Skaia

Lana had charged into the horde of zombies, her axe managing to fell one of them as the others began converging on her. There wasn’t a lot she was expecting would happen. She was pretty sure all the zombies were just going to pounce on her and she’d have to find a way to wrestle them off as always. At worst she’d have to deal with some funky eye laser magic. What she was not expecting was for the world to go dark around her.

Lana was dumbfounded at first, confused as to why she was seeing nothing but black. She blinked trying to right her senses only to realize that blinking had changed nothing. Sudden fear and anxiety came over her as she realized that all of the same sounds were still around her. It wasn’t as though she were somewhere that was dark, it was that everything was just dark now. 

Feeling a lot less confident in her chances against the zombies now, Lana took a step back and, more so out of desperation then anything else, took a wild swing. Her blade hit something, filling her with confidence only to suddenly feel her hand grabbed. The girl flinched and was ready to take another swing only to realize that amidst her panic and the sound of zombies Chris had been calling out to her. As the boy ensured that they were almost at the door, the girl stammered out, “r-right! Got it!” 

She immediately proved that she did not “got it.” Hearing the zombie that was still in their path Lana, now filled with more confidence with someone guiding her she tore away her lifeline of confidence as she ripped her hand out of Chris’s grip, grabbing her axe with both hands now. “I got this! Uh, duck!” And with that girl swung blindly in front of her.

Her axe found purchase in the zombies flesh, presumably it’s outstretched arm. Lana, now that she was in this position,  wasn’t quite sure how to attack it next. Being unable to see, the girl could only think to swing blindly again. However, unbeknownst to her Chris, who had in fact ducked, cut through the legs of the zombie. Unable to stand anymore the creature fell to the ground. Lana was unaware of all of this and instead, confused, just said, “oh…I killed it.” 

Feeling a sense of pride from having blindly defeated a zombie the girl charged forward, stumbling over the mound that was now collapsed in front of her and almost falling down. Narrowly catching herself, the girl found herself incredibly directionally disoriented. She also only loosely knew where the exit was to begin with. “Oh. Yeah.” The girl took one hand off her axe and held it out, “Chris? Chriiis?” 

Once that was taken care of the girl made her way to the exit. 

Carmen was quite glad that she didn't have to do any of the driving. Not only was she not that confident in her ability to drive, especially in the dead of night, but the ominous atmosphere was doing nothing for her nerves. As such she didn't have to worry about going to slow and finding a cop that would've just been out at this time of the night going to give her a ticket in a vehicle that wasn't hers to begin with. However none of this was the case, especially as she wasn't driving, and they managed to get to the school no worse for the wear. As the girl stepped out of the vehicle, a look of dread appeared across her face as she looked up towards the high school. The building itself was nothing short of ominous especially at this time of the night, but the notion of going into a high school at her age was far more daunting to her then any ghost that might've lurked there. It hadn't been that long since she had graduated from college and she was glad to have school finally behind her, though that didn't stop her from having nightmares about it. Classes she didn't have, deadlines that didn't exist, failing the most basic questions on a test. With the building right before her, Carmen grimaced knowing that the nightmare of school was never truly over. 

As she got closer to the building, however, her nerves were set ablaze even more as she saw a pale white figure open a door, and slowly make their way towards them. "Eeeeeeeep," the girl let out as she slowly backed off, using Brian for cover from the being. The old, chalk white woman who made their way over to them, beads jingling as she walked and a ghastly expression on her face. Carmen had been expecting to go looking for the ghost but she was at a blank now that it was coming for them, and right on the onset of the job as well. As Carmen was making peace with her fate, the woman then spoke up. Carmen first wondered if this was still truly a ghost, trying to catch them off guard and figure out if they were connected to Shiki so it would know if it had to kill them right away or not. But, so far it had only been targeting janitors and people already inside the school. Carmen was not a janitor and they were going to go into the school anyway so it would've had plenty of time to get the job on them and kill them without making itself known. 

Trying to calm herself the girl said, "uh, y-yeah. We uh...we're Shiki's employees and uh, yeah. Are um, you the person who's supposed to like, let us in?"

The woman yelps in response and clutches at the rosaries around her neck. "T-that's me, I'm Ms. White." The woman emphasized the "Miss," in her name coming out more like a long drawn out "mizzzz" instead. 

Looking again at the pale figure she said, "right. White...Um," the girl cleared her throat before saying, "so uh, wh-where is the uh, toilet, ghost, demon, thing monster. Right now?"

"How would I know? I didn't go looking for it. I've been barricaded in the principle's office waiting for you all night." The longer she spoke the more high pitched her voice got. Then she narrowed her eyes. "What took you so long to get here?"

"Eh? Uh, um..." Caught off guard by the question, Carmen felt that if she were to answer with "tacos" the woman would promptly beat her with a ruler and scold her for all the mistakes she made in her life. So, fumbling around trying to think of an excuse the girl eventually said the first thing that came to mind. "The bathroom..."

River continued to idly float above the strip of land, caring not to stray to far from the group or over the water. When not asked a question she silently watched as the group attempted to discuss about what to do with the puzzle right before them. She watched as Marshall sprinted full speed into a running jump just to fall into the water. She watched Gene discuss walking on water. She watched both Abby and Sabrina combine their collective powers over wind just to fall a little short. And then she heard Abby's comment. Feeling that it was her duty to inform the Exalted of their mistake, she said, "forgive my intrusion, but I do not believe that to be the case."

"You think so? I did have some back-up plans, but they seemed a bit too dangerous so I scrapped them." 

