<div></div><br> <br>Finally, the rubble north of town - large enough to encompass several city blocks - has become enough of an issue for both alpha and bravo team that the cavalry has been sent in. Kori has gone missing from the team, winding up separated from Smokie by deus ex machina, and Cerris has done likewise after leaving CaseyRune to their fate. Anbessa and Redd are returning from the breather they need, and Rihko and Loki have been sent by Zephyr as a sort of 'get this over with' gesture. The only sounds that can be heard in the silent din are the screeches and cries of a trio of gryphons in the movie theater, one of the few buildings still standing; that's combat if ever there was one!<br> <br>Anbessa quickly jogs back into the area after his break, coming in with Redd leading. The black furred Talakai pants softly as he reaches the destination again, though as he notices the team isn't there, and also the combat sounds in the theater, he looks over to Redd as he begins to get goin' to the theater. "Ey Redd, ready? We are missing the party!" He says, smiling towards the Coyote as he quickly starts his jog towards the theater, his claymore unsheathed from his back and in his paw. Ready as ever, though he doesn't seem to know that the team was split up just yet.<br> <br>"Not so fast, We should actually get an idea of where everybody is first, before rushing in." Climbing a hill of rubble, Redd scans the area below for movement. The noise from the theater gets his attention, though what's happening is unclear to him.<br> <br>Smokie lopes from the ruins of the diner, now not just looking like a feral gryphon of ye olde dags, but smelling ten times as worse from the shear nastiness of the nesting site.  She swears loudly as she comes up the hill, seeing a non-gryphon figure upon it, and begins to gallop towards it.<br> <br>Rihko is jogging towards the ruins with a quick, loping gate.  Her ears perk at the noises then tilt back, and she looks around for a good vantage point to scope out the rubble from.  As she slows down, she switches to a general radio frequency.  "Hey, anyone alive out here?" she asks, a grin in her tone.  "Heard you were having some issues.  If you can respond, give me your coordinates."<br> <br>CaseyRune can't respond, thanks to the gryphons covering them, they do however take steps to get said gryphons off... Starting with the one on the bottom, who dispite trying to claw Casey to death seems to leave itself open to the fate of its companion. An oppritunity that they very much take, which has the nice side effect of boosting their already potent healing.. And people say vampirism is a curse.<br> <br>A faint whoosh followed by a dull, metallic clunk echoes through the area as Loki lands upon the street and folds his wings against his back as he lands near Rihko. A silvery tongue passes his lips as his attentions scan the streets and then looks at the Kitsune. A small sneeze escapes the metallic dragon before he cranes his neck and looks through the streets as he scans for sights, sounds, and smells. It would be a little redundant to repeat the request of the kitsune, but he nevertheless does make his own effort as he begins to stride on ahead - and then stop and offer a small wave and "Hello Rihko." towards the kitsune.<br> <br>The vampiric agent will find themselves being scratched and pecked and beaten even while they drain the second gryphon; it'll certainly help, but they're getting hurt faster than they can heal. Cerris remains conspicuously absent, and the sounds of battle in the theater grow more desperate as bodies are rammed into walls and gryphons screeches echo in the conspicuous silence.<br> <br>Anbessa blinks as his COM rings out the announcement to his ear, him speaking into his COM device quickly. "Anbessa here. I am heading into the Theater, since it sounds like someone is gettin' attacked pretty badly in there." He says, quickly looking up towards Redd. He sighs, shaking his head, finding the need to act quickly more important as he turns, quickly making a dead sprint into the Theater, his Claymore gripped tightly in his paws as he enters into the building. Even though it isn't in the immediate entrance, he quickly sprints into the building, disappearing from sight from anyone looking at him outside as he goes after where the noises are coming from.<br> <br>Redd turns his gaze back towards the city proper, "Yeah, any assistance is appreciated. Can I get names?" He watches Anbessa vanish into the theater. "Damnit Anbessa. Don't get yourself killed, last thing I want to have to call in is body bags."<br> <br>Smokie crests the mound of rubble, right up beside Redd, with a loud squawk to announce her presence, tail whipping side to side behind her as she tries to look out across.  