|
   |
Every now and then it's bound to happen. Usually it's hobos and drunks that go wandering into the tunnels who are easy to confuse and send on their way. Just before Halloween though? OH that's when the crazies, the cultists, and the college co-eds come out.
The problem wasn't just students exploring the tunnels because they were dangerous. The problem came when those above tripped borders and various subterranean institutions became alerted to their presence. Kevin Ford, Mutant from the world above wasn't one to usually venture into Monster Metropolis, though he was starting to get to know the neighbours. Mutants were usually relegated to the Morlocks of which he was sort of trying to avoid being press ganged into a gang. This even still didn't stop Surturschild from scrambling (carefully) into the town proper looking for the Bird. 'Ford-Scar'. One hand caught him as he slid, a chair immediately dessicating, and then collapsing into ash and splinters under the Mutant as he stumbled. "Ford-Scar? Anyone see a big beaky bird? I need t'find her. It's an emergency"
Fortunately this isn't a night for awkward revelations; at the fountain, watching a group of monster children play a game of marbles, Fjorskar crouches. She sniffs as Kevin's scent reaches her, and one ear cocks back in his direction. She half turns, one hand on the ground to balance herself. The children stop their game, standing and peering at Kevin. Two of them are little reptile children, perhaps relatives of the alligator sisters; one is a boy with a decidedly demonic cast to his features; and the fourth, a child of some manner of cephalopod, gills and rubbery, color-changing skin and all.
Fjorskar chuffs at Kevin, moves to join him where he's rushing into the Metropolis, drawing attention. All around, denizens pause to stare at him. Everyone's always on alert around Halloween.
Adam is staying vigilant, assisting the usual guards and bouncers in frightening away the more adventurous normals coming down to see what delights the sewers hold. He's standing in the mouth of a tunnel, arms folded across his enormous chest, frowning, when Kevin scrambles down. Attention caught, he turns, aiming that awful frown upon the young mutant. "What is your business here?"
Wither felt…hell aembarassed. Still this was an emergencya nd he withdrew his hand sform teh chair that got destroyed aand the patch of moss he was on and- ya know he just stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep things from getting worse. Hiss nose wrinkles and he looked apologetically to teh kids, "Sorry." Looking to Fjorskar and Ad- woah tall. And Adam he said "There's" Deep breath and not yelling, right. He took a seap over keeping a careful distance, "People in teh tunnels. Not far from my place, cloer to here. Got into with with some Morlocks. I dunno what they're gonna do."
Fjorskar grunts at Adam, licks her muzzle. "Surtrschild," she says, as if this is a sufficient explanation for why Kevin has come flying into Monster Metropolis. Her ears pin back as Kevin describes the emergency, and she growls, bone deep and angry. There's no doubt what she feels they can do, or maybe more importantly, what *she* would like to do to them. There's been some progress on this front, however; she doesn't tear off towards the situation, and instead looks to Adam, brilliant yellow eyes searching him as she waits to see what he thinks.
Adam's frown gets worse. He glances at the hulking chimerical creature, meeting her eyes. Nods a fraction to her. She clearly knows the child, since she's named him. He looks back at Kevin, down at him from his towering height. "Take us there," he says, his voice so deep it's almost not a voice, like some hellish instrument. "We'll hurry."
Wither seemed to resign that these weeeeere his neighbours. yeah. And even they looked at him funny. Sigh. Still the Mutant wasted no time and carefully picked his path back tot eh tunnels. It wasn't too far away. On his way he explained,, "IAh didn't wanna sart things with no one and get everyone mad at everyone elseAh mean People get hurt folks come a lookin. Morlocks get hurt? Morlocks blame Monsters. Morlocks hurt the humies? People come down here an guess who lives in the middle?" He looked to Fjorskar. Yeah. those two. Joy!
