2018.11.11: Squirrelpocalypse
| Squirrelpocalypse! | |
|---|---|
| The group gathers up to go to Squirrel Central and get back what they stole from Lleutrim, and others, and put an end to their plans to TAKE OVER THE WORLD! | |
| IC Date | November 11th, 2018 |
| Players | Branton, Bronwyn, Brooke, Iris ST, Journey, Lleutrim, Skully |
| Spheres | Gaian Garou |
| Theme Song | Technotheocratic Apocalyptica |
So here we all are, probably at TV pack turf because why the hell not, there's two people from that pack, so majority wins! Outside the caves, up on top where Iris calls home. She owns next to nothing but she does have a fabulous little live-wood woven shelter covered in leaves and just big enough to keep the elements off a twin sized memory foam mattress. IT REMEMBERS HER!
Iris has a little fire going, some water set to boil, and skewers of fresh meat cooking away. Making some lunch of guests as they come to discuss plans, talk about things, get details, or whatever.
Also, for ease of plot stuff, assume Iris is a tool to be directed, otherwise I'll find reasons for her not to do anything because it's weird making character decisions in my own plot. Also, assume she's collected up other people's scene info and can thus answer with any known IC info if there's questions.
Brooke has been hanging out here today, checking on things in the cave and hoping to catch up with Iris. Of course, the smell of food (not guests) catches her attention and she follows her nose! "Hey Mercy's Messenger! Smells delightful."
Branton is hanging out with Iris because he always is and is pretty much always on board to help out with whatever people have going on. He does have a fairly substantial duffle full of gear, not knowing what he's going to need he brought it all. And that's including mundane hiking and camping stuff. He has a camp kettle for coffee heating up "Good afternoon! How's it going?"
Journey stumbles in, looking behind him and back around, "Hi." He says, looking around, "What's.. um.. up?" He asks, walking over.
Brooke's interruption of hang out time is welcome, probably because it puts an end to Iris's really awkward flirting, and that stuff just gets painful after a while. "Hey! C'mon over, there's tea and coffee, almost, and this is um. ..." She pauses, forgetting what exactly it was she butchered. "Rabbit, armadillo, aaaaaaand... rattlesnake? Pretty sure none of it's gopher though. She extends this greeting to Journey as well when he appears, smiling and waving the fellow over. "Birds." she answers, with a point up into the branches where bunches of them are.
"There's been some talk of forward action involving those squirrels, thought I'd invite over people with their fingers in that pie and have a bit of a chin wag about it. Maybe go do some stuff! I'm so boooooooored, and this sounded super exciting. No longer will fair maidens have their laundry stolen, or innocent dudes left berift of all but their left shoes and baseball hats!"
Brooke smirks, "Oh, I have been waiting for this. Those squirrels and their hacking tech... yes, let's get to this. It will not be boring, that is for sure."
Branton nods in greeting to Journey and then looks at Brooke and comments "So I'd heard some kvetching and scattered details here and there but anyone want to give me the 'previously on' sort of summary?"
Journey nods, "Squirrel War Council." He nods, and points to Branton, "Yeah, let's look into what happened, see if we can figure out something."
Iris passes around some mystery meat skewers to enjoy during story time, as well as a cup for tea or coffee or whatever for each person. "Okay, this is everything as I know it. While I was out getting salmon berries, I got held up at gun point by a squirrel. Before I could really do anything but freeze, Skully showed up, and neither of them dealt well with the other. It shot Skully and he proceeded to knock the tree it was in down. The squirrel shot him a bunch more during this, then threw the gun at him when it was empty, then jumped on him and started attacking him while he was in crinos, which I gotta say was positively hysterical given the whole situation. Couldn't beat him though, so it grabbed its gun and ran off."
"Then another time, Lleutrim woke up tied to his bed in the middle of the night with a shit ton of black ninja squirrels stealing a bunch of his stuff. When he woke up they all started pouring out of a cut in his window screen, taking everything they stole with them. He said the one holding the screen open for them was wearing a little blue bandanna and weilding a knife, and there may have been some gang signs thrown in, I dunno. Any how they stole like ALL of his shit that they could carry, including his phone, wallet, and apparently his friggin motorcycle."
"After that he had Brooke try and track his stuff down and she found out the squirrels had stolen his identity and were draining his bank account ordering stuff online. She found his phone when they turned it on to do stuff, and tracked it down, ending up falling into a natural pit trap sort of thing. She followed this little rainwater tunnel through the ground and ended up discovering this big hollow filled with squirrels. They had a whole, like... Mad Max society thing going on down there, using shit tons of stole phones and ipads and stuff to light the place and do who knows what, with little wheel run generators and the like. Like, they had a fight club and stuff, it was crazy. So she gets some pictures and bridges out of there, but the moonlight was noticable and they all came pouring out trying to find her. Except Brooke can fly, so. They didn't."