Something up in the theatre?<br> <br>Rihko gives Loki a nod and is about to reply when she rounds a corner and spots the source of the noise.  "This is Rihko Kirijo.  Loki's here too.  Sounds like something is going on in that building; I'm checking it out."  She focuses on moving, then, picking up her pace as she closes in on the theatre.<br> <br>Loki offers a nod to Rihko when she figures out the location of the noise and quickly follows along with the kitsune, tailing her closely as he bounds along towards the building. <br> <br>CaseyRune drops the second gryphon, with a small note to self, Drain should only be used when desprate or for sneak attacks. Still they have two gryphons to deal with, so they do what comes naturally in this situation. Stab them in the throat with shards of frozen blood, then back off to let the healing kick in. Damn things were more vicious than the ones in the city thats for sure.<br> <br>It looks like Casey isn't the only one with healing. While these may be feral, nearly mindless gryphons - and a great deal stronger than the traditional Fairhaven variety - they seem to have the powers of their cousins, wounds beginning to close even as Casey draw back to heal themselves. The two remaining gryphons hiss angrily at them, though the emergence of Anbessa gives them pause and makes them jumpier to a noticeable degree. Anbessa's scent is easy enough to track for Rihjo and Loki, leaving Smokie and Redd as lookouts for the time being. Mercifully, nothing else seems to be attacking the pair...yet.<br> <br>Anbessa growls as he skids to a stop, spotting the Gryphons and Casey. Being outside of Redd's field though makes a idle murr resonate from the Talakai, him lifting up his free paw. As his arm quickly seems to lose density, it shapes up into what looks like a goo version of his own arm... Except his fingers begin to mesh together, gaining the shape of two gooey spikes. He then smiles as the goo quickly hardens, cooling down until the goo freezes, making the two triangles into large goo spikes until he tenses, his goo arm whiping back, then forward, launching the now dense projectile straight for the two gryphons as if he just fired a double shot of ammo.<br> <br>Surprised by the squawk, Redd turns towards the gryphon, about to tackle the bird, he stops, having recognized his mate's scent. "Gahh! Smokie, Don't scare me like that. Anyways, grabbed your M16 on the way back here. Loki's here, so don't shoot at the big shiny dragon this time." He hands the weapon over, and turns towards the theater. "We should probably catch up with the others now."<br> <br>Smokie flares out her wings, squawking again at Redd as she pushes herself up onto her haunches, her talons more able to grip the modified gun than her paws ever were.  She nods her appreciation, and cradling it in one arm, she starts toward the theatre on three legs<br> <br>Rihko enters the theatre, her ears going back; the kitsune raises her paw and makes a small motion in the air, gathering together whisps of flame to form a flickering, etherial light that follows her.  Her other hand draws her knife, and she calls out.  "Stop this at once!"<br> <br>CaseyRune ahs, backup, good. Not exactly the way they would have done it but it works. Just in case Anbessa's attack doesn't kill them, they draw their pistol, ans start unloading the entire clip at the gryphons. If that doesn't kill them, the they may have to get out the rifle. And when they get out the rifle, things get /messy/.<br> <br>Loki enters the theatre alongside Rihko and then halts, standing abruptly still for a brief moment as he takes in the surroundings, head tilting first to the side, and then upwards as he takes in the various scents of the place - Once he is sure of the general direction he's off barreling through the halls towards the source of the noise caused by the fight as he charges ahead.<br> <br>For what it's worth, the two gryphons do seem to have decided to leave CaseyRune alone (especially since one of them succumbs to the gunfire). The other one, wounded by Anbessa's attack, tries its best to flee in its injured state, bolting deeper into the theater. There are three gryphon corpses laying around now, two of them drained of blood, and the potential for a fourth if you choose to give chase and/or try to cut it down as it retreats. At least, apart from the cries of the wounded gryphon, all is silent! Rihko gets her wish, by hook or by crook.