1472/Shadows With Teeth

Shadows With Teeth
Date of Scene:	01 February 2015
Location:	Slum Urbania
Synopsis:	Human bones are found in Slum Urbania. Clearly Simon, Kirito, Tomoe, Kyra Hyral, Nurse Joy, and Ryu should split up and search for clues! There's NO WAY THIS CAN GO WRONG.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, Tomoe, 553, 622, 626, 636

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Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
Slum Urbania is not necessarily a SAFE place to live, but honestly, without hyperbole, it's still safer than the world Simon and Marceline come from. That's kind of scary to think about. At least in Slum Urbania the majority of other life forms aren't ACTIVELY trying to kill and/or eat you. Still, despite the cheap housing, it's not the ideal place to move. Simon has been giving the place a look regardless, however. Before he settles on any one place, he has to consider his options and collect data. At least knowing what one of the least safe places to raise a little girl is should give him a better grasp on the best, right?

Right now, however, the blue-skinned man has been caught up in matters unrelated to housing. Human remains have been found in an abandoned lot between two equally awful apartment buildings. Simon Petrikov was just passing by, but thanks to his knowledge of archaeology, anthropology, and biology, he has been able to identify the sticky (and gross) heap of bones found near a pile of junk by playing children as belonging to human beings.

It has caught quite a commotion in the neighborhood despite his best attempts to warn people to keep quiet about it, and call the police. The police have been called, but it's Slum Urbania. Any response is likely to be slow in coming. So he has called for Union support. Because based on the utterly disgusting slimey moisture coating them, these remains are very, very fresh. That means that more people might be in danger. If Simon is going to start becoming a hero, he can't always just run from danger. Sometimes he has to face it - especially when it will protect others.

When others arrive, it's on the dingy, dirty, but at least (mostly) well-lit streets. So certain dangers may be there, but at least not THOSE certain dangers that are troubling certain members of the Union lately. Dangers that have followed them across worlds somehow.

It's really creepy to think about. That shadowy somethings have been stalking you, hunting you, trailing you for some unknown purpose... So persistently than even the barrier of geography and all the many hazards of numerous worlds don't mean anything.

Simon, for his part, has yet to hear those whispering voices, for whatever reason. So everything should be cool here, right? Right. He's just crouched down and examining the remains without touching them any further to avoid disrupting the 'crime scene' whenever people come over.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    It's as simple as presenting a problem that involves people getting hurt or killed, especially in ways that would traumatize the locals, to get Ryan Bateson to step up to help deal with it.

    A white dragon steps through a warp gate, and leaps from the ground up on top of a lamp post, and then up on a building, using this method of transportation to reach where Simon indicated. When he finds the right spot, he lands somewhat near Simon with a loud THUD of his scaly feet slapping against pavement. He straightens from his crouch, then glances at the slimy bones, and toward Simon himself. This dragon Simon has never seen before speaks up:

    "Looks like a predator's stalking around this place." His observation is calm, though there's an underlying fury to it. Like if he found that predator, he'd kill it. "Let me know what I can do to help."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Word may have reached Simon eventually that Kyra was among those hearing the whispers, having herself discovered that Ryu had been afflicted with the same 'plague.' She was curious at first, assuming that they were some kind of developing seer powers only to be terrified and disappointed that the whispers were telling her things like 'Run' and 'Die'.

    Though she's even heard them today, she doesn't let them slow her down. She does, however, act much more cautiously, avoiding being alone in dark places were the unpleasant creatures were likely to strike. Which is why she waits to meet up with Ryu first before going down the alleyway to the site of apparent murder that Simon was guarding.

    When she arrives, Kyra seems to be sporting the same outfit that was featured in Tomoyo's commercial. There aren't too many differences from her other outfit-she still has a hoodie with the hood stylized to look like a moogle head. But now she sports pants and a different set of boots entirely. It's an outfit much more practical for field work such as this. She keeps to the ground, now beneath Ryu as he hops onto the light post, then scrambles to a building to get where he needs to go. "Shame I'm not a necromancer." she says as she finally joins Simon. "But I'll try to figure out what I can from the remains."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe had been on edge with seeing things after all these things were comming for her? They were likely also aware of where her body was while she was in her avatar state, even with her Abstranium partner she'd not be that confident about suriving some sort of supernatural horror while she was jacked in. She was here today as her Salamander slef was here todya and she's been flying in and was now comming in for a landing near Kyra and she pauses for a moment.

"Hey...ya I want these things off me, they could tear through me real self like I was a rag."

There's a stressed edge to her voice after all she's being hunted.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     Nurse Joy is currently running into the area, also taking a local warp gate. She looks... Incredibly annoyed. Today was /supposed/ to be her day off. And instead, this stuff happened. Bones found. And so she has to head out onto the scene. She runs in a rather ungirly manner, unlike basically all of the other Nurse Joys would run. Also, this Nurse Joy isn't even carrying a medical kit. Because she is, in fact, not a field medic at all.

     Instead she's mostly there as support for finding the killer.

     Following alongside her are two Pokemon. A Wigglytuff, and an Espurr. The Espuur decides to leap onto Nurse Joy's shoulder, though. And it speaks, rather calmly.

     "Espuuurrrr." <Death is in the air.>

     Of course there is death in the air, though. Someone /died/, so yes. As such, Joy just sighs at him.

