," Spar radios.

[Outside] "Wouldn't the obvious horror of what happened here be enough?" Sori responds.

Loki pinpoints the source, one of the medicine bottles in the cabinet. It's hard to tell if it's just leaking and rotting, or if it reacted to something in the environment.

[Outside] Taggart shakes his head calmly to Sorien, eyes softening slightly. "Ferox was like me, Sori... hard bitch."

Narg contiues speaking into her head set "The file is mostly medical stuff maybe disiplinary reports might help identify what brought her here."

The file shows one thing out of the ordinary. It lists the girl as having been pregnant a year before the date of the infection. The entry says nothing about the status of it later on.

[Outside] Sori says, "Okay... I'll check where Gran got blown up. I'll be careful." She waits a moment to see if she'll be stopped, then heads to the scene of the blast.

[Outside] REDACTED says simply to her mate, "Please be careful. Please..."

[Outside] Taggart quickly raises his hand to stop Sorien, shaking his head. "Why don't ya let me go... I kin' think like'er. You can't."

[Outside] Cilan looks over to Sorien as she returns to the school, "Want me to follow you? Might want an extra set of hands if another trap is sprung, right?"

Sparhawk barks from the radio, "Are you seriously proposing going alone, Sori?"

Narg's ears prick in curiosity then puts a hand back up to her comm unit "Interesting....... It says in this thing that she was pregnant in this thing, seems like something that would bring her back" she looks up quickly "hey there Spar wait for us."

[Outside] Sori pauses, then hears the call on the radio. She clicks the button. "I was, but Tag wants to go. We'll both go. REDACTED, will you be okay here?"

[Outside] REDACTED silently nods in affirmative, watching closely over Grantok.

[Outside] Taggart pauses at the mention of pregnancy, frown downturning his eyebrows slightly before he pushes the door open and enters back into the school.

[Outside] Sori follows, dropping once again to all-fours and following Tag as well as her nose.

Loki peers curiously at the bottle, eyeing it suspiciously, checking the area around it, and, upon determining that it is 'safe', takes a small cloth out of his robe and grabs the bottle of 'asprin' with such, rolling it around a little more. "Well, this is... interesting..." he mumbles, then peering up at narg. "Pregnant?.. that is... unfortunate to a degree..."

Taggart makes his way down the hall, dust falling from his shoulders as the wind had built it up in the creases and cracks of his clothing. His rifle is ready, but not up and pointing. "Take me where ya went, Sori."

Narg quickly deposits the file in her backpack and stands back up pushing the drawer back into the cabinet.

Sori nods and heads towards the scene of the explosion.

A few more papers join the stationery bag as Spar shifts focus over to Loki. "Interesting how? Any progress identifying it yet?"

[Outside] The sky on the horizon is black with smoke, and it appears to be thickening, maybe even getting close.

Loki peers over to Narg and shrugs. "Just some aspirin that is not... I cannot identify this substance right now, but once I take it to Ragnarok, I shall be able to likely make some leeway on determining its composition and what it contains.... and likely what it can do."

The room Grantok entered has a fragmented door, inside is a small high school classroom, although it's hard to make out the exact grade. The tables are all knocked over, although the window is intact. The chairs had long before been thrown in disarray, and a few are splintered as if they were smashed against the ground. Even closer inspection shows claw marks on the wood. There's a teacher's desk, and it looks like the class was in session, as there are trigonometry formulas on the board mid-writing.

Sparhawk carefully says, "Let me get you a bag for that...it smells like an artifact. And if there's anything nanites are, it's over-exuberant." Shi fishes out a metallic-threaded bag for Loki's discovery.

Loki tilts his head in response to Sparhawk, and then nods. "Yes, you may be correct there." he nods, and accepts the bag, stowing the bottle and then storing it within his robe. "Although analysis of the thing will have to wait for now... until we do some more searching."

[Outside] Cilan breathes a slow sigh as she rests her back against the wall of the school, again covering her mouth with just her forearm, trying her hardest to not breathe in the dirt, sand, and smoke.

Narg looks over at Loki and Sparhawk "What did the Label on the bottle say Loki? I might know what it is for."

Sori glances into the room. "Is it safe, sweetie?"

[Outside] REDACTED slumps down on the ground next to the unconscious Grantok, and folds her head up in her arms.

[Outside] Trusting Cil to be able to keep watch, Apo sits next to REDACTED and puts an arm around her shoulders comfortingly.

