The Creeping Killer(s)

[pookaking]

. I go home and play video games or watch TV or something like that, but since I don't have to sleep anymore, I have a lot of time to do things in, and I get bored really easily, so Ren says I should go out for a while and do something."

Vigor nods knowingly, "yeah I have the same problem myself."

The metal boy stopped his avalanche of words for a moment, seemingly wondering about something, then started right back in again. "This will be the first time I beat up an acid blob, though. I beat up a person made out of bugs once, and that was super gross, but I've never done a blob before. Do you think I'll be able to hit it normally, or will I have to use a car or something like that? I'm really strong, by the way, so if you need me to do that, I can." He flexed his arms to emphasize his point, but nothing really stuck out on his mostly flat body.

"Couldn't tell you, but it sounds like super strength could come in handy. Especially if we come across any giant tightly sealed jars of pickles." he joked. "Seriously, I found that not much can take being splatted by a car or uprooted tree." He flashed the metal boy a grin. The urge to pat the metal boy on the head seemed overwhelming.

[Sandman XI]

Wesley walks along with the two other searchers, trying to help out what he can. He can't help himself to snicker when the robot child is talking. It seems like he is a voice of calm in this storm of freakiness. And the other guy, he seems like he knows what he is talking about. "I'm guessing picking a car would be good if there were cars around," Wesley chuckles as the machine boy tries to make a muscle. Turning his thoughts to the question at hand, "Me, I used to work at a tattoo shop back home before I loaded up and moved here. Not the smartest idea, as I have nothing here, but I got my reasons. Mainly because of the things I can do. Now? I'm just a random do-gooder. You know, rescue kittens from trees and trying to save the day from... acid blobs," Wesley sort of snickers at that last statement, "As for who I am? I haven't thought of a name. I was thinking about doing something like 'Captain Awesome' or something like that, but then I'd regret it because people would expect me to be awesome to their standards," Wesley stops his yammering, "You can call me Knight. Though it probably won't stick for a name." Wesley turns to Vigor for a second, "As for you, what do you do," then turns back to searching.

[pookaking]

"Technically?" he asked. "I do many things, mostly to fight off the ravages of boredom. I attend FCU part time at the moment and I was recently released from an assignment with Knight Errant." He looked towards the one calling himself Knight to judge whether or not he had heard of it. He elaborated for the others just in case, "I do bodyguard work mostly.â€Â

“I’m no stranger to strange occurrences, so when my fellow students started turning up dead…well…how could I not come out and investigate?â€Â

[Nyrath]

Alex brought up the rear of the small party as they moved along, splitting her time between keeping a lookout behind them and looking over the other three. Of the new trio she found herself with it was the golem child which intrigued her the most, and she couldn't help but smile, and could barely restrain herself from giggling, whenever the kid spoke. For the moment though she keeps quiet herself.

[Sandman XI]

"Knight Errant? Have I commited copyright infringement with a statement," Wesley questions with a laughing tone of voice. "But yeah, being a good Samaritan is why we're all here, right? It's our duty," he says with a glimmer in his eyes. Shaking the daydream from his head he continues searching.

[Dr Archeville]

The "party" heads Southeast, the rising full moon adding a bit of illumination to their travel. Almost immediately they're back at he spot where Alex McGee -- and, more recently, one of Mongrel Angel's earlier "associates" -- had been attacked. [[ In terms of where this is on the map, it's about the middle of the first 'bulge' in the Promenade, the bulge that's at the part of the river that says "Wading River", and due west of the Hanover Zoo. ]]

Anyone pausing to investigate the area would find no sign of any blob-monsters, but would find a patch of dirt that was damp. Anyone who touched it would feel a tingling, burning sensation, though not enough to cause any real lasting damage. If a person carrying baking soda were to sprinkle some on the patch, it would bubble and foam for a few moments like an elementary school volcano.

The tree branches above rustle softly, but it is impossible to tell whether that's from something moving among them, or simply from the light breeze that's blowing through the area.