Kirito has posed:
    Heeding the call, Kirito has come.

    He said he'd come.

    Except... the tall'ish blackclad Spriggan is nowhere to be found. Instead... a young... man? Woman? In similar attire... with different colored eyes, similarly black hair... and MUCH shorter than Kirito's thougt to be... is approaching.

    Yes. Similar outfit. Black pants and shirt, a black...buttcape for lack of anything better to call it, held up by a black belt. A metal breastplate for protection, secured with leather straps. The youth's belt has a holster with a pistol in it on one side, and on the other... a strange metal cylinder's just clipped, hanging there.

    With long, black, silky hair, an overall androgynous build, and an extremely soft-featured face....

    Yeah, this just can't be Kirito.

    Except...

    "Simon?" He sounds a bit jumpy and distracted, and glances at alleys several times...

    Then down at the remains. Grimace time.

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
Simon is startled when a dragon suddenly lands nearby, and a number of the locals who were gawking and gathered around scatter, but the old man heard this same voice on the radio just a little while ago, so when Ryan speaks, Simon calms down, nods, and says, "That was my thought too. Ideally we can track the responsible party somehow, or at least determine what it is so we can better help people defend themselves." Kyra's arrival and mention she might be able to glean something from the remains shines a faintly hopeful light on all this. Simon smiles and says, "Great! All I've been able to determine so far is that they're adults, male and female, and that they have bite marks. But I haven't wanted to touch them too much to avoid disrupting the crime scene and because... You know." He holds up a femur delictately with some tweezers, and a transparent grey gelatinous substance verrrrrrrrry slowly drips from the bone... And then actually slurps itself back up in order to drip again.

The arrival of Nurse Joy merits a wave from Simon - unfortunately with the tweezers and bone still in his grasp, though he quickly realizes his error and sets them back down again. He doesn't realize that this is a different Joy than the one who first met him and Marcy. He does kind of stare right on back at the Espurr. "Yep," he answers simply. Stare. Stare stare stare. Staaaaaaare. For all his mutations and changes, unblinkingness is not Simon's super power. Still, he can see stuff the people around him possibly can't. Things he'd rather not bring up right now. Because most people don't like being told you can see dead people. All the time.

Having Wizard Eyes kind of sucks.

Simon pauses to peer in Tomoe's direction, and says, "Are you talking about those whatever-they-were that have been following you around, Tomoe? I'm sure we'll figure something out. And we're okay for now. It may be night time, but this isn't some cave somewhere. We're in the middle of a populated super-mega-ultra-big city or whatever this area is!"

Kirito's arrival prompts a double-take from Simon, but he has read the reports, so figures it out quickly enough. "Oh, hey, Kirito! I was just talking about-" Then Simon notices something. A figure who is somehow... Distinct from the crowd milling around (or what's left of them after many scattering upon dragon-arrival). A young woman. A teenager maybe. She has long black hair and seems to be wobbling a bit on her feet. She is also beckoning Simon over.

The scholar gets up and says, "You go ahead and see what you can find, Kyra. I think I see someone who wants to talk." Then he stands and starts to head in the stranger's direction. And he honestly can't tell if she's alive or dead.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     Espurr just keeps staring at Simon as he stares at it. This will last until the stare breaks. He ends up blinking, though, before the stare breaks. And thinks to himself.

     You win this round, Simon.

     Joy, for her part, seems unphased by the skeletal part in Simon's hand as he waves. Instead, she just nods at him.

     She moves, though, to look at the skeletons. She speaks, rather casually.

     "...This is likely unneeded, but I'm declaring this Dead On Arrival. Though here is hoping this isn't an undead."

     She gets down, to look at the skeleton a bit herself. Though her focus is 'living things', she can probably help a /bit/ with some of the identification stuff.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra doesn't seem to surprised with Ryan's appearance. She's seen him in his dragon form before by now and also realizes that he seems to be more comfortable as one instead of a human.

    "I'll see what I can do." Kyra gives Simon a thumbs up and crouches by the remains, carefully looking them over. She notices the strange goop and immediately pulls a set of rubber disposable laboratory gloves out of her pockets. An empty vial follows, used to scrape up some of the goop from the bones. As the others arrive, she seems to be running a number of small tests on the substance with a variety of other liquids and papers. They're mostly a few basic things that would help determine the nature of the slime-organic or inorganic, poisonous, acidic, magical particle saturation. Kyra herself is suspecting digestive enzymes but doesn't say anything until her theory is confirmed.

    She looks up briefly, noting a few things: Nurse Joy and her fluffy battle critters. One of them's pretty cute. The other...well, Kyra doesn't want to look at Esper too long. The other thing that catches her eye is Kirito, who now has a /vastly changed appearance/. "...what the. What happened to you? I thought you were a tank, now you kind of look like a backliner."

    She almost sounds disappointed.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan lets out a sad sigh when people scatter in all directions following his arrival. He watches one of the more frightened ones nearly trip over himself. His gold eyes turn, instead, to the rest of the party as they gather around the crime scene. Kirito gets a squint of recognition, and nods when it's revealed to be the same person. Rumbling, he turns around to face the strange figure that Simon had noticed.

