Inside 67: Shadow over Innside

[Rebonack]

[Above the Docks]

"Just an intensely cold blizzard, I believe," Geneva replies after a moment or two of consideration. "The skinwalkers are terrible, but they're made of the same basic material as anyone else is. Living tissue can freeze if left unprotected in the elements, and the Windigos make VERY cold storms."

A moment passes before she realizes that she should probably explain something else.

"The Windigos are elemental spirits of winter that feed on violence and strife. My homeworld was pretty peaceful for a long time, but then the Great War broke out... The events of the war lead to the genesis of the skinwalkers, isolated mostly to a single major city. If I were to wager a guess, I would say the Windigos froze them all to make sure they couldn't spread. There is an awful lot of violence and strife back home for the Windigos to feed on, and everyone getting replaced by skinwalkers would put an end to that in a hurry. So... yay for evil elemental spirits, I guess?"

The fact that they're from Geneva's homeworld is certainly an interesting bit of information.

And?

Freezing and burning both work. More or less anything that destroys living tissue irreparably would do the trick.

[Cherub Arena- Alfred and Ben's Ball]

There are plenty of bog-standard PCs out there. A few being more cowardly than some NPCs shouldn't be that much of a shock. Especially if they're originally from a place where violence isn't that common.

The elve is equipped with some pointy scissors! She looks at them skeptically.

Next up, the ring is pulled on to reveal-! some kind of sub-floor? Not really a bunker as such. More like a crawl space? Almost reminiscent of the Jerffery's Tubes from Star Trek. Why would a car dealership need crawl space tunnels?

Huh... well... either way, the space is pretty well hidden. Though there's no telling what might be down there. Aside from sore knees from all that crawling.

[Cherub Arena - Raril

That would be fantastic.

But no, it probably isn't going to do that. They can only do that trick once every five minutes and it wouldn't want to waste it on murdering a critter. Now, if it became clear that Raril is an actual threat? Maybe.

"Umm..." comes the hesitant reply. "Yeah, that s-sounds like a good idea." There comes the sounds of unlocking, then it eases open. On the other side is a pretty young dwarf, her beard just beginning to grow in. As soon as she spots the drow on the other side, she stiffens a bit. Dwarfs are the sort to remember old racial enemies for a long time. Stubborn like that. "You aren't one of those s-slaver dark elves, are you?" she asks hesitantly.

This probably isn't the best time to be hung up on this sort of thing.

Especially since the iris on the other side of the pillar just made a gross opening noise, followed by a sound like claws on the cheap linoleum floor. The supply closet Raril came through isn't far away. He could probably dive through to avoid the trouble. But if he wanted to save this dwarf kid, then they probably aren't going to be able to make it before that horror rounds the corner. Save himself? Or stab an abomination in the face(s)? So many choices to make today.

[Cherub Arena - Tethrik]

Hey, you know what a good way to blow up a monster and pretty much anything in its general vicinity?

Blasting it to bits with a good ol' fashioned fireball, of course!

The cherub is rather unceremoniously reduced to a smoking corpse and an innocent potted fern sitting atop one of the air conditioning units is incinerated.

What a shame.

Given how dead the cherub is, catching up with it will be pretty easy at this point. The ground around it is littered with glowing... things. Looking at them too intently is distinctly uncomfortable.

And should Tethrik pick one up?

For about six straight seconds it will hurt like hell. It'll feel like whatever limb was used to grab the thing is disintegrating in the most painful way possible. Like flesh is getting peeled away and turning into dust.

Then the pain is gone. And no damage is obvious. Assuming he manages to hang onto it the whole time, of course. And the Tethrik is holding a weird glowing blue orb with a foot long handle sticking out of it. There are probably two dozen things scattered around, and it isn't apparent what any of them are. He could go searching for the rifle that was used to shoot at him, but... well. It's very possible whatever that thing is did some damage to him. But the damage just isn't physically obvious.

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

The survivors exchange some concerned looks.

Xeni manages to cement the fact that wizards are crazy in the minds of at least four people.

"Okay, no offense, but shouldn't we be leaving?" Mop Guy asks.

[Cherub Arena - Kara & Yu]

Those are all very important terms and Kara might get the chance to learn what they all mean eventually. Depends on the sort of life path she decides to embark upon.

The cherub looks really thoughtful at Kara's question as she hands it a little propeller hat. "I have no idea. But I guess we'll find out?" it says as it tries the next hat on.

Nothing seems to happen when it spins the propeller. Several floating eyes scrutinize it. "I can't tell if it's doing anything," the cherub admits, then pokes at the halo with a raptor-like claw, resulting in a nasty scraping sound. "Oh geeze, yeah, okay, that's making it spin."

Yu, meanwhile, will only find stuffing paper. The really light weight, colorful stuff usually shoved into gift bags. His comment to the clerk is met with a sarcastically 'seriously?' sort of look. She really can't speak up right now since even breathing hurts a whole bunch.

And then Kara begins scooting!

"Were you wanting to check on the critter?" the cherub asks. "They're usually okay if they can survive one hit without blowing up. I figure if they can tank a direct hit without getting dusted then they deserve to stick around and breed more badass critters." Then all of its eyes widen slight. "Oh, wait." Then it kind of... squints at Kara.

And suddenly gets really excited.

"You've got the same alignment spread as Dizzee! That same busted Adaptation form! Oh snap, no, I get it now! You want to heal the critter, don't you? Just in case they're bleeding out? Haha, this is too cool! I heard there was a bronze-host ripping this match a new one, but I didn't think it was Dizzee! Oh man, wait til I tell my loser friends about this!"

