Inside 67: Shadow over Innside

[UncleWolf]

Orphanage

The lock is crushed by hand and cast aside as Mo enters the grounds. She does notice the light flicking on for a moment on the third floor, but the fact that the front door was unlocked as well was worrying. Someone was here, but the place wasn't fully secured and a place like this would pride itself on making sure all the good little boys and girls were safe. Okay. You're not paranoid right now Mo. Sure, someone new might be hired and forgot to lock the door and turn on the light...but that's a stretch, right?

With that in mind, the large woman slowly pushes the door open, her eyes piercing through whatever darkness that lays within. Sure, the green filter over everything was a bit annoying and brought back some horrible memories of night time ambushes, but at least she'd see if someone was trying to hide in the dark. If nothing and no one instantly leaps out at her she'll take a couple steps inside so she can shut and lock the door behind her before looking for a light switch. "Hello?" She calls out. "Is anyone here? The front door was unlocked and open." Sure, it was a lie and Hilda told her that lying wasn't a good thing to do so often, but she needed some sort of excuse.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Pushing the door to the orphanage open and looking inside before entering could give Mo some degree of pause.

There is a haze filling the air of the opening room, as if some amount of smoke was wafting through the building. Not enough to truly obscure near vision, but it gives everything a slightly warping and shifting appearance, as if it was all in the beginning stages of melting.
Even the door, as it is pushed inwards into the haze, seems to get a little fluid around the edges.
Touching it reveals this to be a purely visual effect, however, as the door remains physically as it should be.

More importantly, it is dark.
What little light reaches the door from the street behind Mo seems just as subject to the haze's warping as everything else, dimming and receding randomly like an uncertain tide upon a beach, unable to gain traction over the sand.

Should this prove to not dissuade her entry, she will find herself in a typically charming little reception area. A pleasant floor rug dominates a wooden floor, embroidered with familiar scenes of fields and prancing sheep. Straight ahead looms the side of a staircase leading upwards to the next floor, lined with a simple wooden banister.
Directly to the right of the staircase is an open door-frame, with a sign labeled "Library" above it. The haze seems particularly thick beyond that door, making it difficult to discern much from here beyond a large counter a librarian would presumably sit behind.

An angled hallway stretches off to the left, each side lined with three doors and another set of double doors placed at the end.
The first door on the left, only a few steps away from Mo, is a closed door labeled "Office". The only other labeled door in this hall is the second one on the right, with the typical picture symbol for a boy's restroom.

A couple decorate side tables are placed between the second and third doors on each side, one of which has a potted plant of some kind sitting on it.
The other used to, but it seems to be on the ground, spilling out across the floor along with its dirt.

To Mo's immediate right is a short wall dominated by another closed door labeled "Common".
Looking past that is another hallway going off to the right. The left wall (shared by the library entrance and the staircase), is primarily interrupted by a pair of doors labeled "Dining". Past that, the building seems to mirror the hallway to Mo's left. The angle of that hallway prevents her from seeing it here, but the existence of another staircase and identical immediate layout implies pretty solidly what can be expected.

As she calls out into the building, the sound of her voice picks up a watery sort of quality as if hearing herself under a small layer of fluid. More of the haze's influence, most likely.
A few moments after her questions wavers out, there's the muffled sound of footsteps on the floor directly above her and the sound of a door somewhere off to her right slamming shut entirely too loudly.

But no one actually answers her.

[Cherub Arena]

Xeni would probably complain about being on babysitting duty more if it wasn't Karaglen.
And if he wasn't giving Zee the sort of appreciative look usually reserved for watching really impressive football plays.
"Huh."
It's probably for the best that Raril won't see the mage giving him a pair of thumbs up to his back with an incredibly stupid grin.

You're being immature.
It's hilarious. Poor guy's got some exotic taste.

The mouse currently situated on Karaglen's head shoots a disapproving look at the fellow, but it is promptly ignored.

Karaglen is, of course, utterly oblivious to all of this.

A large part of this has to do with being flabbergasted by how flipping cool mom looks right now. She's like a super-dragon!
This does lead to a brief moment of looking down at herself and wondering if there's a way she can look like that, but then Zee takes off into the bubble and reminds her why they're all out here.
Fun stuff later.
Bad stuff now.

She is internalizing Raril's advice, a few moments later, preparing herself to squash her usual perfectionistic helping tendencies in place of what her uncle would call "practical efficiency".
"Heal enough for them to run. Move on. Just enough to run."

She follows quickly behind Raril, trying to stay only a couple feet back from him.
Xeni will bring up the rear, where he can keep a better watch over everyone. The better to whip out magic to block or redirect any enemies that decide to get aggressive immediately.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Cherub Arena]

It had been a nice, quiet day today.

Alysha had spent it simply walking around, enjoying the sights. She had spent a lot of time recently fighting huge hordes of Heartless and Nobodies. On all sorts of different worlds.

So this? Coming to the Nexus and just being able to relax? It was nice.

Of course, it couldn't last forever.

The vampire was strolling down the street, Keyblade in hand, when something caught her eye. Something...weird. Alysha followed the streets until she could get a good view of the bubble. And what she saw...well. It reminded her of stories of a certain world. She hadn't been there, but hearing it described? Kinda matched what she was seeing.

