Plant-Nanite Interaction - Failure - RPLOG
From Flexible Survival
Participants
Date
11/9/2016
Log
Waiting patiently at the newsstand for agents to respond to the call that has been put out, a dark-furred feline woman - housecat-based - stands at attention. Dressed in an immaculate business outfit that bears not a single hint of stray fur or damage, she quietly sharpens her claws with a nail file, biding her time. There is a subtle hint of impatience to her mannerisms, from briskness of motion to a constant twitching of her tailtip, as if this were well outside her standard duties and she simply wanted to get it over with.
Anderson shuffles into the newsroom. His orders from command were to assist Zephyr in their operation to reclaim the plant lab and report whatever was found. Despite his self-doubts, the demolitions tech was sent as the only represenitive for the group. /r The Latex Snow Leopard swallows his doubts and approaches the cat woman. He straightens up and says, "Agent Anderson. RSX. Uh... i-is this briefing locale?"
A pint-sized pink pegasus zips into the room, propelled by her equally tiny wings. She hovers in place a bit before spotting the two cats by the newstand, darting her way over and coming to an abrupt halt in front of them. "Hiya! Is this where the party's starting?" she chirps with a bright smile.
Fenris trots happily over to the newsstand, stuffing a barista's uniform into his bag in favor of the upper half of a police uniform he currently wears. A badge marked "SGT. CHUBBS" is pinned proudly on his chest. "This is where we're meeting for the plant stuff, yeah?" he asks, a cheery smile on his face and a sword and spear of all things crossed over his back.
Astara's prescence is once again made audially obvious, her hooves clopping on the floor as she slowly walks, and her natural-made clothing of vines, leaves, and flower petals rustling softly with her movement. She looks around, seeing others starting to arrive right when she does, and follows them to the denoted place of meeting. She smiles, and wraps an arm around Fenris and pats him on the back in a friendly manner: "Ah, hello again, Fenris! This should be the place."
Arris walks into the newsstand, a polished bolt-action rifle slung over hir right shoulder. A book is tucked under hir left arm, and a plastic bottle of ginger ale is held in hir right arm. Sie glances around the room before spotting the group of people crowding around, then walking over to them. Tapping the latex snow leopard on the shoulder lightly, sie gives him a friendly smile before asking, "Hey, is this where the mission to that laboratory place starts?"
Sroath Walks into the room and puts his back to a wall. With a nod to those already standing around he takes a well practised stance, the one ingrained from his time as a bodyguard. "Sroath, reporting."
Zophah walks in behind Arris, sporting her usual bikini and filled lab coat. Unlike the last mission, this time a compund cam bow is slung over one shoulder. Answering Arris's question for her, Zophah says: "This is the place the notice said." Turning back to Aaron Zophah adds: "Promethian scientist ready for duty. I brought notebooks for research."
Gazing out at the gathered agents, the woman draws in a deep breath. "Very good." she states in a firm, crisp tone that bears no interruption. "Everyone is here for the advertised mission, I trust? Good." She doesn't even wait for a reply before continuing. Eyeing Anderson when he self-identifies as an RSX employee, she utters a faint sigh - hopefully, the others will be able to keep an eye on him. "Let's make this quick. Hydroponics lab, near the Rolling Hills. Your job is to infiltrate the place, try to recover whatever research and equipment you can, and report on the state of the place. Engage ferals as needed. Any questions?" Based on her expression, she's /really/ hoping no one has any questions.
Anderson turns to see the precession of people entering. He recognized a few of them, to his relief. As much as he wanted to greet them, he needed to do his job. The leopard shakes his head in silent response to the official giving the breifing. "We'll... We'll bring back wh-what looks useable, m-madam..." he mumbles.
Firecracker lands on the tanuki's head near her before raising one forehoof with enthusiasm and saying, "Oh me! Me! What's everyone's names? Cause I like to know names and my name is Firecracker, I think, and if we're gunna be a party we should all know each other's names!"
Fenris bounces on his toes, waving his hand in the air. "Oh! Oh! Question!" he calls out, "Can we get a ride from Mike? That in the budget? Or do we have to walk?" Rolling hills is an awful long way to jog AND do the Z's dirty work. "And will there be snacks after?" He seems happy enough to let the tiny pony rest on his head. "Hello, Firecracker," he says, "My badge says Sergeant Chubbs."
Astara nods and remarks "Yup!" in response to the feline's briefing, and similarly shakes her head when she asks for questions. "I can't think of any, to be honest. Have anything you can say about the place ahead of time that might be useful, or are we going in blind?" She can't help but to roll her eyes at Fenris and his continued use of false nametags. "I'm Astara. And THAT..." she points to the jubilant 'nuki, "...is Fenris. So I guess his full name is Sergant Fenris Chubbs?" Astara gives him a shit-eating grin and another playful slap across the back.
