Skyside 6: Return of the Cheddar

[Earl of Purple]

Shopping Trip

Not if you're something with an inherent connection to fire, currently pretending not to be such a thing.

"Aaah, a dangerous secret indeed." He holds out the mind book with the stitched-up faces on the cover. "Dost thee have another, to buy the book of air and wind?" The man's eyes glimmer behind his sunglasses.

Drug Bust

The pickpocket spits the rest of the acorn out, before running away from the explosion. He thought it was possibly an acquired taste, but he doesn't wish to stay around and acquire it whilst there's what would appear to be the start of a fully-fledged gang war going on.

The cultist is chivvying the workers- who are totally ignoring the explosion and gunfire- to load the drugs onto his vehicle, as many of the bales as possible. He's not leaving without something to show for it, and if that means stealing from the Followers of Joy then he'll steal from the Followers of Joy. And he is stealing; he's put the keg in the foot well of the vehicle's cab. None of the Followers are paying even the slightest bit of attention in him or his actions, even as he's trying to threaten the drugged workers to sit in the back of his tracked lorry.

One of the Followers has spotted Larza and is firing a fully automatic weapon in her general direction. The weapon doesn't have a stock, and he's firing from his hip, and the recoil means the bullets are going everywhere in a truly intimidating show of firepower, but he's shooting about half a metre to the left and a full metre over her head.

Next to Minerva, the gunslinger has been spotted. The Followers nearby are mostly diving for cover, however, as her Enforcer is proving to have enough power to punch a hole through them and she's got a very good aim.

Warehouse of Payne

Statuette, a circular hemisphere of floor and some of the rubble disappear, teleported away. Hopefully Statuette won't shatter when she hits the ground; concrete is quite brittle. She is, understandably, unable to respond to the whispers in her mind.

Felicity rushes to Val and tries to wrestle him out of the acid-spattered wool and toss it aside, hopefully before it touches the clothes underneath and starts eating into those.

Professor Payne has a lot of padding to help against a bear lying on him, and as she squishes his belly the entity the arm belongs to is popped out. Payne lives, and shuts his mouth, relocating his jaw. The entity the arm belongs to is squat, with a triangular body ending in a single elephant-like leg and toe-less foot. It has a wide head mounted on is shoulders, with a pair of long and spindly arms. It opens is mouth wide and grabs at Anika's face, trying to poke her eyes, tweak her ears and stick its fingers up her nose. The spider thing zips back in to stab at her haunches, and when her skin and fur proves too thick to easily penetrate it aims for the skin in her joints.

[Hattish Thing]

[Olympian Extractions - Factory Floor]

The foreman continues to stare unflinchingly into Reed's eyes. "Fall victim to 'em? Listen to yourself, doll." She chortles and clasps her hands together, fat fingers interlocked. "You two got some nerve." At that, Ms. Meggie leans back in her chair. It creaks in absolute agony. Then, she turns her gaze towards Carlie. "You called yourselves 'independent contractors' at the gate." The monk was strong, a mind like tempered steel. This other one? Deliciously malleable. Best keep the heat on, literally. Sure enough, its getting unbearably warm within the office. "You know what that means 'round here, honey?"

At that, she rises out from her seat, hunching over to slam a finger onto the desk. "It don't mean nothing." Sour spittle flies as she speaks. "Look out that window." She'll point across the room. Upon the factory floor, visible through the grimy window, a coal-choked worker falls to his knees. "He's got a month of juice left in him, maybe. And you know what?" At this, she sneers and settles back into her chair. "Nobody gives a damn. He signed up for it." She starts to point upwards, as if addressing the city of skyside itself. "Independent contractors, ha. Ain't no such thing up in this city, nobody cares."

"That man down there? There's thousands just like 'im. This city chews 'em up and spits 'em out, and that ain't gonna change anytime soon, honey." She scoffs, clearly annoyed. "So what, you detectives or something?" That made more sense. Hired by the families of the dead, of course. "Shoulda started with that. Ain't nobody pulls the wool over my eyes." Now they were getting somewhere. "You say you're here lookin' for workers?" Ms. Meggie shakes her head before reaching into her desk and retrieving a dirty folder. She passes it along to the pair. "I get a folder like that every month. If an employee died on the job, you'll find his name inside."

"The families are informed, of course, and provided documentation is in order, they're paid benefits. It's all typed out there, clear as day." Ms. Meggie leans back once more, quite comfortable despite the overwhelming heat. "We've a contract with an insurance company, there's incentive to push documentation on employees. As such, we've no reason whatsoever to keep names off the record." She grins there.

"Face it, honey - you're looking in the wrong place." Sure enough, there are no matching names within the folder. "You want my opinion?"

---

[Drug Bust]

Larza yelps as she's shot at. Although the aim was completely off, it was still enough to frighten her off of the radio tower.

Instead, she'll crawl down the side of the building and peer around the corner.

Any unguarded satchels?

