The familiars moved through the city, feathers black as night, carefully observing the earth below.

They had spread out, they had been quiet and they had not drawn attention, as they had been commanded — the perfect servants for their lady. Maybe if they did well, she would give them names.

However, a group had different orders.

‘Bring me materials’.

That would be done, too. Whatever she requested, they would accomplish.

So it was that, in separate instances throughout Fuyuki, perhaps one would stumble upon an odd scene of dogs looking at a crow, and then carefully, slowly, they would start moving in a new direction.

Nothing notable. Not even a pattern, properly speaking — but they would all end up gathering in a certain spot, near a certain place.

But not just dogs. Snakes, as well, crawling on their bellies slowly along the riverbank under the cover of the night, hidden by the grass. Slowly, so very slowly, the animals marched.

However, more than anything, they were still spies, to an extent.

And so, while some crows concerned themselves with the gathering of resources, the others continued to observe and send whatever information they deemed useful.

In particular. . .
[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/308113316696424449/456228281721552898/UmbrellaCorp.png[/img]
[h2]Anastasia Alexandrovna Voronin[/h2]
[h3][i]Foreigner’s Graveyard, Shinto[/i][/h3][/center]

“Well, that should be it,” She smiled, wiping sweat off her forehead that wasn’t really there as yet another zombie arose. The materials for the other project should be here soon, as well, and that would help tremendously. Ah, she could not wait to get her hands on—

Oh.

Oh.

Tonight was just full of surprises, wasn’t it? She almost could not believe the information that reached her through the karmic link — all at once, she wanted to laugh at the absurdity, cry over the waste and curse the stupidity.

But she could deal with that later. Right now? Right now it seemed that the heavens had smiled upon her once more and gifted her with yet another opportunity.

So thinking, she sent out a few commands to her puppets while she approached the Servant she had summoned—

—No, that title was not befitting any longer. As of now, she was. . .

“Teacher, sorry to disturb you,” She muttered, grasping her necklace as if nervous. “But my cute little familiars have sent me information pertaining the competition.”

She paused.

[center]”A team has left the fallen leyline located at the church on the hill, seemingly nearly defenseless. So I feel we just can’t ignore such invitation.”[/center]

Necromancers were opportunistic by nature, but this defied even her wildest expectations. But hey, who was she to look a gift horse in the mouth? Besides, sending some of her puppets would not hurt — and perhaps they’d even get something useful out of it.

[hr]

[center][h2]Z-Team Alpha[/h2]
[h3]En-route  —> Church, Shinto[/h3][/center]

They walked through the empty streets, taking quick and purposeful steps. To anyone else giving them a cursory glance, they would not have looked out of place at all, outside of the hours they had chosen to venture outside. However, to a more careful observer. . .

Their skin was flush and healthy. They did not stumble, they did not groan, they did not do anything that would bely their nature as ‘something that was not human’.

But there was no mistaking those vacant eyes that seemed to stare at infinity, there was no mistaking that lack of [i]something[/i] that was crucial to true life.

Still, that did not matter. They had their instructions, and like the good flesh machines they were, they would follow them regardless of what happened to those bodies.

The group made their way through the streets with the sole objective of reaching that church and that graveyard to steal more materials so that their mistress would have what she requested and to investigate the situation further. Slowly, they made their way uphill and stepped forward to face any traps or opposition.

For her sake, they would ‘die’ again.

[@Red Alice] [@EnterTheHero] [@Floodtalon]