Arris takes a sip of ginger ale, nodding back at Zophah. "Yeah, was just checking to make sure." Sie fidgets with the cap of the bottle a little as the Zephyr official briefs the group on the mission information, but otherwise pays close attention. When she finishes, sie looks like sie is about to ask a question, but decides otherwise. Arris then looks around with a bit of worry at the other people asking questions about the mission, glancing back at the feline woman periodically to gauge her mood.
Sroath shakes his head and pointedly looks toward the door, expressing wordlessly his desire to begin the job.
Zophah checks her gear again, and finding everything as needed she just gives a 'thumbs up' to the Zephyr offical, signaling her readiness. She then looks over the other people gathered here, answering "I'm Zophah." to Firecracker while pointing to the nametag on her lab coat.
The cat-woman sighs wearily when people start speaking up, and rubs her temples. "What? No questions? I'm delighted to hear it." she states, making her way back toward the lobby. After a moment's thought, she pauses, her back still to the group as she explains, "Mike is preoccupied, agents are expected to supply their own provisions, and you can introduce each other on the way there." Another long moment passes, and she adds, "If any of you happen upon any plants called 'Nepeta cataria', I'll pay handsomely for them if you can bring them back to me unharmed." With that, she's out of sight, unless someone stops her.
Anderson blurts, "Wait!" He darts forward and tries getting the woman's attention again, tapping her shoulder. "Wh-what's the plant look like, and why do you want it?" he asks with a small feeling of dread sprouting.
Firecracker sits back on her haunches, tapping Fenris's head with on hindhoof and pointing forward with a forehoof. "Onward, Chubbsy!" she shouts with an overabundance of energy.
"That's the Z for you," Fenris says with a content little smile, "Better get moving! Hold on up there!" The tubby tanuki sets off at a brisk jog, despite his big belly, stopping to jog in place at the automatic doors out of the lobby. "And Catnip, got it!" he calls back as he vanishes out the door, passenger and all.
Astara sighs as the Zephyr agent proves to be unhelpful and ungrateful, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Well, does anyone want a ride? I could carry at least a few people on my back."
Arris watches the official leave the newsstand, before looking around at hir group. "Nepeta cataria, huh? Isn't... isn't that... hm. I wonder how much she wants to pay for that..." Sie thinks for a short moment before shaking hir head. "Ah, either way, I think it's best we start heading out before it gets dark. Right, guys?" Sie starts following after Fenris, though doesn't attempt to match his pace and settles for a slightly faster walk.
The shadows seem to stir for a second, go still, then, a panda garbed in a modified version of her armor which is dyed a slim, matte black. Phosphorus has her full weaponry loadout, with a small, bullpup carbine pointed down to her side. "Was I late to the party? Miss anything important?"
Sroath waits for the rest to file out before stepping from the wall and following after them.
Zophah follows. She has nothing to add. Just to be sure of the task ahead, she 'tags' Arris, Firecracker, and the official with her Biomonitoring Sight nanomagic, keeping tabs on their status for the task ahead. Looking at the Red Panda that joined them, Zophah says "I can fill you in on the way there."
As the party heads east toward the Rolling Hills by general consensus, the standards sights can be seen. Eastern Fairhaven, checked. Crumbled highway, check. Cat Town, check. It's not until then that Fenris receives information on his comm unit. And thank goodness! The hydroponics plant is a bit north of the Hills, neatly bisecting the angle created when the road curves northeast. It'll require a bit of cutting and hacking thanks to the area being a bit overgrown, but the team should be able to reach the edifice in short order if they stay focused.
Anderson faces the team. He hasn't lead a squad of people before for a mission, but the cat man speaks up. "A-Alright. The... The lab is up ahead p-past the plants. I... I have a flamethrower, b-but... we sh-shouldn't burn the c-countryside. Any al-alternatives?"
As the team cuts through the overgrowth, Firecracker, still sitting on Fenris's head, points at each member of the group and calls out their names as she goes. "Okay so there's Andy, me, Chubbsy, Starry, Dunno 1, Dunno 2, Dunno 3, and Zoph! We're gunna have a lotta fun!" She points to the gator, red panda, and minkitsune as she lists off the "dunnos." She then responds to Anderson's question by saying, "Oh I know! We can just do this!" before launching off the tanuki's head into the air to fly above the plants below.
Fenris checks his comm, closing one eye as he continues to jog. Nanites made life weird. Almost as weird as the NICE unit imbedded at the base of his skull. "Come on, Anderson!" he calls not slowing for the nervouse feline, "Adventure!" The tanuki draws his sword from its scabbard as his rider takes to the air and starts to clear the path.
"I have a flamethrower, too, but I think it'd be best to not start a fire we can't control." Astara tells the timid latex leopard, a bit visibly startled by the fact that pint-sized pony charges headfirst into the imposing brush. She shifts her hands, going from the smooth, almost featureless fingers she had before, to becoming demonic and downright draconic, with long curling claws at the end of each finger, and everything below her elbow covered in dark-purple scales. "Well, guess we'll do this the old-fashioned way!" She then starts walking through the brush, cutting it down with her new hands and trampling the rest down with her bulk.