---

[Warehouse of Payne]

Once Felicity draws closer and attempts to get his coat off, Val begins to panic. If she was concerned, clearly he should be! "Oh, christ! What's wrong, what's wrong? Is it still on me?!" Eventually, the pair will manage to remove the thing and toss it somewhere to the left.

Shortly after, Val steps forward to snag the detonator. It specifically did not teleport as well - a smart design!

--

Once the coat is off, he glances on towards Anika. Hm, if he attempted to fire the ray gun over towards her, it'd definitely hit her, too.
That's the problem with cones.

Maybe she'd resolve things herself? Instead, Val will draw closer and aim his weapon towards Payne. He didn't know he wasn't going to fire it. "Hey, you - jerkface, hands up. This is a robbery, not... but, so - you'd better stop!"

Then, he'll look around. Where's the lab stuff?

[Shadowcaller]

[Warehouse of Payne]

The bear is forced to close its eyes and look away as the creature starts to go for its eyes.
So now she was effectively blind and some spider creature was stabbing at her joints. This was starting to piss her off so much that blind rage was going to become very literal.

With a loud roar Anika starts to strike out where she expects the creatures to be. She still had some idea of where they were after all and it isn't like she needs that much accuracy as a bear. If they were attempting to attack her they had to be close, especially the one attacking her eyes. It's going to get its head or arms bitten off if it doesn't manage to avoid her jaws.

Anika was having these creatures exactly where she wanted them. As they were focused on her Val and the other lady could do whatever they wanted with their GM-stuff.

[Rebonack]

[Drug Bust]

Darn no dice.

Zee begins moving around the compound, searching for a good angle on the cultist she's after. Apparently he really isn't paying attention to the goings on save to grab as much stuff as he can before high-tailing it back to the shuttle.

Hopefully Zee can put a rain-check on that plan for him.

An indefinite one!

Ho ho ho, that's a good one-liner she's going to have to remember that one.

Too bad it's so loud what with all the gunfire and explosions. No one can really enjoy her snappy combat banter.

That's why explosions are just the worst.

"Come on, you creep, poke your head up for me," Zee mutters, rifle in hand.


[Warehouse of Payne]

Oh great.

Statuette just... disappeared?

Got disinitrated?

Something.

Either way, she is no longer around to open the cherub's cage. Fluff. Guess he's just got the invaders now.

"HELP!" comes a shrill child's voice from the laboratory in the back of the warehouse. "IS SOMEONE OUT THERE? PLEASE HELP ME!"

Lying is hard for empyreans. Or, at the very least, it is VERY obvious when they lie. But duplicity? Duplicity is fine.

[Meowmai]

Meowstaken IdentiFies

"No, my name's Fidelia," the woman responds, still regarding the woman a tad warily. She's cautious enough not to sheathe the blade in her hand - although she certainly isn't wielding it threateningly any more. "You should be more careful. The streets here are not safe to be unarmed on - and someone you try to follow might be carrying something."

Meowstaken IdentiFies

Oh. Elizabeth was well inclined to believe the woman who had thankfully apparently stopped threatening her now, thinking back over everything she knew about Mara. Sure, the two looked similar but face to face as she was now there were definitely differences, and nothing from all of her sources suggested Mara was the kind of person who would carry a knife around with her!

"A-and, uh, yeah, I think I got that message now. But t-thanks..." Even with the knife no longer pointing at her, Elizabeth's gaze kept shifting to it with a look of worry. Maybe it would be good to have a weapon, just in case. That didn't really seem like something she herself would be comfortable with though. Frankly it just seemed weird. And she'd rather not think about ever having to use it.

One other thing did bother her though. "So err, why did you actually give me advice? That seems like a nice thing to do considering I just kinda chased you here. Err, unless it wasn't advice but like, a warning. Oh, it was probably that, wasn't it."

[Morty]

[Olympian Extractions - Factory Floor]

"I feel as though you've already given us your opinion and then some." The lack of names does little to convince Calm Reed. Documents can be forged, entries can be purposely forgotten. She runs her finger along the spine of the folder. Has it been tampered with or illicitly edited recently? If so, Calm Reed will be able to feel it, though only vaguely and not in such a way as to know who did it and why. "Your workers have gone missing. At least one of them was let go by your foreman Len Morris just before that happened."

[Recaiden]

Not if you're something with an inherent connection to fire, currently pretending not to be such a thing.

"Aaah, a dangerous secret indeed." He holds out the mind book with the stitched-up faces on the cover. "Dost thee have another, to buy the book of air and wind?" The man's eyes glimmer behind his sunglasses.

Maybe he ought to pretend not to be so bitter towards water, to avoid raising suspicion.

Miri takes the book with a delighted look on her face. And then pauses, thoguhtful.
"I think I'll keep the rest of my secrets." she says, rather than admit that she can't think of a good or important one.
She gives the bookseller a little wave and then heads towards where the carriage was left. She's thinking she can sit in or beside it and get started on reading!
Her hopes for this creepy-looking book are very high.

