T - Lauryn, Bee, Xenon - Complete

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Bristol had managed to get out of the way just in time for the Avian's body to fall to the ground. After giving it a careful once-over, he concluded that this body looked the same as all the others. As he leaned over the head he got a whiff of whatever that stuff was that was leaking from their eyes and covering the fur. It didn't smell like blood. Bristol knew that smell, thanks to the way he'd come in the world.

The Mix frowned sadly at the corpse's in the room. They weren't ripped open like his Mother had been. Grief momentarily washed over him, but Bristol swallowed it down. There would be a time he could grieve and cry; and now was not that time.

He had been deep in thought when he heard one of the youngsters speak up. Footsteps? He hadn't heard anything. Maybe the kid had imagined- No, wait. There! He heard the footsteps now. He tilted his head and looked above them.

"It sounds like someone is on the roof!" he shouted, caught up in the excitement of the situation. Looking around quickly, he spied a short ladder leaning against one wall. Maybe it was just tall enough to allow him to hook his talons into the roof and pull himself up. He dragged the ladder outside and shoved it against the front wall.

Using his tail to steady himself he climbed to the top of the ladder, managed to grab hold of the roof with his claws and began to pull himself up. But it wasn't enough. The ladder wasn't tall enough, and Bristol wasn't strong enough.

"Shove me up, quick!" he shouted to the others. He wouldn't let this person get away! Even if it wasn't the murderer, maybe they would know what was going on.

[carcinoGeneticist]

There wasn't time to sit around feeling horrified at the fact that Bristol had pulled down a corpse, or to feel sick or sad about the dead people any longer. A flash of intelligence flickered in Sergei's eyes and he rushed outside alongside Bristol. A ladder... No! Too slow! He had wings, he had to use them!

Flight had always been so difficult before. His young wings were still weak, his body uncoordinated. He'd gone on short little glides that often left him bruised and aching. But he didn't need to go far, just up to the roof, and he could use his own magic to give himself the boost he needed. Ignoring everyone else, Sergei activated his innate Club-strength and leaped, using the increased muscle force both to help his legs and wings. He flailed for just a second, then forced his wings down with an incredible woosh of air. Once, twice more, he was up -- above the roof, going higher with each flap, too high --

-- and then he was tumbling down again, trying his damnedest to get some control into his descent, clattering down onto the rooftop. His wings strained from the effort, his breaths were coming fast and desperate, but he was there. As quickly as he could, he got his feet back under him, and ran in the direction of the noise. They had to catch it. Someone knew what had happened, here. They couldn't get away! "STOP!"

Everything was happening.

It was noise, and yelling, and thumping on the roof, and Cat couldn't deal with it. She hissed and spat and hissed, first at the corpse of the Bird that had come crashing down, and then at Zhenya, who was shouting, and then at no one in particular. Then she moved outside, wanting suddenly to be out where she could better taste the air. House-buildings were new, unfamiliar, cramped, and she did not like feeling trapped inside of them.

At that moment, she became aware of the fact that someone was shouting for someone else to stop, while a third voice - Bristol - was asking for help. With another quiet hiss, Catastrophe moved to his side, pushing up on his feet - then yelping with pain and falling away.

No. Her body was too weak for that, and she had twisted her paw. She let out a soft, keening cry.

[Nathalia]

((Whoever it was on the roof seems to have escaped for now...
Though Sergei did catch a glimpse of green.

As they re-group they'll feel an odd prickling sensation down their backs...as though something awful were watching them.
Anyone listening closely will begin to hear the faint sounds of ragged breathing and all begin to smell something foul...something different from the smell of the building they were in...something worse.
It almost sounds like it's coming from inside of the building they were just in...

Quick! There are two alleyways out front away from this place!
The left one looks thin and leads somewhere dark, the one on the right is broader and lighter...but the view is obstructed because it is completely filled with smoke.

Whee will you go?))


~Nathalia

[Bee]

There was a rather baffling flurry of action, as Sergei pitched himself into the air and Cat tried to hurl the double up. Zhenya's own useless wings fluttered in some kind of equally useless sympathy, and a moment later, everything was done. There was no more sound coming from the roof, no noise but Sergei's heavy breathing and Cat's little cry. His ears turned, trying to pinpoint the sound of the murderer, but he seemed to have vanished in all the hubbub. The rooftop chase was unsuccessful.

"Don't worry about it," he said, to none of them in particular. "No one is introduced in noir without reason. There is no random happening that is not tied up in the end. He'll be back."

But there were more immediate concerns, weren't there? He looked at Cat. It was difficult to reconcile someone who had eaten another being to someone who might have hurt herself. But--but this was the way it went, right? Sometimes the femme fatale converted to the side of good...They had to, or they died...