<br> <br>Anbessa sighs in annoyance as one of the gryphons doesn't go down from his attack, the goo spike from the other one returning to a gooey form before flowing quietly across the carpet, leaving no trail as it just hops on Anbessa. With at least a few fingers retrieved, he sighs, quietly looking around for a moment... Without a source of water though, he growls as he begins to bound off after the Gryphon to retrieve his fingers. At least with it being apart of his body it is able to be found by sense! Though it still is awkward to move without fingers suddenly. Anbessa grips onto his Claymore as he quickly goes right on after the wounded Gryphon, easilly catching up to the wounded creature before pouncing onto it's back. With his elbow placed on the back of it's neck, he effectively pins the creature as the goo spike slowly flows back onto him, returning his fingers.<br> <br>"Everybody alright in there?" Redd's voice comes over the comm, "Got awfully quiet all of a sudden." Instead of heading in through the front of the building, he walks around outside, searching through piles of rubble anytime something caught his eye.<br> <br>Smokie follows Redd, keeping a sharp eye out, cradling her gun tighter than she would a pup.  Well, blegh, pups are annoying anyway.  She just can't shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen, whether it's sooner or later...<br> <br>Rihko calmly watches as Anbessa finishes off the gryphon, but she doesn't let her guard down; she looks back and forth between the two survivors.  "Well.  You're not gryphons... are you the advance team?  How many more are there?  What's going on?"<br> <br>CaseyRune hrmphs, reloading their pistol. Damn would have thought the other one would have gone down too, but it looks like Anbessa has that covered. "Well we were. Supposedly Zephyr wants this feathered hell cleaned out of hostiles and anything that can be of use to them. I say bollocks to that, The whole city is hostile as far as I know and we haven't found much other than these damned blue feathered bastards."<br> <br>Loki slows his advance once he sees the gryphons begin to fall - though once the remaining one escapes and is quickly pounced does he speed up again, the dragon moving in with a growl as he sees Anbessa ready for a (possibly presumed) kill. "Fights over. Leave it be." the dragon says, coming to a slow and screeching halt as he slides across the ground towards the Talakai.<br> <br>The gryphon beneath the Talakai goes still, fully understanding that it's beaten and wounded too badly too fight. It shoots him the most hateful of glares before sagging to the ground, going limp in hopes of avoiding death in much the same way an animal might, even going so far as to show its throat. The rest of the theater is calm for the time being, though there's no sign of Casey's diminutive companion and no way yet discovered that he could have left.<br> <br>Anbessa looks up to Loki after he retrieves his goo fingers from the Gryphon's body. He blinks, having not really seen a creature like him, though he does nod. "Fine fine... Just wanted my fingers back." He says, reaching down to put his paws on the back of the gryphon's neck, lifting up the creature back to it's feet... Though his grip on it's neck makes sure it can't run off for now. He looks up to the large dragon, tilting his head for a moment before smiling. "Nice to meetcha." He says to Loki, still holding the Gryphon carefully. Guess this one goes to the live capture pile, though he doesn't want it running off just yet.<br> <br>Smokie pins her ears as she hears the bustle in the theatre.  She can't help it, and she just sighs.  "Should we help them?  No...  Maybe.  No....  Perhaps.  I mean, I am hungry...  Fuck."  She looks at Redd.  "Look, I...  Call me on the comm if something happens, I'm going in!"  She cries a shrill, shrieking battlecry as she charges into the theatre, wings flared and altered gun in her talon'd grip.<br> <br>Rihko sighs, and rubs her free hand at her muzzle, as none of her questions get answered.  "Fine, fine.  Take a minute to patch up if you need it, I-" she cuts off as she hears the shriek, turning and facing Smokie.  The kitsune's wisp darts and weaves in the air, in front of Rihko, hungry and barely holding back.<br> <br>CaseyRune is already, thankfully mostly healed, so they don't need medical attention. (Attempting it would just be more complicated than its worth) And now there's another Gryphon, carrying an M16... Now they would start shooting, and in fact they do fire off a round before realizing that its probably the same gryphon that's supposed to be on their side "Goddamnit, that<br> <br>CaseyRune says, "s twice now!""<br> <br>Loki narrows his eyes - but this detail goes unnoticed behind the visor of his helm. He offers a nod as Anbessa relents and seems to relax. "Nice to meet you too." he murmurs, then turning back towards the others and tilting his head and then rolls his shoulders, simply idling for now - but that stops when he hears the shriek, the dragon once more poising and then turning to face the direction of the sound.