[5a Violista]

[Olympian Extractions - Factory Floor]

Carlie looks through the folder.

She lets Calm Reed discuss things with the woman, while Carlie looks through it to figure out things. She makes the occasional comment, such as: "Based on what I can see, you'd make more money if you increased job safety." Because of penalties and such.

But, more importantly: "You say there's no reason to keep names off record, but that's obviously false." Just looking at the evidence proves that the foreman doesn't know as much as she thinks she knows. In fact Carlie decides to be bold and says that: "You obviously aren't being told everything and know less than you think you do."

[Earl of Purple]

Warehouse of Payne

The cherub's cries for help are joined by another child, this one apparently weeping.

The spider-thing is knocked aside, and collapses. It starts to dissolve, so apparently it's dead. The other thing springs away, and pulls a funny face at Anika and moves- a weird monkey-swing propelled by its two immensely long arms- quickly away before grimacing at her and flipping the bird. It does this quite often, making rude noises and pulling its face into grotesque shapes with its long fingers, and making rude gestures as it retreats.

Payne doesn't move as a gun is pointed at him; unless the paralysing gas is wearing off, he can't move. And if the gas is wearing off, they'll soon have bigger problems as Shocker and Heavyhanded recover, too.

The laboratory stuff is at the far end of the warehouse, behind a crude wall that doesn't reach the ceiling. The wall is made from wood, mostly taken from wooden crates and pallets, judging by the stencils and splinters. There's a doorway blocked by an old shower curtain; judging by how much money Payne sells his formulae for, he should be able to afford better.

"Be careful. I've seen Heavyhanded and Statuette, Shocker's on the roof and Payne's over there. I've not seen Pavise, she could be anywhere. She creates invisible forcefields she can hide behind. I don't know how it works." Felicity's headed towards the back. "And don't trust the children, either of you. Professor Payne makes his stuff using the weirdest biological samples he can find, normal children aren't weird enough." Felicity speaks quite loudly, so hopefully both Anika and Val can hear her.

Shopping Trip

Maybe he should.

As Miri turns back to the carriage, she can see Benedict helping three girls climb aboard. The first is a pale-skinned human with silver-blonde hair and vivid purple eyes. Next, another human, this one darker with brown eyes and black hair, and finally a tiefling, with deep purple skin, white eyes with no visible pupil or iris, and six fingers on her left hand. They're all clad in simple white dresses, a single strip of cloth with a hole cut in it for the head, and they're young. The pale-skinned Lyseni is seventeen, the darker human twenty and the tiefling is eighteen. Benedict's hurrying them up, as though he wants to leave quite quickly.

Arron is arguing with an old woman over the price of a corpse. She wants more than Arron wants to pay, explaining that she needs the money to live on now her husband has died. Arron isn't fooled, however, as she has three corpses on her table and he doesn't think they're all her husband.

[Recaiden]

Benedict is clearly trying to go somewhere. He wasn't willing to tell them all what he wanted to buy. But there were several hints that he needed slaves and/or experiment subjects. It's not as if he could hide three extra people on the way back.
He called them here because it was a dangerous city. But this market is allegedly very safe. And he went off to the other, unsafe parts of the city without even his servant for backup.
That doesn't make any sense, does it?

Miri works a bit of magic, with the idea that Arron would suddenly 'remember' that he needs to head back to the carriage. Not that this memory precedes from anything that actually happened...

And then, walking towards the occultist, she calls out "Hey, Benedict! Take a look at this book!"

[Shadowcaller]

[Drug Bust]

So a fight couldn't be avoided now. Fine with her, it was best to kill everyone here just to be sure they hadn't been infected.
"Keep them busy a moment. I'm circling around." Minerva tells the gunslinger.
She was planning to come out on the other side of the building she was hiding behind and flank them.
The sister is going to aim for whoever appeared to have the heaviest weapon and then just start shooting indiscriminately.

But she wasn't going to waste more than a clip on this. It was time to bash some heretic skulls open.

Warehouse of Payne

Anika doesn't see the monster flipping the bird at her as she still got her eyes closed and is just swiping in the air at this point. Having a giant bear move around on top of you is probably not very comfortable for Payne regardless of how much padding he had.

Eventually she stops though once she hears Felicity speak and opens her eyes.

Huh, the monsters were gone. They had won, hooray!
Wait, hadn't Val said something about a robbery? She gives him a confused look.

[Hattish Thing]

[Warehouse of Payne]

Dr. Valiance grimaces as he takes in what Felicity is saying. Heavyhanded, Shocker, Statuette, and Pavise. Four potential hostiles. No, no - wait. Statuette was the woman with the mean right hook, yeah? She's gone now, gone to who knows where! Still, that left three very frightening individuals around. Fortunately, the paralytic gas lingers. But how much longer would it last? "Okay, um - uhh, Felicity! Do you know where the stuff is? I'm just going to start 'porting things, otherwise!" Then, he notices the look Anika is giving him. Hm, better get on that. "Not really, it just sounds cool to say! Try it yourself!" Ah, yeah. That'd probably do it.