[[ I need a Notice and a Survival check from everyone, please. ]]

[Dr Archeville]

As the four travel, Mongrel Angel, Vigor and Wesley can all tell that the winds are blowing in a westerly direction, that is, from east to west. The three also realize that these winds have been fairly strong for the past several days. Perhaps Mashin-Kun's artificial skin cannot feel the wind as well as the others....

Wesley alone, though, picks up something on the wind, perhaps owing to the nature of his powers or to a sudden gust that just happens to go right up his nostrils. It's faint, he can just barely pick it up, but as soon as he does it triggers some very primal parts of his brain. It's the smell of animals, and straw, and excrement, and water. It's the powerful, pungent smells of a zoo, carried on the winds.

[Sandman XI]

Wesley quickly covers his nose and points towards the offending smell, "Whew! There wouldn't happen to be a farm or zoo or something like that over that way, would there? If not, I fear we might have another dead body on our hands."

[Veiled Malice]

Mashin-kun blinked and sniffed the air. "I don't smell anything. And I've been to a zoo before. Actually, it was a circus, but it's kinda the same thing. Plus, I was in a cage at the time, so I was really close to the animals." He glanced about, trying to tell why everybody was so tense.

[pookaking]

"There is a zoo nearby. Almost due east of here in fact. While I don't claim to be able to understand the motivations of alien acid blob creatures, they may target animals as well as humans. It may well be worth checking out."

He turned to the winged girl. ~Did she introduce herself and I miss it?~ he wondered. "When you came across the creature killing the cop, could you tell why it attacked? Was it feeding off the guy or something?" he asked.

[Nyrath]

"Yes, or at least that's what it looked like." Alex replies. "And he was already dead by the time we found him and the blob."

[Dr Archeville]

Okay, so are you all going to follow Vigor's suggestion and go east to check the zoo, or continue going southeast? Or split up, with some going one way and others going another?

[Sandman XI]

Wesley puts his hands in his pockets, "Well, I hope no animals are harmed, but at least they're not killing people if they're eating monkeys and tigers," Wesley pauses for a moment of disbelief in what he just said, "You know, that didn't sound right." Picking up where he left off, "Yeah, wanna go save some monkeys and tigers," he questions with a sly grin.

[Dr Archeville]

And so the quartet of mighty heroes heads east, towards the Hanover Zoo. The winds soon shift a bit, and Wesley no longer feels assailed by the scents of the zoo.

Vigor then realizes -- and shares with the others -- that, from where they are now, the zoo is about two miles away. Unless they all find some other means of transportation, it will take them well over an hour to get there.

[pookaking]

"The zoo is quite a ways off. About two miles," he informs the others. "So we can keep checking the promenade in the hopes that these blob things can't move very fast or very far. We can run...or fly..." he said admiring the emo girls wings almost for the first time. "Or we can head back to my car which is a little less than a quarter of a mile that way," he said pointing northeast. "Of course we could also split up to cover more ground with half of us staying here and the other half checking out the zoo."

[Sandman XI]

Wesley steps back to observe his three companions, "Splitting up might not be the best idea. We know those things can kill. How many of us will it take to get stop one of them? But then again, if they've reached the zoo, who knows how far they can go and how fast. We can't let them eat the whole city." He pauses and sighs, "I'm not helping matters with this cluttertalk. We should stick together, there's strength in numbers, but I'm for going or staying. They started here they might have some acid blob hive here or something. Then again: a smell from two miles away? They might be doing something over there now."

[Veiled Malice]

Mashin-kun looked between his new companions. "Yeah, and I don't think anybody's going to be able to carry me. I... weigh a lot more than I look like." He shrugged helplessly. "I guess we should go back to your car, Vigor."

[pookaking]

"Ok, to the zoo in my ride then..." he said, as he turned to head towards his vehicle. His car was nothing special, it was a four-door rental that would get them were they were going. As he started it up AC/DC immediately started wailing through the speakers, and he turned it down to a lower level. "If the blobs can smell and they are predatorial, then the zoo would likely be the place they are going. If we don't have any luck then I guess it is back to the Promenade tomorrow night."