"I do not believe those would be necessary, no." River paused for a moment before saying, "your plans have almost succeeded but I believe they are falling short as a result of a lack of power. Your arts are a powerful thing and while it heartens me that you have all taken to using them quite quickly and effectively it would appear you have yet to unleash their full power." The dragon girl paused again before saying, "perhaps it is yet another lack of clarity on my part. So I shall rectify that now. Magic is something of an inborne power and as such, its use is rooted in instinct." The girl held out her hand a small ball of water formed in it. "Within that instinct, there exists other ways to shape that magic unique to an individual." The girl then shaped the orb of water into something of a watery polearm. "And so, when instinct is not enough, conscious effort must be put into it in order to refine and empower it." Grabbing the polearm, the girl took a deep breath, before it became clear that the watery weapon suddenly became much darker and denser. Letting go of it, the water harmlessly vanished before she said, "so, to put briefly, by simply putting more focus into your Art at the time of its use, you may grant it greater power then before." Giving a bow she smiled and said, "I hope this has cleared up any confusion or questions there may have been."

OOC:

"Oh that's a shame," Fen responded at the apparent lack of bug based cuisine that they were likely to find in the city. As Kelsey had brought up her point about wanting to swap leaders to get Trevor trained, Fen briefly paused in surprise at the idea. After all, she had never even thought about whether people were able to transfer groups or not. There was a brief moment of wondering how exactly she'd fit in with the members of Grand, but this was then replaced by her feeling sorry for the other two in the event that Grigory was in charge of their squad. Another concern of hers, albeit a ridiculous one, was the matter of the group's still undecided name. Would Grand suddenly become a nameless squad while Melissa and Trevor were now members of Grand? Or would she become the leader of Grand and those other three would then have to figure out a new name for themselves? It was a silly concern of hers, and she wasn't even sure she was so hung up on this name thing to begin with, and ultimately Fen recovered from her brief moment of pondering to answer. 

"Ah, well, I'm fine with just being uh, friends for now." The girl smiled pleasantly as she denied the, likely joke to begin with, suggestion and added, "but maybe once I learn more about my own squad I'll uh, trade notes with him." The girl joked. 

Looking over to Melissa her expression brightened more saying, "I would enjoy the company. I'm also not very familiar with many card games, so having a veteran help me out would be really appreciated." 

As Fen finished her ice cream, the girl looked down and, understanding the primary function of this device now, looked at her watch. "Oh, it's getting late." Looking to the others she said, "sorry, but I have dinner to prepare so uh, I think I'll, well get going now. But it was nice meeting all of you. I uh, wouldn't mind hanging out or something again." With that, Fen gave a wave as she began to depart looking at her ice cream asking aloud, "I wonder where they find the rainbow worms."

Sibyl found herself in a great mood. Sure, she was a disappointed with how the day at the warehouse ended and would've wanted to level the whole building and sure, her teammates that she were never to see again were a bit sticks in the mud. But at least the muddiest stick was convenient transportation and even gave her lunch money! So she could forgive him for not going for food. And in spite of that, she ended up finding good company anyway. 

Once the colorful hero gave her compliments to Sibyl, the girl let out a hearty laugh. "Hahaha, I like to think I blend the two together well too. Take a look at any news channel later and you might see what came earlier." Even if it were prematurely ended for her, she was still proud in the work she ended up doing today. Sibyl then looked towards the hero girl. She had definitely heard the name, "Aeon" before. In fact Sibyl had known that name from her childhood, even if only passingly and didn't even know much about the her to begin with. Even then she couldn't help but think that something wasn't matching up with her memory. After a bit of walking around, the girl then mumbled to herself, "Aeon...Aeon..." Then, looking at the hero with some degree of scrutiny as if trying to intensely remember something, squinted her eyes saying, "didn't you use to look different?"

"Probably! The color changed a few weeks ago." She grabbed her hair and lifted it, "been growing it out too."

"Ooooooh!" The girl's eyes lit up, cheerily saying, "so you're kind of an artist too. Looks good on you." Sibyl looked over to Lachesis and said, "I don't know where you met her, but I think I like your friend already Lock. Oh!" The girl then reached into her pocket and pulled out the money she had just got saying, "wanna join me for a bite? Alder's paying." 

Free of pretention and obfuscation this in fact the dungeon BGM

River tilted her head in curiosity as Gene went to ask his question. After all, she had just answered what they were supposed to do. Though as the true nature of his question revealed itself River's confusion did not fade. "You are the Exalted. That I am here is proof enough of that so I do not believe it possible for me to make that sort of mistake and I know it is the Exalted who will deliver this world from its suffering. However, I am not privy to the decision making process of my Lady nor the criteria she searches for and so I cannot, definitively, answer whether she has made one or not. However, as she is my Lady I am inclined to believe that her judgement is sound and that you are all capable of fulfilling your mission. I had believed the means to accomplish your task were rather apparent, though if I have made an error in my explanation then I apologize and will endeavor to work harder in the future to ensure no further misunderstandings happen."

River gave a brief bow before continuing her explanation. "To clarify, the Drengr, or most creatures you will encounter, serve no greater purpose in whether or not you are able to save the world other than to aid and empower you. The only thing you must truly defeat is the Accursed and subsequently the Lord of Curses. That is how the world will be saved. The means by which you do so will more than likely be through combat, which is the purpose of the existence behind these shrines, your spirit weapons and the rune grafts bestowed to you. I suppose there is also the matter of the Aeons as well, who will be a means of gaining a greater power, as well as defeating foes of greater strength then yourself which will also allow you to gain even more power to accomplish your task." Giving a pause, River then gave a smile and pumped her arms up as if to emphasize the next part saying, "but of course your greatest weapon shall be your strength of spirit, so do work to never lose heart."  Another pause as River went back to a neutral state saying, "I hope my answer has proved sufficient enough." 