<br> <br>And so there is one more gryphon...but mercifully, it's successfully been identified as Smokie, meaning it (probably) won't get blasted to pieces. Those with sensitive noses will pick up a curious aroma of something akin to ozone - more like electricity, really - in the air. Anbessa might well recognize the scent from the beginning of the mission and recall what it preceded, but what's to be done about it - if anything - remains to be seen, depending largely on the actions of the group as it stands!<br> <br>CaseyRune being human, or at least pretending to be human, can't smell anything, however a small feeling of vauge doom does linger anout them. Given what they've been through, this is never a good thing. "What is that? Is there something else trying to kill us now?"<br> <br>Smokie sniffed at the air, and tilted her head.  That same smell from earlier, but...  stronger maybe?  "Guys, smell that?"  She sniffs again, head low to the ground, then high.<br> <br>Rihko frowns, still watching the strange gryphon.  At least, though, it wasn't attacking... her hackles rise and she sniffs at the air, then glances around the room.  "S' not me," she says.  "Come on, let's not piss around.  Where to next?"<br> <br>Loki's tongue flits through the air shortly after the mention and pauses for a moment, quirking his head in Rihko's direction before then once again mostly staring off into space. "It sort of smells like me, but I highly doubt it is so." the dragon murmurs, searching for the source of the smell as he slowly moves about the room... Though if people should choose to leave he won't likely be far behind. He is as good as lost considering he went into this really knowing nothing aside from 'place that isn't here before is now here.'<br> <br>Anbessa raises an eyebrow as he looks to the others, soon taking a quick sniff at the air... He blinks, swiftly and suddenly unsheathing his Claymore sword once more as he quickly says, "The smell... Its like before the rest of this city...! Watch it! They have cloak tech. Get ready, somethings about to happen." He says in a suprised,  painfully serious tone, his paws gripping tight to his sword as he looks around the area, his eyes carefully scanning about the room the group is standing in.<br> <br>Anbessa raises an eyebrow as he looks to the others, soon taking a quick sniff at the air... He blinks, swiftly and suddenly unsheathing his Claymore sword once more as he quickly says, "The smell... Its like before the rest of this city appea-...! Watch it! They have cloak tech. Get ready, something is about to happen." He says in a suprised, yet painfully serious tone, his paws gripping tight to his sword as he looks around the area, his eyes carefully scanning about the room the group is standing in. His fur is on end, and his eyes glow softly as he has a look of deep worry.<br> <br>Particularly interesting detail about the scent: is literally is very much like *before* the rest of the city. As in, there's probably still some time left to try to salvage whatever it is before it goes haywire, but the team will have to hurry! At the very least, there's no sound of gryphons squawking or talons on floor, so it'll be a simple matter of tracing the scent to its source. CaseyRune will, in due course, find that a door that had been closed is now open. Pushed open by one of the gryphons during its assault, no doubt. It seems to be a path to the inner workings of the theater, though it turns before long, making further investigation impossible without actually venturing into the comparatively tight corridor.<br> <br>Moving to the entrance of the theater, Redd shouts into the building, "Are we going to go look for whatever servers were here, or just stand around for a few hours?" He waits for a response, and kicks at some rubble by the door.<br> <br>CaseyRune does spot the open door... Hmm, well despite it being mysterious and possibly dangerous, they decide to go in. It does nothing to the vauge feeling of doom, but it should lead towards what the party's looking for, right?<br> <br>"Well, fuck this." The gryphon sighs, and just trots up to the door.  She's about done with all this shit, and the sooner it's over, the sooner she can go home, shower, and fuck.  Not necessarily in that order.  She pauses at the door, and turns around, smiling.  She heads in.<br> <br>Rihko quickly follows, sliding her knife back into its sheath so she can have her paws free.  Her wisp darts along behind her, dancing back and forth, and the as the kitsune approaches the hallway her ears twitch.  "Ooh.  The server, huh?" she asks.  "Yea, better not waste time.  I'll even go first if you want."  She doesn't pause at the entry, continuing along the passage.<br> <br>"Invisibility cloaks? Fascinating... Whom?" he asks as he turns to the sword wielder, tongue flitting through the air before he shuffles his stance. "If I could procure a sample of such technology..." he muses to himself, eyes trailing towards Redd and then Rihko. "Servers would be a priority... The information locked within would no doubt prove valuable." he chirps, ready to follow the rest of the group if need be - though still scanning the area for noteworthy trinkets and tidbits.<br> <br>Anbessa looks towards Loki for a moment, then to the rest of the group before he speaks. "Well, remember how most of the city was kinda not there, then suddenly appeared when we got to investigating? It seems like an AoE cloaking device maybe..." He says curiously, though he does seem a tad bit skeptical in his own assumption. He then looks over towards Casey, quickly smiling before looking to Rihko. "Well, if your takin' point, I guess I will protect the back." He says, waiting for the others to enter the hallway first before he goes in.<br> <br>Nestled deep within the confines of the movie theater is a battered door, scored repeatedly with claw marks and largely taken off of its hinges. Beyond this former door is something out of a science fiction movie: a column of computers, conspicuously out-of-place within a simple entertainment center. This looks more like something out of a war room or server farm than a movie theater! Of more immediate concern is the fact that the scent of ozone is much stronger in this room; anyone with even a basic knowledge of electronics knows that this is a Bad Thing, that something has clearly gone wrong. A small ream of papers is scattered on a desk in the rear area of the room (whose placement and construction suggests that it might once have been locked), and a simple tower computer underneath said desk has a 3 1/2" floppy disk protruding from the disk drive. It might be wise to salvage what you can and get out, and anything that generates sparks should probably be kept under wraps!<br> <br>"Anybody?" Dissatisfied at the lack of response, Redd enters the theater, catching up with the rest of the group. "Oh, that was faster than I expected."<br> <br>CaseyRune peers around the room,nothing attacking, thats good... Though you have to wonder, who in the right mind actually /uses/ floppies anymore? And not as drink coasters. They do however start salvaging, starting with said floppy, and going to look over the papers on the table. "Huh..."<br> <br>Smokie feels pretty useless in the room, but that desk and the floppy...  retro!  She sighs, standing by the door.  (Time for bad thing to happen to smokie)<br> <br>Rihko takes one glance around the room, sniffing, her ears going back at the rather familiar scent.  The floppy definitely catches her interest, but someone else grabs it first; the kitsune makes a quiet growl, but she doesn't want to start a fight; instead she quickly examins the tower by the desk to see if it's salvageable, or if she could even power it off and yank the hard drive.  The server tower gets a quick examination as well for useful bits.<br> <br>Loki quickly moves about the room, quickly looking for both the primary cause of the scent as well as anything that could be remotely useful to discerning the makeup of things. The desk is eventually found, though others have gotten there first - and the dragon does take some time to rummage through the papers as well, looking for anything that could have also been in use - any drawers the desk has are also quickly opened and examined.<br> <br>Anbessa opens his eyes widely as he stares around the computer room, standing next to the door as well as he curiously watches the others. With his Claymore resting at his side, he watches the others with Smokie, acting as a door guard for the time being as he quietly watches and listens, once and a while taking a small sniff at the air.<br> <br>POP! POP pop POP POP! Uh oh. It looks like whatever these columns of computers is running is finally proving to be too much for it; sounds like fireworks rattle the room, and most of Team Alpha would recall that sound just before a rather unpleasant explosion some time before! It's time for everyone to gather what they will and get the hell out, looks like! Well, everyone except Smokie. Looks like her 'ride' is covered, if you count two feral gryphons grabbing her from a blind corner and dragging her away into the darkness deeper in the confines of the theater to be a 'ride'! (Hey, at least she's out of harm's way...?) A sizzling sound accompanies the rapidly devolving situation, and there's a distinct smell of smoke and insulation in the air!