The entrance to Xanadu Gardens lay in the eastern section of Fairhaven Park. The agents who volunteered for the mission were told to assemble there for a briefing by their chief researcher in charge of Xanadu Gardens. Waiting just outside the entrance to greet them all as they arrived was a storm dragon, his tail swaying in what appeared to be agitation. Behind him, a small section of the Gardens was visible through the entrance - flower-lined paths and a big water fountain, and beyond those, the dark smudge of a wood, and what appeared to be a meadow, perhaps? At that distance, it all got vague and fuzzy. Somewhere in that walled-off area was an enormous tree, the object of your mission today. As the agents arrived, Acetyl greeted them and asked them politely to wait until all had arrived, as he had been instructed to brief them on the mission. Strange, exotic aromas roll toward you from within the park as you arrive, tickling your brain with their unusual blend of chemistry and active nanites. The sensation is subtle, but real.

Zophah arrives at the gates hand-in-hand with Arris, sporting her usual bikini, lab coat, and bag. This vixen decided to come with her compound bow and arrows strapped to her back just in case something happened, but with her skills and research equipment Zophah wasn't worried. "Been quite a while since I've been here collecting infection vials." She wonders aloud. She then stopped in front of the storm dragon, waiting for everyone else to arrive.

What a strange and peculiar mission they were sent on this time... one fennec fox would be right at home getting his hands dirty however, his penchant for trouble ensuring that he'd be anywhere and everywhere there was something interesting to see or do. More-so he had a feeling he'd see some familiar faces there as well. Once the fox arrives on-site, he'd do so with a kick in his step, a smile on his face and a guitar in his hands strumming out a jovial tune welling from within, his internal happiness pouring out in the form of soft, melodious tunes. Someone's been practicing!

Upon arrival, Magnus sees Zophah and Arris having already arrived. He'd move over and just peck the two on the cheek, before casting each a wink and ceasing the music. Placing his instrument back on his back, the fox rubs his hands together and states his mind. "Smells like pixie farts and gummy bears. I don't trust that." Glancing between the two, he'd rub his hands together and asks. "So! What kinda shenanigains are we getting up to today? Something about a tree?" he'd cast the question towards Acetyl, a nod and a wink in greeting sent along with it. "Tsk, and here I am without my plaid shirt, long beard and choppin' axe!"

As she follows behind Zophah, Arris rubs at her nose slightly. The scents and smells were... interesting, but she was far from losing herself in them; work is work and play is play, and they should be kept separate. That being said, a little small talk wouldn't hurt before the mission. "You know, you still need to tell me how your trip to Arizona went." She snickers lightly, nuzzling her snout against her almost-perpetually-busy wife once the two of them reached the gate, letting the approaching fennec drop her a kisso n the cheek. "You and Magnus both."

Cythim heards of the whereabouts of a research mission at the xanadu gardens and dediced to put her knowledge at use for good measure.

With a fairly heavy march, the chimeric beast, an odd mix of crystal bird, machine and an absurdly heavy-looking tail makes her way besides the rest of the assembled team, giving the squad quick glances with her three hydra heads. The titaness then momentarilly sits down onto the ground, sensibly concerned by the unknown waffing aroma that seemingly came off the area.

Cythim takes a pause before asking to the storm dragon, 'So. What are we up to do, today?.'.

Lilac approaches the quickly forming group. The tall, satyric cowgirl checks her equipment one final time before moving in. She crosses her arms over her breast, stretching the fabric of her tight, form-fitting bodysuit. "Afternoon all." She says with a pleasant smile. "This here the gatherin' for the scoutin' job up the Gardens?" She quietens as the others start to chatter between themselves, content to listen in to the group of strangers. Her gaze turns to the side and up to regard the many headed, chimeric beast as Cythim speaks, slowly breaking a smile. "Seems like s'gonna be an easy job with this team."