It wasn't far where there were Three very lost, possibly inebriated teens not terribly younger than Kevin. Maybe just out of high school. Two of them looked a little wounded, the third possibly tripping balls as they say. All wearing costumes: The lady was dressed as an angel now dingy from the tunnels. The two fellas were dressed like a wolfman and, oh yeah, a bad Frankenstein. Morbius didn't suffer alone around the holidays. THe MOrlocks were already there: One woman withthe body of a porcupine, quills and all, and the other fella that might be some sort of insectoid hybrisred eyes and wasp wings and a nice cut on his forehead. THere was shouting and the woman, the porcupine wand growling at the three humans, "NO his wings don't come off, asshole, and you can't see them!"
Fjorskar keeps behind Adam and Kevin, as she can smell and hear what's going on in front of them from some distance. She moves with reasonable stealth for something so large; the most noise comes from the click of her talons on the stone and brick lining the tunnels. Her eyes are more of a give away then anything else, the soft yellow glow stretching almost all the way to Kevin as they make their way to the scene of the problem. She sniffs, snarls, "Foolish whelps," under her breath.
She surveys the two humansweak, small, probably not New Peoplethen the Morlocks. These are new to her, and she takes a deep breath, cataloging how they smell for future consideration.
Adam tilts a curious and listening look down to Kevin as he talks and they travel. Kevin is so unblemished and handsome compared to everybody else down here, and yet, he talks like a monster. That sense of entrapment between several worlds, none of which want you…too familiar. "You've done well to come to us," he tells him. "My name is Adam. My pack-sister, the Fjorskar, I see you know."
He looks out over Kevin's head, knowing Fjorskar is behind them, spotting the humans and Morlocks. He steps forward, looming abruptly out of the dark, and there is so very much of him, all unpleasant to look at. "Is there trouble?" he asks, quite polite, with an undercurrent of 'there had better not be'.
Wither walked quickly offering to Adam with, not fear but a lot of concern. Hey he wabeing cool so Kevin was willing to be groovy man. "Um, Kevin. Kevin Ford." He didn't know what toruble his name would bring and honestly? Likes Monster Metropolis because they had better reason to be wary of him in a way that at least made sense beyond just prejudice.
It wasn't the angel lady that was crying but Wolfman. He had quills in him and looked like hewas on a bad trip. Boys' head was swimming. "THey're gonna eat us!"
The not-Adam human built like a linebacker was already trying to reconsider a new exit plan and seemed ready for a fight and scared of the lady with quills presenting the immediate threat, "Chripes, what are you?" The angel woman was trying to calm the wolfman down demanding "What did you DO to hi- Oh god!" Oh yeah Adam was a ghastly fright.
Finters out the porcupine woman was putting herself between the fly-guy and the people "This doesn't concern you." Said she to teh Monsters. Her black eyes drifting to Kevin squinting, "Callisto will wanna alk to you."
It's not the request to butt out, or any of the teenagers yammering that makes Fjorskar growl; no, it's the direct address to Kevin. She drifts forward, her head looming over Kevin in an overt warning, teeth bared and ears back. Her feathers aren't standing up, and the growl is a low subsonic tone, boulders shifting underground, more felt than heard.
Adam stares, anger rising, at the human dressed like a mockery of himself. He flexes his huge hands, rolling them into fists. Halloween is a rough time of year for him. "I am reality. You are a parody and an insult." Looking at the quilled woman, he bows his head to her. "Such intrusions are the concern of us all, are they not?"
Wither folded his arms across his chest and frowned at the porcupine Mutant woman, "Tell Callisto Ah didn' do anythin and if Mazque wanted t'keep his damn hand he shouldn't 've tried t'fuse mah face. Like it's been all over the news for ten months. Ah consider him properly warned. If it's about the other thing? No. I don' wanna thanks all the same." His jaw set and rubbed his knuckles against the inside of his palm thoughtfully. "Look they're scared. Do we… lettum go? I mean they know where we are?" He was hesitant and he was asking Fjorskar taking a slight step back so his head was more directly under that hand. See? Team here. Got peeps. I'm good. Doooo not wanna be no Morlock. K thanks. Still he was deferring to ehr and, by proxy since she asked Adam to him on protocol here.
