2020.11.07 Not So Lost Cub

The Not So Lost Cub
A girl named Nahla has her first change and is 'rescued' by the Gaians.
IC Date	11/7/2020
Players	Lleutrim, Nahla, Beckett, Noah, Calvin, and Chip. ST: Poetato
Location	Prospect
Spheres	Gaian Garou

Previously, Nahla purchased a new laptop and flirted with a cute boy, getting his number and a promised date despite a growing number of unfortunate encounters with strangely rude, angry people. Now she tries to make her way home before an unseasonal thunderstorm can ruin her electronics.

Nahla leaves the store and the cool air feels nice on her blushing skin for a moment before she looks up to the sky. She curses under her breath "crap..." than rustles in a pocket or 2 before finding her keys. She then throws her backpack of precious goods over her shoulder and straps it into place before finding the bike lock key and unsecuring her bike.

She climbs onto her bike and takes a moment to drink some water as she prepares for the no stop trip home. Her face serious and focused, she does something out of character, and she decides to use the road to ride home instead of the sidewalks.

Naturally, the road is busier than expected - the clock billboard on the corner bank shows the reason why: 5:37 P.M. Great. She's in rush hour, and she's not the only one hurrying to try and get home. Most of the cars are fine, they know how to deal with a girl riding a bike on the side of the road and cruise gently past her. A couple of them honk.

One man seems to lose his mind at the sight of her and he slows all the way down to a crawl in the rightmost lane, immediately behind her, keeping pace and honking frantically at her: HONKHONKHONKBEEEEEEEEPHONKHONKBEEEEEEEEP!

A glance over her shoulder reveals a red-faced, snarling, gesticulating asshole who screams something like "Get off the fucking road!" when she catches his eye.

It's right then that the first raindrop lands on her forehead.

Nahla gets off of the road and rides on the sidewalk long enough to let that guy get far away from her before getting back on the street. She needs a left turn so she gets over into the next lane, being, again, out of character and firm in her actions. She needs to get home a hour ago and not now. she scoffs and almost loses her focus for second as she thinks about how much time she wasted on that first idiot tween dweeb. she uses the anger to fuel her and she makes it through the light somehow.

She rides faster (or feels like she does) and tries to reach a rhythm while ignoring the cars passing her. She glances at the sky wishfully, looking like she is making a little prayer for the rain to go away, then looks at all the stores she's passing. She is unsettled all the way around, and if she wasn't fighting so hard to make it home, she looks like she could already be frustrated enough to cry.

If looks could kill, the guy screaming at Nahla would probably have already had an auto accident with her corpse a dozen times over. He flips her off and lays on the horn the entire way past her, not speeding up at all until he's ahead of her and twisted all the way around in the driver's seat to make sure she can see his fury and middle finger. He almost has an accident, but the fates aren't that kind. He looks back in time to swerve the wheel and then speed off into the sunset, the hero of his own little story.

Afterward, things are more or less calm as Nahla makes her left turn and rides determinedly out into the deepening dusk. It's Fall time and it's rapidly moving from "gloomy and dim" to simply "dark nighttime" conditions, and the rain comes down in a lazy drizzle. It isn't soaking or stinging, merely dampening - just enough to make things a little bit slippery, a little bit uncomfortable, and a lot more unpleasant. The sky rumbles again, threatening worse.

Things might have been fine, but then two things happen at once. Lightning cracks across the sky, the rain becomes a drenching, stinging downpour all at once, and her phone buzzes in her pocket.

Nahla looks around once again after the rain comes gushing down, worried that people won't be able to see her anymore she veers off the road and onto the side walk. She lets out a frustrated sigh then rolls her eyes slightly as she thinks of her phone. She walks her bike under a storefront... it could be a nail salon? and takes out her phone.

'Is it later enough yet? ;)' Is the oh-so-urgent message that took her off the road. A text message from Chad.

Nahla's face looks grim, she looks as though she wished she hadn't have wasted time flirting too. She leans against the brick wall to the storefront, her backpack causing it to be a bit awkward. She sighs and watches the rain for a bit, her shoulders relaxing some.

Nahla looks at her phone again then opens up her texts and hovers over chads text for a bit before clicking on her father. "Hey, are you free? I'm currently stuck under a storefront in this god awful rain, and it doesn't seem safe to ride home. Can you come get me?" she sighs once again and doesn't look hopeful.

Nahla opens google maps to see what is near her as she waits for her fathers reply. She drinks some water, and her stomach grumbles "Great....".

The rain shows no sign of lessening anytime soon, pounding against the pavement and the awning above Nahla. Traffic continues unabated, cruising through the street and adding its wind to the stiff breeze of the storm, rendering her meager shelter even more meager - the longer she stands here the wetter she becomes, if only by degrees.

The phone has a wavering connection, but her maps application comes up without greater issue than an extra couple seconds' delay. The phone buzzes again, two times. Three. New messages:

Chad: 'Whoa, I just looked outside. It's raining cats and dogs lol. Will stop txting u until u say ur out of it.'

Dad: Crap. Dad: Busy right now with work. Give me 20 minutes?