And people were running into the bubble. People and a dragon.

Something in the back of her mind told her that this bubble was trouble. So, Alysha adjusts the strap on her bag and starts jogging to the bubble. She gets there after everybody else goes through, hesitating for just a brief moment. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Alysha calmly steps through.

[UncleWolf]

Orphanage

This was all wrong. Haziness, no obvious power to the area except for a room on the third floor, people running around but not answering...

Priorities. Gas possible but you'll be fine. Do not panic. We know that someone is above in that room. Contact first but be ready for ambush or flank. If it turns out to be too much, we'll just force our way out.

With her mental checklist down, the woman takes one final glance around the hallway from where she stands before taking the stairs. If anyone wanted to ambush her, they could, but she's keeping her ears and eyes open for it. She no longer calls out, sensing a malicious intent in the air, but her footsteps will almost certainly betray her position regardless. If nothing leaps out at her on the second floor, she'll head up to the third as soon as possible to where she saw that light.

[Rebonack]

[Cherub Arena]

And so our heroes pass through the barrier. It feels rather like walking through a wall of water that doesn't leave you wet.

An alien landscape opens up before them. Many of the buildings are demolished, huge chunks simply sheared away. Parts of them are still there, but... they're just hanging in mid-air, attached to nothing. As if gravity were distracted with more important matters and doesn't have time for this nonsense. Towering, uncanny structures that look almost reminiscent of something you would find in a coral reef dot the area, and our heroes will likely notice things scurrying around on them. Things that are as diverse as they are awful. They all look like oversized, chubby winged toddlers with a mishmash of animal and inanimate bits crammed together in jarring, hideous ways. They all have four faces, though how they're arranged and what they are differ from one creature to the next. And they all have little ring-style halos.

And more importantly, nearly all of them are clutching various unfriendly looking weapons in their numerous pudgy baby hands.

True to Zee's word, she appears to have caught their attention. A riot of cacophonous, high pitch, nasally voices accompanied by a shrill shriek not unlike microphone feedback are busy shouting warnings, insults, and protestations into the air.
"OMG, fluffing matchmaking, is that a bronze-host?"
"Lulz, GG bois, match is fluffed."
"Gang up, maybe we can beat her?"
"Don't stand in front of her when she's charging-! ...her breath weapon."
"How u drift again?"
"Who the floof just shot me in the back? I thought we were teaming up!?"
"Loooooooool."

It looks like the lion's share of the awful creatures have their attention on Zee, but more than a few are just trying to get as far away from her as possible while still taking pot-shots at each other and any NPCs they run across.

And having seen all this? Our heroes will notice the disconcerting fact that the warped space inside the barrier appears to have flung them to different parts of the arena. They're all getting a view of Zee's distraction from different sides. Zee didn't mention anything about this. She probably wasn't even aware it would happen.

[Cherub Arena - Karaglen and Yurioc]

Zee would be in agreement that she looks pretty flippin' cool. Dragons know they're cool and want everyone else to know it, too. And a seraph is, like, a dragon squared. Kara will likely be able to feel the raw power that was washing off Zee resonating with something inside her. Her heart beats with the same power, it flows through her blood and suffices her body. Now that she's paying attention to it, she might notice that it doesn't have the same cool, refreshing feel that it used to. Rather, it feels alive. Vivacious. Energetic. An impetus to overcome, to do better, to become better, and to pass that will to survive on to others. To persevere through adversity and become more for it.

Karaglen will feel that strength inside her.

It fills her with... Determination.

That determination will be important since Kara's escort seems to have mostly vanished.

Our two tiny heroes will almost immediately encounter the injured. A mother with two children are cowering behind a dumpster near the edge of the barrier, pinned down by a cherub on a nearby roof-top who's casually firing bolts of toxic light in their general direction that melt metal and reduce stone to bubbling glass. The thing doesn't seem very serious about it. Just practicing its aim with an unfamiliar weapon. Two piles of fine grey ash and burnt clothing lay on the ground in front of the dumpster. Eventually the horror gets bored and ambles off to shoot at something else. Should our heroes come to their aid, they'll find the mother's legs covered in hideous radiation burns from a near miss. There's no way she cold walk in this state. The children are fine aside from cuts and bruises, but they're understandably terrified.

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

Xeni brings up the rear and-!

Huh. Where did everyone go? Hmm. That might be a problem. The mage will find himself standing in an alley with the mouth completely blocked off by a tower of yellowish brown sponge. Every now and again little masses of white tendrils flick out of its porous surface while minute worm-like things skittered about on it. There's an emergency exit to his right. Looks like it belongs to a laundromat. Or a fire escape on the building to his left. Or he could always try blasting his way through the sponge wall. From the top of the gross, alien tower he'll be able to hear the voice of a nasty little horror shouting invectives at how unfair things are while taking pot shots at, "That giant fat floof of a seraph." Probably Zee that it's talking about.

Looks like Xeni has several avenues of progression laid before him, depending on how violent he feels like being.

[Cherub Arena - Raril]

There's a pretty solid chance that Zee included the yellow bow because she knew it would identify her flawlessly. As much as she changed, that cute little accessory never went away. She knew Raril had been through quite a bit, so she wanted to make sure there would be something familiar he could hang onto. Especially since he was stepping right back into the fray after a harrowing run-in with some beastly fae.