Sparhawk goes on out of the nurse's office. "Gonna join the explosion-room team now. Bring your info and artifacts."

Narg begins following Sparhawk out the door. "Done and Done."

Taggart steps gingerly into the classroom, glancing around with a small frown. He pushes his hand to the throatmic, "Did we find'er locker?"

Narg presses a hand up to her comm unit "Nope not as far as I know Taggart"

The classroom seems like a really out of place spot to have a grenade. Nothing seems more out of the ordinary than anything else inside.

Sori sniffs for any other scents, including Fer's.

Loki eventually wanders out of the office, and then glances down the halls, peering in various directions, searching for other lockers, classrooms, and maps. He scratches his head and thinks for a moment. If he finds a map of any sort, he will look for the office.

Spar grabs Loki's tail and prevents him from walking off alone, then hastens over to the other doorway and peers into this one too. "Dunno if it was Ferox's, but I got a picture out of the one...REDACTED saw her punching in a dream. Yes." When it looks to not be distracting shi'll pull out the photo and offer it to Tag.

Only the ancient smells of fear, and terror among children are locked in the room. Even the faint scent of urine.

"Of all the things that piss me off about the release... The fact that they hurt kids is the worst. God help them if I find the sons of bitches who did it..." Sori trails off.

Taggart frowns gently, taking the picture to look over with emerald eyes, his other hand raising to removes his sunglasses.

Narg seems to wince a bit at the mention of this stuff happening to kids during P-Day despite the knowledge that it happened.

Sori makes her way carefully into the room, watching her steps as she does, slowly and carefully making her way to the teacher's desk.

Taggart tilts his head to the side, a small smile creeping up beneath the mask covering the lower half of his face. He tucks the picture into a pocket, looking to Sparhawk. "Which one?"

Sparhawk blinks. "Which one what, El Bandito? You wanna see the locker in question?"

[Outside] REDACTED finally breaks out of her morose trance, and her ears flicker. The sound of fire on the horizon can actually be heard now. She looks up and out, and tilts her head.

[Outside] Apo's ears flick as she picks up the sound of the fire at about the same time REDACTED does. Watching the horizon, her hand goes to her radio as she says "Guys? Finish up fast. That fire is way too close for comfort now."

[Outside] Apo hears and sees it before REDACTED, it seems as if there's a swarm of insects, the weird buzzing noise, coming from the same direction as the fire.

Taggart simply nods, making his way back into the hallway.

Not having been blown up, Sori looks over the teacher's desk, checking for the scent of explosives as well as anything else unusual.

Sorien sees a list, students present that day. She doesn't see Lyri's name checked off.

Sori gets the list, and heads for the door as carefully as she went in.

[Outside] Cilan can be heard silently cursing to herself, muttering all the while.. at least until noticing the giant swarms of insects coming towards them, noticing them she promptly grabs a white phosphorus grenade from her belt, pulls the pin, and chucks it towards them, hoping the caustic chemicals will buy a little more time, "I think it’s about time we packed up, people.. we've got company.." is said in her radio moments after the grenade leaves her hand.

Spar points at Narg. "You. Stay with Sorien, watch for things while she pokes around. I am probably the toughest to kill right now, and I feel like I'm the only Non-Taggart person taking this seriously." Then shi leads Tag out to the torn-open locker, trusting them enough to notice useful advice and orders.

Narg nods "Got it Spar count on me" she heads out the door with Sorien.

"Spar, Apo says we got incoming. We should get to the bus, or somewhere defensible." Sori's ears flick, knowing that Apo isn't exactly known for panic.

Loki looks back to Sparhawk, and shrugs. "I thought i would check the office for records and lockers and the like, if you wish. They will also likely have some more information regarding Ferox and others." he suggests, wandering back over to them. He scratches his head and frowns at Cilan's latest broadcast. "That may prove problematic though."

[Outside] Apo studies the insect swarm carefully for a moment, head tilted to the side, before she says "Drop everything. We're leaving right now."

"Is not the current building we are in be defensible" Narg responds to Sori questioningly.

Taggart hurries to the locker with Sparhawk and drops his pack, pulling everything down and into said pack from inside the locker, a quick swag grab. The man lugs it back onto his shoulder, commenting as Loki suggests other things. "Loki... iffun ya don't stop and listen ta me, I'm gunna shoot ya, meself. You don't go anywhere alone."

[Outside] REDACTED bends down and lifts Grantok over her shoulder.

