[Nexus] Inside 43

[Shadowcaller]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Astrana didn't really expect Arel's boyfriend to jump out at her so she just takes a step backwards as he pounces. Oh crap not the orbs! Hopefully he wouldn't press them against his chest, they didn't have any gloamings nearby. Crap.

[UncleWolf]

Red Zone

Javert could respect the Humans-Only stance that the people seem to have, if it weren't so misplaced in a world like this. Without breaking stride, in fact, quickening it, he tugs on one of his cufflinks, pulling out a thin strand of wire.

His steps are completely silent, so his first victim doesn't notice him until the razor wire goes around his throat. With a quick twist, Javert severs the main arteries and veins before letting the cufflink go, allowing the razor-garrotte to slip back into his sleeve. The body falls, and Javert continues to smile, white teeth flashing, as he pulls a bowie knife from his victim's belt.

Distress noted and backup on the way. ETA: 45 seconds.

[happyturtle]

Red Zone - Tenement House

((Anyone who wants to show up to rescue people, stomp human supremacists, or otherwise get involved, is welcome.))

Acknowledged. Missy keeps her visual feed open to send information to the Comm Center. Once she's in effective pistol range, she takes cover and starts shooting. Each bullet hits its target for the first four shots. That's how long it takes for it to register that the new sound of gunfire isn't friendly to them, and the members of the mob start to respond, shooting back in Missy's direction. She hopes it's enough to allow the residents to escape the burning building.

Javert's kill was too silent to attract attention. He can still move freely.

[UncleWolf]

Red Zone

Javert isn't exactly hiding, but it's probably not too obvious that he's attacking them until he leaps forward to ram the bowie knife into his next target's chest. Unbalanced piece of ****. 3oz heavy on back end. Compensate when throwing. He thinks to himself as he rips the knife downward to disembowel the victim and pulling the knife free. In a smooth motion, he twists and throws the knife underhanded to send it into a woman's heart.

Once more, he appears harmless.

[FireFox]

[Grey Zone - Warehouse]

"Yeah. I actually picked it because it didn't look like much." Ashley walks to one of the side doors. "Hopefully, when I'm done with whatever crazy magic stuff I work on, it'll be more livable." She gestures towards the door. "You wanna see the inside?"

Sure. Ally smiles and follows her in.

[happyturtle]

Red Zone - Tenement fire

Missy keeps down for a moment, letting the mob think they shot her so they'll stop shooting to get closer. Once they do, she takes a running leap, flying over them, and shooting from the air, with just over half of her shots hitting their targets. By the time she lands, her magazine is empty. She's done all she can offensively, so she runs into the burning building.

Outside, the woman hit with the throwing knife collapses. "Jane!" The man next to her catches her, and scoops her up. "Lets go! Go! Go! We're done here!" he calls out, trying to run with a body in his arms. "Jane, hang on, hang on."

More of the gang get the same idea. The house is burning anyway, right? Time to cut losses and run. Some of them help or carry their wounded - which includes most of the gunshot victims - while others just flee.

[Devixer]

Blue Zone - Library

Kuko will hop off of Ashley's shoulder on the book case and begin climbing to the top of the section. "I'll take the high road and you can take the low road." he whispers down to Ashley. He'll, very softly, play a his tune of growth and grow to a size roughly shorter than a halfling, where he'll hang from the edge of the shelf. He'll pick out books that he thinks based on the title will have anything to do with "Void," "Savorla," or "Citrine," and thumb through the table of contents.

Ashley searches through the lower shelves, finding similar such books. Between the two of them, I imagine it wouldn't be hard for them to find the information that C'nor posted.

[Grey Zone - Warehouse]

The inside of the warehouse is not really much better than the outside. It's very spacious, but also very messy. Some shelves have been scattered about. The best-looking thing in the place is the door to an office, which is oddly pristine compared to the dusty walls.

"It's not that much, but I guess it's home right now," Ashley says.

[UncleWolf]

Red Zone - Burning Tenement

Javert lets the people go from that point and looks up at the burning building. He wasn't prepared to fight fires, so simply moves back to Missy. The light from the fire will show blood splattered across his sleeves and stomach, but none of it was his.

After a few more seconds, there's a flash of light as a large group of Remnants are teleported in. Among them is a Mobile Hospital, full medical team, and a squad of Armored Firefighters. With them is someone who normally wouldn't be called out to such an event. Jyarl, Commander of the Penal Company.