With Gene's question answered, the group was then directed down the hall, free to talk with River as she hadn't seemed to disappear as quickly as she did last time. River, though having legs, did not seem to walk and instead floated above the ground akin to how one might expect a ghost to. The hall itself wasn't particularly different from the rest of the shrine so far, save for the carvings on the wall being different. It had depicted the same animals and humans as it had before, animals on one side and humans on the other. However, they would notice rather than walking or standing still, these carvings seemed to depict them running away or on the ground. Once they had passed the halfway mark, a different type of creature seemed to join these carvings, somewhat humanoid in physiology but larger, more gangly, alien and having something protruding out of their strange arms, as they seemed to be marching towards both the humans and animals. This sight then gave way to another as they reached the end of the hall. 

The new room was starkly different in regards to the last one they were in. While the hall's ceiling seemed to stretch only seven feet high, this one was far far greater in height. And width as well. They would find themselves on a stone bridge that lead to another exit out of the room. On either side of the bridge was blue shimmering water, stretching out to the far ends of the room. Similarly on either side of the room at the opposite end of the entrance they would be able to see two different sets of platforms coming out from the walls. The platform on the left seemed to be incredibly high up, while the platform on the right seemed to be closer to three platforms forming an incredibly steep staircase. On the highest of the right side and on the left side platform they would be able to see two other notable things. One that there seemed to be an entrance, or exit, to the room next to these platforms. Two, that they both had a golden lever on them. 

OOC

Lana couldn't help but feel like there was something a bit off about the comment that Chris had made, but the stress of the situation just made the girl shout out, "got it! Escape time!" With her hands on her axe gripped tightly the girl knew that though the path was pretty clearly straight forward there were zombies and a floating eye that were determined to get in her path. Three of them in particular were already square in the way with more coming up from either direction. Lana had been fighting in a mostly reactive and defensive fashion so far, to moderate effect, but even to her it was obvious that such a style wasn't going to work if they needed to get to the exit. So she would have to get a bit more reckless. She knew that if she did, though, it would be only a matter of time before she was surrounded by zombies around her. 

Taking a deep breath she said, "alright, I'm going in first. Cover for me!" The girl just had to put her faith in the people with her to see if they could make it out. And so, the girl charged straight to the exit. As soon as she was in range of the one in the middle of her path she brought down her axe with all the force she could muster, directed at its head. 

In order to give her and the rest of the group some space Ziun had opted to cast yet another illusion. A repeat performance of the one that had captivated the zombie that had just recently attacked Robin, in an effort to keep them at least busy enough until they could reach the exit. And so, an illusory bard created noise behind the southern group of zombies. 

Figuring that the eye had some degree of sway on the zombies and was generally threatening with magic, Estelle decided to keep that one busy for the time being as well. As Ziun brought out an illusion and Lana charged Estelle, moving forward slightly pointed her finger at the floating eyeball. A bead of white light formed at the tip, before being launched towards the floating ocular monster. Rather than be some large fire ball or laser to see if she could kill it, however, Estelle had opted for simple debilitation and when the bead struck something it would explode into a large blast of light in an attempt to temporarily stun and/or blind the eye. 

Carmen had just been standing awkwardly in the camper van, not really wanting to sit down anywhere in the moving vehicle and not interjecting with Brian's plan at all. She was becoming less and less sure about getting tacos before a mission to deal with some kind of ghost, but Brian seemed gung-ho for them so she said nothing about it. Instead, she just responded to his comments with a, "h-hi, Brian," neglecting entirely to introduce herself. The ride to the Taco Bell Pizza Hut combo was a short lived one, thankfully, and once there Brian got up from his seat and found the video to start their briefing on the mission. 

Carmen didn't have very fond of memories of school, in any year she went, and was dreading entering the old building more so than she was the ghosts at first. Of course the prospect of having to deal with a bathroom ghost didn't fill her with delight either, figuring that such specters were amongst the most heinous to deal with. Once the briefing ending, Carmen looked to the video of Shiki, then to Brian wondering if he'd stop it. Then, as Shiki told them to stop the tape, the girl looked back to the man and, not wanting to go against her paranormal hunting employer's wishes the girl awkwardly shuffled up to the television and shut it off. "Um...uh...yeah," the girl tried to say something, really anything, about the mission they were just given but instead went with nothing and shuffled over to the bed. Looking in the tote as described the girl pulled out a few familiar looking rectangular slips of paper just saying, "they're uh, here," and then put them back inside almost immediately before leaving the camper. 

While moments earlier Carmen had been having doubts about whether she wanted tacos at all and typically not wanting to spend too much of another person's money when they were buying, the combination of stress and newfound hunger had wrapped all the way back around to her ordering four tacos and a large soda. As she got her food, the girl looked sheepishly towards Brian saying, "so uh...well, I don't really feel comfortable um, driving, so, uhhh..." Having just mooched off the kindness of a stranger and then telling him to drive her, Carmen truly felt like she wished to go hide in a bathroom and vanish. 

Fen listened to the answers the two girls gave her, thinking about it. That Kelsey preferred to do some kind of special kind of fighting on her free time didn't come as much of a surprise to the girl, that there was a place to partake in a hobby shouldn't have been much of a surprise to Fen either and the young chef did wonder where Kelsey went to partake in boxing, though figured if nothing else this city was filled to the brim with amenities and locations. The girl then gave a nod acknowledging Fiona's woes in shopping, thinking back and noting that she wasn't particularly good at shopping for clothes either. "I see, I see," the girl said along as Kelsey continued to say more options of things to do. She could more or less guess what an amusement park was by the name though she hadn't the faintest idea of what a "movie" involved, and so figured that'd be a good place to go check out. 

Melissa then talked about her own home world and the interesting dynamic it had with a set of trading cards. "Oh, that sounds like a fascinating world you come from Melissa. Or, hm I suppose peaceful is the uh, better word for it? Since most conflicts, and the like, from where I come from usually resulted in some form of brawling with weapons...or magic...or both." The girl sighed at this, thinking of all the different conflicts that brewed and how easily it was for any amount of combat to get out of control. The more power the individual held the easier it was for destruction to become widespread and injuries to happen, as just a matter of collateral and to say nothing of the individuals actually fighting. "Ahh, I think...I'd really like to learn more about this card game," the girl spoke aloud though to no one in particular. 