The storm dragon's broad muzzle creases in a slight, lopsided, but genuine smile of recognition as he notes the presence of some agents he's met in the past. His tense posture relaxes slightly as he surveys the group, taking them in one by one. "Thank you all for coming. You are standing on the outskirts of Xanadu Gardens. There are not many known sites where 'wild' nanites have mutated plant life as well as humans. This," he states, gesturing over his back toward the entrance, "is one of them. Almost all of the plant life within is mutated to some degree. There is a distinct population of plant- or fungus-like ferals that congregate here. They almost never leave, in fact." He pauses for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. There's a slight rumble in his throat. Then he continues. "There are two subjects of interest today. The Tree of Life and Death and the ferals known as Xanadu Birds. The Tree is the largest in Xanadu, and it is covered in leaves, flowers, and fruit of many different species. I have not been able to confirm this, but they appear to represent most or even all of the species of plant found within the park. Zephyr would like to know more about this phenomenon, and about the ferals who consider the Tree their home." He pauses, frowning to himself in a thoughtful way, though there seems to be a hint of concern in the draconic features, too? "You are to make your way through the Gardens to the site of the Tree. There are paths, but you will need to be careful. Do your best to avoid altercations with local ferals - your approach should be as stealthy as possible. We are hoping for samples from the Tree itself. Bark, its various different leaves, blooms, and fruits. We are also interested in obtaining information about the relationship of the Birds to the tree. However, this is their only known nesting site. The nests must not be disturbed, and, if at all possible, the Birds should not know you are there at all." He takes a breath, his frown deepening. "Please be careful. Feral Xanadu Birds are powerful, and their minds are... well, they're not like ours." The fur on his tail is puffing out slightly as he speaks, and his wings rustle on his back. "I can't accompany you - I'm required to be elsewhere after I conclude this briefing - but please, exercise extreme caution, and do not engage the Birds in combat unless it's unavoidable. They do not typically attack in large numbers in most of the park, but when near the Tree, they become very aggressive in defense of their nests." Acetyl waits for a moment, giving his audience time to take in his words. Then he adds, "Does anyone have any questions?"

"We went, we saw, we kicked ass. That's the summary of it." Magnus casts Arris a wink before the others arrive. "Well well, haven't seen you around before." The fennec snickers as he spots Lilac. "Don't count yer eggs before they hatch though! I've been in a lot of sticky situations where even the most able-bodied have felt the cruel crunch of lady luck's fangs snapping their spine in two. Or a rib..." the fox sighs softly. "There was this one fella, well built, very strong, we were helping some folks jump out of a burning building, he should have caught those falling no problem what with how buff he was, but... for some reason he went and broke a rib or two when the catch happened. BUT LET'S NOT START THIS OFF ON A BAD NOTE, AYE?!" he'd crack his knuckles and turn towards the other newcomer.

"Welcome to the group lad. Nice feathers, very shiny." Magnus notes, the glimmering crystalline plumage almost radiant enough to cast sparkles in his very eyes. Once Acetyl speaks up, his ears turn towards the dragon, and with the fox being a fennec, well... it was pretty hard not to hear all of it. "Right, sneak in, find the tree, snag some samples, roast any aggressors that come our way, one question!" the fox raises a finger, his index, not the middle, that one's for something else entirely... "What's with the stink? It smells like the hopes and dreams of naive children before adulthood has a chance to suck the happiness and joy out of them, or something... I'm thinking we maybe don't wanna inhale too much of this. I've been in places where gas makes you do all sorts of crazy things."

Zophah replies to Arris "Oh! Right. I'll tell you later." She then shuffles through her bag, pulling out the needed tools and vessels to collect biological samples. As she does this she asks "Those who are easier to spot should do whatever jobs are furthest from the nests. I guessed that there may be at least someone who will need help collecting samples, so I wrote down instructions on what to look for and how to collect them." She holds out a notepad for anyone to take, labled 'How to Collect Samples'. "I'll work on observing the birds and collecting samples higher in the tree, and if anyone is in trouble just page me in comms or use nanomagic if you can." She then uses her adept software to sprout phoenix wings from her back, and gets ready to go.

Arris flags her hand lightly. "Yeah, it's no problem. We get in there as stealthy as possible, obtain the... samples from the big tree in the middle of the gardens, and we get out, avoiding those birds on the way." She pauses. "In the event that we can only get one or the other, what should we prioritize obtaining? Bark, leaves, blooms, or fruits?"

After Arris finishes her inquiry, her focus jumps from Acetyl to Zophah's notes. "...ooh, that looks very scientific. I mean... I'll take 'em, if nobody else is planning on scooping out samples here." The gator then takes a glance around, watching for a show-of-hands if someone plans on using the papers.

Cythim idly listen to the dragon, mentally noting the important parts of their given mission, giving glances toward the garden's overall direction, only to have her main head's visage to glare, when she heards she had to be 'stealthy'. As a gigantic boobied crystal beast. As an answer, she mutters to no one in particular, before she adds, asking the fennec, 'The heck you've been doing, out there?'.

Being very obviously aware that she might as well be screaming to the whole place she's here, and with a clearly not feinted sigh, she kneels down to grab the notepad and scrolls through it for good measure.

She adds, 'Would there be some sort of plan as of how we handle dem bird, or we just follow our instincts and roll by with whatever would happen?'.

