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Post by tsukikoko on Apr 7, 2017 9:12:58 GMT -6
Sara was overwhelmingly relieved when the medical team left, satisfied that no further harm was going to come to her work mate. Despite her findings, she had still been concerned, just in case the creature had been venomous, or had some other abilities that she could not test with the sample she had been given. But, aside from perhaps a bit of pain and stiffness - judging by the slightly limited mobility he appeared to have in that arm - it seemed Aaron would be just fine.
The red-head had just removed her lab coat and was about to finish washing her hands when Aaron bolted from the room, his curses and general demeanor confirming her fears that whoever the on-site officer was, he was in grave danger. But before she could even call out so much as a 'hey!', her coworker had already set off down the hall, on his phone and talking with a feverish urgency. The shifter ran after him, keeping pace with a quick trot as she listened to all the equipment he required; he really wasn't taking any chances with this creature, not that she was entirely surprised, given his account of how large and aggressive it had been.
Increasing her pace just a touch so she was slightly in front of Aaron (though not blocking his path), Sara spoke in a determined fashion, stubbornness creeping at the edges of her tone, "Wait a minute! I can 'elp ya, just.. tell me what tah do, I.." she paused, her gaze drifted back for just a second, caught sight of the large, ugly scar on her tail as it followed behind her. She swallowed the froth of nerves threatening to rise and reaffirmed, "I want tah 'elp owt."
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Apr 7, 2017 9:43:26 GMT -6
"Aaargh!" Stenson threw his arms out in a pushing motion as two of the wretched, scrambling creatures came at his face, pushing an arm into each one's fleshy abdomen and successfully tossing them off of him. At least...for a moment. He rolled over, pulling his legs underneath his body to try and stand, and managed at least a crouch before the two mimics leapt once more onto his hunched back. Though he could not feel their teeth and claws digging into the bulletproof vest, he could certainly hear it.
He stumbled forward, a lurching motion while still bent over, before he crashed into a nearby conveyor belt, sending one of the things flying sideways and across the rubberized belt of the machinery. Finally, Stenson stood, raising both arms and reaching back to try and grab the legs of the other mimic still clinging to his vest. He managed to grab to legs before heaving the thing off his back and over his head, sending it sailing away from him. The larger of the two was now hissing angrily, before it let out a few consecutive cries, shrill and bug-like, the sound of an oversized cricket might make. There was a moment that Stenson thought he was finally getting the upper hand, kicking at the larger mimic as it spewed and spit and grasped at him from his hip, at least until he felt his feet yanked out from under him.
He hadn't even seen it approach. Hadn't heard it. It just...appeared. Before he knew it, Stenson was being dragged across the factory floor, back skidding across the cracked and mishappen concrete ground. He felt a sharp pain as his head collided with a hard metal surface, and for a moment, he feared he might black out. But, like a television losing its picture in a power bump, Stenson lost vision and then came back seconds later, vision blurred and white-red with pain. The thing dragging him began to ascend a nearby wall. It was person sized, maybe the same one from earlier, but he couldn't tell. The others continued to bite at his arms and legs, their mandibles scraping uselessly across the granite surface covering his skin. Stenson starred blearily at the hulking, deformed creature before trying to sit up, grabbing weakly at the claw holding his leg. He thought about losing his current form. There was no one around, he could take these things if he were bigger, stronger... "Let...me...go...you-" THWAP. This time, Stenson did black out, with only the photo-negative image of the creature's clawed fist left in his mind's unconscious eye. A darkened line of inky blood dripped from a bruised cut just above his eye and his glasses had landed below him, knocked off from the hit.
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Post by MP on Apr 7, 2017 11:58:20 GMT -6
Aaron hardly had time to hang up before a familiar shock of red hair came jogging into his field of vision. His mouth slanted in a dubious line at Sara's words:
"Wait a minute! I can 'elp ya, just.. tell me what tah do, I.."
His gut response in the pause was a resounding no. Disregarding the amount of trouble he'd face for taking non-field personnel into a hostile situation - the wendigo incident had been nightmare enough - there was also the matter of Sara herself.
"I want tah 'elp owt," she persisted, and Aaron frowned. He recognized that tone.
"You said that thing messes with cells," he said. Aaron did not slow in his headlong rush, but he looked at his coworker with an expression of earnest concern. "Sara, your cells are already - what happens if it touches you? You could be an outlier. You-"
He broke off as they rushed through the armory doors, and his gaze too turned to the scar snaking down Sara's tail. His thoughts were on the shaggy, crocodile-tailed dog that had come charging from the woods that night. On the nurses' teasing stories of a tailed woman appearing in his hospital room again and again until she got her way. Sara would probably follow regardless. The safest thing he could do was to keep an eye on her.
"You have to keep this on at all times," Aaron said, handing her a set of reinforced gear. He set the matching helmet atop the pile with an air of finality. "No exceptions. I'll get the tactical gear - meet me down at the garage with any containment equipment you need. We may need a field analyst."
That was what he told himself as they pulled up to the factory an agonizing half hour later. Aaron gave her a portion of the spell grenades, stun batons, the comms gear - instructed her in their use. It did not make him feel any better about this.
"Do not lose this, whatever you do - and don't laugh," he said finally, handing her one of the lanterns. "Comms units can short out or break, but I'll sense this if we get separated."
The little glass and iron frame, though archaic by all other standards, currently held a small orb of sunlight that Aaron had spent precious minutes gathering in the last dying rays of evening. It would be some defense against nocturnal creatures. It was no comfort to him at all as they creaked open the factory doors.
