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"Remember that it hurts, remember who hurt you. Figure out what you want to do about it. We'll go see if we can borrow one of those cold chem-packs and use it to numb it, okay? Things might not be able to fixed up perfectly here," she answered, as gently as she could. Children, she couldn't work with. A.... an apprentice, a student? Maybe. As long as she could keep thinking of her that way, things would work out fine.

She returned to the police station. "Oh good! Raven, you got the other person back in here. Learned anything from any of those reports yet, bud? You seem to be the one person who is both literate and not blinded by optical flares," She says to Adam, pulling herself up onto a desk and crossing her legs, something which might look odd on a digitigrade creature.

Helynah follows Victi, stunned into silence after overhearing her words to Bronze. The fox has both confirmed her one fear and added several new layers to the horror of this place. They are being hunted. That hunter is apparently a shapeshifter who steals the forms of others- she's never heard of a real creature capable of such atrocity. Finally, no magic. She runs a hand along the fabric of her cloak, an enchanted cloak that's supposed to be light as a feather and strong as steel- this is a lot worse than she thought, and part of her can't quite believe its true.

She doesn't feel like waiting for someone to try hitting her before putting faith in Victi's warning, so Helynah tries a trick she picked up from her travels with dragons and witches. She snaps her fingers. Nothing. There's supposed to be a spark of electricity, but she feels nothing. She realizes now that there isn't even any ambient magic for her to draw that power from. An experienced 'mancer might have sensed that problem immediately, but the hand-held lightning is a trick she learned only a few weeks ago.

Damn it.

Helynah whispers a prayer asking to live another day to see lightning spark at her fingers. Then she's calm again. Victi leads her to a low brick building labeled as a "Police Station." She hears her happily greeting someone, Raven, and when its her turn to meet her fellow survivors, she freezes in the doorway.

Raven, indeed a domestic cat, greets them with a big smile and loud, rumbling purr. Then on the floor lies a man, unconsious and heavily battered. Against the wall curls a younger person, pale with curly hair and a red, tear streaked face. Beside him lies a sleeping chimera. Her eyes widen and she freezes in the doorway, having trouble taking it all in.

Raven is overjoyed to see them walk through the door. "You're all aliv- wait a moment!" She narrows her eyes at Helynah, or rather, past her. "Didn't Little say that there were two of them?" Oh, well. "Welcome to the light side, stranger." She says this a little half-heartedly while casting a glance toward Lisa, who'd normally at least stir after the noisy entrance they just made.

Bronze silently watched them walk away, his ears twitching Helynah's last words. For once, he seem... irritated. Is it because of his choice? Or their worry? It didn't sound fake, and the warnings sound true. Nonetheless, he walked around the store to find himself a corner, settling around behind one of the shelves that can hide him from plain view outside. In there, he sat on the cold, tiled ground and stared at the adjacent shelf.

His mind is racing. What should he do? Bronze is debating whether he should go back or not. It is true he can outrun the dangers, but he will not last long. The feline rubbed his arm the Helynah pulled earlier, thinking that it felt too real. Maybe he is trapped after all. Maybe this kind of nightmarish dimension is real, and he's trapped with creatures he never even thought about.

Their scent trail would dissipate a few hours later. For now he should arm himself and think more. The store is for himself at the moment, and those green-colored things that squirt water looks fun. Maybe he needs to relieve himself of stress at the moment. Nobody is watching anyways.

"There were, the sword-wielding cat guy seemed horrified by.... something, and decided that fending for himself against the Shifter was a good idea," she said with a snort, "I figure his sword will help us at some point either way. Hopefully in the 'he comes to his senses, gets over himself, and comes with us way, but, you know, options open."

....Maaaybe being so flippant about people getting eaten by monsters wasn't the best way to do this, but.... eh. whatever.

"Heard that finger snap, by the way. Testing magic? Yeah.... I did the same when I got here. This place is dead, and even with what mana I do have stored, spells seem to just dissipate before I even get the waveform modulated. Because, you know, void-shifting out of here or channelling a solar lance would be too easy," she snarked to Helyna.

