[center][h3]Food Processing II[/h3]
Level 7 Roland (29/70) & [color=BC8DBF]Level 10 Therion (285/100)[/color]
[b]Word Count:[/b]4932 ( +5) [/center]

The group continued down the hall until they reached the threshold of a very large, rectangular, two-story room, given an appropriately menacing appearance by the baleful red glow of burning braziers. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all metal, dirty and rusted, with similar support struts that featured large, inward-facing spikes. Its floorspace was dominated by heavy machinery that ran in a circuit around a suspended track, from which fearsome hook-tipped chains dangled. Right away the newcomers could see a handful of humanoid figures suspended from the hooks via their manacles, all being slowly brought around the track like factory items on a conveyor belt. There were also cages full of bugsnax situated around the room, all clamoring in anticipation as they waited for a hapless captive to come along so they could try and cram themselves inside.

With a handful of cultists stationed atop the central catwalk for oversight, the whole thing was a nightmarish assembly line of ritualistic sacrifice, horrifically automated for maximum output. All of the captives the Seekers could see were at least halfway gone already, and as they watched, a Cinnasnail put one poor soul past the total snackification threshold, converting him completely into a writhing mass of bugsnax. That left just two captives still salvageable: [url=https://i.imgur.com/iWjnygm.png]Dr. Blackwell[/url], and [url=https://i.imgur.com/tJV8wsG.png]Wambus Troubleham[/url], a fuzzy blue Grumpus in a straw hat. 

No stranger to horror and sacrifice, Vergil forced himself to focus on the factory’s hub, a bulky device the size of a truck that loosely resembled a furnace. “That looks important,” he muttered, pointing it out. If the Seekers took that out, they could very well shut down the whole facility.

Burnice, meanwhile, was looking at the cultists above it–specifically, the weapon one hefted on its shoulder. “Hey, that’s Lucy’s bat!” she exclaimed, her surprise quickly turning to anger. Without a second’s hesitation she dashed out into the open. “What’ve you freaks done with Lucy!?” she yelled.

Her shout took the cultists by surprise, but they quickly mobilized. Three of them turned toward a Ficsit gun cache, popped it open, and grabbed the weapons from inside. One retrieved the [url=https://i.imgur.com/GhA4Qas.png]Plague Pistol[/url], a reliable handgun capable of rapid-firing toxic globules. Another received the [url=https://i.imgur.com/V6NsTk4.png]HC Hurricane[/url], a magical tommy gun loaded with Destruction I spell bullets, whose near-total lack of recoil would enable a very mobile fighting style. Finally, the third got an [url=https://i.imgur.com/xbot7Ny.png]electric shotgun[/url] that could hit like a truck if not for its immense spread. As the three readied their weapons, the cultist with Lucy’s bat began to whack [url=https://i.imgur.com/YJs9QsE.png]Noodlers[/url] toward the newcomers as living artillery, their boiling-hot contents ready for an explosive impact.

Therion managed not to facepalm at Burnice almost immediately drawing the cultists' attention. What's done was done, and from the awful situation in front of them a fight was going to be unavoidable anyway. Still would have been nice to start off with the element of surprise, though.

He whipped a hand out, summoning and throwing a pair of blades from the glyph on his arm to intercept the first of the noodlers sent their way, shattering the bugsnax midair. [color=BC8DBF]"Here we go."[/color] He wasn't a strategist or tactician and he didn't play at being one by giving out orders, but it seemed like their next moves were more or less clear: take out the cultists, take out the boiler Vergil pointed out, and get those people down from their hooks before they could be snackified. Though the last seemed the most pressing, Therion himself didn't have a way to get them free without getting closer, or stopping the track and making them into even more sitting ducks than they already were. So instead the thief's other arm was flung forward, and from it his Chain Hook wrapped around the leg of one of the cultists to drag them off of the catwalk while Therion himself darted forward, beneath the upper levels where those with the high ground would have a harder time targeting him until he made his next move. 

Therion’s hook managed to snatch the cultist with the plague pistol and yank it down. It hit a machine on the way down, which dislodged its grip enough so that when it hit the ground, the plague pistol got jolted from its grasp and tumbled a couple feet away. It also lost its pointed hood, revealing its head: a [url=https://i.imgur.com/T9gKDDX.png]Pinkle[/url], connected to the body via its four pickle legs tucked within its jarlike shell. With a squeak, the cultist cast a fireball at Therion, then went for its gun.