Brooke nods. "Yeah, that is all I know about it more or less. We have a location where they were. Just need to clean it up and end this somehow." She takes the offered mystery meat and eyes it for a moment.
Journey takes a skewer and pulls some meat off of it listening, "Yeah I'd like to see this place, see if I can figure anything out."
"Turned the tree into a tannin' rack, too, jus' like I promised," Skully states when he arrives, having caught most of what's being said. The big Metis folds his arms when he joins the others, bluff face looking grim. "That fuckin' squirrel... anyhow. Matter's gotten outta hand."
Branton nods in agreement with the others and rummages through his duffle as he gnaws on some of the mystery meat from his skewer "That is super messed up." he says as he fishes out a couple of pieces of jewelry, a fighting knife and a collapsable baton "Alright. Leaving Tranquility home I think."
Brooke nods, "It sure is messed up. I wonder though how these squirrels all banded together and why they have gone from normal creatures to well, human like gang."
Journey nods, looking at Skully, the looks to Brooke, "Yeah some sort of influence on them, that needs to be taken care of. We go out to the last site and look, check for signs search out the influence and see what we can find." He shrugs.
Lleutrim stands off a little to the side listening and faintly nods at various points, having lifted a brow in amusement and looked at Skully when details of that previous encounter are shared. It makes the Galliard grin, "Wished I'd seen that." A glance then to Journey, "Aye, find out what's caused them to change and act like people. It was suggested when last we met that we go check out their hidey hole via the umbra. Do we still think that's a good idea to scout that?"
"You'd've got shot, too," Skully replies grimly to Lleutrim, but then smirks a bit, shaking his head. "Gaia, it was so fuckin' stupid. Damn squirrel. I held the stupid thing in my damn jaws an' gave it a chance for mercy, an' it tried to /shit/ on my /tongue/. No fuckin' honor in those damn things." He rolls his eye, sighing heavily.
"Umm... I know this is an odd question, but how exactly do we fight squirrels, anyhow? I mean, they ain't tough in particular, but they're so damn /tiny/. Can't, you know... punch 'em or whatever. I got a trick or two, but nuthin' too fancy."
Brooke smirks, "If we take away whatever has influence over them, then maybe we do not need to do anything to them. Either way, hand to hand combat is not going to work in my opinion."
Iris eats mystery meat, drinks tea, and quietly listens for now.
Branton nods and considers "Well I've got a spell that'll conjure a cloud of smoke, like the caustic gasses from a volcano. A puff about eight feet across if I really go for it. With how fast they are though by the time I was finished casting something that big they'd be gone."
Journey looks around, "Really?" He takes a breath, "Okay kids." He rises to his feet, "Look, we're not fighting Dancers or great challenges, this is 'Weird abberation' time here. Do you want to fight a single moose sized duck or fifty duck sized moose..es.. Whatever the plural is. That choice is made for us. Area of effect, Fire." He points to Branton, and looks around, "Got fire to throw? Weapons, sweeping , rolling around. don't fight the things individually, use magic, use your wits."
"Okay, but we're still gonna have to keep 'em off us," Skully agrees, shrugging his shoulders. "I can call the wind for that. Likely to blow 'em all the fuck to Tijuana, but whatever. Beyond that, I can mostly jus' harry an' harangue, though if somethin' needs smashin', I can see to that."
Donnachaidh has no objection to mystery meat. After all, Lleu could pretend it's squirrel meat, even if it's probably not. Spicier the better! He takes a seat to work his way through a few skewers with dipping sauce and a bottle of water as the others chime in. A chuckle for Skully, "I'm sure you are right." A look to Brooke, "I agree, though we haven't any leads on that yet, do we?" Then he looks to Journey. Lleu almost asks something else ... but then, he just closes his mouth instead. A glance to Branton, then Skully.
Branton nods at Journey "I mean, just burning the whole grove to the ground is the easy answer but I wasn't sure if that was an okay suggestion to make. My fire comes faster than the spells and covers a much much larger area."
Brooke shakes her head. "I have no leads on what or who is behind this. If we can investigate to find whoever is behind it if we need to burn it down, then go for it. If in need, I can freeze the area now as well."
"Awesome, we've got fire, ice, wind, lots of rolling and flailing," Iris says, counting off their bonuses mentioned thus far, "Which'll be great with the whole battling the squirrel hoards thing, but about whatever's behind it, how're you getting there? Like, fight as a group through whatever weirdass squirrel army there is, or like is that a distraction for someone to sneak through to somewhere, or..? I sort of doubt you'll ALL manage to sneak somewhere, but then weirder things have happened and you might all be secret ninjas. As far as we know, the doom squirrels are all physical, and there are no available squirrel spirits to be found."
