Skyside 6: Return of the Cheddar

[bc56]

No! Jade spreads her wings but can't get enough space to fly. She's got to do this a different way. She descends and picks through her shed armor with her feet. If she still had hands, she could operate it properly! But no, she had to become a bird. Although... It seems to have slowed down. All that's happening to her now is her feathers thickening. She's keeping her human head and torso for the moment. Ah, there it is. A glove. With some finagling she manages to slip it onto her foot. She's surprised when it changes shape to conform to her new anatomy. Right. She forgot her curse could do that. She shouldn't have taken the armor off. That makes the next step easier though. Going back up the stairs, aiming the new foot-glove at the blocked door, and firing it. That will hopefully clear it up. Jade is just happy to have even some of her armor back. She's the smartest gull ever!

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]

Laser gull!

Are there any other laser gulls in the world?

Probably not.

Sure, Magtok might have his lasgeese but did THEY design the lasers themselves?

Heck no!

Someone had to give them those lasers. Jade made her laser herself.

Stepping back out into the sunlight, the first thing that meets Jade is the sound of those jerk ravens heckling her again. They still hate her. They're probably just envious of her cool lasers. The second thing she likely notices is the sound of all those gulls near the meat packing plant have gotten even louder. They must be tossing out the fish guts and inciting a feeding frenzy. Jade can also hear... huh. It sounds like lots of birds all over the city. Lots of distress calls. Fear calls? But not OH NO PREDATOR! calls.

...it might be other birds who have been tragically trapped as part human monsters like her.

Those poor birds.

She really needs to find that Entity and blow it up. Maybe then she and all the other birds will turn back to normal.

[bc56]

Free at last! Birds aren't meant to be kept underground like that. Jade's glad to be free. She gets a running start, spreads her wings, and takes to the air. She remembers where the tomb is supposed to be. It's not far, right? She loves the feel of the wind through her feathers, across her wings. This is what she was born to do, to fly in search of her next snack. She angles towards the meat-packing plant. No no no, silly bird. You have to save all the birds from the monster first. Then snacks. The monster is probably hoarding the good snacks. And the shinies. She forces herself back on course. The act of flying is making it harder and harder for her to think like a human. She's increasingly confident that she's supposed to be a seagull, and it scares the remaining human parts of her, adding urgency to her flight.

[Shadowcaller]

[Trader Bust]

The goblin seems excited about the task at hand.

A spaceship, a real spaceship - she'd be going off into space! A new experience for her.

Plus, she'd be robbing people up there, probably. That was the plan, right? Robbery, not sabotage? Unless that was also a thing? This big tall lady seemed pretty into killing stuff, so who's to say. "Sae, muckle lassie, ur we aff tae be crashing th' ship?" she asks with a raised brow. That sounded really fun, but also kind of scary. Were there, like, escape pods?

Fancy future words always made her smile. Mud people worked so hard in spite of their innate mediocrity.

Must be absolutely exhausting.

[Trader Bust]

Zee is planning on keeping an eye on both the cable cars and the shuttles. The cable cars are FAR more harrowing but certainly cheaper. That's what Zee has used when coming to-

Hehe.

Wow.

This is her first time up in Skyside but she's also been there lots of times since. Man, continuity gets really strange in these slow moving temporal threads, doesn't it?

Zee's left giggling at the strangeness of the cosmos' fabric as she paces the docks. Most of the cable cars come up just one one side of the city. That means keeping an eye on the cable cars is pretty easy. The shuttles run on schedules, so she just needs to be around when they're boarding. Hopefully she can keep an eye on both. Thankfully she's absolutely inanely big and she can move pretty quickly perpendicular to reality.

...though...

That feeling of formless dread people get whenever Yezekiel is lurking just beyond the veil of sight will probably leave the folks near the shuttles and cable cars really restless.

Trader Bust Shuttle Crew

The shuttle's quite bulky and inelegant, the grey paint scorched from re-entry and scarred from poor maintenance. There's a hatch in the side, currently open, and awaiting there is the ship's enginseer and... well, it seems she's recruited a crew to help fly it. There's four people, all human or acceptably adjacent. A woman wearing an orange space-suit with the round helmet off, holding a cosmonaut survival gun. A man three metres tall wearing a tailored black voidsuit under a powered frame enabling him to work in a gravity field this strong. A ratling wearing a bomber jacket and a pair of navy combat trousers, with a sniper rifle slung over her back. Finally, somebody wearing what looks like a brown diving-suit, of brass and heavy canvas.