Lilac nods at Magnus as he chatters, the cowgirl smirking. "Ah, yer the veteran who's seen it all I take it? Nice to meet ya. I'll try an' not get in the way much." She pauses as Zophah goes ahead and sprouts wings, as well. "Well oiled machine, I see. I'll carry anything ya find." She turns to Arris and nods. "I was gonna suggest fruit myself, or any healthy-lookin' fronds or blossoms. The sorta stuff that has planty sexual characteristics, as it were, the uh.. stamens and pistils an' whatnot, but y'all seem to have this sorted. I'll work security an' try to make sure nothing gets close to disrupt ya." She looks up at Cythim. "Figure first we should avoid contact an' leave them be. Unless we go too close to their homes they should be leavin' us alone."

Acetyl sighs at the memory of the accident at the fire. That really had been unfortunate. In respose to Magnus's question, the Storm Dragon says, "It's all the flowers and aromatic plants. Their various smells blend together and waft around on the breeze. It might make you feel a little... strange," he says slowly, unsure how to describe it, "but that's all. That said, I don't advise closely smelling the flowers. Most of them can't affect you through scent alone, but a few of them are more potent."

Acetyl nods at Zophah's words. "That was thoughtful of you. Go ahead and hand those around to anyone who'd like to take a look at them. Be very careful higher in the tree - the closer you get to the nests, the more likely you are to disturb them. And to trigger an unusually aggressive attack." His expression appears sincerely concerned.

"Not quite. We're also hoping to obtain some observations of Xanadu Bird behavior if possible. We would like to know more about their relationship to the Tree. This is part of why stealth is important. It will keep you all safe, but it may also give you a chance to observe the Xanadu Birds and learn something about them. We hope that, by learning about the Birds, we might learn something about the tree by extension." In reply to Arris's question, he adds, "Bark, and the sap of the main trunk. This will allow us to sample the Tree's DNA and any nanite strain or strains that may be infecting it. However, please do try to obtain as great a diversity of samples as possible, of all types. We are trying to confirm or deny the hypothesis that it bears all of the plants found in the Gardens, and *only* those plants. It will likely take multiple runs of this type of mission to obtain enough data, of course, but we're hoping to get it done in as few runs as possible."

Nodding to the crystalline agent, Acetyl says, "If attacked, try to get as far from the Tree as you can. If they corner you, defend yourself as needed." After a moment, he notes, "The forest has many large trees and deadfalls. If you move carefully, even one such as you should be able to remain reasonably concealed, especially if you roll in mud or something to disguise yourself. It's possible that someone here may be able to help you shift to another form, as well, if that option interests you, for the duration of the mission."

Acetyl nods to Lilac. "After the bark and sap, blossoms and fruit are indeed of great interest. We do want to see leaves as well, however, due to the need to confirm the presence of non-blooming species in the mix. Xanadu Birds tend to be aggressive, but it is possible to move through the forest undetected by them if you're cautious."

"Does anyone have any more questions? If not, I'm being summoned," the storm dragon notes. He looks over the group again, assessing them thoughtfully. "Oh! One last thing. When you've gotten as much as you can, return here and send me a message through the comms. I'll return to collect your findings and pay you."

"That's right, why back in MY day we didn't HAVE none of those fancy schmancy mutant power thingies." Magnus comically leans over and presses a hand against his back, feigning the old man look. "You entitled mutants and your karfunkled fire breathing and what not! Myeeeegh! WE USED ROCKS AND WE WERE HAPPY DOING IT!" dropping the joke, Magnus shakes his head and sticks his tongue out. "I hope I never get to see it all, because then I'd have nothing new left to see. What kind of horrible life would that be?" He'd sigh softly, gloomily even, but drop that quickly. Casting his gaze towards the avian of drastic sparkles, he'd pat her on the shoulder and note. "You know... with a little effort it won't be all that difficult to sneak in. Just stick to the shade! Can't be shiny if there's no light to reflect, right?"

"Anyway, whatever happens, even if we are mobbed, we'll be fine. I can at least vouch for Arris and Zophah being proficient in combat. We'll cut a path to the tree and leave a trail of bloodied, mangled corpses in our wake if we have to." the fox quips with a touch of madness sparkling in his gaze, though like his past jolts, it fades nigh instantly. "Let's get going then! I have no idea where the tree is though. Anyone adept at... uhhh... tracking trees? I mean I know there are paths, but I'd rather take the 'leisurely walk' path and not the 'thousand spike falls and casual detour through a feral hive of angry mega-hornets' path." He shudders. "Ever been stung by a mega bee girl, I can tell you it hurts worse than any bullet wound." Magnus rubs the back of his head and shrugs deeply. "I mean... if'n yer not armored up."