Journey looks to Branton, "Well, wholesale slash and burn is something we want to avoid, and your mastery of fire will be able to control any burn that happens." He looks to Iris "Yeah, we need to get to the last place we had a lead and take a close look in the area, on any realms we can get to and start tracking down a root cause."
Skully shakes his head, laughing a little. "Nah, I'm entirely too big to be that sneaky, ma'am. I sign up for Team Distraction, myself. You end up drawin' out some big bad spirit or somesuch, I'll come runnin', but I figure I'm better off drawin' fire an' blowin' houses down like my Big Bad Wolf ancestors used'ta."
Lleutrim licks his fingers as he listens, grey eyes slipping from one person to another. He finishes eating and drinks the last of his water except for a little dribble he uses to wash his hands of any remaining stickiness before drying them on his jeans. "If there's any sneakiness the rest of you decide needs to be done, I can try. Otherwise, I'll do whatever the rest of you think best." No gifts or howls come to his mind yet as being particularly useful to offer, though Lleu's thinking.
Branton fishes a small glass bottle that glows brightly from an electrical arc that's trapped inside "Anyone want a lightning bolt to carry in their pocket? I'm not super sneaky or subtle in the wilderness, Iris knows. I can hang back with Skully and maybe try some scanning spells from range...." sits up straight "I just had a thought, if someone could capture one we could check it over with spells and gifts to figure out what's making it behave unaturally."
Brooke grins, "I'll do it. I'd be happy to snag one of those suckers." She is solidly behind it. "I am not the sneak that Howling Wind or Like the Wind are, but I've learned enough."
"Brooke's seen their home, assuming that's what it was." Iris says, "Since she's seen it, she can moon bridge you all right to it. In the physical world it'll probably be an immediate fight because it's in their home and they'll probably be there. In the umbra though, who the hell knows. Splitting up could be risky, but it'd probably draw the squirrels out of their home." Iris may not exactly be contributing to ideas, but she's happy to pro/con things.
Journey nods, "We Bridge there, face the hordes, look across to see what's there, then proceed as we will. We could capture some in case we don't find anything conclusive umbrally and need an example." He nods to Brooke.
As the lowest ranking guy here, Lleu sits quietly watching while the others sort out what they are going to do, who's doing it, and in what order. He has nothing further to add and is silent.
"I'm with Shaderunner," Skully states, pointing a thumb at the Silent Strider. "Ain't no reason to prolong this. Someone bring a hamster ball or somethin' to cram some squirrels into. Overthinkin' this is jus' gonna make it take longer for us to jump into a situation full'a unknowns, anyhow; might as well just start throwin' punches an' get it done."
Journey lifts a finger, "Wait" He opens his satche, and yells into it, "WE'RE GOING AFTER THE SQUIRRELS!" And holds out the open satchel.
Perk. "BRRRRRRRRRRRPT!" There's a Bronwyn in there with an entire bundle of sage hanging out of the corner of her mouth, like the world's fattest blunt. "Mrrrrp?"
Skully takes a noticeable step away from the raccoon, moving to stand closer to Brooke, and says nothing. NO. THING.
Lleutrim isn't saying anything either. He eyes Journey's bag and gets to his feet, dusting his butt off. Since it's Brooke who is Moon bridging them in, Lleu goes on over to stand near to her as well, ready to go. He still looks like he's trying to think of something he can do that might be particularly helpful with a bunch of annoying squirrels.
- No one specified (that I noticed), so the dealer's choice is umbral!
- Brooke makes with the moon bridging once everyone's cocked, locked, and ready to rock, gathered whatever they need, stashed what they don't at Iris's living wood shack, and then they're off! The moon bridge opens at only half height, so it's probably rough for Skully, but everyone else can crawl or lupus along through the moonlight shaft and exit where Brooke exited from last time; into a tunnel overlooking a natural cavern that's not too far below the surface, there's little breaks in spots that let sinlight in. It, as well as well as the tunnel everyone gets crammed into are natural formations from water flow during random flash floods and the like carving their way through. It's all well networked with tree roots, which is how it keeps its shape and doesn't collapse.
- Within the space are hundreds and hundreds of squirrel spirits all jam packed into the place, doing nothing at all but staring transfixed and hypnotized towards one corner of the 'room'. Moving around in the cavern proper will be rough due to all the squirrels not giving a fuck about your presence and ignoring you.
- At some point during your entry round of noticing junk, there's a quick flash of light from the Really Interesting Corner, and one of the spirits vanishes. Other squirrels scoot slightly closer to take its place and wait their turn for... Whatever.
Somewhere in the bridge, Bronwyn goes from raccoon form to her ultimate form, her 'crinos' if you will. She's little, and scary as fuck, really kinda.