    Suspicious of anyone who would want to talk, he follows the scholarly half-wizard, keeping his eyes focused on the long-haired girl. He spent a very long time being muscle for a gang, so he is very good at the silent, menacing but ultimately protective stare. He doesn't bother talking to the girl, though, because he knows Simon would be better at that than any dragon like him.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks to Simon for a moment abnd nods slightly she was more worried about her physical form but there's no need to concern everyone else right? She kept her weapons away for the moment she looks to Ryan and give him a nod then starts giggling at Kyra for a moment.

"Tank?! The tanks were Me, Klien and the late Heathcliff."

She smirks for a moment longer. Kirito's always been the top DPS of the raid as it were."

She follows up with everyone else and she does not say a thing about Kirito's apperance /at/ all! She's being good, right?

Kirito has posed:
    "Urk--" Kirito's attention is first on the bone that Simon has on display. The boy's expression is twitchy. Awkward. Somewhat grossed out. But ultimately he overcomes the gut reaction and steps forward... STARING at the weird goo and... shivering.

    Yeah, something's gnawing at him too. Gnawing at him a LOT.

    "That... doesn't look like anything normal. Not only that, it was stripped down to the bone in a place like this without anyone noticing. What eats THAT fast?!" Urp. He doesn't want to talk about it, but he can instantly spot there are things that just don't add up. "Is there any evidence to suggest they were here to begin with and not just moved here? Bloodstains?" He Frantically looks around for them, but by now... would there be any? Were there any to begin with?

    IN the middle of that, Kyra's words reach him and his shoulders sag. Kirito spends several moments in consternated silence, only to whirl around and....

    Grin. Mischeviously. "Looks can be deceiving."

    Yeah. He'll just bullshit through this instead of whining.

    He's not any happier about this avatar.

    "Besides. Tomoe's got it. I'm top DPS. Sometimes parry tank in a pinch." He did do a HECK of a lot of that, being the only person with the insane reflexes needed to Sword Skill counter bosses who often had unique Sword Skills...

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
Yeah, kind of unneeded, but always good to be thorough, right? And undeath is definitely a concern in the Multiverse. Heck, it was a concern back on Simon's Earth too. He still has nightmares about that... Lich. With the combination of Nurse Joy's medical know-how, and Kyra's tests, the two are able to confirm Simon's original findings, determine the bones don't SEEM to be reanimating, and that the substance coating them is definitely organic, probably a digestive enzyme approximate to saliva, and it holds traces of toxic pollutants and traces of magical energy. Not magic itself, since there's no evidence of a spell being cast, just the actual stuff that goes into magic.

Mana, MP, whatever you want to call it. There's bits of it in there, and possibly just a side-effect rather than by intention. To Kirito's observant questions, Nurse Joy and her pokemon (if they are able) may determine that while there are minute amounts of blood spatter around the area, the victims were probably eaten here, but might not necessarily have been killed here. There's something unusual about the choice in location though. It's not as though this site is especially well-hidden. So why here? There's a lot of junk lying around in this empty lot. Old tires, cardboard boxes, bags of trash, so on and so forth. The kind of stuff that Simon saw all the time before Unification. It takes actually being here in Slum Urbania after being in actual CLEAN and TIDY living spaces to realize that it's supposed to be unusual for stuff like that to lie around untended to.

Hypothetically it could have provided cover. From view, from the environment... But not TOO much. The trash heap was clearly abandoned by whatever creature or creatures were using it.

When Simon approaches the odd woman, with a white dragon at his side, the woman turns around starts tottering away. Simon pauses in confusion. Is it someone else scared of Ryan? When Simon doesn't keep following after she has crossed the street, she stops, turns around, and beckons towards him again. Then she calls out in a whisper that somehow carries over all the surrounding noises. "Over here," she says. That settles it! She must be a ghost! Maybe one of the victims? Simon puts on his determined face, and informs the others over the radio that once they've finished up, to follow him and Ryan. They might have a lead on the killer(s)!

He strides after the woman and nearly gets hit by a car because he didn't look both ways before crossing the street. The car blares its horn but doesn't even stop. Simon waves after the vehicle apologetically, and then proceeds more cautiously. The glassy-eyed woman turns and resumes plodding along, heading down an alleyway towards a nearby industrial park.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     Joy just looks at the skeleton, a bit confused. Yeah, this /is/ an odd spot to die. And rather surprisingly public. She sighs.

     "This is probably supernatural, or some type of weird creature. There might be some tracks or traces of it around, though..."

     She heads over to the various debries, the tires and miscellaneous garbage laying around. She starts to, carefully, move some of it around, trying to find tracks or something. Who knows. They might find /something/.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra waves a dismissive hand, "DPS, tank, whichever. I pegged you as a fighter-type that's supposed to be protecting the backliners." It might be a case of being lost in translation here. The white mage herself doesn't seem too concerned over her potential faux pas. Kirito was a big boy and could just deal.

    Kyra runs through the gamut of chemical tests pretty quickly, photographing each result with her phone for record. Although there was an app running that was capable of interpreting the colors each liquid or paper test returned, she was experienced enough to already know what each color meant.

    "So let's see, organic digestive enzyme close to saliva. Toxic. Residual magical particles though no associated pattern. Seems like the work of some kind of poisonous creature, maybe magically created, that primarily digests its prey in its mouth and spits out the bones. Sounds nasty."