Along the way, Arris introduces hirself to the rest of the group, as well as providing some light commentary on some of the landmarks they pass by. looks around at the lush forest, sighing. "Dammit. I can't say that I enjoy being in places with short sightlines. I should have learned to climb a tree or something." Sie walks up to one of the trees, looking up at its leaves and feeling its bark before continuing on through the bush, holding out hir rifle at the ready. "Well, Andy, I don't think that burning is a good idea, if it works. There's probably some kind of nanite stuff that would prevent that from happening."
"Sounds like we'll have to cut through it, then. I'm Operative Phosphorus, by the way. Ignition is something we could pull off, though, if we planned it correctly. We can wet the surrounding foliage given effort or the right nanomagic, and then simply ignite our desired zone." The panda shrugs, then pulls two gleaming kukuris out of waist scabbards. "Or I could toss a white phosphorus grenade in there. That'd work too."
Sroath blinks at the foolish ideas being tossed out and snorts as he pulls his knife and begins to work on the brush. cutting a plant here, ripping a plant there via brute force. "Sort of silly, thinking of burning things? what if the plants we're looking for happen to be amongst this mess?"
Zophah stays near the back of the group, keeping her bow in hand while out here in the wilderness. She has nothing to add after explaining the trip to Phosphorus, which is making her a bit bored with the trip. But it'll be worth it once everyone gets to the lab.
The slashing and carving proves effective enough in clearing a path toward the lab itself, though it might be worth noting that the foliage gets thicker and harder to cut through the closer the team gets to the lab. Oh, also, the screaming. The screaming merits a mention too. Every time a vine is snapped, a limb is severed, or damage is otherwise done to the foliage surrounding the lab, there's a shrill, inhuman shriek that sounds out from the direction of the lab itself. Aside from that, easy enough! More importantly (by some viewpoints), the team reaches the lab...and the doors are sealed tightly shut. Partially responsible is the locking mechanism, with a key card system (which appears to be offline) off to one side. Partially responsible is the tangle of vines clustered around the door, serving to hold it closed to the extent that - even if the key card system could be reactivated and utilized somehow - the vines would also have to be dealt with before any possible entry. Thanks to their spot high in the air, Firecracker has long since lost sight of her team, who have vanished under a mass of green too thick to see through.
Anderson takes a head count of the group, but notices one head missing. "Where's the little horse?" he asks the group aloud. "We need to find them before going."
Firecracker estimates the distance she had to go to get to the lab in a straight line above the trees. As she leaves the group below her, she flies that far before landing on the thick canopy. Not being able to see through the vines and leaves, she begins to burrow downwards, using her tiny body to navigate through.
Fenris snorts as he slaps aside a last vine. "Shows you for blocking a perfectly nice road," he answers the distant shriek, but not seeming overly concerned about it just yet. The tanuki considers the blocked door for a moment. "She'll catch up," he says off hand as he examines the vines. Then he does what he usually does when confronted with a locked door: He knocks. "Open up in there!" he shouts, banging the hilt of his sword on the door, "I've brought cookies!" The tubby tanuki fishes a packet of off brand sandwich cookies from his pack and waves them at the door!
Astara can't help but to be unsettled by the apparent screaming coming from the foliage, a look of apprehension all over her face as they come across the lab at last. "...Please tell me I'm not the only one hearing that screaming." While they're near the lab itself, closer to where the screams eminated from, she decides to hack a vine experimentally - and yet again, unsettling cries of pain eminate from within the lab, much louder than before... but still quite far off. The plant-centaur hyrbid closes her eyes and shivers, and stays silent for several moments before speaking again. "This might be more complicated and dangerous than we thought; I have a bad feeling this entire lab might be infested with a single, concious being of some sort. We ought to be on our best behavior if we go in, as... well, we're undoubtedly in its clutches if we do."
Arris shakes hir head at Astara. "Well, you're not. It's kinda worrying me as well. Uh, now I'm kinda glad we didn't decide to try burning the plant life and stuff. I also hope that, whatever's inside there, doesn't know that we were cutting down its parts or something." Sie shivers a little as Fenris bangs on the door. "I don't think I'll like whatever I'm going to find inside of this lab."
"It's hard -not- to hear the screaming, you know. It's not precisely a quiet thing." Phosphorus dryly notes, hunting through the foliage with light feet, yet heavy slashes to clear her way to the door. She rolls her eyes at Fenris' "polite" knocking, but otherwise queues up behind the Tankui with her knives away and carbine drawn. A small, dangling wisp ignites the air beside her, providing illumination to the otherwise dingy area. "Let's do this, I suppose."
Sroath watches the vines over the door as the knocking takes place. With his knife back in it's sheathe he waits to see if anything comes from that idea as he flicks a glance to the electronic lock.
