Last time on Section M: Everyone went to Church and boy, there were webs all over the place. Tanya went to check out the basement while Crow went in through a bell tower. Cara went right in through the front door... window... wall... Something. Crow was the first to meet the target and Cara somehow ended up in the basement too where a strange sound was heard. [Thursday, January 12, 2063] [Inside the Church (and outside as well)] [Collar status: Off!] [Session start] Crow is currently on the second floor in the hallway on the left side. He's in swarm form and all around the target. Cara is caught in webs in the basement, since she had chosen the exact wrong place to solidify, it seems. Tanya was helping cut her free. The other three are just outside, waiting to make their entrance. Scratch is currently in front of the church with the other two girls. All he needs to do is find out how to get in... * Scratch runs full force towards the church’s double doors. <> * Tanya works to get Cara free of the webs. "You okay, Cara?" * Cara saws at the webs with her knife. "I'm doing all right, all things considered." * Fallone races towards the church with Scratch, gritting her teeth. <> * Crow , lacking radios when flocking, doesn't hear. * Scratch 's body contorts for an instant as large emerald colored scaled wings erupt forcefully from the back of his not quite loosely fitting enough suit. Ripping and tearing, his skin gives way to the massive layers of scale and muscle underneath and with an audible growl he jumps from the ground as a 12-foot long winged beast in flight. The surrounding police force is noticeably horrified as what the thought was another soldier just rips out of its suit like that. * Fallone is startled, even though she was expecting it, flinches despite herself. "Come." *With a large clawed arm, he wraps Fallone up and holds her close under his torso to shield her as he barrels head into the building, just barely managing not to take chunks of wall out along with the double doors* "Ffffffffffff-" * Fallone throws her arms in front of her face and braces. * BigBad dives away from the mass of crows filling the hallway and throws out his hands, a large mass of some sort of white substance flies at the birds. * Tanya mutters to herself as she hears the doors above smash open, "The Major's not gonna like this." Most of the crows are tangled against the walls in a thick white webbing. Only a handful were spared as they were still behind him in the hallway. Scratch and Fallone find themselves in the foyer, another smaller set of double doors leads into the main cathedral as well as a door to the left and to the right. The right door is partially opened but looks to have something preventing it from opening any further. And of course, webs everywhere. The doors lead to hallways on either side that stretch the length of the church as well as to the staircase for the belltowers. The second floor is laid out mostly similar with to the first, with a balcony above the main chapel. * Fallone shakes off the impact of flying through the door and concentrates on the air before her, with no visible effects... * Scratch 's dragonish body recoils in slightly as he prepares for a second charge. "I've lost radio. Confirm that Crow's position hasn't changed." He's not showing anymore. Just get to where he was, we'll go from there. Scratch's collar and communicator and most of his clothing were left outside with his skin. "We're going to perform a pincer maneuver. We won't be meeting him directly." * Crow s caw loudly, the ones behind the man flying right past him, pulling his attention to one side, then the other, as they brush their wings past his face in a frenzied flight. When he looks again, Only a handful of crows remain in the hallway, some bound, some free, and one perched on his head. Against one wall, smiling in a friendly manner as if he weren't stuck there by thick webbing, is a youth dressed like...well, Cupid. Hello! I do enjoy a good game. What's your favorite? ... I knew there was more here than stupid birds... I think your friends have come to join us as well. It's not nice to call them stupid. You'll hurt their feelings. And friends don't hurt each others' feelings, do they? has a weird sort of... grin? on his face. This is the first Crow has gotten a decent look at him and if he didn't know better, he'd swear his face was melting. The six or so eyes he can see blink in unison. In the basement the scratching gets louder as three shapes appear from the shadows, moving into the light. They're spiders and about the size of medium sized dogs. Their parts don't all see to quite fit together though. It's as though someone took several different spiders and then took them apart and put them back together all wrong. They pounce at the two girls. I've got him again. Up the stairs and just a bit inside the hall. And... our... our target is with him... * Scratch growls, "Understood." * Fallone mutters a curse. The disabling collar Scratch had is probably lying with his clothes. Outside. <> >>Jess, get down here, quick! Got some nasties for your cards.