    Kyra caps the sample vial and stows it in one of the pockets on the inside of her hoodie. "So-um. Hey-" The rest of group departs to follow the ghost across the street (and nearly get hit by traffic) while Nurse Joy seems to remain behind. Kyra grows extremely nervous and moves to stand, following after Nurse Joy, "Um. We should probably catch up with the others."

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan does not trust a supernatural creature that is beckoning anyone to follow it, by the grumpy rumbling he makes when it whispers at them. From his experience, these kinds of things invariably try to kill or eat the people that try to follow them. When Simon rushes off into traffic, though, he snaps out of his grumpiness and it's replaced with a heartstopping panic. He nearly rushes to help Simon, only hesitating when he knows the vehicle isn't going to hit the overexcited scholar.

    He chases after the scientist, and gives him a hissing, "Watch where you're /going/!!" at him, fretting at him with a gesture of his hands at the scientist. The amount of worry and tension in the dragon completely dissolves any pretense of menace he once had.

    He follows Simon dutifully, now equally wary of Simon /and/ the 'ghost' girl.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe smirks back at Kirito for a moment and she would be a bit more cherrty given she did enjoy chatting with her long time friend. However there are things to worry about more imporantly. Such as the things here, she just kinda gives Kyra a look of you did not just say that about Kirito. She says nothing else because now isn't the time to fight. She's moved on at this point leaving styding this stuff to those who have an idea, she just hits things till they fall down, or takes things tht would make other people fall down and she is wary as well about this but she's a bit more disposable after all, right? Wiuth that she follows after Simon.

Kirito has posed:
    Indeed, maybe Kyra didn't just say that about Kirito! The youth in black makes a disbelieving, disgruntled face her way for a moment - he's way more willing to show how he feels about some things in this avatar, oddly enough! And exasperation's one of them. Oh well.

    With Simon wandering off... "And digest it fast..." There's that eerie, unsettling feeling again. "...Tomoe, have you--" No, he's not gonna bring it up. He clamps shut. "never mind."

    Those dreams have GOT o be just his mind playing tricks on him. Right.

    So with Simon running off... "I'll check back in a bit!" He tells Nurse Joy, then dashes off to keep up with Simon and the woman...

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
"You're right, you're right! I'm sorry!" Simon responds. Now he is watchful of this stranger who is trying to get them to follow her. He should have been sooner, but with his head the way it is, and all the weird stuff he sees just... All the time, 24/7, he had acted without thinking. He usually AVOIDs the spirits he sees. They are generally creepy, and he can't even touch them to get them off if they try to crawl on him or whatever. Best to keep his distance as a result, right? But this one seems rather normal looking. The problem is she might not be a spirit after all. Simon holds up at the alley entrance once her and Ryan are across the street, waiting for others to catch up. The strange woman doesn't stop this time however. Instead she just keeps going, and the idea of losing their lead on this 'case' makes Simon more and more nervous.

"Like, what are the actual chances that she's trying to hurt us instead of help us? Like, on a scale of one to a hundred. How much? 30? 25?" Pause. "Out of a hundred, you know?" Tomoe joins them on the side of the street across from that empty lot, and Simon feels a bit safer already. But... Should they keep waiting and risk losing their lead? If she's a ghost, is that really relevant if they don't follow her? He is wracking his brain for any lore concerning ghosts, and hauntings, but his head is full of fog like usual.

That figure is distant now, nearly to the industrial park. Simon makes a decision and starts following after. It may not be the smartest decision, and if he was on his own, he'd probably not be doing this at all. But with even Kirito joining them, that means he the scientist is mostly safe now, right? Three friends and allies who are way better at fighting than he is. If something bad happens, they'll be able to take care of it together!

...Together except for Kyra and Joy, who are digging through the trash heap for any more clues. Around the time that Simon and the others finish passing through the alleyway (though depending on Ryan's size, he may need to go over the nearby roofs instead), the street lights in the neighborhood flicker a bit. Not too weird, given the minimal priority given to maintaining services in this region, but it's... Still worrying a little.

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
An abandoned industrial park. It's definitely a good place for an ambush. It's also a good place for a predatory monster to kill its victims. And that, more than anything else, has Simon pausing at the edge of the area ahead. Lonesome, derelict buildings. Partially-torn-down wire fences, warehouses, construction equipment, smoke stacks... It's eerie, and lonely, and sad, and frightening. Especially at night.

And he really... Really doesn't want to go down there.

As Joy shifts a tire out of the way she suddenly may become aware that there's something like a patch of darkness under all the garbage. An empty space. A hole?

Then there's a rush of whispers that she and Kyra can likely hear far too well thanks to being so close.

'Run, everyone.'

'I don't want to die.'

'The ground is falling.'

'Why is this happening to me.'

The lights all across the block suddenly go out. All of them, as power is cut.

And as bone-white teeth appear in the darkness, a spindly black arm with sharp, narrow fingers, attempts to lash out and grasp hold of Kyra's ankle. And among all the whispers, one might stand out to her and Nurse Joy both. A whisper that may make the tiny hairs on the backs of their necks stand up.

'Mommy, help me.'

These aren't just monsters.

They're the victims of the apocalypse.

And as a flood of shadows and teeth rises up out of the trash, slithering out, filling the air with their whispers, rising up into a huge column of limbs and jawless mouths, it becomes clear that all they do now is make others their victims in turn.

