[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/6zc773j.jpg[/img][/center] [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/3R5vYYi.png?2[/img][/center][hr][center][color=silver]𝕄: π•Šπ•–π•‘π•₯. πŸ™πŸœ, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / π•Žπ•šπ•€π•—π• π•£π••, 𝕄𝕒𝕣π•ͺπ•π•’π•Ÿπ•• / / π•‹π• π•¨π•Ÿ / / ~πŸ™πŸŸπŸœπŸ[/color][/center][hr] [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/pPavpkWl.jpg[/img][/center] [center][hider=Structural Damage Map (for reference)][url=http://i.imgur.com/Pv7DDrx.jpg][img]http://i.imgur.com/Pv7DDrxl.jpg[/img][/url][/hider][/center] [center][h3][color f7976a]π•†π•—π•—π•–π•Ÿπ•€π•šπ•§π•– π•Šπ•¦π•‘π•‘π• π•£π•₯/π•Šπ•₯π•£π•šπ•œπ•–π•£π•€[/color][/h3][/center][hr] Steel and iron scales gave way as easily as fabric under the dragon's claw and Chris's fire melted the serpent's impossible wiring and connected armatures sheathed in the now-penetrated protective layer of metal. The damage spread far enough to shut down a third of its body, destroying the supernatural mechanisms powering three other wings in the process. The two remaining wings prematurely released a scatter of red lines into the sky, but impacted nothing as the creature spasmed in the air. It turned towards Chris, red lights flaring down the lengths of its body as it rushed towards him, intending to knock him out of the sky once more. Below them, Sander's fists were breaking through the sphere's reinforced armor, revealing rough, veined alloys that appeared at first to be leaking some sort of oil. Looking closer, it was a mix of human blood and machine lubricant. As another fist punched through the penultimate layer, a partially mechanized arm came into view, merged with the metal of the orb by bronze wires that pulsed and pulled with the elasticity of arteries, melding with skin and muscle almost seamlessly. The arm twisted and bent at the wrong angles with every blow against the spidery lines tracing across the final sheaths of defense, like an alternative patellar reflex gone horribly wrong. If there was a person left in there, not even Benediction would be able to fix it. Above the core, Factory loomed, undamaged hand outstretched to retrieve the sphere. Its balance failed as it leaned forward on the two unsteady legs and the entire construct toppled with a thundering crash onto both Sander and the orb, creating a depression in the ground as long as a high-rise building. The impact reverberated through the town like a quake as the earth spat dust and dirt sky-high and outward. Circling around the offensive support team, the centipedes' and spiders' formation provided an unwitting bulwark against the surge of soil and gravel that swept towards them just as Angel's attack tore through four spiders and part of another centipede, spending them crashing back into each other and easily into range of Hazel's sweeping slice. Her annihilating cut horizontally bisected the entirety of the closest centipede, shutting it down and dropping it heavily into the sludge of the floor as Grant reshaped the earth into another barrier that crashed onto the decimated clockworks' remains. Determination was grappling with two spiders at once when the rush of earth reached them, threatening to drown them in particulate matter. But Devotion was still obeying its order, and Emma's tulpas knew neither fear nor lack of concentration. The wall of dirt turned to sludge as it entered Devotion's range, splattering onto both team members and enemies as a thick, dark liquid that impeded movement, but didn't crush them under its weight, rolling over them like a tidal wave and settling into the sludge already across the floor. While it protected the group, the effect also prevented any severe damage to the remaining clockworks in its field as well. Disoriented, but still functional, the remaining spiders flung the remnants of the net at the group caught in the center, catching mostly Angel in the deadly thin wire mesh and slicing superficially into the exposed skin of her face, but tightening dangerously as the creatures pulled. Nearby, but well out of Devotion's inadvertent safety net, Genevieve had thrown up her barrier immediately, decreasing its size to make it easier on herself and protecting Ethan as the dirt obscured both them and the three dogs outside of the tulpa's range. The remaining tide of ground and rubble petered out quickly, leaving only a light rush of dust catching on the evening wind towards the rest of town. The titan's sudden fall and the subsequent explosion of earth had damaged its good arm and it now struggled to raise itself back up on weakened appendages, failing repeatedly in tandem with the weakening core. Too close to the sudden onslaught of soil, the mine's entrance was almost entirely flooded with dirt again, the sudden rush sweeping Callan off her feet and shoving her