The fox flits and ear as he hears Acetyl's words. He laughs and points out the obvious. "Snow White also 'felt strange', right before she was poisoned." He'd note and pull up a face covering over his muzzle. It was a simple design, just a basic air filter covering his muzzle, intended to sift out any spores, dust particles, pollen or other such small contaminants. "I dunno about you, but I am not taking any chances. One moment it's "Oh, it smells like sunshine and joy!" and the next, you are being vored by a giant venus flytrap and sent down into its digestion chamber to be dissolved on a molecular fuckin' level." He'd shake his head. "I love me a thrill but I hate enemies I can't punch in the face. Mind-fucking mists are on that list of enemies. Anywho, we should get going!" Magnus notes and gives Zophah and Arris a tug on their tails. "We aren't getting any younger!" his covered muzzle bobs towards Lilac and Cythim as well, inviting everyone to head off already! "You do the big-brain stuff if you want. My noggen's built for other things."

Zophah nods at the continuing conversation, and having all of her gear she is ready. "Last chance for any vials, scrapers, shears and whatnot for collecting samples." She says holding out spare tools. Once everyone gets a chance to take what they need, Zophah spreads her wings and gets to flying above the trees. Spotting the correct tree, she messages to everyone by text the correct location to go, and then uses vanishing nanomagic to go invisible. She also uses her nanite trait that allows her to avoid breathing, just in case these scents and spores start causing any trouble too.

Seeing that nobody has asked Zophah for her papers, Arris takes them and does a quick read-through before asking her for a pair of vials and shears. "Alright, take the bark and sap good. Noted." She then pauses. "...pistils you say, Lilac?" She looks up from the research notes. "I guess we should be wary of stray bullets flying around too, once we get close enough to the tree." Pocketing Zophah's papers into her utility belt, she adjusts the strap of her rifle over her shoulder and turns in the direction of the tree. "Alright, let's roll?"

'Great.. Totally what i would want to do.. Pigging up in puddles of mud.. I'll try to conceal within the denser foliage if i can be helped. Although, don't count on me to bend on all four just for your pretty eyes!'.

Nervously, Cythim fidgets with her madeshift bra, a large bandage wrapped up by her bust and chest, grumbling about how much of a mess a mud bath would be to clean up.

She sighs as Magnus litterally proposed to go on a rampage, which would be dire for snaggng the reward! 'Don't you go around nilly-willy murdering all on sight! ..If we can be help.'

Mindfully, she follows Zophah's directions, moving toward the called nesting area that is the big tree, drawing her blade early, warily going ahead of the group. 'Let's go, boys and girls.'.

The cowgirl stares on at Magnus, stunned by the avalanche of words. She scarcely even has the presence of mind to reply, instead nodding in blank acknowledgement and turning her attention to Arris instead. "Aye. I dun' know as much of the science stuff, but I'd reckon the plants' version of the naughty bits would be where all the interesting stuff is happening.. er, scientifically speakin'. An' fresh bark is a good idea too." She looks up at Cythim. "I suggest ye lead the way big fella? Bit of luck you should be able to spot anything 'fore we get close enough for it to get proper spooked." She starts putting on some of her own safety gear, namely a pair of insulated gloves that match her bodysuit. "An' if something does get spooked, well... let's play it by ear. Maybe we dun' have to open fire an' chop up everythin' that moves if we can deal with them the proper way." She starts walking, then pauses, quickly adding. "An' by that I mean tryin' ta calm them down and get em' to back off, not uh.. intercourse. Figure I should clarify that..." She clears the throat, then smiles as she starts following after Cythim.

After Acetyl wishes you luck one last time, he spreads his wings and takes off, flying away over Fairhaven Park to some other destination. The group, meanwhile, turns and passes through the entrance into Xanadu Gardens. Passing the Big Fountain, you quickly make your way across the open space that greets you upon first entering. Even in that relatively open space, with its flower-lined paths and occasional benches, there are a number of strikingly unusual plants. The place looks deserted, but faint sounds and smells reveal that ferals have been here recently and may well be lurking not far away. Still, you make it across this section without incident. Following Zophah's guidance, the group enters the wood, following the path indicated by the flying agent as being the most direct route to the Tree. At first, the trees are spaced relatively widely, but the forest grows denser quickly, with many unusual fungi sprouting from between the roots or growing shelf-like from the trunks of the equally unusual trees. Soon, you are forced to spread out by the complexity of the environment and the necessity for stealth.

Advancing through the woodlands proved trivial for a nimble vulpine of acrobatic prowess and a knack for stealth. He'd move with the group, bouncing from place to place, keeping mid-height though sometimes hopping between the tree canopies. He's quick on his feet and with his wits, eager to move forward, and cautious of their potential attackers. In one hand, Magnus always kept his stiletto drawn, using it every so often as a climbing pick, whenever needed. His ears flit left and right, scanning for dangers or incoming threats, though perhaps he could do better than just... listening. He'd watch! Why not? Maybe Magnus was part monkey given how swiftly he is able to scale the trees and bounce around their tops. Somehow though, he felt as tough the locals were too afraid to attack them. How curious...