[Trader Bust]

It takes a moment for Minerva to even figure out what the creature was asking. This was bound to be both annoying and inconvenient, especially once they got into tense situations where communication was of critical importance.

Why had they hired a xeno again? Right, since they were desperate and this world was filled with them.

"We're trashing it by taking the important, valuable, parts of it. So a little bit of both. Rogue traders have more money than most people can even imagine and their ships are filled with what they waste their vast fortunes on. Mostly weapons they use to keep their wealth defended but also whatever toys and flights of fancy that they entertain themselves with. Their ships are filled with decadence and are usually as corrupt as their twisted souls. We are doing a good deed reclaiming some of that wealth for greater purposes." She explains, not sure why she's even bothering. This creature was greedy enough already, no need to stoke those flames.

Perhaps she was doing it for her own sake? Hrm...

Either way, it looked like even more xenos had been recruited by the tech-priest. But despite the fact that even the ones that were humans likely were corrupted, she had to say she was pretty impressed that the priest had recruited so many in such a short time.
"I am Minerva, sister of battle, and I'm leading this expedition." She introduces herself to the new crew. "And who might you be? Why are you here?" Did any of these people actually know how to run this kind of ship?

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word Hunter & Hunted

Alecto turns to go towards the alleyway her quarry is lurking within when she's distracted by the cries of distress. She turns to look, as the others do, and turns to run at the cry of contagion. No half-elf is worth turning into a bird for. Need to get out of here, let the Guild know about this bird-business. If they don't know already, I've been seeing feathers for a while.

The half-elf, however, looks up at the ibis and turns at the sound of chaos in the street beyond her hiding place. Her immediate thought is a reclamation squad from the Guild, hunting fugitives like her. And the steel cuff upon her ankle clearly marks her as a fugitive- and even if it didn't she's unarmed and helpless. Nobody would complain if she was 'accidentally' carried off- the thieving clubs and gangs she's part of disown her the moment she gets caught. She bites her lip, glances at the mouth of the alleyway- alas, this one appears a dead end, save the ladder she'd not spotted earlier. She grabs and climbs up. She has a good grip, her hands and fingers go grey and the fingertips fuse with the palm of her hand until she's ready to go up another rung. Weird bird mutants probably know the roofs better than the slavers do, following this thing will either get me out of the frying pan or throw me deep into the fire. But the frying pan's pretty sizzling right now.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]
Jade

To the tomb!

Finding the location from above actually isn't very difficult.

From the ground it might be kind of tricky. A random hill in a hilly area that has a cave descending into the depths.

But from above?

From above one can see plainly that the hills in the area are in fact mounds arranged into a HUGE abstract image of a bird.

Because of COURSE it is a bird.

What else would it be?

And the tomb is located in the head.

Once Jade lands she'll discover a few interesting things. There's a tunneling leading into the darkness with a large slab sitting next to it. The slab has a series of languages written on it, nearly all of them ancient and extinct. There are digging tools nearby, a small tent, and a field journal discarded face down near the slab. Jade could examine the journal, perhaps. Or snoop around the camp. Or she could be daring and head straight into the tunnel.

What does she do?


[Bird's the Word]
Hunter and Hunted

Well!

It looks like the raptor has decided to flee. That's well enough. Personal safety first, right? It isn't like anyone is going to be stopping her from turning tail and flapping back to the nest. That's what everyone else is doing after all.

Meanwhile!

The half elf flees up onto the roof!

The ibis man is up there as well, preening his feathers. Is it just her or does he look MORE bird like than he was a few minutes ago? His legs are looking less human and more like the bony stilt legs of an ibis. Now the only question is... what next? The commotion is still going on down in the streets. Lots of shouting. And lots of...

Birds?

Lots of birds making a bunch of noise.

The ibis man hobbles across the roof and flaps over to another nearby roof. The gap is only about four feet. Easily jumped. She could follow him. Or maybe just lay low among the large collection of big potted plants up on the flat roof? Or maybe she could sneak over to the edge and see what all the hub-bub is.