<br> <br>"We need to get as much from these machines as possible, Can't let the data disappear into thin air." Redd goes hunting for power cables. His hands are searching for cords, discs, drives, anything he could pull from the building.<br> <br>CaseyRune takes absolutely no chances, and starts stuffing papers into their suitcoat. "OK, everyone /move/. We take everything not nailed down. And if the Fearless Leader can find the fuse, pry up what is, take it then take the nails."<br> <br>Smokie squawks briefly as she's dragged away, silently taken.  (worst pose evarr)<br> <br>Rihko pauses, her head snapping up as the electronics start popping.  Her tails twitch, and she quickly finishes her salvaging.  She turns to leave, and her eyes narrow as the other gryphons grab Smokie and drag him... her... whoever off.  The kitsune considers this for a fraction of a moment, her ears pinning back, and then with a snarl she bolts back down the hallway they came through, fire gathering around her.<br> <br>Loki seems to snap out of his daze when Rihko snarls and bolts off, the dragon frowning visibly through his armour. He quickly gathers any and all papers upon the desk, folds them up, and then stuffs them into a compartment in his armour before taking off after the kitsune. "Sorry. You guys take care of things here... We seem to be two members down and things could turn unpleasant." he shouts out as he bolts off down the hall after the flaming kitsune.\<br> <br>Anbessa opens his eyes widely as he hears all of the loud noices, his ears flattening against his head and hiding the sensitive nubs of his horns that he has. With his eyes darting around the room, he does spot Smokie being grabbed, his eyes catching on them for a moment before he growls under his breath. He looks to Redd and Casey, then over towards where Smokie and the gryphons disappeared to. With the thought of following the escapists, he then just groans and sighs before turning towards Redd and Casey, "Just grab that damn thing and lets get out of here!" He shouts out loud towards them, quickly turning his Claymore and returning it towards his sheath on his back before turning and making down the hallway behind Loki and Rihko.<br> <br>Fortunately for *almost* everyone, the fire does not start as an explosion that blasts those still in the room to bits. Unfortunately, it is a large fire and it's spreading like...well, like wildfire! Most of the computers in the rear of the column are already ablaze, and while Redd tries to salvage more and more electronics, it only gets hotter and hotter in the room and harder to breathe. Smokie's fate is left uncertain, but the gryphons have shown at least enough basic survival instinct to know that Fire Bad; you may just have to find her another time. The fire spreads further, plumes of smoke chasing half the team out of the room while the remaining two members struggle to gather what they will...a proposition that's rapidly proving more and more hazardous!<br> <br>Redd tears the several panels off the computer towers, and starts pulling drives and boards out of computers. "Save as manydrives as possible, boards are secondary importance. Anything else you can save should be worried about afterwards."<br> <br>CaseyRune huffs, well hopefully there's a floppy drive in here that hasn't burst into flame yet. Though the fact that its getting harder to breathe is a minor worry. While not hard to come back from, asphyxiation isn't a pleasent process. "I'll see if I can't get something on the way out, but we need to /MOVE/. Its only a matter of time before /something/ explodes somewhere."<br> <br>Rihko continues down the hallway after Smokie, the silver-furred fox lady quick on her feet.  A grin pulls her lips back from her teeth, and as she closes in on her prey she unleashes a potent maelstrom of flames at the gryphons.<br> <br>"Rihko! Careful of the abductee! You might bur-" Loki says, cutting his sentance off early as Rihko unleashes said inferno of fiery doom, a hand moving towards his face. "Rihko... I normally don't advocate the stabbing of somebody, but I think that skewering the ferals a few times would have been a better alternative than a potentially crispy non-feral." he says with a little slump, waiting for Rihko to finish her fire thing.<br> <br>Anbessa quickly is following behind Loki as he follows behind in the chase, though as he watches Rihko's massive wall of fire, he opens his eyes wide as he skids to slow himself some, wanting to be a bit more careful if there is any fire that is set on the area around them. Though he does continue to follow, wordlessly and carefully keeping pace with the chase for Smokie.