The awful monster stows its weapon away as several of its weird floating eyes hover over to Kara. "Do the heal thing, I wanna see this. I'll hang back so the critter doesn't spot me since I already pulled some monster aggro on it." Then it kind of... shuffles off to the side away from the door. Still wearing that absurd propeller hat.

No doubt Karaglen is very confused.

Awful Doom Babies Remaining: 21

[Artemis97]

[Cherub Arena - Raril]

A dwarf, alright, Raril liked dwarves. They were good people.

The drow smirks. "Nah, just an old bar owner." He assures the kid. "What's your -" Then that scrabbling sound. Not good.

Raril puts himself firmly between the young dwarf and the oncoming beasty, ready to stab at it with his rapier. The blade was bought with Aboleths in mind, maybe it'll do something nasty to this critter too.

[bc56]

Cherub Arena

"Yes!" Tethrik climbs up to the other roof and starts sifting through the dropped items. This thing looks like a grenade of some sort. It could come in handy. "Augh! That stings!" Tethrik's felt worse, though. He shrugs the pain off and the weapon goes into the little pouch on his belt which looks far too small to fit the grenade inside, but of course it slides in easily. He then takes each other item, looks at them, and stuffs them into the bag as well. One can never have too many weapons.

[Rebonack]

[Cherub Arena - Raril]

The dwarf looks slightly relieved that Raril isn't a slaver.

Slavers are terrible, or so she has heard.

And then defensive positions!

No monsters spring around the corner.

That would be WAY too easy.

Instead? A little gray ball gets bounced off the far wall of the mart with a rubbery dunk! before hurtling toward Raril, narrowly missing his head and embedding itself in the wall via an abruptly grown coat of metallic spikes.

A little red light in the middle of the ball, like an eye on an angry silver sea urchin, flashes. Then flashes again, faster this time while beeping. When it gets to flash number three it will explode, spraying the room with silver shrapnel.

Wuh oh! Put that Reflex Save of yours to work, Raril! The dwarf was apparently bright enough to realize that thing was bad and immediately dives behind the toilet. A second later an awful little abomination with a prawn head, shrimp legs, and four baby faces sticking out of its neck rounds the corner with a weapon pointed at Raril! A weapon that lets loose a stream of blue-purple flesh searing energy that seems pretty intent on latching onto the drow and burning away meat! Looks almost like one of those plasma globe things.

[Cherub Arena - Tethrik]

Oh goody.

Tethrik is going to endure some really nasty pain here. Each new object picked up will cause the pain to increase by a factor of ten, so we'll see how long he manages to keep this up.

Assuming he gets through the next two objects at least, there's a long metallic rifle with gusty looking silver lines of light flowing across it and a yellow waxy ball reminiscent of a round chunk of honey comb. Anything beyond the third pilfered object is going to get pretty insane.

[bc56]

Cherub Arena - Tethrik

Tethrik isn't sure what causes the pain. The first one wasn't so bad. The second one was worse. The third... ...well, it had him questioning whether these weapons were worth it. Still, each of the gizmos goes into the bag after the first. With three new toys to play with, Tethrik looks around. One more won't be that bad, right? He picks up another.
He had no idea how wrong he was. He barely manages to hold onto whatever it is. He screams, an unearthly, beastly sound that would cause any natural wildlife left in the area to go fleeing for shelter.

[Arkhosia]

The Docks

Blanche's response is simply to slide a lighter out from her jacket and flip it on, letting the flame dance for a second before extinguishing it. "I could just say I want a better look at the product, have more light to see." She suggests, pocketing it before frowning as a thought occurs. Raising the communicator, she speaks into the mic as they presumably head towards the fish. "...Anika, how do these things infect people exactly?"

[Artemis97]

[Cherub Arena - Raril]

Raril had been in the nexus long enough to recognize a grenade when he saw one. The drow hit the deck, narrowly avoiding the exploding spines (thank goodness for a high Dex score). Now he's being shot at by some sea-themed critter. Raril was probably going to avoid shellfish for a while after this. At least it wasn't a spider. He rolls across the floor, taking cover behind some shelving. He was wishing his sister hadn't taken his bag of tricks. Alchemist's fire would have been useful here. Instead, he pulls a small metal mirror from a pocket and uses it to look around the corner back at the cherub, to keep an eye on it.

[Shadowcaller]

[The Docks - Ship]

And here the usefulness of her humanoid form ended. Being able to talk, climb, see things in great detail was nice and all but there were some senses that were just sub-par.
But before she can go any further, Blanche calls about how the monsters spread of all things. She retrieves the communicator from her pocket while taking a few steps away from the edge of the crate coming to face Oma. This way she would decrease the risk of getting ambushed from either side, unless of course both Oma and the kitten were infected, then she might just be screwed.

Either way, she takes a moment to reply. "They get into your body through wounds or food. Like... getting it exposed to a dirty pool of rainwater. Except the water is alive, I guess. Like a noxious elemental. So they go around putting their diseased body into stuff. You know, like a disease or poison."
Anika had gotten a really basic education in medicine, just enough to realize that getting stuff in your wounds was bad, so she applied that knowledge on this.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Cherub Arena - Alysha and Stitch]

Stitch's face and ears drop a bit. Oh. Bad.

Having finished her bottle, Alysha nods a bit. Yeah. Um...hang on, let me think... Well, the blood seems to be helping. She definitely sounds better. The vampire turns to face the people so she can figure this out. Her face looks a lot better already. Still kinda red, though.