Journey shudders, light gleaming off his skin briefly, then follows the mass through the Umbra, dropping Lupus, moving with Bronwyn, looking at the Squirrel spirits ears working, nose working.
Shaderunner shifts and flows down into the form of a Jackal.
Skully pads along in wolf-form, still big but short enough to lope comfortably. When they arrive, however, he... tilts his head, letting out a little << Arrruh? >> like a confused German Shepherd and looking aside at Journey with a one-eyed 'what the fuck?' posture.
Branton moves along swiftly, a little sparkle of gold light flickers from the wings embossed on the ankles of his boots. He stops, not getting ahead of the garou and frowns at the behavior of the spirits "That...is not okay."
Shaderunner pads slowly, nose down, <Oh no. They're not Squirrels. That's why there are so many. They're materialized Squirrel Spirits, reprogrammed here en masse and materialized one by one. Assumedly to join the army. We hit this and we still need to take out the army.> He noses around, <All sensory gifts, now. Seek the Wyrms influence.> He says, not honestly sure that they'll find anything, but need to check for unbalanced Triat.
Brooke remains in Homid for the moment. Hoping to capture one and ready to shift at anytime. Finding the squirrels in this state just surprises her from the last time. She slides her feet about, pushing any out of the way. She has her go bag on her, and slips out a tablet to start analyzing and searching for any Weaver connections.
Nereid makes a little grumbly growly sound, but she holds herself in check. That's HARD to do, really. Impulse control is NOT her strong suit, really. But she acknowledges that this is an important thing, so she keeps herself close to Journey and even puts her hand in his fur to keep herself RIGHT there. "Just tell me when to go cray cray. I can shut down powers, too."
As soon as they were about to start, Lleutrim invoked a gift and shifted into lupus for they'll be heading into a confined space under ground. Never his favorite. Silvery eyes bright, he lands in the tunnel on the Umbral side and is braced for the worst, only to lift his ears and take a few steps forward, curious what the hell is going on! The wolf notes the spirits ignoring them utterly so Lleu tries to get a better view.
Brooke gets some results, "There is a hive mind at work here. That is causing the calm and getting them in a que line."
Shaderunner sniffs, <Wyld is strong here, absolutely in play with what is happening here.> He lifts his muzzle, and looks to Nerid, <Soon.>
Branton opens his senses to triatic energies and frowns "There's weaver energy in this, not like a science lab or anything but there's some of it like...entangling or binding the spirits. Should I try undoing it? That won't be subtle though I don't think."
- There's a bright flash in the corner and one of the squirrel spirits vanishes. The rest shuffle calmly to take up its space.
Nereid's eyes get real big. Like REAL big and she shuffles forward a little, looking like she's about ready to lunge for.. whatever the hell is going on. "They're getting away."
Weathers-the-Storm holds position; after all, he's there to either huff, puff, or smash the place down. He'll leave the strategy to the growner-ups.
<< Some... some, >> Weathers-the-Storm answers, but flicks his tail. << No great influence. Like... drops of blood in water. >> He blows a huff out his muzzle, golden eye going back to the squirrels.
Shaderunner sniffs, looking around, shifting, sound coming from him, "Branton, unbind it. Lleu, cover Branton, Everyone else, the masses of squirrels. Take it apart." He rumbles lifting a clawed hand and drawing a sigil in the air.
Shaderunner explodes upward into a massive Egyptian horror. (Delerium effect +rules The Delirium)
- There's a bright flash in the corner and one of the squirrel spirits vanishes. The rest shuffle calmly to take up its space.
Branton nods at Journey and starts shaping his spell, visualizing the effect like a string pulling the spirits through a hole to the material world one at a time and binding their focus to the task. Its not a mass dispelling that he can cast, its one spirit but if he breaks chain at the next spirit waiting in line....who knows what might happen. That's what he's going to try and do, so he starts chanting.
Well, they're getting away and Bronwyn's out of wait. Her hand comes away from Journey's fuzzy butt and she launches herself at the mass of squirrels, mouth agape. And if they're ACTUAL size, she's just gonna scoop 'em up and start eating the little fuckers.
Weathers-the-Storm dashes out past Bronwyn and past the little bastards, flanking them on th eopposite side and snarling, << HUFF and PUFF! >>, summoning a massive torrent of wind that blasts the fuzzy fucks right toward the gluttonous gorgon.
Open mouth, insert squirrel. The little Nereid's mouth opens REAAAAAAAAAALLY big. You can toss in squirrels all day. She draws in a breath as the wind picks up, further hoovering the squirrels into her mouth, clawed hands redirecting and shoving anything tht tries to escape. Once in a while, she closes her mouth and actually swallows, but not often.
