Nuts for Books - RPLOG
Participants
Date
22/1/2014
Log
With the weather clear and bright, though the sun slowly setting in the distance, the abandoned military installation was not the most active of places around. With a high feral pressence and lots of cludder to keep wouldbe adventures at bay, it was not a hospitable locations. Most things of use, however, were either taken long ago or stripped by the nanites for their own particular use. Even more so here then most other places, with all the mech based ferals, metel didn't last long intact. Currently, activity is even lower then usual, even the ferals seeming mostly quiet.
Having dealt with the previous mission with the books for Zephyr before, one of the approaching team couldn't help but take this opportunity to join in again. With slow steps, the pale skinned, suit wearing human couldn't help but take extra heed of the area. Given it is new to him, it is relatively understandable. His hands quietly grip his newest piece of gear as his left eye lights up with a subtle glow of green... Ah, the other agents are coming. Standing a bit near the entrance, the suit wearing human sends out his short ping of greeting to the others in order to point out that he is a friendly. Stretching his shoulders for a moment, the human couldn't help but look over the entrance of the area, sniffing the air for a moment as he awaits the arival of the others who took the call from Zephyr.
Chance scurries towards the indicated area, clawed paws skittering as he tries to make good time despite his rather short stature. The vorpal rat arrives, casting nervous glances around to see who else has, and will turn up. The rat has his favored weapons in holsters and harnasses. The rat himself is not clothed, practicality of some of his actions has prohibited pants, and well shirt without pants seems silly to him. New to these missions, Chance lets out a small squeak of a "Hello?" to the man towering over him once he gets nearby.
Following an interval behind the rest of the group, a nervous, underequipped greenhorn sniffs the air. Her first mission for Zephyr since arriving in Fairhaven, Kesuma has no idea what to expect. Outwardly, the young one seems a bit jumpy... Inwardly, a neverending torrent of feral instinct screams in the back of her head, sending images of death in this place flashing before her eyes.... All dulled and muffled by the drugs. The raccoon shivers a bit, trying to regain composure.
Macaci prowls along on her way to the friendly ping her visor displayed. Her visor pulled down over her eyes, and her hair tied into a pony tail right behind her, swaying slightly with her tail as she moves. Her hands gripping her laser rifle tightly, the vaguely P-90 look alike humming softly as she moves... A good indication of it's working status. Two satchels hang along her shoulders as well, though are quickly distracted from being the focus by the RPG on her back, and sword on her hip.
Peeking around the corner as she arrives at the friendly ping, she presses a small button along the side of her visor to return the friendly ping before stepping into the open. Approaching the slowly gathering group as she speaks in hushed tone. "Hello."
Cookies arrives in what appears to be mechanic's coveralls, a utility belt and a pair of welding goggles situated above her eyes and between her feline ears. She takes a moment to look over the others and nods in greeting, purrring quietly to herself as she waits for the rest to gather, tail swaying idly behind her. "Hullo, Anbessa," she mewls to the human with little more than a glance in his direction.
Fenris saunters on to the scene, keeping a wary eye on his surroundings. Catching sight of the gathering group of operatives he gives a friendly wave, then puts his hands back in the deep pockets of his long, dark coat. He doesn't much like coming here at the behest of Zephyr. His last few experiences with the oversized corporation have left a bad taste in his mouth, but he can't argue with their expertise in finding interesting things. The tiger has already polished off the novels from his last library excursion and it's time to find something new. He frowns a little as he notices Cookies in the group, but shrugs and joins them anyway. He believes in second chances.
With his ever present shotgun strapped securely across his back, a silver businesslion steps out amongst the group of adventurers and agents, eager to get some work done to fuel the project not too far away from completion. At first, Dio's eyes are focused upon two particular people close to him, that being his daughter and a certain cat girl. A hand gently falls upon Macaci's shoulder, giving it a nice fatherly squeeze. "Greetings," he proclaims, "My name is Dio for those who don't know. Always nice to exchange names before a mission. Are we all ready to advance?"
Danielle arrives on the scene, the metalic clattering of guns in her possession heard as she jogs over. She was dressed in some tight clothing, not much more than a pair of jeans, some combat boots tied up tight, and a t-shirt which clings to her lithe frame. She hopes her chest holster didn't make things easy for grab her. Arriving at the group and looking around at the different faces, the human woman purses her lips. She only really recognized one person, and that was Dio, whom she offers a polite wave. "Heya... name's Danielle." She quickly introduces herself to the others in the group. She'd have more time to socialize when they weren't on a mission, she knew how the higher ups could be after all.
The group collected out at just beyond the entrance to the installation, there isn't much to see beyond the decaying building, rotting machines, and the occational feral scettering about. One such feral looks over to the group, and tilts her head to the side. The squrriel chitters wildy a moment before running up to the group, and giving a giggled, "HI!" She continues to chitter maddly a moment. Strapped to her back is an M4. Her eyes however, gravitate to Cookie's belly, and she gives a 'OOOHHH!'
