[Nexus] That Day Has Come

[UncleWolf]

Inside - Freezer

Edijar gets up with a bit of a grunt before moving closer to Missy, kneeling next to her and giving her shoulder a pat. He looks concerned, and completely understanding when he looks into her eyes. With a bit of a nod, he speaks quietly to her. "Command phrase: More Cow Bell." He whispers. She'll feel a prick inside of her suit after a second before a strong sedative kicks in. As much as he's trusted those under him, there were always things he needed to keep for himself.

Such as a number of phrases integrated into their armor's programming.

After she falls asleep, he stands the rest of the way before taking off the remains of his cape and draping it around the other woman and the child before sitting against the wall.

"Your Paradise Planet sounds wonderful. If...if the time comes, and you find a wonderful woman named Charity Evans there, or another named Rebecca Chistians, tell them I'm sorry I won't be joining them."

[happyturtle]

Inside Freezer

Missy gives Edijar a hurt and angry look before she falls asleep, sitting up with her armour supporting her.

"Is she..?" Sonja asks.

"She's just asleep. I'll reverse it when we need to move."

Sonja is silent for a while. "I was always so afraid that one day she'd come and take him away from me. Then I saw her, and I wanted to shove him into her arms and send him away to be safe with her."

[Mr. Moon]

MagFirmary

"... Riiight." Moon Called says after a while, the scar on her face contorting as she twists her lip into a half-frown. The notion of sedatives hadn't actually been something that had occurred to the hardened warrior. After all, where she came from the closest thing they had to sedatives was 'Hold still and try not to black out from the pain so we know you aren't dead.' Not the most effective method, but it made them strong. "I probably could, you know. Most of it's too dead to hurt anyway." She protests ineffectually and without much conviction. She's not trying to convince Saurous so much as cradling her ego. "I've done it before."

She glances up at the liquid nutrients entering her good arm through the IV tube. "You think maybe you could use your own mix?" She asks, frowning at the clear little bag. "Knowing Magtok, he's probably swapped his sedatives with something that'll just make me look asleep."

[UncleWolf]

Inside Freezer

"She won't. As much as she loves the child, I think she realizes he isn't really her's any more." He reaches out to gently squeeze the woman's hand. "You did a good job of lasting this long. You need not fear anything. I'll be sure all of you get back safely to the MagCave."

[happyturtle]

Inside Freezer

"I know." she says, with quiet conviction. She isn't despairing like Edijar and Missy have been. She truly believes that it will all work out somehow. Except... "I wish Peter was here." She doesn't cry though. She loved her husband deeply, but she can't cry for him yet. Not until they're safe.

[Lord Magtok]

MagMart

EVERYONE IN! GET TO THE ROOM IN THE BACK IMMEDIATELY!

The doors swing wide open, and any pretense of screening or investigating people for doominess or Umbrella affiliations goes right out the window, as Magtok and the Magbots go out of their way to ensure that anyone and everyone who can gets inside first, shoving, carry, and dragging where necessary, whereas clever and resourceful sorts like Ace are ignored entirely. Magtok himself, in a rare moment of selflessness, doesn't step through. Instead he just keeps on pushing others to go, forcing even the Magbots to leave before him. There's only so much another MagClone can really do to help in the Cave, better that someone or something else get there first.

Besides, someone has to watch the store, right?

[Saurous]

MagFirmary

"Yes, dear. I'm sure you could handle the pain with no problem whatsoever," Saurous says, smiling and rolling his eyes. "Just act as if all of these precautions are for my benefit; to help calm my shattered nerves."

The necromancer follows Moon's gaze up along the IV, which he stares at impassively as he responds. "Well, I suppose I could make a sedative of my own. I just felt that requesting a little help from Magtok would be both more immediate and less taxing. At this point, we're among the few remaining who Magtok probably considers 'competent allies,' so I seriously doubt that he would be stupid enough to sabotage this little procedure just for the sake of a grudge. You would be more useful to him if you weren't bedridden by debilitating pain, and I would be more useful to him if I weren't reanimating his internal organs individually and making them dance."

[Mr. Moon]

MagFirmary

Chuckling, the Ice Elf shakes her head at Saurous. "Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually are. You egg-head types are the kind to get all shaky and scared if someone says 'boo' at you." She teases, not even remotely serious.