The dissonance between how small and cute the bugsnax looked and how sinister they actually were was jarring, but not so much that it stopped Therion from acting. Having already encountered the spell casting of the cultists earlier, he expected something like the fireball that came at him. He once more raised one of his arms, this time countering with his own fire spell, and the flames clashed together and burst. Through the fluttering embers left over Therion dashed toward the Pinkle-headed cultist, intent on getting inside of the range of its magic. At this distance Therion wouldn't lose in a race to the fallen weapon either, and as he came up on the cultist he intercepted it with a knife to the wrist (or whatever food equivalent there was) which he dragged up its arm until it jerked away. He took the opportunity to scoop up the pistol himself then, sweeping it up and squeezing the trigger like he'd seen plenty of others do already. High-velocity poison pellets shattered the glass of the cultist's jarhead soon after, leaving it to stumble around blindly as the toxins did their work.

“Don’t worry Dr. Blackwell, we’ll get you out!” Vergil ducked down behind cover as the cultist shotgunner fired. At this range its weapon’s spread meant it couldn’t possibly land a hit, but all the electric buckshot in the air was quite intimidating. Vergil dispensed a stick of dynamite into his hand, already lit, then hurled it at an unoccupied section of the assembly line ahead of Blackwell. A blue explosion went off, destroying part of the track. While the captives kept moving, they wouldn’t be able to progress beyond that point at least.

In retaliation, the cultist batter aimed its next Noodler at Vergil. He did not notice the incoming bugsnax in time, so when the Noodler detonated a mere foot or two away, the scalding broth caused the gleaming engineer to aggro to the batter. His next dynamite would be aimed right at the factory furnace, well before the captives were safe. At the same time, the survivor and Burnice were approaching the cultists, one much more carefully than the other. In fact, Burnice was charging forward to intercept the shotgunner, flamethrowers at the ready.

Roland meanwhile was going right for the cultist with the Hurricane machine gun. While normally super dangerous for others, for Roland the low caliber rapid fire gun, even if it fired magical bullets, was something Roland could deflect with ease with his katana allowing him to close the distance on the cultist and deliver a slash at him. He’d need an attack with more potency to get past Roland’s ranged deflection abilities… Or a partner. 

Although he didn’t have much time to play with his target as the people they had rescued were making a huge mess of things, not waiting before they were starting to blow up this machine! So to speed things up, Roland donned the EGO of Frost Splinter, and with it turning the room into a frozen throne room temporarily as he unleashed two blasts of freezing air at all the cultists and the machine itself, attempting to not only freeze the machine, but also the cultists with the power of the Snow Queen. He then made his way over to help rescue those on the conveyor belt, those that survived the EGO being slowed anyway by the freezing cold.

[color=BC8DBF]"Drop them down!"[/color] he called up to Roland. Then Therion could take it from there, drag them behind cover before cracking open their manacles. A single story fall was sure to be preferable, and much less lethal for the captives, than dangling and at risk of being caught in crossfire - or engulfed in what might become an imminent explosion.

After a moment or two, the frozen gunner thawed out, then returned its focus to Roland with a fury that suggested that the Fixer would be sorry for turning his back rather than finishing it off. From the slash wound in its chest, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/kqOe2Wj.png]Puffy Snakpod[/url] wriggled out like a bag worm, which the cultist took hold of and threw in Therion’s direction. The thief saw the worm coming and conjured another set of knives to stop its trajectory, but on impact it exploded like a frag grenade, sending puffed rice cracker shrapnel flying like bullets raining down on him. Then the cultist reloaded and opened fire with its Hurricane again, not particularly caring if it happened to shoot whoever Roland would be rescuing.

At the same time, Burnice closed most of the distance to the iced-up shotgunner. Once it got its full faculties back, it blasted away at her as fast as it could, filling the factory with resounding thunderclaps at regular intervals. Now dangerously close, Burnice waited for one electric scattershot before rushing her target. “Yaaaaaaaaaaaagh!” Reloading just in time, the cultist unleashed a point-blank blast, only for the biker to dash straight through it in a perfect dodge. “Ha–ha!” With her grips on her flamethrowers reversed, Burnice wielded them like tonfas to wallop the cultist left and right. “Take this! And that! And this!” She finished with a kick that smacked her foe against the wall behind it. As it stumbled, she ignited her pilot lights, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/fVJTRMt.png]grin[/url] spreading across her face. “Let’s fire it up!~”

[i]FWOOOOSH![/i] A two-pronged torrent of flame inundated the cultist, plastering it against the wall as it burned until nothing was left but ash. Burnice twirled her flamethrower with a laugh. “Brighter than fireworks!”