Zophah cringes every time there is a scream, the noise unsetling to her senesitive ears. "Hopefully this entity isn't as powerful as some of the other boss-like creatures I know." When the group reaches the lab Zophah examines the doorway. "Darn. Can't sculpt it out of the way. Do you think there are windows, chimeys, or what-else we can use to get in without destroying anything?"
As Firecracker begins the arduous task of digging through the dense foliage at her minute six-inch size, the screaming does indeed offer some clues as to how far off she is. It's not that difficult to use it as a beacon to home in on the lab itself, and she'll make slow, steady progress if she keeps at it despite having hooves instead of hands or claws. The screams do indeed seem to be coming from inside the lab somewhere, though the edifice is too big to determine exactly where. In the meantime, both the door and the vines stubbornly refuse to budge due to the failure of Fenris's vaunted cookie strats, and - if the vines can perceive the wisp - they offer no obvious reaction to it. A cursory examination reveals no outside windows or alternate entrances; unless there are other ways in around the side or back of the large building, that door is the boss of the first area.
Anderson squeakily meows, "Well... uh... I c-can rig bombs to open the door. I'll... I know h-how much is enough f-for the door." He looks to the door and winces at the sounds of the screams. "Still... uhm... w-we're here to re-recover lab things. F-files, tech, and experiments. We... should leave explosions as a last resort, i-if we can't get in any other way.""
Firecracker decides the forest was a worthy opponent, but it's time to end this. With a fire in her eyes, she ignites her body with flames and blasts downward through the foliage.
"Huh," Fenris grunts, scratching his head and popping one of the cookies before stashing them, "That usually works." The tanuki sheathes his sword and pulls his long bladed spear from his back and starts to poke and slash at the vines. "No need to ruin a perfectly good door," he says as he hacks and pokes, trying to clear the door, "Anybody here more tech savvy than me? Think they can figure out how to wake up that console?" Figuring that if all of this stuff was attached to a central monster he makes one more jab into a thick cluster of vines and channels a jolt of wild electricity down the shaft of his spear. Not enough to deal any real damage, but it might inspire the living vines to loose their hold. Unless they were just vines.
Astara hrmms. "I'm afraid that, while I some knowledge of computers and electronics, they are not my strongsuit. Nor do I have electronic nanomagic, so..." She trails off, and then Fenris proves he certainly has some grasp of electricity. "Is that nanomagic, Fenris? If you can control it, it COULD be useful to power this thing."
Arris thinks for a moment. "Hey Anderson, I... Well, if someone put something important behind the door, then that would be kinda dumb. I mean, I get that it's a sliding door, if it swung open it would obviously get hit by the door. But people generally don't leave things in front of them, right?" Sie walks up to the door, running a hand over a small crack in the door before having an idea. Arris shifts into a liquid pantheress form, before pushing hir hand against the small hole and attempting to get at least hir arm in. "Nevermind. I don't think I can get through these."
Phosphorus sighs deeply, and promptly plucks a foot long crowbar out of thin air, running a finger around the frame of the door, spotting the place where the locking mechanism is placed, and promptly attempts to wedge the tip of the crowbar into the slot and pry it apart with her strength. "Just back up, back up... Someone mind scouting around the building?"
Sroath continues to stand and keep his gaze flicking around the area, intent on nothing catching them off guard.
SCHTOONK! Firecracker becomes a flaming projectile lodged in the canopy of the forest. Maybe more digging would've been helpful? Even striking at the spot she'd been targeting, she doesn't manage to penetrate to the area below, and now there's something on fire lodged in the trees. Not that the rest of the team would be able to tell...speaking of which, as the team continues to discuss the best way to get past the door, Fenris's poking does very little - but the slashing has the expected effect, with vines falling away wherever they're severed and the resulting screams definitely sounding out from within. Time continues to pass as discussion rages onward, and then...a crowbar! It fits, but...the very epitome of slow going, and those vines are still an issue (though less so, thanks to Fenris). Mercifully, nothing is trying to sneak up on the team, as far as Sroath can tell...yet.
Anderson stutters, "Maybe th-the plants are connected to... to a big, sentient thing. L-like Zophah said..." He approaches the door and rests his hand on one of the vines. "Uh... c-can we come in?" he mumbles to the vine, shyly. "We're... we're just t-trying to recover things f-from here. We p-promise to be... be quick and not hurt you." After finishing his request, he takes a step back from the door and waits.
Firecracker blinks in surprise at the strength of the canopy blocking her way. "Oh you wanna do this the hard way? We'll do this the hard way!" she says with a cocky grin. She once again sets herself ablaze, hammering into the treetop below her in order to break a path to the sparser area below. No plants were going to stop her!
"Well," Fenris says, carefully slashing away vines, "At least they aren't fighting back. Let know if you can get s gap. I'll help you widen it."