The fly guy winced and was pulling himself together. "Upworlders should not be down here. DIdn't… know they weren't yours." Yes there seemed to be conflict between teh real residents and the interlopers from costumes. Fractal vision disrupts clarity for better motion sense. Easy to do in the dark.
The not-Adam linebacker turned to Adam proper hands in fits to protect himself, "We got lost! holy shit what… you ain't wearin no cosutme, buddy!" Behind him the wolfman was tweaking out and the angel was trying to pull a few quills out of him. Hallucinigenic. fantastic. She responded to the bird with a hiss of words, "Yes they're a concern. They go back up, Wither's right. They'll tell. They tell? They hunt." It was the Fly behind her asking "It… that really the case, Stacy?" He hissed back, "About every time." Even Kevin had to nod at that. He just wanted this to be over.
Fjorskar's lip writhes, emphasizing Kevin's point about not being interested in whatever it is the porcupine is offering. She considers their other, more immediate problem, then. Being hunted isn't new for her, but the notion that there's a complicated solution is. She's learning, though.
She surveys each human by turn; killing them and disposing of the bodies won't prove a challenge, however… "If, they disappear, their—pack. Brood. Family, will seek them." She snorts, sending an echo around them. "Either way, we are sought." Her attention shifts to Adam, wondering what he thinks of this impasse.
Adam regards all present, forcing himself to think past the fury that costume is seeding in him. "So they will," he says, dour, on the topic of humans and who they will hunt. "They will, indeed." He eyes the kid who's been drugged. "Madam," he says to the porcupine lady. "Your quills are the cause? If you would be so kind as to lend them further, these other two need not remember where they came or what they saw, as well."
The porcupine Mutant woman was listening still clearly protecting her friend. Morlocks were crazy but has a weird camaraderie. Sometimes friends and loyalty and not just fear and lack of options. Her jaw tightened beneath wide nostrils. "They hurt one of ours. We get justice."
It was Kevin that offered, "Well… then… like Adam says drug em and like just take their stuff. You got a wallet, mack?"
The not-Adam human was backing away from teh 'freaks' "You're not getting my wallet! We just wanna leave"
The Flu GUy confirmed, "Well now we know he's got one." Truth.
Looking back to Adam the Morlock with quills eyes them all throughly irrate but the words from Fjorskar spoke a grim truth: They'd hunt those that came after their… whatever these people were to them. "Sure sure when humans go missing suddenly everyone cares." Oh yeah there was some biteterness. Still in lieu of coflict no side would win today she flexed her forearms bringing them up in font of her and brought her arms up, pun, and let the quills fly from her back like an unavoidable cloud of darts. The humans screamed. Hey they were painful but she didn't keep going trying to seek any sort of lethal effect. The costumed humans flaild trying to take teh quills out spinning in a circle slower and slower until they drunkenly wobbled and clumped against the wall or one another. The fly man was all over trying to get wallets and valuables and… well that headband withthe halo attached. That was pretty snazzy. She looked to Adam. "Fine. it's done. they got a couple hours. Do as you must but they come near us again? Big problems for them"
Kevin sighed with relief, quietly grateful there was some solution to deescalate that.
Once the Morlocks have moved clear of the humans Fjorskar moves forward, aware that even for them she might be a bit too much to handle at close range. She sniffs each one in turn, making sure they don't smell like they're dying, grunts in satisfaction and looks about them. She eyes Adam, herself. "Carry? Or, make a…" She gestures, struggling for the word, "…litter. To drag." She considers them again. "I can, manage, these." She nudges the halo-less angel and fake wolf (closer inspection of his costume makes her sneer). "If you, carry. The…other." Her ears skew; she realizes she's asking him to carry his own charicature.
Adam bows very precisely to the Morlocks. "Mercy is wisdom, shown once." He looks down at the idiot jock, and with a repressed growl rips the costume up. Then he hauls the kid up, slinging him over his shoulder, and makes for the surface.