And so, ready for whatever horrors await, Raril steps through the barrier and-!

Steps out of a gas-station supply closet.

What?

The inside of the little mart is ransacked, bits of 'food' spilled all over the floor. The shelves and indeed most of the roof is just gone. Several heaps of fine grey ash and ruined clothing litter the ground. And right in the middle of the room stands a spire of what looks like bone marrow made out of metal. From the cavities inside the pillar starlight streams out, filling the room with an uncomfortably bright glow. The spire is about five feet on each side and reaches far off into the sky. Should Raril examine it, he'll find a large fleshy iris built into one side ringed by spider-like black eyes that occasionally blink with a semi-transparent membrane. He'll get the distinct impression they're watching him.

Raril will also likely pick up the sound of something skittering around inside the tower-

-in addition to a child quietly sniffling in the bathroom.

[Cherub Arena - Alysha]

In spite of coming in right behind the other group she had seen, the keyblade wielder will find herself impossibly flung to a completely different part of the bubble as she steps through the barrier. Obviously space is all twisted up on here.

The moment she sets foot inside the zone, she'll find a pair of cherubs leaping about on opposite sides of the street, exchanging fire with exotic weapons as they erect walls and ramps of sponge-like materiel around themselves in a bid to create cover and break line of sight. One of the horrors has a collection of spindly shrimp-like legs and a four baby faces sticking out of the sides of a huge leech-like head. The other has the top half of four bird-heads mashed together, their beaks forming an awful four-part mouth. A small group of survivors are huddled in an ice cream shop on the other side of the firefight, waiting for an opportunity to make a break for it. Neither of the horrors have reacted to Alysha yet.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

The stairs have a thin layer of carpeting on them, but it's clearly been worn down by constant use and really doesn't do much to quiet footsteps.
So unless she's actively trying to keep quiet, her ascent really won't be.

As she rises up on the next floor, she can immediately see that it initially follows the lower floor plan. This staircase leads up to a straight portion of hallway identical to the one below, though the staircases here are linked together and on the opposite wall. Only a few feet away from Mo, but still not actually connected to the current staircase.
Behind and in front of her the angled hallways disappear behind walls and haze.

To her immediate left, upon getting off of the stairs, is another door over what would be the library downstairs.
From within, there's a quiet pleading-voice sort of sound. Sounds like someone is alive in there!

Back downstairs, there's that sound of a door slamming again. And again. And again.
And then breaking wood.

"Unlocked and open."
Somewhere, a whisper through the haze.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Cherub Arena]

Hm.

There's something you don't see every day.

Alysha doesn't have much time to dwell on the cherubs, though. People are in trouble!

Alysha points her Keyblade at a spot between the cherubs and shouts.

Magnera!

A small sphere of energy appears and tries to draw the cherubs to it. If that works, Alysha will flick her weapon down and shout again.

Gravira!

Now the cherubs will find themselves being forced to the ground. Hard.

That should give the people an opening.

Alysha keeps the Keyblade pointed down with one hand, and waves at the people with her other hand.

Hey! Hi! Here to help! Come on. I can hold them down for a bit. Please hurry.

[bc56]

Cherub Arena

You can't just terraform (xenoform?) a large section of the city unnoticed. The disturbance is noticed by a 12ft tall four armed green lizard creature not far away. His upper pair of arms end in serrated bone blades rather than hands. "That's not right." He charges straight at the warped terrain, running towards the hideous baby monstrosities which are busy shooting each other within the massive bubble of...
...whatever that is.

[Rebonack]

[Cherub Arena - Alysha]

The cherubs are yanked together!

"Hax!" screeches the bird-faced cherub.

The cherubs are slammed into the ground!

"Oh snap, a creep!" the leech-headed cherub yells.

The people huddled in the shop begin to cautiously emerge, but the sight of the worm-thing yanking out a flaming sword and bisecting the bird-thing gives them pause. They're given even MORE pause when the cherub yanks out a shimmering weapon with glowing arcs writhing across its surface. It levels the gun at Alysha and launches a bolt of pure solar plasma straight at her! And as if that weren't bad enough, it follows up by shrinking out of existence.

With a scream the survivors duck back into the ice cream shop. They debating whether or not they should shove one of the soft serve machines up against the front door to make a barricade.

As for the vanished cherub... Alysha won't be able to see it anywhere, but she'll get the distinct impression that it's still lurking around.

[Cherub Arena - Mister Lizard]

Xenoform is pretty accurate, all things considered.

The hulking being steps through the barrier and immediately finds himself teetering on the edge of a perfectly forty foot cubed pit. It looks like it has been simply cut from reality, the walls absolutely sheer. It isn't crumbling at all. There isn't even any water pouring out of the severed pipes to splash on the bedrock. And hovering right in the middle of the pit? A five foot cube of asphalt and rock and dirt with a VERY worried looking woman perched atop it. She's sitting atop the cube, arms clutched around herself, generally looking terrified. There's absolutely no reason for a cherub to do something like this. It's probably just for the monster's deranged amusement. It doesn't appear as though the culprit is still around.

There are several heaps of ash and ruined clothing in the bottom of the pit. The stranded woman doesn't appear to have noticed the giant lizard yet.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Cherub Arena]

Hey! I'm not a creep! That's rude.