A few minutes passed before he spoke up again. "I suppose we should have collected a sample of the blob thing. I know a handful of scientists that would love looking at something that strange under a microscope."

A few more minutes...

"I hope you guys know what you are getting yourselves into hanging out with me. I tend to attract the strange and unusual. I swear I'm a walking episode of of the X-files or the Twilight Zone. If we aren't ambushed by ninja unicorns when we get to the zoo I'll be pleasantly surprised," he said with a chuckle.

[Sandman XI]

Wesley weakly holds back his laughter at the 'pink unicorn' and 'X-files' comments, "So you're saying you can make anything happen? Is it too much to ask to get Shakira to deliver some shrimp-lo-mein for breakfast in the morning," he questions amusedly. "Nah man, just pickin atcha," he says trying to mentally prepare his brain too look at a moving pile of acid. Laughter is the best medicine. A thought pops into Wesley's mind, "Wait a second, you know the zoo might not be open this late and it may look suspicious just the four of us walking around there."

[Veiled Malice]

The car's suspension dipped ominously as Mashin-kun entered the car, and he looked vaguely embarrassed. "Sorry."

He listened to the two men talk back and forth between each other and got gradually more and more excited. "Ninja unicorns? That would be so cool! They would be all in black except for their horns, and have red eyes that left those sweet after images as they flew around and tried to stab us." He stopped for a moment as he considered something. "Wait, unicorns don't have wings, do they? That's... peggy-saurs?" he tried, sounding out the unfamiliar word.

Daisuke scooted himself up so that he was between the two front seats and clung onto both seats to get a better look as they drove. "Well, if no one's there, then there won't be anyone for the blobs to eat, right? But if someone is there, then they need to be rescued, so then we need to be there." He spoke with the absolute certainty of a kid knowing he was doing the right thing, and completely disregarding of any consideration other than helping people.

[pookaking]

"I like the way this kid thinks," said Vigor. "As for the car don't worry about it, that is why I only drive rentals." He drove on. He even changed the station. It was half way through a Pink Floyd song, one of Vigor's favorites.

[Sandman XI]

Wesley smiles and nods in agreement with the robot child, "You know, sometimes it just takes a little faith in knowing what you're doing. You're alright, kid. Don't ever change." Leaning himself back in his seat, Wesley drums his fingers on the dashboard to the rythm, hoping to not get worried again.

[Dr Archeville]

"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"

By the time the quartet arrives at the Zoo, it is 9:15pm, and the full moon is just stating to rise. Vigor feels especially... wary.

And to answer Wesley's curiosity regarding their hours of operation, the closed gate has a sign saying "Open daily 9:00am-5:00pm, last tour starts at 4:00pm, May 1 thru October 31". The zoo is most definitely closed for the day. The pungent smells, however, have not quit, and can be smelled by everyone, though it's no stronger or worse than any other regular zoo.

Probably no stronger or worse, anyway.

While the land-based folks drove, Mongrel Angel scouted ahead, and now lands besides the others with a hastily-sketched map of the area. She reports that the animals seem spooked and edgy... but some of you wonder if that may've been because they sensed an odd winged woman flying over them.

[Veiled Malice]

Daisuke looked the map over with rapt entusiasim, cocking his head this way and that so he could take in all of it. Although he wasn't sure of what he was looking at, (he spoke English, he didn't read it) the pictures helped out a lot. Suddenly, he jabbed a finger at a section of it. "Ooo! Can we go see the tigers? I've always wanted to see them, but we never got out to the Tokyo zoo."

[Sandman XI]

Wesley smiles at the robot, "Yeah, tigers are cool. They're one of my favorite wild animals. But we have work to do! Get rid of the acid blobs, then see tigers." Looking to the angel next, "So, no sign of the blobs at all? Just spooked animals?"