Arris sees Sroath watching around for any incoming ferals, deciding to do the same. "Alright, guys, I think I'm gonna go set up in a hedge or something so I can hide. Heh, maybe I can uproot the shrubbery and use it as mobile camoflage or something for when we get inside the lab." Sie takes a few steps into the forest, looking around for a bush or any other kind of low-laying foilage.
Astara bites her lip as the screaming goes on, looking nervously at Fenris as he goes on. "Just... be careful, Fenris? Don't cut any more than you need to."
Phosphorus continues grunting softly with effort, her lean muscles containing a positively surprising amount of strength. She leans her body expertly into the tool, and moves the wisp over to tease at the vines holding the door shut, gradually ramping up the intensity. "Hey, guys? Mind exploring alternate routes while I'm getting this open? Multiple entry points could be a tactical advantage."
Sroath taps his chin in thoughts. "I'd rather, if we split forces, we split them evenly. We're already down one member." With a shrug he looks to see if anyone is interested in forming a secondary formation.
Zophah sits back and thinks. "I have a stupid idea, but it might work." Zophah shifts into a complete Parasitic Plant, and then trys to root into the vines that connect around the building, hoping to connect to whatever is screaming.
Well, that's one way to get the attention of the vines. One of them winds smoothly around Anderson's hand, grasping it for a moment before winding further down, trying to grapple his arm! Firecracker meets with similar results, the canopy almost completely absorbing the impact of the blow. Finally, she'll manage to get her head through thanks to a Heroic effort, but just her head. The rest of the team isn't all that far away, perhaps twenty meters, close enough for a voice to be heard. As if on cue, Fenris will find that the vines attempt to entangle his spear (though they're repelled whenever he electrifies it), though they're few enough in number by now that some diligent work should hold them at bay. Speaking of diligent work, Phosphorus is slooooowly beginning to get those doors open, though it's going to take all of her strength to make any decent headway, not to mention quite a bit of time! As for Zophah, the best she can do is determine that there is a life-form in there, but there's no real mind to connect to, per se.
Anderson panics. He starts trying to yank his arm free from the plant, using his other hand to fumble out his chainsword. "Help! It's got me!" he hollers.
Firecracker, claiming victory over the steel wall of plant matter, finally gets her head through the canopy, though the same can't be said for the rest of her body. As she gets through, the fire engulfing her body goes out along with the fire in her eyes, returning to her normal cheery deameanor. She swivels her upside-down head from her position in the trees above while wiggling her body and trying to get loose. Spotting the rest of the group assaulting a door or keeping watch, she turns toward the closest member of the party and shouts down to her, "Oh hiya there, Arri! Looks like you guys aren't lost anymore!"
Fenris fends of the suddenly lively vines with a broad grin on his broader face. "Looks like we struck a nerve!" he says jovially as he hurries to where Phosphorus has made a little headway. "Make room!" he says, slapping his spear into its hooks on his back and thrusting his fingers into the gap and grunting as he joins in the effort, leaving the vines to the others as he joins in the herculean effort to open the doors.
"I would be okay with splitting our forces, evenly. At least I could help you out with my extra height and mass, since... well, you're only half my size." Astara replies to Sroath, smiling to him. That smile is short-lived as the living flora is starting to fight back - or at least it seems to be the case. Since it seems no one else yet has acted to help poor Andy, and she rushes over to him and grabs hold of him, hugging him flush against her chest and trying to pull him free of its grasp. "Hey, whatever the hell you are, why are you bothering to attack him of all people?!"
Arris already found a bush sie could hide in near Firecracker. "It's Arris, not Arri. Glad to know I'm not "dunno 1" anymore, though." Sie turns around to look at her, raising an eyebrow. "Heh, you look like you need a hand there. How'd you get stuck like that? You almost look like one of those decorative hutning trophies. Except alive." Sie starts chuckling just before sie hears Anderson's cry for help. "Alright, Anderson! Stand still for a moment!" Sie looks down sniper scope, aiming for the vine wrapped around his arm and prepares to fire.
The panda gives a short nod to Fenris as he makes his way over, panting softly as the operative slinks about to make more room, then reapplies her force to the crowbar along with the might of the spear. Her wisp works nonstop, trying to burn and mutilate the vines on the door to make the whole process move a little smoother, though the panda could ideally try freezing them off, too. But, that's no matter, as she lets the world flow around her while she works on the task of gaining entry.
Zophah shifts back to her foxy self, disappointed that she didn't get anywhere with her idea. Trying something else, she uses her Biodetection nanomagic to probe the inside of the lab, trying to get a layout of all the lifesigns inside and possibly where the vines originate from.
Sroath gives a shrug and starts to slip around the side of the building in an attempt to locate a simpler method of entry.
After a considerable amount of work, along with some additional help from someone who's also willing to put forth a Heroic effort, the doors creeeeeeak open enough for the crew to slip by! Well, most of the crew, anyway. Astara has no end of trouble trying to use force to pull Anderson free of the vine's grasp - it just doesn't seem inclined to let go - and while everyone's attention is occupied, the canopy moves to surround Firecracker as well since she lingered in its midst for too long! Even her head is pulled back through the hole she made, which begins to re-seal itself and surround her in darkness. It doesn't look like that door is going to close OR open of its own volition, so now maybe other things can be seen to? Sroath's investigation reveals no other obvious entries; if anything, this place is fortified against unwanted intrusion. If it were still powered, no way any of you would be getting in!
