[Nexus] Inside 48

[ThirdEmperor]

The hood leaves the alleyway, tripping over some garbage on the way out.

Meanwhile, Kailee turns the corner with Ashley, wrapping her arms around herself for slightly better coverage. "Yes. And yes. I'm... my name's Kailee." She looks most pointedly at Wrath. The Escort's concerned, and surprised that he didn't change his mind. "Thank you. I was stupid, running in here." Kai's silver eyes shift to Kailee again. "Can you fix him? Heal him?" That's right. Regular people don't need fixed.

Nothing at all in the Red Zone

"Ashley." Her introduction is short and curt. When asked about whether or not she can heal Wrath, she reaches into the small bag on her belt, which seems to have much more room than it appears to. "I can try. How are you with potions? Don't have any bad reactions?" Her question is asked at Wrath.

Nodding, Wrath lets himself slump back against the wall, taking a seat on the grimy asphalt to save his leg further pains. Uhm, Wrath. A name which now seems patently ludicrous to him, like the moniker of some poorly written sidenote character in a Batman serial. I... I don't think so? Up until now he's never had the need to find out, his own stock of emergency first-aid potions gathering dust in a forgotten corner of the medicine drawer, looking jealously out from the shadows at the little blue anti-psychotic pills.

Now those, he uses quite frequently.

[Murkus]

[Peace Again in the Red Zone]

Nodding, Wrath lets himself slump back against the wall, taking a seat on the grimy asphalt to save his leg further pains. Uhm, Wrath. A name which now seems patently ludicrous to him, like the moniker of some poorly written sidenote character in a Batman serial. I... I don't think so? Up until now he's never had the need to find out, his own stock of emergency first-aid potions gathering dust in a forgotten corner of the medicine drawer, looking jealously out from the shadows at the little blue anti-psychotic pills.

Now those, he uses quite frequently.

Nothing at all in the Red Zone

"Ashley." Her introduction is short and curt. When asked about whether or not she can heal Wrath, she reaches into the small bag on her belt, which seems to have much more room than it appears to. "I can try. How are you with potions? Don't have any bad reactions?" Her question is asked at Wrath.

"What's a potion?" Kailee asks, leaning over to try and get a look at what Ashley's digging out. "Is that going to help?"

[Lots of Hope Hospital]

"Minivans hold... eight people was it?" She says questioningly. In any case, Sakura nods. "That's probably a good idea, though. There's no way all six of use could go to on place in your truck."

"Not safely, anyways. A minivan then. Did you just want me to get it, or is it time I taught you a little something about cars?" Adir asks. That did come to mind - Sakura learning how to drive.

[Devixer]

Out of Jokes About the Red Zone

"Potions are liquids that have magical effects brewed into them." Ashley digs out a small vial containing a red liquid and walks over to Wrath to hand it over. "Drink this, it should get you on your feet." Should he do so, the potion will act as a fairly standard healing potion.

[ThirdEmperor]

[Fresh Outta Humor in the Red Zone]

Prosit. Taking the vial with a nod of thanks to Ashely, Wrath raises it in toast then swallows down the potion in a single gulp. He grimaces a little as it begins knitting the severed muscle and flesh back together- It's not a painful sensation, but not altogether pleasant either.

So, uh... You're an android, then? He asks Kailee, managing an almost conversational tone in his attempts to avoid offending her. Not that he's sure why she might be offended. Only that it's the sort of thing that people tend to get offended about.

[Gullara]

[Lots of Hope Hospital]

"Um..." Sakura doesn't seem to enjoy that same thought. Driving just seems nerve wracking, to say the least. "You can probably just handle it. You're the expert after all."

[Rebonack]

[Adventure Park]

To be fair Rick doesn't have a health bar either. Or at least not one that he can see. That sort of thing is for player eyes only after all! No doubt someone with crazy fourth wall breaking powers could spot it. But thankfully no one of that sort is around right now.

Which is probably a good thing.

The Nexus is weird enough without the extra weird folks making it weirder.

"Is this sort of thing normal around here?" Rick asks as Myrrh pounces on and devours a giant cricket. "The monsters. And magical healing rocks. And all this other crazy stuff?"