He leaned down a little. "Try not--try not to walk on it. It'll be okay. It just means you're becoming a good guy."

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Bristol watched in awe as the young boy used his strength and wings to hurl himself into the air and onto the roof. A brief glimmer of home was born in his chest They would catch whoever was atop the building and maybe they would finally get some answers to the horde of questions running through their heads. The Chameleon/Tiger mix strained to hear any signs of Sergei or of the person fleeing the scene, but only heard the boy yelling from above.

He was startled when he felt someone pushing on his feet, forgetting for a moment he had been asking for help but quickly climbed down the ladder, worry plain on his face. He rushed to Cat's side, gently taking her paw and holding it his claws and being careful not to poke her head with his horns. He could see she was moving the individual digits, so hopefully that meant nothing was seriously damaged.

"He's right, you shouldn't put any weight on it," he said, wondering how the poor thing was going to be able to withstand the rest of the night. They had to get somewhere safe, but where was safe anymore?

Bristol's other eyes on his body began to swivel back and forth as the Mix thought he heard a soft noise. As he looked around the fur on the back of his body began to stand on end, his lizard tongue flicking from between his lips with nervousness. Without being aware of it even his coat showed his unease by slightly changing its color to more match the dark tones of the streets and buildings around them.

"Is it just me, or is the smell getting worse?" he asked the others. Suits, but he could taste this foul stench on his tongue now! It didn't smell/taste the same anymore. Or did that just mean the smell of decaying corpses was getting stronger? With all of Bristol's senses turned toward the restaurant, he realized it was there the sound he was hearing came from.

"I hear breathing!" he shouted suddenly, not realizing that under normal circumstances one couldn't hear the sound of someone breathing from inside the building while he was outside. "Maybe someone is still alive in there!"

Making a mad dash for the open doorway with the intention of rescuing whoever it is stuck inside, Bristol reluctantly comes to a halt a few feet from the building. The stench is absolutely revolting, and he cannot go any further. Plus, now that the sound of breathing is louder it just doesn't sound... natural. With his eye spots whirring around in their sockets to make sure nothing or no one could sneak up on him, Bristol quickly made his way back to the group.

"I... uh...don't think we should... go back in there," he said, swallowing loudly. "We should try and get Cat somewhere safe so she can rest and get off her paw."

They had two options. Narrow and dark, or broad, light and cloudy. "I say we go right. What about you guys?"

[carcinoGeneticist]

After all of that, the perp had escaped. Sergei fell back, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths. This all was... It was happening so fast. He was tired and emotionally drained, but what could he do? He'd lost his family, and he wasn't about to leave behind his new friends. On a night like tonight, they needed numbers most desperately. All he could hope to do was regain his breath and regroup.

Down below, Cat was having a very difficult time of it. She had hurt herself, which was bad. And now, even worse, the others were moving in and crowding her. The girl raised her hackles, blinked wide and glassy eyes, opened her beak-mouth to show how very sharp her teeth were. She was the weak one now. That meant they could easily move in and finish her. She pulled her injured forepaw close to her chest, letting out another quiet hiss of warning.

Despite her expectations, though, no one tried to kill her.

"Weak bones," she said, softly, to no one in particular. That had been Cal's discovery, in one of his paper-books. "Cat is good. Always good." That was what her brothers had always said, and she gave Zhenya a sidelong glance. Why was he saying it now, too? At that moment, Sergei came gliding down from the roof, stumbling as soon as his feet hit the ground. The girl shifted away from him, slightly, glassy eyes unblinking.

Then she hissed again, this time, at the sounds of breathing and the sudden smell. That was a... very bad smell. Bad and wrong. "We go. Go. Now. MOVE."

For once, Sergei was inclined to agree with the girl, and also with Bristol. "Yep. Time to get out of here. I'm all with the right." He turned to Zhenya, expression pleading.

[Bee]

Zhenya thought that the double might be going quite mad. He wasn't sure what it was. The impulsive actions and sentences that seemed strung together in a rather erratic fashion, maybe. It was probably normal, though, for a shadow clone to seem...off.

His own well-honed hearing caught the same sound, but that didn't faze him, in and of itself. Nor, even, did the terrible stench, like a decaying corpse, like cigarette smoke, like rotten eggs and garlic, all rolled up in a wet, sopping package. What was awful was the feeling of being stalked, preyed upon, watched from some point beyond his immediate vision. He was suddenly afraid of turning and seeing some oozing abomination behind him. He told himself that it was stupid but it didn't help. He was in no mind to contest the majority decision to go right.

It seemed like all roads lead to unpleasantness anyway.