The monsters begin to pour out of every nook and crevice. And that woman that Simon and Ryan and Tomoe and Kirito have been following is standing just ahead of the group when all this happens. And she begins to twitch and spasm in a horrible way, before her black hair falls to the ground, revealing an empty hollow inside her skull. And the shadows emerge from there too, clawing their way across the dirt and gravel. Far too many to fit in such a small space. Far too many to have fit under all that garbage too.

Far too many victims for anything.

Simon doesn't even bother with one of his extremely mild epithets this time. He just backs up and lets those more capable stand between him and the monsters. Because, honestly, he'd just be in the way. His eyes are pretty big right now though, and he is definitely terrified.

Little does he know how terrified the three protectors he has might be as well.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan is not stupid. He can seem like it sometimes, but when it comes to fighting, he knows when they're being lured into a trap. He's seen plenty of traps and been a part of either side. The industrial park FEELS like a trap, and that already puts him on-edge. So when things start to go bad, all he has to do is switch gears to a fighting mentality.

    It doesn't make this less terrifying. As the gnashing shadows ooze out of every possible or impossible place around them, his mind races, trying to think of how they fought these things before. He comes up with something after a tense second, and holds up one of his claws into the air. He begins to build magical power up through his body, creating a swirl of light that collects at a point above him, until the ball of light is casting a huge perimeter of light around the party. He's trying to cut these things off before they can get too close!

    The tension in his eyes paints a picture of uncertainty. He just doesn't know if the spell will be effective at all.

    When he completes the sphere, more power flows into it, smaller orbs of light floating out of it like little faeries to fly around the party, shining in the air and even going so far as to nearly completely smother out any shadows they're casting. Just raw white light.

    "Keep the group tight," he tells the others, "Don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Swarms rely on picking off singular targets, they can't deal with a group as easily."

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     As the lights go out, and the dark creatures appear /all/ around, Joy immediately goes on the defensive. She is, in fact, not just a normal Nurse Joy. Her skills are not as a combat medic. Instead, she is probably one of the Joys who is most into actual combat.

     "ESPURR! USE FLASH! And... GO, HONEDGE!"

     The Espurr just stares at the creatures around it. And, suddenly, its body emits a massive burst of light. The light remains, as well, most likely. Though a battle move to blind the opponent, it's also just as good for keeping an area well lit up for a while.

     Joy throws out a Pokeball, and out appears Honedge. She grabs it by the hilt, and faces the beast. Wigglytuff stands to her back, to guard it.

     The creature /is/ frightening. But, Joy is one of those who will stay /strong/, even in the worst situations.

     "METAL SOUND!"

     Joy holds Honedge forward, and it begins to vibrate. A burst of destructive metallic sounds fly forward, towards the creature.

     A glance at Kyra.

     "We're away from the others, but stick with me. We'll make it through this."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "I'm still not sure this is a good idea." Kyra mutters, pushing aside a trash can. "I'm also thinking, if this creature dissolves its prey trough a saliva-based enzyme, it likely doesn't have a full digestive tract. We might be looking at a jelly or flan of some kind at fault. If that's the case, I think we would be looking for more slime, maybe a trail of some kind." Kyra turns back to the bones and looks around it, digging into her hoodie to produce a flashlight to shine at the ground. Any slime trails would be illuminated by the light, right? "Even better, depending on its particular species, I might have the appropriate chemical counter on hand. Just one small spray and it'll melt like a slug on salt."

    As soon as Joy uncovers that dark patch, Kyra immediately feels that something is wrong, especially as the whispers start up again. Only this time she can hear them even more clearly than before. "That's-"

    The arm reaches out and grabs her ankle. Kyra responds as any reasonable teenaged girl would in this moment and shrieks in alarm. Reflexively, she pulls panicking until she manages to force herself to act appropriately and swing her flashlight down to point directly at the arm grabbing her.

    Her free hand reaches into the depths of her hoodie to snatch up one of her explosive, napalm-filled flasks. Setting the alley on fire seemed like an acceptable alternative to being devoured. "Incoming!" she warns Joy and her small crew, hurling the flask directly into the initial shadowy spot that Joy uncovered.

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito doesn't actually go all that far from Kyra and Joy. He meant what he said. If Simon's group goes too far away he'll remain to stick with them. He doesn't like the idea of leaving two girls alone - sure, they're tough girls, but still...

    Some things are just heroic instinct?

    Whatever the case he freezes whilst turning around to head back when all of the hell breaks loose. With creatures emerging EVERYWHERE... he clenches up, then... "Huap!"

    Springs up for the nearby wall. SOMEHOW he utterly defies physics and manages to run at a diagonal up the building for quite a distance. He's back around the corner in a hurry, and once he reaches it he swings around a fire escape and into the abandoned lot. Kirito goes skidding through the unlit lands of the murder-filled lot...

    And once he gets a good view of the things courtesy of Flash - he now laments lacking Spriggan Nightvision! - Kirito shudders. "Those things...!"

    Those things. Those Whispers and awful dreams and weird feelings at night. Many nights spent dashing to windows with Double Fault in hand and panicking, losing sleep... it's THOSE THINGS.

    "U-uah!!" A hint of panic sets in, but then...

    the boy unclips the strange cylinder from his belt, thumbs a switch--

    *SIZZA-VWHOOOOOOOOMHSSSSSSSSSS!!*

    Magenta light illuminates the darkness, cast from a glowing blade of plasma that just ERUPTS from that cylinder. It's a LIGHTSABER?