"No. This place is more of a trap. Roll. Head for the bus." Into the radio Sori says, "Break and roll, get to the bus- Bugout time!"

With Narg with her, Sori heads for the bus.

Sparhawk strolls along, amused by Taggart's reaction. "Just tell me if you need more storage space, or assistance pinning down foolish adventurers." Then shi hastens to the front doors with the bugs and the bugging-out.

Narg picks up the pace to a long stride, heading to the exit of the building.

Apostasy waits by the entrance of the school for everyone else to leave, maintaining a watch on the horizon.

Taggart ensures that everyone has exited the school before leaving himself, starting to pick up speed in his sprint toward the bus.

Loki sighs as Taggart and Sparhawk address him and follows after the others, doing his best to inspect the insects upon exiting the building, slightly disheartened by the lack of getting information from the office, but still optimistic about the sample he had retrieved in the doctor's office.

Apostasy slings her shield onto her back as she drops to all fours and starts to lope towards the bus, keeping a close eye on the insect swarm as it closes, even as she runs.

REDACTED begins to walk towards the bus, keeping out of range of the growing cloud of chemicals from Cilan's grenade. She tries hard not to jostle Grantok.

Sori pops the doors of the bus as soon as she reaches it, climbing in and starting the motor; she sees the moving cloud as she does, and blinks. "Gah. Movemovemove..." She says quietly...

Narg emerges from the school entrance and sprints towards the Bus quickly, then climbs in getting to the middle of the bus, her pistol still drawn and ready.

The insects can finally be made out, it looks like a locust cloud, with a trail of smoke and fire on the horizon behind them. They twist and flow like an oncoming wave.

Sparhawk leaps lightly atop the bus to peer at the oncoming cloud of smoke and bugs while other people file onto the bus. "This is rather more than I can handle with Maxwell's Demon, I think. We leaving town now?"

Cilan charges at full speed back to the bus, hopping inside and moving to one of the seats.

REDACTED gets in, carefully setting Grantok down, who finally seems to have gained some coherence, a small squeeking, "What?" is all that comes out of her mouth as her eyes half lidded look up at REDACTED.

Apostasy reaches the bus and stands next to the open door. Her hands are wreathed in silvery flame, as she stands ready to burn any of the insect swarm that draws too close before everyone else reaches the bus.

Narg peers outside the window at the oncoming swarm "Damn it's a regular plague, like out of the bible itself"

Eventually, Loki makes it back with the others, glancing at the cloud of Locusts, scratching his chin. "Interesting... rather interesting." he murmurs, observing the others, and blinks when he finally notices Grantok, and hurries over to her, giving the lady a concerned look. "Well.. she appears quite.. alive...... A trap I take it?" he blinks, not really thinking.

"Yeah, and we're the fucking Egyptians. C'MON! Move!" Sori shouts the last.

Narg can't help but snicker at Sori response to her comment.

Sparhawk swings down into the bus after everybody's in, closing hir eyes to stare at the swarm. Might be nanites, might not, but either way it's something to look/taste/smell at.

The wave crashes closer, only a few thousand feet from the bus. The bugs are huge, far bigger than a normal locust.

Sori seals the bus up as soon as everyone is in, and rolls away from the swarm!

Taggart growls gently, wolfish in his human chest as they all clamber back onto the bus. "Shut tha windows, get us locked up. Hopefully, they ain't too evolved." The man then turns on Loki, striding down the aisle and promptly swings his hand back and then forward, striking the other across his furry cheek. "You need ta pull yer head outta yer arse, or I'm gunna shove it up further than you could even dream."

Apostasy leaps onto the bus right after Tag, just before Sor seals the doors tight, and stands looking through the window at the fire and the enormous insects. "Sor? Get us the hell out of here, please."

The bus moves, but it's creaking start isn't able to get it much room before the wave hits the bus. Almost like an actual wave, the bus shifts from the impact, as insects buffet up against the windshield, continuing on past into the town.

Loki blinks at the slapping and tilts his head, before eventually giving it a shrug and a shake, and then works his way towards his robot, and having the machine open up in to a sort of portable research station. He takes the bottle of 'aspirin' out, and collects a sample from the bottle with a tool, and places it on a tray, slotting it in to the machine for various methods of analysis.

Loki's robot takes a while analyzing it, and comes back with errors. It reads nanites as positive, but it chokes at anything beyond it. In fact analyzing it is seeming to cause problems with the robot. It's started stuttering, and then powers down.

