Issue 1 Downtime

When the three arrive at the thick jungle that Teri had called the Scar the sky is beginning to look overcast from all the smoke in the air. It doesn't take long to find the cause either. A passage at least 4 or 5 meters wide gapes in the foliage, the edges still burning as the fire slowly eats it's way further into the growth. It's slow to consume the living wood, but in turn it belches out billows of smoke. The path leads further into the Scar, straight towards Big Ben.

Brigid thumps to the ground in front of the passage, rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck.

She waits for the others, but clearly wants to deal with this.

Miranda sails in not far behind her, landing off to her right, "It would take a serious amount of fire to do this." She draws her sword, folding her wings tightly against her back.

"Look at the shape. This was a focused blast."

"I have Teri's moth, I'll let her know we're here." She fished for the large glass jar from her pack. "Sorry about the tight quarters, Teri. We're here." She sent the moth free to do what it needed to.

The moth is frantically fluttering around inside the glass but seems to calm down somewhat when it has a chance to notice that the group is already coming to help. Insects slowly make their way out of the woods, the flames and smoke keeping them from forming a full swarm. Still, enough gather to mimic spoken words with their buzzing.

"Hurry. We can't get near them. Please."

The ground of the passage still smolders, but seems safe enough, the growth having burned away all the way to the broken asphalt. Even that seems partially melted, but cool enough to walk on. The sides of the tunnel however are still ablaze, eating into the woods and making the passage uncomfortably warm.

"Them... multiple," Miranda said with a frown. She looked at Brigid and then moved forward into the passage.

"The people of the settlement, cut off maybe. My hair is going to take forever to grow back." she grumbles as she removes her outer jacket and pack, before pulling two wicked long daggers from sheaths on her back. "Shall we ladies?"

"Couldn't stop me," Brigid says, heading into the breach as she unsheathes her machete.

It's hot inside but thankfully not quite enough to set hair on fire. The path seems to roughly follow what used to be the road and after a while of walking they come to the end of the tunnel. At the end they can vaguely make out a bulky and a slender figure. It's hard to make out details because they appear to be standing in front of what seems to be a miniature sun hovering at the end of the tunnel, burning it's way through the forest.

And jstu as the three arrive the forest gives in with the sound of burning wood crumbling under it's own weight, falling away to reveal the open area of the courtyard in front of Big Ben.

Miranda shields her face from the sparks stirred up by the collapsing wood and grips her sword a bit tighter. "Hey!" She yells, "Stop right there!"

Vertie stood beside Miranda. "You're out numbered, give up before someone really gets hurt."

The 'sun' shrinks for a moment while the two figures turn around but remains about two meters across. The slim one appears to be of indeterminate gender, is wearing what looks like orange and black robes and blonde hair cropped really short. The bulky one barely looks human. Broad shoulders and a bald, thick-necked head, small beady eyes and a nose that looks more like open holes. The figure's arms don't seem to have hands, instead ending in what looks like a mix between huge machetes and saw-blades. It's skin looks rough and patchy and overall the figure almost looks more like a troll than a human. Neither of the two seem to be affected by the heat the small sun must be giving off, judging by the shimmering air and the way falling twigs and leaves catch fire before even coming into direct contact with the burning sphere.

"Looks like we have guests. Stop them." the slender one says and turns back around to the ball of fire. Extending one hand the sphere floats forward again and into the courtyard.

Meanwhile the bulky one bends it's knees and launches itself at the group in a huge leap.

"Should've listened to them," Brigid says, picking up a piece of crumbled pavement.

"They're the nice ones."

After hefting the piece for a moment to understand its weight distribution, she throws it at the one charging them, aiming to hit right between the eyes.

Miranda darts forward, ducking under the flying piece of pavement as she tries to judge where the big guy is going to come down, ready to strike a blow of her own. Oddly, her normally rainbow wings seem to have gone completely black, but it could just be soot from the smoke.

Vertie slips into the smoke moving quickly to close the distance between her and the fire starter. Her daggers ready for a low strike at the figure's thighs and ankles.

"Sundancer, watch out!" the brute growls before Brigid's projectile hits it right in the face, actually shattering the piece of asphalt. The creature looks mangled but somehow is staying up, at least until Miranda strikes at it's chest in precisely the right moment, toppling the creature and making it crash to the ground. Meanwhile the slim figure barely dodges out of the way of Vertie's attack, getting away with only a minor cut on his thigh. Sundancer tumbles to the side, trying to favor his uninjured leg while swinging his arms around, bringing the huge sphere of fire around and towards Vertie.

"Sundancer? Really?" Brigid asks, jumping up and trying to land on the brute to keep him down.