Alysha thinks for a moment, then nods. Okay. Got it. Hold still, everybody. I'm gonna freeze them in time. She takes a breath, points her Keyblade at the floor panels, and says a single word. Stopga!

This should have the effect of freezing the floor panels in time for at least a minute. More than enough time for everybody to get up and leave. Once frozen, Alysha and Stitch will help the people out of the arena.

[Rebonack]

[The Docks - Geneva on the communicator!]

Geneva's voice crackles over the communicators as she weighs in on that question. "In the case of an internal infection, it wouldn't be very subtle, since that host is getting eaten from the inside out like parasitoid wasp larvae do."

Oh.

Well.

That doesn't sound very fun.

"There must be a reason why they don't do that exclusively, though. Given the chance, they'll encase someone in a chrysalis and employ a slower conversion or infection process. Sorry there isn't more information on them. People back home avoided them for very good reasons."

VERY good reasons.

She grips her cloud with her talons and gives her wings a few beats, encouraging it to scoot along through the air so she can maintain visual contact on Anika. She'll glance back at the guy in the really cool suit of power armor. "Keep watch on the group here. We want eyes in the sky on everyone for the whole operation."

[Cherub Arena - Tethrik]

Yeah.

People don't really get exponential growth for the most part. Ten times as much as the previous taken a few steps gets crazy in a hurry.

The final device is a weird looking, organic thing that appears to be made of bone and meat with four claw-like prongs surrounding an opening in the front. Something inside the weapon is droning. Sounds almost like angry bees.

That scream probably caught something's attention, too. Especially now that Tethrik has blown up one of the cherubs. That tends to get their attention. Thankfully there aren't that many of them left and they're spread out a bit.

Once the demon is done having a bad time, his perch atop the building will give him a pretty great view of the xenoforming that has been going on. Large portions of the bubble-enclosed area look absolutely alien at this point. There's a big dragon-looking critter stalking around near the middle of the arena, though she isn't getting shot at anymore. Probably because all the cherubs who were inexperienced enough to think fighting her was a good idea have already been fragged.

And then? He'll probably spot something weird. One of the areas that has been utterly warped with otherworldly growth to the point that it's unrecognizable? It sort of... twists. Tethrik will feel a tremor under his feet as the terrain surrounding the cyst snaps together, the intervening space simply gone. Then another tremor as a second block vanishes. That dragon thing seems to notice something is up since she just sprouted wings and launched herself clear of a third implosion.

Hmm.

That's probably bad.

[Cherub Arena - Raril]

"Fluffing dodgy critters," the awful shrimp thing grumbles as Raril neatly avoids its attacks, then stumbles slightly as tremor rocks the area. "Oh, sweet, contraction phase! I might actually win this match!"

Raril will hear its awful little shrimp legs clicking against the floor as moves toward the mart's front entrance to take a peek.

It has its back turned as it begins quickly erecting even more alien growth. More of that weird metal marrow with light pouring out of the gaps. Gross sponge stuff. Tendrils of crimson coral-like fungus woven together into walls. The air is beginning to feel syrupy and thick.

The horror is distracted. Raril will be able to see bulging shrimp eyes sticking out of those weird baby faces all over its neck, though. Stupid things with all-around vision. Makes them hard to sneak up on.

The dwarf child is being absolutely silent. She doesn't want to attract any attention to herself.

[Cherub Arena - Alysha and Stitch]

Time stop effects are pretty handy.

Alysha will manage to help move the people to safety! As she and her blue not-dog pal are sending the civilians off through the edge of the barrier, Alysha will feel a tremor suddenly quake the ground below her feet. About five hundred feet away, she'll have a pretty good view of a whole city block that had been warped with alien growth just vanish. As in the space itself that it had occupied is simply gone with the surrounding buildings and terrain pulled together to fill the newly created gap.

That's...

Uh.

That's probably a bad thing, right?

Someone is running pell-mell away from the erased area, their face stricken with terror. "I told them!" he shrieks. "I told them we had to move and they wouldn't listen! Hahaha! Oh gods, they wouldn't listen! They wouldn't run! And now they're gone!" He's heading straight for Alysha, eyes wild. Unless stopped, he'll run up and grab her. "We have to get out! This place is dead! Dead and lost and the langoliers are eating it! Get out while you can!" And then he goes hobbling through the barrier, heedless of the fact that his back has been clawed open.

Well. That happened. Should Alysha bail? Or try to find more people before this place folds in on itself?

[Chaotic Bob]

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

Only four of them think he's mad? Drat, he didn't ham up the washing machine thing enough.

Cementing his grin a bit wider, Xeni holds up a "one moment" finger...
Then gives the washer one more kick, before dislodging the door and revealing a little vortex of wildly shifting colors.
"Behold, my dear fellows! Your egress.

He has wasted a little bit of everyone's time, in order to turn the washing machine into a stupid clothing-based portal.
Maybe to Trog's. Maybe to that laundry place on 184th street. Not 100% sure, but one of those two.
"Ah, in all seriousness though, if anyone needs help getting in because they're hurt I can do that too."

In a probably less stupid fashion.

[Cherub Arena - Kara & Yu]

Confused and a little bit uncomfortable would be a fairly accurate description of Karaglen's feelings at the moment.
She has absolutely no idea what's going on anymore.

This thing had clearly hurt someone and she was okay with just distracting it away from the problem until maybe it left, presuming it didn't hurt anyone else.
But now is seems excited that she's going to fix the thing it hurt?
"Um."
Maybe it hurt the person by accident and is happy someone is going to make things right again?
...no it's probably just crazy, but she'll work with it.