    Well, Photon Saber, technically, but it sure SOUNDS like a Jedi's weapon.

    Using his tremendous speed, Kirito rushes into view of the medical ladies and leaps in low for an imitation 'sonic leap' Sword Skill, thrusting his weapon at high speed for one of the Shadows!

    "This is too weird. What are they doing outside that city?!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe has no idea on the odds she's just started to get some things from stories had applications in real life due to the multiverse. She's on edge however she doesn't have her blade out but she's moving ahead and at least in this body she's disposable and she knows it. However it seems the monsters have found thme and sh emoves to draw her sword then stops in abject horror ast the woman and what happens. How long as she been dead, just how many of these things are there.

She starts chanting now gold runs flying about her at this point the runes dance about her, and she calls out in norse. Painfully mangled but does work that's when a burst of fire is directed into the horrible monster's ranks.

Anyone sensing her abilities like say Kyra would sense something, there is no magic in what Tomoe does at all, not a single bit even if it looks for all the world to be such.

"BURN! BURN YOU GOD FORSAKEN MONSTERS BURN!"

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
The arm dissolves under the exposure to the flashlight. As Espurr uses Flash, the shadowy monsters rising up like a tower of hunger and nightmares actually flinches away. It steams and hisses as long as it remains in the light. When flames are lit underneath it, at its base, some limbs are blasted off into a purple-black goop, and there are HOLES in its gestalt body now. Bright red holes that start to leak the blood of the monsters' recent meals. The tower wobbles at its now 35 foot height, bending under its own weight - if it even has any real 'weight' to it - and then its bottom half sloughs away into polluted muck. The structure seems to be at least somewhat organic. Not just shadows with substance, but some kind of poisonous, congealed, necrotizing flesh-like substance. Which makes sense given WHO they're made out of.

The metal sound seems to be less visibly effective, but it unsteadies the tower further. And the pained inhuman squeals in complete contrast to the hushed whispers are only repeated when the tower topples into the side of one of the apartment buildings. Its severely injured by Flash and its continued illumination, but then its arms start reaching out and grasping hold of the building, and it... Splits up. A huge chunk of it goes crawling upwards and backwards, towards the roof, like a gigantic black centipede covered in mouths. Smaller parts slip into the windows of the building, slithering through the smallest openings.

Windows leading into apartments. With people in them.

Screams can be heard. Kirito has managed to eliminate one of the smaller monsters which 'only' had three mouths, the creature practically exploding upon being stabbed with a sword made out of light, but there's people in danger who could be saved if he can use that speed of his to get to the fragments before they can fully get inside the apartments!

Ryan's light does its job, making the nearby monsters squeal and writhe away if they do not simply fly away in foul chunks from the light as though it were a physical force upon their amalgamated bodies. The ones clawing around on the edges of the light, trying to find a way to get to their prey without suffering further exposure to the light get a nasty surprise when Tomoe's fire blasts into them. The fire then produces MORE light, which kills even MORE of the creatures. If they're even 'alive' to begin with. Undead? Mutants? It's unclear. But they die all the same before the brilliance being thrown around.

Simon can't do much in a situation like this. But he can at least put two and two together. These things will find ANYWHERE to hide, and if they can follow people across worlds, and are ALREADY eating innocent civilians, then they aren't going to stop if they simply chase them off. Not only are people in danger right now, but if they don't get rid of ALL of the monsters now, then they'll probably just keep coming back. And next time they might not be so lucky as to be attacked when they have allies to help them.

"We need to see why the power's out!" Simon advises. "If we can get to like... A transformer or something, maybe I can get the lights back on! We can't let ANY of these things escape, or they'll just keep eating people!" He's staying well within the light, but moving towards that dark-green transformer nearby is a priority.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan's spell completes, and successfully drives the creatures away, burning and searing at them. So he maintains the orbs of light around the party, turning his golden gaze around to look for some kind of advantage to grah ahold of. Alas he can't really find anything out there in the swarm of gnashing teeth. He takes great care to examine how close they can get to the light before they start dissolving, turning his head to observe them.

    Simon's words get a nod of understanding from him. "Follow me, then." He turns to face the nearest transformer that he spotted, and breeeathes in, his back arching in a dramatic way as his chest puffs out and light sparkles through the outline of his chest scales.

    He sends a huge wave of white dragon fire, sweeping it from side to side to clear up the area around the transformer. He steps toward the transformer, hoping the others use the cover of his dragon fire move along as a group to the transformers.

    Dragonfire from a light dragon is VERY BRIGHT so these things are going to have a hell of a time getting anywhere near Ryan while he's doing that. In fact, people from miles away would be able to see that! It's very fortuitous that he's elementally aligned to Light, huh?

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Running on adrenaline now, Kyra starts to reach for another flask, ready to continue blowing the creature away into oblivion. She's somewhat heartened that the monsters can actually be hurt and not just 'repelled by light' as it seemed from the initial Flash. The Metal Sound, though...

    It demonstrates that it can break apart, a tactic Kyra is very familiar with when fighting the jelly-like creatures of her world. Only the aggressiveness of the lub glubs put the people in the now-darkened apartments in danger. Unable to chase them like Kirito, Kyra resorts to trying to tag the smaller chunks with her flashlight.