<br> <br>It's super-effective! The billowing flames push through the hallway and exit, leaving no charred gryphon corpses (teammate or otherwise). It looks very much like whatever grabbed Smokie decided that being chased down for her just wasn't worth it, and turned tail and retreated deeper into the ruins of the once-city. Those who went chasing after Smokie will hear a muffled explosion as the room in which Redd and CaseyRune are lingering suffers the first of what is bound to be a series of building-shaking kabooms, much of the ceiling coming down around the pair as the floor shakes enough to knock all but the most sturdy onto their asses. Powerful technology plus out-of-control electrical current plus a situation that feeds into itself...if the two don't book NOW, they're guaranteed to be on the list of casualties!<br> <br>"Ok, stayed longer than it's safe, should be a fire door somewhere around here." Dumping an armful of drives into a tower's case, Redd grabs it.  "Time to move, folks!" He's covered in dust, soot, and melting insulation as he runs towards one of the emergency exits.<br> <br>CaseyRune is thankful fire is their patron element. See as Redd has wisened up and is now on his way to an emergency exit, they flee as well, running out toward the way they came in, fire be damned. "GET OUT OF THE BUILDING!" They try to warn the other team members who may still be inside."THE WHOLE PLACE IS ABOUT TO BLOW." They really hope the others are either leaving or have left.<br> <br>The gryphon, dropped, discarded rather rudely, just barely escapes the flash-fire.  Without much time to think, she rolls back onto all fours, furls her wings tight, and sprints down the hallway, the direction her captors fled.<br> <br>Rihko gives herself a shake as she continues down the hallway, patting down some of the fire clinging to her own fur; outside of the building she slows down and looks behind to make sure the others had made it out, then continues putting more distance between herself and the impending explosion.  She does her best to keep an eye on the whole group, grumbling.<br> <br>Loki frowns slightly at the ensuing explosions, a cautionary glance thrown behind himself as he watches for the others. Explosions? Those are quite bad for the heath, and the dragon quickly falls astride Rihko before nudging her slightly with his elbow. "Your mood looks less pleasant than it was... What's the matter?" he inquires to the pyrosune.<br> <br>Anbessa does quickly follow behind the others as he leaves the building alongside them. He quietly dusts a little bit of smoke residue off of himself with his fluffy tail, smiling to himself until he takes note of the warming feeling eminating from his tail. He looks down to his tail to see a small patch of fire on it. He opens his eyes wide, quickly yelping before his tail turns into goo, the fire fizzling out immediately after before he sighs in relief. He stares over to Rihko and Loki for a moment as his tail returns to it's previous state, being nice and fluffy, only a small puff of smoke over his tail to show what had just ensued for a moment before looking back at the building as well.<br> <br>Fortunately, everyone manages to make it out, though CaseyRune and Redd will both be suffering from smoke inhalation unless they've found some way not to breathe. Loki will swiftly discover that the papers he Plundered are a Schematic for a device that bends light...which certainly explains how the place wound up invisible for so long! More of these are likely to be scattered throughout deeper portions of however much of the 'city' wound up here, but it's going to take a lot more than the six of you to continue to salvage this place. For now, it's time to head back to Zephyr and reap the rewards of a job well done.<br> <br>As for the floppy disk, it looks like someone was trying to save his journal entries. They detail the rapid descent of this floating city, this supposedly utopian society, into a state of madness shortly after P-Day. It seems that the locals thought that they could avoid the repercussions of what some of their technology helped to create, but they hadn't counted on one fact: gryphons fly. At least, some of them do, and it only took a few gryphons stumbling across their floating civic paradise to begin the rapid spread of P-Day to a place totally unprepared for it. A horrifying account of the city's population becoming more and more feral and the faltering maintenance of both the flight mechanisms and the projector is given, the writer's acquaintances winding up either eaten or converted by the contagion that's run afoul of his city. By all accounts, there should be much more to the place than just the few blocks that you've all explored, but that's for another day.