Brooke continued to analyze the Weaver's Influence around here, and then sees the mighty Weathers-the-Storm huff and puff and all those little squirrels go down the throat of the Gorgon. That is one way to do it.
- There is a metric ass ton of squirrels in here, every squirrel spirit from a bigass radius has been summoned in to wait calmly for a pack of garou to stumble in here and FUCKING MASSACRE THEM OH MY GOD! Really though, they just sit there, and being as how they're squirrels, they're basically no match what so ever as they're eaten, singly or in air lifted waves, and waded through by enormous jackals. Those that somehow manage to miss being killed, are thwaped against a wall or whatever other sort of near-miss blunt force trauma that may happen with this many critters packed in here, freak the ever loving fuck out at sudden attacking wolves, and flee at top squirrel speed until the cavern is basically empty but for the fallen. Those un-eaten begin to fade out here and there as they go rematerialize at some other spawn point in life's video game.
- Bronwyn, meanwhile, gains the effect Squirrel Breath. This will never go away. Probably.
Shaderunner walks along the area, moving round toward the area with the flashes, letting the others conduct warfare, he's focused on feeling Brantons undoing and seeing the reaction. He's also feeling for Thunderwyrm tremors. YOU DON'T KNOW!
- There's a whole section of squirrels who are spared the Bronpocalypse when, after a moment, Branton's spell goes off. One lonely squirrel wakes up and twitches his little head around in a squirrelishly 'wtf?' manner, noticing the hoovering of its brethren. While working out the doom laid before it and the trance it was in, others near it begin to come out of the Be Calm And Line Up trance. The first one manages what amounts to a very helpful, "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIIE!" in squirrelish spirit speech, which is enough to get the awakened flock's attention so that they can escape. I think squirrels run in flocks...
Branton blinks a couple of times and clears his head a bit as some of the spirits screech and flee and he comments dryly as he notices the hoovering going on "Of course 'not subtle' is perfectly in theme."
Shaderunner moves through the battleground of bloody squirrel death and growls as he moves toward where the flashing is and he peers down, then his head retracts up in surprise "Oh that's.." He points to Hushed Blaze, "Come here. In the Physical there's squirrels operating Weaver science thing. Fuck it up when we get physical." He looks around, "We've done all we can here, we need to pull a Combat step into the Squirrels, facing the numbers on the Physical side." He looks around. "Everybody sound readiness." He says, pulling a metal canteen from in his fur somewhere and biting into it, metal crunching as he sucks the canteen dry, swallows it and spits out the metal like a sunflower seed.
Nereid burps. Long and loud and got it smells like squirrel farts. Swear to god. "Want me to go through the flashy thing?" Bronwyn looks.. kind of manic.
Skully stops Chinooking the squirrels and yawps an affirmative, bracing himself to be dropped into the middle of an actual basquirrellion.
Branton reaches to touch one of his necklaces and his hand glows slightly as he draws the stored power out of it before taking out his baton and snaping it out to full extension "Ready."
Brooke nods to Shaderunner, and moves where directed and shifts so she is ready to do just that.
A swirl of dust and fur flies, a cry breaks out that turns into a howl, and the creature before you grows larger until suddenly you see a monster!
- Moving to the physical world...
- The cavern is exactly the same, but now totally refilled with squirrels. These ones, however, are not sitting around staring at nothing and waiting to get flashy thinged. Oh no, it's *alive* in here. The cavern carries the dim glow of stolen smart phones and ipads, several LED camping lanters and the like. There's mounds of stolen stuff that appears to be being repurposed into all manner of things. There's totally a fight club going on over there, and what looks like weapon making over here, crazed debauchery in another space.. It's a very primitive sort of tribe system going on in here.
- Up in an area Brooke couldn't quite see all of when she was here last time, there's the most amazing network of wires, wood and metal bits, salvaged and repurposed things built into a weird conductor of some sort, Powered by squirrels running in wheels, a cobbled together iComputer has been built with a platform more or less where those flashes were happening. A pen of chill mundane squirrels are chewing on things and awaiting their turns on the platform. An albino squirrel is smashing his adorable little hands on his touch screens, but without the spirits, its machine isn't working, apparently and it is NOT happy about this. Close to the contraption and connected to it is a cage containing another squirrel, who is yelling furiously at the albino, all shaking fists and you let me out of here's.
Shaderunner pops in first. He knows he's going to be first, He's a Strider, and so as soon as he pops into being, he unleashes an unearthly howl upon the hores to throw things into chaos to cover the rest of the others.
Nereid isn't REAL far behind Shaderunner, really. Just a half a step and then she's going to town too, letting out a snarl as she starts clawing and devouring squirrels. She would LIKE to be more organized about things, on the Get 'em list rather than the distraction list, but she cuts it down the middle and just lets her Chaos Engine run Wyld.
