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“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.

Protected by the elements outside with a mere glass wall. While the folks he have encountered and left has been suddenly attacked, Bronze was planning in the store. His first encounter with the monstrous creatures that resides within this... realm is a canine-like, so he concluded that they have more superior senses and abilities.

He's fine on his own. He has been for a whole year now. Bronze loads the last bottle of perfume in the water-gun. It only filled the canister halfway, but it'll work. The feline silently thanked his friend, Sleon, for this plan when they were ambushed once. By hitting their faces with strong perfume, it'll hurt their eyes and confuse their nose. That's enough time for Bronze to escape, right? For now, he'll stay here in this market. It is "super" after all.

"What are you waiting for?" It snarls at the insolent creature as it throws Helynah's trident aside (still in the hands of its wielder.) The dark-skinned girl strikes the asphalt with a painful thud. Her polearm clatters on the ground beside her.

Now there's a dragon charging it, too. That brute should be looking for the grocery store, damn.

"Go inside, Seeker! Feed inside!" It dives to all fours to avoid the swing of Niskali's glaive, then goes for a low tackle, grabbing at its enemy's waist.

As the creature lunges, the warrior yanks back with his forward hand and pushes with his back hand, bringing the back end of the shaft up in front of him, to smack the beast across the head. He is still apt to be pushed back a few steps by the shifter's attack, but will hopefully leave a mark, easily healed though it may be.

The cenobite would have glanced if she could, but made a dadh into the building either way. Not many placed to hide, so she just stood awkwardly. Apparently cenobites, too, felt awkward about things. She, after some thinking, rushed behind the counter. A jolt of excitement rsn through her as she jumped over the stained counter. If it wasn’t seen as a friend, she probably would have went for Vincent. But, she didn’t. She went for the back.

It stumbles under the pain of something smacking against the side of its face. It backs away, hissing, crouching on all fours and looking the part of a wild animal in Niskali’s skin. Instead of charging, it steps back and waits for the Warpriest to make the next move. However, it doesn’t seem to be watching him all that well; the piercing gaze of its stolen eyes drift past its opponent to focus on the prone figure on the ground, the robed human it had just tossed aside.

A fierce eruption blasts out of the metal pipe and envelops the ceiling in flame. The explosion probably singes Victi’s fur and scorches some of her flesh. The pipe and rifle she used to try redirecting the fire end up busted and whatever is still in her hands burns white-hot in her palms. The searing fire is nearly gone as soon as it had blazed to life, leaving behind specks of hot embers here and there on the far side of the room. Wisps of grey smoke diffuse through the air. She also damaged whatever infrastructure controls the release of the gas, accelerating the speed at which it pours into the sealed enclosure.

When she lifts her head, Helynah stares in shocked disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of her.

I must have dented my skull; I’m seeing double, of course.

But as her eyes come to focus, she knows that both dragons are very real and also identical. Crap. The ethereal fox did say they were facing some sort of mimic. So one of them’s not real, and the other might be on her side.

How the hell is she supposed to know who she needs to stab?

She fumbles to find her trident. There! Her fingers close around the lower grip. Then she looks up, squinting at the two hulking dragon-people, praying to find a difference between the two so she knows who not to make an enemy of.

One of them is staring at her, its eyes cold and eager and hungry. Its stare sends a chill through her veins. That one. That’s the one she needs to fight. She stands, stumbling only a little, and steels herself to face the demon.

“Pfft...you can try-” Boom! She jumps at the sound of something exploding on the other side of the building. “What the-!?” Behind that, she hears the roars of some fight going down outside. Then. Her ears prick, then flatten against her head as her eyes widen in fear.

She hears a little tap, tap, tap of something coming for them and it can’t possibly be good.

Victi and Helynah are gone doing who-knows-what. Adam’s in no shape to fight...and their other two capable fighters are out like extinguished candles.

“Liliath,” she whispers hoarsely. “I think we should run.”

Great. People are yelling again. She growls with annoyance and tries just for a moment to go back to sleep, then something- an explosion? -jolts her awake. Her eyes fly wide open and she instantly regrets that. She squeezes them shut while fumbling for her knife. Her hand closes around the hilt of the blade as she jumps to her feet- another regrettable action. “Gods...Raven, what is happening?”

“B-bad things!” squeaks the cat.

She opens her eyes just a sliver to take who’s awake. The curly-haired boy, Raven, and Liliath. Victi’s out of sight but a part of her suspects that she has something to do with that explosion. She seems like the kind of creature who’d enjoy making stuff explode.

Who or whatever is responsible, they need to get out.

Lisa has no idea that they’ve been joined by a human from her own world or that she and two “dragons” are waging battle just outside. Lacking that knowledge, she says, “Raven, take the child outside. You, stranger,” her voice cracks as she commands Adam to run. “Get out, too.”

Orders given, she turns to Masato’s unmoving body. “OPTIC, I think...I think n-now would be a good time to wake your bonded if you can.” One can see in her wide eyes and nervous twitch that she’s quickly losing her resolve as adrenaline pumps through her veins and panicked Chimeran instincts that she can’t satisfy scream in her head. She's frozen to the spot, torn between fight and flight.