I mean...it is.

Oh, shoot! Reflect! Alysha quickly brings up a dome of light around her, blocking the plasma blast and sending it straight up.

And now she lost sight of the surviving cherub. Meanie.

Well, at least the people seem okay for now. That's good.

Alysha takes a breath and closes her eyes, trying to listen for any sign of the cherub. She's relying a bit more on her vampire hearing range than what a human could hear. Hopefully, that'll work better.

[UncleWolf]

Orphanage

The pleading voice and the whisper cause Mo to pause for just a moment, her stubborness wavering...until she hears the sound of the door breaking down below. That put the steel back into her spine and she moves on up. "You can come back for more later, Mo. Go to the one you KNOW should be there. Eyes on the goal, one foot in front of the other." She tells herself. Just in case it wasn't magical, she even wakes up her defensive cyber-suite to make sure her senses weren't being messed with technologically. Her suite might not be the best around but it was certainly military grade and powerful.

For now however, she takes the steps three at a time as she heads up to the third floor. Time was of the essence now that whatever it was downstairs had become riled and angry and was possibly on its way after her.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

All alone.
"...really should have seen that coming, I guess."
Thank goodness he has a pre-existing telepathic connection to one of the other party members.

Yu?
We are okay. I will keep her safe.
Cool. I'll see if we can't make this quick.

Sorry Zee, not sure that "don't aggro the hell-babies" thing was ever going to succeed once Karaglen stopped being a moderating presence.
Though, perhaps not killing them will help? Let's find out!

The mage glances around, eyeballs the tower, glances around once more.
"One two, alley-oop..."
Taking one more moment to plan out his ascent, he prepares the bigger spell in his head, then begins running up the air.
Holding his left hand pointing downwards, he twitches his fingers with each step to make very temporary patches of solidity to walk on, until he can catch a view of the tower's apex.

Presumably there's one of those cherub's up here.
Presumably it won't like when he tries to hop his way over to it and slap it on the nearest appendage.

Mostly because he's going to try to lock it in a rigid stasis, by locking its portion of space-time.
"Be a good future info baby."

[Cherub Arena - Kara and Yu]

It's probably a good thing that mom is so inspiring at the moment, since Karaglen's default response was definitely going to be slightly panic once everyone disappears.
Yurioc murmuring an action plan in her mind to keep her focused probably helps too.

She doesn't really know what the broader depths of all this energy she feels inside actually means, but she knows that it can't be bad.
And she has a job to do. She can't afford to panic, or get distracted, or freeze up!
Hold for an opening...hold...go! Quickly!

As soon as the target-practicing cherub looks elsewhere, Karaglen will dart towards the woman and her kids. Trying to offer a reassuring and confident smile (it mostly just looks a little awkward and cute), she'll zero in on those injured legs. Practical efficiency.
"It's okay, ma'am! We're going to get you and your kids out of here. Um, hold still, I can fix this..."

Now, assuming the woman and/or kids don't freak out about the little dragon with a mouse on her head and let her near those burned legs, she's going to reach inside of herself for that white light she's always called on when someone needed healing.
That little trace of gifted divinity she's always by the grace of Bahamut to impart his benevolence upon the world.

This is not what she actually ends up grabbing.

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Away Mo goes, from the sounds and temptations below.
Up the final set of stairs, to a floor of...snow?

She's clearly in the same building, the immediately visible wall and door arrangements are the same copies that existed on the previous two floors.
However, that haze seems to have distorted into something significantly more concrete here, piles of white built up against the edges of the walls, flakes billowing through open doors...
Splashes of red mar the purity of the white, evidence of violence furthered by large tracks and extensive drag marks throughout the hall.

And then its all gone. Back to the same, wavering darkness that existed on the previous floors. No blood, no tracks.

That light Mo saw from outside originated in the furthest room in the hallway to the left. This would be the double-door set mirroring the first floor...though in this instance, the doors seem to have been completely ripped from their frames and lie shattered on the floor.
Every single other door along that hallway is wide open at the moment, too, and as with the library below the haze seems particularly potent around them.

Hello? Hello? Hellooooooo.
The final word is more akin to a hiss, and directly behind Mo's head.

[bc56]

Cherub Arena - Tethrik

Being thought of as a giant lizard creature is better than being thought of as a demon, which is what Tethrik actually is. Seeing the trapped woman, he coils his legs and leaps, probably clearing the gap with ease, and using his arm blades to stab into the island of solid ground and clamber partway onto it.

[Earl of Purple]

Cherub Arena- Alfred, Ben & Friend

Alfred's really starting to panic now. "Um, um, um. Oh, coprolite. Um, um, um. Ben, do you see anything? Something that might keep us safe, maybe? A, uh, hiding place or an edge or a thing to hide in? Even a massive glowing rift to somewhere that clearly wasn't here. Um, um." Alfred looks around, and sees the dragon in the distance. "Right, yes, that. That dragon thing. Um, maybe. Keep low and try to avoid notice, OK?" Ben's regretting his use of Growth, since he's now a bigger target than he was and that's not great.