The suit wearing human perks up at the sound of the softer voice, him looking curiously for a moment before he finally turns around and looks down, spotting the small rat. Blinking, he soon smiles. "Hello there." He says, crouching down a bit to be friendly to him. Though as the rest approaches, the human cannot help but stand back up, waving to the others. He blinks as he spots a few familiar people, chuckling towards Cookies. "Did what happen suck the life out of you?" He asks the egg filled feline, chuckling for a moment as anyone with good eyes can spot the faintest of blushes appearing on his face. Waving to Dio as well, he looks over the rest of th- "Ack!" He jumps reflexively at the sudden appearence of the squirrel, him amusingly standing on one foot in a weird position as his gun aims up at the sky. A Steyr AUG? With the runes on it, it looks more like it belongs in a video game... Though he soon calms down, quickly standing back on two feet as he squints at the squirrel, looking at the group before he looks to the female. "Excited one, ain'tcha?" He asks her, sighing for a moment before he looks back towards the building. "Anyway, like Cookies said, I am Anbessa. We should probably get to work. Ferals will be more out and about soon at this time after all." He speaks up, looking over the rest of the group as he takes a cautious eye at the squirrel. Paranoid human!
Chance smiles as macaci approaches the area, "Macaci, good to know I'm working with at least one face I know." He turns to the big man beside him, "Erm no offense meant." He looks them over, also looking to the Raccoon knowing a new reqruit when he sees one. He smiles warmly to them, hoping to reassure them. "Hey, you new here. Pleasure to work with you, name's Chance, and yours?" Spotting the Cat in coveralls he shuffles from foot to foot as he is a still nervous of Cookies from almost getting fried by one of their lasers. Keeping a distance between him and them he also spots fenris, another teammate from his first mission. He waves happily, wondering if the tiger recognizes him. Smiling as he recognizes the Lion, Chance waves a happy greeting to Dio, "Dio, how are you? Nice to work with you again!" He nods to Danielle "Chance, pleasure." looking around at the group "I'm good to go." is offered in response to the silver Lion. Looking at the squirrel chance approaches them slowly, knowing that while he might not be the one with the best social skills, but his stature is easily the least intimidating. He looks over the squirrel, and smiles "Hi, " He looks from the squirrel to cookie, and back. "You know anything about any books lying around here?"
Dio shifts his focus at the incoming squirrel with a curious gaze. A feral? But how strange, considering she has a weapon strapped to her back. Much like the squirrel, the lion looks upon Cookies rather full belly and lets out a low whistle. "Impressive," he whispers under his breath before moving towards the squirrel, returning Chance's greeting with a nod. "Greetings, my lady," he says with a slight bow. "Who might you be? And if you could honor us, I wonder if I could trouble a beautiful lady for a bit of information concerning what's inside this base here?"
Macaci tenses for a moment at the touch, before looking over her shoulder to give a smile and nod to Dio. Her gaze flicking back to the others as she looks them all over. "I'm Macaci." Her tone still kept rather low... Until the squirriel runs up to the group, almost causing the cat to eep before she blinks and focuses on the feral, offering a little wave. "Oh, uhm hello there." Giggling slightly at Anbessa's spook from the squirrel, though her own wasn't that subtle as well... Giving a nod to Chance as she bends slightly to pet the rat.
Anbessa lets out a soft sigh as he watches everyone else get friendly with the squirrel, him shaking his head for a moment as the human's fingers tip tip tap the assault rifle in his grip. Looking around the area, he quietly inspects the rest of the ferals that are prowling around nearby as he reaches down the barrel of his Steyr, a soft *Click* heard before his gun's flashlight shines out. After a short detatching from his gun, he shines the now lone light over and around the area. Better safe than sorry, right?
The squirrel slinks her ways over to Cookies and rubs on her belly, giving another excided 'Oooohhhhh.' The looking around to everyone else, "Me? Me is .. umm.... forgot, not important." She says, "But here has lots of shiny thing, and umm... thing, what is book?" she asks. Then she next notices Anbessa's gun, and the light it gives off, "SHINY!!" she calls out and practically tackles Anbessa's extended arm to try and take it from him!
Cookies notices the squirrel's gaze, glancing between her and her tummy before she curls her arms 'round herself protectively. She looks at Dio when he adresses the squirrel, then shrugs with a small sigh, dismissing her almost entirely with a back-turn and a whip of her tail in agitation, leaving her clueless to her pouncing before the cry of shininess. Oh dear.
Kesuma offers a curt nod in Chance's direction as he greets and introduces himself. "Kesuma," comes a muttered reply. Not much for talk, this one. Instead she glances around the area, and between the other agents. After a moment of this, she spots the approaching squirrel, and it takes every ounce of self control Kesuma has to avoid scurrying off in a scared frenzy. Which isn't helped by the figures moving around the group in the shadows. Or the defensive use of a rifle-mounted light.... Kesuma swallows hard and takes a deep breath.
Danielle yawns a little as she twists her head side to side, cracking her neck a bit before she reaches for her back and withdraws an AK-47. Ah, AK... widely overdone in popular culture, but still so reliable when properly maintained. Her grip on the rifle tenses a bit as the squirrel appears, however, the girl easily startled when it comes to those more 'ludid' ferals. She knew that's what she was just a few bad days of becoming, so it was especially frightening for her. Taking a deep breath, she decides to trust it for now. ... Then it promptly attempts to tackle one of her working partners. Ooh boy.
Anbessa hums curiously as he looks around, squinting at every few things he spo- What was that? Looking out of her periferals, he spots the incoming fluffball lunging into his direction, him letting out a soft yelp as he takes a hop backwards, quickly bopping the Squirrel on the head punishingly with the light in the process. "No! No! Bad squirrely!" He says, his thumb clicking off the light in learning. Well, if this squirrel is around, no lighting is allowed it seems!