"Oh, don't listen to me." Moon Called says, waving her good hand absentmindedly in a dismissive, downwards motion. "I'm just a paranoid old woman. Do what you think is best - you're the expert here." Glancing back at Saurous, Moon Called flashes him a tight smile. "Either way, just hurry up about it. I want to get back on my feet already."

[Mindfreak]

MagMart - Parking Lot
The metal does give way to flesh and the glass disintegrates. Elena takes out her gun right before she's mummified and tries to put a bullet through both hers and Tirin's brain.
"See you in the afterlife." she said before she tried to shoot him point blank in the head and then quickly kill herself.

[Lady Serpentine]

[MagMart - Parking Lot]

Tirin is killed, then, if there was time.

((At least, this Tirin was killed. Considering Umbrella's propensity for cloning, I suppose that the pair of them can reappear elsewhere. It's certainly not impossible that this pair were an experiment in memory implantation, which would explain why they thought they were the originals.))

[Mina Kobold]

[Beckett's Clinic]

Nach'tt and Mitta look at Beckett as they pass, waling out first with their senses on high alert. Nach'tt being careful not to accidentally fire his weapon and Mitta carrying the hoverboard.

[R'lyeh]

Lewis, and Trilby, are still fluttering about here in search of dead cultists, Old One libraries or anything else that can help the Pixie's dastardly plan.

[Lucy's Mind]

Unfortunately, Vicky's efforts seem to be hindered. As she tries bringing her own control into Lucy's mindscape, she may feel that something is beginning to notice her presence. Something very very evil. It doesn't seem to work either.

Meanwhile, Little Lucy is trying to pet the mouse on her head. Pet pet.

[Somewhere, probably in Inside]

Rahona will have follows Raven, if continuity allows it. f it doesn't, she will currently be looking for the gloomy girl of gloom.

[Lost_Deep]

Beckett's Clinic

Iriel is next out the door. She looks around warily, but does her best to stay quiet.

At least, at first.

Suddenly, she finds herself staring into the sky. That horrible, eldritch cloud that hangs above Inside, and the whole world. She just stops. Her mouth hangs wide open. She seems to stop caring about everything around her. It's almost as if she loses herself in that horrible sky.

And then, a song comes unbidden from her throat.

"Though the oceans all burn down
And the air be stripped away,

Though the mountains melt and flow
And the stars be set astray,

Though the sun be snuffed out at its core
And all space itself decay,

There’s something about our universe
That declares another day."

There is then a violent jerk as Iriel rips herself away from the sky. She stands there, trembling slightly. She looks like she may fall down. After a moment, she straightens herself and falls into line behind the mechabold.

She's specifically not looking at the sky.

[Craftworld]

Golem finishes the barricade and begins to help the Magbots with getting people inside. It knows that death stalks in the air itself but for itself, it doesn't fear that, it only knows to get these people inside where they can survive to see the sun come out again. It looks around it as the last of the people get in then looks to Magtok for instructions.
"What might I do to help anymore?"

[Rebonack]

And then.

Something happens.

Somewhere below the streets of the City the taint of Mantorok finally comes in contact with a small, grotesque statue that had been set up on an alter. And in that moment a window to another realm is rent open.

There will be nothing to see. No visible flash or pulse of power. Simply all the mummified flesh crumbling away into inert clumps of spongy fungus. The plague of undeath will be scoured from Inside and the surrounding regions. And even undead creatures not of Mantorok's fold may find themselves destroyed in like fashion.

Survivors may find minor wounds healed inexplicably and without any apparent reason as an invisible tide of eldritch power washes over the landscape. The power of life and growth and fertility. ...hopefully it doesn't cause anyone to grow tentacles. That would be kind of weird.

Seems Foro and Wendy's quest helped out after all.

This will no doubt be good news for a certain fallen angel Outside. The air isn't stinging her lungs any longer and all the mummies just collapsed.

[MagCave]

Divaonar prods at the skull uncertainly. "I dunno... I'm not sure if anyone would be very inspired by having the head of a dead thing sitting around in a prominent place. It might just remind them that they'll eventually die too..."

This doesn't strike him as an altogether wise plan!

[MagMart]

If the bird-lady has been following Raven she's no inside MagMart at the moment. That's a good place to be for avoiding death.