[Gullara]

[Generic Street]

Sitting against a building with a can placed on the ground in front of her is a young woman. She's short and thin to the point that it's unhealthy. Her has pale white skin and her somewhat short, black hair fades out to an ashen grey near the tips. Her eyes are a strange yellow-orange and her ears are pointed. All around her eyes, the skin looks red and tender, must like a healing burn.

Occasionally someone stops long enough to toss a coin in her can. It would be hard to not guess that she's poor and likely homeless too. Her skin and clothes are dirty, and her clothes have a number of burn marks and holes in them. Despite the cold weather, all she has is a thin t shirt and a pair of capri pants.

____________

[Devixer]

Generic Street

A woman in heavy leather armor, and with a sword and shield on her person, is making a trip down the street when she notices the young against a building. Like every other time she comes across a poor would down on their luck, she feels a twang of sympathy.

So Imesah stops in front of the street urchin and crouches low, unfastening her coin bag from her belt and placing it next to the can. "Here. This should be enough to get you a meal and some warm clothes."

[Morcleon]

[Generic Street]

Striding along a rather generic street, next to a building, comes a young woman, dressed in a tattered grey cloak, under which can be seen a homespun tunic and pants of the same color. With a strange red flower tucked behind her ear, stem hidden amongst her two long black pigtails, her crystal blue eyes dart around apprehensively as she glances behind her every few seconds, as if expectins something to pop out.

And in one of these longer moments of obsessive paranoia, she walks past... well, not so much 'walks past', as 'stumbles over', a certain homeless woman. She falls to the ground, twisting to land on her back. A moment passes, and then she looks up with fearful eyes, rapidly scanning her surroundings. "Ah... S- Sorry..."

[Lord Magtok]

Ice Skating Rink

Spoiler

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Ice Skating Rink

"I'm doing good. Just taking a break from babysitting Eileen. She's rather a handful." Tracey says to Needs.

The pileup of bruised skaters tries to detangle itself. "Do you know how to skate?"

"I've rode a bicycle with schools of three-legged fish across the Sea of Delirium. Driven a submarine through skies of chaos, a vessel fueled by the awkward feeling of having mistakenly overtipped a waitress. I've shed my flesh and joined with the Infinite March of Skeletons. To skate across frozen water is nothing, madam, it is the simplest of-"

Needs Food Badly attempts to skate. He spends about a second in midair, his legs whipping about against the ground in a panicked attempt to stabilize himself, which promptly fails and causes him to fall facefirst onto the ground.

"...I, err, I definitely meant to do that."

Needs' cheeks go red, but whether that's because of his face getting cold, the embarrassment of having fallen so gracelessly, or because there are red goo monsters swimming around underneath his flesh, well...that's anybody's guess.

Blacklight Street

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[Blacklight Street]

Silly army men rain. So weeeeeird.
Reminds the girls of that time Discord wrecked the weather in Equestria.

Maybe that has to do with the reason Pinkie Pie is smiling so much?
Probably doesn't have anything to do with that shadow-child down the street she's waving at, just beyond the light radius.

The others are mostly leerily trying to avoid getting too covered with the things, gingerly shooing them away when they land on the ground.
"Tacky" may escape Rarity's lips at some point, when one is brushed out of her hair.

Luna, meanwhile, is trying to stay on task. Unlike everyone else apparently.
"So we have a choice between the library and the tavern. The former does seem to be more Twilight Sparkle's...'style', I believe the term is. If she hasn't begun any of the obvious stages of her plan, I suspect research would still be underway."

Magtok just keeps his mouth shut and quietly follows along, a sort of dazed look in his eyes. It's not easy; monitoring the MagSat and keeping up with these ponies are both difficult tasks that would ordinarily require one's absolute focus and attention to perform adequately, and here he is, trying to do both at once, half here and half there, with little to no idea about what's going on in either location.

[Lost_Deep]

[Adventure Park]

To be fair Rick doesn't have a health bar either. Or at least not one that he can see. That sort of thing is for player eyes only after all! No doubt someone with crazy fourth wall breaking powers could spot it. But thankfully no one of that sort is around right now.

Which is probably a good thing.

The Nexus is weird enough without the extra weird folks making it weirder.