"Jones!" he barked as they entered. Just once. The sound rang hollowly through the rafters. No sign of the officer. Aaron cursed under his breath and ventured further in on silent steps. Another hushed, savage expletive when he saw an open, unfamiliar door.
"Jesus Christ, he didn't," he whispered. But there was no doubt of it. He beckoned Sara to fall in behind him and proceeded down this new hallway, eyes flickering over the ceiling, the vents, the rusted grates. It was only when the room opened into a field of dead conveyor belts and metal husks that he stopped. His eyes were on the pale knot twitching in a puddle of its own black tar.
Aaron approached it silently, poised to spring back at any moment. The thing did not move. It was smaller than the one he had seen, but surely no less agile. He crept closer by slow degrees. The tar was more like a splatter than a trail - scattered outward as though a large boot had stomped in it. A spindly leg twitched, just once, like that of a dying spider. Aaron nudged it with a boot. The creature was dead.
He stepped back, eyes turning to the trails in the dust. Swaths where debris had been thrown after years of undisturbed neglect. He looked over at Sara, his expression black.
Then, as he stared, his expression changed. He paled visibly, eyes riveted on a point over her shoulder where, at the far end of the room, something dangled from the rafters. Not the pale, many-jointed limb of the mimic. A hand. Aaron's eyes darted over the quiet rafters. Checked the windows. Went back to the still hand.
"There," he whispered hoarsely, nodding toward the spot. "Get him down..."
It was not an order so much as a goal voiced aloud, fragmented in his horror. Aaron moved toward the spot and stood looking up, debating how to get the officer down. He thought he could make out the faint rise and fall of the chest. He couldn't be sure. Couldn't be sure of anything except that he never should have left the man alone here.
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Post by tsukikoko on Apr 7, 2017 14:13:05 GMT -6
Sara had been, in honesty, shocked that Aaron had actually relented and allowed her to tag along with him. Sure, she had been prepared to follow him, but that wasn't the point. He had agreed to let her come. As the car pulled up to an old, abandoned factory, the shifter checked her helmet again, just to be sure it was fastened correctly; she had been able to tell how serious Aaron had been about her bodily protection and considering he had voiced an inner concern of hers about this creature touching her, considering the less-than-normal state of her own cells, she was inclined to follow his orders to the letter. She picked at one of the scales on her tail, a small outlet for the nervous energy building up inside her. Sara would be lying to herself if she said she wasn't scared, but she couldn't just sit idly by, knowing that someone was in danger, when there was a chance she could be of use. After all, someone needed to watch Aaron's back. "Do not lose this, whatever you do - and don't laugh. Comms units can short out or break, but I'll sense this if we get separated." She nodded, "Alreet, can do." When he exited the car, she followed suit, quickly securing a long sleeve of padded material over her tail. It might look strange, but she couldn't risk any part of her skin being exposed to this creature.
As the agent entered the factory, Sara stuck close behind, a small rucksack of equipment on her back; she hadn't brought much, not wanting to be weighted down or encumbered in case the situation turned sour. Though, judging by the lack of reply by 'Stenson' and the string of expletives her work mate uttered, the situation was already dire. As per the unspoken instruction of his hand signal, Sara fell in step behind him, a sliver of dread creeping along her back as they tread deeper into the bowels of this forgotten building. When he suddenly stopped, the shifter nearly ran into the back of him, since she had been looking nervously at all the potential hiding spots a mimic-like creature could be stalking them from. As Aaron slowly inched forwards, she rose on her tiptoes to look over his shoulder, now catching sight of what had his attention so riveted; the twitching leg was an unwelcome movement, nearly firing the nerves in her legs that currently sat on a hair trigger, ready for her to bolt at a moment's notice. However, with a light kick of his boot, her agent companion ascertained the deceased nature of this particular creature. When he stepped back, the scientist moved forward, already swinging her bag round to fish out some sample vials.
"There." Even though little more than a whisper, the sudden voice made Sara jump, all her muscles tensing as she span round, half expecting a mimic to be sat on the far wall. That was not the case, if anything, it was worse. With a supreme amount of effort, Sara swallowed the shriek that threatened to spill forth as she, too, caught sight of a hand limply hanging from the ceiling. At that moment, the first thought to cross her mind was that she really wished she hadn't watched Aliens a few nights previously. She watched the agent as he stepped forward, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. She didn't move, caught suddenly by an overwhelming feeling that something was watching them. The shifter looked around herself, her mouth opening to call out her trepidation to her companion.
The sound died in her throat, when a large glob of black, viscous material landed with a splat to her right. Without thinking, she fell forward, throwing her body to the factory floor in a puff of dust. As a result, the attack aimed for her head grabbed a hold of her rucksack instead, hoisting her into the air with such speed and ferocity that she let out an involuntary scream. "AARON!" The shift threatened, a swift and instinctual response to her predicament. But she fought it, knowing that would only shed her of the protective armour Aaron had given her, would make her an easier target for this creature, especially if she became a prey animal. Instead, she struggled in the confines of her rucksack, feeling frantically for the clips that fastened it to her. With a click, they came undone and she tumbled from the straps, landing with a thump on the floor. She scrabbled, not aware if the fall had hurt or not, thinking only of fleeing away from the monstrosity in a half-run, half-crawl. The creature retreated into the rafters, investigating the rucksack for a few moments with tentacled limbs before throwing it to the ground in a shriek of annoyance. The prey it had sought was not attached, nor had there been anything worthwhile to it in the bag. With a clacking of mandibles and another shriek, it skittered away back into the darkness, a trail of black goo in it's wake.