"You have a tiny ball of nuclear fusion, and the best you can come up with is 'Sundancer'?"

Miranda releases her blade, leaving it in the brute as she turns to Sundancer, "Lousy name or not, you have one chance. Stand down, tell us what you're doing here and I'll let you live."

"Try it, I dare you." She growled and crouched down, ready to dodge or strike at Miranda's word.

Brigid lands on the brute just as he stands up, apparently the blade sticking out of his chest doesn't impair him too much. He doesn't seem to bleed much either. He grabs at Brigid while trying to hold his balance. Sundancer brings the sphere between herself and everyone else, pushing it forward. It puts the brute dangerously close to it as well but neither Sundancer nor the brute seem too worried about it despite the fact that it seems to affect him just as much as Brigid.

"What does it look like we're doing. We're clearing out some of this jungle crap."

Miranda dives out of the way of the oncoming orb, rolling to the right of the orb and coming back to her feet. "On whose order? I just want to know who to take up this intrusion with."

The brute tries to grab hold of Brigid to keep her near the burning sphere along with itself.

"Our own. Figured something was hiding in these woods. From the looks of it it turns out we were right." she says, but something tells Miranda that isn't the whole truth.

Given that the brute doesn't have hands, so much as blades, Brigid tries to use her machete to parry, aiming to direct his blades towards the sphere.

She's ready to drop the machete if it gets too hot, but she figures the brute doesn't have that option.

He does not and the arm-blade more or less disintegrates when it comes into contact with the sphere. It seems fairly unfazed by that though and brings the stump back to punch Brigid in the face.

Miranda's wings flare slightly, the black feathers shimmering slightly in the light of the orb that Miranda's carefully skirting. She levels her gaze at Sundancer and when she speaks, her voice reverberates psychically. "Your master. Talk."

"Screw you." he snipes back. "Armament's not our master." he says, looking over his shoulder to get a good luck at the space he might be able to move into if things go south.

Brigid gets knocked back, regaining her balance frighteningly quickly before swinging a kick at the man, aiming to knock him into the sphere again.

"Turn off the orb. Who is Armament?" Miranda's voice continued trying to insinuate itself into Sundancer's head, trying to hold his attention and give Vertie time to maneuver.

"He's part of our group." he compromises, giving in to one of the mental urges in favor of pushing harder against the other. "He's the one who tracked this place down."



Meanwhile the brute goes stumbling under Brigid's attack, falling right into the blazing sphere. He disintegrates almost immediately.

"Poor Genesis. Was that really necessary? So rude." Sundancer sighs and the sphere slowly grows again while she backs up into the open area beyond the forest, using the sun to block the passage.

Meanwhile behind the three a big, four-legged shape is slowly taking shape out of thin air.

Miranda turned and snatched up her sword, which had (miraculously) not been in Genesis when he'd gone into the light. "Behind us," she said. "I have have to get to Sundancer or he'll cause havoc for Teri."

"There are people in here, you ass." She turned to face the on coming shape. Four legs, that meant animal right? She reached out to it, softly touching it's emotional center first.

Jennifer Newgate wrote:"Vertie, if you can hear us, I think Theresa is feeling whatever is going on over there. You have to stop it. If this pushes her over the edge again..."

"Shit...Randa! Tempest is connected to this place! Push hard, friend" She sent to Miranda.

"She's still connected to Gaia, I know you don't want to but, if you can help her find that thread in her mind too...Mother Earth is very resilient." She sent to the parrot.

"I don't care how many friends you bring," she says as she turns around.

"You're leaving. All of you. One way or the other."

The creature is completely devoid of any animal instincts, like a blank slate almost. There's some kind of presence inside it that seems to be controlling it, but she might be able to force simple commands on it. She might also notice that this creature makes no biological sense whatsoever. It seems to have no internal organs beyond bones for structure and it has no mouth. It manages to move just fine though and the creature charges towards Brigid.

Meanwhile Sundancer's voice comes from the other side of the flaming orb. "Those people got something we need."

"Not fully animal." she says to Brig and focuses anyway. "SLEEP!" Pushing hard.

That seems to at least make it stumble as it's front legs give in. It's still about to crash into Brigid, however, just in a much less controlled fashion.

Brigid aims to grab the thing by the horn and redirect its momentum. If she can, she's aiming for a nice, hard surface.

Unfortunately the monster pig is pretty damn heavy. Much heavier than it should be. So while Brigid levers it enough to avoid being pushed too close to the flaming sphere behind her it still crashes into her and bowls her over.

Miranda uses the opportunity to bank out and around, trying to get back closer to the clock and come down on Sundancer from behind.

Vertie leap at the "animal" her daggers moving quickly to remove it's limbs.