Once they got into the store proper Fen went to the counter analyzing each of the flavors. Some of them seemed to be recognizable to her like the standard, "mint," "chocolate," and "vanilla." Then there were some others like "birthday cake batter," or "candied fish," that she wasn't quite sure what to make of. After a bit more of pondering she eventually got her order and walked back to the rest of the group. Showing the pink ice cream on a cone to Melissa, she said, "I got some kind of Strawberry and Apple mix. And uh some of these um, worms." Turning the cone around, a series of colorful gummy worms could be seen mixed into the ice cream. "I've had bugs before but, well, I've never had with them with cream of any kind." Seeming genuinely curious about the gummies and their strange shape, the girl then looked up to see Trevor joining in. 

Giving a wave to him, she gave a nervous laugh at the thought brought on by his comment. "Ah, um, yeah. That sounds like it might uh, be rough to deal with."

Ever Drifting Between Real and Surreal

As the group fully entered the shrine proper, the door creaked closed behind them, leaving them in total darkness, if only for a moment. Inexplicably, a current of electricity could be scene running along the walls on either side of them, arcing down in accordance with the path the stairs laid out for them. And then, a familiar faint bluish glow emanated from the walls and ceilings. Though they had only seen it once, it had been just a day earlier that they experienced this light; that of the church they had awoken in. The walls themselves still seemed to be made of the same kind of gray stone that the outside door had been made of, but as they traveled down the stairs they would notice that the floor had changed to something else. Soon the stone steps gave way to the same kind of multicolored agate that lined the walls of the church, caked with patches of moss here and there, and smoothed to a straight hallway. 

Once they stepped onto this hallway of a landing they would be able to see carvings across either wall. The one to their left had what were discernably human shaped figures and to the right were ones shaped like various land animals. Curiously, the humanoid figures seemed to be just that, which is to say their depictions had nothing in way of animal like features across them. 

After a bit more walking, the group would eventually find themselves at a split path; to continue straight or to go off to the right down yet another hallway. To the front their path was blocked by, yet another, door. This one seemed to be made of a dark wood with some kind of gold trimming across the sides of it. It bore similarities to the other as well as there was yet another wolf head on this door, similarly gilded in whatever golden material lined the doors. Carved above it, however, was the image of a serpent coiled around an orb, similar to the one in the church as well though lacking any color.

Once the group had laid eyes on the door, they would also notice to the side a collection of water was gathering. Soon, the water coalesced and gained more details and colors to it before creating the form of the familiar draconic emissary, River. The antlered girl smiled, saying, "welcome, Exalted, to the Shrine of Storm."  

Carmen looked into the camper van as the man walked inside, a bit impressed with how naturally he seemed to be navigating it. The man certainly looked like he had gone through this vehicle before, with how quickly he also managed to find the keys to it. The girl was a bit surprised though her assumption that he was here at Shiki's behest and was not, in fact, some kind of late night van robber was growing. Of course that did little to allay her suspicions of him, especially as he asked if she was getting in. For all she knew the place Shiki hid their keys was an incredibly common place and the man just had a calm and natural demeanor about him. Carmen did step into the vehicle of course, she really had no choice in the matter if she was going to do her job and not just let some stranger take Shiki's van right in front of her, but she also realized that she was getting into a van with a strange man that had promised her food. 

Deciding that it was best for her own sake to clear things up and figure out just who this man was, Carmen looked ready to speak. Of course, the act of actually speaking was much harder then most gave it credit for and instead of voicing anything her eyes drifted to immediately look around the camper, taking a few moments to examine the interior of the vehicle instead. She hadn't been doing this for long and so the utter outdatedness of the van had continued to surprise Carmen, as well as how much it looked like it was meant to be lived in. In a sense, Carmen couldn't help but wonder if this was actually where Shiki usually spent their days and hung out, and thus also wasn't sure how she felt about someone just driving off with their home. Similarly what was the mysterious person doing while they left their house on wheels to a near stranger. Maybe that just meant this new person and Shiki were actually close friends? After spending some time in contemplation about this, Carmen eventually looked back to the man and asked, "your uh, vehicle is pretty retro looking...do you like, live in here?" 

His hands tightened on the steering wheel. He didn't even give her the decency to look back at her. "No," he said. "The only people who live in their vans are rock climbers and cultists and I'm about as far removed from those people as you can get. I'm just borrowing it."

"Ahh...yeah I suppose...wait you don't think they're some kind of cultist do you? I mean, I guess that would make sense they do wear pretty weird gear..." Carmen wondered for a second if this meant that she was also part some kind of cult. Most cults asked for money though as opposed to providing them, and didn't usually have a sense of actual factual basing in their supernatural talk. Though most of that was from inferencing on hearsay as opposed to actual fact and experience so maybe she was just being judgmental? No no, they were definitely bad news. And the thought of actually joining a cult to find out was far more terrifying then the thought of getting tacos with a stranger. She didn't even want to be a part of this one to begin with. Though maybe Shiki was just some kind of mountain climber? Breaking her own chain of thought again the girl continued to probe this maybe robber for information. "Oh um, so uh, this uh, friend of yours...that owns this thing, they don't happen to have some kind of weird unorthodox job or something?"

"I didn't say Shiki was my friend."

"Oh! So you know Shiki too? Oh phew, I thought you were a robber and were trying to silence me or turn me into taco meat or something, hehehe." Her nerves settled, the girl let out a deep sigh of relief, before she stood to attention realizing something. "So, uh...where are you driving to?"