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Apr 8, 2017 9:28:37 GMT -6
The dark nothingness in Stenson's mind suddenly flashed a dull red as pain began to throb in his head, dragging him out of his blissful unconscious slumber. A name...perhaps his own, called somewhere far off. He sank a little back into the nothing, but another burst of pain squeezed at his mind, pulling him ever further out of his slump. He could hear voices, they were jumbled together and their words incomprehensible, followed by a yell. Another name, but this time not his own... and much louder, more distressed.
Stenson stirred, arm hanging down into empty space, the other drapped across his stomach. He turned his head slightly, sending more throbs of pain lancing from his forehead to the rest of his skull, and he let out a groan. The sound of a brief struggle and more panicked yells reached his ears, and he mostly ignored it simply out of dizzyness. At least until something prickly began skittering across the back of his hand, at which he awoke with a start, nightmarish images of tiny mutant spider mimics flashing across his mind's eye. He jerked his hand in reaction, flinging a decent sized but perfectly normal wolf spider off his hand before grabbing wildly for something to hold on to when he realized he was basically suspended over open air. There was only the hard metal beam beneath him, which he was currently lying along the length of on his back as if he had just been napping or something. He reached back to grab ahold of the I-Beam's edges to steady himself, now sitting up half-way and looked down below him. He blinked as if to clear the slight blurriness of his vision. His glasses...he'd lost his glasses. The figures were clear enough to make out as Aaron and some other person suited up in some kind of riot gear, but...what had been all that yelling? Just then, the sound of many spindly clawed feet sounded somewhere close to him, up in the rafters. Stenson caught sight of the thing that had dragged him earlier, looking like an incredibly large version of the spider he'd just flung from his hand, but much fleshier and awkward looking.
"Up here!" Stenson called down to Aaron and the other. To them, he would look like a slumped figure, eyes reflecting like mirrored silver down at them, a nocturnal look. "I'm up here! It's coming my way!" The mimic creature hissed, looking over at its earlier prey, most displeased to find that it's snack had woken up. The creature dragged itself in his direction, long emaciated arms and legs bowing and reaching over the metal I-beams and rafters. Stenson sat forward and pulled himself into a crouched, balanced stance on the I-beam. Another spider, simple and very unmimic-like, rose in front of him on a web, past which Stenson could see two of the small spider-like mimics clambering up ahead of him on the I-beam. His heart raced, sending stabbing pain where his bruised forehead was now bleeding slowly down into his eye. He felt...phobic, at the sight of both the mimics and the spider.
"....I-...I can't-" Of all his police training and dealings with odd supers over the past year, he'd yet to encounter any situation like this. Although, a year hadn't been very long, how could he have ever dealt with something like this? "I think-...guys, I'm gonna jump down. I can't stay up here..." His voice shook ever so slightly with panic. He reached for his baton, but that was also missing. Then he found his mace spray. "S-stay back!" He warned, raising it up as the mimics charged at him from both ends of the I-beam. He pressed the button on top, sending a cloud of reddish mist at the two smaller mimics before leaping to the side and down off the beam. He landed on one of the conveyor belts below, legs taking most of the landing, and fell at once to the ground in his dizzy state. In his panic, however, he pushed himself forward on hands and knees, crawling towards the others, before he got his footing and ran to them, breathing fast and trying to get control of his nerves. "Are you guys....ok....I'm....sorry I...got into that mess...you'll have to....excuse me for a second," he breathed, fighting the overdose of adrenaline, bending slightly with hands on his knees. Already, the mimics overhead were screeching and rubbing legs and feelers across their stinging faces, black liquid drool pouring from their mouths the way a large dog might after eating a nasty insect, excessive and uncontrollable. The largest one immediately began to climb down towards them, beady eyes shining fiercely from behind its barred, fanged mandibles.
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Post by MP on Apr 8, 2017 14:57:24 GMT -6
As Aaron stared into the rafters, eyes adjusting to the dark beyond his lantern, the shadows around the unconscious man seemed to...crawl. He narrowed his eyes. Started to unclip a small magazine from his side belt. Was about to murmur a warning to Sara when he heard her scream.
He almost rammed the first dart into his rifle as he spun towards her, heart hammering in his throat. Aaron caught a terrible glimpse of Sara suspended midair, pale feelers tearing at her rucksack as she struggled desperately with the clips. But even as he trained the rifle on the creature, she crashed to earth and the creature sprang away into the rafters, still screeching its frustration.
He kept his eyes and aim upwards as he hurried to her. She hadn't quite gained her feet, was still desperately trying to scramble clear. Still watching the rafters, he clamped a steadying hand around her shoulder, almost holding her in place.
"Stop moving," he ordered in a low voice. "Stay quiet."
It was probably too late for that second part. An unnatural hush seemed to have fallen in the aftermath of Sara's scream, save for the slight sound of something large scuttling through the nearby vents. Aaron noted the direction. Checked the rafters again. He counted three - one large, two smaller - crouched around Stenson, who had begun to stir. Mandibles worked excitedly as they stared down at him. Aaron forced himself to breath calmly. The worst thing to do now was to flail around and attract the things with panic. He didn't know these creatures. But as Yoon had once told him, predators were all alike.
"You'll want this out," he murmured, unclipping the stun baton from Sara's belt and handing it to her. "Just keep calm." The creatures burbled fitfully overhead.