- - - Updated - - -

AEB- Jack and Maldwyn

Jack's finger is bitten off, and she's given a serviette to hide the wound. When the fogginess retreats from her mind she gasps in pain and glares at the retreating fae before leaving. She's headed to a clinic she knows to get some healing, though she can't afford a new finger and doesn't know if it would stick, anyway. The fae took her finger, so he might have taken the idea of the finger meaning it won't heal. She's not sure how it works.

[Morty]

[Docks]

"Finding them here is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack," Calm Reed points out. "If we start investigating things that looks suspicious, we'll be here a week. Most people here have something on their conscience." She pauses. "We can wander around with some source of open flame and see if any locals react oddly to it."

[UncleWolf]

Orphanage

Mo closes her eyes at the scene of gore covered snow, having seen far too much of that in her life to really want to see more. When it has vanished by the time she reopens her eyes and a voice comes from right behind her, she isn't all that surprised either. There was obvious magic in this place messing with her, toying with her...and perhaps it was time to send it a message that she was done being toyed with. Having kept track of which ways she's turned and how far, she points her right hand at the wall above the entrance to the orphanage, certain that there wouldn't be anything between it and her after a quick glance. Four large inch-wide holes open up in her palm and a moment later the staccato of heavy machinegun fire roars forth.

The heavy fire is almost deafening for sure and she uses it to blast open part of the wall to let in fresh air as well as to give whatever is messing with her a clear warning. It only lasts a second, but when she's finished she lowers her hand and tries to readjust the sleeve. "Have I made my point or do we need to truly begin playing with my big guns?" She asks out loud.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

As with the loudly slamming doors from earlier, the haze seems to have some issues properly muffling loud noises.
Accordingly, the heavy weapons fire lives up to its full potential here and rocks through the halls.

Also of interesting note, the haze seems a little bit less around the holes she just made. Almost like it's leaking out into the open air somewhat.
Around the edges of the holes, the wall begins to look like its a much darker shade than it was earlier. Stained.
Similarly, a combination of rusty and earthen smells briefly waft through the air, before fading away.

There is a moment of heavy silence, after Mo's challenge. Anticipatory.
"Made my point point my point. Hello begin playing."

Immediately a staccato report of bursting doors downstairs rings out, accompanied by a woman screaming.
All of the doors immediately near Mo slam shut and another person cries out from the broken doors at the end, accompanied by a warbling, muffled chittering noise and metallic scraping noises.
"NO! NO, BRING HIM BACK!"

[UncleWolf]

Orphanage

As Mo's challenge is called, she feels the first inklings of a smile forming on her lips. How long had it been since she'd last had her life on the line? How long since she'd seen the possibility of battle, of cutting loose, of letting her guns roar and her fire rain from the sky like meteors? She knew that Hilda felt the same itch for combat, but they almost certainly had to lay low...but now there were children's lives on the line and a clear heading to go through. Whomever is at the far end of the hall will hear her heavy and measured footsteps come their way as she rolls up her sleeves and prepares for a fight.

"I find myself reminded of the angler fish." She admits as she walks. "Nasty little thing. Uses a light to lure unsuspecting prey into her maw. Let's see what is at the other end of this light..." As she gets closer to the light, should she be cast in it, anything actually watching her will find a grey-skinned woman standing nearly seven feet tall with board muscular shoulders wearing a cover-all suit marked by grease and burns from her time working at the shipyards. Her head is topped by a ski hat and perhaps the oddest thing is her oversized hands. Her knuckles are worn down, brushed steel, and enlarged. They were perfect for punching through anything that got in their way.

[Arkhosia]

The Docks

"Oh, I'd be glad to." Blanche replies, giving Anika a little smile, before her demeanor turns more serious as she considers possible options. "That could work, would also blatantly signal that we're looking for them. Perhaps we can use that to set up a trap, have someone act as bait and wait for a facestealer to try and infiltrate us." She shrugs. "Not sure how good an idea that would be though, we don't know their numbers. They could always ambush the ambushees... wait, do we know where they found the first facestealer specifically?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

That woman downstairs continues to scream, whatever is happening down there clearly not being even a little bit quick.
Someone somewhere else cries out a "run!" and a sound of breaking glass behind it.
The air's haze is flickering in wisps of iridescent colors, like oily heat waves seeping from the walls.

Mo's challenge seems to have shattered whatever equilibrium was going on in this orphanage and things are swiftly going mad.

"One fish, two fish, dead fish, no fish."
There's a more concrete sounding voice than the previous whispers, taking a mad sing-song tone moving through a series of disharmonious tones as it begins moving up the stairs Mo was just at.


Onwards, into the broken doors.
This room appears to have been a residential room, judging by all the beds lining each wall to the left and right, separated by what look to be office cubicle dividers. There are a few windows along each wall, though the haze seems incredibly thick around them at the moment, more like a solid sheen of oily rainbow than actual haze.
On the wall to the right of the door, a large vent grate has been torn from its place. Those metallic and chittering noises are emanating from there.

A good portion of these dividers are tossed in haphazard piles and beds pushed out of position, but here Mo finds her first definitive proof of others within the building.

The top half of a middle-aged gentleman is shoved into a corner, across from the broken form of what looks to be a slightly younger man.
Impossibly, despite these wounds, neither looks to be bloody in the slightest, nor the surrounding room.