Sure enough, he retrieves a rod of some sort from within his coat. He'll start rushing for the laboratory and zapping anything that looks remotely interesting. Once zapped, the components will find themselves teleported back to Dr. Valiance's second laboratory in Skyside.

Best not link VIGIL just yet.

---

[Olympian Extractions - Factory Floor]

Ms. Meggie simply blinks once or twice towards Carlie before shaking her head. "Gods above, girl - get your silly little head on straight." She narrows her coal-black eyes before continuing, jabbing at her desk with a fat finger. "I ain't here to punch the bag with union thugs, nor am I here to educate ya on how the hell the insurance plan works." She's somewhat frustrated here, clearly feeling as if her time was being wasted. "I don't like leaving things undone, hell. Ya see, you put me in a spot, honey." A long sigh - best just get this over with. "Here, alright. I'm gonna tell you something, honey. Both of yous better listen the hell up, I ain't repeating my damn self." Mrs. Meggie taps at the list of names.

"We'd be makin' pennies. Nickles and gods damned dimes, honey." She sits back at this, explaining further. "Ya see, our business with the insurance company is far more valuable than the pittance we'd make by leaving names off this silly little list." A small smile appears on her face. "Hell, there'd be trouble otherwise. Ya see, insurance - it makes 'em feel secure."

"If names weren't being reported, if cash weren't being sent out... well, there'd be violence."

"Damn union's just waitin' to pounce."

---

[Drug Bust]

Larza continues to glance about for any unmanned satchels, taking the time to pull her plaid bandanna over her mouth. "Nrgh, dammit - this got out of hand, girlie."

She shakes her head, tapping her claws against her boots. "Now, where's that bloody powderbag?"

"Come on, come on..."

---

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

The trip up to Dr. Valiance's secret second laboratory is relatively quick. Perhaps surprisingly, his vehicle runs quite smoothly. The closer the pair get to Skyside, the more uncomfortable Val seems to become, however. It's quite clear that he's somewhat uncomfortable with the prospect of revealing to Ambrosia whatever was stored here.

Not a good sign, really. Dr. Valiance's ship starts to descend near Groudntown.

--

He'll get out of the ship and lock it up before heading towards what appears to be an abandoned motorists shop.

"Alright, uhh - stay close."

[Earl of Purple]

Shopping Trip

Arron turns and walks away from the old lady and her mysteriously procured corpses, heading towards the carriage. Benedict smiles as he sees the two approach, however; the girls are still climbing aboard. "You may keep that book, and the money. It is yours. You are neither of you welcome at the house. Somebody taught my serving-lady how to read, and if that was something it was safe for her to do I'd have taught her myself. Your mystery is... not solved, but too dangerous for me to investigate it further, Miri, and you, Iron, or whatever you call yourself, I do not need you for the purpose I bought you any more. Consider your freedom granted. I shall return home now, with my new wives, and I do not wish to see either of you again." He takes off his hat and puts on a replacement, a plain circlet of black iron with teeth set into the top. It's an artefact to protect his thoughts and mind from interference, though he's not thought to defend the minds of either his bronze-masked manservant or his three wives.

Warehouse of Payne

There's a lot of things in the back. A row of tables piled with equipment, including bunsen burners, vials, test tubes, and more old fashioned things like mortars and pestles, alembics and crucibles, some marked with alchemic symbols. Several notebooks filled with cramped handwriting, weird shorthand vying for space with archaic symbols, hieroglyphs and alchemical notation. Boxes of syringes, all complete samples of his achievement, divided into four groups- 'bone', 'blood', 'bile' 'biscuits'- no indication of what the words mean, and each vial differs in colour and consistency. And then there's the stuff he uses to make his serums. A perspex box with light shining into it from four sides, home to a weeping child aged about eight, a boy apparently, with clear skin and dark hair. He's wearing a school uniform, and hides his face as he cries. The rune-laden crate containing another child, this one for Rebo to describe. A chunk of meat floating in a large vat; looking at it too long gives a headache, though it's hard not to look at it.

Payne doesn't move, though the three-limbed minion he created blows a raspberry at Anika and swings away, before disappearing. It's suddenly not visible, though there's nothing there it could be hiding behind. It blows another raspberry, so it hasn't despawned.

Drug Bust

The satchels of drug being moved around are large and heavy, and whilst they are currently basically undefended- there's a worker still obliviously moving them, but he's ignoring the gun fight so he'd probably ignore Larza if she didn't give him an order- I'm not sure Larza could easily steal some. They're wrapped in bags based on how much the workers moving them can lift, and they're bigger than Larza is.

The cultist has climbed into his vehicle and is preparing to leave. As the vehicle doesn't have a proper cab, there's nothing that would stop Zee shooting him now.