Watching the feral attempt to snag away Anbessa's weapon, perhaps this feral individual wasn't too dangerous, but rather annoying to a degree and a possible liability for the mission. "Ma'am," he directs towards the squirrel, "I'm afraid we must part ways quite soon. But perhaps..." The lion rubs at his chin, watching Anbessa dodge out of the way and soon looking back towards the entrance to the facility. "Do you know of any interesting shinies you could lead us to?"
Fenris shakes his head and sighs, keeping clear of the friendly brawl. He doesn't need a mad little feral digging through his pockets. He gives a nod to Dio, recognizing the lion from previous missions. "You've gained a Y chromasome since last we met," he says affably, the turns his attention to the mad little squirrel.
Macaci winces as the Squirrel jumps for the shiny, glad her visor didn't produce much light with it's heads up display... She could tell it wasn't a malicious intent, just... Shiney. If anything she could relate to the poor girl! Reaching into her pocket she rummages around some for something shiney. Finding nothing, she promptly reaches into her right satchel, pulling out a dulled practice throwing knife. Holding it behind her back so that she could distract the feral with a shiney if push came to shove.
Chance draws his laser pistol, smiling he looks to dio and is petted by macaci. He looks around chuckling at the antics. "Alright and let's get on the move, the goods are all in there." He frowns and looks at the squirrel, "Hey, HEY, we need to get into there, mind helping us out," He nods as Dio says what he said better, He grins to the lion, "I'll leave you and...Doreen here,." He sighs and moves nearer Macaci, looking around.
Chittering annoyingly the squirrel girl looks to Anbessa, "Owww..." she bemoans looking into the compound once more. Her ears twist though as Dio talks about interesting shinies, she blinks a few times. She sits on her footpaws a moment, holding her head, "Umm... promise no take shiny? Or... maybe have... food.. give shiny for food?" she asks after a while.
Around the compound itself some shuffling can be heard as thoughs less civilized then the example of she who is actually talking size up the party collected.
Fenris grins at the squirrel, "Of course we will trade for shineys," he says, "but you don't happen to know where to find things like this do you?" He pulls one of his paperback novels from a pocket. "We're looking for these more than shinies," he prompts.
Anbessa grumbles at the squirrel, him reattatching his light to the side of his assault rifle as he sighs at the squirrely. "Sure. You keep the shineys, we keep the books." He says out loud, him looking over towards the others as he soon lets out a soft chuckle, calming back down for a moment... Only to retense as he spots the collecting other ferals nearby. Tensing up, the human shoulders his assault rifle as he looks to the squirrel. "Erm... Whatever your name is, mind doing us a favor? You help us find what we need, we get you shiny stuff?" He asks her, looking back towards the other ferals as he backpedals slowly towards the rest of the group... "... This includes making sure we don't get raped."
Cookies' ears flicker at the squirrel's mention of food for shinies, and she turns towards her with a beaming smile of warm invitation- though it's the sort of thing you'd see on a car salesman rather than an old friend. "Food, food. I can give you food. Easy as pi. What kind of food you want?" She squints at the squirrel, then shakes her head. "No, wait. Lemme guess. You want nuts." She, very slowly, approaches the feral squirrel with her hands held out as though in offering. She stops a couple feet short of the squirrel and several kinds of nuts- almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews and many more- seem to simply form in a pile in her hands. A small one, though. "Lead us to the shinies, there's LOTS more where this came from."
Danielle chuckles just a little as the light of Anbessa's rifle bops the squirrel in the head, but grimaces soon afterwards thanks to that rather grating chittering. Shaking her head a little, she offers another small chuckle and a sigh. Smiling a little, the woman quickly detaches or deactivates any lights she had on her person, this includes the lights that she could produce from her eyes, though the LED glow would have to stay. Upon hearing that the squirrel was looking for food though, she grins a bit. Finally a reason for her to be carrying around all these damned canned foods. She wonders if she showed her how to opened canned foods with nothing but her hands, if she'd remember? She wasn't sure of the length of a feral's memory.
Macaci flicks her ears slightly as she listens to the shuffling of the ferals... Looking to the smaller chance, then into the darkness. Her hand slips the dulled knife into her satchel, before returning to grip her weapon and hold it up to her shoulder as she backs up slowly to the group. "Food for leading us, fair trade? You lead us now?" Her tone still rather low, caution formost on her mind as she tries to motion the rat to not stray too far from the group lest he be eaten.
Chance looks around at the gathering ferals. He frowns skittering to stay in the group, but keeping near the outer edge, "I can help if they get too close, I picked up some tricks to help keep bigger sorts away from me."
Dio's ears flicker about as he hears various ferals rummage about the area. With a tap upon his right pocket, his nanite buffer activates over himself for a bit of extra protection while another hand digs through a suit pocket. In a short amount of time, the lion procures a bag of meaty looking snacks, ready to offer some up but it appears that the trade was already going through. "Wonderful," he comments, eating some of his nanite created snacks to prepare his body for any possible trauma in the future! "Yes, we should get going quite soon. This area contains some relatively dangerous ferals and darkness is approaching."
Kesuma's eyes flit about nervously in rhythm with coarse whiskers and a twitching nose... Everywhere the smell of danger lurks, each scent causing her adrenaline to increase just a bit more. Her senses and instincts are sharp, as are her claws. Fight? Flight? Die? These are the images flashing through the raccoon's mind. Thankfully, humanity stifles an outright reaction, but only just so... The smell of death here is almost oppressive...