"Right," he echoed. Go. Now. Move. He was, surprisingly, in complete agreement with Cat. He strode briskly forward into the smoke, ears keen to any sound that might be a threat, tail swishing in unconscious preparation to attack. Best to just get through the damn thing and back into--anywhere else.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Bristol breathed a sigh of relief when they all agreed to go down the right alley, the one with more light. They all hurried forward, spurred on by an inexplicable feeling of being watching though every time he turned around, no one was there. Bristol's neck was starting to hurt for as many times as he looked over his shoulder. Nothing was behind him though, having opted to walk at the rear of the group. He was the oldest, and his mind told him therefor he was the one responsible for the others. That was a normal reaction, right? Besides, his Mother had told him to be brave.

Bristol stepped on one of the kids hind feet, not realizing he'd been glancing backwards for more than a couple of seconds. "Er, sorry." He apologized, lamely.

Soon they were in the alleyway and the fog...smoke... whatever this mist-like substance was, enfolded all of them. Bristol flicked his lizard tongue out to see if he could smell anyone nearby, but couldn't smell anything besides the Cards nearest to him.
The eye stalks on his back haunches swiveled around and managed to catch the fog moving quickly in one spot, as though something had just run through it. Bristol turned and looked in the direction of his other eyes but couldn't see anything. Or hear anything for that matter.

He couldn't keep quiet about it anymore and risk his sanity, "Hey, um... does anyone else feel like we're being watched?" he asked, looking upwards and still seeing nothing.

Building after building they passed slowly, taking as long as they needed to in order to not rush Cat on an injured paw. Weak bones, she'd said. Poor thing. Even though she looked a little freakish, Bristol felt the need to protect her swell in his chest every time he looked at her. She was different, and so was he.

Bristol ran forward, past the other three, and a little ways down the alley. The fog engulfed him and even though he knew without a doubt he was only a few feet in front of the others, he just couldn't see any indication of them! He turned around and ran back until he stopped in front of the kids. Some part of him had been so very scared that he would have run back and never found them again.

Closing his eyes and breathing deep in relief again, Bristol looked left... and then slowly followed a fire escape upwards. The bottom of the fire escape was still a good seven or so feet off the ground, but if they all helped one another, maybe they could rise above all this blind fog.

Pointing to the rusty ladder, "Hey, d'you think we could climb up that and get a good look around? Maybe we'll even see someone else," he added hopefully.

[Nathalia]

((The smoke smells acrid and it's obscuring everything!
What is going on h-
Oh!
It's...it's a Heron?
A Corvie Heron, slumped against the wall and breathing heavily, the smoke obscuring the alleyway seems to be coming from his nares...how painfully odd.

Poor Ercole woke up out in this alley with his smoke ability pouring out in overload!
His head is pounding and he feels a little dizzy and ill...but otherwise fine.
He can't quite remember how he got here, but he seems to remember following a dark, darting thing...like living paint or..ink...

Perhaps you should introduce yourselves, he doesn't look dangerous...))


~Nathalia

[Chou]

“Kraaaaaak..kraaaaaak!” Ercole squawked, “I’ve g-g-gone blind!”

The Corvie nervously flapped his wings in front of him. All he could see was a thick covering of smoke (which evidently was spewing from his own beak!) covering the walkway of an unfamiliar alley. His smoke ability had only ever appeared once before and even then it didn’t produce such a large amount of vapor. His smoke had polluted an entire alleyway!

The heron twitched his neck around in confusion. How did he get here of all places? He felt the empty vial roll around on his tongue. “Oi! I w-was following this r-rather interesting substance. V-very curious indeed,” he continued on to himself oblivious of anyone or anything approaching. “I-it’d make for an excellent experiment.” He took the vial out of his mouth and stuck it in his feathers for safe keeping. The bird always kept some sort of container on his person just in case he came across some liquid during his outings that possessed a different viscosity or property other than what he carried in his stash back in his apartment. He found such a liquid during his most recent of outings - a liquid that could slither and sneak around on it's own! The dark liquid he had hoped to catch led him to this alleyway where he seemingly passed out. He couldn’t remember a single thing about which twists and turns he had to perform to locate this alley, just simply that the liquid compelled him here (f-for the good of s-s-science!). He fished out a large container hidden within his feathers and took a large swig of the green liquid located within and placed it back inside his chest. The bird really was too obsessed with liquids for his own good. He’d fill a vial full of the strangest things just to see their effects on the poisons he was brewing. I guess one couldn’t blame him for being curious.. If an unknown liquid is able to propel on it’s own, imagine the possibilities of effects when ingested! Ercole was delighted at the thought and had to have the black liquid for himself. The heron sighed, extended his legs out and sat in the corner of the alleyway to cure his sudden dizzy spell and to perhaps clear his throbbing head. He had to think of a way back home. He raised both of his wings and covered his face.