"Alright, you slow moving ********, move it! Move it! Move it! We have a block to save and you're wasting time!" He shouts as he runs ahead of the group, a pair of Firefighters with him. The three leap with their flightboots to land on a higher floor, but one falls through the weakened floor with a scream. The other firefighters ignore it for the moment as they run into the burning building, thrower units spraying extinguishing foam as they go.

At the sound of his amplified voice, Missy will notice Javert stiffen, unsettled for the first time in the night.

[Chaotic Bob]

Spoiler

Show

Bast's Animal Shelter

"Shyaahaha-glkt!" a wanton slash, a spurt of blood, and so ends a nasty, twitchy goblin's life. What an absolute waste.

But the effects of his actions have cast ramifications into the future, as the hovering buckets attempt to pour water over the burning bed. The moonshine sludge that Shraaaah used reacts violently to the cool liquid being poured over it, leaping from the bed in molten clumps and showers of sparks to roll across the floor, acting like beads of burning mercury rather than sticking as they once did. Still, the water does put out most of the burning linen, leaving only the softball sized clump of liquid fire to spread along the floor in tiny droplets, most likely slowly burning themselves out.

So a partial success on the part of the buckets, although they'll have to act quickly to prevent any little fires from cropping up.

Bast's Animal Shelter

And so Reinholdt is scooped up by Arel and whisked away! He's still a bit out of it, but I think he smiles up at Arel as much as any cat can.

Right when Mecha-Rein and Mega-Kate pop in.
"Is everyone ok?!" Reinholdt asks, looking around for survivors. Being mechanical does mean the anasthesia and smoke doesn't bother him. There's Arel with himself and three stubborn kitties and Bobbie...

"Grab the kitties." Mecha-Rein tells Mega-Kate before bounding over to Bobbie. Well as far as he can get before being stopped by liquid fire. "Come on Bobbie! We have to get out of here!"

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

More people showing up? It doesn't matter, she needs to get out of here right now. She runs straight out of the door and a little ways away from the shelter before sitting down on the ground.

"Rein? Rein, are you okay?" She asks frantically, holding him out a little bit from herself.

Pavna scurries out after Arel!
Have to keep an eye on proper-Reinholdt for Bobbie.

Who, speaking of, doesn't seem to be paying Mecha-Rein's insistence to leave much mind.
Instead, she's dropping the bloody hacksaw, slapping her hands together, and inciting another dose of her odd magic.

Odd chemical fires must be stopped by either suffocating them, or by removing their fuel.
Unfortunately, both of these can be a little complicated when the fuel is bouncing everywhere in the form of little droplets.

The flash of light erupts from the back of her jacket and she drops her hands down onto the floor, sparks readily leaping from her fingers.
Hopefully no one will mind when she turns a good portion of the floor into a non-burning gel.

Should stop that bouncing and do a part in stifling the moonshine stuff.

[Gullara]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Arel wasn't expecting that either to be quite honest. She tries to stop him, but he's far too quick for that. Cause, you know, cat.

[happyturtle]

Red Zone - Burning Tenement

Major Jyarl? Missy has never been comfortable around him, has no idea why he's here, and no clue why Javert would know him. But that doesn't matter when there are people inside dying.

She's barefoot, unarmed, and wearing a cocktail dress. But she has eyes that can communicate with HQ, who can then direct responders appropriately.

I'm going in, Sir. Missy sends electronically to HQ, and to Jyarl's commlink, to be translated to voice on their end.

All of this happens in less than a second, as Missy whirls and runs into the building, looking for survivors to help. Her neural link displays the amount of oxygen in front of her visual field. She'll have only minutes before she's in danger, and her heart is already overtaxed.

This is a really stupid thing to do, Halifax, she tells herself, but she does it anyway, shouldering open a door to get into the first residence, where she hears cries for help.

[Reinholdt]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Reinholdt's a rather small cat. He just tries to land on the pile of orbs. I suspect this means bodily. Though he'll bat at any that escape his initial assault, and look back up at Arel with big, curious happy kitty eyes. *bat bat*
D'awww... so cute.

[Inside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Mecha-Rein is... well... stunned and takes a short step back. He had no idea Bobbie could do that.

[UncleWolf]

Burning Tenement - 3rd Floor

Throne damn it all! Halifax! You are to abandon your stupid-as-**** heroics before I personally come to kick your ass!!! Jyarl shouts into the commlink for all to hear as he races through the halls, kicking open doors to check for signs of life. His intimidating armor protects him from the flames, heat, and smoke, but even so, he didn't want to be here when the building collapsed. With a command into his suit, it activates the drug implant deep inside his brain. There's a slight tweaking sensation in his brain as three are pumped straight into his bloodstream and brain. His movements suddenly become quicker, fluid and more precise as his addicted body and brain are kicked into overdrive.