Anderson blushes in Astara's arms, standing and murmuring, "Th-thanks, Astara..." He brings out his flamethrower and wields it at the ready. "Al-Alright. Let's hurry in and grab w-what we can," he says aloud, doing his best to be in charge. "If the... the plant attacks again, use fire or acid o-or something like that. Just be careful o-on what burns." The leopard takes a few steps forward into the lab, giving Fenris a pat on the back for getting the door open.
Anderson blushes in Astara's arms, pulling out the flamethrower and launching lit fuel at the vines around him in a panic.
Firecracker continues to wiggle in her planty confinement, kicking her hooves and flapping her wings lightly as she does so. "Oh oh oh, does this make it look better?" she says to Arris before opening her mouth and unfocusing her eyes, staring forward in an imitation of a lion-head trophy. As she does so, the vines moves to reclaim their pink prize. Now re-encased in vines, the fire returns to her eyes as she once again bursts into flames, attempting to ignite any of the plants touching her in the process. "Round two then? Let's go! RrrrRRRRAAAAAAAGH!!" she roars as she makes to rip through her bindings and the canopy once again.
Now that the path is clear, Fenris is free to take care of others in need. "I've seen enough Hentai to know where this is going," the tanuki says, watching the treetop struggle, then looking thoughtful. "Actually," he ammends, "I don't think I have. I don't think I have ever seen ANY hentai. All I know is that it is Japanese and that I have heard that phrase before." Shaking himself from his contenplation, he cups his hands around his muzzle and shouts, "You got it on the run, Firecracker!" Glad he could do his part for the fight. Then he turns to consider the open facility, sauntering forward into the gloom.
Astara quickly lets go of Anderson as soon as fire starts getting spewed, trying to get as far away from that as possible so she doesn't go up in flames like the vines; she IS plantlike, after all, and can't exactly take off clothing that's a part of her. "Fuck, give some warning first!"
Arris lines up the shot, making sure nobody is behind the vine but lowers hir rifle when sie sees Anderson panicking with his flamethrower. Sie then notices Firecracker's muffled roaring and yells back at the group, hopping out of hir bush and trying to avoid touching any of the plant life for hir own safety. "Hey! Someone get over here! The plant life grew over Firecracker's face and now she's stuck!"
Phosphrous pants softly, letting the crowbar tumble to the ground and promptly withdrawing her carbine from it's resting position, glancing around at the other agents, then forwards to where Fenris is trotting ahead into the facility, then the panda mutters a curse softly under her breath, turning to follow the tanuki with her wisp zipping quickly ahead. "Oi! Wait up."
Sroath finishs his lap about the building and spying the flames, ducks in through the open door after the other two.
Zophah practically ignores the fire flying around her, like it was almost expected to happen. She then looks down a bit to the floor. "Huh. From what I can tell, whatever is in here is in the basement." She pulls a pair of light intensification goggles from her bag and slips them onto her forehead, ready to set them over her eyes if she needs them. "It may be better if I go in front too. I don't want everyone burning all the information we are here to aquire."
And just like that, it's gone from 'slightly dangerous' to 'burning hellpit'. Blasting a flamethrower in all directions in a place covered in vines, branches, and other greenery turns out not to be the greatest idea, depending on your point of view. On the one hand, Firecracker manages to Heroically push fully free of the canopy, so she isn't incinerated when the surroundings catch fire. On the other hand, THE SURROUNDINGS CATCH FIRE. The canopy is a blazing inferno, the surrounding greenery is a flambe', and the screaming? That echoes throughout the entire building, becoming difficult to bear for anyone within. On the other hand, anyone NOT within the building in very short order will be burnt to a crisp. But hey, at least the vine finally lets go, twitching and thrashing!
Anderson stumbles to his feet, looking at the terrible, terrible mess he made. The leopard winces at the sight and heads to the door. "Everyone! Get inside!" he shouts into the comms, as the sound of the plant-thing's screams would otherwise drown him out. He stands by the door, waiting there on guard until the rest of the group could rejoin inside the lab.
Firecracker breaks free from the constricting vines, turning around and flying backwards as she shouts up to the canopy above, "Hah! And round 2 goes to the pink pegasus!" Using the momentum gained from tearing through the treetop, she tilts her head backwards to fly upside-down, zig-zagging and rolling through the flames and vines, herself a little pink fireball as she heads for the open door.
Fenris saunters along within the dim building, his fat paws firmly over his ears, relying on comms and his NICE unit to carry his companions words to him. "So," he says, looking around, "Catnip? What is it we are supposed to be doing here?" The tanuki looks back at the flame-licked entrance. "Aside from burning the place to the ground I mean."