Roland was hacking away at the binds that held Dr. Blackwell to the machine with his sword. While there was chaos going around him while he was doing it, after getting hit by a shot from the hurricane, he quickly turned around and began to deflect the rest of the shots with his sword before swapping to his lance to dash up to strike at the cultist with a thrust.  It sank a few inches into his target’s torso, but with only more snax instead of vital points, the cultist continued to back up while firing. 

Roland, getting annoyed with this thing after getting shot again, decided that he was done with him and followed up his lance strike with a Furioso on the cultist, ripping the snax apart with a barrage of attacks from his many weapons. Once it was taken care of, he scooped up his gun and stored it in his gloves before he went back to freeing the hostages and managed to get Dr. Blackwell down from the track.

Elsewhere, though, things weren’t looking so bright. Once the batter unfroze, it aimed a Noodler at Therion, then shrank back from the survivor’s suppressive fire. She ducked down to reload her sawed-off with new shells. The sound of footsteps made her look up, but she didn’t see anything, so she quickly resumed her task. Only then did invisible claws rake across her spine, eliciting an agonized howl before the unseen Wendigo silenced her for good. Not so far off, Vergil flinched away from the horrific sound and sight. “God, no!”

The shouting drew Therion's attention from the captives and their captors, and when he spotted only the woman's collapsed form and no assailant readily in sight he quickly assumed that the 'rare invisible monster' Roland had warned them about had decided to show up. Because of course it had, invited by the mention and their general bad luck, not to mention the amount of noise they were making and now the smell of food cooking.

Therion let out a short, aggressive sigh. He was covered in hard rice fragments and now hot soup, more than ready to be done with this place, and now about to take on an unknown monster. An invisible skulker couldn't be left alone in a chaotic fire fight like this after all.

He shifted into his beast form, leaping high up onto the catwalk to get a better look at the situation as swiftly as possible and prevent any other sneak attacks. Around the fallen survivor he saw them, and smelled them too, the iron-like scent of the spray of blood and the soggy red footprints cutting through everything else. His feline gaze tracked the steps and with his claws extended he jumped, letting out a paralyzing roar as he landed, hoping he was close enough to the thing's location that it would take effect. 

His paralyzing soundwave revealed the Wendigo in an instant, every inch of its gaunt, inhuman, and surprisingly large form revealed in its gruesome glory, accompanied by a frightfully sudden noise. The red eyes that blazed within its horned skull turned Therion’s way, but its body spasmed in place, momentarily disabled.

Though dismayed by the awful sounds behind her, Burnice now had a relatively clear shot to several targets. Rather than rush down the cultist batter, though, the biker went for the second captive. She scooped up the fallen shotgun, climbed up a set of metal stairs, and sprinted along the catwalk after Wambus. “Hold tight, I gotcha!” Unfortunately, she slowed down as she came up alongside him, not sure how she’d free the blue grumpus from his binds before the track brought him to the next snak cage. Then an idea struck her, and after dodging a Noodler mortar she simply ran ahead to torch said cage with all the snax inside. “Die, gross bugs! Dieeeeeeeee!”

Of course, that left Wambus headed toward a raging inferno that was quickly beginning spread. “Help! Heeeeelp!” he hollered, galvanizing Burnice into action. She extended the tesla shotgun over the rail until the chain with Wambus passed by, then fired it point-blank to blow through the chain and drop Wambus to the ground. Of course, the recoil sent the gun flying from her hands and knocked her over, at which point a Noodler struck her head-on to add insult to injury.

Roland saw that everyone else was having a bit of trouble with these guys and their guns, and decided to use his other EGO, Wrist Cutter. Donning a bloody tattered white lab coat, Roland raised his hand and a torrent of corrupted blood flooded the area as the area temporarily changed being inside a flesh bathtub looking upon the battlefield. Thankfully Roland could control who was affected by the attack and only damaged the cultists with it, gripping them with despair as the blood washed over them removing all their buffs if they had any and dealing some damage. It staggered the two remaining cultists, giving Burnice a chance to get up and close the distance to the batter, but it wasn’t enough damage to put the wendigo down.