The cenobite cautiously followed ‘Vincent.’ Dry blood stained her cheeks, and the black cloth. An almost impossibly wide grin was on her face. Her small, quick steps made a soft tapping against the ground.

Finally.... He'd extracted them. A pair of faintly pulsing.... lumps of meat? Not worth much to anyone if he didn't escape, but still, she deserved honour. He put them away in the backpack-like structure built into his robe, sighed with relief at that task being over, and left the house. Others to find, and, well.... the prize wasn't what he expected, so that was good. The more dangerous ally may still be out there....

Raven snorts. "Shame, I'd have liked to see another cat." She stands and stretches. "So everything's been a little too quiet over here. Lisa's out. Soldier boy and his disembodied voice friend have been quiet for a short while. That boy..." she falters, not really sure what to say about them, especially since they're kind of in front of her and listening. Her voice drops to a whisper as she climbs into Victi's lap. "I'm a little worried about him. Uh...Lisa too, I guess. She doesn't usually sleep like this."

“Oh that boy.” Liliat already know who he was . Liliath pivked Raven up to hug her “I missed you.”

"He was built more like me. Upright and stuff," she described, starting to pet Raven with a surprisingly practised hand, "Those flares the operative had also make a nasty pressure wave that can do unpleasant things to the body. Especially the brain. Concussions and headaches and stuff. I'd check to see if her pupils are dilated, that can be a sign of other issues, but that helps less with the blinding.

"He's in a scary situation surrounded by creatures who are probably completely alien to him. Also, I get the feeling he's not exactly used to, say, dead things, eldritch domains, and so on. Most people aren't."

Raven's fur was remarkably soft. Better than her familiar, but hey, carnivore. Strictly superior.

She chuckled as Liliath over-enthusiastically yoinked the tired and stressed Raven from her lap. The quiet was nice.

Wait, crap. Sure, she didn't say it, but she was pretty sure thinking it counts. She stood, warily. Something felt wrong.... VERY wrong...

A long, low building made mostly of windows, right? Sounded commercial... maybe near other service buildings? No.... something wasn't right about this place.... The streets were arranged geometrically, in a rough grid, which was normal. but... the through streets, the side streets.... they didn't follow a sane pattern. If they were full of needless curves and elaborate merges, he would say it was kitsune city-shield nonsense, where you needed a damn magical theory degree just to find a bar. Not that making your cities into magical sigils that would let your planet survive more or less anything was a bad thing, just... horrible to get around in. But no, this.... this was different. It was more like.... like... a living thing. A tree, maybe. It went straight up here because of a long-lost taller neighbour, and stretched out this way because there used to be a pond here when some creature dammed off a creek, and these two branches came off at an odd angle because there used to be one going out straight as well.... It would make sense if he knew the history, but it just looked... strange without it.

He needed to find that sorceress. For one, if anyone would be apt to have magic and technology that worked, it would be her. Between the strange Eldritch magics she had somehow learned, and the fact that her group's technology was mostly old Planeshaper relics, she was the best chance at skewing the odds. Even if not, she was.... disturbingly clever, and may have at least put a few pieces together, magic or no. That, and the fact that he'd only heard stories about her from other members of the church. He was curious.

The abundance of relieving affection does wonders for Raven's mood. She purrs blissfully for Victi's gentle strokes until Liliath snatches her away. Raven squeaks in surprise and lets her claws slide out, but she's quick to put them away when the child brings her close to her chest for a warm hug.

"Heh, missed you too," she purrs.

"Now how 'bout you put me down?"

"I have a horrible feeling that we're being lulled...." Victi murmurs, suddenly seeming weirdly alert. She starts quickly, almost frantically, searching the building. Moving off into another hallway, she finds a more solid looking door: equipment storage. Locked, of course. Electronic lock, by the looks of it, with some sort of tap-pad and no indicator lights. From its position, fairly central in the building, doing, so no windows.