Mr. Mouse, the um, the hat-monster wants me to heal the person. It's being weird.
Quickly.
So, still with a mixture of confusion and apprehension, the little dragon will quickly scoot through the door to the person.

"Oh! One second, miss. I'll get you all better!"
At least this part is straight-forward. Heal and do good. No weird moral or philosophical quibbles here.
...just weird magic that she's going to think about later.

So presuming no one does anything weird, she'll scamper up to the woman's side so she can give the wound a quick (sad) examination and gently bring her claws up to begin the suffusion of definitely-not-creepy healing energy.

[The Docks - Ship]

Oma stares rather blankly at Anika while she talks on the communicator.
But doesn't do much else.

[The Docks - Fish]

The halfling stares much less blanky and with slightly more annoyance.
"You guys know I can hear you, right?"

He's actually been paying attention to them ever since Anika called him a tall gnome and then ran away.

[Rebonack]

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

That...

Okay, that's pretty neat.

The people begin crawling through the portal! Though the injured people have a little bit of trouble. They really don't care a great deal where the portal goes so long as it is outside of the creepy alien bubble. Well... they would probably care if it went into deep space or hell. But they're assuming here that Xeni didn't go to all this trouble just to murder them.

Mop Guy stays behind, making sure everyone else makes it through first. A bit of tension drains out of him as he glances over at Xeni, still gripping his mop tightly. "Hey. There are probably more trapped people. I can help, if you want."

Nothing like a dude with a mop and really nice mustache to aid in your adventures, right?

He's like... Janitor Dude or something.

Just in case Xeni concludes that he's just some guy with a mop and therefor mostly useless, he adds. "I can hit the monsters with this mop."

...which really doesn't do much to suggest he's anything other than a guy with a mop. The horrors aren't that powerful, but they can probably endure a sound mop-thrashing.

Then a tremor ripples through the ground, causing Mop Guy to stagger a bit. "The hell was that?"

[Cherub Arena - Kara & Yu]

Defiantly not creepy. As before, the power flows between her scales, giving that feeling reminiscent of her breath weapon. Just rerouted. It covers the wound like a crystalline cast, sending little tendrils into the flesh, before it begins digesting itself to replace and repair the injured tissue. Fluids are drained from her lungs and pulmonary cavity, scooting all that blood back to where it belongs. In fact, little tendril-like growths extend down into the blood trail, branching like fungal hyphae as they begin hoovering up the lost blood, purifying it of contamination in the process. It looks like this magic, whatever it is, is really thorough when it comes to healing people.

It takes a good minute or so for the process to complete, but by the time it's over the woman takes a deep breath, patting at her ribs. She looks shocked that she's apparently just fine? "Cripes, I thought I was a goner," she mutters. "Uh... thanks? Small dragon and mouse?"

Then a tremor rocks the whole building, eliciting a cry of alarm from the clerk.

"Oh hey! Contraction phase just started!" laughs the cherub just outside the back room, eliciting a much louder scream of terror from the clerk as she tries and fails to claw her way to her feet and succeeds in dumping a box full of stuffed animals all over herself. "Thanks for letting me watch you heal the critter, that was super cool. I've gotta get moving. Other cherubs to frag, you know? Later!" And then it goes skittering off out of the store, still wearing the propeller beanie.

What.

"What?" the clerk blurts.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

Well.
Xeni actually really appreciates the offer. Most people wouldn't do it! For various reasons, ranging from cowardice and selfishness (bad reasons), to weakness and injury or other obligations (fair reasons).
On the other hands, he really doesn't want to see this guy die if something goes wrong.

"I can make your mop magic. And your shirt, so you're less likely to have someone put a...whatever they're shooting through your heart?"
I mean, he can't do anything permanent just out of the blue, but it probably only needs to last an hour or so, right?
Maybe not even that long, if everyone's lucky.
"But it would probably be a lot safer if you just le-"

World shaking!
He grabs onto the portal-washer with a hand to stable himself and frowns.
"Either Zee's done something wild or the situation got worse. Last chance, friend. If you want to go, hop on in. Otherwise pass me your mop."

[Cherub Arena - Kara & Yu]

Watching her magic this second time around, when it's less surprising, Kara can let a little more curious study in.
It would be pretty easy for these shapes and movements to be disturbing or scary, but...something about the appearance of it and the feeling is somewhere between beautiful and comforting.

She's lost in the vision of it for a moment, before blinking and smiling brightly at the newly healed woman.
"You're welcome! Just doing whatever I can!"

And then shaking. And screaming.
And leaving?

At some point, Yurioc took a defensive position between Kara, the woman, and the cherub, bravely wielding a couple of those stuffed animals up in the air.
But evidently it wasn't necessary!
Hm. That is worth inquiry later.

"Um."
Wow this whole experience has been weird for Kara.
"I think we should probably get you out of here now? Miss?"
So let's default back to sane and normal routine, of leading the lady to the exit.

[bc56]

Cherub Arena - Tethrik

That doesn't look good. There'll be time to figure out what these new weapons do later, now Tethrik should just get out of here. He dashes back toward the place where the woman was trapped, intending to grab her and carry her out of this weird landscape as quickly as he can.

[Earl of Purple]

Cherub Arena- Alfred & Ben's Ball

Alfred's from London. Ben's... More interesting. He was a 2D image on a mobile screen until Alfred tripped. Safe enough to avoid violence, most of the time. And nothing on this scale.