Burning Tenement - 2nd Floor

(Spoilered for...well, standard by now.)

Spoiler

Show

Captain Jefferies groaned as she sits up from the busted boards. She attempts to use her the hoverboots on her Hot Suit to help her up, but they just fizzle out, killed off by falling through the floor. With a mental curse, she finally gets herself back to her feet and grips the fireaxe in her hands. A warning light appears on her HUD, telling her that one of the coolant tanks om her back was leaking, making her task that much harder.

On her feet, she takes a half-second to look herself over. The painted flame motifs that covered her legs were charring, telling her just how hot she was at the moment, but the image of the naked men(an orc and elf) engaging in intimacy on her chestplate was untouched, telling her that it wasn't too hot yet. Looking at her arms, she sighs when she sees one of the nozzles for the extinguisher sprayers is smashed, useless. It'd been a rough landing for sure, but at least one worked still.

She takes a quick moment to spray her surroundings (84% Capacity Left) before moving through her floor, taking it slow to make sure that she could find the people who needed saving. Unfortunately, most she saw were already gone. Shot or consumed by the flames, nothing she could do. As she walked through the creaking building, she couldn't help but wonder why she did this in the first place.

Was it for glory? No. She thought to herself with a shake of her head as she abandoned yet another lost charred room. Glory was just the word adrenaline junkies and naive eager fools used to explain the rush they felt. Looking for Glory was something that would get you killed. So if that wasn't it, why did she join up? She didn't know the answer yet and felt that she probably never would.

Before Remnant came along, she and her comrades had been left with nothing more than cloth heatshielding, firetrucks and handheld extinguishers for the most part. Anything special came out of their own pocket. The Hot Suits were a blessing to them. It allowed them to do so much mor-

Captain Jefferies stops her remembrances as she notices a little form, wrapped in a civvie issue fireblanket. She didn't see what it was, just that it was breathing, and that was reason enough. Looking around, she spots two adult orcs, shot through the head near the window and probably the little bundle's parents. "Captain Jefferies. Found life. Hot suit damaged, so I have to take the long way down.

"Hustle it up. Roof is getting unstable. 3rd Floor is clean. Four living have been evacuated to the Field Hospital. 15 dead from smoke and gunshots." Jyarl replies.

"Roger that."

With that, the Captain picks up the bundle and begins to walk down the hall as she keep an eye out. Her suit warns her that only 30% of her coolant remains, but that doesn't worry her too badly, so she lets the back of her mind wander over her reasons a little more.

Unlike many, she knows she didn't join the Firefighters to be a hero. Anyone could be a hero here, and that didn't take any special skills or wants or needs in order to do so. With apocalypses every day, being a hero only amounted to being able to survive to Next Tuesday. She begins to get a small feeling about what her reason might have been when she hears a crack above her, making her pay attention to her surroundings once more. "-llapsing! Get out of the way!" Jyarl shouts over the comms. Looking up in shock as an iron beam falls through the ceiling, she finally realizes what the reason was.

She joined the firefighters for the futility of the task.

Anyone could be a Hero or Glory Hound, letting them feel like they're accomplishing something when they're really doing nothing at all, but it was different when you recognized the uselessness of the task well beforehand, but still chose to do it. The child in her arms was likely to die a horrible and terrible death some time, be it in ten minutes or ten years or ten decades. Everyone here was, and none of it mattered in the grand scheme of things. A single life didn't make a difference to this world. A Million lives wouldn't have made a difference either. Fate was a cruel Mistress to each and everyone.

But Captain Jefferies chose this job because it allowed her to spit in Fate's face at every turn. To snatch people from her clawed fingers and allow them to live just a bit longer as she faced Fate's fury alone, accumulating a Karmic debt that would be sure to kill her sooner rather than later. Feeling that the Karmic Debt decided to call itself in, she decided to make one last "futile" action.

She leaned back.

The action caused the beam to barely miss the child in her arms and allowed it to slam right into her pelvis, slamming her through the floor, through the next, and into the basement, crushing a significant portion of her before finally stopping. She lets out a scream of bloodcurdling agony as pain washes over her. The only reason she doesn't pass out is from the massive dose of painkillers and stimulants that get pumped into her, forcing her to stay awake and look at her ravaged body. Even though the child appeared safe in her arms, she can't help but continue to cry out on the open commlink, letting everyone hear until it's cut off.