Which was where Therion hoped to come in. Taking full advantage of the paralysis he'd inflicted, the man -well, the giant cat at the moment- lashed out at the revealed creature with claws and specialized blade he pulled from the custom sheathe with his maw. With no idea whether the Wendigo would be able to render itself unseen again as soon as it was free, Therion inflicted his Armor Corrosive on the thing as he slashed. Luckily, the wendigo did not disappear once its paralysis wore off, but even with its defense down and a few significant wounds, the monster was no less vicious. It reared up with a double claw slash which Therion saw coming, but then it suddenly lunged at him to sink its grisly teeth into his bones. Its mouth caught Therion's shoulder and the two beasts became a tangled mess of sharpened claws and fangs.

Before Burnice could reach the target of her aggression, Vergil recovered from his terror enough to put his explosives to work. Leaving the wendigo in Therion’s hands (paws), he hurled a dynamite stick at the cultist batter. It arced through the air and fell at the last cultist’s feet. By the time it looked down at the blinking charge, it was too late to throw itself to safety. Another mighty electric blue explosion went off, its cacophonic report resounding off the walls, and the wielder of Lucy’s bat was nothing more than smithereens. Of course, the same blast also destroyed the sacrifactory’s machine hub, kickstarting a violent chain reaction that would escalate out of control in no time flat.

Burnice skidded to a halt just shy of the blast radius. “Whoa-oa-oa!” She managed to stop herself tipping over, then hurriedly backpedaled away from the haywire machinery. With the damage done by Vergil plus the inferno she’d started, it was high time that the heroes hightailed it. “We gotta get the heck outta here!” She leaped down from the catwalk just before it buckled beneath her, then stowed her flamethrowers as she ran to the side of Wambus to help him up. More cultists had arrived, drawn by the commotion, but they were in a panic. Some fled, some charged in to fruitlessly combat the destruction, and some fell apart on the spot–evidently, these bugsnax weren’t as united a hivemind as one might think. As she and Wambus made for the exit, Vergil coaxed Roland and Dr. Blackwell his way. “Which way do we go!?” he questioned the Fixer frantically.

Having moved to grab another bugsnax cultist’s book, Roland calmly pointed at the way to go, knowing that panicking during a base going up in flames would only cause more problems than it’d solve. [color=d7d7d7]”Ok everyone, this way!”[/color] He said, raising his voice over the destruction going on behind him. He was going to bring everyone the way that him and Therion had come, with the area being mostly cleared out at this point. 

With the explosions going off around the area and the rest of the group headed for the door, Therion wanted to join them as soon as possible. Unfortunately he was still tangling with the wendigo, and he'd have to make sure to put it down rather than just ditch it so that it couldn't impede their escape before the whole building went up in flames. With a great push of his back legs against the creature, hooked claws extended to rake against it as he moved, Therion extracted himself from the melee entanglement with it and landed on his four paws a few feet away to reposition. Rather than waste the few precious seconds transforming back he remained in his beast form. His tail flicked behind him, agitated, and his fur bristled with light as his Battle Boost consumed him. The aura shifted from white to gold as Therion pounced, digging his nails into the wendigo and forcing it to land hard on its back. It was not defenseless while supine and raised its arms to retaliate, but at that point Therion's swiftness, and his momentary power boost, let him follow up with the double sided blade still gripped in his mouth. He slashed viciously at the demon and continued even when he felt its own claws scrape against the scales of his beast form's armor.

His well-aimed cleaves, cruelly delivered, sufficed to sever the nightmarish ghoul’s exposed neck from its shoulders. Its body writhed as its horned skull rolled to a stop, that baleful glow still alight in its eyes, but after a tense moment it faded and the twisted bones began to disintegrate.

With the wendigo dead, and hopefully no more where it came from, the thief could race after the others. There was no time to pay the deceased any final respects, only enough to snatch her spirit and sawed-off shotgun if the Seekers were so inclined. Between it, the Plague Pistol, the HC Hurricane, there was a bevy of guns worth collecting, if only this place wasn’t burning down. Roland and Therion led Vergil and the other captives back through the route by which they entered, with Burnice bringing up the rear. The biker girl torched everything she could point her flamethrowers at, ensuring that this wretched refinery -and the parasitic vermin within it- would never harm another soul.