The biggiest gun Minerva can see in the hands of the opposition is a pair of Followers rushing to assemble a Vickers machine-gun and get it working so they can fire it at the gunslinger and the other girls, who don't have anything near as heavy and fire back with a mix of bullets and lasers.

[Shadowcaller]

Warehouse of Payne

Anika had opened her eyes just to see the last minion blow raspberries at her.
Hey, that's rude!
Damn cocky minions! She'll show it as soon as it stopped being invisible.
But it looked like they had won for now which meant Val was busy looting the boss. As opposed to robbing which was a bad thing. Looting had been earned by defeating bad guys, robbing was taking stuff from anyone without them knowing. Totally different things.

She will keep her bear-butt firmly planted in Payne's face though and even release some bear-gas since she felt like it. This Payne guy had sounded pretty awful so he probably deserved it.

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

"Is it dangerous or are we just keeping a low profile?" The scholar inquires as she does indeed keep close to Dr. Valiance.
She was never too worried though, as usual.

[Hattish Thing]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

Dr. Valiance seems a great deal less blustery than usual. Given what Ambrosia knows of the man, this might come off as somewhat harrowing. "Just, uhh - not a nice neighborhood, you know." This seems like a lie, nor a particularly well concealed one. His hearts just not in it. This was a big risk, showing Ambrosia around. "Plus, its... um, well its a little eerie. So, yeah - stick close." He'll shrug, offering a solemn smile as he makes his way to the machinists workshop. The front door is draped in chains and the windows are boarded up. The place looks entirely abandoned, just another failed business.

"Can't get in this way. There's a backdoor." That was one way to put it. Dr. Valiance will lead Ambrosia around to the back of the building, where a hatch can be found sticking out of the ground. "Okay, not a sentence you probably want to hear, but I'm going to need you to get in the hatch." He blinks once or twice. "First, I mean - I need to close it behind us, it has a special lock." It's a somewhat heavy looking hatch.

Is she up for the task?

---

[Warehouse of Payne]

What a treasure trove! Rather than even provide more than a passing glance towards each item, Dr. Valiance simply zaps everything that looks even remotely important.
He's clearing the place right out. "Felicity, make sure we've grabbed the important bits!"

"Holy hell, this is a lot of stuff."

---

[Drug Bust]

Larza's narrow, almost reptilian eyes settle on the nearest worker in charge of moving product. "Found a little fleshy one, I did."
She lets out a wicked little groan before scuttling closer - as silent as ever. "Fat little man, go to sleep!"

The goblin continues to mutter to herself as she retrieves a tiny blade from a sheathe.

--

She'll prick the worker, he might not even really feel it. He will most definitely feel the poison which follows, however.
He's in for several hours of deep sleep. It is a delirious sleep, feverish.

It is a product of the faewolden after all.

[Shadowcaller]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

Ambrosia's gaze lingers on Val's hesitant expression. This was going to be like one of her fathers deep realm reliquaries wasn't it? Hopefully not as dangerous however or the dangers of this neighborhood would prove nothing against what was down that hatch.

She gives it a skeptical look. Is there at least a ladder down it?
Most people of her profession would have serious doubts at this point as this looked extremely sketchy. But Ambrosia had the benefit of being able to go down these rabbit holes on occasion and emerge from them alive and well. "So how exactly did you come by this lab, Dr. Valiance? It's not one of VIGIL's properties." She inquires and despite her skepticism she will indeed climb down into the hatch, or jump if there's no ladder, once he answered the question.

[Warehouse of Payne]

((Going to post twice here as I felt there was something else Anika could add.))

Anika does look in the direction of those crying 'children' and that little voice she couldn't quite make out. But Felicity had told her to avoid those so she should. In situations like these she was just going to trust in the experts.
She was kinda curious about all the loot they were getting but the chances it was anything she was going to be able to use seemed rather small. Though perhaps she could demand of them to have her pick once they were out of here. Just something that looked cool.
Man, she really wanted to have a look at the cool GM stuff right away...

[Recaiden]

Arron turns and walks away from the old lady and her mysteriously procured corpses, heading towards the carriage. Benedict smiles as he sees the two approach, however; the girls are still climbing aboard. "You may keep that book, and the money. It is yours. You are neither of you welcome at the house. Somebody taught my serving-lady how to read, and if that was something it was safe for her to do I'd have taught her myself. Your mystery is... not solved, but too dangerous for me to investigate it further, Miri, and you, Iron, or whatever you call yourself, I do not need you for the purpose I bought you any more. Consider your freedom granted. I shall return home now, with my new wives, and I do not wish to see either of you again." He takes off his hat and puts on a replacement, a plain circlet of black iron with teeth set into the top. It's an artefact to protect his thoughts and mind from interference, though he's not thought to defend the minds of either his bronze-masked manservant or his three wives.