"Comm Override: Jefferies to Major Jyarl only." Jyarl demands of the system, making it so he's the only one who can hear. "Jefferies, this is me. I'm here and on the way. Try to breathe. You took a hard hit but you aren't down so talk to me, understand?!? That's a Throne-Damned order!" He asks as he leaps down the hole to land by her side. He sees the cracked helmet of the Captain's Hot Suit turn to him and hears her ragged sobs. He doesn't have to look her over to know she won't make it. He kneels down next to her torso and makes his helmet slide back to show his true face, revealing uncharacteristic concern and worry.

"P-Put your helmet back-k-k o-" She tries to tell him, but he shakes his head and gives her a small smile. "I'll be okay. Just stay with me, okay? You'll be fine tomorrow. I promise. Just keep talking. Help is on the way." He assures her, not knowing if any help was really on the way or not. Reaching up, he presses her helmet's tab, making it slide back to let her breathe easier. The Captain is sobbing in pain. "P-Please don't let me die, s-sir. I don't want to leave home." She begs, looking into Jyarl's eyes.

The Major can't help but feel tears form, but he runs a hand along her cheek to try and keep her calm in what they both knew were her last moments. "It'll be okay, I promise. Just hang on for a bit longer. They're almost here." He tells her even though they both know it's bull****. The Captain gives a final sobbing breath before looking at him seriously. "Rites, please." She begs of the man, surprising him.

Jyarl wasn't a priest, hell, he was probably more of an atheist than anything else, but he wasn't going to refuse a dying woman's request. Shifting on his knees, he takes her head gently in his hands as he begins to speak what few words he can think of that might be appropriate. "The God-Empe-" He starts, only to be stopped by Jefferies shaking her head. "I-I want them to know." The Major pauses, trying to figure out what she meant, but gives a nod when he figures it out. He activates his helmet halfway and activates the public comm again before looking down at her. Those on the surface deserved to know. She looks back up gratefully, looking into the sockets of the skull faceplate that gazes down upon her.

"The God-Emperor of Mankind smiles down upon thee, knowing that thou hast done him and all life the greatest service and sacrifice. There shalt be none greater than thee in this dark hour against the forces of entropy and so shall your soul join those others that have offered themselves up to be honored for all eternity. Your soul has been found to be the most pure and worthy of all of us, so thou shall ascend to the heavens above to bask in the greatest of Blisses, Honor, and Glories till the end of days have come and gone..." He speaks to her and over the Comm as the temperature begins to rise in the basement as more of the building starts to burn and come down around them.

"Have you committed any heresies that you believe may bar your soul from entering its rightful afterlife?" He asks of her softly, cradling her head gently. She gives the Major a slight smile."Dozens. But none that matter."

Jyarl can't help but give a choking-sobbing-almost laugh and smiles back down at her, tears running down his face. "I hereby absolve you of your wrong-doings and bless you. You have honored us all in your service and duties. In return, we shall honor you for as long as this world lives. Is this suitable?"

The Captain doesn't answer, her body having fallen limp halfway through the question.

With a bowed head, Jyarl closes her eyes and picks up the child from lifeless arms before making his way out of the building.

[happyturtle]

Burning Tenement - Ground floor

Negative, Sir. Missy responds, out of instinct. It's not like he's going to argue with her now, though she'll likely get busted hard for it later. Assuming she survives.

She finds the half-elf who was crying out, and recognizes him as one of the local gang-lords who had to be roughed up occasionally. He was curled in a corner, by the door, staring at the flames as they grew nearer. "What are you waiting for, Noah? Get out!"

He doesn't respond, and she realizes he's in some sort of mental breakdown. And just then, she sees a body in the flames, and a hand moving. Someone who hasn't realized yet that they're dead. She grabs Noah by the shirt and pulls him to his feet, then slaps him in the face. "Get! Out!" She gives him a shove towards the exit, and he stumbles and moves, his body taking over for his shattered mind.

In the halls, an orc runs past her, bent over to get under the smoke, carrying a dog and dragging a halfling by the arm. Why a halfling? The scene floats past like a dream. Oxygen deprivation. She checks the next three rooms, marking two as cleared to HQ. At least cleared of survivors. There were bodies. In the third, the ceiling above has collapsed, leaving burning boards blocking the entrance. She's about to move on when she hears cries. Survivors, she pings. She doesn't have the equipment to go in after them. Hopefully one of the firebugs will.