Underneath the window that Mo could identify as having been the lit-up one from earlier, a young teenaged girl is pinned underneath a few of the broken dividers by her waist, struggling to pull herself free and crying.
"No, no, no, we got away, we got away!"

[UncleWolf]

Orphanage

Well, Mo had initially thought that perhaps the voice was only mimicking what she had said around it, but it certainly seems to have a keen intelligence behind it even if it was trying to be scary more than aggressive. The screaming worried her but not half as much as seeing the young girl trapped by the dividers. Still as cautious as before, she keeps an eye on the corpses before leaning down to casually toss the dividers off the girl. "Are you hurt?" She asks. This close the young girl will see a gold '63' tattooed on Mo's right bicep, faded with age.

[Shadowcaller]

Unfortunate Meeting

The wings remain floating in the air around Nora and the empty space where the car used to be.

"No." The voice then declares.

...

"Not until you've filled in the proper forms." Then a huge pile of glowing papers manifest in front of Nora, shortly followed by a floating suit of armor glowing in the same golden color, the wings seemingly connected to it. The figure then starts gesturing at the papers as it flips through them, explaining in excruciating detail what she should sign and write on each form.

"...once you've written your witness testimony of the events that occurred, at the best of your ability, make a signature here and..."

This will go on for a little while.

"...and finally, make a signature here. This shouldn't take longer than a hour if you keep at it." One might question if all this is really necessary, but...
"Remember that this will save the officers that get you a lot of paperwork."

Needless to say, once Nora have signed every form given to her, Intersection will be called.

[Nova_Eclipse]

The Docks

Quin, despite his lack of a face, seems mildly amused at Geneva's surprise. He listens quietly to the planning while watching the workers below, arms still crossed over his chest. Geneva can probably catch little details that indicate the integrated canons of some sort on his chest and back as he hovers....and that structure on his "helmet", with what are presumably antennae sticking out of it looks suspiciously weapon-like as well.

"If they know they've been discovered, I would think they'd be unlikely to return to that area," he comments. "Perhaps the more important question is, how was the first one discovered?"

[Artemis97]

[Cherub Arena - Raril]

"Nine Hells." Raril mutters as he steps out of the supply closet and noticing no one was behind him. That pillar in the center of the room was seriously freaking him out. Why did it have to be spider eyes of all things? The drow draws his rapier and doesn't turn his back to the spire as he edges over towards the bathrooms.

"Hey, you alright in there?" He calls out.

[Shadowcaller]

The Docks

((Should probably make a distinction between the actual docks and Geneva and Quin's interaction as they aren't actually there.))

Anika shrugs. "No clue where it all started, but I feel like you guys are overcomplicating things. There is no way we can contain all of them. I mean, I can shapeshift into a few animals and I can go pretty much anywhere, but these apparently turn into anything, so how would we possibly stop that? If they want to leave this area, they will. Just looking around for random people who might be monsters won't do anything when they probably are all over the place now. Instead, we need to try to think like them. Personally, I believe these things are a bit like animals and think with their belly, which means they want more hosts. So what's the best way to infect an animal, regardless of how smart it is? To infect it's food, like how a lot of diseases spread. So that's have to be why they're here in the docks, to infect the food deliveries that come here." She reasons, eyeing the halfling standing near the fish and suddenly gestures at him.

"Hey! You, yes, you, the tall gnome! Don't eat that fish! It's infected!" The shouts, then turning to the others. "Blanche, test that fish! I'm gonna go catch that cat." Quite a quick conclusion she's making there, but before the others can protest Anik have suddenly turned into a teal-colored saber that will attempt to follow the scent of the cat. She didn't actually have a plan for what to do when she caught up with it but she'd sure she'd come up with something!

[Rebonack]

[Above the Docks]

"Do you mean the first one who appeared here?" Geneva asks. "Or the first one that appeared in general? There was a big one that showed up last year, from what I was told by a friend of mine, but it was killed pretty thoroughly by Intersection forces. I guess everyone thought that would be the end of it. They were dead before they could infect anything. But maybe another one popped in somehow?"

Geneva considers what additional information to supply.

"They came from my home world, originally. But they're all trapped inside of a supernatural blizzard to prevent them from spreading. This is about the worst thing a bridge to the Nexus could pull in..."


[Cherub Arena - Alysha]

And so the projectile goes sailing off into the sky.

This is a good thing, since getting nailed in the gut with a mass of crackling solar plasma is distinctly unhealthy.

Especially if you're a vampire.

Did the monster know, somehow? Is it able to discern weaknesses and pick its weapons accordingly? Because if so, if that wasn't just a lucky coincidence on its part, then this might be a problem.

Alysha will be able to hear some scrabbling around behind her. New movement. From a whole foods store? There are a few cries of alarm, followed by screams of terror and weapons fire.

Oh bugger.

Looks like it's trying to draw Alysha to it by shooting people.

Alysha could probably safely escort the folks in the ice cream shop outside of the barrier at this point. But... that would leave the people in the whole foods store a bit further down the road completely at the cherub's not-so-tender mercies.


These things are really awful.

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

Up the sponge wall Xeni goes! As he passes some of those filaments that look like oversized barnacle dusters grope at him. Thankfully none manage to catch a hold. They probably wouldn't do anything very friendly.

