[Landmine]

@ Red & Khali You strain to hear it. But you're certain it's there. It doesn't last long, it's gone almost as soon as you've got a good idea of where it came from. But from your vantage point on the roof you can see what rises to the sky afterwards. It's form is that of a man, but much larger and it's jerking and twisting as if it's being tortured, and then it spins gleefully and laughs once more and as it throws its head back a slit opens wide on the throat and blood drips out, and that thing keeps laughing and is gone.

Khali has her machine pistol in hand as she finishes searching the eastern section of the grounds. She finds Gerald after determining that the source of the noise is gone.

"Did you fragging hear that? I didn't find anything on the grounds, but it was creepy as drek."

She additionally transmits to Red, "Grounds are clear. It came from east of here as far as I could tell. It really crept me out though. I'm thinking we take some extra precautions."

[Poindexter]

As the source of the sound seems to dart all around them, Duckdown stays cool: 10d6t5 4 and flattens his back against the wall. He hasn't drawn his weapon yet, but his left hand is still firmly on the handle inside his hoodie. Arc stands to his left, whiteknuckling her Ingram in both hands, and he can feel her starting to freak out a little bit beside him. Her breathing is picking up, her pupils are dilating. She's grinding her teeth. Is she about to lose it? C'mon girl, don't start disappointing me now. When she speaks though, the tone in her voice reassures him that she's still holding it together.

"Evil, huh...how poetic.." she chuckled dryly.

Duck allows himself a little grin at her words, but still feels the need to reprimand her. He mentally activates his Sensei and sends her a message.

<<@Arc [Duckdown] Stay quiet.

A nanosecond later, he can see by the look on her face that she's read the message and she gives him a tiny nod, acknowledging. Despite the suspicious circumstances, Duck feels secure with his companions at the moment. Whoever you are out there, you're fuckin with a couple a pros now. Then, his trusted street ninja ally on his right shatters that feeling and completely loses his shit. He raises up his pistol to the open sky, shouts out,

"We have Fie contact!"

and lets off a few rounds, the report from the weapon ringing off the plascrete walls on all sides. The FUCK are you doing, 'Rack?! He reaches his right hand over and pushes Arachnids weapon arm back down, giving him a stunned and accusatory "What the hell, dude?!" sort of look as he does.

<<@Arachnid [Duckdown] Chill Omae, Chill! What the fuck?!

[SnowDragon]

Chuncks of cheap building material spat from the wall where he laid down his supressing fire, four level holes, two in each of the roofwalls of the closest two buildings, dust and tiny debris spitting onto the ground and sidewalk below. He would've kept firing at the source of the noise as it moved across the rooves as well, but his fifth trigger pull was interrupted when Duck rushed to his side and yanked down on his right arm and sent his aim right to the floor without a further discharge. If it'd had anyone else, he might've elbowed him in the face, surely his long term wingman knew that. Despite it all, he still looked like a pro on the field. Just a bit of suppressing fire, really. Yeah.

He made a hand motion with his left hand free of his sidearm, wavering from his head outwards towards the source of the noise, as if trying to display gestures where words had failed him. Trying to gesture about just how much DREK they were in right at this very moment. "Omae," A word he *never* used, unless he was really struggling to get a point across "That thing is hunting, I can sense it," Another pause for breath, attempting to keep the action from lifting his heartrate through the roof. "Trying to suppress it. Pros, right?" A tiny little smirk. His words little more than whispers to the man basically on top of him and his whites.

"That or I can drop into the 'plane and seek it that way," He added, finally, with another breath.

[Poindexter]

"That thing is hunting, I can sense it,"

Firing off another mental message on the comm, <<@Arachnid [Duckdown] If it's hunting, stop making noise.>>

[SnowDragon]

Arachnid shook his head, whispering again, slipping his finger into the resting stance of placed against the trigger guard rather than against the trigger itself, and slipped his arm up and ready again, aiming for the source of that sickening sound, across the line of vision of Duck, aimed high and for the rooves as it drifted on the air. "It's not hearing us, it's sensing us," came his whispered response. The earlier search and rescue hadn't called for his sub-vocal to be at the ready, and at the moment he was loathe to open himself to attack by disarming to equip it. Gawd how he wished he could find the words to express just how dangerous and scary this thing felt. He spared a look to Duck, modulating an expression, best he could to express just that before looking up. His mind had truely touched something honestly terrifying. He wasn't doing too badly, all things considered.