Two more rooms cleared, and then there's a crash and terrible screaming in her head oh Prophet make it stop this was hell I always knew I was going to hell oh Prophet I'm sorry please make it stop.

She would have fallen to her knees then and certainly died, if the screaming hadn't suddenly stopped, allowing the biomonitor's urgent warnings to get through. Her neural link led her to the only safe exit left, and she followed its directions, out of the burning building, across the blasted ground, and towards the medical tent.

"The God-Emperor of Mankind smiles down upon thee, knowing that thou hast done him and all life the greatest service and sacrifice. There shalt be none greater than thee in this dark hour..."

She heard the rites, felt them to her soul. The God-Emperor was not her god, but in her mental state it seemed that Jyarl was standing in the pulpit of her childhood church, officiating at the funeral, leading the congregation in mourning.

Javert might find her standing silently on her burnt feet, her head bowed, her eyes closed, her lips shaping the words and following along with the last rites as a prayer for the dead. A prayer for the living.

[Shadowcaller]

Middleton Apartments

"A massive Doom Meteor hit the place without any warning." She tells Cessie. "As for where we live..." She starts before going into detail about a small mansion they live in. On the same spot Cessie lives now actually.

Middleton Apartments

The mage blinks, at the same spot? But Harnel picked it. She guessed that spot just was good for any type of building, couldn't be a pure coincidence.

"That's nice to hear... so how's the family? Are you still part of that... religion or have you joined another organization?" She asks.

[Lost_Deep]

Inside Bast's Animal Shelter

"No-wait-not gasoline. Alcohol. Still, we need to-woah."

Kate also steps back from Bobbie when she does her magic.

"Okay... are there any other fires? Has anyone called the fire department?"

Kate feels moderately useless...

[Halae]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Rein is extremely lucky then, as he lands on the orb that includes an incredibly masculine gender inside it. In mixing with his own gender, He'll find he has a thing for *ahem* larger sexual characteristics. His cat form is largely unaffected by this change beyond growing a bit larger and more muscular, but when he changes back to his human form he will be an absolute paragon of manliness.

[Shadowcaller]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

"Oh for the..." Astrana facepalms before quickly swapping up the two remaining orbs. "These things are dangerous, you have no idea what you might have done to yourself right now." She tells the cat with a frown.

Now which one had he absorbed? Wouldn't be easy getting it out of him without the help of the gloamings and they weren't charmed anymore.

[Gullara]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

"He's really not himself right now." And Arel can't explain it. As far as she knows, there isn't any reason he should be acting like this. "Come here, Rein." She says gently. This day has been too stressful already.

[Reinholdt]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Reinholdt playfully bats at the orbs as they're snatched from him.

He looks up at Arel and bounces back over to her, going to nuzzle and rub himself up against her, purring.

[Shadowcaller]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Arel's boyfriend really did act more like a cat then a... well, person. But no matter, maybe he was in shock or something.

"Okay, so where are you going? You need any help? That orb might have effected him badly and I only think the creatures that gave it to me might be able to remove it's effect." Astrana asks, getting up from the ground with the support of her staff.

[Gullara]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Arel scritches behind Rein's ears and looks between him and the animal shelter. She shakes her head. "I don't know. We need to make sure that the shelter is taken care of, and then I need to see if Rein is going to be alright." There's a couple goals. "Where are the creatures for the orb?" She asks, looking at Astrana again.

[Reinholdt]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Reinholdt purrs and... falls asleep. The same amount of General Anesthesia on a small cat vs. a large human makes something of a difference.

I'm sure it'll wear off soon though.

Inside Bast's Animal Shelter

Mecha-Rein feels mostly useless.
"I don't think anyone has, no. Are you ok Bobbie?" Kate can call the fire department! That'd probably help.

[Shadowcaller]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

Astrana sigh, well, it wasn't like she had anything to do until Cos returned anyway so she might as well help Arel and Rein.

"They are in a park... I could show you if you like. I used a spell on them thought so I don't think they would be particularly happy to see me again."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Inside Bast's Animal Shelter]

The little flaming droplets are subject to micro grasping-hands from the goo, to "devour" them and expunge the flames.

Bobbie observes for a moment, same vacant smile on her face.
Then she grabs Shraaaah's body, to toss it out of the room, acquires a much more attentive and bubbly look (her normal one) and glances back at Mecha and Mega.
"I'm okay! I'll be outside in a minute, okay? Gotta fix the floor."
Which may be a vague hint to make sure Kate and Rein are not standing on it.