[bc56]

Jade lands in the camp, refreshed and exhilarated. That was so fun! Why doesn't she go flying more often? She finds herself preening her grey and white feathers, although she doesn't have her beak back yet, so it's a bit weird... No, focus Jade. Human, not gull. She spies the journal and nudges it open with her foot. It's going to be difficult for her to read through, given her lack of hands, but she'll do her best. Then she'll wander through the camp in search of snacks. All the flying made her hungry.

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word Hunter & Hunted

Yes indeed. She's not some expendable grunt- she's the heir to one of the larger and older shops on the Street. There's quite a lot of pain and suffering in her future, and most of it is other people's, and she's fine with that. So anyone who doesn't get out of her way fast enough will be prodded by her taser-spear, to encourage them. She might just get away scot free, poorer only the amulet. And since she has other valuables from the half-elf, she's still made a personal profit.

The half-elf will sneak towards the edge of the roof, to have a look at what's going on below. People don't look up, generally speaking, so she's feeling quite safe. She'll still hide behind one of the potted plants as she takes a look at the hubbub below.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]
Jade

Let's cover the snacks, first.

That's the most important part.

There's a little cooler inside the camp's tent and once Jade figures out how to get it open she's discover!

Another tuna sandwich!

SCORE!

As for the journal, it'll detail the process of translating the tablet.

Apparently it's a warning about how the tomb is unsafe and there isn't any treasure inside ect ect. Too bad that raven guy didn't listen to the warning. If he had then Jade probably wouldn't have been stuck with this absurd stumpy human face instead of her beautiful orange beak.


[Bird is the Word]
Prey

People are turning into birds.

People are turning into birds.

They're sprouting feathers and wings and scales and beaks. Pigeons and sparrows and crows and magpies and gulls and... others! Garbage birds.

They're turning into birds.

WHY are they turning into birds?

[bc56]

Yes! Sandwich! Jade swallows it whole without bothering to breathe, thanks to her gull lungs. Yes! Time to go into this tomb, kill the thing, and get her beak back. Easily done... Right?

[5a Violista]

[Olympian Extractions - Factory Floor]

Calm Reed stares down the forewoman with a glare of silent, cold distaste. Here is someone given a scrap of power and doing all she can do abuse it. Disgraceful.

"Artists. Known troublemakers, those," she says with wry sarcasm. "But we can follow this thread."

[Olympian Extractions - Factory Floor]

The foreman just chuckles at Calm Reed.

"Ha, you'd think so!" she exclaims. "But really, these people ain't the sort to reach very far."

She leans back in her chair before continuing. "The city's a dangerous place, folk are just happy that they ain't getting pulled off the streets or gunned down by lunatics." She chews on her cigar. "You ain't from 'round here, so I'll chalk it up to simply not knowing better, honey - but frankly, the illusion of advancement is more than these people could ever hope for outside these walls."

Then she address Carlie. "Ha, how should I know?" she sneers. "Wallowing in whatever deep dark hole we haven't bombed out just yet, likely."

"You want my advice? Go after the artists." She shrugs.

[Olympian Extractions - Factory Floor]

So, if the city improved then this whole abusive scheme would kind-of fall apart.

...
Carlie already kind-of knew this; she's been doing things in the Skyside underground for a while. (That obviously stopped when she noticed she was pregnant.) It's too bad that none of her contacts around here know that she's a shapeshifter, so they don't know her in this form. They would probably have connections to these 'anarchists'.

It really is too bad that she can't shapeshift right now.

Carlie breathes in, breathes out, and then stands up. "I see. Well, thank you for informing us who would know."

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word Prey

Oh, gods, people are turning into birds. How are they turning into birds? What is going on down there? Is it related to this guy? Oh, gods, is it contagious and have I caught the bird from this random bloke I followed? She scuttles away from the roof to avoid being noticed and starts panting desperately. I don't need to worry. I can change myself if I start to go bird, right? She's wrong, as it happens. One of her ancestors was a shapeshifter of some kind, probably a doppelganger, and if she concentrates she can change how she appears. But when she stops concentrating it snaps back to the way it was before.

Once she's calmed herself sufficiently, she'll look around for where the bird-man went. She's also quite interested in getting as far from that chaos below as possible, and hopefully any slavers that may be following her.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Back Alley Armory]

Leslie groans and turns over, rolling off of a garbage can to reach her bag. "Oh, um, hi, Ada," she says, holding up a hand that can't quite decide which direction to wave. "I'm Leslie, and this is Minerva. Are you both alright?"

