[Crossbow]

Digger, seeing the beast plummet, moves to get a decent view and make absolutley sure it ain't coming back.  Shading his eyes from the dying sun, he mutters "Won't never see something like that on one of Uncle Sal's pies."

Then he returns to the shaft they were climbing before to catch his breath and wait for the rest to catch up.

[joe15552]

Devoted watches the gargoyle fall with eyes wide open with wonder and fright. After staring at the crumpled heap of its remains on the floor for a few seconds, Devoted says via comlink, "That was some persistent shooting, Ruckus," and flashes Ruckus a grateful smile.

Devoted then floats into open air, where he is greeted by the Storm Spirit and the Fire Giant. Devoted performs a sort of mid-air kneel and begins speaking out loud in Finnish to the spirits: "You have honored me and my ancestors by your valor and strength in this endeavor. I no longer require your aid at this time, and you may return to the other Realms of the World Tree. I will not call on you again unless my strength alone cannot handle the task at hand."

Devoted places his now starry-eyed gaze on the doberman on the floor below. After thinking to himself for a moment, he asks over coms in English with a bit of a heavier Finnish accent than normal, "Codemonkey, do you wish for me to lift your machine to the next stable floor?"

[AJBuwalda]

"No sweat, that thing had it coming. If that thing really thought he could smack us in the head with office furniture, he was soarly mistaken." Ruckus says ruefully.

[inca1980]

Machete continues his upward climb in silence looking rather un-impressed with the quick downing of the gargoyle which are known to be quite formidable.  He pauses for a moment and looking a little peeved, then speaks into his comm's mic, "Congratulations, now we gotta move faster before the winds carry the smell of blood too far.  Fall back a little and cover my tail while I take the lead." 

[AJBuwalda]

"Listen here, mate. If you rather eat a big slap of concrete be my guest, but I'm  taking my chances with the smell of blood over a that beast harrasing us any day. Next time you have a better idea you might wanna share." Ruckus says with a hint of annoyance.

[inca1980]

Machete just keeps on climbin', the slits in his cat-eyes narrowing as he looks on up the shaft of the burned out building.

[joe15552]

Devoted seems to be listening to Machete as he redirects his flight to follow about two meters below Machete.

Devoted's smooth, yet youthful, voice chimes in on coms with a little more of a English accent than Finnish, "Which one of these landings looks stable to you, Machete? I need stable ground for an equipment check."

[joe15552]

After watching the group climb for a moment, Devoted sighs, his question to Machete left unanswered, and begins to search for a stable platform for an equipment check. He decides the landing on the 34th floor would be a good spot. After he reaches the landing, he proceeds to search through his survival pack for a canteen and a cloth so he can wipe his dusty hazmat suit visor with a moist cloth.

[etherial]

Devoted places his now starry-eyed gaze on the doberman on the floor below. After thinking to himself for a moment, he asks over coms in English with a bit of a heavier Finnish accent than normal, "Codemonkey, do you wish for me to lift your machine to the next stable floor?"

Code Monkey returns to his body.

Well, it could be useful here to keep us from getting trapped in the upper floors, or it could be useful in the upper floors to keep us from getting killed.

[Kontact]

The immediate threat of the Gargoyle over, everyone resumed their upward climb.  Well, everyone but Digger.  He fired his grapple from the wall to the supports and swung over to the others, where they watched unbelieving the gall of the Dwarf as he traveled the shattered patchwork of hanging supports on a long arc to the center.  He waited a moment while Machete continued up, followed by Ruckus and Code, then finally clipped himself into the rope taking up the rear.

Devoted, meanwhile, had cleared the dust and grime from the face-cover of his suit and again turned his sight away from the world of forms, back to the world of appearances.  The headache he had from exposing himself to all the pain and despair of the city was still there, but moved further to the back of his mind.  He looked up to the ceiling so far away and back down to the Doberman, sitting idle on the ground below.  A small task.

[joe15552]

Devoted secures his equipment and floats back out into the open facing the Doberman below. His left hand clenches into a fist as he half-whispers over coms in English, "Through Tyr's strength..."

The Doberman instantly begins to float up towards the group, and Devoted is visibly concentrating sternly on the task at hand. He follows a couple meters below the group with the doberman quickly catching up to them.

[Kontact]

A little less than halfway through the flight up, Devoted started to feel considerably sick and light headed.  He slowed his ascent and moved away from the center as he opened himself up to the true world of the Astral.  There in the center of the destroyed structure, like a hazy egg of raw energy, he saw the shimmering outline of a man, sitting with legs crossed and arms lain atop them.  It could be nothing other than a dark echo of the mage who, with his dying act set this building aflame.  The exertion of creating flames so hot that they melted plascrete must have killed him.  With reverence, Devoted stayed out of the emotional turmoil surrounding the spot, even as the others quickly climbed past it.  He would have to remember the lesson of that man.

While climbing, Codemonkey had instructed his Stormcloud blimp to check out the floors above as best it could.  The windows with their SolarSeal tint were not letting any light out at all.  In fact, as the blimp maneuvered over to the hole where the Gargoyle punched out of the structure, it became slightly more apparent as to why those windows were sucking up rays so greedily, for when the blimp approached the open hole to peer inside on the 60th, four metal rods extended from around the window frame and a blot of electricity shot out and temporarily incapacitated the roving drone.  Luckily, an incapacitated balloon isn't terribly different from a working one, and it rebooted again before long, no worse for the experience.  The trid recordings of the hole in the 60th didn't show too much.  There were movable walls about a meter and a half high which marked out a field of cubicles.  Nothing moved and nothing of note was immediately apparent.

Machete peaked his head up into the space of the 60th floor after taking a few moments to listen intently for any activity above.  The area was much smaller than the 28th far below.  The building was designed to taper ever narrower as it got higher, but this large blank spot in the middle made the differences much more pronounced.  Also more pronounced was the difference in decor.  Unlike the floors below stripped bare, this area looked like a nearly untouched repository of 50s business artifacts.  Not the kind of artifacts that are worth a damn, but the real news was that this place actually looked to be untouched.  Mike hadn't sent them on a goose chase after all.  It would be well worth looking around, and more so the higher they climbed.

[joe15552]

Devoted resumes his ascent behind the rest of the team. He half-whispers over coms like a child trying not to wake his parents in the morning, "This building was burnt by a magical fire. Perhaps that is why it did not burn all the way down."

[Crossbow]

Digger huffs back, "It wasn't that gargle-thing making himself at home?"

[joe15552]

Devoted answers with more voice and less whisper, "Good guess, but no. The echo of the mage that cast the spell that burnt the building and destroyed himself is here, slowly fading... He must have been very powerful in life."