At the top of the tower Xeni will find a particularly awful cherub with four faces disgustingly reminiscent of lotus seed pods, the holes filled with randomly placed eyes and lampray mouths. Its main limbs are bifurcated at the elbow, each ending in monkey-like hands with way-too-long fingers that have at least twice as many joints as necessary. It's clutching the tower with those limbs, while holding onto a distinctly unfriendly weapon that looks like it's made out of spine, ribs, and coiled brain matter. Given the all-around placement of its faces, Xeni is spotted immediately, but the creature can't whirl around fast enough to bring its weapon to bear, resulting in it getting time-locked.

Unfortunately for Xeni, the time-lock apparently doesn't prevent it from speaking.

"OMG you fluffing creep with your fluffing hax time-lock that is so cheap I'm going to murder you and floof you sideways and then find everyone you care about and floof them too!" the cherub shrieks importantly as Xeni surveys the surroundings. He's got a good view of Zee was over there, causing the cherubs a great deal of grief. Her rusty fur keeps growing out into various organic barriers, intercepting the worst of the fire she's taking and giving her plenty of time to retaliate. Thankfully they don't seem organized enough to take advantage of any gaps in her defenses. Down below, Xeni will be able to make out the store front of the laundromate torn open. The other building to his left appears to be an apartment complex of some kind. Either would probably be good places to find survivors and- "Pillow-fluffing pillow-fluffer! You're so dead when I get lose I'm going to to teabag your corpse and-" the tirade will continue without abatement. It makes it kind of hard to concentrate.

[Cherub Arena - Karaglen and Yurioc]

The kids cling to their mom even harder at Kara's appearance. But she isn't nearly as intimidating as the blasphemies against nature and common civility that are crawling all over the place. The woman gives a hesitant nod and will allow Kara to tend to her leg. It's well know that the Nexus has numerous magically gifted healers, so it isn't too surprising that one of them might be a baby dragon who wears a mouse as a hat. That isn't too weird, is it?

Karaglen calls out to Bahamut! But Bahamut doesn't hear her.

The power beating in her heart does, however. It feels rather like her breath weapon welling up inside her, that same building sense of pressure. Except instead of lethal cold filling her lungs and then exploding from her mouth, it flows to her little claws and comes pouring out between her scales. Energetic. Effervescent. Determined. It looks at once crystalline and alive, a flashing silver core surrounded in a crystal clear coating. Bubbly. Flowing. Little waving tendrils extending from it. It felt Kara's intent and is acting on it almost as if it had a mind of its own.

Make the woman's legs whole.

The power covers the wound like a cast for several seconds before melding into her flesh, leaving completely mended skin behind as it vanishes. The burns are gone. Less obviously, so is the genetic damage caused by the weapon's ionizing radiation. The woman tests her leg, flexing it a few times, and then smiles at Kara. It's a sad, shell shocked sort of smile. But a smile none the less. "Thank you."

One of the two children, a little girl, tugs at the woman's sleeve. "Can the little dragon priest fix daddy, too?"

The mother's smile falters.

[Cherub Arena - Tethrik]

You know what a good way to freak someone out is?

Being a giant lizard demon and leaping at them.

Thankfully the floating cube is busy telling off gravity and Newton's laws of motion, because otherwise it would have pitched violently just now and thrown the woman off. She's still freaking out, though. Screaming and flailing violently and juuuuust managing to avoid falling off her perch. "NO!" she screams. "Get away!"

Before Tethrik can clarify he's here to help (or maybe not, maybe he just wanted to eat her alive. He IS a demon after all) a pair of trans-sonic projectiles will come streaking down from atop a nearby building toward Tethrik shortly followed by two tooth-rattling booms.

Oh.

Maybe she was telling him to get away for a different reason?

Because it would appear as though a cherub is using her as bait to farm would-be rescuers.

How awful.

[Cherub Arena- Alfred, Ben & Friend]

Good news? There aren't as many cherubs as there used to be. Bad news? More than a few of them are injured and starting to look to murdering NPCs again for health and armor pickups. A potshot is taken at our heroes as they sneak along behind cover, narrowly missing the elve woman's head and causing the brick wall above her to burst in a little shower of dust and stone splinters. She gives a little scream of alarm, but quickly plants her hand over her mouth, eyes wide with terror. This whole experience has been understandably traumatizing for her. "Why are we going to the dragon?" she finally speaks up, her voice scarcely above a whisper and shaking with fear.

They should be able to reach said dragon without TOO much difficulty. But getting too close probably isn't a great idea. She's hunkered down at the base of a storefront at the moment, a massive wall of scales having grown out of her flank since shedding her wings. Projectiles are slamming into the barrier, chipping away at the scales, but she doesn't seem to have much trouble growing new ones. Every now and again she flicks the end of her tail toward the little forts the cherubs have created, lobbing a crystalline projectile into their ranks that explodes in a hail of darts. Cherubs struck begin sizzling and dissolving. Where the darts hit anything else they begin growing into roiling masses of flesh and limbs and scales and claws that flail violently at anything nearby. The very air around the dragon, everything within a good ten meters from it, is alive. Mutating and twisting, ribbons of iridescent green and yellow light flitting through the air. It would appear as though her presence is xenoforming the surroundings just like the cherub building projects are.