Nahla looks relieved as she sees that her father responded so fast but wrinkles her nose at seeing that it'll take him 20mins. She knows 20 minutes is really code for an hour. She ignores chad in favor of google maps and looks for the closest starbucks or restaurant. Her phone is slow... She leans her head against the cold bricks and feels her fizzy hair stick to the porious grout as she waits for the app to load. Nahla looks up at the rain and see shapes and colors, imaginating things to draw once she gets to a safe place again, this is how she relaxed herself in hard times. Suddenly responding to Chad felt like something she may want to do.

Thunder rumbles again, lightning flashing. Cars cruise by, and the door to the Salon opens, a woman emerging. She wrinkles her nose at the rain, then starts as she spots Nahla nearby. She's a young-ish, urban professional type and she eyes Nahla as if trying to judge the danger of a stray dog in the street. Then she produces an umbrella from her bag and turns to step out into the rain, taking care not to turn her back on the teenager and glancing frequently at her as she moves toward a car parked at a nearby meter.

The storm shows no signs of abating or lessening, little rivulets rushing down the sidewalk and into the gutters. Traffic continues its slow crawl through the city, the distant highway undoubtedly bumper-to-bumper gridlock between the hour and the rain. As Nahla's dad sometimes likes to complain, these California folk lose their minds when anything falls from the sky.

Just as Nahla is thinking to message Chad, Google Maps finishes its slow load to display a map of the surrounding city blocks.

Nahla sighs softly as she watches the rude lady and looks as if she is lost in thought as she watches her. She looks down at her phone and decides to go to the nearest place she can get something to eat. Mcdonalds it is. She pulls her hair away from the wall and stretches her arms up as she tries to loosen herself up before another stresseful bike ride. She gets on her bike and jumps the curb to leave the awning, this time she takes the sidewalks, it'll be faster anyways with the traffic the way it is. Mcdonalds is only 3 blocks away, she can make it, and her backpack is a decent one so her laptop will be ok.

The stars align for Nahla, finally, as she makes the decision to ride to McDonalds. The rain lightens up a bit, easing from the harsh, stinging downpour into a more moderate shower with less wind to whip the droplets into her eyes. The sidewalks are blessedly empty of pedestrians and, while it's technically illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk, plenty of people do it so she doesn't even get any ugly looks. Her brand new laptop is nice and secure inside its pouch in her backpack, and the ebike is ruggedized for just such conditions as these. The night is looking up!

She makes it about two blocks and rounds the corner past a little corner payday loan store and a bus stop. The McDonalds is clearly in sight just down the street, a dozen plus cars lined up in the drive thru for the rush-hour dinner crunch. And in a little alleyway just behind the payday loan place sits a bicycle cop underneath a backdoor awning. He and Nahla see each other in the same instant, and it's the next in which she knows her day just got worse. His expression goes from surprised to scowling, and then he's putting his phone in his pocket and reaching his opposite hand toward her as if for an invisible leash as he shouts, "Whoa! Freeze!"

She's on a zippy little e-bike and he's not even mounted. It'd probably be a trivial matter to just bolt and save herself a ticket...

Nahla slows down then points at herself to make sure the cop was pointing at her and comes to a stop in a out of the way part of a parking lot. She seems genuinely shocked that there is even a bike cop out in this weather, but she doesn't mind stopping since the rain let up. She looks at her phone breifly while the cop approches her to make sure no one texted her in the meantime.

The cop emerges from the alleyway, frowning at Nahla with her e-bike and phone. The cop crosses his arms and the frown deepens into a stern scowl underneath his white biking helmet. "Come back here and talk to me out of the rain, girl. I want to know what the hell you're thinking, and I don't want to get soaked doing it."

His voice is hard and firm, commanding, clearly expecting Nahla to cooperate.

The phone has no new messages, though it's perfect timing to notice the battery is just reaching 27. It probably won't last too much longer. Maybe the hour her Dad 'needs.'

Nahla sighs lightly then puts her phone away and joins the cop under the awning. "What seems to be the problem officer?" Nahla says as she avoids the rain.

The cop frowns down at the girl as she approaches, before nodding slightly and turning to lead her back into the alleyway and under his awning, there, crowding in beside his bike. Her bike risks being left on the sidewalk where she halted, though if she brings it along he doesn't argue.

Once they are crowded in the dark alleyway together, he clicks on his flashlight to shine down at her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing out here, girl?" The tone is aggressive, now, rather than merely authoritative.

Nahla sudders slightly at his tone and holds onto her bike. she says "I don't understand the question officer, is there something wrong?". Nahla holds her phone at her side and things about calling her father.

"You're goddamn right there's something wrong," the man growls to the teenager, shifting the flashlight a little so that it shines directly in her face. "Keep your hands where I can see them. And tell me: What the fuck are you thinking? Are you hopped up on something? You think a motorbike is for sidewalks?"

From his tone, he probably isn't going to be receptive to an explanation about ebicycles. And Nahla probably knows that riding a bike of any kind on the sidewalk is a ticketable offense, if rarely enforced.

Nahla sudders back slightly as she is blinded and appologizes, keeping her hands where they can be seen. "I'm sorry if I broke any laws officer, I wasn't aware that I was, and I am truely sorry." Nahla looks as though she looking for anyway to fix or help this situation and wished she stayed at the nail salon.