Zophah flies in and lands among the higher branches of the larger Xanadu tree, unhindered by the undergrowth below and as silent as an owl in the night. It didn't take long for her to notice the nests the Xanadu birds were using, so Zophah gets to work pulling a fresh notebook from her bag and starts writing. Their behavior, their appearance, their nests, the layout of their nests in the tree, and so forth. Zophah continues to make sure her position is never found, and does her best with even drawing smaller details on her study.

Arris pushes on through the underbrush as the flora begins to thicken. Eventually, once it gets almost too hampering, she'd stop and cross her arms frustratedly. "Gah. Who'd have thought that we could grow such a big forest in such a small little town?" She begins to look around the area, looking for one to climb up and see if she'd be able to reach her destination more easily by avoiding the ground. Finding a suitable one, she activates her tentacle nanomagic, and using the tentacles to strengthen her grip on the branches, she makes her way up on top of the treeline, before preparing to advance once more.

Cythim's attempt to escape the peeled open eyes of whatever must be staring at her deviously failed attempt to conceal herself as she clumsily stroll by the increasingly thickening vegetation, while cursing under her breath for she is clearly surrounded. Or at least, she thinks she is..

Not helped by the fact that she can't spot clearly her companions, she lets off any attempt to 'sneak' by and simply continue on the way, cautiously looking at her surrounding, strengthening her grip on her sword and gritting her teeth.

Lilac nods at Arris' words. "Prolly them nanites.. what can't they do." The amazonian cowgirl follows with the pack, happy to stay behind the more experienced agents as she trudges carefully through the underbrush. She stops every so often to observe the plants that surround them. "Such strange things.. how they've grown." She goes quiet as Arris goes and grows some handy tentacles, grinning widely. "Useful. Hrm.. I'll just have to keep hoofin' it." And so she does, the satyric bovine making her way through the underbrush, hooves landing softly on the grassy soil. Luckily it's easy to follow the trail Cythim is leaving...

Ironically, Cythim's lack of stealth helps the others remain hidden. Whatever or whoever might be aware of their trek through the strange little wood, their attention was focused entirely upon the crystalline agent, entirely overlooking the others for now. The group manages to press forward at a reasonable rate, if slowed by (almost everyone's) attempts to proceed stealthily. This gives those proceeding on foot some time to observe the native flora as they pass by. If the briefing they were given was accurate, almost everything growing around them - if not all of it - is a mutant strain, warped and remade by nanites as surely as people could be. Some of the foliage seemed ordinary enough, if a bit lush and jungle-like for Fairhaven's climate, but it's easy to credit the nanites with the more bizarre forms you pass.

Fortunately, though lush, the forest isn't a large one. The two tree-climbers spot the clearing first from their advantaged position, but those on the ground are able to see it within a few more meters of advancement. The Tree is enormous, towering in the centers of its clearing. Many Xanadu Birds are there, resting in nests, feeding on the fruits of the tree, coming and going on their great leafy-feathered wings.

Meanwhile, invisible in the Tree, Zophah is taking notes while the others approach. Though the tree shook a little when she touched down, it was so gentle that it went mostly unnoticed. A few of the Xanadu Birds swiveled their strange heads around to peer in the direction of the disturbance - but, seeing nothing, they returned to their business.

When Cythim gets close to the tree, many of the Birds lift their weird heads and stare downward, raising their wings in alarm. A few calls echo through the birds in the tree. But, with their attention on her, the Birds fail to notice the rest of the team.

"Duuuuuudes!" Magnus would land near Lilac and Cythim "This place has pot!" he'd hold up a cannabis leaf he'd snagged. "At least it looks like pot. I ain't smoking this, both because I don't smoke and because it came from the tree literally named "THE TREE OF LIFE AND DEATH!" I mean I like the "life" part but the "death" part kinda... it's kind of a deal-breaker ya know?" he'd shrug deeply, then set the leaf aside as samples. "Everything is a plant here. One napalm bomb and this area is gonna burn for weeks." the fox snickers. "So... how we doin'? Big brain time going well?"

Zophah finishes a page of her notebook and was about to collect samples when she notices the birds doing something with the tree. The Xanadu birds seem to be doing some process to graft branches onto the tree, and Zophah closes in to investigate. She then hears the birds in an uproar and takes a look down at what they are yelling about and yep, the rest of the crew arrived. So Zophah goes to a less conspicuous location of the tree to message 'stop agitating them! I'm up here! If you can't stay stealthy, keep close to the ground.' to the groups comms. She then makes her way over to a branch that just recently got grafted, and starts collecting samples of the tree at the connecting point. Just to be sure, She even stands still and uses a few seconds each of her Nanite Scanning nanomagic and Biomonitoring Sight nanomagic to observe.