He stood slowly, carefully, motioning for Sara to do the same. He had four darts; there were three creatures - a fourth possibly on the way. He'd have to do it quickly - tranq the big ones before they could turn on Stenson. He just needed a clear shot - somewhere clear of the rafters. Aaron began to edge toward one end of the room, the side with the fewest shattered windows. He was careful not to stray too far from Sara this time. As long as they didn't panic, didn't act too much like prey - but they were out of time.
"Up here! I'm up here! It's coming my way!"
The stillness broke. The response to the noise and sudden movement was immediate. The largest of the pale figures twitched forward with a squeal. Went for the officer in a scrabbling rush. There was frantic movement in the vents now, and this time Aaron heard the scratch of far too many feet. He reacted instinctively as the thing lunged for Stenson, reaching for one of his sunlit vials and lobbing it at the doughy face. Though the glass shattered harmlessly on the beam in front of it, the creature shrank back from the flare of light with a watery hiss. The sunlight winked out the next moment, but Aaron was smiling.
"Don't like that, do you?" He muttered, feeding extra magic into the lanterns to sustain their light. Every bit counted now.
"I'm....sorry I...got into that mess... You'll have to....excuse me for a second." Stenson rejoined them, looking disoriented but unharmed, save for a gash in his head.
"Don't have one - we're leaving," Aaron retorted, handing the officer the third lantern and the third set of riot equipment he'd been carrying on his own belt. Cold dread crept up his spine at the sounds coming from the vents. "We're not equipped to deal with an infestation - and Sara might be susceptible. We're -"
A pang of horror as he looked at the door through which they'd entered. Massive pale feelers tapped over the threshold. Two large somethings hunkered in the doorway, mandibles working steadily. Another pulled itself around its fellows, smaller creatures peeling and falling from its running underbelly. Four. That made four big ones, plus whatever was coming through the vents.
"We're going this way," he corrected himself hoarsely, nodding his companions towards the factory depths - their only other exit from the room. "Basement might have a maintenance exit. Or we can get out through a window. Keep those lamps high."
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Post by tsukikoko on Apr 12, 2017 15:18:48 GMT -6
Sara visibly quivered. She had to use a lot of self-control not to cling to either Aaron or the man she assumed to be Stenson as the chittering erupted all around them; she knew the two men needed all their dexterity for what was to come and didn't wish to impede their movement. Having managed to hold back another scream, the red head wrapped her arms around herself, as though trying to hold herself together; in reality, that was exactly what she was trying to do. Now more than ever the shifts teetered at the edge of her control, a cacophony of animal instincts assaulted her in a mad panic, desperate to fight or flee or do anything to escape. But Aaron was right, she could be susceptible, if they were to touch her there was no telling what could happen but... "We're going this way." The words filtered through Sara's internal barrage, but she could barely react to them, was only able to weakly lift her head to look in the direction he mentioned. As her gaze settled on their potential escape, it was as though every single animal that made up her ever-shifting genome turned to it all at once. She became overwhelmed by a single drive, a single desire; GO. GO, ESCAPE. GO.
She began to move, stiffly at first, limbs uncooperative. But, over the course of a few strides, she began to speed up in an awkward, staggering gait. Still the surface of her skin rippled, a transformation never far off. It was only the human, the part of her that really made her Sara, that made the woman look back. She couldn't just leave them behind, she had to make sure they were following! But as she looked, the freakish, black forms of the 'mimics' lunged forward towards the group. The rising scream became a whimper as she stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over her own feet; she wanted to run, but she couldn't abandon the others, but what could she do she couldn't risk them touching her shecouldn'tdoanythingbutshehadtodosom-
The change happened before Sara's consciousness was aware of it. Over the span of a few moments, all Sara knew was that she was running, sprinting towards her companions at breakneck speeds, her vision narrowing to a narrow tunnel with the two men at the end of it. Her first inkling that something was different, changed, was in the realisation that Aaron and Stenson now stood shorter than herself. With a rush and a pop, sound returned to her and Sara became aware of the distinctive pounding of four hooved feet against the hard flooring of the factory, accompanied by the occasional slap of a tail. She did not dwell on the realisation, however, as all she could focus on was the movement of the mimic creatures towards the men and that they needed to move, MOVE, MOVE!
As Sara charged closer, she lowered her shaggy head to the ground, a loud squeal the only warning Stenson would get before the head of a draft horse came through his legs and tossed back, aiming to throw him onto her back - she hoped he would hang on. The horse skidded to a stop before the mimics, spinning about-face with her hind legs, her tail acting almost like a rudder. With another scream she dashed away from the flailing, dripping limbs of the creatures and she made a beeline now for Aaron. When the horse passed, she made a desperate bite for his clothes, trying to grab hold of him or at least assisting him in grabbing a hold of her. Then her mad charge into the depths of the factory continued, hopefully with her two companions now in tow. The creatures smashed mandibles together in anger, each one setting off after the group in different directions; at least one followed directly, along the factory floor, but others headed for the darkness, the rafters and ventilation systems, to emerge when least expected..
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Apr 12, 2017 19:30:08 GMT -6
Stenson barely had time to catch his breath before Agent Telmore shoved a lantern of some sort and a set of riot gear towards him. He fumbled for the objects, nearly dropping half the riot gear before recovering and swallowing his phobic anxieties. Now was not the time. Aaron was right, they needed to move.
"We're not equipped to deal with an infestation - and Sara might be susceptible. We're -" Stenson gave Aaron a questioning look before following his gaze back towards the door leading out, heart sinking at the sight that awaited him. Great, more, and they were HUGE.