Looking to the paper thing that Fenris holds out the squirrel looks increadibly confused, "Why want that? Make good for sleeping. Want for sleeping?" She says. Looking around she seems to collect her thoughts slightly, "Food for shiny or bed things, what kind food-" but her question stops as she looks to Cookies making nuts appear from air!! She reaches out to grab some, then, she simply says, "Here!!!" and starts bounding on all fours off toward a very large building! Like a dart she is gone in the fading light.
Anbessa nods towards Dio as he watches Cookies with suprising interest. "Woah... I didn't know you could do that!" He says happilly and distractedly, the human letting out a strange purring noise... At least until he hears the squirrel's excited shout and her quick dash! Letting out a yip, he looks back at the others. "Come on! We are getting moving." He says towards the others, soon taking off in a speedy jolt as he runs after the feral ahead of him, hopefully able to keep up with the excited fluffball...
Fenris nods assent to the general consensus. Time to move. He leaps after the little squirrel feral, hoping that this isn't a bad idea. "Allonze!" he whoops enthusiastically.
Cookies flails as the squirrel makes away, silly absentminded thing! Oh, good lord- she was going to have to run with a belly full of eggs. There were some things even nanomagic couldn't help, and footchases were one of them. FOR NOW! She runs as though for her life- and with the increasing feral activity nearby, that's probably fairly close to the truth, but overall she just really wants those damn shinies and hell if she's going to let an airheaded squirrel accidentally rip her off. "Heywaituuuppp~!"
Chance squeaks as he tries to keep up, darting out fast at first, he's not a bad runner, he just hopes he can keep up the pace, short legs+high speed kind of leads to low endurace over distance. "Dang, if I stop being able to keep up, anyone mind lending a rat a hand, or preferably shoulder."
Macaci blinks as it turns into a race suddenly, booking it as fast as she can after the Squirrel... Being careful to not lose the RPG on her back as she moves as fast as her encumbered form can carry her! "This is... Bad! Could split up!" She glances over her shoulder, trying to tell if ferals were closing on her, or if she was the last one in the mad dash...
Dio was quite enjoying his little snack despite its purpose to help his body absorb more blows. However, seeing the squirrel take off, the lion quickly attempts to stash away the snacks within their origin and gulps down whatever was within his mouth. In the fastest sprint he could muster, Dio takes off after the other and their new 'friend', hoping he didn't get too late of a start.
Kesuma falls in behind the rest of the group as quickly as she can once she notices the squirrell running off.... UGh, these guys are FAST! The little raccoon clearly needs to do some cardio or something, as she quickly begins to lag behind the group, just barely managing to keep up.
Danielle blinks a little as the squirrel accepts nothing but a handful of nuts and a promise, offering a little shrug before she ends up darting off. "O-oi...!" She blurts, crouching a little bit as she checks on her boots. Yep, all tied, laces tucked! Taking a deep breath, Danielle diverts some of her excess energy and takes off like a bullet, leaving a small cracked in the section in the concrete where her foot pushed off from. Sure did help to have robot legs to help catch up.
Anbessa's footsteps make loud thuds as he charges ahead, his silver eyes shining a bit as his flashlight lights the way and sticks to the squirrel. Ignorant to the lagging behind others, he disappears to where she goes, him panting faintly as only a subtle scent is left behind him in turn. Hyperactive squirrels are good running workouts!
As the squirrel finally darts off toward wherever she keeps her stuff, the other ferals take this as their chance to strike! A few of them lunge out, catching those who are slower then their squirrel 'friend'. They seem intent on taking what they can from whomever is also too weak to stop them!
Kesuma slides to a dead halt as she hears the patter of oncoming steps from every direction.
Chance heats the first of them and flips over immediatly dousing them with skunk spray well as he can manage
Danielle hears the sounds of an ambush coming from behind her, her foot digging into the ground as she turns herself around. Can't leave comrades behind! "I don't think so!" She calls out, charging straight into the heat of battle.
Kesuma circles in place, packawards, claws outstreched. Suddenly, she leaps at a hostile figure
Chance rolls from his back as soon as he can pulling his beamgun free and fires
Macaci turns on a heel, reaching into her bag to pull out a strange looking explosive... Tossing it at the ferals as she pants heavily and readies her rifle.
Fenris whips around at the sound of approaching ferals, tearing his long, spear-like weapon from his back, planning to put it to good use.
Chance looks around and moves to another target, gun away and moving in, gnashing his sharp incisors
Seeing their friends making an attempt, two more join in the fighting as others fall back, seeing that their chance wasn't to be had, yet. The fighting is fairly brutle, rounds firing, claws flying, and... even eggs being tossed?
Meanwhile the squirrel girl, so handy and helpful, runs into what could only be the warehouse, "Keep shinies here..." she says, looking back, "Where everyone go?" she asks.
Cracking his silver knuckles, Dio rears back his arms and charges towards a pair of attacking ferals to deliver a mighty and wild haymaker straight into their skulls, knocking one down for the count and letting the other wobble about before slowly succumbing to further and lingering damage.
Macaci curses as her rifle stops firing randomly, the core malfunctioning slightly for no apparant reason as usual. She lowers the rifle then as electricity collects around her right arm before shooting out at the ferals!