Apostasy continues starting out into the swarm as it moves past the bus. "Jeez... regular locusts were devastating enough. A swarm of locusts this much bigger than the regular ones? That's utterly catastrophic."

Sparhawk fingers one of the new breed of bright white builder vials as shi looks at the windows, ready to engage in repair-and-invoice-for-damages trained by Zephyr's lobby. "Unless someone needs explosions? That seems counterproductive right now."

Sori has to stop, realizing she can't see far from the bus, and might drive into something. The bus shudders as it is continually buffeted by the swarming insects.

Taggart moves to his seat near the back and tosses his bag down, doing his best to ignore the thumping nose of the insects smashing against the bus. He tugs open his bag and starts to root through his loot.

Narg looks around as the locusts bang into the bus.

Loki blinks, and then frowns. He reboots the robot, and tries bringing up a log of all calculations done by the machine, and has them be displayed, without having the robot do any more number crunching, seeing if he can discern at least a portion of what the code is himself.

Sparhawk starts humming, of all things, a sea chantey in Death Valley as the locust wave buffets the vessel.

Narg opens her backpack and pulls out a bottle of whiskey and the file she found in the nurses office, she lifts the file up for anyone to take "Any one wants to take a gander at this here file?" she then takes a swig of her whiskey.

There are photos, books, a journal, a lock of hair, pencils and pens, and a ring, a small woman's ring with a heart hooked in the metal.

Sparhawk's ear flicks Narg's way and shi pauses humming. "Take it to Taggart, he will get the most use out of it." Then shi fumbles a bit with the tune, trying to reclaim where it was going.

It appears to Loki from what he can tell, whatever it is, is shifting between gaseous, liquid and solid, in flux, and it appears to be full of nanites which are causing the shift, but it's not obvious at all why they'd be doing it. Chemical properties are completely new.

REDACTED is comforting Grantok, explaining to her that she set off one of Ferox's traps.

Narg nods "All righty then" she stands up and takes it to Taggart "Heres that file I found" placing it next to him and then moving back to her seat "Soooo what shanty are you humming there Sparhawk?"

Loki giggles in great amusement, a look of clear joy on his face as he observes the numbers, furiously reading over some more. He furrows his brow, and dances around a little, trying his best on how to brainstorm more ways to test this find.

Taggart frowns gently and pulls his mask down from his face, sorting through the items and inspecting each. He nods as the file is set next to him, flipping through photographs at the moment.

The pictures are many, although the one consistent thing shows the boy in the photos, a young blonde kid, and a fierce looking girl. The emotions are mixed, the girl sometimes looking in pain to have her picture taken, and at other times she's caught in a moment of bliss.

Taggart feels his usual stoicism soften slightly as he regards the two of them, a mixed pain and happiness. He swallows and sets them aside, pulling up the file recovered from the office to investigate next.

Sparhawk stops humming again. "I can't remember the words or anything, but it's about Lake Michigan. Even the internet didn't remember the group I heard doing it when I was young..."

Loki takes another small dish, and puts another small sample on the fluid, and holds a hand over the substance, doing his best to exert mental control over the small sample in any way, trying his best to sense any alteration he may be able to make, or in which direction a reaction may go in. He appears quite focused.

The health history of Lyri goes back a long time, she had been in the town most of her life apparently. It shows all her vaccination records, her nurse visit records, and of course, the glaring entry of pregnancy.

Narg Nods her head "I see I prefer a shanty such as What do you do with a drunken sailor."

Sparhawk snrks. "I never paid so much attention to the traditional drinking song. I nominate a sing-along, but not when Tag's looking at the Very Important Papers and other people are glaring daggers at mutant grasshoppers."

The combining liquids suddenly both shift, freezing into a solid, the liquid added exhibiting properties of the original.

Narg nods her head "Agreed sing-along after the impending doom and investigations are over."

Sparhawk points a finger at Narg and gives a stern scowl. "And the Doom Song is right out. I can hear someone thinking it, but no! It is a bad idea."

Narg puts her hands up defensively "What are you talking about a doom song? I've never heard of such a thing."

Narg pants, "I was joking about the doom stuff."

Taggart frowns gently at the file and shakes his head, turning next to the journal. He browses quickly through it, amazingly good at finding important words and such while he does so.

Cilan looks over to Sparhawk, a small chuckle passing her lips as she waits in relative silence for the swarm to pass.