"We're going this way," Aaron corrected, readjusting his point of direction to the depths of the factory. "Basement might have a maintenance exit. Or we can get out through a window. Keep those lamps high."
"Roger." Stenson replied, grappling with his own lantern which had become bundled inside of the riot gear. He brought it out and winced at the sharp light inside. He felt his hand grow somewhat numb, but before he could even think about anything else, the woman who'd come with Aaron was already off. "Well, she's eager. What's her name?" Stenson asked, making to jog after her but keeping pace with Aaron. A sharp hiss overhead interrupted any answer however as one of the mimics crashed out of the vents to drop onto them from above. Stenson swung his lantern upwards just in time, knocking the flailing spider thing to the side. He gave a huff of a laugh in victory, but it was short lived as he saw the larger ones now pulling themselves through the doorway. At first, he thought maybe the creatures were heavier than they sounded, almost like the hooves of a large horse, thundering towards them. At least, that's what he thought, until the head of a horse forcibly crashed into the back of his legs, sending him up and over onto it's back. With his arms mostly full with riot gear, Stenson nearly lost his balance before shooting forward and wrapping one free arm around the animal's neck. "What the f-!" Was all he could mutter as the horse circled around and made for Aaron next, biting at Aaron's clothing as if to pluck him up and onto its back too. In an attempt to keep some amount of focus through the madness, Stenson began an awkward horse-back wrestle with the riot gear, struggling into at least the chest and arm gear, followed by the helmet, while the rest remained tucked under his other arm. He'd have to get to the rest later. Reaching forward, Stenson made to grab at Agent Telmore's arms, to help him onto the horse before he was trampled under the weight of its massive hooves. The mimics sneered and screeched at them, clambering from all around in an attempt to overwhelm their fleeing prey.
"Grab my hand!" The officer yelled, trying his best to shout over the noise of the mimics and the hooves. Up ahead, the factory grew darker still, a mazework of machinery and metal material. One such piece of sheet metal stood out to his nightvision, visibly resting horizontally across their path with each side resting on a conveyor belt to either side of it. "Woah! Jump!" Stenson shouted, tapping the horse's shoulder. Had he gone insane? Talking to horses now? Was this even happening? Well, if anything, it was worth a try. He then braced himself, hoping to God the horse had heard him.
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Post by MP on Apr 12, 2017 21:40:17 GMT -6
While Aaron heard the officer's questions, they did not immediately register. He was much more concerned with the sound of skittering in the vents above them, and the scratching of spindly legs behind them. He collected himself as they bolted for the far exit, at least enough to communicate a plan to Jones. The words bumped and jostled as they ran:
"One of us needs to take point. The other goes rearguard. These things can't touch Sara under any circumstances. She's - "
It was all he had time for before he heard the hooves charging toward them. Aaron actually faltered in his run, eyes widening with terror and - in spite of the danger they were all in - anger as the very loud, very armorless horse bowled into Sten and started charging for him next. The next moment, the horse's teeth champed over his vest and heaved him off his feet, silencing any argument he had on the matter. Aaron clutched desperately at the mane, and it was only Jones' outstretched hand that saved him from falling. Once safely seated, he clutched at the neck with a new type of terror entirely: he'd never ridden a horse before. Worse than that, this situation was sickeningly familiar.
Still holding to Sara's mane for dear life, he tried to call to her as she galloped on. She couldn't, or wouldn't hear him. Grey support beams and yawning rooms of conveyor belts flashed by them. Office windows looked from the upper stories like rheumy eyes. The hallways twisted and branched like a maze, and they tore onward, reckless. He'd been here before. He'd been sitting like this when the stag charged into the labyrinth, when the demon came for them, when bolts whined from the wall and into flesh. The memory was cloudy with terror and blood loss, but he could still hear the stag's scream as an arrow struck its neck - remembered the stiff, helpless tangle of its legs as it toppled and rolled. They were making the same mistakes, charging toward the same end, and he couldn't see this happen again - he couldn't -
Aaron was leaning forward, shouting for her to stop, shouting something about noise and armor too, though his words were incoherent in his ears. He'd never told her about the maze - never told anyone but his superiors - and in his panicked deja vu, he couldn't find the words to warn them both. By the time he gathered his wits enough to argue about unknown territory and the dangers of charging blindly into it, it was too late to stop or slow. A discarded sheet of metal lay across their path and there was no choice but to jump it, at the speed they were going. Jump it or turn, and risk spilling everyone over the conveyor belts and scrap.
Aaron's eyes fell on the room beyond the obstacle, which was crusted with tarry patches along the walls and floor. He looked to the hallway at the end of it, grooved with the imprint of many tiny claws, and his heart sank even as he ducked against the horse's neck in preparation for the jump.
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Post by tsukikoko on Apr 16, 2017 12:12:42 GMT -6
It seemed there was nothing that could tear the draft horse from her headlong charge through the factory. Words from her companions fell on deaf ears and no clear exit appeared to greet them, which gave her no reason to stop. In her panicked state, Sara had not noticed the tell-tale darkening at the edges of her tunneled vision, an early warning that she was pushing too hard, expending too much energy in such a large form. As her hooves continued to pound along the ground, her breath came in heaving gasps, so loud they almost drowned out the shout of warning from Stenson. "Woah! Jump!" The sheet of metal loomed into her view, a potentially deadly obstacle given the speed she was travelling. With no other choice, driven by instinct and mad fear, Sara's muscles bunched beneath her, released a moment later like a coiled spring. But she was tired, her vision blotted out at increasing intervals and the remnants of the riot gear provided to her were still wrapped around the horse's legs, preventing her from drawing up her legs as much as she wanted, so she misjudged her jump.
