[Resuming combat already in progress...] Crow is in the second floor hallway on the west (left) side of the church. Scratch and Fallone are a floor below him, navigating a hallway trapped with several claymore mines with webbing triggers. Jess, Cara and Tanya are in the basement currently inside Jess's protective pet bubble. [Session start!] * BigBad went into the southwest bell tower on the second floor the last you saw him. The spiders in the basement had crept back into the shadows. Know anything about disarming these? * Scratch pulls his head out of the web laden hallway and turns to Fallone. "I do not." Me either... not without bringing the whole hallway down... Disarming what? *over the radio* <> The information from Crow suggests that that he'll have to exit that stairwell here or on the third floor. Perhaps we should split up to flank him. <> I don't think we should. Splitting up hasn't worked very well so far We need to re-group. <> <> <> * Scratch , having lost his radio while entering the church, waits cautiously for an update on the situation from Fallone. * Fallone notices Scratch Crow says he can detonate the mines if we can catch our friend when the tower goes. * Scratch shakes his head. "Mission parameters state that excessive structural damage to the building is unacceptable." <> <> If we are to regroup we should do it now while Crow is watching the second floor exit. Is there word of movement on the tower's exterior? <> Uh... nothing yet. Why? <> Not that we've seen yet, no. <> Roger that. * Crow s flock over the southwest belltower, and more of the black birds fly in through the front door and the holes in the roof, clogging the upper belfry and flying towards Fallone and Scratch's position. * Fallone is looking more and more frustrated. We should get out of here Scratch... < Ground floor entrance to the bell tower. We'll meet Tanya and the rest there. <<*laughs amusedly* o/~ The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout o/~>> <> * Fallone taps her earpiece. Down in the basement, the girls can here more of that scratching sound that Tanya was hearing earlier. They don't see anything though in all the darkness. * Scratch nods and begins making his way slowly passed the mines. "Understood." <> * Cara turns with all the grace of a small mountain as she peers into the various dark corners of the room. Those spiders should be around here somewhere. Cara catches some movement out of the corner of her eye. It looks like one of the spiders is digging into one of the cocoons along the edge of the room. * Cara lifts her arm and points towards a dark corner of the room. Breathing heavily, she says with a voice deeper than her natural voice, "There," as she trundles off towards the baddy. * Jess laughs and draws a card playing another one. A cute little blue tripod appears at her feet. It whirls and whistles as it seems to start adjusting itself to the situation. * Tanya heads over to the nearest cocoon, still invisible, and starts cutting it open with her knife. Tanya works on the nearest cocoon, cutting it open and revealing another marine uniform underneath. This one is dripping though and her hands are getting all sticky and wet, when she looks down she notices that the liquid is all red. * Scratch arrives at the first-floor entrance to the belltower after carefully making his way passed the sets of claymores that had been placed there, contorting his half-naked body at times to avoid being caught on any of the webbing. The door is closed but doesn't appear to be locked. * Scratch examines the doorway for any signs of traps or other discrepancies, finding none he speaks down the hall to Fallone. "Clear. Holding position until the others arrive." There's a body in there too, Tanya just hasn't gotten enough of the webbing off to really see anything. * Fallone begins making her way carefully through the minefield, concentrating a bit to alter the shape of her protection, moving towards Scratch. * Scratch watches Fallone traverse the hallway, ready to act should the situation be altered in any way. * Fallone , upon reaching the door, checks it over carefully just to see if it appears booby trapped. * Crow s land, perching ominously near Scratch, fluttering their dark wings as they regard the stair entrance. The spider Cara is approaching notices her and tries to skitter to the ceiling to get away. This one looks to be the one that she punched across the room before as it's leaking goo pretty bad. * Cara continues her trek towards the spider that is continuing its futile effort to climb the wall. A large hand pops out of the ground as Cara approaches the spider, it looks between the spider and the rock girl for a moment looking confused for a moment before reaching down and grabbing Cara and tossing her up into the air and bouncing her off the ceiling, she still manages to keep her feet though as she lands. * Jess starts to cry as she looks at her used up trap card. The once face down card was standing bolt upright and larger then life for all to see the hand on it and it slowly fades away. "It doesn't work that way!" * Cara gathers her rocks together as they shifted slightly when she collided with the ceiling. She then goes and takes a swing at the spider, but the spider manages to dodge out of the way of the slow, pebbly attack. * Tanya works at getting this cocoon open Come on... be alive, please. * Jess sniffles. "Bad