Astara is aghast at what's happening, and quickly charges right on through the door, trying to fit through the door to get inside.
Arris screams as the woods around hir catch fire, running straight for the building and waving wildly for Zophah and Anderson to hurry up and run inside, shutting the door after they do. Sie starts stamping out any of the loose embers that happened to make their way inside, shortly before pouring hir half-empty ginger ale over Zophah's head to extinguish any fires that would have caught onto her.
Well... Phosphorus slides over back towards the entrance, softly panting and surveying the fire zone. She gets to work applying thermal, fire, and cryo nanomagic in varying amounts to try to control the heat and flame in the immediate burning zone, to try to create time for the sluggish ones to get their asses inside. The panda will have to make a dead sprint to try to get back to the spearhead and with Fenris, but, she can deal with that.
Sroath attempts to find a nice solid wall to put his back against while everyone makes their way out of the fire, and possibly... into the frying pan.
Zophah falls to her knees, cluthing at her ears at the cacophony eminating out from the building. She pushes herself to throw her things inside the lab where they won't burn, pulling in Anderson as she sprints inside. Once inside she just curls up into a ball and wimpers, fighting back the screams that are echoing in her skull. She doesn't even do anything when Arris pours hir drink on Zophah's head.
Through sheer survival instinct and with all of the organization of the Keystone Cops on a meth binge, the team manages to drag themselves away from the catastrophe outside and into the building. With the door closed, very little of the heat from outside gets into the building. Better still, what few embers might have survived are easily snuffed out, finding nothing to ignore on the metal floor. The initial area appears to be a vestibule of sorts, with the wall opposite the door being dominated by what was once likely a metal detector and scanner, now no longer functional. Only low lighting has survived the years for reasons not currently known, lending the entire establishment an eerie atmosphere. Exits are (N)orth and (O)utside.
Anderson pants tiredly, falling to his knees. His flamethrower drops to the ground with a clatter. The leopard man hides his head in his hands, falling to his side and whimpering. Murmurs of apology come from the RSX agent as he curled up in a ball. The cat is an emotional wreck, as of right now.
*ignore*ignite
Firecracker blazes a trail through the air, turning backwards and planting her hindlegs into the ground as she skids backwards in her landing. Once she comes to a full stop, leaving a trail of ash on the ground in front of her, she grins wildly and throws her head back, laugh maniacally and adding to the cacophony in the room as she continues to burn.
Fenris is oblivious to the condition of his comrades, still trotting forward with his hands over his ears. He has probably just assumed that everyone was right on his tail. The tubby tanuki wanders along northward, eyes open and searching for things of interest.
Astara gives Anderson a quick, light kick with one of her front hoofs - more prodding him in the side than truly kicking him - and calls down to him "C'mon, kitty, we got a job to do. I could strangle you right now for almost burning me /directly/ to a crisp, and certainly indirectly everyone else, but that ain't gonna get us out of here, nor solve anything, so I'm gonna suck it up and put those emotions aside. Ought to do the same, we can all cope with this... horror when we're all safe and alive and in Zephyr." She flashes him a small smile, and leans down, offering him a hand. After he does (or doesn't) accept it, she looks around, she clops on after Fenris, really wishing she was deaf right about now.
Arris sits next to Zophah, pulling her into hir lap and putting hir hands over her ears to help try and prevent, or at least muffle the loud wailing coming from the depths of the laboratory. Sighing, sie peeks down the hallway at Phosphorus. "You go ahead and tell the others we'll catch up." Sie starts gently cradling her back and forth, licking any scorch marks and trying to console her. "Shh... think happy thoughts, Zophah. Happy thoughts..." Arris also checks hir wrist-bound comm unit, seeing if sie can get a signal to call Zephyr for a way to extinguish the fires.
Phosphorus sighs, glancing at the wounded agents, then at the Tanuki up ahead, starting to take deep, measured breaths to calm herself and get a better hold on her energy expenditure. She can't heal others, and that damn nuki was going to get himself killed like that, so she takes out her carbine again, turns on the flashlight, and extinguishes the wisp. The screams... she's heard no worse on the battlefield. Or, no worse at the tip of her own knife. War is hell.
Sroath keeps close to the wall as he follows the advancing teammates.
Zophah can't focus for longer than a moment at a time, her sensitive ears drowning in the sound of agony from whatever this creature is. "Make it stop... Please... Make it stop..." she pleads over and over again, calming once Arris helps her. "T-thanks." She then shifts into a pale-skinned and freckled human, tired from the exertion but finally able to deal with the screaming. She gets up and brushes herself off, helping Arris up as well before giving hir a kiss. "Thank you dear. We have to go help it. It needs more help than I do."