[Earl of Purple]

Outside Inside

Seeing the undead mummy crumble in front of her, Nephrim smiles. It's not till she's higher up that she realises they all crumbled. The slight burns from the corrosive air are also healed.

Hopefully the sky ignores her now, as she flies away from Inside. She's got no destination in mind, and is just going away from where the monsters seem to be concentrated.

MagCave

"Yeah, good point. So, why do you have it anyway?" Natalie is curious.

[Saurous]

MagFirmary

"Of course," Saurous says, leaning down to lightly peck Moon on the forehead. "We'll get right to fixing that arm as soon as possible, depending upon how many insults and racial slurs Magtok wants to go through before starting."

The necromancer then heads out of the room, snatching the old spellbook out of the air as he passes it. The tray full of paint and shattered gemstones remains suspended next to the cot. Once outside, Saurous looks around for the MagClone with the gurney full of scary medical supplies. Hopefully he hasn't wandered too far away.

[Mr. Moon]

Outside Beckett's Clinic

Beckett stands watch as Nach'tt, Mitta and Iriel file out through the front door. He has holstered his pistol and is now holding his rifle in both hands, slowly sweeping it over various hiding places. Once he is satisfied that there aren't any unimaginably horrific monsters waiting for them, he steps forward out the door,
and suddenly freezes as a sound takes the air.

His green eyes flicker with panic as they light upon Iriel as she stares, transfixed, at the sky, but he does not follow her gaze. He reaches out to stop her, but the verse is short enough that the girl is done by the time he is close enough to put a hand over her mouth. So instead her places a hand on her shoulder, steadying her, as he pans over the area a second time, his rifle braced against his forearm. His grasp on Iriel's shoulder is warm, and perhaps a little too firm.
His eyes still peering out for anything that might have heard Iriel's song and decided it was hungry, Beckett bends at the waist lightly to lower his mouth to Iriel's ears. "Iriel." He says, and his warm and comforting voice is replaced with the tense, guarded tone of a man who has put his emotions aside. Even his normal Bostonian accent seems lighter. "Are you going to do that again? Because if you are, we may need to consider a means to silence you so you don't inadvertently alert anything to our presence."
[hr]

MagMart -> MagCave

Up above the panicking masses, Ace's shortcut gets him to the back room ahead of everyone else. Leaping down from the last shelf, Ace rolls and grunts as he hits the ground, jumping back up to his feet a moment later. Shouldering his way through the door, the brown-haired man half strides and half runs across the repurposed storage room, towards the TeleWarp door, and through it.

Arriving in the MagCave, Ace pauses, glancing around himself, before cupping his left hand around his mouth. "Hey!" He calls. "Who's in charge around here? There's a whole bunch of people headed this way and this teleporter's gonna need to be closed behind them!"
[hr]

MagFirmary

As Saurous bends over her, Moon Called reaches up, running her good fingers tenderly through his short hair. She rests her hand on the back of his head for a few moments, holding him in place as she peers up into his eyes. Finally, she releases him, her fingers tracing a line over his cheekbone as he stands. "You have my permission to start knocking him around if he tries to delay things too long." She says with a chuckle as Saurous turns to leave. "Just try not to bruise him up too much.

And then he is gone. Moon Called grunts as she returns to her exciting examination of the ceiling, focusing on the tiles to keep her mind from realizing what, exactly, was about to happen.

[Lost_Deep]

Outside Beckett's Clinic

Iriel looks a bit panicked. And afraid, and confused, but the fear is common enough to not be noted and the confusion hasn't left her face yet.

"D-"

She makes a fist with her left hand and holds it up.

"Do what?"

[UncleWolf]

Inside - Freezer

Halifax breathes a bit easier in his sleep as his cracked wrist is healed most of the way, the strain on his young body lessened greatly, and his mother feels the same, most of the aches and tiredness of her muscles leaving her.

Unfortunately, Edijar, even if he notices the effect, doesn't feel it in the slightest. He lifts his head at the sound of Missy groaning, waking as the drugs in her system break down quickly.

As she climbs back to consciousness, Edijar checks his mental map one final time. They weren't too far from the MagCave, but it was still longer than was safe. They couldn't count on being uninterrupted. It was going to be a risk, but, it was one they had to take.

[Lord Magtok]

Outside the Magfirmary

Hey, is that the sound of whistling? Huh, well so it is. It only lasts for a few moments though, before Magtok starts singing faintly on his way to Saur and Moon. I guess he doesn't realize they can hear him from here.