Upon reaching the tree, Arris looks both ways before getting closer and beginning to collect samples, starting by using the sharp edge of the shears to scrape off a little bit of the bark, carefully holding up a vial and letting the scrapings fall into it. She takes a look around, making sure she wasn't spotted, before climbing up to a different location and seeing some flowers she could snip off and add to some plastic bags. The commotion made by the birds, however, catches her off guard, making her cling close to the bark to avoid being spotted... and then she sees the birds descending towards Cythim. She briefly contemplates her options, considering if firing a loud sniper shot would be a valid move, but decides otherwise, fearing she'd startle more birds.

Cythim grunts, as she just couldn't concentrate properly on the sampling part of her mission, being watched by a large part of the inhabitants of the garden. Regardless, things get better as she gets a more proper sight of those so-called 'Xanadu Birds', until she spots their sheer numbers.

To err on the side of caution, she sheathes her weapon up so she could snag and hold properly her untrusty gattling dart, itching to just shoot nilly-willy should the birds do anything the crystal bird would consider as stupid and/or dangerous.

Hearing out Magnus, she tries to whisper, 'They looks pretty mad to me, don't you do anything funny!'.

Lilac pauses as the tree comes within sight, the bovine having to stop to admire it's majesty and sheer size. It's one thing to see it crown above the canopy, but it's another altogether to be beneath it, making her feel quite small. As Magnus lands near her she gasps, startled as she snaps to. "Mmh.. I'll pass." She whispers. "Look, they seem to be distracted by uh.. you." She grins at Cythim, not having caught the name. "I'll try to get close and gather up some samples by hand. Try not to burn everything." She starts moving towards the tree, keeping an ear out to the Xanadu Birds' musical cries to ensure they're still appropriately occupied trying to ward off Cythim. She looks for fallen bark and fruit, and maybe even some root offshoots she can cut up and collect. She peers up at the spooked birds every so often, trying to check them for danger before proceeding.

Hearing Magnus's louder voice, some of the birds arch their necks around, peering in his direction in alarm. The flock appears to be growing more agitated, and while birds are still flying in to join the group, none are leaving anymore. While samples are being collected, a definite sense of time pressure is building. Then, suddenly, two of the birds in the lower parts of the tree launch, kicking off their branches in eerie silence. Wings outstretched, the plantbirds swoop around the tree, circling it, before returning to another pair of branches. This sets off a wave of wing-flapping and whistling amongst the ferals. They aren't attacking yet, but they've definitely gotten the idea that there are intruders near their nests, and they're obviously not happy about it.

The fennec sighs and draws his flintlock bludnerbuss, loading two dragonfire rounds into it and readying it. "Hope you have your samples Zoop." he'd mutter "Things are gonna get toasty otherwise." He then takes a few steps back and takes cover under one of the larger trees, should those birds swoop down they'd have both the canopy and the fox' weapons to deal with. He draws his comm unit with his free hand and pages Zophah a private message, then puts it away. "Whatever. Nobody's gonna shed tears over a buncha birds." Magnus huffs. They did this every day for token payouts, facing swarms of angry mutants and putting them in their place. This was no different... "What the fuck?" his eyes narrow as he peers at the tree. "Ohh no... IT'S A WHOMPING WILLOW!!!" he'd point at it and yell~

Zophah goes back to her job. Now that the birds are getting agitated, it's even more important that she get her work done and do so without getting detected. She notices extra details having looked over the graft with her nanomagic and quickly scraped off a sample of bark as close to the graft point as possible and scooped up a few samples from a nest if she could. With her samples and notes in tow, she did her best to leave as she came in: quiet and invisible.

"Welp." Arris drops the recently-snipped bloom of the Xanadu Tree into a test tube before scanning the situation. Magnus seems to be preparing for a fight, but his yelling draws her attention up to the tree itself. That gave her a reason to choose running like hell, at least. Loosing her grip on the bark's side, she lets herself slide down the slope the roots made with the ground and makes a break towards the tree line, unslinging her sniper rifle and glancing around to check for any birds standing in her way. She didn't see Zophah anywhere, so she had to assume that she had also booked it right out of there as well.

Cythim didn't quite got to the point of shooting off at the birds, yet. But certainly feels that they shouldn't be fooling around, should they don't want to be assaulted.

Until Magnus' yelling that is. Reflexively, she shoots up in the tree's general direction, only to regret it immediatly, letting out a 'crap', as she lowers her weapon to see the result of her blunder.