"Oh," the Cop scoffs, "You didn't know it was illegal to ride a dirtbike where people walk. You think I'm stupid?" He shifts his weight a little, looming forward over the girl, looking her over, eyeing the phone in her hand, the bike beside her, the backpack slung over her shoulders. Frizzy, soaked hair and disheveled wet clothing. Then he jerks his chin toward her, "Drop the phone. Take off the bag."

The rain begins to lash down from the sky again, striking hard against the pavement, stinging droplets against any bared skin not protected by the sparse awning's cover. A car whooshes past on the nearby street, but they don't slow down or appear to pay any mind to the girl in the alleyway and her plight.

Nahla sighs lightly and slowly places her phone infront of her in the driest place she can and lets her backpack slip off her shoulder right next to it. She slowly stands back up and says, "I really appologize officer, I will comply and do what it takes to right the situation."

He only grunts in response to that assurance from the girl. He nods toward the opposite wall of the alley, a scant two feet away. In the rain. "Stand over there with your hands against the wall. Don't try any funny business and you won't be any more uncomfortable than a bit of rain water." His tone is still unfriendly, downright mean even. He waits until she's complied with the order, before she hears the zipper of her backpack opening and the light shines away from her. Apparently he's going to search her bag. In the lashing, stinging rain. On the wet pavement, already running little rivulets to the gutter in the street. Her poor electronics.

Nahla moves as slowly and carefully as she can. She hears he eletronics hit the ground and doesn't even look, she just closes her eyes and leans her head agaisnt the wall, awaiting father instructions. Strange though, She looks as though she is trying very hard to hold still but is slightly twitchy, she looks almost itchy.

The cop snorts as he opens backpack pockets and pouches and audibly rummages through them. He doesn't sound like he's moving slowly, carefully, or deliberately the way that cops always do on the reality TV shows, so he probably isn't actually worried about weapons or needles. After a moment he gives a low whistle, "Damn girl, you always carry this shit? Never worry about getting mugged, I guess. You've got headphones, laptop, tablet, cables, all kinds of goodies."

Then there's the sound of the bag dragging across the pavement. It's probably in the rain, or maybe it's just in one of those rivulets. The phone begins to buzz faintly on the pavement, but the cop doesn't pay it any attention as the rain lashes against Nahla's face and hair. Then, the cop steps in close to her. Uncomfortably close. His voice is pitched lower, the flashlight held over her head with one hand even as the other comes to rest solidly on her shoulder.

"I'm going to frisk you. Got any weapons or needles on you? Anything I need to know about before I find it?"

Nahla shivers rather violently as he holds her in place. She tries to talk but she's so upset that her voice no longer sounds calm. "No sir, I'm just a civilian, and have never done anything wrong my whole life." Nahla just keeps trying to hold still as she starts to weep, starting to lose control of herself in all the emotions.

The cop huffs a sigh in response to that, shaking his head behind Nahla as the rain beats down on her back and head. His fingers dig into her shoulder, squeezing lightly, then he clicks the flaslight off and tucks it away. A moment later he's lifting a phone and speaking briefly into it: "Yeah. It's me. I got a live one. Code Green. Corner of sixth and Maple. Yeah. Behind the- yeah. That's right. Of course I'm sure, you numbnuts fuck. Yeah. Yeah. New. Uh-huh. Hurry up." Then he's slipping the phone back into the case at his belt and returning his attention to the girl.

His hand on her shoulder lightens and he begins the frisking process, running his hand up and down and all around her body, feeling for hidden objects through the soaked fabric of her clothing.

"Oh, I'm sure," he drawls in an exaggerated tone, "You've never done bad your whole life. You're a -good- girl, yeah?"

With that last bit, he squeezes her ass roughly, fingers exploring in a far less professional manner and place and pressing lower, toward the junction between her legs.

Nahla 's whole would shakes and spins. All of a sudden she looks as though she goes from pretenidng she was someplace else altogether to very much so in the moment. In fact too much so, she has never felt so alive. one moment the officer was between her legs, and the next moment she was staring at him from above, he looks so small. In her veiw she sees blood splatter against the wall, soon it gets washed away by rain, but not before more blood splatters. The cop infront of her in a instant goes from shock and fear to skin, blood, and bones. nahla realizes she was seeing red only after she loses her vision. When she comes back to herself she is the right height and a puddle of limbs are infront of her.

Nahla is still shaking as she stares at the corpse. the raindrops pounding into it and cuasing it to shake and mix, as if the earth is already trying to pull the corpse back into her. She realizes what she's doing as she snaps a degree back to reality, she looks around, realizes that she is in trouble and needs to run. Nahla frantically gathers her things, throws her backpack on, and tries to put her phone in her pocket. there is no pocket and her phone falls to the ground. "Dammit!..." she feels around her body and it's worse then she thought, she's naked ontop of everything. Obviously just needing a place, any place other then where she was to duck out and hide, she starts trying to opening back doors to the shops in the dark ally. Just as she finds one her phone rings again and she blindly answers it in the dark, whispering "Hello...?".

The cop never knew what hit him. He has just enough time to go from maliciously chuckling to ragged gasp before the scream, and then he's so many splatters of blood and bone and flesh on the pavement... And on Nahla. She's sticky with his insides. There's gunk under her nails and in her teeth and matted in her hair. She's got time to recognize these facts as she whispers "Hello" into the phone.

It's Dad's voice on the other end. "Nahla? I'm free from work... Why are you whispering? Hello? Is something wrong?"

