[b]Clementine - Roanapur[/b]

When Clementine was about the leave the alley, a recently familiar voice caused her to shrink back inside it once more. Hiding behind a pile of trash that hadn't been turned in to food, she watched DIO and Juri walk by. Juri looked a little worse for the wear, but she was walking unassisted and that was enough to keep Clementine from worrying much. DIO was saying something about the world and time, before pausing and talking saying something about Juri's stand. Clementine had no idea what it meant, but he made it sound important, and then they were out of sight.

Taking a moment more to make sure the coast was clear, Clementine wandered out into the street. Nothing looked dangerous nearby. There were some smaller food animals not too far away, but they weren't acting aggressive, and she didn't see a need to bother them either. She did need supplies though if she were going to spend upwards of a month alone in this city. Her pockets were empty aside from a quarter of an old granola bar, and she only had about a dozen bullets left for her pistol. With the aggressive food animals, now seemed like a good time to scavenge, and from what she had seen of Roanapur, Clementine thought she was in the perfect place to get what she needed too.

She wasn't wrong. It took her less than ten minutes to find corpses, and every single one was armed in some fashion or another. Roanapur didn't seem to have any walkers in it, but Clementine was starting to think it might be even more dangerous than where she came from, even without the strange things that were going on. Within about twenty minutes, she had found a pair of knives, a gun, a backpack, and then two more guns. All three guns were handguns and each was a couple bullets shy of being full. The first was a little larger than Clem felt she could handle, but she kept it just in case. One knife sheathe fit mostly inside her pocket, and Clementine put everything else into the smallest pocket of the backpack.

Another dozen minutes and Clementine smelled something even more valuable. Following her nose, she saw it; a turkey made entirely of jerky. Clem thought for a moment about how much she appreciated this weird food challenge. She didn't really want to kill it, but jerky would keep much better than most of the food available to be gathered. The turkey wasn't quite docile, but with a little patience, Clementine got close enough to get her hands around it, and twisted its neck. After that, she started cutting pieces off of it and loading them in to her backpack. She noticed as she cut that it didn't seem to have any bones, which made her wonder why breaking its neck worked, but she wasn't about to complain.

Almost as an afterthought, Clementine cut off one extra piece and tasted it. Against all sense, the turkey had been made of beef jerky.

Moving on, Clementine found herself uncertain what to do. She was walking aimlessly when everything seemed to happen at once. She started to cross an intersection, and spotted the beast down the street a little ways. It was a rhinoceros made of what looked like thick glass, with a dark purple-red fluid sloshing inside. A different dark red fluid altogether covered its head and parts of its feet. Clementine wasn't sure what was inside it, but she knew what was on the outside even without seeing the bodies scattered around it. She turned and ran back up the street, hoping it hadn't noticed her. 

These things never worked out the way you hoped. A few seconds later, the wineoceros crashed around the corner, smashing through a street sign that was still made of metal, first bending and then shearing it off of its base. The glass beast slowed a bit as it made a wide turn, but it was gaining on Clem almost immediately, and was far faster than anything she could outrun. An alleyway up ahead gave her slim hope, and she ran for it as fast as she had ever run for anything. She thought for half an instant about how much she hated this weird food challenge. The sound of glass on pavement was getting closer, fast, and when Clem turned down the alley it was so loud and close that she wasn't sure how it hadn't already trampled her. There was a crashing noise, but it wasn't until she reached the opposite end of the alley that Clementine dared to look. The wall had been graham cracker, and the terrifying animal was pulling itself loose. 

Clementine drew her gun, aimed, and fired a shot, but the bullet just bounced off the thick glass. It shook its head, scuffed a foot against the ground, looking ready to charge again. Clementine felt a strong, cool rush of air from behind her, just as she turned to run away again, and found herself facing something that was probably actually worse. Some sort of bug, more than twice Clem's height. It had mandibles as long as her arm and mantis-like claws as big as her entire body, raised up high and ready to strike.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Clem could hear the thundering of the wineoceros. She dove to the side, hoping she made it out of the way, and crawling another foot and looking back over her shoulder. The bug's blade came down on glass, cutting clean through as the beasts horn pierced through the bug. A spray of wine marked the glass creature's death, but inertia carried it and the mantis monster across the street, and into a wall that was thankfully still made of brick. The bug didn't move again. Clementine took a closer look at it, although not much closer, in case it was still alive. It definitely wasn't made of any kind of food.

What the hell was happening?



[b]Super Skrull - Roanapur[/b]

After the report on the battle, the next report Kl'rt had received was that the combatants had vanished. The next thing he heard after that was that the city was besieged by giant insects. It stirred old memories in him, and he wanted to see it for himself. Before going out though, he ordered the entire gang to go to ground. Hide, stay safe, and keep alive. Within minutes, everyone had rushed into the basement of the warehouse except for a few runners that would spread the word.

Kl'rt himself stepped forth from the warehouse doors, shedding his disguise as he did. His visage returned to that of the Emperor of all Skrulls, and his clothing transformed into his imperial battle regalia. Now was not a time for subtlety. He took a certain grim pleasure from what he saw before him. The streets in the warehouse district were no longer a war-zone between man and food. The bugs had joined the fight, and man had lost. This was a war Kl'rt had fought before though. The Super Skrull had slain tens, possibly hundreds of thousands in the war against the Annihilation wave, and with half a dozen allies had destroyed Annihilus' Harvester of Sorrow. The scarce dozen bugs scattered around the street held no fear for the seasoned warrior. They didn't have weapons, and they didn't act as though connected by hive-mind either, at least not yet. 

Kl'rt covered his fists with stone, and wreathed them in flames, and without even moving from in front of the warehouse he struck down the bugs, reveling in the feeling of carapaces giving way under his fists once more. When the war had ended, the remained of the Wave had been allowed to sign a peace treaty. Kl'rt had not been given satisfaction; the das't bugs had killed his son, destroyed the entire planet he had been on, and in the treaty had been ceded all Skrull territory, leaving his people without a world to call their own for most of a decade. Kl'rt could kill the bugs all day. It seemed like he'd been given the chance.

With the dozen bugs nearby dead, Kl'rt took to the air, propelled like a rocket by his own flames. High above the city, he looked for areas with high concentrations of the bugs. He would have his satisfaction.