Sara cleared the metal but landed badly on the other side, her front leg collapsing beneath her and throwing her weight off to one side. Unable to move her next leg beneath her to catch the fall, the horse went down hard, though she managed to stop herself from rolling onto her riders as they were likely thrown from her back. The next few seconds passed in a blur, with Sara frantically struggling to clear her vision, rise to her feet or find Aaron and Stenson, to see whether they had been hurt. The physical exertion had been too great, however, and before she could do anything to fight it, the black rush of unconsciousness rushed up to meet her, forcing the shifter back to her human form. She lay in the center of disturbed dust - having been swept through by her thrashing tail and desperate attempts to stand - and a mess of riot gear and scraps of old factory equipment, unmoving now.
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Apr 16, 2017 12:52:04 GMT -6
Stenson braced himself as the horse leaped over the metal scrap, and though they were saved the macabre results of what might've happened if the animal had missed it's cue to jump, they were instead thrown off it's back as it landed awkwardly and lost its footing, spilling the riders onto the factory floor.
Stenson rolled into a support beam which brought his momentum to a sudden halt. The collision was, mercifully, lessened by the riot gear now protecting most of his back and shoulders, and Stenson sat up quickly to assess whatever damage had become of his fallen comrades. The horse, which had suddenly disappeared, was replaced by none other than the woman he remembered from some time ago, after a lab explosion at Headquarters. He had been called in that day, he remembered, to assist in any rescue of personel who may have been hurt or trapped by the debris of the destroyed lab, one of whom had been this woman. Sara Summers, was her name, if his memory served him right, and she looked no different now laid out on the dusty ground than when he'd found her under the rubble of the lab all that time ago. She was, it seemed, also unconcious. Reaching out, Stenson grabbed the bottom half of his riot gear which had thankfully landed within reach of where he'd fallen and put it on, completing the set.
"Aaron, where are you? Are you alright?" Stenson called out, looking for the agent underneath and around the mess of scrap and machinery. When he finally spotted Aaron, he went over and gave him a hand, pulling him to his feet before hurrying over to Sara. Stenson rolled her onto her back and slipped two arms underneath of her, lifting her up off the ground. "We need to move!" Already the mimics were closing in on them, from top to bottom, scurrying through the metal patchwork of the factory to surround their prey. Stenson shifted Sara's weight so that her head was resting on his shoulder, and continued towards the back of the factory. We're almost there, "Just keep them off our backs, just a little further!" Although, despite words of encouragement, Stenson had a creeping feeling of dread that what awaited them in the bowels of the factory would be far from an easy escape.
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Post by MP on Apr 22, 2017 2:40:16 GMT -6
There was a slowing sense of horror as the world tilted and his grip failed. Aaron made a frantic grab at nothing and tumbled as Sara pitched sideways. He caught a glimpse of something pale and crablike scuttling along the beams high above, the moment seeming to stretch. The sight brought a pang of horror. Then the floor rushed up to meet him and he was rolling, cutting a swath through the dust. He reeled upright in the doorway, too shaken to appreciate just how close he had come to rolling right down the stairs. There was something on his helmet. He swiped at it before realizing that it was not grime, but a spiderweb of scratches and cracks where the face shield had struck the floor. That would have broken his nose. Lucky.
He laughed at the thought - a dazed, disoriented sound that was cut short as he realized someone was calling him. A grey hand pulled him upright and back to his senses. Aaron shook his head to clear it and pulled off the ruined helmet, tossing it aside. Sara's gear looked to be in better shape, and he hurried to help adjust it as Stenson gathered the unconscious shifter into his arms. There wasn't time to secure it perfectly, so he fitted the helmet back on her head and secured the tail cover before urging Stenson down the stairs. It would have to do. Aaron took up the rear guard position, snatching up the lanterns as he went.
The horse's form had not bought them much time. Already he could see the first of the large mimics scrabbling toward them, a crawling swarm of smaller ones about its feet. The vents above were quiet, and he focused on that happy thought as he placed two of the lanterns side by side in the doorway. The combined lantern light was easier to shape, and as Aaron retreated down the stairs after his companions, it held in the air and seemed to puddle, larger and larger. It was as concentrated as he could manage now - almost football-sized, and radiant in the dark of the stairwell. The foremost mimic tumbled over its own legs in an effort to stop. It rose spitting and striking, its smaller kin milling and squealing around its legs, but none of them attempted to cross the shining doorway. Aaron almost cradled their last lantern as they ran on.
"Just keep them off our backs, just a little further!" Stenson was calling.
Aaron nodded automatically. Now that they had a bit of breathing room, he could explain what little they knew. He described Sara's findings in an undertone as they went, along with their concerns over her unique condition. "It's why they can't be allowed to make contact with her," he said, his voice strained as their little ring of lantern light bobbed through the increasingly narrow halls. "I shouldn't have brought her. I was afraid she'd - it was stupid of me."
He fell silent in the dark. He'd been gathering light around their last lantern in case of an ambush, and in its brightening glow, he could see the walls. The hall wasn't narrowing after all. It was caked with the black sludge, thick and dull as a scab. It crunched beneath his boot as Aaron came too near to the wall, and he made a soft sound of disgust. The things must have been here awhile.
"Careful," he muttered.