"What do you think? Good place, bad place? I'm thinking 'better place than here'. Easier to miss, and maybe there's another way out." Alfred is making a mental note to go catch more pokemon after this, get a proper party. Maybe then he'd even be able to make a living by challenging school children and taking their money. Alfred doesn't wait for further comments from the elve before jumping down and crawling in, releasing Ben once more so he can put the ball away and move easier. The Bellsprout, obviously, doesn't need to duck... But does wish it knew Flash.

[Shadowcaller]

[The Docks - Ship]

Oma stares rather blankly at Anika while she talks on the communicator.
But doesn't do much else.

[The Docks - Ship]

Yeah, Anika wasn't even sure why she had bothered answering that question, Geneva obviously knew far more than here about the face-monsters.
"Alright, I'm gonna keep trying to catch the cat. Keep an eye on me, Geneva!" Anika exclaims before she puts back the communicator and turns her attention back to the labyrinth below.

Now to make this a bit easier for herself...

Switching forms, she has suddenly turned into a huge cobra-like snake. This serpent starts to 'smell' the air with its tongue to get an idea where the cat might have gone. Does it even smell like a cat? Anika had smelled plenty of cats in this form as she had been around sabers a lot, not to mention having been in Stormwind a few times. Therefore she would be able to tell the difference between a cat and something not-quite-a-cat. She would also be able to smell if there was any spilled blood nearby.

[Rebonack]

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

"Situation got worse, I'd wager," Mop Guy replies, his expression dour. Reason for that dour expression? The rate at which alien growths are spreading from the weird coral-like fungal pod just increased by a factor of then. This is likely bad. "Enchant the shirt if you want, but not the mop. The mop can't be magical."

Oh.

Huh.

Well, that's interesting. Maybe he can do something special with mops?

There's still the question of getting out, though. There are some pretty large appliances pushed up against the door and-

Quick as lightning Mop Guy makes six slashes in the general direction of the door, deep gouges blasting through wood, stone, and metal, followed by a thrust and a loud, "Uah!" The door gets blown apart, along with the washing machine, in four large triangles that go bouncing across the street.

-oh. Well. Door open.

"I'm Yani," the man declares as he strides through the now very open door. "A Watcher, and disciple of the word Division. Koom lo Rlyeh, may the sunken city never rise."

Oh hey. This guy must be one of those dudes who stands against the seething forces of madness that lurk just beyond the threshold of perception. He might be kind of handy to have around. That probably explains how the horror in the laundromat got bisected.

Outside the alien growth is still spreading. Like that freaky sponge tower! It's creeping over and through the nearby buildings like ivy, crawling over and under everything. The air is beginning to feel syrupy and thick. There's still that apartment building. And there across the street, there's a... umm... giant writing mass of otherworldly growth? It looks like it might have been a liquor store at some point, but it is hardly recognizable anymore. Inside, a person is desperately trying to reach the door, groping at the base of it while fungal filaments clutch at them. And then it's gone.

Just... gone.

Along with a tremor that ripples through the ground as the surrounding buildings and terrain are yanked inward as the space itself vanishes along with the store. Buildings and streets are warped slightly by the contraction of reality, features shifting until it looks like the missing patch of existence was never there to begin with. There's a bank across the street now, well on its way toward being just as warped as the recently vanished store.

"This is bad," Yani observes, apparently one for understatement.

Alien growth is quickly consuming the bank AND the apartment complex. Our heroes will probably only have time to clear out one if they stick together.

[Cherub Arena - Kara & Yu]

Beautiful, comforting, and encouraging. Using this odd new magic flowing through her heart fills her with a confidence that she can overcome. Every time she calls on it, there's a little push of you can do it.

It seems like a little bit of that determination has been bestowed to the poor clerk, too, because she's climbing to her feet and looking ready to go in spite of knocking on death's door just a few minutes previously. "Yeah, let's get out of here."

Oh hey look.

The creepy alien growth in the toy store just kicked into high gear. Tendrils of coral-like crimson growth are rapidly spreading over shelves and toys, its touch dissolving the matter and regurgitating it back out as black slime that quickly begins sprouting white fungal sacs that split open into even more crimson tendrils. The store is quickly becoming a jungle of alien vines and oozing tar and mats of spreading fungal roots. There comes a brief twisting feeling. A feeling that anyone who has ever teleported before would likely recognize. Not quite teleportation. Yet. But a tug from perpendicular to reality.

"Let's get out of here quickly," the clerk amends as she sprints toward the exit.

Assuming Kara decides to flee outside (and she really should, seriously) she'll be met with a nice view of the toy store simply folding out of existence a few seconds after she escapes along with a tremor that shakes the sidewalk beneath her feet. All around her buildings and intersections and even chunks of the sky are becoming overgrown with aberrant terrain, and when the xenoforming becomes severe enough the area simply ceases to exist.

The clerk is already running toward the edge of the bubble. Not even waiting for Kara! She is SO done with this nonsense!

"Help!" comes a cry from the office buildings that are nearly nothing more than a mass of aberrant growth at this point. There's a fellow in a business suit, a nasty wound just below his ribs, tugging at the thick crimson vines blocking the door. He shoves at them, but only manages to get his hands covered in black slime. Black slime that starts sprouting little white fungus balls. "Oh gods oh gods someone help! Please!"

[Cherub Arena - Tethrik]

Yep!

Time to go!

Tethrik will be able to grab the woman off the little floating platform without too much difficulty (though she does give another surprised yell when he snags her). He can also dive toward the edge of the bubble. No problem there at all! It's only when he tries to cross the threshold that he runs into difficulties.