Away in the MagCave,
Confined to her bed,
From byakhees and shoggoths that filled her with dread,
A doctor has plans to insert a probe,
To prove that Moon hasn't a pre-frontal lobe.
Cosmetic face surgery, botox and pills,
It'll change her appearance, to cure all my ills,
That elf at my mercy, in white-padded cell,
Will stay locked forever, she's ugly as hell!

Or maybe he does realize that, and he's just messing with them again.

[happyturtle]

Inside - Freezer

Missy awakes, forcing herself to full alertness as quickly as she can. She considers berating Edijar for drugging her, but she's been a soldier too long. There was a reason soldiers were trained to obey their superiors without question, even if the orders were stupid or wrong. Questioning orders took precious time, eroded discipline. And without discipline, an army was simply a mob of armed men.

"The Prophet sent healing. Did you feel it, Sister Missy?" Sonja asks in a quiet voice, trying not to wake Halifax.

Missy mentally checks her biometrics, which report numerous injuries healed and fatigue poisons removed from the body, minutes ago. "I did." Maybe it's a sign? Maybe the Prophet really exists, even in this hellscape? She dismisses the thought. This isn't the time for spiritual meditation.

Sonja strokes her sons hair gently. Dark hair, tightly coiled, kept long and unbraided because he liked it that way. "I think we should tell him who you are. He knows he was adopted."

Missy shakes her head, her immediate answer concealing the turmoil in her thoughts. "No. Not the right time. Maybe after we get to the Cave." She looks to Edijar. "Is it time to move out?"

"I'm trying to get some external feeds, to find out what's going on. I don't want to unseal this room until we're sure..." he was about to say 'until we're sure it's safe', but of course it wouldn't be safe. All they could hope for was 'less unsafe'.

"I always wondered... when you left the Order to become a soldier. I always thought you might come and take him back." Sonja says.

The question hung in the air, unspoken. Missy thought about it a while, before she finally answered. "Losing him was the worst thing that had ever been done to me. When I thought of being the one to do that to someone else, it made me sick."

"I don't know what to say. Thank you seems so inade-- wait, he was taken from you?" Sonja says, as the implication of the words sinks in.

Missy nods.

"Oh Holy Prophet. Oh Missy. I didn't know." She wanted to hug the other woman, but the power armour was in the way.

Missy doesn't answer. She mentally accesses her biometrics and sets them to Maximum Combat Efficiency. Inside her body, artificial signals are being sent to suppress some chemicals and encourage others. The betrayal, the hurt, the love for this child that she didn't even know, the fear that she's about to lose him again... all of those emotions are dampened. Her senses are sharpened, her muscles filled with energy. "Not the time. We'll talk later. Wake your son. He needs to eat before we move out." Her voice is blank, emotionless.

Time to move.

[Saurous]

Outside the MagFirmary

Saur hears Magtok's singing the instant he steps out of the infirmary, first reacts by pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He then responds, rather uncharacteristically, with a slipshod song of his own.

"It's beginning to look a lot like cy-borgs
Everywhere I go;
From the minute I got to town
And started to look around
I thought these ill-built robot's gears did show;
I'm beginning to hear a lot of cy-borgs
Right outside my door,
As I try to escape in fright
To the moonlit Inside night
I can hear some more.

The dress in feminine cloaks and to see them provokes
A profound desire to laugh
They'll never know trust and they're covered with rust
Like a cybernetic form of staph!"

The necromancer promptly loses interest in coming up with an appropriate final verse, instead pointing over his shoulder into the MagFirmary behind him. "All of my preparations are complete," he says as Magtok draws closer. "I assume you're all set?"

[Mina Kobold]

Outside Beckett's Clinic

Nach'tt looks back at Iriel and Beckett, seemingly curious as to why Iriel was singing. The Mechabold didn't understand it, however.

Mitta seems to have understood that it was strange and worrisome, on the other hand, and walks back to see if she can cheer the strange girl up.

Magmart

Rahona will catch up with Raven in the Magmart, having fallen a bit behind previously. She looks curiously around.

"This place looks pretty intac' for a store in this situation, there sumthing important in here tha' can help ya with saving tha Nexus?"

The bird-girl looks quite hopeful about a possible way to fix everything.