Lilac gets reeeeeal close to the tree's roots in her quest for more things to pick up. Snipping away at a loose branch, she moos in surprise as Magnus suddenly cries out somewhere behind her, and a flurry of movement and bird noises moves her to quickly retreat. Leaving her half-gathered sample behind, she forgoes all stealth and simply runs for it, trying to get to the low-lying brush cuver while she fumbles for the weapon at her back!

Cythim's shots whistle through the air, the darts flying with deadly speed. One strikes a Xanadu Bird in the wing-shoulder, while two more thunk solidly into the wood of the tree itself. The whole tree shudders all over, and a number of leaves, flowers, and fruit suddenly fall off of it due to the movement. All the Xanadu Birds leap into the air, startled badly, though the wounded one is unable to fly as well as the others and ends up falling heavily to the ground, where it lies in a heap, evidently stunned. Several of the birds fly up above the tree and circle, frightened but unsure what to do. Some, however, come swooping down at the team, assuming this is the source of the threat to their nests - not unfairly, as it happens... Meanwhile, the acidic darts are doing their work, and the tree is beginning to sway back and forth, its branches moving with great painful-sounding creakings and groanings of old wood. It isn't exactly attacking like a treant, or moving with much intelligent coordination, but it's obviously *moving* under its own power, and there's no question that the acidic darts are damaging it.

%f A Xanadu Bird, wings spread wide, dives toward Cythim, while another aims for Magnus, while another follows Lilac and Arris as the two of them flee back toward the tree line.

*click* *BLAM* Magnus aims straight at the bird coming his way, engulfing it in burning soot and shrapnel as the pistol in his hand locks straight onto his attacker, billowing fiery death and quaking the air from the explosion-like sound. Flintlock pistols were known for being loud, this one was no exception. His attacker is sent reeling back, poor bird left to fight its now searing injuries. He puts his pistol away and moves over toward the others, hands now gripping a blade in one and a smoldering device in his right hand gauntlet. It wasn't every day that he got to fight a living tree, but today was one of those days it seems!

Zophah notices the tree and the birds in an uproar and lashing out at everything, and feels like this could have been avoided. She draws out a companion wisp to cause a distraction in the air (instructing it to avoid harming anything if possible) and draws out her compact shield drone from her bag. She swoops down and deposits the drone next to Arris to cover her before flying back to the tree, hoping to dislodge the acid lances that had caused more problems.

As she breaks it for the trees, the Xanadu Bird attacks Arris with a torrent of vines, lashing at her back as she dives for the trees, landing next to Magnus. Her rifle picks up fast, nailing the bird in the leg and letting it sail into the forest behind her, likely crashing in the process. "We should get out of here, Mag." Unsealing a vial of liquid bandage, she hastily applies it to the scales underneath her swimsuit's back, where she was hit by the vines. Already, the wound had begun to sting like hell due to the damage it took.

Cythim attempts to tail off the mess she's gotten into, but the dense vegetation and her heavy frame makes it rather difficult to tail off.

'What would've been the odds of THAT happening!? A giant moving tree!'.

Not trusting the garden's trees anymore, she attempts to crouch down away by a fair shot to support the straggled companions with a potential suppressing fire.

Lilac ducks under the whipping vines, dodging them as she scrambles her way to the treeline. Once safely ducked behind a tree trunk she brings her own weapon to bear. She emerges from behind the tree holding the strange, jury-rigged gun she had strapped to her back moments before. She takes a firm, two-hoofed stance, one hand holding the trigger while the other pitches the gun up, aiming it square at the tree... then hesitates. "Everyone, get to safety!" There should be no need to attack this tree any further, assuming everyone is safe. "It's slow and lumbering, it should be no threat if we can clear the distance."

The bird shot by Arris crashes into the foliage, its clean dive destroyed by taking the shot at close range. It tumbles through the branches of the lesser trees above them and out of sight, not to reappear. Acid drips down the tree's trunk, and its shuddering is intensifying, causing more of its grafted foliage to drop off. But then Zophah manages to dive through the randomly-swaying branches, arrowing for the darts. Although nearly struck several times, and lightly grazed once or twice, the flying agent succeeds in snatching the darts out of the tree's trunk before flying for safety. As soon as the darts are pulled from the tree's trunk, it emits a long, low groaning sound, more like stressed wood bending than an actual vocal expression. But it stops flailing around, though shudders of pain continue to roll through its wooden "flesh". Meanwhile, the Xanadu Birds are still extremely agitated, as the tree's flailing has badly damaged many of their nests. At first, it seems as if the birds are going to pursue them, but the chasing birds peel off when the pursuit takes them too far from the Tree, instead circling back to return to their damaged home. The Xanadu Birds circle around the shuddering tree, hooting and piping mournfully. But the team is permitted to escape.