Before it was like walking through a wall of water. A little bit of resistance, but no big deal.

Now?

Now it feels like he just smacked face first into a steel wall.

That's going to smart.

[Cherub Arena- Alfred & Ben's Ball]

So.

Crawling down here?

It turns out that this is a car dealership. Or maybe more accurately, a Car Dealer Ship. Our heroes will pop out of a little access panel in the walls and into the engineering section of a space ship! "I told you coming to the Nexus was a terrible idea," one uniformed humanoid says to another. Dude is blue and has a dolphin style blowhole on top of his head.

"But no one has cars here!" counters a second. They look human, save for their hilariously oversized, ridge covered chin. "That's our mission. Seek out new life and new civilization. Boldly sell cars where no one has sold cars before. We can just dump everything on top, chill in Starside for a little while, and then find somewhere new to set up. I'm not giving up on this place yet."

The elven woman seems to bewildered to know what to say.

Well!

It would appear as though they have a way to get out of the arena! That's good, right?

Awful Doom Babies Remaining: 10

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Cherub Arena - Alysha and Stitch]

Both the Keyblade wielding vampire and the furry blue alien stare in wide eyed horror as a whole city block just disappears.

Stitch delivers a monotone alien swear word. Alysha nods a bit. Yeah. You said it, buddy.

Alisha gets shaken out of her shock by the injured, slightly deranged man. She can smell the blood on him, and tightens her grip on her Keyblade a bit. As he runs away, she notices his wounds, and quickly tries to cast a Cure on him before he's out of range. Once he goes through the barrier, she turns back to Stitch.

Well, how 'bout it? Wanna try to find some more people to help?

Stitch nods quickly, popping his extra arms out again.

Alysha smiled, and the pair of them head for the next closest building, looking for people in need of help.

[bc56]

Cherub Arena - Tethrik

Tethrik is not happy about the mysterious wall. It hurts, but not as bad as it did to pick up the third or fourth weapon. Assuming the woman doesn't meet the same resistance, he shoves her toward the edge. "Go, go!" He then draws the sniper rifle from his bag and sights down it, getting a feel for the alien weapon's heft and any sights it might have. He then stalks back into the arena to go hunt for more cherubs.

[Rebonack]

[Cherub Arena - Alysha and Stitch]

You know what the worst part is?

There may have been people in there.

And chances are, wherever they just ended up isn't Never Never Land.

The healing seems to work on the crazy guy, but he doesn't bother to thank Alysha as he flees from the bubble. Probably not in the right state of mind to even consider that sort of thing.

Now then... more help! Alysha will encounter a problem almost immediately. That weird alien growth that's all over everything? It's growing much, much faster than it was previously. And once it reaches critical mass, the area it's growing in is simply gone. It's becoming very dangerous to stick around here. But, thankfully, there are warning signs. Just stick to the areas that have the least growth, right?

Too bad that stuff seems to be cropping up everywhere.

Alysha will soon come across a car with a family trapped inside, the vehicle having become ensnared in ropy, crimson, coral like growths. Black gunk is oozing out of the pores in the coral, causing the metal of the car to mutate into strange metallic marrow-like stuff with unwholesome light bleeding from within. The family is pounding on the windows and screaming for help.

[Cherub Arena - Tethrik]

The weapon is fairly light and completely lacks sights. Maybe the cherubs have some way of interfacing with it? Wouldn't be that weird, right?

Regardless, Tethrik is looking for more cherubs to murder, and before long that's exactly what he finds. Two of the horrors are exchanging fire from the rooftops of heavily corrupted buildings opposite each other, dodging projectiles and rapidly erecting barriers of aberrant growth. For each new sheet of disgusting sponge they build, the area around their battle field slips a little further into alien geometries.

They don't appear to notice-

Oh wait, never mind.

Almost simultaneously they begin firing on Tethrik now! A hail of psychic blasts are sent his way, liable to cause devastating mental damage should they strike true. And to make matters worse, pulsing mortars of sheer destructive force begin raining down out of the sky around him! Everything caught in the arcane detonations are simply blasted into dust.

But!

At least he found some Cherubs, right?

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Cherub Arena - Alysha and Stitch]

Ew. That stuff was nasty looking.

Alysha points her Keyblade at the stuff growing around the car.

Stop!

This won't last as long as what she used on the exploding tiles. But, she doesn't need it to.

Because almost as soon as she casts the spell, Stitch is there to rip the door off the car and help the family out.

Alysha points with her free hand towards the exit.

Go! Hurry!

[bc56]

Cherub Arena - Tethrik

Tethrik is not pleased. He wants to murder these cherubs, not get shot at by them. He leaps away from the barrage, surprisingly fast for a creature of his size, and runs for any sort of cover so he can be out of the barrage long enough to draw a bead on one of the cherubs with the irritatingly scopeless sniper rifle.

[Mee]

[Naku & Ithuriel]

A smile forces its way onto Ithuriel's face, happy to hear that she'd at least helped to make the evening a little more bearable for her companion. In terms of good deeds, she can't exactly count it on her top ten or anything, but she can't help feeling pretty good about this. "It almost seems a shame to to end the evening here though? I mean, if you have time for something else. I don't know what to suggest, but it'd be nice to end things on a higher note than in there?" Ithuriel seems caught off-guard by her own suggestion as a slight flush of red comes to her cheeks.

Definitely still some fae trickery though! Definitely!