spider! Making my trap backfire!" She grabs a card and slams down another. The basement suddenly looks like an ocean front, At the far end the waves crash around the beach head. Jess seems to cheer up a little bit. "Get him!" Her tripod rotates around and faces the nasty spider and then this blood curdling high pitched squeal emits from it and a big thick red light zooms out of it's "head". The Light moves straight for the spider and then captures it in a ball of what looks to be oozing blood keeping it still. Tanya gets most of it off the man and she can tell as soon as she sees his head that he's dead from several wounds on his body. Tanya's hands are good and bloody now. <> * Scratch , still in the hallway awaiting reinforcements with Fallone, stands at the belltower's entrance. Having lost his radio he must obtain information through Fallone. "What is the ETA on Jess and the others?" * Tanya looks briefly to see if his rifle is available. <> Tanya doesn't find any guns on this one. <> <> <> Scratch... Let's go get Crow. The others are dealing with a spider problem. <> *heard over the radio, but not directed into it* Well, hello. Do come out; it's no fun talking to looming presences. *smiles, looking up as best he can* <> * Scratch 's emerald-eyes widen momentarily after hearing of the spiders for the first time but he quickly regains focus. "Understood. We'll secure the first floor of the stairwell." <> Crow notices one of the doors opening in the hall he's in. It opens slowly, and a pistol sticks out followed by a man in his mid twenties with short black hair. He's clad in a white undershirt and marine uniform pants. He spots crow and moves towards him, keeping his pistol leveled on him. * Man puts his gun to Crow's head. "Who are you?" * Man eyes dart back and forth in the hallway carefully looking, rather overly paranoid and alert. Currently? A wall fixture. You? *smiles politely down the barrel of the gun, totally unperturbed* * Man ignores the question. "Why are you here?" *whispers, mock-conspiratorially* Actually, I'm here to help. We heard you guys had a bit of trouble with the gentleman here. He does seem a bit antisocial. Clearly in need of some eye-opening about how much he can help others. It's one of the marines! Hey! I think Simmons wants to talk to you. You can borrow my radio if you lost yours. * Fallone 's eyes widen and she looks at Scratch. "One of the marines is with Crow!" * Man eyes the radio for a moment. "I don't know a Simmons. Did you take this from one of my team? Are you working with him?" But he's... unstable... * Fallone gestures for quiet and then, very carefully, opens the door, trying to avoid a raucous ruckus. Actually, we're working with you. Fallone notices the door is a bit stuck from the webbing attached to it, but it seems like it'll open if she gives it a good shove. * Scratch looks back over his slightly pale shoulder, surprised at first, but nods. Scratch... it's webbed shut. Can you help me ease it open? I don't want it banging... You might want to keep an eye on that door over there; that's where he went. *nods to the door in question* I'm trying to find him in there now. Those webs are a pain, though. Don't try and bullshit me. You're one of them. Normal people don't have wings. Very slowly now... * Scratch presses the door with one hand until it opens. Scratch finds the door easy enough to open with his strength. Nope, they don't. I'm definitely a demi. * Man eyes the door Crow indicated. He... the spider? Are you working with him? * Tanya heads up the stairs to the ground floor. Both Scratch and Fallone notice there's something unusually about the steps leading up. Something similar to what they saw in the hall. Trying to help him, but he doesn't seem to see it that way. Not sure what his problem is; he can't be doing too well without proper training and control. We're pretty dangerous if we're not handled properly. * Scratch holds one arm out to bar Fallone's forward progress towards the stairs, though it isn't as if she needed to be stopped. "Here too." The scratching sound the girls were hearing seems to have stopped now. The last spider is still out of sight somewhere in the darkness. * Fallone nods. "Busy little spider..." Cara can't seem to spot it though as she looks around. * Cara scans the area for the remaining spiders and fails to see them. She then hulks over and smashes the pinned spider, partly as a show to intimidate the other spiders, and partly out of frustration. * Jess frowns and suddenly cards are flying through the air as she starts to spray the area with deadly implements of paper cut doomness. The cards fly out in the general direction of the scratching sound, and impact upon two of the cocoons that were in that area, cutting into them. Red liquid seeps out from a few of the marks. * Tanya heads up the stairs to the ground floor. Tanya finds the door at the top of the stairs to be locked. <> * Tanya shifts to intangible, and walks through the door. <> <> Tanya finds herself in a store room for various cooking supplies. Most of it is cleared out although there is still the occasion pot or pan here, they're all very old and very rusted. There's an opening in the far wall which leads into what looks to be the cooking area. So you are working with him then? Fine. We'll take you along with him. * Tanya pulls up the map of the church and makes her way out to where the others