right back towards the collapsed entrance. Far behind her, Dylan pulled the nearest steel walls and girders out of position, abandoning maintenance efforts as he closed off that entrance to the mines temporarily, reinforcing the new metal wall repeatedly with both the already existing material and the newly generated segments he created. The quaking shook the mines and several tunnel segments held hollow by weaker metal plating collapsed, closing off certain routes and damaging several storage areas of food and supplies. Detecting all the damage at once to his subterranean base, the mage had to resist swearing out loud. Fixing all that would take ages between resting and generating more metallic components. He focused on making sure the current entrance was fortified, already tallying up the workload in his head. [center][h3][color f7976a]𝔼𝕧𝕒𝕔𝕦𝕒π•₯π•šπ• π•Ÿ[/color][/h3][/center][hr] The APC reached Cain's location without incident after narrowly avoiding the previous collector and the back doors opened for Lawrence to get a good look at their recent captive. He raised an eyebrow. Zoe hadn't been the most merciful of Aberrations, especially from the flag football game, but he knew her to be apologetic even if she held firm in following through on threats. That was the thing. She at least warned you if she was going to make you regret it. By his guess, this guy hadn't taken the hint. With a sigh, he jumped down and hoisted the blubbering mess into the car, sliding him across the floor and towards the far corner, ignoring the shocked sounds and gasps of the car's extra occupants. Not the time for pity at the moment. They were starting to get pretty full. Their driver would likely begin making his way back to the drop-off point soon before another foray into the other side of town, so it was best to hurry this up before anything catastrophic happened, because Lawrence of all people knew these fights never ended cleanly. He had seen enough of the sheer destruction wrought by Dreamcatcher's monsters that he figured it still had one or two tricks up its sleeves, no matter how well they handled the situation. The ground shuddered violently beneath him, as if confirming his suspicions. Dust-laden wind rushed over them, prickling his eyes with the small grains and irritating his already chapped lips. Whatever had happened, he didn't want to be a part of it. He was already stepping back onto the APC when a young man's voice shouted from behind the nearest intact building. [color f7976a]"Hey! Wait up!"[/color] Lawrence scrambled for the pistol in his holster, having needed both hands free to grab the unfortunate victim of what looked to be Zoe's ire. [color f7976a]"You guys military? We could use some help!"[/color] The footsteps and voice drew closer, but Lawrence was already facing them, his gun raised and ready. [color f7976a]"Stop."[/color] They stopped. It was a small group of three: one young male of seemingly Middle Eastern descent, a black-haired girl who looked to be in her early twenties, and another slender girl with long blonde hair tied in a neat ponytail behind her, blue eyes flicking between Lawrence's trigger finger and the rest of the equipment on his belt. She had a blue and orange themed tartan scarf and the other two were in turtleneck sweaters--black and grey stripes for the guy and a white, cable knit for the black-haired girl. [color f7976a]"Necks,"[/color] Lawrence gestured slightly with the gun's barrel. [color f7976a]"Woah, man, we're just trying to get out of here,"[/color] the guy replied, raising his hands slowly towards his throat. [color f7976a]"I'm just going to pull down my turtleneck, okay? Don't shoot. We're not subnaturals--"[/color] The man doubled over before his hands could reach the layered fabric over his throat, collapsing to the ground with a loud cry of pain. [color f7976a]"Behind you!"[/color] the black-haired girl screamed, hands over her open mouth as she stared at something over Lawrence's shoulder. He spun quickly, reflexes sharp enough to make the action almost instant. There was nothing there. He realized too late the deception as a bright yellow field appeared below his feet, lifting him without letting him control the angle of his body. Lawrence faced downward, staring at the ground as he berated himself mentally. He had fallen for the oldest trick in the book, and they were about to be attacked by potentially three enemy mages. [color f7976a]"Marcus--"[/color] he tried to order them to leave him behind and run, but a sharp spike like an elongated pyramid jutted out from the ground, spearing upwards and puncturing his chest just as the levitation field disappeared and let gravity run its course again. Impaled only briefly on the spike before that, too, slid back into the asphalt covered in his blood, Lawrence struggled to remain conscious, hoping