Naku & Ithuriel

"I- . . . if you wish." Naku says, after a bit of a pause. "I do have a few more tasks assigned me that I need to finish tonight. But if you would like to come along, companionship would be most welcome."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

Oh, this guy is definitely on his Cool List now.
Xeni would offer him a smile and a handshake, but the situation doesn't really call for that.
"Salyune Xeni. Uh...don't really have a job anymore."
Much less one as prestigious as Yani's.
"I just blow up bad stuff now."

Blow up bad stuff and fail to save whoever was across the street, evidently.
There is a very clear pain on the mage's face as the person reaching for the door is lost, but he can't let that slow him down any.

"Dammit, dammit okay. Space is going out, I can fix that, maybe."
For one of the buildings, at least. Maybe. If that's what is even going on here.

He takes a deep breath before facing the apartments making a little box gesture with his hands (purely to help his mental image), and Speaks.

\\\//\/\ ////\\
SEAL

Just as he did in Trog's recently, he Speaks a stability that should effectively keep anything from hopping in or out of reality around the apartments.
But...that does sort of depend on what is going on here, doesn't it? And it isn't permanent, either. If the situation is as aggressive as it looks, it's probably very not permanent.
"Get the bank! I can't be in two places at once and do this too!"
Xeni has completely dropped that silly attitude from the laundromat, back into a desperate sort of serious as he sprints towards the apartments.

Hopefully Yani listens. But maybe he won't!

[Cherub Arena - Kara & Yu]

Sprinting is definitely the theme of the moment, coming back over to Karaglen sprinting her way from the toy store with Yurioc plastered firmly to her head.
"Mr. Mouse, what's going on?"
There's only a mild amount of abject terror in her voice.
I think the reality bubble is destabilizing. Or fulfilling some deeper purpose. Run faster, I think.

So they all flee out of the building and the clerk books it for safety.
Smart woman.
Smarter than Kara and Yu probably are.

Blast it, child, get back!
The mouse notices the businessman first, leaping from Karaglen's head with eyes aglow in an azure light as he applies his mind to the task of ripping the doors entirely away from the building. He may not have many offensive talents, but he has always kept up on his telekinesis.
Presuming the doors are torn free, he will also try to grab the man and separate him from the nonsense covering his hands.

[Docks - The Ship Boat Ship]

Smelling out your quarry is usually a pretty good strategy!
For better or worse, the boat is full of all kinds of smells.
Salt of the sea, metals, sweating hominids, the kinda gross odor of Oma's skin-slime, a cat, some fruit for some reason, and...yes, a bit of blood.

Following the cat specifically seems to lead away from the crates and towards that open cabin area.
Along with, predictably perhaps, that blood scent.

Oma tilts her head towards, to watch the new cobra form, perhaps slightly more intently than before.
Or maybe just as intently.
Those big eyes just seem so intent always.

[Rebonack]

[Cherub Arena - Alysha and Stitch]

Weirdly enough, it smells wonderful. Like some sort of fragrant incense.

The door is ripped off the car without too much trouble and the family piles out, parents grabbing their kids and booking it toward the edge of the bubble.

Alysha gets a hurried, "Thank you!" for her trouble.

Reality is rapidly folding in on itself around the vampire. And she doesn't see anyone else in her immediate proximity. Maybe it's a good time to bail? Or is she going to try searching deeper?

[Cherub Arena - Tethrik]

Most people really don't like getting shot at.

This is known.

As Tethrik flees, the cherub with the weird psychic blaster steps out from under its cover to try to maintain aim on the demon, only to have one of those disruption pulses come sailing down out of the sky right on top of its head. The force of the blast sends the creature bouncing across the roof, limbs twisted about all wrong. A second pulse is heading straight for it, too. "Oh f-"

It gets unceremoniously disintegrated.

But!

The horror that just shot it is doing a little victory dance now! If Tethrik can figure out how to-

Oh.

Wait.

An augmented reality display just sorta manifested in Tethrik's vision as soon as he started trying to line up the weapon with intent to murder something.

Handy!

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

"Blowing up bad stuff is a a valuable vocation, mister Xeni," Yani replies.

The seal works! The extra-dimensional growth appears to have stopped for the time being. Apparently all this nasty stuff is getting pulled in from elsewhere and a nice little hypercube box is sufficient to get it to cut it out. Yani nods at Xeni's command and sprints toward the bank, pulling on a white glove with an odd design sewn into it. He raises his hand toward the front of the bank and intones, "By the Sign of Koth, by the corner stone of this world, by the hammer that shaped it, you are UNDONE AND CAST OUT!"

There's no flash of light. Rather, the creepy alien growth near the front of the building just gets... fuzzy. As if it were suddenly not a thing, but a really low resolution, two dimensional image of a thing. And then it shatters into little fluttering squares of light that rapidly wink out of existence one by one. About a dozen people come fleeing from the bank, a few injured, a few with very concerning looking mutations. They just barely manage to avoid trampling each other.

"Hurry, the edge of this blasphemous bubble isn't far," Yani says, pointing toward the alley still blocked off by a sponge tower.

That just leaves the apartments.

Xeni will thankfully find the front doors of the apartments unblocked. Stepping inside is... bad. It feels like he's underwater all of a sudden, adrift in a warm syrupy sea. Alien growth encrusts nearly everything and the place teems with tiny swimming and crawling things that look like they squeezed out of the fever dreams of a mad-man. A deep crimson thing roughly the size of a plucked turkey lazily drifts through the 'air' on waving membranes, feather like tendrils extending from one end of it to ensnare drifting particles. A school of tiny creature that looks like a cross between a squid, a frog, and a fish go zipping past and up the stairs that resemble little more than masses of crimson coral, sponge, drifting iridescent bubbles, and metallic marrow. Doors have been replaced with fleshy irises ringed with dead black eyes, occasionally blinking with a slightly translucent membrane as they regard Xeni. The whole place blazes with unwholesome light, outlines fuzzy and colors saturated.