"Is this sort of thing normal around here?" Rick asks as Myrrh pounces on and devours a giant cricket. "The monsters. And magical healing rocks. And all this other crazy stuff?"

"Well, I don't know about things like this specifically, I've never seen this kind of stuff before, but I have seen all kind of things which would be pretty crazy to most people." Gerri looks around some more, looking for buildings or something. "The monsters and healing rocks... this is the first time I've run into those. Well, I suppose I could say I've seen monsters, but most of them don't really act like monsters."

[Side of the Road]

"What created this place then? It sounds as if there's a overarching purpose." The summoner asks. And, you know, he's close to right.

"Yeah, that's another big question. Tons of theories. Some think that this is a place that catches things that fall out of other realities, like a safety net, or that it's a place that's actively combating stagnancy by constantly pulling in new things, or it's the result of the There Is No Fiction theory and gratuitous crossover fanfics... really, it depends on who you ask and what they think of the multiverse."

[Rebonack]

[Adventure Park]

Rick quirks an eyebrow. "Well if they don't act like monsters wouldn't they just be really weird looking people?"

Huh...

That's...

Actually a really insightful observation.

"Munchs crunchs bunches! There are being many things for the eatings here Master!" Myrrh chatters as he goes clambering up a tree after a squirrel. The fuzzy rodent chatters at him angrily and outpaces him pretty easily. "Come back! I am wanting to eat you!"

[Gullara]

[Generic Street]

The woman gives Imesah a warm smile. "Thank you so much." She's so used to people just walking by, it's a relief to have someone actually stop and take notice of her.

As close as she is, Imesah will likely notice that the woman is radiating heat. It's not an uncomfortable amount, but it's noticeable. Not that she'll be able to reflect on it long, because the next moment a cloaked woman trips over her. "Ow!" She yelps and tucks her legs in close to her body. Speaking of people not noticing her...

[Devixer]

Generic Street

"No thanks are needed," Imesah says, giving an equally warm smile. If the woman can sense divine aura's, she might be able to tell that Imesah is an Aasimar.

Then another woman stumbles over the homeless woman, and Imesah is a little surprised at it. She narrows her eyes a bit. "You should be more careful."

[Lost_Deep]

Adventure Park

"Yeah, true."

Gerri will keep walking, not really having anything to say further and to preoccupied with getting out of here to be polite.

[Rebonack]

[Adventure Forest]

It isn't long before the trio reaches a large limestone outcrop that blocks their path. Ivy and wildflowers grow heavily upon its surface and water drips down mosses groves in the stone. Going around the thing doesn't look to be an option.

A wooden sign points toward a yawning cave entrance.

Generic Street
Just beyond the darkness

The lad wrinkles his nose at the sigh.

"What does it say?"

[Lost_Deep]

Adventure Forest

"Generic Street. Just beyond the darkness. That would be the way out, but... it doesn't seem trustworthy."

What with it being a sign telling them that a city street is inside a cave.

Gerri isn't an idiot, she just has bad combat instincts.

[Chaotic Bob]

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[Red Zone- Sewers]

As the carrion breeze washes over Yuki, he coughs, and quickly draws out two respirators, and tosses one to Kirlia. He puts the other one on himself.

The scouring wind chews away at the light significantly, but doesn't manage to completely quench it, perhaps to maybe several feet of illumination. Yuki grins, stepping closer to Kirlia as to keep her within the light. Going through the trouble of finding a high-ranking angel for this light graft was worth it. "Ah, so now we have made contact with the enemy. Care to come out, oni-san?"

Red Zone - Sewers
Kronos puts the respirator onto her belt.
She doesn't exactly need it.
As the wind comes, Kirlia lets power flow through her body. It may very well be time to fight something! She needs all of her power.

[Red Zone - Sewers]

Gather.
Prey.

Two primal directives drift on the passing breeze, fading off into the darkness as the acrid scent disperses.

The reaction is immediate, as hungry calls in hissing tongues rise up in either direction.
Hungry calls that erupt direction around the hunters, just as easily as anywhere else.

Just above them, the ceiling begins to unfold, clawed limbs pulling free of the architecture, and serpentine bodies uncoiling from each other.
It is difficult to say what, precisely, they are, let alone where they end and where the walls begin, so perfectly do they match in texture and appearance.