Cookies looks behind her at the squirrel's mention of everyone being gone- oh jeez. Only her and Anbessa, it would seem. "I guess they'll catch up soon. You ran pretty damn fast." She feels slightly less secure without her lion, but she'll manage. The catgirl starts to take a look around the warehouse, checking out the various shinies and estimating their value in mixed nuts- if any. She has her eye out for personal effects as much as she does for books and manuals, because hey, she did the cardio, she earned a couple souvenirs, and she had time to kill while everyone caught up.
Anbessa pants softly a distance ahead as he soon steps up behind the squirrel, him taking deep breaths despite his lack of need to breathe in the first place. Phew! Speedy lil fella, ain't she? Looking around the warehouse, his flashlight shines quietly around the room for a moment before he hears the squirrel's words, him raising an eyebrow curiously before he looks back... To in fact notice that there is a very large lack of teammates with him and Cookies. Blinking, he gulps for a moment. Maybe being a speedster doesn't help always... "E-erm... Looks like we outran them." He says, looking around the area before he looks back towards the squirrel, watching her for a moment before he looks around the room.
Chance squeaks and lashes out with his deft paws hoping to hit somewhere it hurts.
Kesuma takes a few steps back, panting deeply as she puts a bit of pressure on a bleeding wound...
Danielle, being a rather decent combat medic, helps to keep her partners healthy during the battle. When she's not firing her gun, jabbing with her bayonet, or trying to punch something in the face, she's aiding the people around her with medical salves and bandages. "The work of a doctor is a full time job!" She cries out, the chamber echoing with gunfire as she rains hell on the ferals attacking her.
As the fighting continues back outside, inside the warehouse a much much larger squirrel looks out from the top of some fairly badd looking crates, "Who you bring?" He asks, jumping down. He has an M16A2 for his weapon of choice. He doesn't look too pleased though, frowning greatly. "And wh you bring them." The smaller female squirrel slinks back a bit, "Umm... have.. have food?" she says. The bigger squirrel looks to Anbessa and Cookies. All around them though are lots of various decaying things, rifles, hub caps, batteries, and lots and lots of shreeded paper.
Macaci pants softly as she pulls her hand back from the electric discharge, the feral being felled by her friends rather quickly after her attack. Her gaze flicking to the remaining feral as she charges once more to unleash on the poor Sabertooth tiger.
Fenris pulls a dark cloth from his pocket and wipes down the blade of his Ashendari spear. That wasn't too bad. "Everyone alright?" he asks, strapping his weapon back in place across his back and flexing his nanites a little to heal his own minor wounds.
Chance has been skittering about the combat, using his size to it's best advantage, to get in postion and hit more of them with his sprays, and hte cone lasermist from his beamgun. "Ha! who said Size matters EH?" He looks around at the others, smiling a bit from the adrenline rushing through him. "Everyone intact? Need a hand anyone?"
Throwing such wild punches can sometimes really take it out of you! Dio rolls his shoulders a bit and cracks his large fingers as he looks over the downed ferals. "Well done," he comments before smoothing out his suit and pants. "They probably won't be getting up from that in awhile. We should hurry and catch up with the others to get the entire party together once more."
Danielle sighs a little as she checks over the condition of her magazines, two emptied in the battle with the third being about a quarter of the way emptied. She really needs to start making bigger ones, twenty round mags won't last her forever, they're expended much too quickly. "I'm all good, anyone need medical assistance?" She asks, looking around.
Kesuma stops dead in her tracks and looks around, panting heavily, her fur matted with sweat, claws drenched in blood, a deep, throaty growl audible from behind her clenched teeth.
Macaci winces slightly as she feels a sore portion of her side from where she had been hit early on in the fight. Shrugging it off she raises a hand with a thumbs up, not realizing how much energy using so much electricity could take out of her... It was rather shocking to be honest. Her eyes flicking amongst the others as she finally manages to catch her breath. "Fine here... Let's go, more will probably come... Alot more."
Cookies sighs slightly and frowns at variety of decayed parts. Well, she could easily make use of a good most of these things, but none of it was what she was after... unless all that paper was it, and she shudders at the thought. Her gaze falls onto the big squirrel. "I can make you lots of food- make nuts, even. Bet you haven't eaten those in a while. Will give you nuts for some of your shinies, yes?" She picks up a handful of the paper and examines it closely to see if there's any parts of text or images she can discern. "Maybe some of the paper stuff you rip up? I like those sorts of things, will give LOTS of food for it if I really like it."
With the ferals retreating away or knocked cold for the moment, those who were left in the dust are free to try and follow, however... where did that blasted squirrel get to!? There are no direct tracks to follow.
Meanwhile, inside the the warehouse, as Cookies talks about making food, nuts in particular, the large squirrel seems impressed, the small female nodding vigerious, "Big belly cat person make lots of nuts!" She says, to which the larger one says, "Show me. We... talk after see." he says, not entirely believing the claim. Food was so hard to come by around here at this point, he was more then suspicious.
Chance nods and looks around. "Yeah, anyone see where they went?" The rat is not being sarcastic, though the dry delivery may say otherwise. He looks to Kesumawith a bit more concern than some of the others. "Kesuma, hey, Kesuma, the fight's gotten over you can relax the snarls, but we will need to get going." He's just the kind of guy who'd try to help out someone who seems to be a bit out of it.