<< All their attacks are off though, they didn't calculate the webbing correctly, and all land ineffectively around the girls. Cara manages to free herself completely from the webs, there's still a bit stuck here and there, but she can move freely. * Jess runs straight for the basement door. <> She stops in front of it and digs out a bunch of cards and just throws them at the door hard. The cards make short work of the flimsy wood basement door, even the wood boards nailed underneath it to keep it shut are no match for the flurry of cards, breaking away and leaving about a three foot hole. * Tanya , now that Cara is free, pulls out her pistol and fires it at one of the spider-things. The spider notices the movement and hops out of the way of the shot. * Cara focuses for a bit. At first it looks as if a mass of pebbles is climbing up her and covering her entire form. After she's finally covered, the pebbles fuse together into a series of larger stones that vaguely have the shape of her former physical form. Oddly enough, it looks as if there is a bit of grass growing between the various stones that now make her up. Brace yourself. * Fallone braces and nods, quickly. * Scratch roars from the depths of his reptilian throat and with one arm reaffirms his grip on Fallone before leaping forward through the second set of doors and into the main cathedral area. * Fallone covers her ears and ducks her head down at the roar. As soon as he enters, he sees a large wooden bench swinging down on suspended webs towards his massive dragon body. He notices a person sized hole in middle of the floor. * Scratch sees the bench's approach well in advance and is able to effortlessly deflect it away with a single, massive, forearm. It smashes against a far wall messily. The door behind the man, swings open on its own. It leads down into the front-left stairwell. * BigBad backs out into it, disappearing from Crow's sight as the door swings back shut behind him. Don't go! We were just getting to know each other! Don't worry, I'll be back for you... * The bird on the demi's head quarks contentedly. * BigBad doesn't seem to pay attention to the bird following him. * Fallone continues concentrating on the energy focused into her shield and moves forward a bit, carefully, looking for more traps and cautious about the condition of the floor, forewarned by the hole in it, looking all around. He went down the stairs. * Scratch stands. "Understood." Follow him. He's lonely, I'm sure. Even with my pet to keep him company. Fallone notices that there are two back doors that leads into the halls on the first floor and four doors on the upper floor, two on each side, leading into those halls. * Fallone smiles faintly. "I'm not so sure we should split our forces again. Scratch?" <> He's left. Going downstairs, I think. The spiders attack again, two miss once again, but one manages to latch onto Cara's leg. She hardly notices it though as her tough skin is almost too much for its fangs to handle. It latches on though and her leg tingles a bit. * Cara looks down at the spider that had the guts to bite a rock before swatting it away with a swing of her arm. The spider bounces a bit away before rolling to a stop. He's moved again, Scratch. He's not with Crow. I think he's coming through the side door... *nods to it* * Scratch snarls through his fist-sized fangs. "Understood." * Jess runs through the stairs and stops blinking at the hole. She just jumps down an a golden plane appears in front of her and seven cards appear in her hands. "I'm here! Tanya! Cara!" Jess's field shows the three critters named "Big Spiders". Two of their life bars are full and the one Cara hit is down to about 30%. * Jess giggles and plays a card a small little tripod creature appears in front of her and a glowing blue bubble envelopes around her and then changes its shape to moves to embrace Cara and Tanya. The spiders many eyes seem to look around curiously at the newly formed bubble. * Tanya seems to shimmer at the edges briefly before disappearing from sight completely. A gunshot is heard from the left of where she was, the flash of the barrel is visible. Tanya's bullet punctures the little creature and it squeals a bit inhumanly. On Jess's little mat its lifebar goes down to 60%. * Scratch sets Fallone down near the entrance to the first-floor hallway. "We'll have to adjust our plans in light of this and force the enemy upwards from this point." Assuming he'll be forced. Think that webbing is strong enough to hold you? We will see. * Scratch folds his wings in on himself and groans painfully as his body conforms back to human dimensions. Skin replaces scale, claws and fangs shrink and disappear, his wings fold continually inward until they do disappear behind him. Grimacing until the end he kneels just behind Fallone, his clothes are gone except for the tattered remains of what were his fatigue pants. "... Lets go." * Scratch opens the door with whatever force is necessary to gain entrance to the first-floor hallway. *very softly into the radio* <> Scratch has to work a bit to get the door open past the webbing holding it down, this hallway looks mostly clean though. * Crow just hums a cheery little tune. Scratch notices a series of webs running across the hall, connected to small boxy objects at various places along the walls. He's can't quite see it all, but he's pretty sure the nearest one reads "This end towards enemy". They're spaced out along the hall. Scratch counts 4 that he can see. They're all at knee height. There's one to the right and three down to the left between him and the stairwell he knows the bad guy went into. * Scratch stops in his tracks. "He's laid claymores along this hall. We'll have to pass them to enter the stairwell." Something's not right about this. He's laid it all out to draw us in. <> Negative. It's more likely he expects this to be a deterrent. * Crow just continues humming as a few more black birds flutter into the bell tower and the chapel itself. Down in the basement the spiders peck at the field experimentally. One of them runs off into the darkness, followed by another. The only one left in the girls view is the one Tanya shot. It seems determined to make its way into the field. * Cara punches the spider brave enough to try and burrow it's way through the force field. It's a brave, yet stupid spider. May its brethren learn from his mistakes as he now is a decorative paint on the floor of the basement. It's guts explode outward as its outer shell is smashed in. Cara gets a good amount of green spider goo on her hand. * Jess draws her card and smiles cutely as she lays a card face down in front of her. * Tanya squeezes off two rounds in the direction one of the spiders had retreated in The bullets bounce of the stone wall, just missing the spider as it scrambles up a nearby pillar. [Session Paused]