The words speak of the girl in wonder, and he spies a passage about the pregnancy, although it never comes out and says it, the child is clearly his. He feels guilty about it. There's another section where she chooses to abort it, despite his wishes, but he harbours no anger to her.

The journal ends with a passage about loving her, despite her distance with him. The entry isn't dated, but it's clear it wasn't long before the infection.

Sparhawk nods agreeably and shifts about in hir aisle-seat. "Guess that's one more thing I wish Ashante was here for. I know the internet remembers that."

The swarm starts to thin out enough that it's not as black as night out. The town is visible again, and the fire that was behind them is still far off. They're fluttering about trying to tear practically everything around apart. In fact, it seems like the things are eating the wood from the very buildings, roof shingles having been chewed off, and wood siding. A telephone pole uprooted that wasn't before, laying on the ground.

Taggart growls softly with frustration and shuts the journal, looking through the rest of the items with a shake of his head. "It wasn't her bloody locker." The man turns and stares out the window at the locust swarm, frowning and scowling, deep in thought.

Loki frowns at being unable to force the substance to any degree, and then takes a silvery blob of sorts out of his robe, and takes a small piece off, and then mixes it in with the fluid, and observes the results. He takes a few more drops of the sample on two other dishes, and mixes one with a drop of tea, and another with some of his saliva.

Narg looks outside the window again as the swarm passes by then takes a swig of whiskey.

Apostasy has been watching the swarm the whole time. "We could check the school again once this swarm passes. They may not have been able to get into the lockers."

Loki bats an ear at Taggart. "Perhaps after the bugs clear, we can check the office to discern the correct locker as I suggested."

Loki looks up for a moment. "They may have data on which lockers were which, and we may be able to discern who the locker we had belongs to.”

Sparhawk's ears flick around at Tag. "Was it someone she knew? Or...hey REDACTED. Was it just frustration that she was taking out on a convenient wall, in the dream you saw?"

Taggart mumbles, "It was'er boyfriend's."

Before long, the substance Loki is playing with is all one mass of the same stuff, it's swapped from gaseous to solid to liquid. It's currently residing in liquid state.

Narg pants, "Figures."

REDACTED shakes her head at Spar's question. She was frustrated at her lack of memories about something -specific- although I couldn't read her thoughts, just her actions.

Sparhawk grumps a little. "Shadow's clearly a very literal dreamer if it always sends out a linear narrative with no emotional content. The jerk. Speak up if you need any more possibly-useful questions."

Loki takes the substances and then slots them in to the robot before analysis, but not before entering some new coding preventing a shutdown from information overflow, to instead just manually halt the scanning before such a thing happens, all the while recording and reading the results to determine exactly what has changed from the original.

The new material resonates with new information, it's structure altering from things it picked up, almost chimaeric. After a little while the -original- substance suddenly alters, to match the new.

The insects have finally moved past, leaving the dust-ridden town even more of a shadow of the life it once was. Many buildings are now on the verge of collapse after the insects came through. Some of the big things still loitering around chewing on all sorts of things. Plant life is completely decimated, what little there was.

Sparhawk's fur stands on end suddenly. "Put that away right now, Loki. This is not a containment vessel, and I can hear it being an extremely complex devourer." Mostly there is urgency in hir tone.

Loki glances over to Sparhawk and tilts his head. "Complex devourer?" he asks, with some amount of confusion, then peers his newest find.

Narg whistles as she gazes at the decimated town and then looks over at the school to see if it's still structurally sound.

Apostasy doesn't turn her gaze from the devastated town as she says "Do what shi says, Loki, before you end up killing us all somehow."

Cilan snaps at Loki, "Just put it away.."

Sparhawk starts making the awkward movements to stand up and turn around to face Loki's makeshift lab at the back of the bus. "Really. Back in the minimal-containment bag. They sound halfway to builder nanites, and if you train them to eat the world, I will...do things you will regret. And probably me too. Do I need to make my threats more clear?"

Taggart stares out the window, listening to Sparhawk's more intelligent and well spoken manner of intimidation. "Spar... leave'im be... that's my job, not yers." The man stands and turns around, staring at Loki quietly.

Loki tilts his head, and furrows his brow, drooping a little in place. "What... makes you think I would train these things to eat the world?" he asks, staring mournfully at the bottle, slowly, and carefully putting all instances of the stuff back in to the bottle, sealing it, and dropping it in his robe. He cocks his head at Taggart, then looks to Apostasy, and frowns a little more. "No faith at all?" he sighs, then flinches a little at Cilan's snapping, and then seems to mournfully stow the bottle within his robe.