    But an idea strikes her-the tests showed that the saliva-enzyme had magic particles in it. Did the rest of the creature have them too? Was it part of it's biology? COULD IT BE DISRUPTED? Kyra had to know.

    Kyra swings her free hand to one of the remaining chunks and casts Dispell.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is doing what she can to deal with these things the horrible black things without any real name are comming for them, and she's only able fight them like this. She knows this painfully well she finishes the fire spell she does not know what they are she does not care she wants them to die, every last one of them to die.

She starts moving and wonders about the fire she's doing what she can at this point as they are moving to eat them but she's going ot move in and go after the thick of the attack where she can protect the most people that's what she's good for and that's what she's going to do then as she power balls into the monster she readies anothe spell and this time there's a powerful burst of light comming this time bright dazzling light hwich also acts like homing laser hoping trying to /save/ some of the people who are under attack.

"Figure out how to stop them I'll keep these things at bay!"

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     Joy gives out orders. Yeah, she doesn't /really/ have rank, but she still feels as if she has the best grasp of how to handle this situation. Because, she has noticed something about Kirito, today.

     Kirito is a bit of a 'white knight' type. His desire to protect these two is clouding his judgement a bit. And Joy knows that she and Kyra can handle themselves. The civilians, though? They can't.

     "ESPURR! KEEP UP THE LIGHT! And... Wigglytuff... DAZZLING GLEAM!"

     Espurr keeps using Flash. Over and over again, trying to light up the whole area as much as possible. It's not really even normally a /damaging/ move. But it seems to be having this effect now. So, it simply keeps it up.

     With Wigglytuff, though? Wigglytuff is normally not a Pokemon that uses special attacks. Or at least, this specific one isn't. It is a physical fighter. But, as a Fairy Type Pokemon, it still learns /some/ ranged attacks. It somewhat has to, if it wants to use anything Fairy Type.

     Which is why it knows Dazzling Gleam.

     It moves close to the beast. And, it begins to glow pure white. Its entire body becomes engulfed in the light. And then, the light bursts out. This, in fact, is a damaging move. It completely outclasses 'Flash' on that aspect, while also being a bright and light move.

     Hopefully it will have quite an effect.

     Joy, in the meantime? She doesn't have a lot of bright attacks with Honedge. And so, she focuses on simply boosting it. She is doing a strange dance, with Honedge of the focus of it. Sword Dance, to increase Honedge's strength.

     They... Really need to destroy these things as /fast/ as possible.

Kirito has posed:
    Seeing that his opponent has somehow split into fragments, and more creatures are heading for the apartments. A sickening sense of dread and panic sets in and - "no... NO!"

    This is no longer just investigating a murder. This has transformed quickly into protect the locals from true death.

    Lives are on the line.

    As if a switch were flicked in Kirito's very soul, he speeds up rather noticeably in a mad dash and flying leap for the apartment walls. He is indeed RUNNING UP THE WALL after the centipede-thing only to slash at it and flip around to land on a rusty and creaky fire escape.

    He flicks off his photon saber only to go digging around in his inventory... and equips a set of Flare sticks. He ignites them quickly and hurls them all over the place ringing the apartment in hopes it'll repel the creatures! They sizzle and spark, shooting off some smoke and brilliant orange-red light - noisily, for they're burning powerfully.

    But then the blade's back on and Kirito goes for another leaping slash at more of the creatures!

    In his own mind's eye, everything's slowed down a bit...

    "if I don't stop them all... more will die...!!"

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
Ryan burninates the lub glubs in their terrible rotting bodies-es with his laser breath. All of the ones in the immediate area, even the ones STILL pouring out of that poor woman's skull seem to be slain by the attack. Her corpse, her head now completely empty, falls limply to the ground in that artless, boneless manner that only the newly dead can accomplish. Meaning that not only were the monsters able to manipulate a dead body by invading someone and hollowing them out, but they were able to plan well enough to procure such a victim on short notice, all in order to lure prey into an ambush. Prey they have somehow tracked across millions upon millions of miles by unknown means. Scent? Some magical detection ability?

These things are terrible predatory monsters. But they're LEARNING too. Which makes eliminating every last one of them, as Tomoe desires, a very very very good idea. Who knows what they'd learn from THIS conflict, after all? It's unclear how smart they really are, but they are capable of becoming more deadly hunters with every encounter. So as people flee through the darkness, trying to get out of the area, Tomoe's homing heat-lasers serve two purposes: One, they save people. Two, they kill the monsters.

The Union needs to kill the monsters, and the monsters need to die. That is what one might call a 'win/win situation'. Now even the lub glubs out on the streets are being picked off by shining lights. Simon gets close to the transformer, tries to pry it open, and only manages because it's an awful neighborhood and people have vandalized it enough that he can get the case open without tools by putting all the strength in his body into it.

CLANG! The case opens! "There, I've got i-" Simon starts, only to find himself facing a whole new batch of hungry shadows, clustered inside the transformer.

So they can even sabotage the ability of others to employ the monsters' weakness. The transformer is out because they took it out. Simon throws himself to the side on pure instinct with a cry of dismay, just as a nest of hands swarms out and tries to grab him. Of course, once his shadow is no longer concealing them, they are exposed to the light all around and gross fluids and gelatinous paste bubbles and sizzles amidst monstrous, high-pitched noises of pain.