...I mean, probably more alright than Leslie is right now. She's already coming down from whatever weird high she was on, her legs are cut and bruised, and most importantly...

"Oh! My laptop!" ...it seems to have bounced off of a trashcan. The screen portion has folded in a direction it's not meant to fold, and half of the keys are strewn in the alley around it. Leslie sighs. "Well. I'll deal with it later."

She fishes her phone out of her pocket to find that her messages have been blowing up. Not literally, thank goodness. That part is reserved for the munitions on the other side of this warehouse wall.

Spoiler

Show

-- Beth has started pestering you! --
BG: can you still put algernon in the dimensional box
BG: I need him to help kill a god real quick
LP: What? No!
LP: For at least three different reasons?

-- Work Jek-jek has started pestering you! --
JJ: Good news, *Leslie
JJ: An opportunity to flex our talents has once again presented itself *___
JJ: You were heading in to the office today anyway, yes? *___
JJ: Be prepared to stay here and help me work on an antidote to a novel form of avian lycanthropy *___
JJ: Also, take care to avoid the areas marked red on this map:

Looks like a few people have been busy! Whatever JJ is on about seems to be way out on the other side of Skyside so far, but...

"Um, I think we might need to cut this short," she says, as though the gun adventure wasn't interruption enough. "Maybe we can take the Riftline back down and get some fast food..."

Spoiler

Show

BG: hopefully it won't come to that anyway
BG: more importantly
BG: you need to stay inside and steer clear of anyone trying to name you Buttercup
BG: it's like a name-based version of blood moon out here
LP: Wait...
LP: This god wouldn't happen to be avian in nature, would it?
BG: no
BG: they're more like these flowery deer centaur things
BG: why?

Leslie groans again. "What the hell is going on today?"

[5a Violista]

[Back Alley Armory]

Minerva gets introduced, so she doesn't need to say anything about that. She just nods, to confirm. "Yes, I'm fine -"
"...Oh. I'm sorry about your computer."

While Leslie is busy with her phone, Minerva goes to grab the laptop. She picks it up. "Um...if...it looks like if you connect it to another monitor," she says, "you'll be able to copy the data." She tries to fold it back closed to make it easier to carry without getting further damaged.

"Yeah, that's okay. Something came up, huh?"

[bc56]

"You two should go on without me. I have a goblin to find." Ada turns and begins to walk mysteriously away.
What was up with her? She seemed a bit eccentric.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]
Maaaybe it'll be easy?

The tomb itself is...

Strange.

Just a very long, gently curving tunnel easily big enough to fly through. In fact, it's probably big enough to drive two trucks through side by side! The slop is quite gradual, but Jade will get the distinct impression that she's spiraling deeper and deeper into the earth.

It's a very long walk. Or flight. Whatever Jade decides to do.

Thankfully the path is lit by flickering, electric lights that have somehow survived the test of time.

At the end of the tunnel there's a door. A door UTTERLY unlike the sealed exit. It's a huge, lead monstrosity. A vault door. And it looks like someone hacked the console next to it, considering that its open a crack. The surface of the door is covered in that same threatening looking black and red symbol that was on the containers.

This has GOT to be the place, right?

Jade could slip right in.

Or maybe she could try messing with that ancient computer to see if it will yield any useful information?


[Bird is the Word]
Prey

It appears as though the ibis man is sitting on a roof nearby preening his wing feathers. He's rapidly looking less like an ibis man and looking MORE like an unusual large ibis.

Or maybe a normal sized ibis.

Has she ever seen an ibis before to contrast?

The streets below are utter bedlam. No one is sure how this disease spreads or how it progresses and there's panic. People, in general, don't want to be birds. This of course causes them think about a birds which speeds the infection along. There's no reason or rhyme to how quickly or to what extent it alters people. One woman sprouts a pair of pigeon wings from her back and seems to stop changing once her hair has been replaced with grey and iridescent feathers. Another man just sort of... implodes into a completely normal looking crow. Yet another persons is growing sparrow beaks out of their right arm. It's a chaotic mess.

Though on the upside!

It doesn't look like slavers are following her anymore. And maybe if her ankle gets thing and bird-like enough she'll be able to slip the manacle off!