Nahla seems to soften as her father answers, she's in a dark corner inside what looks to be the back on a store... shoes? it doesn't matter, still whipsering she says "Dad... I don't know what happened.... there was a monster and it killed a cop right infront of me. I'm naked, and i'm covered in blood... I have no idea where I am. the cop called for backup, but I think he was going to r.... I don't think he called other cops... I don't know what is happening.". nahla is crying over the phone very quitely and manages to get out "I was going to Mcdonalds... to wait".

Dad gives the most comforting reply available: "Oh shit." His voice is stunned, horrified, but somehow less surprised than it should be. "Where are you? Are you safe? Did anyone see?" He pivots quickly from horrified and concerned into brusque, business-like, angry. It's familiar emotions, but rarely directed at Nahla. He gets directions to where she is, orders her to stay and hide, not to talk to anyone, not to come out of hiding for anyone but him, and then promises to call her right back. It's probably the first time in her life that he's hung up on her tears.

It's nighttime, early evening just after rush hour, and uncharacteristically stormy in Prospect - a heavy, drenching thunderstorm. A great night to stay indoors and out of trouble. If only that were possible.

What happens next is a series of phone calls. A pair of kinfolk for the Children of Gaia, local contacts in the city of Prospect, get a phone call from an unknown number. Moments later, they're relaying information to other kinfolk in the area, and placing a call to Lleutrim, wherever he may be. They're lucky and he answers (or maybe he's just that kind of dutiful guy) and the report is given:

"Lleu, there's a new cub in town. Just changed. Next thing to a lost cub, kinfolk father keeping her history from her. He just reached out, guy named Miguel. Daughter is the cub. Girl named Nahla. She killed a cop, who called someone else to come get her before he died. Not sure what you're going into, but I've got a location where the girl -should- be, and where Migeul's going to pick her up."

It shouldn't take much more than that phone call for Lleu to rally whatever troops happen to be nearby and be on the way. As luck would have it, he was only a few minutes' drive from the unfortunate alleyway.

Of course he answers. Lleu'll probably be having dinner at the Smoke 'n Barley. "Hello? Yeah, this is Donnachaidh, go." Then he listens and his face grimaces at mention of killing a cop. "Hope it wasn't anybody I knew. Where?" A curt nod, "I'll grab some folk and go looking. Thanks. Donnachaidh out." The phone is put back into his pocket. The Galliard stands, tosses some cash on the table, starts rounding up a few folk, "Chip, come on. Could use some help looking for somebody." And whoever else Lleu runs into on his way out the door and out to his motorcycle.

It's only a few minutes later that Lleu parks his bike and leaves it on the street, starting to walk quickly through the rain and not caring that he's getting soaking wet. "Spread out. Girl's name is Nahla. Her father's coming out as well - his name is Miguel." His baritone lowered, he adds, "Mind the veil."

Lleu's boots are soon taking him down an alley, looking this way and that. "Nahla!" Even a man won't need a wolf's nose to smell blood and feces if he's heading the right direction.

Having been a fond customer at the Smoke and Barley, Noah was in the private dining when the call came. As Lleutrim makes the statement about needing help, Noah is all for it. "I got a car if people need a lift." He offers over, heading out to his sedan to follow the man on the motorcycle.

Chip will nod and follow along with Lleu and Noah, taking Noah up on his offer of a ride. When they get where they're going he follows suit, heading in whatever direction the other two men are heading.

Calvin had tracked down Chip this time, resplendent with a large thermos of polished brass and steel intent on showing him the wonders of well brewed coffee. Just in time to catch everyone streaming /out/ of the Smoke and Barley private dining area and being forced to turn 'bout to follow them. "You're going to drink coffee, you're going to endure it. Sometime soon."

A supply run to the Kinfolk house had ended with an urgent call. Nervous kin. A lost cub. Violence. Blood rolling down a storm drain. Though it wasn't a grimace that flickered over his face when he heard of the unfortunate that fell to the cub's claws. "Call the confederacy. Tell my class they have a free-study day though I won't be taking roll." The little abuelitas would have to gather for class another night. There was Garou work to be done. Raindrops trace rivers down the sheer cliffs of his face as soon as Beckett steps out of the umbra and into the pouring rain of the city. Droplets cling to the round lenses to his glasses as his gaze sweeps the street. He arrives near the site where the cub had last been seen or known about. At least there'd be few out on a night like this. He sighs and reaches up to grasp at the hidden object that hung from the buffalo hide chord around his neck.

For Nahla, it feels like hours pass in the few minutes after Dad hangs up. In that time she's left in the cold rain with a dead body, naked, covered in gore. She hides, of course, and it's a good thing that she does. After she's ducked out of sight behind a large dumpster in the deep dark of the dead-end alleyway, a windowless van cruises slowly by on the street just beyond. Headlights off. A man's face is peering out through the passenger side window, squinting down the alleyway. But then the van rolls on, disappearing out of her sight. Dad doesn't call her back. And he doesn't show up in the little bit of time that passes, either.

It isn't too long after that the Garou cavalry begin to show up. Lleu arrives leading the car of Gnawers and Kinfolk. The rain beats heavily on them, thunder growling in the sky above as they spread about the area. It's a downtown-ish zone, little mom-and-pop style stores and minor offices for nail salons, payday loan sharks, and similar outfits along with the occasional eatery are in the area.