Anbessa hums as he looks around the warehouse, seemingly ignorant to what is going on as the human takes this time to investigate the most boring way possible... Openning BOX after BOX after BOX. This is gonna be fun! Though he probably thinks he is gonna get lucky... Eventually. Who knows what else could be in them! Weee.
Dio looks around for any clues or perhaps a track to follow, but it doesn't look like there would be any luck with that. Deciding to use something familiar to him, the lion sniffs about within the air, attempting to discover Cookies' scent seeing as how he lives with her and all. "I think I got it," he comments, taking in the familiar smell. "Follow me if you please." Gesturing towards the others to follow, he begins following after Cookies' scent.
Kesuma blinks a few times, returning to her senses... somewhat. At least she doesn't look rabid anymore. The little raccoon retracts her claws, giving a few flicks of her tail and a curt nod to Chance as she continues to peer around warily, even as she falls in line behind Dio and the rest.
Cookies does as she did before- approaches the bigger squirrel slowly, palms extended, then forms another set of pistachios and what-have-you for him to see, offering it to him. She leans in to eat a cashew and nod up to the squirrel. "See? Not bad or anything. Lots where that came from. Give me the paper-stuffs you shred, I'll give you enough to eat for many, many days and plenty trading. Good?" The gravid kitty's tail sways behind her calmly as she speaks in soothing tones.
Macaci bites her lower lip slightly as she realizes she doesn't know where they went off to. Her gaze flicking around as she opens her mouth. "Uhm... I don't know... Unless someone can track them though, we should get somewhere safe quickly I think... Just in case they had alot of friends." She looks to Dio as he begins to head off, jogging over to catch up to him as she keeps a watchful gaze into the darkness.
Fenris adjusts his coat and looks around. Well," he says, "now that that is out of the way, Anyone see where the squirrel went?"
Chance grins as Dio heads off "Nice, Lead on Big-guy." The rat scurries happily behind Dio keeping pace best he can. He grins at Kesumi "Think nothing of it Kes, Keep up Fenris, Dio's got the scent!" He falls into line near Macaci or Kesuma, hoping he won't have to ask for a lift.
Cookies spends 50 common edible salvage to: Culinary Nanomagic shenanigans
Fenris snorts at Chance's gibe and follows after Dio. Taking a sniff at the air as he walks, he can just detect what the lion must be following. Fenris would have missed it.
Anbessa soon enough gives up his endeavors as he flops onto his butt after climbing out of a seemingly empty box. Huffing, he looks around the room, noticing the lack of the others. Rolling his eyes, he brings up his COM device to send out another ping to the others. There! They should know where they are now! Looking to Cookies and the squirrel, he pads up to the pair. "Soooo... What is your name?" He asks the squirrel, quite bored given the cirumstances as he looks around the warehouse.
After a moment Dio manages to lead everyone to Cookies and the rest of the party as Anbessa looks around in the crates!! The earns him a shot from the larger squirrel's rifle, "No touch!" he says, as the wood splenters a bit. Looking at all the nuts, he gives a loud bit of chittering, and, two more squirrels come out carrying small boxes. Inside one is a mix of shinies, from batteries to nuts.... not the eating kind. In the other are some not fully shreeded TMs! Maybe one or two might still be whole? "We give these, you give nuts?" he asks, though looks more then a bit uneasy as more walk into his den, he continues holding his rifle vs slinging it again.
Danielle arrives last, panting a little with a bandage around her leg. "Sorry about being late, turns out one of my legs got hit pretty hard during the fight. Wasn't responding, so I had to do a few quick repairs. "She says, gritting her teeth a little as she steps into the room with the others. "So... what's the situation?" She asks, looking around. Cookies was forming nuts again for another squirrel, this one looking a lot less irritating. He even summons a couple other squirrel people, who bring some of the supplies that they so happen to be looking for. "Oh thank goodness, could this be a happy ending?" She asks herself, smiling just a little.
Chance looks at the squirrels doing his best t keep up the look of harmless little rodent and bows to the Suirrels "Sorry to be so late in showing up. We lost track of our mutual friend," He gestures to the squirrel that met them outside. "That and a number of Sabertooth's jumped us." Chance smiles and looks at the surroundings, hoping he's not walked into some kind of trap.
Macaci walks in and glances around the room, twitching her hand as she hears the gunshot... Barely restraining herself from charging with electricity again. But luckily, common sense and empathy win out for her! They were guests after all... So she does what the bests guests do, fall silent and not bother the host unless spoken to.
There are no books here. No whole ones at least. Fenris glances around the warehouse sadly. Odds are good that the ferals wouldn't have much interest in them, so there was still hope, but it was disheartening to see that things wouldn't be as simple as he hoped.
Standing behind the rest of the group, trying to keep out of sight without actually hiding, Kesuma sniffs around the room... It doens't do her much good. The usual smells of an old, musty warehouse blended with the musk of the current inhabitants, as well as the occasional smell of rot or mold... A dash of gunpowder here, a hint of sulfur there... It's hard to make out anything through aufactory means....
"Ah, good. It's nice to see everyone's good and safe," Dio comments as he leads the party towards Cookies and the others. His ears twitch after hearing a gunshot, but it seems it was nothing but a warning shot. Once again, the lion puts a hand upon Macaci's shoulder and smiles towards the others. "Please excuse our intrusion," he says with a slight bow. "We're part of their party and managed to get a bit separated. I see a transaction is in place, so we'll try not to interfere."