What is easily determined, however, is that there are at least two separate masses of limbs and coiling bodies in their immediate vicinity. One above, prying free from the ceiling, and one just ahead to the right, moving out of the wall.

Spoiler

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[Toward Philip Memorial!]

Sigil gives a nod. "The Librarian will probably have seen her if she's been there. He'll defiantly help out. When it comes to sharing knowledge that guy is always willing."

What a nice if somewhat creepy guy!

And so the unipony sets off toward Arkham street! Seems like as good a place to start as any, right?

Whilst walking Sigil frowns at one of the army men. Specifically at the weird squiggly symbol on the base of them. "Yeah... This is totally Hastur's work. Last time around it was a storm that rained up into the clouds, rumbled with quiet thunder, and shot lightning that healed people."

Blacklight Street

Magtok just keeps his mouth shut and quietly follows along, a sort of dazed look in his eyes. It's not easy; monitoring the MagSat and keeping up with these ponies are both difficult tasks that would ordinarily require one's absolute focus and attention to perform adequately, and here he is, trying to do both at once, half here and half there, with little to no idea about what's going on in either location.

[Along Arkham Street]

"If Twilight is at the library, the Librarian won't interfere, will he?"
Some "Hey, no fighting in my library!" sort of rule?

"His objections will be irrelevent. This is important."

Pinkie Pie seems to be collecting the army men, as they start moving, periodically shoving duplicates at the folds of Magtok's robe.
He's not paying attention, so he won't mind, right?

"This Hastur fella sounds kinda like Discord, messin' about like that. No one's bothered to lock him up yet?"

[Common Street]

"Shoo, shoo."
A squirrel is hastily waves away from her claimed portion of ground.

A circular patch of grass exists in one of the streets many intersections, ringed by benches and a general locale for walkers in need of a break.
Even now, an elderly couple of...she thinks are lizard-humans? are relaxing somewhere to her left.

Generally not paying any attention to her carving violet lines into the ground between the benches, and she's okay with that.
Other than these bothersome squirrels, her work is progressing swiftly and easily.

The first glyph should be the slowest, while she gets the procedure down.
The rest should be a simple matter of laying out a connection and hammering the form into the ground.

Straightforward and simple.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street]

Things are about as strange here as usual. On the surface it looks like any new England hamlet full of ancient stone buildings, sagging roofs, and rusted iron fences. But there's always that pervasive feeling that something is fundamentally off.

Of course the oddness of the people here, people with a distinct Innsmouth look, would probably be lost on the ponies. After all any human would look weird to them.

Something huge, black, and incomprehensible is clinging to the steeply inclined roof of a nearby church. "Ignore the shoggoth," Sigil suggests as he pointedly avoids eye-contact with the blasphemy against existence. "It's just fishing for attention."

Then answers to questions!

"The Librarian would probably kick everyone out. Twilight included. Assuming things actually got... heated," he explains before casting a sidelong glance at AJ. Discord. Twilight had mentioned him, hadn't she? "Hastur is an Old One like my Mother. Technically he is locked up. So long as the stars aren't right he'll remain Dead But Dreaming. But that just means he's limited. Not that he's powerless."

That's... good. Maybe?

"The Old Ones all have rules they have to follow. Things they can and can't do. Mother always called it 'The Rules of the Game'. I'm not totally sure about all the specifics. She never explained it to me."

[Adventrue Park]

"Why have we stopped the move?" Myrrh inquires as he peers at others from the rock-face. "There are to being adventures! How are we to be finding them if not for looking?"

Rick coughs slightly. "We don't exactly have any other paths to take."

[Lost_Deep]

Adventrue Park

"True, but... man, I wish I had a flashlight or something." She continues to peer into the cave. Someone is going to have to go in first, and Gerri isn't going to do that. On the other hand, she isn't going to ask rick to go in first.

Even though Rick is the one with the sword and shield and and has at the least good combat instincts or at best some prior training.