are. * Crow smiles. "Oh, good. Though I think that was the plan anyway, sir." After all, we are going to need to go home when this is done, and it's all on the same island. Crow, this is Ryan. That's Archer. He's new to the team. Tell him Lt. Ryan is here on the radio. * Crow blinks. "Ah, you're Archer? My name's Crow. Lt. Ryan'd like you to take my radio; he wants to talk to you." ... Fine. Lt. Ryan, he's going to take my radio. He seems jumpy. Poor guy. Scratch checks under the stairs and doesn't find anything. It looks like some of the wood was damaged, but it looks to still be stable. The tripwire excepted, this area is secure. And then there's a metallic clank sound on the stairs as something bounces once. The look up and both notice immediately what it is and shield their eyes. The flash-bang goes off without leaving either of them disoriented. Scratch follows the path of the bounce and looks up to see a blurred figure a flight above him. * Man takes the radio from Crow, listening to it for a moment. Contact! Second-floor stairwell! Those of you with radios still can hear Ryan explaining as quickly as possible the situation and who you guys are and why you're here. * Archer nods a couple times and hands the radio back to Crow after Ryan finishes. He then pulls out his knife to help cut the birdman down. * Scratch motions with his hand and does what he can to obtain cover from the rogue demi's general direction. Oh, don't bother; I'll be fine. He's somewhere in that stairwell, if you want to help find him. * Archer looks at Crow oddly for a moment before shaking his head. "Fine. I'll head that way." And with that he moves towards the far door. * Fallone looks up and her eyes lock onto the blurred figure, now that Scratch has pointed him out. A gray aura appears around her, filled with whorls of differing shades, and wind picks up, starting to swirl inwards towards her... * Scratch blinks, still unused to chromatic wind and light shows. * Crow steps away from the wall, brushing black feathers from his clothes and shaking extras from his wings. The webbing that was holding him is nowhere in evidence, as he floats effortlessly down the hall to join the marine by the door. After you, Mr. Archer. * Archer looks back and blinks. He decides just to not think about it and continues down the hall. * Fallone 's aura begins to grow a little larger, and darker, with the edges of it flickering like a telsa coil. * Cara follows Tanya up the stairs. Cara can't access her radio when in earth form, so she just kinda hopes Tanya knows where she's going. * Jess runs for the nearest marine her game trailing behind her as she starts to try and get him out of the webbing. Cara finds the door at the top of the stairs locked. It's only wood though. * Cara doesn't let a little think like an inch of wood or two stop her from going up the stairs. There's a good mess of webbing holding it in place too, it takes most of her effort to break that all loose. * Cara doesn't really notice the resistance it puts up. It's only wood. Stone crushes wood. Jess finds another cocooned marine, as she cuts into the webbing she finds this one to be female. She's burned a bit although there isn't much bleeding she has the same shallow breathing as the first marine. Her eyes are wide open and stare at Jess in horror as she pulls her out. Her body can't seem to react though. * Tanya heads through walls (and also invisibly, I might add) towards where she heard the flash-bang go off. Tanya makes it to the stairwell taking the direct route. * Fallone 's aura turns black and a jagged bold of black material streaks out of the aura at the figure, but misses, just barely crackling by him. * Scratch steps in front of Fallone and into the center of the stairwell. * Scratch steps in front of Fallone and into the center of the stairwell, "Engaging. Keep everyone appraised of the situation." And with that he reaches up towards the second flight of stairs above him, the skin around his hands and arms bulges inhumanly and shreds as it gives way to the pressure underneath and unleashes Scratch's overly-large reptilian, clawed-hands and arms. With both hands he takes hold and jumps up and over the second railing inhumanly. The blurred figure raises one appendage, a blast firing from the end of it, at the firing the blurring distorts a bit and Scratch can make out a shotgun in the creature's hand firing directly at him. * Scratch stands his ground and raises one arm in defense, shrugging the blast away harmlessly. * Archer turns the door handle, trying to open it carefully, it doesn't move however as the webbing is holding it closed. "Shit. It's blocked." What a shame. Don't suppose you can vanish these too, can you? Eventually. What's that supposed to mean? * Fallone takes a deep breath and clenches her hands into firsts. The black aura flares slightly again, and the black bolt crackles, lashing around Scratch and down another wall, wind swirling along it towards Fallone, but still arching over the head of the figure. It'd be faster if we just tried together. Get your knife out then... er... *eye's Crow's outfit* Here, use mine. * Archer pulls out a knife handing it over. Thanks. *grins, taking it, and starts cutting at the webbing* I'll press the door open you cut what you can loose. * Archer does just that. Cara breaks down the door and tears through the attached webbing, marching angrily towards the