[justify]Let us return now to Neo Babylon, only a moment has passed, though it feels like months.

[sub]But that isn’t true, it was never true, and you are silly for suggesting as much.[/sub]

Let us first turn out attention to Gregor who stayed behind while the rest of the group moved towards the warehouse and was not privy to the coming disaster until it was on his doorstep. Gregor who was stabbed by a knife so thoroughly and so fiercely that it shattered upon his stone hide like the rusty thing that it was, what little use would it have been anyways, no mere tool of mortal men could ever inflict a pain upon him that was worse than that which he experienced every day of life by merely existing.

We weep for Gregor.

“He attempted to stab you because he is a fool,” Batu said with a sigh.

Conrad, who did not like being spoken about like he wasn’t there, replied with expletives.

“He is trying to say that he was creating an opening for us to get away.”

Life was not safe for rats in Neo Babylon, they did not have rights you see, they were targets. Batu was about to explain all of this without speaking aloud. He was about to relay his origin story of coming to this world as part of a war band from his home dimension only to fail from the moment they arrived, for the priestess to be taken away in chains, how he had spent the past several months scrounging for scraps in the gutters and how the life he lived really wasn’t something worth pursuing if you could avoid it but just as he began to explain all of this—very compelling stuff you see—there came a great rumble and whether he liked it or not Gregor’s attention was turned back to the rest of his party.[/justify]

[center]***[/center]

[justify]Within the warehouse, Peggy was growing increasingly desperate—but hidden among that desperation there was an increasing anticipation bordering on excitement, a born native of Neo Babylon dared not dream of a life outside of the gutter but her new friends were just so...  

[i]Just so.[/i]

“We’ll get in trouble, they really aren’t someone you want to mess wi—”

Just then, Hafadac broke into a song, dragging her into his dance for a stuttering second. Spinning her away when she was thoroughly disheveled and accosting his other members. So poisoned with musical glee was he that he literally rushed outside to serenade Gregor, his voice a comedically dim murmur for one moment, before he rushed back in to continue to the tune but by that time… in that one brief moment… 017 had finished assembling her welding torch from seemingly nothing and ignited the first sputtering flame.

And in doing so finally, successfully, posed enough of a threat to activate the ward.

Slowly but surely the jade spider that had been painted from the ceiling to the floor peeled itself out into the third dimension. Shoving its face down first. Distending the dried paint with it like it was pressing against a film of saran wrap before the first gooey drops splattered to the ground and hissing. Did spider’s hiss? Why yes, of course they can hiss, and it is a horrible sound to hear even from one the size of your thumb to say nothing of one the size of God’s. When its legs began to move the concrete walls began to rumble and crumble. The sheet metal roof tore away until for a brief moment it was riding completely upon the spider’s back and with one virulent shake of its body it was flung across to the street distressingly close to Gregor and Batu and another cursing man who assured everyone he had warned them.

And in all fairness, he had.[/justify]

[center]***[/center]

[justify][i]You can run from everything else, but you can’t run from yourself…

So beautiful, so perfect, so foolish…[/i]

When you awaken, you are inside of a warehouse, dingy and old. Cobwebs grow on the roof. Mold grows in the cracks, inside of the boxes you find little more than old promotional material waiting for you but before you can gander at what a CHUMMER is you hear a rumble. Beter get outside and leave the cartoon sharks behind before the roof collapses. The giant jade spider outside can’t wait to meet you; [b]Zyanya[/b] and [b]Irawan[/b].[/justify]

[center]***[/center]

[justify]The members of CNTRL ALT ELITE scoured their way through the glass city that they found waiting for them at the base of the crater, there were no mobs to challenge them, by all accounts it seemed like a fairly boring raid and yet they could not shake the feeling of something watching them from their reflections…[/justify]

[@Shinny] [@Circ] [@THE ADORATION] [@odium] [@Forge] [@Xol Raiyel]