Code: [Select]

Assense test
1,5,5,5,6 = 4 hits

[Tamesh]

She additionally transmits to Red, "Grounds are clear. It came from east of here as far as I could tell. It really crept me out though. I'm thinking we take some extra precautions."

Red is clearly uneasy about the thing they just saw, keeping a hand on her Predator at all times. She transmits back, a little frantic.

"That was some sort of magic thing, right? It had to be. Do you have any idea what it could have been?"

[SgtBoomCloud]

At this point more than ever, Arc was grateful that she was with people with cool heads about the situation, real professionals who could handle anythi--

-BANG BANG, BANG BANG!-

An unidentifiable expression of freaking the drek out could be heard for a brief moment from Arc in response to Arachnid's sudden report of gunfire.  Fortunate for her her finger wasn't on the trigger, or his four bullets would have been joined any about six more.  Seeing Duck intervene and calm him down stayed her hand, and she joined suit in hugging against the wall, eyes fixated on the skyline.

She heard no further words exchanged.  That and combined with the urging that she keep silent, the human mentally punched in a message to the both of them.

<<So I know this only be my second outing with yas, so pardon my surprise.  This drek is totally normal for y'all, aye?

[Landmine]

Khali transmit back to Red:

"Maybe. Someone could have put on the creepiest impromptu concert ever, but I doubt it. You doing ok? It was just creepy noise."

[Tamesh]

Khali transmit back to Red:

"Maybe. Someone could have put on the creepiest impromptu concert ever, but I doubt it. You doing ok? It was just creepy noise."

There's a weight in the pit of Red's stomach as she replies to the message. Was she seeing things? "Did you miss the marionette act? I saw some fucker twisting around like the world's sickest ragdoll before his throat split open. Does that sound like magic to you, or am I going to need to go and get my datajack checked?"

[Landmine]

Khali is silent for several moments. She feels sick and swallows the rising bile in her throat.

"If you say you saw it, I believe you. I wasn't able to see any of that from down here. That's not just magic, chummer. That's the absolute worst kind of juju. The kind of stuff they don't teach anywhere. Did you get a recording of it?"

[Tamesh]

Khali is silent for several moments. She feels sick and swallows the rising bile in her throat.

"If you say you saw it, I believe you. I wasn't able to see any of that from down here. That's not just magic, chummer. That's the absolute worst kind of juju. The kind of stuff they don't teach anywhere. Did you get a recording of it?"

"Hold on, I'll send you the recording. But it was definitely some sort of big man shaped thing. Maybe a troll? But it was writhing around, almost like something convulsing, but also like it was... Dancing to the music? It laughed and started bleeding from the neck before it up and vanished."

She sends a file over to Khali's comm of the video as seen by her glasses. No audio, but it's just like she says.

Red leans on a nearby wall. She's all about staying cool under pressure, but if it's some sort of magic nonsense? Wizards could kill you before you even knew anything was wrong. And that makes her stomach turn.

[Landmine]

The file plays over Khali's 'link. As she watches the form dance grotesquely before its death, she feels the hairs on her neck rise. She feels the flush that she has come to associate Wolf's presence. If protecting your pack was Wolf's first rule, then intolerance of things that pervert the natural order was a close second. Things like this should. not. be. She suppressed the urge to charge into the night after it.

She responds to Red, "If that thing had come near us, then I would say we were out of our league, sister. I don't know that it was interested in us though. We need some backup for this gig tomorrow night. Know any reliable mojo-slingers?"

[Tamesh]

She responds to Red, "If that thing had come near us, then I would say we were out of our league, sister. I don't know that it was interested in us though. We need some backup for this gig tomorrow night. Know any reliable mojo-slingers?"

"Wish I did. Best I can do is put the video out there and see if that gives us any leads. Though if it turns out that wasn't something that was supposed to be seen, we're gonna be in the same boat. Can you see if your spirit pal knows what this is before I involve anyone else?"

[ismilealot]

@ Red  Gerald is badly on edge the rest of the night. He was on the other side of the building as far as you could tell, but he heard the laughter. He comes very quickly to you Red and says. "Did you here that? Do you think it came from inside the building." he stops and swallows, trying to regain his composure. "Maybe those fraggin' keebs are just messin with us you know. Seeing if they 'kin spook us ya' know." but he says it as if he's trying to convince himself.