Taggart speaks slowly, quietly, but with calm confidence, deadly calm, in fact. "Loki... listen'ere... ya may think most of me bluster's jus' that... bluster. An'alf tha time it is. This... is a diff'rent matter. This is life'n'death. Ya may not fear death... ya may think ya can't die... but let me assure ya... ya can. You piss me off enuff... I'm gunna end up wolfin'up and devourin' ya. There's no comin' back from that, lemme tell ya. From now on... ya do wut I say... an' we focus on wut we're tryin' ta do... not yer bloody little science projects. Understand?"

Sparhawk waits while many people pile words on Loki, then concludes, "With due respect to the man whose job it is to be scary, /my/ job is understanding nanites. And you have just now trained them how to convert Loki into more of themselves. I have a strict no-turning-people-into-goo policy."

Sori chooses to not pay attention to the intimidation-fest. "REDACTED sweetie, where to? Where did Fer go next?"

REDACTED turns to her mate, "She went home. Her home, her family. It's... not pretty."

Taggart slams his fist against the window, doing no real damage, but stalking down the aisle and pushing open the bus doors. He appears to need the space, lighting up a cigarette.

Sori flinches a bit at the slam on the bus. "Point the way. Its where we need to go."

REDACTED points off to the north and east, on the other side of the road. She says, "It's a bit out from the town itself. It's a ranch."

Sparhawk leans aside to let the bipedal Tag pass by in his natural environment of narrow spaces that are difficult to turn around in. "I nominate the conspicuous footprints..."

Loki scowls briefly at Taggart's intimidation attempt, but does not really seem all too swayed by such a display in perhaps the intended manner, also glaring at Sparhawk as he adds to it, all while sealing the bag Sparhawk had given him within another bag, A range of rage and sadness can be seen on his face for a brief moment before he eventually seems to cool, a slight staticy buzz of sorts seeming to radiate out of him before he decides to remain silent, and quietly heads over to an empty seat near his robot, and leans back against the wall, closing his eyes.

Apostasy finally turns from the ruins of the town to face the others. "Can we go do something now?"

Sori looks out the door of the bus. "Sweetie... We're gonna roll to Fer's home. Can you come back aboard?"

Taggart flicks the half smoked clove to the dust, stepping back up onto the bus with tension in his neck and shoulders. He deftly moves back past Sparhawk and sits in his seat.

Sori sighs, closing the doors. She puts the bus in gear and heads where REDACTED indicates.

Sparhawk grips at the seats, twisting hir head around to peer at the driver. "Erm, magic footprints? Maybe? Obvious clue and trap? I was wondering if they survived the locusts..."

The drive isn't far, closer than REDACTED' memory even. It's a small single story ranch house, and it's in worse shape than the other buildings in the area, the damage clearly not all insect driven.

"I don't know, Spar. If they were magic, they weren't left by Fer... At least not our Fer." Sori continues driving, pulling in at the indicated ruin.

Narg bows her head and prays quietly as they approach the ranch.

Sori looks at the ruin from the 'safety' of the bus. "What did you see in your dream that happened here, REDACTED? I know it’s bad; but we need to know."

Cilan pulls a flask from a hip pouch and quickly takes a gulp from its contents before rising to her feet and making her way out of the bus, though she remains close to the doorway, waiting for the others to follow suit.

"Hang on til we have an overview, Cil." Sori looks to REDACTED.

Taggart growls gently and pulls himself up and out of the bus, tapping out another cigarette as he speaks quietly to Cilan. "Listen... fer some bloody reason, Loki don't listen ta me. It's gunna get'im killed. Fer sume other bloody reason... he listens to you. Congrats... yer'is nanny." The man scowls and lights the clove with his zippo, before pulling a water bottle to sip at.

REDACTED says quietly, her ears pressed low, "She came here for answers, where her parents went, why they left her. She tore the house part, smashed paintings. Her anger was overboiling at this point, and she took target practice with her guns on the pictures of her family. Something the shadow showed her caused her to snap."

Narg lifts her head back up and stands Pistol in hand listening to REDACTED and Taggart both.

Apostasy looks at REDACTED. "Do you know where she went from here? Or will we need to sift through the ruins?"

Sori nods. "Right. Here's where we find the trigger... Whatever it was. Tag? Obviously you got point. Gran'll stay in the bus. Everyone else pair up with whom you work best with, no group should go out of sight of the others."