The cub was supposed to be in an alleyway near McDonalds, which looms large a couple of blocks down the street in the night.

Calvin is comfortable in his leather jacket over a hoodie with the hoodie oh so prominently up and over his head. Its a black and not white hood. "So. Uh...Pup near a McDonalds. Thats a new and fresh one for me." He is a quiet passenger for most of the ride over there though.

Beckett stood at one end of the alley. Perhaps it was the abandoned police cruiser that led him here. If there was, indeed, an abandoned police cruiser he'd calmly touch the hood as he walked by to shut off the lights. (Jam Technology) Whether or not it was the end of the alley that Chip, Calvin, and Lleu were all at was up to all of them. Either way, he steps inside cautiously, looking for the signs of a body. He walks slowly and carefully. New cubs could be so jumpy...

When it looks like maybe he's getting closer, whether he can yet smell any blood or see any signs of violence, Lleu's danger sense maybe warns him to pause and active a couple of gifts. His pale icy grey eyes are watchful, his ears sharp for noise or signs of others in the area. Once he's a little better prepared should he walk into a Black Spiral Dancer or two also looking for freshly changed cubs, the scarred up Galliard glances back to place the others and then continues on quietly. The rain coming down makes seeing or hearing things clearly a bit difficult.

At the mouth of the alley, Lleu sees Beckett and nods to him. He waits for the others with him to catch up and motions them to go ahead of him. He's got an eye out to watch their asses while they are all looking for the girl.

Chip shakes his head at Calvin, "Water is better." he remarks about the coffee topic but then sets his attention to sniffing around and keeping an ear out for any helpful sounds.

It doesn't take very long for the Garou to find the correct alleyway. A cursory glance down one alley or another quickly reveals the absence of bodies or cubs. It just happens to be luck that brings Beckett to the right place moments before Lleutrim's group round the corner and the groups find one another.

The mouth of the alleyway is set between a payday loan outfit that closed an hour ago, and an office space with a 'for lease' sign in the window. It is set across the street from the back of several-story brick building. Lucky. Just a block further down the street is the fateful, promised land of McDonalds.

It reeks of blood and viscera, even without enhanced senses, and the next flash of lightning reveals a pair of bicycles - one suped up Police rig. One suped up, ruggedized ebike. Blood is splattered everywhere, with bits and pieces of dead cop strewn jaggedly across the way. The biggest identifiable piece of human is a leg and a half, still attached to the hips. It's deeply shadowed enough to be easily overlooked by any cars that happened to pass by. Very lucky.

The alley ends in a dead end against another building, with a couple of back doors providing access to the storefronts on either side, and access to the building beyond. A tall dumpster provides an ideal hiding spot, if one were to use it. If the cub is still here, it won't be hard to find her.

Nahla is completely checked out, reality still ripping. She sits behinde the dumpster, nothing but stentch in her nose, but she can't relate the smell to anything in particular. She wants to throw up, but she can't make noise. She perks up suddenly as she hears footsteps. are they her father? Theres too many to be her father. Her phone rings suddenly, and she yelps out loud. Realizing how much noise she just made, instead of answering her phone she just grips it as hard as she can and folds up into a ball on the dirty wet ground. this has to be a dream, she'll wake up soon.

The Kin keeps near enough to help, not near enough to be a target. He'd grabbed a backpack out of his trunk, perhaps it was a bug out bag? Moving along cautiously, he keeps his eyes open. Of course, his senses aren't as sharp as the Garou with him. "So we know this person then?"

Then they happen upon the carnage. Noah pales, eyes taking in the scene. "Mother of God." He whispers, looking around to see if any onlookers might have noticed the situation.

Beckett's gaze, guided by Dragonfly, snaps to the trace of blood rolling out of the alley thinned enough for it to flow freely by rainwater. His brown eyes then jolt up when he detects the presence of the other Garou. They had never met, he and Lleu, and for a brief tense moment Beckett's hand reaches for something hidden inside of his cloak. He stares into Lleu, brow hanging over his eyes with suspicion. Then... he's able to make it out in the rain. Fianna. Not a spiral. Not... something else. Beckett is able to tell Lleu is a Fianna, and probably not an enemy. The appearance of the two Gnawers, whom he did know, settles his nerves enough that he relaxes his grip. After extracting his hand from his coat he lifts a finger to lips.

Beckett then steps cautiously into the alleyway, moving to avoid walking in the gore. Behind his glasses his eyes are searching. Searching. Searching. Searching. He only gives the corpse a brief look to assess the level of damage. Finally he cautiously speaks up, calling out only loud enough for ears inside the alley to hear. "Nahla! Hello? You don't know me, not yet. Your father sent us to get you, down the line anyway." He looks over his shoulder, catching sight of Noah just as the Kinfolk's stomach probably did a back-flip. He turns back to the alley, taking a few more steps deeper in. "Lets get you out of this rain and somewhere warm, shall we?"