Sibyl's call out to Vi was answered with a door exploding off of its hinges and the woman frustrated with whatever had happened in there. From the sounds of it, she had something like the building attack her too, which only made the demon girl more curious about this place. As the goth umbrella lady continued to destroy more or the place, it had seemed that their victory was pronounced by a disembodied voice. Sibyl wasn't quite sure who the voice was, it certainly didn't belong to the other two people they had met here before, and so she reasoned that it was either somebody's power to project their voice like this or the building itself was alive. Regardless of which it was, the girl frowned at this declaration of defeat saying, "aww, come on. We're just getting started here right?" It was then that Alder's voiced picked up, directing her to the text message the group had just received. Her disappointment grew as did her frown, looking annoyed at the whole situation. 

As Alder finished his reading of the Fates' message, the girl looked to the side and as if she were a child simply said, "I don't wanna." As he mentioned shopping, the girl then thought more about it. As much as she wanted to keep tearing up the place, now that her opponent had more or less surrendered and everyone seemed ready to leave, she didn't particularly feel like continuing either. But the whole thing left her feeling bitter and frustrated, the frustration seeming to grow more and more noticeable on her face. Then, letting out a yell of anger, the shadows around the girls arm came back, thicker than ever, and she brought her arm down to smash the foosball table, breaking it in half and grabbing one of the halves to then toss at the treadmill. With the brief instance of destruction done, let out a deep breath and said, "alright. Better. You're buying lunch though too," the girl said to Alder. 

Looking up at the ceiling the girl said, "well that was really fun, you've got or are a really cool place Babs! The way that wall looked was super cool, can't wait to see what you got next time." With a sudden smile on her face, innocent joy behind her foreboding words, the girl gave a wave goodbye as she exited the building. 

Marshall would continue to watch the Drengr as he ran off into the distance. It was clear that it had no sign of looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth, or tempting its less proverbial but still abstract in concept fate, and simply continued to sprint at full speed away. It wasn't quite clear if it had a specific destination in mind or if it was just looking for somewhere that was decidedly "not here" but it kept running until the view of its figure was obscured by the myriad of hills that decorated this plain. 

Abby would find that, as she may have posited from before, she could in fact begin healing the bear and "make the hurt go away." The bear was very reluctant and seemed very uncomfortable to let a tiny hairless stranger use equally strange magic on it, but by some miracle or other it had seemed to understand the non-hostile intent of the group. Similarly, while the references and nuance of what Marshall had been saying to the bear was likely entirely lost on it, it let out a short grunt towards her when she finished speaking

The overall healing process was incredibly simple; the healer simply point their hand at the target, channel the magic and voila the body began to heal. The rate at which it healed was slow and the sequence in which the spots that were healed seemed to have no rhyme or reason to it; she could have her hand to the bears side and its back would begin healing, for instance. And while Abby was no spectacular mage, not that the woman had any frame of reference to derive this knowledge and could only truly know on a meta level currently, and she had practically no experience in healing magic before she couldn't help but feel still that something was off about this. Like there was something getting in the way of her healing and the bear's full recovery. It wasn't as though the bear was resisting, it just felt like a natural consequence of something. Or several somethings that simply complicated the process much more then it needed to.

Though, eventually, after some six to seven minutes the bear's body was restored. The process, though not using Focus in the traditional sense, would leave some degree of mental exhaustion to the girl. It wasn't as though there was a lot of brain work involved in healing, or at least conscious involvement of it, so much as it was though she were stretching an entirely new and underused muscle that had no actual comparison to the regular human body, and the mind was just the closest approximation and reference point to it. 

Throughout the whole process the bear did not seem to be discomforted by the healing, and once it was done it walked around seemingly unhindered by its previous wound. There was a trace of confusion in the bear's expression as it truly did not understand what had happened, only that the group here was responsible for its continued living. As a result, it wasn't the least bit hostile towards them, but also seemed to not care too much to stick around much longer. The bear looked to all of them and let out a grunt, which the gang could somehow discern as it giving its thanks, before bending down and picking up one of the more muscular looking Drengr that had fought it with its mouth. Letting out another grunt, one that seemed to herald its departure, the bear walked off with the Drengr corpse in its mouth to a nearby hill, walking over and down it and out of the group's current visual range. 

With that done, all that was left was some Dregnr corpses on the road but no other obstructions in their way. The road would continue to lead to a stone door that was built into the side of a hill, as they had seen before. The door itself seemed to be old, having been weathered by the constant storms of the area, with the only discernable feature on it being what appeared to be the image of a wolf's face carved into the center. 

The girl froze up a bit as her premonition about asking Grigory came true, the man glaring at her. Then, as he softened his gaze and told them to go without him and to get something else, the girl smiled saying, "oh uh, I'll make sure of it!" Giving a wave goodbye to the man as she rejoined the rest of the group, she couldn't help but giggle a bit at Kelsey's comment about their squad's name. But with their business done, Fiona joining, and Fen getting Kelsey's number the group were all ready to leave to get ice cream.

With the group now on their way to getting ice cream, Fen continued trying to think of name for her own group. After all, in the face of another group's and as the leader of her own she felt obligated to put in the effort. She wasn't exactly sure where Grand came from to begin with, but at the very least the joke had something to do with their own squad. Though, naming the group after herself felt a little too self serving. And she couldn't really think of any commonality between the group. Even between the three of her, Melissa and Trevor. She was some kind of ice weapon mage, Melissa summoned angels and Trevor fought with a book and magic. The only thing that she could think of was "Team Magic" and that wasn't particularly creative or original.

Once more she went back to what she knew for names, somehow coming up with Orange Brain which hardly seemed appropriate. Come to think of it, Fen hadn't any idea where the naming scheme for the guilds in her world had come from to begin with. It never struck her as odd until this point, all of them being fruit, and it wasn't like she could ask the founder now so perhaps it was a mystery that would remained forever unsolved. So, instead going to the "taking after the group members" angle, the girl thought about it coming up with another name: Cherry Angel Zombie Fish Book...That was far, far worse then Orange Brain. Thinking on it, Fen also realized that she had nothing to do with Cherry's at a glance either. Perhaps this was indeed something to wait for the moment to strike. 