Weathers-the-Storm drops out of the Umbra next, bracing himself and snarling. << FUCKING... SQUIRRELS! >> he roars, gnashing fangs and glaring with that golden eye and dark abyss.
Branton straggles along eventually, his crossing slower than the more natural step of the garou but he lands with the batton in hand and the glow of his eyes spirit fire slowly fading as he materializes.
- The group arrives into the physical world while the tribe is in utter chaos! The usually stalwart little feinds are beside themselves with terror, fighting each other as much as the suddenly arriving and attacking garou in order to escape through their manly bolt holes amidst the roars of Skully. For a few rounds, anyway!
- Of course, there are those who are doomed to die in the first panic inducing wave, but they go down fighting, god damn it! They have weapons, guns and knives, pickle and fondu forks. There's several butane lighters that have been weaponized. There's some clothing as well but not a lot. Usually some sassy little bandannas and the like. Up at the little squirrel mad scientist corner, Brooke makes contact with the machine... But it's fine! She is now faced with an angry albino squirrel armed with a jacked up cattle prod.
Branton sees some of the materialized squirrel spirits trying to use fire as a weapon and he. just. laughs. "Fire is not your weapon, its mine!" and he reaches out a hand like to grab something and closes it into a fist and one by one the lighters combust and explode as the pressurized butane cooks inside them.
- When the lighters begin combusting like Molotovs with cracked bottles, Weathers-the-Storm once again calls the north wind, sweeping at the squirrels attempting their assault and howling, << AND BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN! >>
Shaderunner walks amongst the squirrel death, untouched, striking out here and there when they try to strike a counteroffensive. They are all afraid of HIM specificly and he uses that mostly to 'Drive' the LITTLE FUCKS into claws, or flames, or on the bad side of a Gorgon.
Hushed Blaze first tries to simply save the phones and tablets at least some what and stop them up. But something is blocking her at this point. In a fit of, GOD DAMN IT THESE THINGS NEED TO STOP!, she just extends her claws in her might Crinos state, and the hack and slash begins! Oh, no bag of rice is EVER going to fix the damage! Even Brooke would not be able to do more than just get new tech after the destruction she puts to it all.
At some point, the Nereid just.. stops. She idly bats away things or shoves them in her mouth as they come at her, but she's watching Brooke. Watching that machine. Mostly, the squirrels trip when they get too close, within the 'field' of her chaos. Eventually, she blinks, ever so slowly and then her voice BOOMS out. "Let's End This." She lifts a hand toward the machine, her head tipping rather wolfishly or coonishly, one might suppose, and she takes in a deep breath, starting to chant quietly under her breath, getting louder and louder and lounder and...
- It's all squirrel doom in here, and everything they dish out the wolves can pretty much heal anyways, and possibly also Branton, but they're in a hurry to be out rather than to cause damage. Once again, the cavern is quickly emptied! Up in the mad scientist corner, Brooke begins to lay waste to one end of the bits and pieces Squirrel Tech computer, while Bronwyn starts doing... Bronwyn things that'll probably do terrible things to anything that's left. While Brooke's focused on leveling his machine, the albino squirrel gives her a good hard POKE with his cattle prod, which in its jacked up state will affect those pesky crinos. "Stop it! Stop it! You're ruining everything!" it chitters (in english) while trying to ward the garou (and kin) away from his already irrepairably damaged device.
- Meanwhile, the mundane squirrels have fled, and the one left in the cage shrieks, "You have to stop him! He's gone crazy! Get me out of here!"
Louder now, Brownyn continues chanting.
- Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
- Drag and drop it, zip, unzip it,
- Lock it, fill it, curl it, find it,
- View it, code it, jam, unlock it
- Surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it
- Cross it, crack it, twitch, update it,
- Name it, read it, tune it, print it,
- Scan it, send it, fax, rename it,
- Touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it
"Everyone should probably start getting out," Bronwyn says rather calmly in the middle of all this, then goes back to chanting.
Shaderunner looks up toward the chittering squirr-Nono, Bronwyns Chanting. He runs over to her, "Not yet." He calls to her, with a bout a fifty fifty chance of her heeding it, he's aware of.., Aw shit.
Hushed Blaze takes a breath from her hack and slash, hearing Bronwyn chanting. But that DAMN SQUIRREL!! She shakes at that and snarls and moves to smack him. Once she feels better from that, she sees Shaderunner run over to Bronwyn and calls out >>We need to go?<<
Skully feels a squirrel bite his hind leg and just donkey-kicks it into the wall, taking another deep breath and calling down the winds again to knock the ever-loving fuck out of the nut-breath bastards.