@ Khali  You feel wolf's presence strongly beside you. And you feel a warning growl from him deep in your soul. In a moment you realize that he's been there for several moments now. But the activity to the east distracted you from sensing his presence.

@ Duck, Arc, & Masquerade You don't see or hear anything else after the laughter ended. Maybe Arachnid's shots scared it away.

@ Arachnid    You feel it. It's laughing at you. And you can feel it . . . . . . taste. . . . . . you. A sudden chill goes over you in a flash and you feel yourself absolutely frozen in terror. You can feel it's brand on your soul. You're marked as much as any mark a deckers ever made. Once more you feel it laughing at you. And then it's gone.

@ Feathers The crowd seems on the verge of panic. It wouldn't take much to push them over the edge. They keep repeating that, "it's bound to be copy-cats, ya' know trying to put a scare in people ya' know." Or, "Maybe it's some looney bin, doing summat what makes 'em stronger and faster for a little bit. My aunt had a friend who knew someone that happened to, drugs can do 'dat, I done heard 'uh 'dat." But they're desperately trying to believe. And the smell is getting stronger. The smell of blood and five day old vomit still percolating in a pool of stagnate water. As you press in you want to vomit so badly it hurts. But the crowd, save for a few doesn't even seem to notice it. As you begin to cast yourself out to assense your suspicions are confirmed. The few that are green and trying not to heave at the back of the crowd have that brightness that signifies some magical talent. Not strong, no, not strong talents at all, or they wouldn't be here in this sprawl. But they have enough to be able to "smell" it. And as you cast yourself out further, the traces of magic are still there. A magic you have never felt before. And if you're right, then he, or it, wants to keep building up the terror. Wants to keep pushing these people. Just the same as any junky always wants a better fix. >>Feathers, I can not reach you through this crowd. Come by the shop this evening and I will tell you of the job and my contact.<< Nbungu's avatar makes a salute as it always does when he signs off. You've finally reached the front of the crowd enough to see KE hurriedly trying to investigate the scene. By the outlines of the bodies chalked against the buildings walls they were hung upside down. And one of those outlines is quite small. Once more you feel eagles cry and you feel the rush of it's wings. But this time a tiny bit of power goes with it. And the crowd calms just a fraction. It's extremely hard for eagle to intervene in this way, and he won't be able to do it again for awhile.

[SnowDragon]

Everything grew sort of... silent. he was free flowing now, taking a few steps to the left, then back towards Duck again with the sidesteps back to the right, aiming between rooves and watching carefully, intently. He glanced between his backup, Arc and Duckdown in the street Had his fire worked? Had the flying lead given the laughing evil cause to flee the area for fear of bodily harm. It was seconds, seconds that felt like minutes before he finally spoke again. "I think we're clea-"

It was like he'd just been shot from afar, really. He just stopped, like he no longer had the air to do so. Eyes widened, body frozen. left hand falling from his Colt to his chest, heart beating way out of control. The sound, the laughter, the touch. Flash of cold and he fell, stumbled, collapsed, something. Arachnid had fallen, clutching at his chest with one hand. If he'd been shot, he was in shock, but everything was out of the normal plane and into the realms of the paranormal, from whence his powers came. There was a scream so loud it tore at his vocal cords, and for the inhumane shriek of it all, his teammates were spared the most of it when he emptied the colt completely in some sort of panic fire, shots striking rooves of buildings in front of him. Ten electronic rattling bangs of his handgun echoed across the street, flashing bright orange in the air before the bolt locked back, last round expended, but that didn't stop him from trying to fire more to ward the demon off, metal clicking of the distinct sound of a firing pin striking at empty space over and over and over again.

It wasn't until he tried to crawl away on one hand with his empty sidearm still clacking empty that he ran out of breath, and fell still. It was gone. Staring into open space down his sidearm sights, eyes as wide as dinner plates. He tried to reload, hands shaking so badly he couldn't even get the magazine clip open, let alone stop himself from yanking the trigger again and again, no matter how many times it made that empty, reload noise, words spitting out of his mouth in no controllable way, only two words even understandable through the breathless stuttering.

"T..Tango! Run!"