[bc56]

Jade flies down the tunnel. She's a gull. Why would she walk? At the end, she sees the door and the console. She pokes at the console with her foot. What is she going up against inside? Where are the snacks hidden? Can she even operate the computer with her webbed feet? What about using her wings?

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Back Alley Armory]

"You could say that? I'm not really sure what it is..." Leslie picks herself up, accepts the busted laptop from Minerva and slips it into her bag. "Thanks. I'll need to get a new battery, too, but I can plug it in at the office."

She turns to watch Ada as she walks off. "...she's off to assassinate someone, isn't she?"

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word

The half-elf hasn't seen an ibis before, and doesn't have a clue what kind of bird he is. She hasn't noticed her own growing mutation as she's infected; black feathers in her hair, and a blue patch of skin behind her eyes.

She's hoping that not seeing the mutations will protect her, and backs away in result. She glares at the ibis, and runs towards it waving her arms. "Shoo, shoo! Go away, scythe-beak bird! I don't want to be like you, go away!" That, naturally, extends the infection and long black feathers grow from her rear. When she notices that her trousers aren't staying up very well, she turns and spots the large black tailfeathers growing from her tailbone, and yelps. The feathers go grey and blend into a solid mass, but they don't go away even though she's trying to do it. They're part of her natural form, now; she can get rid of them temporarily with her shapeshifting, but not for good.

[Arkhosia]

Spoiler

Show

[Meowstaken Identifies]

It turned out that in fact, Elizabeth was almost exactly that naive. She had done a little basic research, but her original intention had been to do more once she actually knew her targets home address. And she figured that Skyside couldn't have been as bad as everyone was saying. It all seemed a bit of an exaggeration to her, though perhaps that was a rather stupid assumption.

"Uhhh... you don't mug people... anymore?" Not the most reassuring of statements to hear, if she was honest.

Meowstaken Fidentities

"Uh, not anymore, no. I work at VIGIL now, actually." Fidelia gives her a confused look. Did she misspeak or something? Surely someone visiting Skyside would've braced themselves to hear about rougher things than just muggings, especially when there's a good chance they might see one if they found themselves in the wrong bits of town.

"…are you sure you're okay out here alone?" Elizabeth might be surprised that there's actual, genuine concern in her voice.

[5a Violista]

[Back Alley Armory]

"Um...bye," Minerva says, a little awkwardly. She waves to Ada as she leaves.
She's a little too...on that weird drug to really try to think of another way to say that less awkwardly.

After blinking a bunch of times, Minerva decides to answer Leslie. "...Yeah. Probably. That's my guess, too."

Not wanting to wait more because of obvious reasons, she then says, "We need to get out of here before someone decides to investigate." A storageroom fire would draw a lot of attention.
She walks out of the alley. "So. Um. Just back the way we came?" Leave Skyside, get on train, etc.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Back Alley Armory/Riftline Cantina]

"Yeah, I think so," says Leslie apologetically. "I don't think I'll have time to go back myself, either. I think I saw a cantina right by the station, though! We can stop and eat there and then split up."

The cantina is a very Star Wars affair, including a band and a dance troupe all comprised of aliens who are technically slaves. It's purposefully dimly lit with neon lights and lasers glinting off of a thin fog. On the plus side, whatever alien-friendly additives they put in the atmosphere counteracts the effects of Leslie's drug oddly well.

Coincidentally, this could also be a pretty good place for any people whose names start with A to find any goblin mob bosses they're looking for. Not quite as good as the Black Dragon's Den, admittedly, but that's mostly for the cantina's small size.

Leslie takes a seat at a small round table. A tiny menu is stuck in the holder on one side, and the table itself is set with what looks like a playmat for some collectible card game or another.

[5a Violista]

[Riftline Cantina]

Minerva goes along to the cantina.
Upon getting there, she looks around at the place. The lighting is bad, the music is good, and the air feels...clear?ish?

She sits at the table, across from Leslie. "Huh, this place is neat. Never been to somewhere like this before."

She grabs the menu and starts to look through it for anything that looks interesting. "You been here before? Or is this your first time?" Maybe she can get recommendations on what to try out.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Riftline Cantina]

"Um, not here specifically," Leslie says. "But, you know, it's a bar! There's always something, right?"

