Lily and Brucie kept to the darkness as she had decreed, moving slowly and with as little sound as they could muster. For Lily, soundless movement was easy. She had already been good at it as a child, but the enhanced body she received upon becoming one of the Shifters had only hightened her potential. It was a challenge for Brucie, however. Though he knew not to charge ahead and make a cacophony where there didn't need to be any, he was still as much metal as he was flesh, and the sheer weight of the contraption that was his limbs caused more noise than Lily was content with. Because of this, not a minute had passed in their trek before Lily demanded that he wait while she get something to lessen the sound he made with each step. 

"Stay here, Mouse," she had crept ahead and gone to the first oversized mushroom they came across, much to her own chagrin, using her illusory powers to mask her own presence. She couldn't render herself invisible while moving, but she could at least make herself blend in better with her surroundings. A few colour changes could go a long way. Once there she had broken off several large pieces of the fungi, wrapped them in her jacket, and moved back to Brucie. 

"Put these on your feet," she told him as she met back up with him, dumping out two of the largest pieces on the ground. They should, if all went well, mask most of the sound he made when he moved. There was just one problem... 

"With what?" He asked. "Ain't got no string or rope. So unless you got some magic string 'tween your tails," he let the statement hang in the air, and Lily found herself needing to sacrifice. 

She sighed and started undoing her skirt, letting it fall to the ground and leaving her only in her t-shirt and leggings. She bowed down to pick up both it and her jacket. "Lift your feet, I'll tie them to you." Brucie did as told, lifting first his left foot, allowing her to attach a piece of fungi to the underside, tied to his metallic limb with her skirt. She then went on to tie the fungi to his right foot, taking the feather from the inner pocket first and putting it down the front of her shirt. [i]No pockets left,[/i] she thought and finally tied the knot around Brucie's right foot. 

"All done?" He asked, looking down at her from above.

"All done," came the reply. She stood up and dusted herself off before asking, "how does it feel? Can you walk normally?" 

Brucie looked down and tried to take a few steps. The sound he made was markedly lessened, but the fungi had, as was to be expected, been squashed in the process. Luckily for the both of them, there still remained enough trapped in her garments-turned-knots to reduce the noise. "Feels a bit weird," he said after he walked back to her, "but I'll make do. Sorry 'bout the clothes though." 

"I'll live," she said and turned away from him. She, in particular, turned her attention to something she had just briefly caught sight of when she was gathering the mushroom. It was the wreckage of what looked to be a train. Oren had previously mentioned that her next opponent had crashed down here in a train while still fighting. Whoever she was going to go up against next would most likely be in there. "It won't be lack of clothing that kills me down here," she muttered and headed off, trying her best to ignore the drone hovering near them, pointing forward and to their left. She would have been tempted to shoot it down if not for Oren's last message, that it would be the last drone they got, and it would guide them towards their next opponent. As it was she was forced to let it stay, lest she get rid of a major advantage. 

[hr]

They had taken a roundabout path to the train wreckage, avoiding the fungi to stay in the shadows where there was the least possibility of being spotted. Even if her coming adversary knew in which direction was was, he would not be able to garner any more information if he could not see her. 

They had, however, arrived with no commotion. The drone now pointed almost directly to her left when she stood faced with the ancient city. They turned up little in their search there. Of their meager findings a disgusting trail of black slime was the most prominent, and aside from that only bits of broken plastic, wood and metal. 

Following the trail with her eyes, however, Lily noticed that it lead directly into a tightly packed forest of mushrooms. A concoction of volatile irritation bubbled in her core, but she forced it down, telling Brucie to stay a ways behind, as she and Mouse moved forward. She had no intentions of entering the death trap that this forest was. It had far too many places from where an opponent could get the jump on her, and she had not survived this long just to stupidly die in an ambush. 

They followed the trail only so long as it was out in the open and she knew there was no chance of any ambush. She relied on her superior eyesight to peer farther into the forest, straining to spot even small bits of the black ooze between the stalks and caps. She knew little of who she was going to fight, but based on what objects had been strewn about on the part of the track before the mushrooms began, one was humanid, and the other was not. The slime could either be blood or the very body of some creature. Other options included it being the drool of a much larger creature, or the slowly decomposing remains of said humanoid, however the lack of any evidence to suggest a large beast left her to believe that both were around her and Brucie's size. 

She glanced behind her and saw Brucie still following, but keeping his distance as told. She waved him a bit closer, waiting for him to approach before she told him in a low voice. "Most likely humanoid-sized target. Don't know much more than that. I can see the edge of the fungi ahead. Approach slowly." 

Brucie nodded and followed, as did Mouse. They made it to within a couple dozen metres before Lily held up a hand, signalling for her companions to stop. 

"What is it?" The shark asked, peering over her shoulder at the luminescent fungi. 

"A handprint," she whispered, "on one of the caps. Right side, near the ground." She glanced around, ears twitching this way and that, straining for any sign of strangers. So far, nothing. A quick look at the drone showed it still pointing towards the forest. 

She again looked around, this time for cover rather than intruders. Off to their left was a boulder, larger than most in this area, but hopefully didn't stand out too much. It was likely from the explosion that caused the hole, and since the train had come almost all the way here it wasn't much of a stretch. [i]Or maybe that bird?[/i] Lily jerked her head towards it and headed over to it, huddling behind it with Brucie and Mouse. 

She would not go into so obvious a death trap as that fungal forest. Her opponent had a drone as well. They could come to her.