The phone suddenly ringing on the far side of the dumpster no doubt turns heads or lifts gazes sharply in that direction - especially when followed by the yelp! Lleu pays the remains of the body little heed for now. He's caused such carnage so many times in his life, even before he knew he was garou, that he simply walks past it and tries not to get blood on the bottom of his boots - if he can help it. "Nahla? Your father's sent us." Carefully he walks around the trash bin but not close to it lest the frightened girl might suddenly lunge out in Crinos form. "My name is Lleu. We've come to help get you out of here." The scar faced Galliard's baritone is lush and warm, a voice Nahla can trust. Fatherly in it's own way.

Calvin is way way in the back, walking slowly and smoothly while his heels occasionally crunch across ground and squeak through rain as he turns to look over his shoulder with a measured frequency. Once Lleutrim starts talking, he'll turn entirely and trust that they're watching the cub while he watchs down the alley from whence they came.

Chip wrinkles his nose at the smell in the alley, and stays further back, just keeping an eye out for anything fishy with Calvin.

Nahla looks up, her dark brown eyes wide and wild. She looks at the scarred but warm man infront of her, her wild eyes mostly covered by her very wet but still fizzy hair. She hides most of her face into her knees, as she hugs her lanky legs to her chest. Nahla accesses the man infront of her and is barely able to hear all of the things he said, but she perks up at the meantion of her father. Suddenly she sits up on her knees and looks for her father. "Where is he, is he safe?! Theres a monster out here!". She looks so frightened as she imagines the only person she has ever had in her life getting destroyed by the monster too. In a instant she decides to trust the man and lays her head on the concrete, begging this stranger infront of her "Please, please tell me my father is ok." She not so quitely crys onto her hair and the floor, completely defenseless. Her father would be so dissapointed.

In contrast to Lleu's warm fatherly tone, Beckett definitely sounds more like a professor in his tone and cadence. The kind that could be a little snarky but would always help you if your grades were struggling. He quirks a brow when Lleu says almost the exact same thing he does. He peels away his coat and drapes it over his arms. He crouches down, bending his long legs down into a squat that seemed to accentuate his heron-like proportions as he tried to make himself look smaller to the scared cub. "Monster?" His eyes dart around. His brow suddenly creases as he stands up again. "We're going to get you somewhere safe. Could you... tell us about the monster?"

Noah is a doctor - he just wasn't entirely ready for such a visceral scene. He steels himself, offering a calming smile to the young lady having a rough night. "I have some dry clothes in the bag." It's offered over. "Men's clothes, but they are sweats and stuff so they should fit without an issue." He does have a well-practiced bedside manner, at least! With a look to the other Garou present. "Do we have a good place to get her to? Or her father?"

When Nahla doesn't come charging out at them, crying and weeping over her father's safety, Lleu turns his head to look over the others. He eyes Beckett's long coat pointedly. "We need to get her out of here fast as possible. Please cover her nakedness. Poor girl's scared half to death. Also, somebody go get the car, please."

Back to Nahla herself, Lleu smiles a little, "Your father hasn't shown up yet. He's probably fine. But we need to get you out of here and to somewhere safe so he can meet up with us there, all right?" Donnachaidh motions for them to get a move on. He looks to Noah, "Kinfolk house. She'll be safe there. Clean her up, explain what's happened."

"No, you fuckin' fool, it has to be the alley behind the payday place. You were just too goddamn blind to see." A man's brash voice pierces the sound of of the stormy night. A moment later there's crunching footsteps approaching the mouth of the alley and, a moment later, a massive, seven-foot man rounds the corner and halts, suddenly, at the mouth of the alley. Hair sticks up in wild, matted tufts all over his head and a wild, debris-filled beard hangs low to his chest. All of this combined with his ratty, too-tight clothes and bulky coat would be disturbing enough, if not for his golden-brown, nearly wolfish-yellow eyes and long, sharp fingernails. A glabro, near-man shape. A werewolf.

"Aw, shit."

Calvin's face is quirking at the sight of dead cop still. That...that will be a lot harder to clean up than many other ways that this could have gone. He had turned entirely away again after making note of that to be watching up the alley. A wide smirk blossomoning upon his face as SOMEONE shows up looking for the cub that they've already scooped up and have plans for her safety. "You've stumbled into the wrong alley. Get to stepping before I use the brick wall as a cheese grater for your skull."

Beckett shakes his head at Lleutrim. "Not the Kinfolk house," he disagrees, "she hasn't had time to... acclimate. She could be of the Warrior Moon." With a lower voice he leans in a tries to whisper something to Lleu with a pointed glance down to the mess on the alley floor. "We don't want this happening--" He cuts off when the enemy appears.

Chip is already unzipping his dufflebag; loose change, and loose body parts, all fit fine into a spiritually made hammerspace. But then there's some guy in the alley so he doesn't quite get around to start bagging up limbs.

Chip first runs at the Glabro in the alley, he throws a punch and misses. And then another BSD shows up but begins to flee. Chip shifts into his natural form, a grey wolf, and runs down the fleeing man, only to get the tables turned. The BSD he was chasing down shifts into Crinos and starts mauling large bloody streaks in Chips body. Chip shifts to Crinos and wounds the BSD back a little, barely hanging on to consciousness, until his allies catch up and butcher apart the BSD.

Calvin's encounter with his opposite shifter goes swimmingly...until it doesn't, then all good again. When the guy doesn't leave after a very kind threat, Calvin shifts upwards and flings claws at the thing until it is clawing him back. It looks like a knife fight, one dying here on the ground and the other in the hospital, except one of them gets to heal and the other one is just dead.