Branton doesn't hold much with cages, and even if the prisoner's going to get killed in the bronpocalypse Branton would rather they die free. He flings a hand out at the cage and melts the bars away in a blast of white hot plasma.
Nereid is still chanting, getting closer to the end.
Shaderunner moves up to Bronwyn, feeling the charge, and looks around, "PREPARE TO EVACUATE, THIS IS TRANS UMBRAL WE'RE LEAVING" He calls loudly and growls, looking to Bronwyn.
Hushed Blaze moves swiftly to evacuation mode. >>You want another moon bridge?<<
Branton leans into the speed his boots are granting him and he runs for wherever Shaderunner wound up. Choo-Choo.
- The trapped squirrel backs up as the bars melt, and then darts out of the cage. "YES!" it squeaks with joy, and bounds away from the half trashed device thingie. "I don't know what happened, he just went nuts!" Ha, cause squirrel? Get it? Any how."NO! NOOOOO!" the albino squirrel yells as its prisoner and key contraption component is released! "You're ruining EVERYTHING!"
- At about that time and as if in answer to the albino's rage, there's a thundering roar that echoes through the tunnels and cavern. It's hard to say where it's coming from at first, but it grows in intensity until it can be discered to be an engine! A blinding light bursts from one of the tunnels as the Patented Squirrel Death Tank arrives. It's large, Lleu's bike has been retrofitted with a patchy shield of welded scrap metal. There's chainsaws, there's scavenged guns, there's holes for pointy things.
- As it roars into the cavern, it's followed by the rest of the squirrel hoard, all yelling and brandishing their weapons, rallied by their leaders to take back their cavern!
"Load," Bronwyn says, then stops chanting and she turns, starting to back up. There is a .. release.. of... something... and Bronwyn briefly goes to her knees before she's scrambling back up to prepare to take off. She BARELY sees the thing on Lleu's bike. Just barely
Journey swiftly changes into a human being.
Journey looks at the light, and turns, starting to run, fetlocked paw diggin into the dirt, then a boot digging into the dirt on the next step, Journey now, hand coming up, in a dusky flash of light a .357 Magnum appears in his hand, brought up, trigger pulling, Hammer falling.
Time slows down as the flame comes from the cullander, and the bullet comes forth in a rush of burning cordite, turning through the air, bullet spinning.
The camera rotates around the bullet Matrix style, the sounds in the room WAAAAAOOOOOO into stillness. Quiet. Then the Camera tracks along the flight path and the sound comes back, the bullet moving, fast, camera zooming along to the right of the light into the roaring machine, passing right over a squirrel as it sinks into the metal of the fuel tank, the fuel igniting.
Journey turns, holding the gun as he looks back, the fireball lighting up behind him. "Fuck Indiana Jones."
Branton whips a small glowing glass bottle across the cavern like a glowing star and yells "Catch" as he sends a gift back into the horde that was following along behind the now flaming wreckage of a war wagon. How ever many squirrel warriors that were in a circle five feet across get to learn what getting struck by lightning feels like as Branton holds up the cork that he kept.
- The bike suddenly detonates! The blast is significant and Lleu is going to be sooooo piiiiiiissed, but that does stop it, that's for damned sure. At the same time, Bronwyn's chanty thingie does its magic, and the bank of parts and pieces start flipping like jumping beans and sparking like mad. Batteries begin to eplode as well and add to the fiery surroundings. The squirrel army is damaged in front very heavily, others knocked back by the bike's explosion and then electrocuted, several of them automatically pulling the triggers of their guns while spasming. The albino is hurled somewhere during the carnage and amidst all this the pair that can hear the dark umbra get the squirrelish equivilant of 'Oh thank god!' as Mad Scientist Corner detonates.
Weathers-the-Storm leaps forward, flowing into his warm form and wrapping massive arms around the flaming, sparking hulk that was intended to be an Imperial Battle Crawler. He begins using his reach, his incredible strength, and his Gaia-given stubbornness to wield the damn thing like a bludgeon, smashing and sweeping at squirrels while howling, << FUCKING SQUIRRELS! COULD HAVE JUST LEFT ME ALONE! GOING TO SEW ALL OF YOUR PELTS INTO CLOTH DIAPERS! EAT YOUR FUCKING TANK! >>
Journey looks around, putting the gun un his jacket and growing to Glabro, circling a finger in the air, "Blaze, Open Bridge." He says and gets ready to leave, eyeing the tech in the area.
Nereid gets a view of all this and she just.. stops. Mesmerized. Her eyes get even bigger and she CACKLES. Oh holy shit. OH HOLY SHITBALLS OF FUCKERY AND DAMNATION! She claps gleefully, watching all this, forgetting that things are PROBABLY going to explode her in a minute</font:>
Hushed Blaze moves to a good spot, opens the moonbridges, and gestures for them all to pile out. >>LET'S GO!<<
<< STOP KILLING YOURSELF, STOP KILLING YOURSELF >> Weathers-the-Storm roars as he delivers burning, sparking, metal death to the varmints who dare to run too slowly from Skull Kong. But when the call to get the fuck outta Dodge comes, he runs to the Moon Bridge. Does he bring the tank? NEED YOU ASK?!