Anbessa lets out a loud yelp at the gunshot, him flailing his arms in panic for a moment as his eyes shrink from the closeness of it! "S-sheesh! You could have just asked!" The human says, stumbling away from the box that was shot before he skitters over towards the others, gulping for a moment from the close gunshot. He would prefer to shoot back, but given this squirrel would be more useful alive than anything...
Cookies nods up to the squirrel after a brief inspection of the boxes' contents. "Looks good. Here, uhh..." She searches for a small, empty box, then starts pulling a few large capsules of the food-paste from her belt, delicately opening them and starting to roll the mushy stuff like dough in her hands. She holds the mush over the crate and lets the various mixed nuts fall in, repeating the process until she's filled over half of the crate with the nuts, more than any feral squirrel could dream of seeing in a lifetime. Hooray!
As things stay simmered down, the squirrels now all seem to be waiting on Cookies. After she is done however, they all give loud chittering, tons of it, it is earsplitting, but it seems to mean they are happy. The two squirrels take the box of nuts back the same way that they braught the other boxes from. The big squirrel gives a grunt and looks over Cookies, "We take Cat girl too." he says!!
Macaci relaxes slightly as Dio puts a hand upon her shoulder, offering up a tired smile before looking forward at the squirrels... The chittering hurt her ears, but everything was working as planned! Until they demanded cookies... Oh dear... This... Could get ugly. Her hand tenses around the handle of her rifle, slowly slinging the gun as she grasps the hilt of her sword with her hand. Ready to draw it in an instant, knowing guns against small fast moving targets was a losing situation.
Anbessa sighs as he looks towards Cookies, watching the other squirrels idly with quiet worry... His worries confirmed as he hears the male squirrel's words. Blinking, he looks towards Dio before he looks towards the squirrel, stepping forward. "Uhh... How about we don't do that, say we did, and we go?" He asks, smiling happilly towards the squirrels as he shoulders his Steyr once more. Now not being far ahead of the action, now he can actually do something! He has little to no doubt that this is about to go bad, so he steps on up as he smiles happilly towards the squirrels, as if happy to take the challenge.
Chance blinks at what is said. Well they've got the goods, hmm the squirrels want cookies, "Want her for what?" Chance says, trying to seem interested but his legs do tense, if thingsgo south, he'd happily blind a few of the nut-breath baring buggers with a good flip and spray.
Danielle smiles a little, watching the squirrels react positively to the large amount of nuts, everyone seeming quite happy, no more combat or arguing needed. Sure, that chittering was very painful on the ears, especially with her high-range hearing, but she'd look past it. She woke up today thinking something nice would happen, and here it was. ... And then the leader of the squirrels want to take Cookies as well. Normally she'd be fine with that if they were actual cookies, but this was a person. Then something plays in her head, a thought, a quote by one of her favorite comedians. "Why the fuck would anything nice ever happen?" is says to her, and she can't help but agree. This was the apocalypse after all. "Okay, no." She says, stepping forward next to the heavily pregnant feline. "There will be no human trafficking on my watch. You have your food, and we can work out a deal to supply more."
Cookies chuckles and rolls her eyes. She waves a hand behind her as though to tell everyone else to back off, though she means it more in the figurative sense than the literal. "Yeah, I anticipated as much. You take me, I can't make more food-goo, I can't make more food. Then what? You have one more mouth to feed, soon to be many more." She pats her full belly, then shakes her head and siiighs. "And if you threaten too much more, I'll /never/ come back here with more to trade. Not very smart."
"Hold up there." Dio holds out his hand in a 'stop' gesture and shakes his head after hearing their counter-offer. "I'm afraid that simply will not do. You see, we need that cat girl for various purposes. And not only that, she needs to come back with us to charge her powers. You see, with that magical power of her's, she needs to come back and charge up, else she'll lose all her powers and no longer be able to make nuts." Putting on the best poker face as possible. "And she's already getting cranky you see... We need to take her back before she loses her powers! I'm sure you understand. But for what's already been given to you, perhaps we can take a few of those papers I see and come back for more things for even more food! We call that a trade agreement."
With a gruph grunt, the large squirrel looks ready to call out some more help for the situation. Though he then listens to Dio and Cookies, looking around to Danielle and Chance as well. He wasn't concerned about the weapons around, nor the agent's combat ability. He had a troop of squirrels. However... his prize being unusuable even if he won was unacceptable. "Talk... trade... what want and what give? How long?" he asks.
Chance has to hold back from smiling, the rat does not speak, instead he silently steps back, behind Dio, as if trying to show that the lion is really in charge. The rat lets out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding once he's sure no one is paying attention to him.
Fenris looks around at the rest of the party, then produces a book from his coat again. "We are looking for things like this, " he says, holding up the book where the head squirrel can see it. "Books like this are worth nuts, to us," he continues, "If you have many of these, we can see to it that you get many nuts in trade for a long time."
Macaci lets out a small sigh of relief as the inevitable fighting is deftly avoided thanks to the silver tongues and logic. Her gaze flicking around the group as she offers a smile, her hand falling from the hilt of her sword. Not moving from her spot next to Dio as she relaxes far more now that everyone was calm.