Nahla breifly sees the tall man with the coat start to change before the coat covers her eyes, soon after she hears fighting and otherworldly noises that is anything but normal but all too close to her very recent trama. She tries to pretend she isn't there but it doesn't work, The monsters are real, they are real and they are the people she trusted. Soon she starts to feel her stomache drop, nothing is real, nothing is right. Her vision changes and suddenly she's tall, and all too awake again.

Nahla gets a good look around at the horrors right before she feels her first hit, it's like nothing she could ever imagine. More come and this time she blacks out in a totally different way then before. Hopefully this time she wakes up from the dream.

It's not on his list of things to do - get jumped by a pair of enemy shifters while trying to help another. Yet, here he is. Noah dropped into a stance - some might recognize it as Aikido. He watches, horrified, at the violence around him - ready to defend himself or the rescued Nahla.

Funny thing how that works - while the enemies were dispatched, Nahla found her rage again and lashed out. Again on the defense, Noah tried to play Ole' and avoid any injury before the Garou interceded and pacified the frenzied cub.

Ghostwalker notices that Chip is not having the best of times wrangling the Black Spiral outside the alley. The great beast leaps forward, jaws closing around around the Spiral with a wet sounding snap. Blood gushes with a ferocious amount of bite force, even for a hispo, squeezing fluids out like a ketchup packet that had been stepped on.

All hell breaks loose. One huge Black Spiral Dancer is in the mouth of the alley long enough for the Gaians to start reacting. Lleutrim hangs back to protect Nahla and keep her under control if she should frenzy. While he does so he shifts up to Glabro and mix morphis his thick hands to have long silver claws, just in case the others need help. As the others rush forward, Battle Singer keeps his place and waits. The fighting erupts and as it does one of Battle Singer's silvery eyes flashes once and takes on a red glow, emitting Balor's Gaze upon one of the Black Spiral Dancers while the other remains outside of his line of sight and outside of the alley.

The fighting quickly deteriates and as it becomes clear that both Chip and Calvin are getting torn up badly, the Athro Galliard shifts his form into Hispo. With a snarl he leaps forth into the fray and attacks the nearer BSD, laying into him and ripping him up - and getting ripped up in turn! Though the Spiral frenzies to evade death, Calvin's already on top of him. Lleu springs out of the alley to Chip's aid and as the Fianna goes he is initially unaware that the cub behind him goes into frenzy, Nahla subcoming to her new found rage.

It is a bloody, loud back alley battle. Who will win this cub and claim her for their own? It's a good thing that it's the middle of the night and most everything is closed down here. It takes a few minutes but when the blood has been spilled, the Black Spiral Dancers have failed to take Nahla. It is her battered rescuers who have to forcefully subdue her to take her back to the Sept tonight. But at least she's alive.

The glabro at the mouth of the alleyway grunts as he's punched gently by Chip, staring at the BoneGnawer for a moment, then beyond him to the others gathered in the alleyway. Then he just turns and runs, brushing right past another man stepping around the corner and bolting into the street.

Behind him, his companion shouts, "Jack, you fucking pussy-ass prick motHERFUCKER!" The words change into a roar as he surges up into a bat-eared, green-spiral-tattooed Crinos to meet the Crinos rushing in to claw him. He takes the blow with a snort and then rakes massive gobs of flesh from Calvin's hide in return, snarling and laughing as he tears into the other Garou. <<COME BACK HERE AND HELP!>>

Meanwhile, the one chased by a lupus spins about and surges up into his own Crinos form, one with a long, rat-like snout and oversized teeth. He kicks out at the oncoming lupus, smashing it in the snout with superhuman strength, then pounces forward with claws and teeth, snapping and tearing at the BoneGnawer in turn.

It's about this point when Battle Singer leaps into the fray and puts down the first Crinos, the one in the alley, tearing into him with silver claws. He begins to drop, then screams out a guttural howl of Rage as his flesh knits back together into an ugly mess of scar tissue, and a frothing, berserk beast springs at Lleutrim, tearing into the Galliard. It leaves him open for Calvin to land one final strike of silvered claws, dropping the beast at last. It isn't long after that the Gaians descend on the Crinos in the street. Seeing them coming, he turns again to try to run, but is cut down before he can take more than three steps further.

In the aftermath of the battle, the surrounding city is shockingly quiet except for the torrential rain and growling thunder. The humans likely heard the sounds of battle. Some of them might even have seen Crinoses rampaging in the street, if their cars passed at just the right moment. They are cowering now, hiding, vacating the area. Delirium protects the veil. But in the aftermath, two new corpses are left to be dealt with: a dead crinos lays in the middle of the street, deformed rat snout on full display. In the alleyway, the black spiral dancer fell back into his human form.

As if things couldn't get any worse, just as the group is recognizing the dead metis Black Spiral Dancer in the middle of the street, a pair of headlights turn the corner and a massive, heavy-duty black pickup truck screeches to a halt a mere two feet in front of the dead monster. The man sitting in the driver's seat visibly gawps at the thing a moment, then glances at the people crowded around the alleyway. Then he flicks the headlights off and opens the door to hop out - a short, strongly built mexican man, "What the fuck! What the fuck? Where's Nahla? Mi hija?!" He sounds terrified, angry, and very much in the know. Must be the promised kinfolk father of the cub.