The girl had thought all of this to herself, making quite the pensive expression while they walking. However, with her stream of thoughts finally broken the girl looked to the others and say, "Oh I think one of the ice cream places we saw earlier was probably just around here." Looking to Kelsey and Fiona the girl said, "you know...I think all I've really done here so far is well, fight and shop. And I don't even really know all that many shops. So uh, I guess I'm asking, when you guys aren't doing the whole...job thing, what uh, what else do you do?"

Smiling, feeling a sense of pride that her sneak attack had managed to work, as the zombie fell to the ground Lana quickly readjusted her grip on her axe. She knew from last time with the skeleton that reveling in her pride mid combat would only lead to her face being clawed, or in this case her neck being eaten, and that was something Lana did not want to experience. So, with her grip further up the haft of the axe the girl turned to face the zombie that was approaching her and waited. She didn't want to run at it, knowing how it would act from her last encounter, and instead waited for it to lunge at her. Once it did, the girl swung her axe, managing to bury the blade into the neck of the creature. The zombie, now with an axe in its neck, still had something of a one track mind and continued to push forward towards Lana. 

With it there, the girl pushed her axe against the creature trying to keep it at bay for as long as she could. Then, letting go of it with one hand, the girl drew out a hand axe with the other. Bringing the smaller weapon up the smashed the blade into the skull of the zombie managing to drop it. Removing both of her axes from the creature's body, and sheathing her hand axe, the girl looked over to the west side of the room.

With her spell having caused great damage to the floating eyeball, Estelle readied her bow. Conjuring an arrow of light the girl pulled back and shot at the eye once more. The arrow pierced the creature, causing it to drop as it was felled. 

At this moment, the west side group seemed to fully turn their attention to both Chris and Lana. The girl let out a small groan saying, "ugh, I can't they just leave us alone? Oh well." Readying her great axe, the girl braced herself for what was coming, thinking Chris probably had the zombie that was approaching him under control. 

Carmen wore a miserable expression as she  made her way down the night time streets of Marinton. A pronounced frown was on her face and her eyes told that they would rather be anywhere else then where she was currently. It wasn't as though she hated being out and about at night. There were always less people around and being able to move freely down both the streets and sidewalk were their own kind of comfort. However she felt like anybody she did see at this time of night was far more dangerous and terrifying then anyone she would meet otherwise. The girl continued to survey her surroundings as she eventually got to the park, seeing the somewhat unfamiliar vehicle that had been awaiting her. Were it a more standard vehicle, even with the location matching and the fact that it was by itself Carmen was likely to mistake it. However, the vehicle itself was unmistakably out of place no matter where it was that Carmen had an easy enough time getting up to it. 

Of course, between her and the van was the entire rest of the small, empty park. There was no one there and nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the van, to actually obstruct her way. Yet, in spite of this, the girl couldn't help but feel some level of anxiety, that if she stepped on the grass that some vengeful spirit might shoot out from underneath. Things to that affect at least. Yet, with her new, unwilling, job that she had to deal with it was inevitable that she'd have to deal with things of that nature eventually anyway. She just wished "eventually" was tomorrow. 

Taking a few deep breaths the girl eventually made her way over to the van - without incident! - to go and check what kind of secondary cryptic message she would receive. As she peered into the window of the van, the girl looked momentarily for - 

“You looking for money or something?”

The girl froze like a statue, her heart likely stopping for a second as she heard the unfamiliar voice call out from behind her. She remained unblinking looking at the window of the car, trying to see if she could piece together who the man was from the reflection in the window. Her first thought suggested that it might've been a police officer, and so the girl was quickly looking for anything she did wrong. She wasn't aware of any curfew in place so perhaps she just looked suspicious to the officer? She wasn't wearing particularly bright clothing nor did she look that well dressed - though that might've looked more suspicious? - so she could only assume that they thought they were going to burglarize the vehicle. Of course this wasn't her vehicle and she had no claim or proof that she had anything to do with it, and would explaining that it was her employers vehicle she was supposed to look for going to fly? For that matter was calling Shiki her "employer" all that accurate? She could maybe get them to call Shiki since Carmen did have her contact info, but then the officer would have her phone and find some of her illicitly downloaded music and make things even worse for her. 

“I’m not gonna fund a drug habit or anything but I can buy you something from Taco Bell or whatever I guess.”

It wasn't a cop! The girl turned around to look at the man, generously offering to buy her food at this hour. "Oh! Uh well um, no...no no I don't need money for drugs...but, um, well, Tacos do sound kind of nice..." Though she was in the middle of a job, sort of, and she wasn't sure if her employer would be good with her just ditching for tacos right now and she wasn't sure if being full of fast food would be a good idea before doing...whatever it was she was supposed to do. Besides, tacos weren't great to eat before going to sleep and it was getting late into the night. Not like she would've gone to bed in the next few hours on a normal night anyway. "Hehehe..." The girl chuckled to herself at the thought, only to look up and realize she had been standing there silent for a bit without actually answering them.

"Ah but um...I uh..." Carmen trailed off as she started to explain, now looking at the man up and down and realizing how strange it was for a stranger to also be here, at this time of night, looking at this shabby of a van in this exact park. There were two thoughts. One, that Shiki had sent someone else here for one reason or another and they were here for the very same reason that Carmen was. Two, he was in fact some kind of burglar who saw the old van to be an easy mark, being old it probably was much simpler to open then a more modern car. If he was in fact a burglar she didn't want to implicate she was interested in the contents inside the truck lest he also mug her. She was also hired to deal with paranormal stuff, not people crime so Shiki couldn't hold anything against them if things worked out like that, right? Though, if she didn't get what was in the car then she couldn't do her actual job and that would also end poorly. So, instead, shuffling to the side, she gestured to the door and said, "uh, go ahead." But was clear that she was intent to continue hovering around the car, wanting to see what was inside. 