But even as he spoke, the walls fell away into darkness. It might have been some kind of small boiler room once. Aaron wasn't sure through all the debris and the sludge. But he could see the outline of an exit sign protruding from the ceiling. He nodded Stenson towards it, fighting a growing sense of paranoia. The hair rose on his arms, prickled on his neck even beneath the armored gear. He paused to listen, but there were no vents - no sounds of pursuit yet. Only the odd, almost primal anxiety. He glanced to the officer, about to ask for his take on things.
Before he could speak, something moved on the wall behind Stenson - not crawling like the large mimics, or tensing like the smaller pouncing ones. It flexed. Bent ever so slightly, like a tree in a breeze. Aaron began to follow the movement upward with his eyes. And then, turning to the other corners of the room and seeing the same four twisted legs, he realized what he was staring at. At the same time, the ceiling shifted above them. Not a ceiling - a tangled body, poised above them.
Aaron gave a yell as the thing lunged downward and reacted instinctively. He rammed his stun baton up and into the sagging meat of the thing. There was a grating scream. Thick tar drooled from the ceiling as the thing twitched and snapped at them, its downward lunge halted as its muscles seized up under the voltage. The thing wobbled, screeching angrily as the light struck its myriad beady eyes.
"Gogogo-" Aaron was yelling at Stenson, jabbing the baton deeper into the knotted stomach in an attempt to keep the thing off them. He couldn't seem to pull his eyes away from the massive snatching mandibles.
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Post by tsukikoko on May 2, 2017 11:45:23 GMT -6
The first thing Sara became aware of, as reality pricked at the edges of her consciousness, was a warmth; not the burning swelter of fire, or the enveloping heat of bed covers, no... this was pleasant, familiar, alive... safe. A sound which may have been a moan or a yawn swelled in her throat, but didn't quite escape from her mouth. Her eyes fluttered open, addled brain trying to make sense of the sensory input now being relayed to it, which led to a growing awareness that her head lay against someone's shoulder. Whoever they were, they apparently had arms underneath her, carrying her weight... that was nice. Her eyes began to focus, took note of a chin - distinctly male - and then drew upwards to take in a face that slowly registered as someone she knew. In fact, this whole situation was very familiar... she had been carried like this before, by this same handsome man before... the lab, the explosion... had something happened again?
She could have looked at Stenson's face (so this was her rescuer from before) a while longer, wanted to really, but something nagged at her, demanded attention. Her gaze slid sideways, an attempt to appease this troublesome harasser to her senses. She was met with inky darkness, so large and black for a fraction of a second she feared Hell had come to greet her. But then, beneath the evil, she saw Aaron, struggling against it, yelling something she couldn't yet comprehend. A choked cry, a desperate plea for Stenson to help him, but her mouth and tongue refused to co-operate, would not articulate the words.
Were the factory operational, there would have been a myriad of working machinery, chemicals, fire, something she could have used to fight this monstrosity of a creature away from Aaron. But there was nothing save broken metal, dust and decay. Panic bubbled up inside her gut, spread to her chest, a froth so thick she feared she might drown in it. But somewhere, beneath the whirling fog of instinctual terror that threatened to engulf Sara once more, her intellect, nay more than that, her pride, fought back. It searched, quick as a flash of lightning, through her available options, then settled on something in her pocket; seemingly small and inconsequential, kept on her person out of habit.
Her hand reached beneath her riot gear, slipped into her pocket and withdrew. The terrifying scene surrounding Sara seemed to slow, blur at the edges, her panic fell away in a shattering of glass as she stared at and focused on the glow band now resting in the palm of her hand. It was enchanted to hide her true form, but the base chemicals remained the same. Hydrogen peroxide activator solution. Phenol byproduct. The contents of a glow stick spilt on the skin were an irritant, more so if on the eyes, so if it contacted the unstable and basically unprotected cells of this creature, manufactured as they were to absorb others...
The shifter used her tail like a blunt weapon, thrashing against the previously welcome embrace of Stenson's arms with an unpredictable ferocity and threw herself towards the twitching, writhing mass of blackness. Were she to recount it afterwards, Sara could not lie and say she was not afraid, the fear remained, snapping panicked jaws at the edges of her psyche, yet her heart beat steadily, mind settled in a strange calmness that kept the fear restrained until she needed it again. She knew what she needed to do. With a short, sharp yell, she twisted and snapped the end off her glow stick. There was a pop and, as her arm swung wide to fling the contents of the broken accessory at the creature, a sudden crack of noise and a flash of light tore through the room, as though a flashbang grenade had suddenly exploded; Sara had not anticipated this reaction, brought about by the sudden cessation of her glow band's enchantment, though it lasted only a moment, replaced by a fizzling of static in the air, which accompanied the spray of glowing liquid as it now arced towards the mimic. There was a splatter as the liquid struck the stunned creature across it's 'face', followed by a moment of silence. The mimic shifted, the movement not unlike the shrugging of some giant beast trying to dislodge an irritating fly. It reached out towards her, hungry.
Then the frothing began.
Slow at first, but soon a cascading chemical reaction of froth and necrotising cells that tore across the mimic and elicited a scream of fury, agony and terror from the creature. The lumbering mass reared back from Sara, seemed to fall against the far wall, black sludge-like masses reminiscent of tentacles frantically sweeping across the bubbling reaction still eating away at the thing's face. Amongst the chaos, Sara grabbed at Aaron, trying to take a hold of his arm, his waist, anything she could to drag him back toward Stenson. The woman yelled at the top of her voice, ears still ringing from the explosion of her glow band, "RUN!"