Marcus had the sense of mind to leave before things could get any worse. From inside the truck, he could hear the other passengers screaming. [color f7976a]"Tr-transmit,"[/color] he wheezed, the sensation of liquid in his lungs already confirming the extent of the damage. The cuff's light turned on as the three sets of footsteps drew near. Lawrence didn't know whether to be relieved or infuriated when he heard the driver's door open, the soldier coming round to help--or more likely die trying. [center][h3][color f7976a]π”»π•–π•—π•–π•Ÿπ•€π•šπ•§π•– π•Šπ•¦π•‘π•‘π• π•£π•₯/ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕣 π•‹π•–π•’π•žπ•€[/color][/h3][/center][hr] The sudden shaking threatened to collapse the apartment building's weakened, external structures and small fragments of cracked flooring and wall paneling did crumble loudly to the ground. There was no further damage, however, once the rumbling ceased and the location seemed to hold steady afterwards. In the near distance, Gregory had bounded away from the proximities of the closest collectors, taking up position in a small office building where the words "Morton & Mill Accounting" in large, individual acrylic letters had been torn from their iron scaffolding, leaving only the name "Morton" intact amid marred plaster and wood. Where the proprietors had gone was anyone's guess, but the lack of bodies and blood at least meant they had escaped the building unscathed. The collectors that had converged on the theater by now had obliterated what remained of the building in their single-minded hunt for living people, ignoring entirely--or perhaps entirely unaware--that their pursuit methods were more likely to kill their targets than spare them. Regardless, the creatures exited the now collapsed theater amid a small rain of rubble, showing no notice of the trembling ground below them. The sound did attract the attention of the collector southwest of the offensive support team and it plodded forward with the same uncaring devotion to its only programmed task. The remaining collectors separated outside of the theater, one heading west while the other went east. The southernmost quadruped thundered towards Lily, Kusari, and Allison, its long, clockwork hands pawing at the area immediately around it. Soon, it would be in range to detect them outright. [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/3R5vYYi.png?2[/img][/center][hr] [hider=OOC Interaction Tags/Notes] [@VarionusNW] [@Lasrever] [@ERode] [@VampireOracle] [@Zombehs] [@GreenGoat] [@Diggerton] [@banjoanjo] [@Baklava] [@RedDusk] [@Piercing Light] [@Dragonmancer] [@Riffus Maximus] [@Deathmyster] [@Chasers115] [@PapiTan] [@Kyrisse] [@January] >>Factory fell over. Huge impact. Lots of dust and debris. Everyone feels the ground shake. >>Lawrence's cuff is now constantly transmitting. >>Spiders and centipede are still cleared for auto-hit. >>Flying snake is no longer cleared for auto-hit. [center][u][h3][color=f7976a]π•Šπ•”π• π•£π•–π•“π• π•’π•£π••[/color][/h3][/u][/center] [center][table=bordered][row][cell]Enemy Type[/cell][cell]Enemies Dead[/cell][cell]Enemies Injured[/cell][cell]Enemies Left[/cell][/row][row][cell]Canines[/cell][cell]14[/cell][cell]0[/cell][cell]3[/cell][/row][row][cell]Spiders[/cell][cell]5[/cell][cell]0[/cell][cell]8[/cell][/row][row][cell]Centipedes[/cell][cell]1[/cell][cell]1[/cell][cell]1[/cell][/row][row][cell]Avians[/cell][cell]7[/cell][cell]0[/cell][cell]0[/cell][/row][row][cell]Collectors[/cell][cell]0[/cell][cell]0[/cell][cell]4[/cell][/row][row][cell]Winged Snake[/cell][cell][/cell][cell][/cell][cell][/cell][/row][row][cell]Factory[/cell][cell][/cell][cell][/cell][cell][/cell][/row][/table][/center] [hr] [u]Previous notes:[/u] Three day timers (and then another two/three days for GMs to read moves and respond), but given that rate of posting the GMs will be much more lenient on players shafting responses and moves onto more available people to write. For particular cases, just ping the GMs on Discord/the forum and let them know so your character won't suffer anything too serious as a result. Maps show destinations for each group with the exception of Evac (since the car is being driven by a soldier at the moment and location is technically under GM control for now). [hr] A map is available for collaborative effort [url=https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1lU_hWojq1JEbbTYD3Xk6FPCxTCudGdqPSiTfL8Q_AeE/edit?usp=sharing]here[/url]. Please keep positions updated for other players to refer to. If you're unavailable, have a GM or another player make the changes. (I recommend just selecting Insert > Shape > A circle or a rectangle > Resize > Color it in and move it around.) For those who wrote without specifying a map location (and only if your location is different from the set destinations), the GMs will set one for you. [/hider]