After having had her fill of destruction and mayhem in the lab, Sibyl was ready to get on to finding another room to destroy. However, as she took a step out of the secret closet, she realized something was off about the room. She wasn't quite sure what it was at first but everything felt...smaller? But it wasn't like anything was out of place nor was it like the objects in the room were any smaller. No, it had to be something else. The girl continued to ponder on it, until she realized that she was in the closet that she just stepped out. Confused by this, the girl took a step out and looked at the closet, blinking curiously as she tried to figure out what was going on here. And then, as she was suddenly in the closet again she figured out what was going on. "Oooooh, I'm going to be crushed." The girl had no idea what was actually going on in this building, but it was clear to her that the building itself was now trying to kill her. Of course, Sibyl wasn't one to just stand around and evaluate the best of course of action and instead decided that if the building was going to try to kill her she just had to kill the building first.

She slammed her shadow fists against the wall a few times to see if it would give way, to be a bit disappointed that it didn't. As it turned out there were no more secret closets behind these walls and that seemed to mean that the walls weren't about to give way to just a few punches. Sibyl thought about what would be the next best thing to punch and looked up to see the vines growing out from the ceiling. That was another weird quirk of this murder building, one that she hadn't paid much mind to before but now was very curious about. She wasn't particularly knowledgeable about plants but she had a rough idea as to how they took root in things, and since it looked like it was growing and not just placed there, she wondered if she couldn't just tear down the ceiling if she could pull out the roots. And so, extending her arms to the base of the plant, she grabbed at it and yanked. While at first it didn't give Sibyl wasn't about to give up, and so she continued to pull harder on the vines until finally the entire plant was torn from the ceiling, with parts of the ceiling coming down with it. 

"Alright! Let's see what's..." The girl trailed off as she saw, from the fruits of her labor, behind the ceiling was in fact more ceiling. While perhaps a normal person would've thought to try the door - be it by opening or breaking it down - at all, Sibyl had already gotten into her head the fascinating idea of breaking through the ceiling and seeing what was above her. And so, if part of the ceiling could be broken, she reasons that more of the ceiling could be broken. Gritting her teeth and clenching her fist, the girl slammed it into the ceiling a few times before instead going to claw at it. Her claws shifted to become more akin to mole paws as she attempted to go from just punching to digging through the ceiling until finally a light could be seen coming from the hole. Elation crossed her face, clearing happy that her one track mind had lead her somewhere and with the walls closing around her and a path opened she decided to get out of the room. Dismissing the shadows around her arms, they instead began to creep across her legs and extended upward propelling the girl into the air. Grabbing at the edges of the hole the girl pulled herself into the new room...which was an old room. 

"What in the hell is going on here?" Looking around, Sibyl had noticed that she was in the rec room. One that was identical to the one that she entered the lab from. Looking through one of the doors in the room and seeing Vi in the kitchen, she figured out that it was in fact, exactly the same rec room. She had gone from the rec room to a lab. And then, despite going up, had ended up in the original room. After being befuddled by this for a moment, the girl then broke out into a raucous laughter. "You have got to be kidding me! This place is amazing! Vi, check this out! This whole building is like some kind of fun house portal puzzle thing! Oh I wonder where this ceiling leads to then?" The girl continued to giggle as the idea of trashing a building that more and more defied common sense appealed to her. 

Lana had been ready to keep trudging forward and intercept the zombies before they could make their way over to the others of her group. However, Chris had already made the move first and went to distract them all, leading the three away from the group. The girl was about to go help him out when suddenly she heard from Ziun, who had opted to give her an illusion of some kind to make her appear like a zombie. Lana decided to take his word for it, not wanting to look down at her skin to see if it was rotting or not, saying, "uh, gotcha. I'll do my best at being a zombie?" The situation was certainly atypical to the girl and she wasn't even really sure what "acting like a zombie" meant. From her limited sample size they didn't seem to use weapons, shambled a lot, lunged when close and enjoyed biting people, especially on the neck. While Lana was trying to think of how to put all that to practice she realized that if she dropped her weapon there was no way that having the element of surprise would even matter if she didn't have her axe on hand. Add to that there was absolutely zero chance of her biting a zombie. 

So, she went with using the remaining two aspects of the performance and attempted to put them into practice. "Okay, so maybe like...this first?" She muttered to herself. The girl walked slowly forward, shuffling a bit and already walking a bit awkwardly from her still scarred foot. Walking with clear uncertainty in her step, she attempted to circle around and flank one of the zombies that was moving towards Chris, likely the closest one that was approaching him, before going for the kill. Lunging forward, she brought down her axe in an attempt to destroy the head of said zombie. 

Estelle had figured what Chris's plan was and, seeing that the eye was dangerous in a less defined way then the zombies turned her attention to it. With the last time she had attacked it, it had managed to avoid her attack and also took several to bring down. So this time, it was more prudent to destroy it as fast as possible before it could pull out any other debilitating magics. Lowering her bow, the girl's hand crackled with electricity before firing a linear bolt of lightning straight towards the eye. 

Rockwell

Fen was glad to hear that Kelsey wanted to come along to get Ice Cream, and did briefly think about asking Grigory to come along with them. The image that popped into her head was an amusing one, if not also a bit unnerving, and she couldn't help but feel that if she asked she would be met with nothing more than an intense glare. Though, she also didn't know if he really did like Ice Cream or not and so it did feel rude to just invite everyone but him. Though it seemed that Rei had opted to do something else, which was a shame. Similarly a shame, more on the concerning end, was that Morgan had appeared to be injured - or somehow incapacitated - from her brawl with Grigory. The man had tried to assuage them of their concerns on this matter, as little as it helped, before going to scolding Trevor about the self sacrificing way he had ended the fight. As he glared at the group Fen instinctively stood to attention and said, "um, yes, sir." 