Chip shifts back to Homid form and then heads back to the original alley, slowly, dragging the BSD corpse (with whoevers help) along with him; and slolwy heals his less grievous wounds.

So much violence, so much killing. Once the fighting is done and the father has arrived, Noah moves away from all the gore to retch in a corner. Poor dude. This wasn't how he was planning on spending a Saturday night. He's got no answer for the other Kin, not immediately. He answers his phone, his voice croaking. After a few words, he nods. "She's of Unicorn. The Elders say take her to the Caern for safety." He says, in a hushed whisper to the people he'd arrived with.

Nahla makes gurgle noises and lays limply, her limbs laying out weirdly, face covered, and the rest of her covered in guts, blood, bruises, and god knows what else with that dumpster right there.

"You look fucking terrible." Calvin says staring down at the poor beaten, battered, bruised, hurt, and otherwise lacking in vigor Nahla. Before reaching out to palm her head like a basketball and hummmmmmmm to himself.

The man with the bigass truck looks wildly from person to person, charging out among them without much care for the blood and gore and dead people. He looks suitably horrified at each new, awful, grisly sight but also more angry. It only takes a few moments before he's pushed his way to the unconcious Nahla, and he gasps at the sight of her. Tears spring to his eyes and he collapses to his knees beside the girl, shrugging out of his coat and moving to wrap it around her (Beckett's lays in the muck somewhere nearby). Then Calvin is there, reaching for the girl's head, and the kin scowls up at the man, "What the fuck did you do to her?!"

After Chip is removed from deaths door he sets the BSD corpse down by the first one in the original alley, and starts collecting police officer bits, ya, it's not glamorous, but Chip started life as a wolf, he can handle a bit of corpse gathering. He just ingores the whole yelling father bit, Calvin can handle that, he likes talking.

Ghostwalker was Beckett again and moving to help retrieve Nahla. His austere expression warps to a look of absolute agony when he sees his coat, picking it up from the filth with trembling hands. Hand wash only. He'd just made this fetish too. He turns when the angry man comes in, steeling his face. "We didn't-- She can't come with you. We need you to drive us to the sept. She's too dangerous and needs to be cleansed."

"*I* did very little. Well. We did throw her into a wall a few times. But she was very angry." Calvin is fine with using very small words with the kinfolk. Such small words as his hand pulls forming bruises and badness from the pain nerves of Nahla. "Gaia's love is wondrous to all. You ready to drive us out in the woods, yeah?"

Noah nods. "I can... come back if she needs healing or tending to? Or just a Kin to be around?" He suggests, looking back to his car with a shrug. "Can we get her in the truck?" A nod to Calvin. "Ready to go."

If Kinfolk could frenzy, Frank would probably be getting his own turn being slammed against the wall a few times, as Calvin phrased it. He's hyperventilating, gasping with emotion, red-faced, half-sobbing as he holds the unconcious girl against himself as best he can, alternating furious, tear-filled glares for each person to address him and more tender, urgent glances for his daughter.

Lleutrim intercedes with soft, firm words of authority and reassurance and that combined with Calvin's healing of much of the girl's injuries calms the kinfolk man somewhat. He goes from looking torn between tears and rage to settling on tears, sobbing brokenly and dropping his face down close to Nahla's for a moment, hugging her tight. Then, a moment later he's sitting up angrily again, seesawing between emotions.

"No," he answers raggedly, "No! We left that life. We're not doing it. No forest, no caerns, no fucking monsters and magic. We're DONE with that."

Seems he'll need a little bit of convincing to drive out into the woods.

Beckett would look around to face Noah. "You maybe want to avoid getting to close to her for awhile. She needs to grow to be more comfortable with her own Rage. She could hurt you badly, Noah, without meaning to." A scowl forms on his face, clearly not pleased with how the encounter had gone. He turns to squint at the Kinfolk. He lays on the guilt with a sharp tongue. "So what will you do then? Try to keep her in town? Away from the people who could help her control it? Until she eats somebody else? She's fine... compared to the guy that found her first."

Chip waves at the Homid wolves in a 'go take care of it fashion' and then pulls the handle of a plunger out of the nearby trash and starts drawing circles in the blood in the alley with it, "I'ma Cleanse the alley, you guys decide if'n your gonna move the dead bits to the Umbra or the truck." he says over to Calvin.

"I'm gonna gift the bodies to the spirits." Janitorial Theurge. It is probably best that Nahla /not/ be awake to see bodies straight up disappear through nothingness. Beckett is the appropriate amounts of snarky and straight-talk that he feels fun going to attend to the big bad black spiral dancers. Which...the motion isn't dignified. He moves to stand over them and pull at their bodies like a dog upending daisies in a garden to /shunt/ them into the Umbra.

Beckett turns to the Bone Gnawers in a tone that is as fatigued as it gracious: "Bless you."

It takes some convincing, Frank is initially dead set against the idea of taking his daughter out to the Caern. But it doesn't take very long between the guilt and the fear and the general situation to combine into enough common sense for him to agree to make the trip. It takes a bit of convincing and tongue lashing and some more sobbing and a very brief round of half-hysterical shouting on his part. But then he loads Nahla into the passenger seat of the truck and is caravanning with the gang out into the forest.