Of course, she's not the one looking at the menu. One side of the card lists the drinks they have on tap and ends with, "others by request." The other side has a format something like this:

Meals:
Grilled, Fried, Rare, Broiled, Pulled
+
Pork, Chicken, Beef, Gakh, Jackfruit
+
Burger, Sandwich, Salad, Steak, Taco

Other:
I Cream
Bacon I Cream
Fries

[5a Violista]

[Riftline Cantina]

Minerva looks over the menu. Yeah, sounds like there's going to be no great recommendations, so...menu.

"!"

She sets down the menu. "Jackfruit! And tacos! She flips the menu so Leslie can look at it. "I've decided what I want, then."

[Meowmai]

[Meowstaken Fidentities]

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow when Fidelia mentioned she worked for VIGIL. The catgirl had done her own research into VIGIL before, and if the stranger really was from VIGIL, it perhaps meant she was slightly more trustworthy. It was of course no guarantee, even if she wasn't lying. And... it seemed like she actually sounded like she might care about her safety? Elizabeth wasn't the best judge of character though, and thus not very good at telling how genuine someone is.

"Y'know, I thought I was fine before but now I'm not so sure..."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Riftline Cantina]

"Okay, yeah! That sounds good!" Says Leslie.

When she goes up to the bar to order the tacos, she is met with further questions. Over the band, Minerva can just hear her stammering, "um, pulled I guess? ...really? What do people usually... okay, um, some teriyaki and some barbecue!"

Leslie sits back down at the table, and before too long a stout trash can-shaped robot rolls up and slides a tray of vegetarian tacos and water glasses onto the table.

"Oh, um, thanks!"

"Zrrr." The droid rolls back to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, the band wraps up its set and a green twi'lek in a red sweater steps up to one of the microphones. "It's that time again, folks! Do we have any requests?"

A pig man and a tentacle monster shout out inscrutable song names in their respective tongues. Leslie is distracted distributing the tacos and then digging through her bag for hand sanitizer.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]
Jadegull

Ah hah!

Computer!

Hmm. The keypad for the computer is actually unusually large. And down on the ground. Almost as if it had been designed for ease of use. Something that a bird could peck at or step on to operate.

Some really smart birds must have built this place.

The monochromatic green screen lights up, displaying several options.

>Open/Close Chamber
>Run Diagnostic
>Logs

Nothing about snacks!

Maybe those are under one of the other headings?


[Bird is the Word]
Elfpie

"BIRD!" the ibis-person squawks before flapping his wings and taking off awkwardly. Apparently he doesn't appreciate being shouted out.

Most birds don't.

Shouts and squawks and coos and caws rise from the city street below. There's a wild, chaotic scramble. People know that this contagion can be passed from person to person but they don't know how. And given how lawless Skyside typically is anyway this results in panic and violence. A gunshot thunders through the streets. Sounds of fear rise, along with several bird-people flying away shakily. It would appear as though this town is quickly going for the birds.

[bc56]

Jade reaches out with a webbed foot to press some more buttons.

> Down

> Run Diagnostic

> Enter

Once that's done, she continues.

> Down

> Logs

> Enter

That should tell her how many snacks are left, right? That's what diagnostics and logs are for.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]

Running diagnostic
.
..
...

Reactor Fuel: 23%
Reactor Status: Offline
Blast-door Status: Operational
Casket Status: Operational
Strategic Snack Reserve: 0%
Entity Status: Active

WARNING! Containment Breach!
Ornithological Radiation at 359% Tolerance
Please seal casket to prevent further exposure

Hmmm...

Next up, the logs!

They detail the process of preparing the facility and struggling against the ever increasing level of bird. Apparently the builders were hoping that just sealing away the Entity would be sufficient to prevent the bird flu from spreading. That wouldn't help the people who were already infected, but at least it would stop OTHERS from being birds, too. They don't know how to fix someone once they have become part bird. Apparently it alters the victim down to the biochemical level. Not only are they birds, but all their offspring would be birds, too. The final entry consists of the word CAW! over and over again.

So!

Jade has a choice here. She could seal the Entity in again, but that risks that the facility might be opened again in the future. Or... she could try to destroy the Entity. But if the people who built this place couldn't accomplish that what hope does Jade have? Though... this place does appear to have a nuclear reactor. Maybe is she could find a way to push it into a super-critical state...