Anbessa looks over towards Cookies and Dio as he listens to the pair, him smiling towards them as he internally lets out a soft sigh of relief. Lowering his weapon, he looks over towards the others before he returns his attention to the cat and lion... They seem like a good pair! Though as he thinks about it, he cannot help but scratch his chin with a free hand, feeling rather awkward about him nearly fucking things up. Yeesh, his luck hasn't changed, even after P-day. Only luck he has is in cards. If anyone looked at him, he has kind of a far off look in his eyes... At least until a few moments later, him shaking his head before he lets a hand off his gun to lightly gesture. "Sorry for looking into the boxes. Kiiinda overstepped my bounds. My bad." He apologizes to the squirrels, scratching at his head afterwords awkwardly.
Cookies clasps her hands together and smiles up at the at least mildly reasonable squirrel... alpha, or whatever the hell he was. She also gives Dio a warm nod of confidence, her little way of saying 'thanks' without tipping the squirrel off. "We want more paper things. Not shredded, though, worth nothing to us shredded! You give us more paper things, we give you more nuts- or any food you want. If you have shinies you not need, we take those too. As for when?" Her eyes narrow. Two words ring out in her head: Fuck Zephyr. "Whenever you have papers to trade, send squirrels to Cat Town. Past the river that way," she points east, "over to the place with the big, big tree in the middle. Tell cat-guards there that Mayor wants her paper-stuff, I come bring them food to bring to you, even more than this time since that's where all my magic stays. Good deal?"
Phew! It seems that the bluff worked out well for the most part. Now it was time to drive it all home. Dio straightens out his suit and grimaces as he notices a few rips from the previous battle caught along the bottom of his pants. He'll have to repair such damage as quickly as possible! "Yes, quite correct! Nuts for paper thingies," Dio confirms, nodding towards the others. "This is an offer that simply can't be passed up. And not only that, she can make other types of nuts and other things as well. The better the papers, the better the reward."
The larger squirrel doesn't look too happy, but he gives a loud grunt and a nod. He then also grabs the smaller female and starts walking back behind the large crates, "We come later, you go now." he says, the small female giggling and pointing at Cookies' belly! "Me hope soon..." she says, almost too quietly to hear. Before the agents and survivors though, are their prize, nothing else to do at this point then try to get it home.
Danielle is quickly slapped on the hands for her pessimism, her allies being a little more silver-tongued than her. She really should get better at that, otherwise she might be getting into a lot more fights than she'd need to, and that could get very costly. Danielle, who stepped back from the challenge when she saw that things had no need to get violent, pats Dio on the back and gives him a little smile. "I need you to teach me your ways." She says silently, giving a bit of a chuckle to him. Seeing the large and most likely heavy crates though, Danielle grins. "Finally, a chance for me to be useful. I'll handle a lot of the heavy lifting!" She says as she hoists one box on top of the other and lifts them up into her arms.
Chance looks to cookies, this mission had been from Zephyr...frankly tough he wasn't with Zephyr, he was BARELY with RSX. Chance nods in return, Grinning "We got it folks!" He smiles, overjoyed at the prospect of another mission that went well. Heck he's even happy Cookies is okay, he's almost ready to forgive her for nearly killing him.
Anbessa sighs softly, soon looking back towards the others before he looks towards Cookies. "... And what is Cat Town? Haven't heard of that place." Curious as ever, the suit wearing human cannot help but inquire as he looks between Dio and Cookies, cocking his head to the side as he looks towards them. Looking to the squirrels, he waves towards them in light goodbye before he steps over to Dio. "Oh, and forgot to say. Glad to see you are back to normal. Winter doing fine?" He asks the lion, smiling to the fluffy maned male as the human's voice is lightly tinged with a soft purr.
Macaci blinks at the instructions to bring it all to a cat town... Wondering if this meant she'd still get something from having done all of this so far. Her thoughts interupted by the chatter between everyone, she turns to give Dio a tight squeeze before walking to chance. "Well that could have gone alot worse."
Fenris shrugs and slips his book back into his coat. "Cat town would be fine," he says. Zephyr would get it's research eventually and he couldn't care less. "Shame I couldn't get a new paperback, though." The tiger turns and follows the others out of the warehouse. That had gone about as well as anyone could have hoped for.
Kesuma's muscles finally release their tension as she realises it's all over without a second fight. At least, so far... The raccoon takes a deep, slow breath and stretches her neck muscles.
Chance smiles at Macaci as they walk over to him. "Yep, we got out alive, got the books and a promise of more trade. Sure it's going to cat town, but I'm sure a work around will be found." Chance then looks to Kesuma, "So Kes, your first mission is rousing success, how's it feel!?" He grins and looks them over happily.
Cookies sighs out with relief and, with a giggle and a wave to the pointing squirrel, she turns around and leads the way out of the building. "Glad we could do business," she calls out over her shoulder. She peers around at her companions, quirking a brow at Anbessa. "Cat Town is my town. It's... Well, it's easier shown than described. Follow me. All of you, if you will," she gestures to the rest. "We will have the most grand of pizza parties when we arrive, and split the loot accordingly! An adventure well done~!!"
Dio smiles as he gets a pat upon the back. "It's been quite awhile you know, my lady," he directs towards Danny. "We might be getting things started once more in K&S, but we're not quite sure just yet. We'll see how it goes." Seeing as how mostly everything was taken care of, the lion relaxed his stance and looks to Anbessa. "We're both doing quite fine and happy, though she's been out and about doing... Well I'm sure you can guess. Best watch yourself." With a small chuckle, he rubs the top of Macaci's head and heads over to Cookies. "Allow me to transport you, my lady. You seem to be quite burdened."