[Lord Magtok]

Outside the MagFirmary

Spoiler

Show

Outside the MagFirmary

The necromancer promptly loses interest in coming up with an appropriate final verse, instead pointing over his shoulder into the MagFirmary behind him. "All of my preparations are complete," he says as Magtok draws closer. "I assume you're all set?"

Magtok chuckles, far more enthusiastic about his role in this than the necromancer might be comfortable with. "All set for sticking sharp, pointy, uncomfortable needles into your baby's momma? Drilling teeny holes into her flesh and shoving strange, numbing chemicals directly into her filthy elf blood? Doing all this to the one and only woman who, in older days, made impaling me on a sword bigger than herself an art form? And doing all of that while you're forced to watch helplessly? Saur, I was cloned ready for this." The cyborg's grin just keeps growing and growing as he pulls out a lovely little syringe full of some strange neon-blue fluid from his robe. "Oh, and I think your last line had a few too many syllables."

MagMart

Rahona and Raven go ignored, at least for the time being anyway. If some trouble comes up, caused by them or aimed at them, things might go differently, but so long as they don't cause trouble, the store continues to operate as an evacuation center.

Unless the TeleGate closes soon, of course.

MagCave - Ace

Maggy floats in from the ceiling. No, I have no idea what he was doing up there, don't ask.

"Why, what's behind them?"

[Craftworld]

Golem shuffles its position to see if the dustcloud is passed.
"What caused this abominable occurance to happen?"

[Saurous]

Outside the MagFirmary

"Yes, well, we don't all have the benefit of being master songstresses such as yourself," Saurous says, shooting the cyborg a withering glare. "And I really don't recommend taking advantage of the current situation just to pick on Moon. I've already compiled a list of consequences for you if I note any signs of discomfort in her before, during or after the procedure, and I feel as if we'd all be more productive if you weren't running around, screaming about how your platelets were replaced with shards of broken glass."

With that, the necromancer turns around and leads Magtok back to Moon's bed.

[UncleWolf]

Inside - Freezer

Edijar activates his helmet and sends a little signal to any sensors outside the freezer. When he gets no response, he lets out a small sigh and heads to the door, pulling out a knife. While the others get Halifax up, he digs at the seal he made around the door, making a small hole. He slips the knife back into it's sheath and extends a small flexible rod from his good wrist, pushing it through. The camera on the other end sends him the images of the place outside.

[Rebonack]

[Meat Locker]

What does Eddy find outside?

There are heaps and heaps of little egg-sized chunks of fungus. Sort of a greenish yellow color. It looks inert and relatively harmless. Though many objects look like they've been sheared through. Turned into jerky and then reduced into aberrant truffles.

But if there are any chemical sensors on Eddy's probe he'll no doubt be glad to discover that the scent of preserving fluid is gone from the air. Nor are there any toxins being dumped into the air by the mushrooms.

Something else is lurking around out there, however.

Something blurred and indistinct. Looks like its nomming the fungus all over the floor. And looking at it for too long is rather painful. Or maybe somethings blurred and indistinct. It's hard to tell. There might only be one of the things. Or there might be twenty.

There's no telling if they're hostile or not. But all things considered they probably are.

[MagMart]

Raven will insist that anyone still in the store should leave through the teleporter post haste. Once she and Sadei are sure that everyone is away they'll head back outside. There are still people to save after all! There's no rest for them in this end of days scenario.

[MagCave]

Divaonar wrinkles his nose a bit, prodding at the skull with one finger. "I'm not... Well... It was the first deep one I killed. It was trying to eat these people and I saved them. So I decided to keep it so that I would remember what I'm here for. To help protect the people of the Nexus."

[Earl of Purple]

MagCave

"You've killed a Deep One?" Natalie's eyes are wide and her voice is full of awe. "Wait, it was the first? How many have you killed?"

[Rebonack]

[MagCave]

Divaonar shrugs.

"I dunno... Three? I found a few when I was looking for Father. Mother sent me to bring him to her. And I stayed there with him until things started getting really bad," the boy recounts. "He told me to bring my half-sister here and stay safe."

And so that's what he did!

Thankfully he and the nymph didn't get nommed on the way there.

Not getting nommed is always a positive thing.

"Mother made us to be able to fight. And the deep ones aren't that tough..."