tower stairs. * Jess gets the female marine free and starts to do some patching up. Her little tripod just looks around squeaking once in a while. * Tanya takes in everything in a split second, and turns solid yet still invisible while trying to grab the shotgun from its wielder. Tanya tries to grab the gun bit misses as it's moving around. The figure pulls it away as it hits against something. "What the hell are you?" <> * Tanya leans in and whispers, "Your worst nightmare," in his ear. "An old Catholic ghost." * Tanya keeps her voice quite sweet as she says this. Scratch notices some odd wiring on the steps around him. They're attached to a couple round objects at strategic places on the stairs. * Crow laughs quietly, but still loud enough for the radio to pick up. There's no such thing. You're one of them! You're after me for what I've done! Scratch lunges at the guy, but misjudges the distance and his massive arms swing right over him. Magic exists. Why can't ghosts? * BigBad dives back against the wall, opening his mouth oddly and you see an odd tube inside that fires a spray of liquid down at Scratch and the voice. * Tanya shifts intangible, letting it fly through her. He misses though spraying a bubbly sticky green goo across the wall in what looks like the world's nastiest sneeze. * Archer finally pries open the door, diving into the stairwell and immediately letting a couple shots fly towards the shadowy figure. Well, that's one way to announce your presence. BigBad takes two shots solidly in his body, a deep reddish ichor oozes out. He cries out in pain and annoyance, turning up to his attacker ferally. * Fallone grits her teeth angrily and this time the bolt of black energy snakes unerringly around Scratch and nails the figure square in the chest. Her aura flares and tiny jags of black energy curl over and around and through his body. BigBad drops to his knee, gritting his teeth as his pain seems to increase. There's a darker greenish foam oozing out of the corners of his mouth and his limbs seem to pulse and twitch oddly. * Crow shatters into nearly a hundred crows, joining the cawing and quorking cavalcade of black feathers that swarm down the tower shaft, fluttering about the man, some of them landing on him, some merely knocking against him. The noise, regardless, is suddenly deafening. Fallone notices a spider creature making it's way down the hall and into the room. It looks about the size of a small dog and is the one left from the basement, although she wouldn't know that. It has something odd in its fangs though. Something vaguely pineapple shaped, she would immediately recognize as a hand grenade. * Fallone shouts and radios so everyone can hear, <> As it makes its way into the tower, she notices the pin is already missing and it simply releases it and it drops to the ground, exploding violently. The spider is immediately pasted in the blast as it's standing right on it, it mostly doesn't hurt the stairs but it does manage to hit the trip wire Scratch and Fallone notices when they entered the tower. Fallone is immediately blasted back into the wall, breaking her concentration. The tripwire triggers further explosions however and the wires and objects Scratched noticed earlier explode destroying the first flight of stairs causing it collapse down messily and loudly. Tanya and Scratch are able to dive up to higher ground and the Spider guy suddenly free of Fallone's power jumps straight up to the next landing. Fallone however is too stunned by the first blast to react as the stairs collapse down onto her, pinning her to the ground. Archer dives back into the hall before anything under him collapses. * Crow s cling to the spider demi, or fly up after him, spooked by the blast and generally remaining in a black storm of wings with him as the nucleus. * Tanya chases after spider-guy. <> * Tanya says this loud enough for the others who don't have radios to hear. * Scratch picks his head up out of the rubble, dust and debris sliding off his frame. He yells up at Tanya, "Crow!" * Tanya pulls her gun, and fires into the fleeing spider-demi. He rolls to dodge but doesn't quite make it taking a shot through one arm. The same thick red ichor leaks out. * Scratch regains his footing and heads up full-tilt towards where Tanya is engaging the demi. Fallone is down! ... Great.... * Scratch yells wildly as he leaps up the last flight of stairs and stabs at the spider demi with a set of ten-inch claws. He tries to stop the blow as best he can but that only ends up cracking his arm messily as the dragon's claws tear into him, causing ichor to drip. He slams back against the wall gasping out and coughing up fluids. He doesn't quite fall yet but he looked like he's hardly able to stand anymore. He feebly tries to raise the shotgun again to fire at Scratch. It's too difficult to raise though and he ends up just blasting the stairs at the dragon's feet, wood splinters bounce off his tough hide uselessly. * Scratch stands there, breathing heavily and staring down at the being with an intense glare. >:| Okay, I was wrong. I'm not your worst nightmare. He is. * Archer levels his gun at the demi and fires a round into its head. The bullet connects solidly and the spider creature bounces back against the wall again, the contents of it's head splattering back messily as the drip down the wall and the body slumps there and stops moving. [session end]