Plan B: evidence room. If she was lucky, maybe she'd find something interesting. Didn't seem like the kind of place where a lot of armed assaults happened, though. Again though, maybe there were some murders associated with whatever this was kicking off... Cultists were always good for that kind of thing.

So, this group isn’t exactly the liveliest of groups. With two out, one catatonic, another a child, another occupied with the child, and the last rushing off in a frenzy to another corner of the building.

Helynah sighs, shrugs her shoulders and decides that the best task for her would be to keep watch. She steps outside and stands by the door. Her trident hasn’t left her hands for the past half hour. She holds it close, somewhat leaning on it. Although she considers herself an ever-alert, watchful individual, she’ll kick herself for as long as she lives for failing to stop what happens next.

In its head, Vincent slings every curse it can remember at those stupid drones. Because it had to take such a detour to lose them, the expedition from the market reached the survivors’ ‘base’ before it could.

Now a tiny shred of doubt stalls it; the creature bars Seeker with one spindly arm so she can’t rush in and get skewered by that woman with the three-pronged spear. There’s something else in its head, too- a feeling it can’t identify but it knows is a very old emotion it shouldn’t be feeling anymore. Vincent quietly buries that feeling with a fantasy of its prey’s blood flowing freely and staining the street crimson. Minutes later, that feeling will come just back a little stronger.

But the vision is strong enough to swell its courage for now. “Let me take that girl,” it whispers to Seeker. “You can have whatever is inssside.”

‘Whatever,’ not ‘who.’ What. Prey. Kill them all.

In the shadows, it shifts. Niskali’s powerful form will serve it well to disarm that woman in seconds.

Its aged copper eyes gleam with excitement. “Now!”

---

Victi will find a few unusual murder weapons in the evidence room: a short length of pipe, clean-cut on one end and jagged on the other; a long, thick spike of solid cement, blood and crusted gore coating half of it; and an old hunting rifle, the end bent backward in the way you see in some hilariously violent 30’s children’s cartoon.

While she investigates this room; the door behind her quietly closes. The outer lock clicks into place. To be on the safe side, a filing cabinet slides to block the door while her back is turned. A quiet hiss starts to slither out from...somewhere, perhaps the cracks between the wall and the floor. This hiss slowly grows louder and soon brings with it the faint odor of gasoline.

It comes almost out of nowhere. A dragon-like demon charges her from a shadowed dead-end alleyway and bowls her over. Helynah cries out in surprise and instinctively jabs at the brute with her trident, but the weapon is caught in one big, clawed hand. The monster- whatever the hell it is -tries to tear it out her hands. She narrows her eyes and tightens her grip as she stumbles forward. Her face almost scrapes the pavement, but she still has her weapon. The beast laughs. She lets out another shout to warn the others and they struggle over getting control of that trident.

Vincent doesn’t seem to be trying that hard to win.

As soon as she hears the hiss, Victi holds her breath and scurries to find a source. If that's a frickin' ..... yeah. Smells like something. Not a typical toxin, at least that she knows. Here's hoping she was lucky. she grabbed the rifle and pipe, holding onto the metal barrel near its base, and brought the two ends close together. Voltage across her body, and a spark between the two. Here comes the lightshow....

White robes appear from the darkness as he approaches the brick building. The aberration was here already, and in his form, rudely, but had been delayed somehow. Better than expected if it meant the sorceress was alive. He broke into a sprint, shifting his glaive to full extension and letting out a resonating battle-roar. Not nearly as inspiring as, say, the holy thunderclap of orbital weapons striking the unrighteous , but it would do the job. He heard a yell of shock and fear from around the corner. Perfect. The goddess's flair for the dramatic would be pleased.

"Ofcourse."Liliath said happily putting her friend down "Lets talk with that boy ."

The Seeker’s figure, which had seemed anorexic (especially for eating so much), had begun shivering. It was cold. Too cold for her liking. So, she sped herself up. Her pale skin, surprisingly had seemed almost white now. She hasn’t even been there for an hour, and she was freezing. She quietly growled as she searched the strange, dark town.