Magnus puts his weapons away and casts a glance back at the living tree. "I can see why they call it the tree of life and death. It has life, but it will end yours." he scoffs and shakes his head. "Remind me to drag my team over here to massacre this place next time we're due a job "pacifying" the locals. Fucking birds. All we wanted were some snippets." Shrugging his anger away, the fennec then finds a nice spot to sit down on and waits for the others to gather up, should they want to... it'd been a bit of an experience for all of them.

Zophah swings back toward the group after pulling the spikes from the tree, finally coming to a rest at the edge of the trees and waiting for everyone else to make it out. She drops her invisibility and calls back her wisp, picking a spot to sit. While she waits, she pulls her notebook back out and finishes her reports, making note of anything that happened after her last line.

Once she finishes applying the liquid bandage, Arris slowly rises back up. "Jesus. Looks like they're not attacking us anymore, let's get the hell out of here." Seeing Zophah drop down and start writing a report for the Xanadu tree, Arris moves over to her, sits down, and leans against her wife's fluffy coat for comfort.

Cythim was poised to strike back at the birds, only to notice that they were pulling back to their home.

Cautiously, she steps up, still eyeing the tree and birds, dusts herself off with a rough manner, then joins up with the others, moving her arm to pull her gattling gun onto her shoulder. 'Guess we won't need to bugger 'round those parts for the time being, anymore, eh?'.

Lilac backs away, still keeping her cannon trained on the large tree until it's clear and out of sight. It's only when she slings it around her back again that she turns her attention to the group. "Agreed, let's just bolt. We got what we came 'ere for an' caused enough of a disturbance doing it." She looks at Magnus sideways. "Clearly they mean to keep this place fairly intact for their studies."

Once everyone was safely on the far side of the little wood, the team regrouped, then took a moment to catch their breath and recover from the chaos they'd just escaped. Some of you may find bits of dropped foliage from the tree on you. While the mission did not exactly go as planned in some ways - so much for not disturbing the poor birds' nests - you certainly gained a lot of information to pass on to Zephyr about the mutant tree and its weird plant-bird entourage. Once you've all gotten your breath, the team proceeds back out through the open area, past the Big Fountain, and out the gate. Acetyl is summoned, arriving within minutes of being called. There's a frown on his face as the storm dragon circles down to land near the team. "What happened? Is everyone all right? I've never seen the birds so agitated. I can hear them piping from here."

Zophah had a comfortable snuggle with Arris on the way back, which did wonders giving Zophah a chance to relax. And when Acetyl arrives she fills him in on what had happened from her perspective. Zophah probably gets a little too worked up on the scientific terminology of what she had discovered, but lets out a sigh when she gets to the part about covering their reteat and how she had to pull acid spikes out of the tree.

Arris spends almost the entire walk back snuggled against Zophah's side, nuzzling her snout into her neck as the two made their way back to the entrance. "Honestly, I could be in a worse situation. Not to say that this one has went well, though." She continues leaning into the vixen's fur as she lets her wife explain the events to Acetyl, but doesn't add much to the conversation.

Cythim mostly remained silent for most of the travel, reassessing whag they've went through. Then, as the group meet up once more with Acetyl and hears him out, she says, 'I may've or may've not.. shot their 'precious' tree. Don't think they were too happy to see a giant crystal popping just in front of their home too. But if it wasn't for a certain SOMEONE..'. She glares briefly at Magnus. 'I would've probably not made just a mess, i'spose. But then you did trust me on this mission. Sooo.. .. What about the reward?'.

Lilac scratches her head as she tries to come up with some clever words for what just took place, but it's hard to summarize it, really. "Eeh.. found out them birds were nesting on a livin' tree of some kind. A whompy willow or somethin'? Think that's what he called it." She thumbs at Magnus. "I was too busy runnin' for my life to really get a good look though. Uh.. we may have had to shoot a couple of the birds too. They should recover, on account of the nanites an' all." She smiles. "Wasn' as clean as it shoulda been, but wasn't bad either." She hands over her own bag of samples, mostly recovered from around the tree roots. "Hopefully some useful stuff there."

Acetyl sighs, taking in the reports. There's a pained look on his face, but if he's less than satisfied by the results, he doesn't say so. He accepts the samples gathered, shaking his head a little. "I hoped it might go cleaner than that, but I can't say I'm surprised. They're chaotic and aggressive at the best of times." All he can do is hope the tree wasn't damaged too badly. Acetyl arranges for them to receive their pay, nodding at the accumulation of samples presented. "Well, at least you all were able to bring back some useful material. This is more than I hoped for. We may be able to use what you've brought back. And it.. wait, it moved? You said it moved?" The dragonman's heavy brows shoot up. "That's... Hm. Wow. Yes, we certainly have more work to do here. Thank you for your work, everyone..."