The rest of the facility passed by in a blur, with only flickering lights to lead the escapees away from the roaring inferno behind them, until finally the light of day glittered at the end of a hallway. Before them stood the loading bay through which the Seekers entered, and now that they’d seen what they saw, the random vehicles scattered around it made a lot more sense. Rather than rush out the door, Burnice made for her bike, which lay toppled where the cultists left it. After righting it, her eyes lingered for a moment on the other bike beside it. “Lucy…” She shook her head. “She wasn’t, like…in there. Just her bat.” She balled her fists and climbed on her bike. “I bet she shook them off and made her own way out! Yeah, I’m totally sure of it! Whenever we Sons of Calydon get separated, they always turn up again somewhere!” With a determined smile on her face, Burnice revved her bike. “Hear that, Lucy? I’ll see ya soon!”

Since the doors had been broken open earlier, there would be nothing stopping others from collecting (or stealing) their vehicles and making it out of there as well. Therion didn't wait to see who else took that time. He made right for the exit and only once outside did he retake his human form, shifting back to normal in a muted burst of light. He pressed a hand to his neck and stretched it, rolling his shoulders. The wounds he'd taken in his beast form remained on the equivalent human body parts, but it was nothing some spirit absorbing with his wraith blade wouldn't fix- [i]...right, they turned into books instead.[/i] Therion dropped one such book onto the dusty ground and unceremoniously stabbed through it with the summoned sword just to see if it would still revitalize him a little, and luckily it did.

He looked back at the building that was soon to be up in a blaze, and Burnice as her motorcycle came out of the door. He'd heard what she said inside, and though he figured if her friend wasn't with the other captives in the cell or on the conveyor, it was more likely she'd might have been... well, no use thinking about that now. You couldn't save everyone, and the fact they'd come out of there with a handful of rescues was good enough.

[color=BC8DBF]"Good luck finding her,"[/color] he told the girl, though if she could hear him over her bike's engine was another thing.

Leaning to Therion, Roland whispered. [color=d7d7d7]”I got a feeling her friend got turned into one of those cultists…”[/color] knowing full well what happened with these cults. He'd put Therion's own thoughts to words, but the thief didn't agree aloud. He then moved to get into a position to talk with the others. [color=d7d7d7]”So, you are all free and rescued. I have a question before you all leave though… Well, her”[/color] Roland said, pointing a thumb at the girl riding out of the building on her bike [color=d7d7d7]” besides the point… Do you guys know of anything crazy going on here besides people being turned into snax or anything crazy about the nearby area?”[/color]

Burnice paused as if making sure she heard him right over her engine, then shook her head. “We just got to Scorched Gorge early for a picnic with our friends. Saw a couple trucks rolling in and came over to check it out.” She still sounded a little shell-shocked, but at least she wasn’t singing. Spotting a familiar semitruck down the road, she revved her bike again and sped off on her way. Vergil, Blackwell, and Wambus looked like they might need help, though, since the leftover vehicles seemed beyond them.

However, the pickup truck Roland and Therion had come in definitely wouldn't be able to fit an extra three people in the cab. Maybe they could ride in the bed with the weapons cases, assuming the drive back would be as easy as the drive here in the first place.

Therion looked at Roland first, plainly stating his intentions. [color=BC8DBF]"The only crazy thing [i]I[/i] want to get up to is a crazy good nap. Let's just get Ms. Fortune and head back."[/color]

It was still too early to turn in for the night, but as Therion hadn't expected or wanted to run into this much trouble when he'd decided to tag along, he wasn't about to let Roland drag them into something else so soon. Then Therion looked at the people they'd saved, standing awkwardly like they didn't want to ask for more help than they'd already received.

[color=BC8DBF]"See if you can fit in the back, we're headed to a town called Hammerhead,"[/color] He said to them and hooked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the truck. Since he didn't expect Roland to disagree, he just offered them the lift. [color=BC8DBF]"Or we could drop you off somewhere on the way,"[/color] he added, eyeing the huge truck Burnice had headed towards. They'd be passing by that monster once they hit the road anyway.

[color=d7d7d7]”Yeah, should be fine. Everyone hop in.”[/color] Roland said, a bit sad that this was just a cult hangout and not anything more significant. He did learn though; Don’t eat food looking objects that are alive. Turn them into books first, that makes them safe to eat. 

Once everyone got into the truck and started to head out, Roland said to Therion, Roland said. [color=d7d7d]”So… I guess the information we got from that place was… Don’t eat food items with eyes. Kinda good for me, because as weird as it sounds, some of those bug things kinda looked tasty.”[/color] Roland sighed, relaxing a bit. [color=d7d7d7]”You want a nap, I’m in the mood for a sandwich.”[/color]

[hider=For the seekers]
Plague Pistol, HC Hurricane, 1 Book of the Wendigo, 3 Book of Bugsnax
[/hider]