- Those iThingies that haven't gone suicide bomber begin to fling themselves around, whipping with wires and using themselves as bludgeoning weapons against the nearest moving thing which, as it turns out, is the definitely injured albino squirrel. When the poor, deluded creature is probably dead, it starts looking for something else to murder. LOOK! GAROU! Since the wolves (and kin) are faster than legless bits of metal and plastic, the iThingies are reduced to attepting to hurl themselves at them as they flee through the moon bridge, exploding in the air violently.
Branton will head for the Moon-Bridge and shouts to Shaderunner "Firestorm as we leave or you got this?"
Journey moves back, "Extract, this is Metal Hell, not Fire Hell!!" Apparently he knoes what hell Bronwyn unleashed as it animates the Tech into violent, uncontrolled life as he gets people out.
Gleeful cackling, which is absolutely HORRENDOUS to the ears in this form, some weird two-tone overlay, almost like a horrible, screamy auto-tune. But then as people start evacuating, she blinks. "Oh hell," And then she skips toward the moon bridge. SKIPS... and chants in an almost childlike sing-song: Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
Skully just totes that flaming wreckage right into the Moon Bridge, a quick hut-hut-hut pace kept as he gets out as instructed.
Hushed Blaze keeps the moonbridge open, making sure that they all can get out. No need to wait for Bronwyn as she is doing her thing. Once they are in, she follows along, and shuts it.
Branton asked and was answered so he extracts without further comment, grinning fiercely as he finds himself holding back a howl.
Journey pulls back moving down the bridge, keeping people in sight and exiting wherever Brooke puts them, and immediately eyes the metal Skully brought back suspiciously.
Journey snaps and settles into a larger human like figure.
- The moonbridge opens up on the other side down the road a bit, in a space Brooke remembered from the last time there. It is covered from the road, so will not appear odd. But they are out of the blast radius, so long as quarter of a mile is good enough.
Skully sets down his burden, stepping back and flowing back into his human form. He looks at the burned husk, smirking, and then begins laughing, shaking his head. "Oh, man... Lle's gonna be so pissed."
- There is some smoke filtering up through the ground a ways off yonder, and out of a few holes in trees, but no forest fires yet, just the dull thud of things detonating underground. Of squirrels, there is no sign. Everyone levels up!
Journey pokes at the metal Skully brought out with his Blade of Worlds. After a couple of experimental pokes as if he thinks it will attack he straightens, looking at the source of the sound, shifting down, "Okay. Now comes the cleanup. By the time we go back it's going to look like the set of a Transformers movie, all smashed robots everywhere in mid attack." He sighs, looking that way.
Journey swiftly changes into a human being.
"The one where Optimus Prime dies? Awww, that was so sad," Skully rumbles, shaking his head and looking at the burnt-out war hulk. "At least we got a trophy. I still fuckin' hate squirrels, though."
A swirl of dust and fur flies, the sounds of bones and muscles breaking and changing - and with a small cry, Hushed Blaze is gone, and Brooke has reappeared.
Brooke walks next to Skully and patpats his shoulder. Ok, his arm because he's so freakin' big and she isn't. "You can hate the squirrels. We may all for awhile."
Branton finds somewhere to sit down, probably on the ground with his back against a tree trunk. Poking the tip of his baton through some of the holes in his jeans legs "Didn't go through to the flesh but these clothes are trashed. I think I got some spectacular bruises though, stopping the bullets doesn't always stop the ouch."
Journey looks to Branton, and nods, "Take five, we need to let that burn out." He looks back in the direction of the destruction, "We can head back that way, and take a look from the outside in as we go.
Flop. Nereid just comes to a stop midskip and flops over. She twitches, just a little bit and curls up in a ball, her cute little tail wiggling with glee still.
Journey sighs, and nods, "Okay we'll get this cleaned up and see what happens, this was an annoyance, but now, we can just find the source and take it out if it happens again.
Brooke nods, "I would love to know what the source of it is myself. No one else needs to experience a squirrelpocalypse."
Journey nods to Brooke, "Lotta Wyld in the area, sometimes it mutates things like that, but we can see what's left after the Weaver thing, got up and attacked."
Nereid roll over onto her back, mutating back into her Bronwyn form. It's slow. It... just.. doesn't.. wanna... face is all distorted and weird, but she doesn't seem to notice, really. That was just a little too much chaos for her human self and she's having trouble getting herself back together