[ATAT]

Location <Insert Street Name Here>

"Im a Reconnaissance and Intelligence Network GETH, for reason unknown to me I have been referred to as Rin by organics such as yourself Dinosaur Lexington"
quickly replied R.I.N.
"The reason for our communication is by my calculations there is a 78.4 percent probability that the device located on your apendage is a mapping unit and I wish to gain your assistance Dinosaur Lexington in ascertaining my current location"
R.I.N. finishes and begins patiently staring, awaiting a response from the hulking hatless dinosaur.

[Morcleon]

Spoiler

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[Generic Street]

The woman gives Imesah a warm smile. "Thank you so much." She's so used to people just walking by, it's a relief to have someone actually stop and take notice of her.

As close as she is, Imesah will likely notice that the woman is radiating heat. It's not an uncomfortable amount, but it's noticeable. Not that she'll be able to reflect on it long, because the next moment a cloaked woman trips over her. "Ow!" She yelps and tucks her legs in close to her body. Speaking of people not noticing her...

Generic Street

"No thanks are needed," Imesah says, giving an equally warm smile. If the woman can sense divine aura's, she might be able to tell that Imesah is an Aasimar.

Then another woman stumbles over the homeless woman, and Imesah is a little surprised at it. She narrows her eyes a bit. "You should be more careful."

[Generic Street]

The cloaked woman flushes red, and gathers herself off the ground. She bows slightly, and says, in a soft voice. "My apologies. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings..."

She glances almost reflexively in the direction that she came from, and releases a shuddering breath. "...it seems my pursuers have left for now. Not to say they won't come back..."

Giving a sheepish look to both the one she tripped over, she reaches into her cloak and pulls out a smaller coin bag, placing it on the ground. She grins. "Hey, it's the least I could do for tripping over you."

Spoiler

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[Red Zone - Sewers]

Gather.
Prey.

Two primal directives drift on the passing breeze, fading off into the darkness as the acrid scent disperses.

The reaction is immediate, as hungry calls in hissing tongues rise up in either direction.
Hungry calls that erupt direction around the hunters, just as easily as anywhere else.

Just above them, the ceiling begins to unfold, clawed limbs pulling free of the architecture, and serpentine bodies uncoiling from each other.
It is difficult to say what, precisely, they are, let alone where they end and where the walls begin, so perfectly do they match in texture and appearance.

What is easily determined, however, is that there are at least two separate masses of limbs and coiling bodies in their immediate vicinity. One above, prying free from the ceiling, and one just ahead to the right, moving out of the wall.

[Red Zone- Sewers]

"Oh fun. Here they come." Yuki chuckles through his respirator. He twirls his scalpel, his tentacles humming with a powerful glow and his glow returning to full power as the wind dies down. Glancing over to Kirlia, he raises an eyebrow. "Do try to capture one of these, okay? I'll take the one on the wall. You handle the one on top."

He lifts off slowly and clicks the safety off his hypospray. A moment, then he shoots forth, trying to get in a hypospray shot before the... thing manages to gain full mobility.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Institute of Humanist Studies


"Indeed. If you'll recall, I barely know you, Roberts." Professor Bauer says drily.

[Red Zone - Sewers]

Gather.
Prey.

Two primal directives drift on the passing breeze, fading off into the darkness as the acrid scent disperses.

The reaction is immediate, as hungry calls in hissing tongues rise up in either direction.
Hungry calls that erupt direction around the hunters, just as easily as anywhere else.

Just above them, the ceiling begins to unfold, clawed limbs pulling free of the architecture, and serpentine bodies uncoiling from each other.
It is difficult to say what, precisely, they are, let alone where they end and where the walls begin, so perfectly do they match in texture and appearance.

What is easily determined, however, is that there are at least two separate masses of limbs and coiling bodies in their immediate vicinity. One above, prying free from the ceiling, and one just ahead to the right, moving out of the wall.

[Along Arkham Street]

"If Twilight is at the library, the Librarian won't interfere, will he?"
Some "Hey, no fighting in my library!" sort of rule?

"His objections will be irrelevent. This is important."

Pinkie Pie seems to be collecting the army men, as they start moving, periodically shoving duplicates at the folds of Magtok's robe.
He's not paying attention, so he won't mind, right?

"This Hastur fella sounds kinda like Discord, messin' about like that. No one's bothered to lock him up yet?"

[Institute of Humanist Studies]

Progress is rapid. It takes very little time for the drones to start taking everything apart and bringing it up out of the lab, placing it to one side.