Eventually, Simon tries that again, getting inside the transformer case and taking a look.

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
The repeated uses of Flash and Kyra's flames are driving the 'upper body' of the column up onto the roof where it should be out of direct exposure to the light. It's clearly melting the whole way. Kyra's dispel doesn't seem to do much initially, but the monsters hesitate for a moment as though scenting something. And one of the larger sets of jaws, with great big white teeth, almost peels away from the main mass to head back towards the White Mage, even with the fact it will never reach her without being destroyed by the light. Can they... Smell magic or something?

That could be important to know for future dealings, though that hesitation buys time for Kirito to not only get up there and chop the monster up right-quick, but to then scatter flares everywhere to make sure neither the main mass or it smaller fragments can go anywhere. They sizzle, lose their ability to adhere to the building's exterior, and fall a few stories to splatter on the dirt. The laser from Wigglytuff fills the inside of those apartments with light as well, making even the smaller ones who managed to get partially inside the building die and fall apart.

There may be some of them still lurking around, but they aren't obviously visible. And that's a problem, because if even ONE escapes...

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
Meanwhile back with the transformer, Simon stares. And stares. And staaaaaares.

"...Oh, uh, by the way, I'm not an electrician. So I have no idea what I'm doing. Just thought I'd mention." Then he reaches towards a button inside... Pauses. Shift his hand towards a lever. Pauses... "No, like I really don't know." Then he just scratches his head, shrugs, steps back, and lifts his foot to kick it.

He winds up staggering off-balance, hopping and trying to stop himself, when suddenly the transformer comes back on with a mechanical hum. In short order, the lights are coming back on all over the neighborhood. And from the screams and squeals, it seems those last ones trying to find hiding places have also been destroyed.

Nurse Joy (553) has posed:
     With the lights back on, Joy makes a bit of sigh of relief. She turns to Espurr, speaking a bit calmly again.

     "Okay, so. Can you scan around to see if any of them might still be around?"

     The Espurr replies in its usual tone of voice. IE, 'ridiculously creepy'.

     <I CAN SEE INTO THEIR SOULS.>

     He... really /can't/ see into their souls, but he can try to detect enemies around psychically. They should all feel 'similar' after all.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    No, Kyra notes with some disappointment. The magic particles, or whatever it was within the creatures, could not be dispelled. That didn't seem to help at-"Gah! What is it-" she notices right away the piece that seems to be trying to come at her now, even possibly risking exposure to light to come at her. The attempts at magic quickly end.

    Though she now had further suspicions. "...it might favor magic as a food source." Kyra mentions with disgust in her voice. She reluctantly lifts a hand again, preparing dispell though with no particular target, testing this theory too. Of course, if no more creatures were in the area she wouldn't be able to tell if it was working at all.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is doing what she can to protect the people hopefully the others and figure out how bes to stop it she's chanting agian this time to one make a light well to give them a strong source of light and then to cast a barrier on those people who are still alive. However tihs won't be needed for long as the last of the monsters have fallen, she takes her weapon and returns it to it's scabbard and she's still looking haunted.

"Had those things hit me at home..."

She pauses seeing the fires and is getting to work she looks for a fire extiunusher and gets to it!

Kirito has posed:
    LET THERE BE LIGHT! With the power coming back on and the creatures being obliterated through the group's efforts, Kirito shudders where he stands.. then drops back down to ground level after looking around to make sure he couldn't see any more of those hiding in nooks or crannies. "That was too close." he is unharmed physically, but emotionally this just ave him a sense of the jiters. These things... MIGHT HAVE BEEN LURKING AROUND HIS HOUSE.

    If so, then his family and Sheena are all in danger.

    Not. Cool. At. All.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Light bathes the dark and terrible beasts, and destroys them wherever they try to hide, protecting the locals from further death and despair. And Ryan straightens up his posture, looking around for any stragglers so that he can hunt them down and destroy them. He rumbles with anger at the idea that these things even exist... but when the battle comes to an end, he turns his focus, instead, to cleaning up after the battle.

    He finds a great big discarded blanket, and drapes it over a burning spot, smothering it completely. Here and there, he pokes around, lifting objects and examining corners, looking for any that hid during the fight itself.

    And he thinks about these things getting into Ravnica. He couldn't look more tense if he were a statue.

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
As near as the psychic scan can determine, the only minds in the area are those belonging to not-terrible-monsters. There's no further reaction to the Dispel. It's really over. Though there's clean-up to do, law enforcement work with, the bodies of the victims to deal with, and the fires to put out (though Tomoe and Ryan seem to be helping out with that already), it appears they're done here. Though the memories are likely to linger for quite a while yet. Especially in their dreams. Simon may be patting everyone on the back verbally but he knows he's going to have nightmares to add to those of the towering Lich. Joy.

There's still one last concern though... Staren was also with the group when they went to Simon's library before. He needs to be warned, and consulted on how to make sure no more of these monsters can go hunting across other worlds.

Simon, for his part, is already fearing what would happen if these monsters had followed Marcy instead of him. He knows she's over at Annie's, and he trusts that an Elite like Annie could take care of things... And her mom too! ...But the fact that they can sabotage their own weakness means even a well-lit house isn't necessarily safe.

And that's something to be concerned about.