[Gullara]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

"Oh, well maybe you could just show me the way and I can talk to them? Are they friendly?" Arel doesn't want to walk into anything she can't handle after all.

[LadyOfWar]

[Sojourn]

The yellow blob doesn't stick.

Nor does it punt.

Rather it bursts in a shower of yellow adhesive gunk. Enough gunk, in fact, to glue someone to the ground. Regardless of whether Wes is glued to the ground or not one of the blue blobs leaps at her next, its face suddenly erupting in a whirling meat-grinder of hooked barbs!

Thankfully her hands will be free due to the low jump of the yellow blob. Though that probably means that her legs will be stuck to the ground. Which makes dodging the incoming blender pretty hard.

Doubly thankfully Cornflakes decides to do something about this and slams the blue blob with a psionic shockwave of centrifugal force that neatly separates the liquid in the blob's body from everything else. One down!

But several more blue blobs are bounding toward Wes!

They're aren't the fastest critters in the world. A brisk jog could probably out-run them. Provided a yellow blob doesn't glue you down first.

The rest of the adventurers snap into action!

Yamamoto whips out his katana with lightning speed, neatly bisecting a green blob that got a little too close.

Amil opens fire with her hand-gun, launching bullet-speed spikes into a second blue that was creeping over the top of a crate. The creature bursts in a spray of cerulean cytoplasm as its body quickly sags into a flaccid heap.

Wark goes "WARK!"

...

Which doesn't seem to do anything.

The yellow adhesive gunk splatters all over her pantleg and completely engulfs her left hiking boot. The moment she puts her foot back on the ground it adheres firmly to the... grass. Every horizontal surface in here was described as being carpeted with grass. Interesting fact about grass: it doesn't make a very solid surface to adhere things to. The force exerted by her leg when she picks up her foot should be sufficient to rip the grass immediately beneath her foot out by the roots. Looks like the yellow thing might not hold her down for long...

Either way, Amil just demonstrated that bullets work on these things. That's good for Wes. She doesn't even try to dodge the incoming blops, instead she whips her semi-automatic handgun in the direction of the incoming blue blops. She squeezes off a shot at each of the first two bouncing blue blops. Her aim is astoundingly good when you realize that he's not aided by any mystical magic powers like 3/4 of the folks bumming around this Town.

[Rebonack]

[Sojourn]

Depends on the type of grass and how interlacing the fibrous root system is. But we'll assume it gets uprooted since Wes probably doesn't want a cute-blob sized hole drilled through her torso.

The bullets rip through the blue blobbies without to much trouble, spilling azure cytoplasm all over everything as the creatures lose all real cohesion. Despite the casualties the critters press on!

Mostly just more greens and yellows now, aiming to surround and smother our heroes! Thankfully they aren't that large and two dozen probably won't be enough to effectively smother things. Only the blue ones appear to be obviously lethal and they've all been smoked.

Amil and Yamamoto go to town with their melee weapons, cutting through the ranks of blobbies to reach Wes. Cupcakes is... well... hovering. Not sure what it's up to at the moment.

And Wark?

He's still going WARK!

[Shadowcaller]

[Outside Bast's Animal Shelter]

"They're thieves, they can steal aspects from you. Those orbs? They are parts of people they stolen which they keep for themselves. Your life might not be in danger but they could steal your voice for instance." Astrana replies. "I could let you burrow one of my pacts bounds thought if you truly desire to go there by yourself."

[VampireRot]

[Willow's Lab]

Oh noes!

Fire spin!

The flames eat at Glamdring's rocky hide, but suffice to say the attack isn't very effective... The stony skin reacts to the fire, becoming polished and glassy! Plution's Special Defense sharply rose! But his Defense fell...

Reactive defenses?

More cheatery!

Glamdring isn't looking terribly healthy at this point. The continual damage from Bind and Fire Spin is starting to stack up! He'll need to end this quickly! To that end another flurry of Rocks are Thrown at the ant-eater!

[Willow's Lab]

Winston frowns as Heatmor cries out once more as it is pelted with rocks. The Pokémon is being severely damaged by the super effective moves... but it's not beaten yet.

"Use lick now!"

Heatmor sticks out its very long anteater tongue and, well, uses it to Lick Glamdring. The ghost type move is the only move the fire type has that isn't not very effective on a rock type like Pluteon, and it's still a rather weak move. Still, it has a chance of paralyzing the other Pokémon, so it could pay off.