"Indeed, I am aware of the situation. My concern for the security of my workers made me forget that my actions could be misinterpreted. They'll be moving in the new equipment soon, by the looks of things."

*****

[Red Zone - Sewers]

Noise...

There's more lurking in these sewers than just those creepy hissing things. I say more, it's only a singular being. Down one of the other passages off the junction, the hissing alerts something.

Winged, black, humanoid in appearance...and very hard to detect, the Black Creation had been carefully navigating through the sewers in search of something, making use of various tools at its disposal to avoid detection. Apparently someone else down here had now alerted the creatures infesting the sewers.

Unfortunately that means a lot more things are probably going to be a lot more alert now. Were the Black Creation one to do such things, it would probably be muttering silent curses right now. As it is, it just mentally reports to its master that its mission has been compromised.

A fraction of a second later, it receives the command to provide assistance. And so it takes off at speed. Quickly, but still stealthily mind you. Its invisibility aura has been disabled by the weird dispel effect that swept through the sewers moments earlier, but its active camouflage systems are still active.

So the Black Creation approaches the scene from behind Kirlia and Yuki, its footsteps dampened to be silent, mimicking the scent of the sewers perfectly, adapting its camouflage to match the colours and details of the surroundings perfectly. But perhaps Kirlia and Yuki have some means of seeing through all the fancy science-y doodads keeping the Black Creation hidden.

*****

[Along Arkham Street]

By the way, the Cricketbatman is here.

Don't know how he got back with the ponies, but he's there.

Maybe he never left?

As it is, suddenly he's quite visible, following along after them.

[FireFox]

[Blue Zone]

After consulting with a 23rd century endocrinologist in his very high tech lab, Toby Druid walks out into the streets and starts wandering around, apparently aimlessly.

[The Bushranger]

[Blue Zone]

Also wandering aimlessly is a certain buxom swordswoman who carries twin katanas in back-mounted scabbards. Her black-and-white hair swaying as she walks, Lucy randomly turns down the same dark alleystreet Toby is walking along.

[FireFox]

[Blue Zone]

Deep in thought, Toby actually runs into the young woman. You'd think he'd have much better situational awareness, but I guess he wasn't expecting to come across another PC today.

[ThirdEmperor]

[???]

It seemed that the chain of events wasn't quite over just yet, though. "Can I tell you in a second? The magnesium is about to go off and you really should be ready to make a hard landing.. Just in case, I mean. Also, I'd recommend against using magic for the time being because things work kinda weird here and it'll take too long to explain. Aim for the reddish part of the aurora, okay?" Nephea said in a hurried tone as she crouched down while keeping an eye on the sky overhead.

Nothing would happen for a moment or two but quite suddenly, the ground would suddenly lurch upwards with such speed that it would likely send anyone standing on top of it flying for quite some distance. With all the grace of a cat, though, Nephea twisted around in midair as they neared the aurora. Apparently it was much closer than it seemed and only appeared distant due to forced perspective. If all things went well, then the pair would find themselves passing through the shimmering lights only to slow and gently descend onto what now appeared to be a glittering ribbon. At least from this perspective

What? The Wizard's smile falls off his face in an instant, replaced by the beginnings of nervous panic. This- This isn't where we're going?! Oh no. No no no. Can't they just stay here? Here's nice. Much better than... whatever it was that brought them here.

But I doubt the spell cares much for his objections. And so he's plucked off the ground like an ant in a giant's grip, flailing about without a trace of Nephea's graceful maneuvers. The corona he was admiring a moment before seems altogether less beautiful now, especially as the shifting perspectives have it doing backflips- Making it look as if it's leaping forward, backwards, here one moment and gone the next.

It'd be fascinating if his stomach wasn't also doing backflips right now.

[The Bushranger]

[Blue Zone]

Whump!

Collision happens!

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Lucy exclaims, stumbling back in surprise.

[FireFox]

[Blue Zone]

The redheaded man adjusts his battered fedora and Scowls at her. Watch where you're going!

[The Bushranger]

[Blue Zone]

The Scowl!

"...sorry. I should have paid more attention," Lucy says, taking a step back, and trying to figure out while this fellow seems so familiar...