"That's no proper way to end a welcome." A hat to protect his mind; he's worn one before, though it probably wasn't directed at her that time.
But it's recognizable, so Miri tries to weave another false memory, for the manservant. Benedict just ordered him to let loose the girls and the skeletal horses. Surely he remembers that.
"I did everything you asked of guest. You already gave us the gold and let Arron free to help me; don't try to pretend this is generous."
Now, to get a bit closer to Benedict and the coach while she talks...

"In just as long as I've been there, I've already found a way to live forever. And you'd send us away over reading?"
That, she thinks, will make him think twice if anything will.

[Hattish Thing]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

Dr. Valiance frowns as Ambrosia questions him. Rather than immediately answer, he reaches into his coat and retrieves a heavy duty flashlight. He'll pass it on to her before rather cryptically answering. "No, it's... not - they wouldn't, uhh. Yeah." He exhales shakily before continuing. What had he meant by that? "Let's just say I used to work for some people. This was, uhh - was one of their vestigial compounds." At this, he'll start to help Ambrosia down the hatch. Just within, a metal ladder leads down fifteen feet onto a landing shrouded in darkness. An empty hallway leads forward.

The walls are glossy and reflective, which means Ambrosia will be surrounded at all times by fragmentary reflections of herself. The effect is worsened by the fact that the shadows given off by her flashlight tend to flicker strangely just out of sight. A fine mist hangs upon the ground, making it difficult to see the bottom of the hall. Specks of strange, white material drift lazily through the air. There's no sound to be heard, save for the clunk of metal which accompanies Dr. Valiance's shutting of the hatch overhead. The sound echoes eerily through the hall.

Then there's just breathing, both Ambrosia's and Val's - its easier to hear now. There's no other sound. "Okay, are you alright? Stay close."

"There's a platform ahead that leads down, its slippery. So, uhh - stick together."

[Shadowcaller]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

Ambrosia had her own light source but now that she had been handed a flash light she didn't see a reason to use it. The less she showed of her own hand, the better.

As she let it illuminate the walls of the place it certainly seemed like it had earned the 'eerie' description.

The scholar simply nods at his first question but pauses as he continues talking. "Slippery with what?" She keeps following, seemingly perfectly calm even in a place such as this. "Just what did 'they' keep in here before you started using the place?"

[Hattish Thing]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

Dr. Valiance shrugs. In truth, he didn't know. That made it worse, for him. "Beats me, I'll be honest. Some sort of excretion, uhh - doesn't match anything on record, but I never had access to the weird stuff, you know?" Why would there be mysterious secretions on the elevator platform? Was he hiding what happened here? Perhaps the doctor simply didn't know. "The platform does start dropping pretty suddenly, so. Bend the knees, whatever you gotta do." The corridor opens into an enormous octagonal chamber at the farthest end of the hall. A blast door once separated the chamber from the corridor, but its center has punctured, with the central plate having lodged itself into a nearby wall.

The two visitors are able to hop through the gap in the blast door with relative ease, though the mist makes it difficult to tell where one might be stepping. "Careful here, okay? Sides are sharp as hell." The glossy walls of the octagonal chamber are only somewhat illuminated by one flickering panel, all that remains of what were once rows of dozens of similar panels. When functional, the panel provides just enough light to notice the damage sustained by the chamber. Indeed, huge sections of the chamber walls have been rent apart or bashed in. The walls are splattered with stains, both of blood as well as something stranger: a milky white material which seems to glow softly in the dark.

Once the pair step upon the platform floor, something clunks and clanks in the distance - the laboratory is alive again.

The platform begins to descend. "Uhh, well - samples. The strange stuff."

"Stuff that seemed promising, but was, uhh - too dangerous to keep in on site storage."

[Shadowcaller]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

"I see. So what was the name of this organization again? Sounded like you managed to get a lot of their old resources." Ambrosia inquires as they walk through the old laboratory.

She's listening to his instructions though. Her tome, now floating at her side, even making sure to note them down.

It appeared there had been some kind of breach here, but as Val still came here she doubted it was something she had to worry about. That blood though? Still distinct enough to be recognizable. Had it somehow been preserved or had not that much time passed since then.
"You should really clean up here. I understand you have a relaxed attitude towards it, but health hazards in a lab of this level? I'm sure you know more than me of what you could be infected with by coming in contact with blood and other organic samples while being here." She nods towards that milky white substance in particular.

[Earl of Purple]

Shopping

The memory is implanted, but the manservant doesn't release the girls- the memory conflicts with another, telling it not to touch or harm the girls. It unhitches the skeletal horses, which go nowhere. The girls also aren't tied or hooked to anything- they could run away right now, but don't. It would be better for Miri if she didn't linger to look at the manservant's own memories.

"I never said this was generous. This is, however, merciful. I could have killed you. I was going to kill Iron, drain his youth away to deny my elderly body's flaws. I no longer have such a body, but could still have kept Iron as a replacement for my manservant. It goes through bodies very quickly. Instead, the pair of you leave with gold and knowledge, left in a market where you can find anything you could need to further your own practice and magic. You did find Mildred, then. I thought perhaps you might have. Her method is useless to me, books don't have hands and I need mine." She likely wouldn't trust Benedict with her soul-magic, anyway. "I am not kicking you out for reading, but because you have demonstrated that I cannot trust you in my house, broken a rule I did not want broken- and now I learn you have lied to my face and stolen from me, too. I am not being generous, Miri. I am being fair."