There's a heartbeat.

Xeni can feel it.

With every beat the place twists. It's being pulled. And the only thing holding it in place is Xeni's seal. He had best move quickly.

Nearby there's a person nearly subsumed into a spongy wall. They look... tired. Defeated. But upon spotting Xeni there's a flash of hope.

[Cherub Arena - Kara & Yu]

Running faster is a pretty good plan.

The doors are ripped away and the businessman snagged. Thankfully clearing away the fungal growth isn't too difficult. The awful stuff hasn't really taken root yet.

Much.

The skin on his hands just got peeled away and he looks like he's in shock, just staring at his bloody hands.

Booking it toward the edge of the bubble is probably a good plan right about now.

And, hey look, there's Zee! She's got her wings back, sailing through the sky near the top of the bubble. The mutagenic aura around her is having much the same effect as the cherubs' building projects, giving rise to alien growth that gets steadily worse until snapping shut behind her, sealing up the sky. It has the end result of a rather unnerving version of that 'snake' game, with a tail trailing behind the seraph consisting of otherworldly infestation.

"Everyone get out!" she sings down to the people below. "As fast as you can! The bubble is collapsing!"

[Chaotic Bob]

[Cherub Arena - Kara & Yu]

What a great warning, Zee.
Yu, listen to the lady. Take Kara out of here, it's getting worse in a hurry!
Be safe.

The mouse drifts in front of the businessman for a moment, staring up at the much larger monster above them, then points off towards the nearest escapable wall.
My apologies. We will repair your hands, but we must flee the area first. Follow the little dragon, she will heal you.
Another gesture towards Karaglen, followed by a little telekinetic push in the direction of Out Of Here.

Karaglen stares up at her mother for a moment, concern for the situation giving her a brief pause, before Yurioc pushes her onwards too.

Group Scaly Mouse absconds from the field.

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

Xeni is not absconding, nor wasting time with any additional silly theatrics.
That's already caused the loss of at least one person.

Seeing the level of Terrible inside the building, he pauses to trace a small mark on the ground outside. It's a little short-range teleportation waypoint and the easiest way he can think of to get people out of the building without far more strenuous magics.
This is given a quick test on the man trapped inside the wall! The mage runs up to him, to lay a hand on his head and apply the arcane will to remove him from the wall and displace him near that symbol outside. Hopefully the man isn't hurt too badly under that wall, but this is the best he can immediately do and still have time to work through more of the building.

From there, if nothing goes horribly wrong...is a matter of finding his way through this horribly twisted place and doing the same to everyone he can find.
He is not going to be above blowing open these eye-doors to get past them, if they do not open themselves at his arrival.
Which amounts to the current plan: run through the doors as fast as his sealing Word can keep the place stable-ish, pushing everyone he can find outside and hoping nothing nasty attacks him.

[Rebonack]

[Outside the Arena - Kara & Yu]

Escaping isn't difficult. Not even a little bit.

Just the simple matter of walking out the same way they came in. They pass through the barrier without resistance, unlike what the lizard demon experienced.

That's probably because neither Kara nor Yu did anything to mark themselves as a creep.

The poor fellow without any skin on his hands would probably appreciate being healed right about now.

More than a few people are gathered around outside the bubble, pointing phones and other recording devices at it. Because of course they are.

[Cherub Arena - Xeni]

Xeni's short range teleportation works! And... the guys is hurt. Sadly. There are chunks where the weird sponge-like material has replaced flesh. The stuff seems to be gobbling up matter and growing more sponge. The injured man begins to feebly crawl away from the apartments. To make matters worse, dozens of sticky filaments lash out of the holes in the sponge-wall and attempt to ensnare Xeni as well.

It would probably be a good idea to avoid letting them do that.

[Morty]

[The Docks - Fish]

Calm Reed shoots the halfling an irritated look. Merchants here sure are perceptive.

"If you can hear us, then listen well. We need to examine your fish, but we're going to do it quietly. If they turn out to be uncontaminated, I'll buy some of them from you. I'm sure Vigil has some use for fish."

[Shadowcaller]

[Docks - The Ship Boat Ship]

That seemed fairly concerning, but it could always just be a rat the cat caught or something.
Nothing had so far suggested that it was anything but a ordinary cat, yet she still had to get to the bottom of this.

She still stop outside the cabin area, was there anyone else here? She listens closely for any sound that come off as unusual. She still had her kaldorei hearing so she could pick out specific sounds easier than a standard human.
In addition to this, she was in this serpent form able to "see" heat to the degree she could make out warmer and colder parts of a body. She was hoping that the combination of superior senses would allow her to detect that bloody cat so that she confirm or put the theory to rest.

[Arkhosia]

The Docks - Fish Inspection!

Blanche turns towards the halfling with a look of surprise, ears wilting a little before she narrows her eyes. That tone didn't exactly endear him, and she was starting to suspect this... what was it Anika said he was, a tall gnome? Well, whatever he was, she suspected he might try and get in their way, and she wouldn't let that happen.

Thankfully though, before she can respond with a passive-aggressive remark or the hint of a threat, Calm Reed takes the lead rather... well, calmly. So Blanche mostly just stands there with folded arms and an assessing gaze.