Cilan stops as she is warned by Sorien, nodding in silence as she returns to the bus, once there she looks to Taggart and says, "Alright, I’ll do my best to make sure he doesn’t blow us all up.." a wry grin pulling at her lips as she says that.

REDACTED says, "Yes, the city we avoided here was where she left for. Sacramento."

Narg shrugs "I've never worked with anyone besides Cilan and Grantok, Cilan is with Taggart and Grantoks out of it soooo, who wants to go with me."

Sori blinks at that, but doesn't comment.

"I'm with you, if you don't mind." Apo says to Sparhawk, moving over to hir. She looks back at REDACTED. "Why didn't we just go there, then?"

Sparhawk grins at Narg as shi wrestles with turning around. "You could stay here and keep Grantok company. Alternatively, come with me and...Apo, apparently. I've missed having a turret."

Narg pants, "What and miss all the fun? I think I'll follow you Spar."

Taggart glances to Narg and shakes his head, "More'n'pairs... jus' stick tagether. Listen to each'ot'er an'don't go off doin' yer own t'ing." The man tosses his clove to the ground, again, half-finished before he takes up his bat, leaving the rifle behind this time. Without waiting for anyone, he stalks off toward the house.

Sori glances at REDACTED, shrugs and follows Tag.

Cilan hops out of the bus following Taggart, the handguns pulled from their holsters and gripped tightly as she nears the house.

Sparhawk helps Narg clamber onto hir back, trotting around a little to make sure the husky-girl-pistoleer isn't slipping off immediately. "If I say 'bolting', grab on very tight. That is when I will be moving faster than anything you have previously seen! It'll be fun, but terribly disorienting."

Narg smiles "All righty then, good sir."

Sori sniffs, scanning for scents and looking for anything that might be what triggered Fer's rampage.

Apostasy giggles at Spar's comments as she follows after her. "Bolting Spar is quite a rush to be riding."

Sparhawk looks curiously at Apo as shi trots toward the house, intending on looking for signs from Shadow in the lack-of-lawn. "I don't remember ever doing that..."

Apostasy grins. "You got pretty close when we were running after Tag in Portland."

Taggart steps up to the front door of the house, looking around the frame for a moment. Then, apparently with lack of regard for his personal safety, he lifts a combat boot and kicks the door in, bat hanging lightly in his right hand.

Narg looks around the place keeping an eye out for anything that seems out of place or dangerous "Well if such a thing happens then I'm sure it'll be hilariously good fun."

Sori stays close at Tag's heels, but keeps enough space to get the hell away if something attacks.

The door falls off, apparently barely holding on as it is. No explosion arises. But as REDACTED says, the house is a mess, bullets line the walls, blood covers things, Ferox's blood, it's definitely hers, dried and caked on things.

Sparhawk chuckles and says demurely, "There is a difference between chasing something, and running away over known terrain. Makes me hungry though!"

"Gods. Something fought her here, and fought hard..." Sori murmurs.

Taggart glances over his shoulder at the group behind him, emerald eyes slightly amused at a few of their hesitant positions. "Place is too dark ta be havin' somethin' livin' here. Too much anger... too much hate." He turns and looks back inside, chewing at his cheek in thought as he examines the blood.

Apostasy pads alongside Spar, scanning the surroundings for threats or things of interest while shi looks for something on the ground.

Cilan passes through the doorway, moving in front of Taggart, her inquisitive eyes scanning the floors, and doorways looking for any sort of tripwires, or disturbances in the floor that may be hiding a possible trap, the lady apparently showing little concern about the splattered blood around.

Sori looks up, rather than down to see if there might be a picture or an indication of a focus for her attacks...

Ferox tracks again seem to show up, her pathway displayed for all, scentless and absurdly still there. Perhaps an impact on the earth from her time in her hometown. She apparently wandered out back into the barn house at one point.

It's clear her mother was the target of her ire, both her parents, but the mother seems to have a bullet in nearly every one of her pictures.

Taggart mumbles, "But then... mebbe that's wut's livin'ere." He frowns and looks about, shaking his head. "Not sure somethin' fought'er... she'd... take ta tha sky bafore gettin' in a tussle, jus' shoot at it from above..."

"Sweetie... This isn't a rational act or fight. This is anger. She's not fighting with sense guiding her," Sori says to Tag.

[Outside] Sparhawk radio-clicks, waits a moment, then says, "More inexplicable footprints out here. Appears to have a side-trip to the barn out back. I'm going to...try narrativism. They want to tell a story and I want to listen to them."