Warehouse of Payne

The scientific and alchemic equipment is zapped and teleported away! Presumably to Vigil. None of it resists or is capable of resisting. Felicity heads over and points out at various things, in case Val didn't notice them. "Those syringes are complete powers. No idea how they're sorted. Those are his notes on what he's been doing, some of them at least. His research and methods. That lump came from a dead thing in Outside, big as a town and really weird. Like it was several things all folded in on top of each other. Payne took liquid from it every day, apparently it's still linked to the corpse somehow? I don't know. That stuff... We've probably got stuff that can do all this already. It's pretty standard."

Payne groans as Anika farts in his face, and the minion reappears, blowing another raspberry and flipping her the bird before swinging off and trying to distract her.

[Morty]

[Olympian Extractions - Factory Floor]

"Waiting to pounce, you say." Calm Reed frowns just slightly. The ledger hasn't been tampered with, but that doesn't mean much in itself. "I know well the atmosphere of thickening distrust and discontent. They may not wait for credible evidence to strike. Finding out what happened to the missing workers is in your interest as well as ours."

[Recaiden]

Miri doesn't much see the manservant's memories. Just shoving things into his head without paying attention, in a sense.
The girls are just going along with him. Glad to be getting out of Skyside? Under some magic? Just afraid of getting themselves into awful trouble?
At least he is setting the horses loose. That could be an opportunity! She tries to look into their memories, such as they are. It's not clear how Benedict has been controlling them, but hopefully they work like the skeletons in the manse.

"It wouldn't have been stealing if you hadn't decided to throw us out." Miri counters, somewhat absurdly, but it doesn't matter if Benedict believes what she's saying as long as he listens while they get closer to him and the carriage.
She doesn't like what she just heard about the servant, and it's chilling to hear someone talk about killing you so casually, even if you knew, intellectually, that they would kill you the second they had a reason. So she's looking increasingly unnerved and upset.
"Fine. If you're leaving us here, let me return you your things. Nice and fair." Not keeping the sarcasm out of her voice, she reaches both hands into her pockets, and will first try to pull out and offer to Benedict the slow-heavy wand.

[Hattish Thing]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

"Conference Zeta. I doubt you've heard of 'em, uhh - they're pretty big on that." Dr. Valiance's response is quiet, as if he was uncomfortable with saying the name out loud. "Er, they were. I guess. Maybe." In truth, he wasn't certain what had happened. Could they still be out there, keeping their heads down? Biding their time until the organization grew confident enough to burrow deeper into the power structure? Then she mentions the acquisition of resources. "Oh, this is nothing. There were something like twelve, thirteen facilities managed by Conference Zeta at its height, uhh - those're just the places I know for sure existed, too."

Still, he had been fortunate in that he was able to claim this particularly laboratory while remaining relatively uncontested. Would they one day return to reclaim it? "Beats me, I'll be honest. Some sort of excretion, uhh - doesn't match anything on record, but I never had access to the weird stuff, you know?" Then she mentions cleaning up. He laughs a little there. "Oh, I wish I could, but uhh - this stuff hurts to touch." He sneers, glaring at a particular stain. "Hurts like hell, even now." It appears that Dr. Valiance may have learned that the hard way. "Just a pain in the ass to handle, you know? Best policy is to just ignore the stuff."

Then, the platform stops. A corridor is revealed. Its walls are drenched in that curious milky white substance. It possesses an almost jelly like consistency despite the passage of time. Particularly large patches boast of fleshy red tendrils which pulse as veins might. Was it somehow alive? Large pustules of the stuff hang from the ceiling, appearing almost as sacs connected to the floor and ceiling by fleshy strands and veiny ligaments. A walkway of metal grates has been placed over the floor, allowing for safe passage over the hazardous material. Still, its somewhat dangerous.

Dr. Valiance seems on edge, and understandably so. "Alright, right this way. Uhh, sunshine."

---

[Warehouse of Payne]

The teleportation gun is calibrated to a secondary location so as to prevent anything being tracked back to VIGIL.
Dr. Valiance continues his work gleefully, zapping as much as he can find (including the child-crates).

Once he's done, he approaches Anika. "Knock him out, we're leaving, baby!"

[Earl of Purple]

Shopping Trip

The horses aren't as smart as the humanoid skeletons, and don't have any remnant of their prior lives. They are animated by lesser spirits, ones that only have a body when bound in this way. They don't have enough real awareness to remember things, even a time before they were bound to the bones like this. They do as they're told, by the people who animated them or usurp control somehow. Arron could probably do it, but not subtly.