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Post by Pearl Dragon on May 3, 2017 12:34:59 GMT -6
Stenson held Sara's limp form tightly as he and Aaron descended the staircase. The mimics hot on their tail seemed close in their pursuit, but as they neared the top of the stairs after them, there was a brightening of light followed by a series of angry hissing as the creatures' sounds grew distant behind them.
"Nice one," Stenson panted as they made their way into the depths of the factory's basement. Aaron recounted Sara's findings as they decended, and Stenson picked out a few useful bits of information from most of the scientific lingo. Changing, mutating, don't get consumed or overwhelmed, cells can copy, got it.
Stenson turned his body sideways down the hall, taking care to keep Sara's legs away from the sticky black tar that lined the walls. She was covered well enough in riot gear, but the chance of any contact between herself and the mimics needed to be avoided at all costs. Aaron seemed down on himself, knowing he shouldn't have brought her along, but for now, Stenson remained quiet. After all, he really didn't know either of them well enough to make any kind of judgement call on the situation, except maybe 'yeah, probably not the best partner choice', which was already obvious. Eventaully the stairs ended, and opened up into what seemed to be some kind of boiler room. The space was open enough, and already he could see an exit door on the far side of the room.
Stenson halted, taking in the details of the room. Aaron had stopped too, and seemed to be taking in what details he could as well. But he didn't see what Stenson could see, at least not yet. The officer stared, dead ahead and upward, mouth slightly agape. He could feel Sara coming to, moving slightly in his grip, which neither tightened nor loosened. Aaron made to say something to him, but never managed to, as he too noticed something strange about the room and followed with an equal look of realization up towards the ceiling. It was massive, had to be at least 5 times the size of the largest one they'd seen so far. The massive creature came downward, aiming a lunging bite in Aaron's direction, causing the man to thrust his stun baton upward into the thing's gut. It writhed and screeched at the counter-attack, and Aaron yelled to Stenson, sounding like a cry for help but he wasn't sure. He should probably help. He needed to help.
Help?, he questioned himself, How! He had no free hands, where was he going to put-
Just as the thought rose in his mind, there was a violent thrashing motion from the woman in his arms and she was out of his grasp in seconds, pulling something from her pocket. Stenson stumbled backward from the unexpected struggle and watched as she broke what looked like a wrist band apart, flinging it at the towering behemoth of a mimic. At the same time, now that his hands were free, Stenson instinctively made a grab for his hand-gun, unlatching the clip of the holster and pulling it out and up to aim at the creature. His finger squeezed the trigger and all at once there was a bang, much louder than his gun, and a brilliant flash of light, at the same time that he fired. The bullet struck too high and into the ceiling, thrown off by the sudden explosion, and Stenson turned away with his arm wrapped across his face, his vision completely blotted out by the intense white blindness that followed. He turned, trying to blink away his lack of vision, but all he could see were white stars in front of an inky blackness, despite his eyes being wide open.
"RUN!" Sara yelled over what sounded like sizzling and more pained screams from the mimic. Stenson pushed his free hand out, gun lowered at the ground in the other, and made to move towards where he assumed the exit was. A frustrated yell escaped him as he blindly followed the sound of their footsteps, hoping to God or whoever else was in charge of this madness, that he was going in the right direction.
The mimic, meanwhile, thrashed and swung gigantic legs in an attempt to strike at its fleeing prey. Stenson hit something metal and pressed himself against it. It felt like a machine, maybe, not the stone of the wall, but it was in his way. This wasn't the exit! Panic rose in his chest and he banged a fist angrily against the metal surface, the sound echoing inside the hollow mechanism, before trying to feel his way past it.
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Post by MP on May 4, 2017 0:18:49 GMT -6
Aaron had no warning but an abrupt yell before a harsh crack sounded above his head, and he reacted more instinctively than out of any conscious plan. As the creature shrieked and flinched back before the burst of light, he stumbled out from under it and reached out again with his magic. A small portion of the flash lingered, the familiar twin pinpoints hovering before the creature's eyes. But if the trick was familiar, the lights seemed off. They wobbled a little as Aaron moved. He seemed to stumble, hesitate, and it was only Sara's arm snaking around his that began to move him in the right direction. He kicked into a run alongside her, blinking away spots and looking for the outline of the doorway.
A shout brought his head around. He'd lost track of Stenson in the chaos, and it was only now that he saw him blundering along the wall in the wrong direction. He broke from Sara's grip, sprinting for the man. Some of the light's intensity faded from the creature's eyes as his concentration slipped, and it lashed out screaming as he passed. Aaron felt a wind over his hair as mangled limbs lashed past his head. He seized Stenson's arm, afraid to call out and give the blinded creature a better idea of their location, and bolted after Sara toward the exit.
Crusted with layers of caked sludge and stuck through with bits of suspicious debris, it was a narrow place that pressed them at times into single file. Aaron held the lantern aloft as they went, alert for any signs of pursuers. Far above, he could still feel the drain of the lantern he'd left behind. It fluttered like a flame in his mind's eye, lashed at by unseen claws as the mimics fought it like a living thing in an attempt to pass. Just a little longer - a little longer. Where was the exit already?
Even as the frustrated thought came to mind, Aaron froze. The hallway simply ended. Where a door should be, the wall was slick with the black substance, caked layer upon layer to keep out any hint of offending light. He stepped forward, face stoic as if that might avert disappointment, and rapped experimentally at the surface. It crackled a little under his knuckles but held strong. His baton was gone - dropped during the frantic scramble. He looked back to his companions, all the strain of their predicament weighing in the silence.
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