Letting out a sigh, the girl relaxed as she saw Melissa talk to Rei, realizing something as well before turning to Kelsey. "Oh, yeah. We should uh, also exchange numbers just in case we wanted to talk again or meet up or uh, something. I mean, I would like to talk, probably about not fighting. Oh, but I'm also really curious about how you fight too!" The girl said as she awkwardly fumbled around the conversation topic. Once the exchange was done she looked over to Aduain and Fiona, unsure of what to make of their current state, before saying, "um, we were uh planning to go get ice cream once we were done here. There was a, well a few I think, places around that we were thinking of checking out. Earlier, in the day. So uh, if either of you were up for it..." She turned to Grigory, waiting for him to finishing his conversation with Trevor, remembering her thought process from earlier, saying, "if uh, you wanted to, I wouldn't mind you joining either," feeling a bit self conscious about how much of an after thought that sounded like. 

The bear, as Abby had thought, was in fact not paying much mind to who it was attacking so much as it recognized there were people around it and they were likely some kind of threat to it. Thankfully for Abby she had been knocked away out of the bear's direct line of aggression and instead there was a nice helpless Drengr right at its feet. The Drengr could barely register what had happened to it; a small girl with a hammer coming out of nowhere and having broken several of its bones was certainly not something that happened every - or any - day. As such, it was attempting to get its bearings when suddenly it had gotten them in a much more literal sense, a giant bear's claws smashing into its chest and killing it. Triumphant, it turned around to the only "standing" Drengr that was left. 

Being impaled by Marshall's lance was certainly an unpleasant experience. As such, the Drengr that matched this situtation was certainly having an unpleasant time. It attempted to take out its frustrations out about this on the impaler, moving to claw the woman. But in order to do so it needed to get closer and the bear was more than happy to help with this. With the streaks across its body glowing yet again, it let out a roar towards the Drengr still impaled and as the sonic wave hit against it, the Drengr was pushed forward through the lance. Marshall as well was hit by the sound wave and felt a surprising amount of force behind just a roar, being pushed back and taken to the ground as well. 

The bear seemed to be exhausted now, its adrenaline starting to no longer keep its stamina sustained now that the original threat was killed. Similarly it had no idea what to make of these new, much less hairy, people but it certainly didn't seem to regard them as friendly. In spite of its heavy breathing and bleeding body, it looked wildly and aggressively between all the Exalted, waiting for them to do...anything really, it was unclear. 

The last Drengr, who the bear probably took for dead or just didn't care about at this point, underneath Sabrina had continued to struggle against her. Yet, seeing everyone else in its small pack dead and having a complete loss of control in its movements due to being restrained by the girl, had made it reconsider its actions. So much so that it went from looking frenzied to panicking, the Fight instinct clearly turning to Flight. Of course, it was still restrained so it couldn't run. 

Sibyl had gotten back to her feet, letting out a small whistle as Alder had managed to disable the robot with his weird spacey powers. Giving a whistle at the sight the girl said, "damn, nice work man!" The girl went to give a congratulatory pat on the back with one of her enormous clawed hands. Naturally the hand never actually touched him but the girl didn't seem to mind that. Instead, with the robot and the woman being dealt with and no one else in the immediate area Sibyl's giddiness seemed to calm a bit, the third arm she had growing out of her torso receding back into her. Walking along with the others, they eventually ended up finding both a break room and kitchen. While there was certainly stuff to break in there, nothing looked especially enticing to Sibyl at the moment and so she continued to just look around the base. 

Opening one of the doors in the kitchen she found that it had lead right back to the break room, and now that she was looking at the room properly she saw a bunch more doors leading to who knew where. Walking up to one, Sibyl grabbed the comically undersized knob in her large shadow hand, saying, "alright let's see what's behind door number two!" And forcibly yanked at the knob, easily tearing open the door only to see a large log coming down from the next room over swinging at her. She seemed more happily surprised by this then anything else, letting out an, "ooooh," before bringing up her free hand to catch the log, bracing herself as it impacted into her. Shoving the log back, due to it being tied to the ceiling, physics did its work as it came moving right back towards her. Catching the log again, Sibyl knew enough that if she shoved it back it would just get in her way of going into the next room, and so this time she grabbed it with both hands. Gritting her teeth, the girl tore the log out from its bindings attaching it to the ceiling and tossed it on the ground before proceeding into the next room over. 

It seemed to be some kind of laboratory with a bunch of weird machines and a computer hooked up to all of them. More than that, though, the room seemed incredibly weird. For one, it was only now that Sibyl had realized that what was holding the log trap in place was actually vines that were somehow growing out of the ceiling. There was also a chair spinning up there as well. But most curiously of all was the walls. Sibyl wasn't exactly sure if the wall was real or not, looking as it was if it had some kind of TV static going across it and like it was glitching out of reality, though still obviously there. A work bench in the room shared a similar glitchy look to it. 

Curious about the wall, Sibyl went to start knocking on them, only to find that they were in fact still solid. With this discovery the girl started rap against the wall even more, hearing that it actually sounded more hollow then anything else. Smiling, thinking that there was more to this wall then just its interesting choice of aesthetic, the girl started to punch the wall, cracking it a little. It was clear that her fists were doing damage to it but the girl shook her head, "nah, this is taking too long." The girl stepped away from the wall. 

The wall crumbled and fell apart as a log was sudden tossed into, revealing the closet that it was hiding. Pleased with herself, the girl looked inside and saw that the room was filled with a bunch of doodads and gizmos, some retro looking and some more modern. "These were hidden away so, I guess they must be important." Her grin widened as she started to swing her arms wildly in the room, smashing everything she could. 

Sonic Unleashed