"Oh? Were you planning on returning Mildred and the other things you have stolen?" Benedict honestly doubts it. He waves his manservant forward, to take the wand and anything else Miri plans to return.

[Shadowcaller]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

There's are no signs of recognition when he mentions the name, so probably not.
"But still, an entire lab..." She would have elaborated on this point but suddenly just stares at him blankly as he mentions something else.
"You touched that?" She gestures at the white substance. "Do you even know what it is? You could be infected with it right now without even knowing it considering its still hurting. I mean cleaning it up using a swab or anything like it. Touching unknown materials in a laboratory like this without proper protection seems foolhardy at best. You might be lucky you're still alive." And her fears aren't exactly a alleviated when they go deeper into the lab to find more growths.

She was suddenly feeling like she needed a breathing mask. While she could get a helmet it wasn't exactly the same thing. "We really should be wearing better protection while we're here." She would have to check this body for diseases once she got out of here.
The scholar continues to follow along though despite her comments.

[Warehouse of Payne]

Anika looks down at Payne and gives him a smack with her paw. It won't actually knock him out as Anika is fairly sure that'd kill him rather than knock him out and she didn't want to take that route.
But then she will run after Val to get the heck out of here. Hopefully she'd get some sweet loot out of this!

[Rebonack]

[Warehouse of Payne]

Welp!

The cherub has no way to resist being teleported. That really isn't its THING.

When found it'll appear like a normal human boy with ratty clothes of about 8 years of age. Just sort of... floating in the middle of a biohazard containment crate. The sort with holes in the sides for sticking your hands inside of gloves so you can poke stuff while keeping everything sealed. The surface of it is covered in a symbol that looks like a three pointed crown with a crescent above it, the crescent crossed by five lines like rays from the crown. It invokes the idea of a sunrise. Or maybe a sunset?

"Be careful of that other thing mister," the totally normal human child warns. "It's not a real kid it's got mouths for eyes. Please let me-"

Probably going to say out.

But he just got teleported!

Boop!

Away he goes to a new lab!

[Drug Bust]

Oh swell!

There's her friend!

Zee lines up her shot and unless something tackles her that terrible alien hybrid is about to have a bolt of densely packed solar plasma blasting through his head at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

Pew!

Most of the time people don't survive this sort of thing. That's kind of the idea.

[Hattish Thing]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

Dr. Valiance does not seem surprised at her unfamiliarity with the organization. They were primarily concerned with remaining clandestine, after all. "Yeah, I think something happened here. That's probably why they never sent anyone to, uhh - reclaim assets." Makes sense to Val, after all. The place likely wasn't worth the trouble it'd take to clear of hazards. "Yup, sure did - hurt like hell." He grimaces a little as he thinks back on it. "This stuff is actually where I got my material for the corrosive weapons I've used in the past. I don't use this exact stuff, of course - too dangerous." As he creeps on forward, he goes into deeper detail. "See, its kind of like napalm, but... its more like a funky chemical burn."

"Only seems to work on biomatter, and man is it hard to scrape off you once its on." He speaks from experience, of course. He had to regrow quite a bit of flesh on his leg that day. "But, uhh - just don't fall in it or anything and you should be fine. I put up railings and grates and stuff where its pooled heavily." Well, there you go. Safety precautions. Good job, Dr. Valiance. He seems unconcerned when she mentions anything about an infection. "Yeah, some friends of mine went down here with me, first time. Nobody ended up sick, but we did lose a guy or two to the gunk deeper on. Almost gave up on the place, but then..." It's clear by his face that he had found something.

Her body protections thing seemed like a smarter idea as they went along, though. Val couldn't deny that. "I didn't have much of a budget then, and I haven't been up here since I moved into VIGIL. I think, uhh -
I'll probably stock the place next time." Safety is important, after all. At this point, the corridor opens up into a metallic chamber. Glowing panels flicker on and off. Rows of computer desks and tables line the walls, with most having been scavenged for parts or destroyed. At the farthest end of the room, a skeletal humanoid is pinned to the wall via strands of white webbing. The webbing has eaten the flesh off his bones.

A plaque on the wall reads, RECEIVING LABORATORY.

[Shadowcaller]

[Deadsite - Zeta Labs]

Ambrosia looks at their surroundings as Val talks. "Didn't end up sick or didn't display any obvious symptoms? Since there's a difference. Considering this seems to be the work of some serious bioengineering one should look beyond what natural diseases and ailments can do. So you did at least perform a health check on those friends of yours?" She raises an eyebrow as she looks at him again.

Regardless of his answer however, she goes on. "You aren't sure if one or two of your friends died down here? Can't have been much of friends then were they." She eyes the corpse at the end of the hall and gestures at it. "But I'm guessing that wasn't one of them." Here's to hoping they at least gave those people a decent funeral.
"I can't help but to notice a lack of cameras so far though. Security footage would be invaluable to learn what happened here." Though there was another way... and that poor scientists residue was the key. "Looks like some kind of specimens got out judging by the destroyed doors and the webbing."