Cilan calls over her shoulder as she moves further into the main room, making sure to remain in Taggarts sight, "Yeah.. chances are it was more a thing of rage.. and frankly when that happens, all judgement is clouded over, and only the desire to kill remains.."

Taggart frowns again, shaking his head. "This... ain't like'er." The man starts to move through the rooms, bat in relaxed grip as his eyes scan around quickly. He knows everything is in shambles, making his searching more difficult, but he's grasping for the feel of her. This is out of place, somehow.

The pictures show a loving family, despite being torn apart. The family was close, and it wasn't an unhappy thing. So her anger seems... wrong, very wrong.

[Outside] Apo sticks with Spar as they follow the tracks towards the barn, shield held ready in front of her. "I'll go in first." she says, when they reach the doors. She carefully inspeacts them for any signs of traps before moving them, however.

Sori responds to Spar, "As long as you don't go alone."

[Outside]Narg glances at the ground searching for said footprints and upon seeing them lifts her head up to the barn. "Hmmm.... .interesting."

If there are any pictures not destroyed, Sori takes them. "I think... I think Shadow was running her here, Tag. Destroying her from within like he did REDACTED."

[Outside] Sparhawk doesn't actually go for the barn. Instead, the taur sits in front of a turn and closes hir eyes, whispering something to the dirt.

[Outside]Narg shrugs "Would you like me to get off your back Spar? That is if we are going inside."

[Outside] Apostasy spots nothing obviously out of place in the barn entrance, and the footprints just end, at the entrance.

[Outside] Apostasy nudges the barn door open carefully with her shield, other hand ready on her sword. Her ears flick as she catches what Spar is whispering, but she keep her focus on the door.

[Outside] Narg slides off Spar’s back and draws her K-Bar with her left hand keeping the pistol in her right hand and inches closer to the barn door so as to come rushing in the barn should Apo need help, she does pause how ever to listen to Sparhawk's whisperings.

[Outside] Apo looks into a dark and largely empty barn, the stalls all appear to be empty, nothing out of the ordinary.

"Maybe the bedrooms, Tag..." Suggests Sori.

Taggart frowns gently and shakes his head, looking slightly tired. "No... let's... let's jus'get on ta Sacramento'er'wutever." The man sighs and steps back out onto the front lawn, moving back to the bus as he lights up another cigarette.

[Outside] Apostasy moves slowly forwards into the barn, watching carefully for any traps as she goes. "Now what was of interest to her in here..." she mutters to herself.

Sori looks at Tag, then hugs him. "We'll get it done, sweetie. One way or the other." She lets go, not forcing the embrace too long.

Cilan nearly follows Sorien's suggestion and makes her way to the stairs, but stops before reaching them, looking over to Taggart as he leaves, prompting her to make her way back to the front door, and out of the house.

[Outside] Narg shouts out to Apo "Hey don't get to far into that barn, something could be in there!"

[Outside] Apostasy finds nothing of interest in the empty barn. Beyond being empty that is, and missing hay, and the usual things one would feed horses.

[Outside] Having found nothing of interest, Apo leaves the barn and makes her way back to the bus.

[Outside] Narg moves off to the bus along with Apo and boards it then moves to middle seat and sits down.

[Outside] Sparhawk frowns after five minutes, opening hir eyes to look at a footprint that is vanishing. Louder than the whispers shi says, "A shy trail...? Whose steps are you, after all?" Then shi radio-clicks and says out loud, "Got nothing from that experiment. Anyone get more in the material world?" It's probably into people-are-waiting-for-Spar time by when that message comes.

Sori clicks the radio. "No... I've some pictures of her family, but... Nothing is here anymore." She takes one last look around before heading to the bus.

Sparhawk will take a quick sweep through the barn, bundling up Narg along the way, before returning to the bus. "There's something...otherwise REDACTED wouldn't have dreamed of here. Join ya shortly."

Spar's mystical senses pay him well, he notices a strange aura that fills the barn. It's not the shadow's presence, and it could easily be missed by anyone not in tune. It radiates with love. Spar traces the source to a bridle laying on the ground. Among all the horse stuff it wouldn't normally be of interest, but this stands out.

Sparhawk smiles, and nods politely to the object. "We will have need of you, bastion of memory. I promise t'return you to your home when our task is done." Shi bundles up the bridle instead and trots along to the bus.

Click here to continue to Chapter 3.