One of her ears flicks toward Alfred and crew once they're within about twenty meters of her. "Don't get too close, I'm virulently mutagenic," comes a surprisingly melodic voice from the monster, considering the subject of her warning. "Try to stay out of the open. Get behind cover. We're near the center of the arena, so running for the edge probably won't do you any good. You might get picked off. I'll hold the cherubs' attention. This nightmare won't last forever. Stay safe. Stay determined. Endure and don't lose hope."

Hmm...

There's a furniture store nearby that looks mostly intact. And a car dealership across the street with the front windows simply gone. The nearby pillars of glass in warped, alien shapes are probably good indicators of what the glass was used for.

[Cherub Arena - Raril]

The jet black eyes watch Raril intently, occasionally blinking out of time with each other.

Or would that be winking?

Geeze... please don't be winking. That would make a weird situation even MORE weird.

Then Raril speaks up! Two things happen at once. First? The skittering sound from inside the metal marrow tower abruptly ceases. That's probably bad.

Second? A hesitant voice sounds from inside the closet. "A-are the monsters gone?" A kid. Early teen, maybe?

Awful Doom Babies Remaining: 40

[bc56]

Cherub Arena - Tethrik

It's a trap!
Tethrik wasn't planning to stay long anyway. Instead of picking up the woman and jumping to safety, like he intended to, he just jumps away empty-handed, watching the projectiles and trying to spot their source, so he can lob a few bolts of hellfire its way.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Cherub Arena - Alysha]

Well. This was a bad situation. Clearly, whatever these things were wanted to harm innocent people. A lot. And it was currently attacking that grocery store over there. And if Alysha went after it, she knew it would just pop over here and attack these people.

What she needed was another person to help. An extra pair of hands to help the victims. Or...two extra pairs...

Alysha smirks a bit, then plants her feet and brings her Keyblade up, pointing it at the sky. The pose is kind of reminiscent of some old movie posters.

She closes her eyes, concentrates, and shouts into the air.

Stitch! I need your help!

There's a flash of light, and suddenly the happy vampire is not alone. Standing next to her is...well. Some kind of creature. It's blue. And furry. It only comes up to her knees. It...kind of looks like a dog? Except it's standing on two legs. And has four arms. And large, almost rabbit like ears. And huge, solid black eyes.

It doesn't really look anything like a dog.

The creature looks around a bit, blinking a few times as it adjusts to the lighting. Then it looks up at Alysha and tilts its head a bit. Heartless? Its voice is kind of nasally.

Alysha shakes her head. Nope. No idea what they are, but they're hurting people. She points to the group in the ice cream store. I need you to help them get out of here. She then points to where she entered the barrier. Don't go through yourself, though, because when you come back through, you'll probably be somewhere else.

The creature (Stitch, presumably) gives a quick nod, then runs over to the group. Come on! He's kind of adorable, really. Might help the people follow him.

Alysha calls to the group. Stitch will help you leave! Just follow what he says. You guys will be fine. She gives what's meant to be an encouraging smile to the group. Then she turns her attention to the grocery store, walking towards it somewhat quickly. She's paying attention to everything around her, just in case the thing tries to jump her.

[Rebonack]

[Cherub Arena - Tethrik]

Lucky or skillful, the lizard demon just dodged a pair of sniper shots.

He should feel good about himself.

The only indication of where the projectiles came from is a pair of fist-sized holes punched cleanly in the face of the building behind him. There wasn't any sound of impact. The holes are just there now.

No more bullets appear to be forthcoming. The cherub is probably moving somewhere else since its target wasn't slain, keeping low and out of sight. There's a tall building opposite the holes with a large bill board advertising Circus cruise vacations at Seaside. That would probably be a decent vantage point... But does Tethrik have a way to get up there quickly before the cherub bails?

"It's been killing everyone who has tried to help me!" the stranded woman yells. "Go rip that bastard's head off!"

She doesn't seem very happy about this whole situation.

[Cherub Arena - Alysha]

As the blue not-dog beings grunting and gesticulating at the people in the ice cream shop, they'll eventually get the right idea and follow the critter to the barrier. Hey, that's five people that Alysha has now rescued! Good job, Alysha!

And inside the whole foods store?

There are several heaps of ash and ruined clothing. And several people kneeling on the ground with their hands behind their heads. A couple are crying. One guy just looks really angry.

Also?

Bins of grain have been upended all over the floor. Rice and wheat and barley and lentils and stuff. There's just heaps and heaps of the stuff. Spread out everywhere. It all looks just so... so countable. Alysha isn't one of those vampires that has a compulsion to count piles of grain, is she? Because if she is, then this might be a problem.

The cherub doesn't appear to be making itself known. It probably hid somewhere when it heard Alysha coming.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Cherub Arena - Alysha and Stitch]

Alysha winces a bit when she sees the piles of ash.

She didn't get here fast enough.

No time to dwell on that, though.

She had met a vampire that would love to count all this stuff. For days. Luckily, she didn't have that particular trait. Or his skin tone. Purple skin would just look weird on her. His fashion sense, though? Very good.

Alysha keeps her eyes and ears open as she slowly enters the store. Who knew where that thing was. Probably invisible.

Stitch could probably sniff it out, but he was busy helping those other people leave. It'd be a minute or two before he could rejoin Alysha.