Over Arris's comm unit, a masculine voice booms out. "Come in! I repeat, come in!" Should Astara - or anyone, since the call will repeat on the comm units of everyone on the team until someone responds - answer, that voice will continue, "There have been reports of a blaze in your area. I want your status and the identity of the one responsible, and I want you to stay put. We're sending a retrieval team, they're already on their way." There's a moment's pause after the voice stops speaking, and it then continues: "Who the hell is making that racket?" Somebody has their finger on the button!
Anderson ignores his comms, still feeling guilty about having caused such a huge swath of damage. At the offered hand, however, he lightly grabs on and stands back up. The leopard holds to Astara and mumbles, "S-sorry..." before going with the group, hand in hand with the plant woman.
Firecracker comes out of her laughing fit to see that some of the group has gone forward already, leaving Anderson, Arris, Zophah, and herself at the door. Standing up on her hindlegs, she grins to those still behind her while crossing her forelegs in front of her chest. "Come on guys, we can't let a little fire slow us down! Let's go shut up that screaming for good!" she says with authority before turning around and blazing down the hall bipedally to catch up with the others.
"Sorry, Chief," Fenris says, activating his comm, "Can't hear you over the screaming. Haven't seen a fire, just some angry vines. I'm sure the nanites will get it soon enough." His paws flatten his ears to his head once more as he continues to search for anything intact or useful, a pleasant smile on his face. Easiest assignment ever from the Z! Who knows? Maybe he would find an interesting book or some pre-packaged snacks around here. He wished the plant monster or whatever it was would stop that shrieking. What was it on about anyway?
Astara fumbles to grab her comm unit, completely in awe of Fenris' obliviousness. "Uh... that would be... the forest screaming? I wish we could give you more details, but we're now trapped in this building with whatever the hell this thing is, while the outside extensions of it are being immolated." She trots to catch up with Fenris, picking up Anderson and setting him on her back.
Arris nods. "Yeah, let's go. Oh, and..." Sie shifts into hir sheep form, shearing off two bits of hir fluffier wool with a pair of scissors and giving them to Zophah. "If you want to shift back to your normal form, try using these." Sie is about to direct hir attention back to Anderson when sie gets hir comm unit message. Cupping a hand over the reciever to block outside noise, sie responds: "We're alright, sir. One of our squadmate's weapons malfunctioned and caused the forest fire. Nobody has been hurt badly, though we might need a trauma blanket, or a psychologist or something. One of our members looks like he's having a mental breakdown." Sie then responds to the last line: "Yeah, sir, uh, there's some kind of mutant down in the deeper parts that is presumably connected with the surrounding forest. The one that is on fire." Sie starts following after Astara, holding hands with Zophah and glancing down to hir comm unit as sie walks.
"RSX Operative Phosphorus, here. Blaze source apparent to be a rouge flamethrower burst. Primary mission parameters are potentially affected by the blaze, which is that screaming you hear. About half of the remaining agents are good to continue exploring, though I might recommend a tactical withdrawal for the time being." Aborting the mission was not something she enjoyed, but it was perhaps necessary. She gives a slight rap on Fenris' shoulder. "Hey, bub. We might have to pack it up, here."
Sroath keeps his eyes pealed as he brings up the reer of the group moving down the hall.
Zophah takes a deep breath before continuing, getting newfound dedication to finishing the job. "There should be only one being that was in this building, and I want to save it. No more fire!" She glares at Firecracker as she says that last sentance. "I'm going in front, and I'm going to make sure there is no more fighting!" She walks with Arris to intercept the rest of the group, resloved to be the first one to meet the mysterious creature.
The tanuki's explorations will reveal a large, rather open room with a myriad of scientific gear, computers, and other such goodies. It's an absolute treasure trove! And yet...it doesn't take long for a team to arrive, composed of several nanomagic experts and a bull standing about eight feet tall. Pounding on the door, the same voice that was heard over the comm can be heard to call, "Open this door, agents." For him to have arrived this quickly, he must have already been on his way when he made the previous call! Whether it's your team or his, that door's going to be opened in short order. It's going to be tough continuing with the mission with a direct order from a higher-up demanding that it be sacked...and the implication is very strong that the entire team is expected back at Zephyr on the double for debriefing (and it is NOT a request).
Fortunately, the team is smart enough to know when they've been called back from a mission, and they return to Zephyr's headquarters in defeat. The bull appears to be one of the higher-ups - the superior to the superior to the cat woman from before - and he addresses the team one by one. Six of you receive commendations for operating under duress, but two of you aren't quite so lucky. Firecracker receives a reprimand for separating from the group without orders and generally reporting in for a mission to which she was ill-suited. Much less fortunate is Anderson. The bull calmly but firmly explains that he's been in contact with his equivalent at RSX, and that there is agreement between the two: given the catastrophic amount of damage caused by Anderson's carelessness, he will need to turn over his weaponry. For causing untold destruction and untold loss of life (there were ferals living in that forest), his license to operate as an agent in Fairhaven and the surrounding areas is hereby revoked, pending a full psychiatric evaluation back at Woodfield. With that, the team is dismissed.
