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

_{But that isn’t true, it was never true, and you are silly for suggesting as much.}

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.

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...

Just so.

“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.

You can run from everything else, but you can’t run from yourself…

So beautiful, so perfect, so foolish…

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; Zyanya and Irawan.

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…

Now we turn our attention to the outskirts of Neo Babylon where the bustling super city gives way to the lush green forests of the newborn continent, hardly what one expects of the supposed apocalypse but there is a reason the greedy soul of post capitalism is careful to stretch its fingers into this verdant wasteland…

Whilst Edris was flinging himself from the mud like a cat that had found itself stumbling upon water and doing everything in his power to keep contact as brief as possible, they attacked. A full dozen of these dog-sized pillbugs, crawling slow but lunging fast, enough of them to feed an entire village for a week or three so long as they could stomach the uncomfortable scuttling sound that echoed through their shells every time they inched themselves closer.

Edris at least was out of the danger zone.

Jkaqytksypmlodk (henceforth referred to as Jka or Jackie for sanity’s sake) was not so lucky. The Perfect Food cared nothing for her divine mandate, they only saw that she fled, and in their simple barely-qualified-brains they saw fear as weakness and saw weakness as food. Two of the dozen peeled off from the group to chase her with their slow sluggish slouch, stretching what nominally sufficed for their beady little heads forward only to drag the bulk of their weight after them, but should they get close enough to lunge (and miss) they would tear massive chunks of the scratchy wooden thing she’d hidden behind—this was a tree—better get used to them Jackie they were everywhere and they were getting used to you.

Wait what—

These two were smart though, they knew that the bulk of their kin wanted to play with Halima. Despite the noisy chittering she was refusing to wake up and regardless of fear sleepy prey was always the easiest prey, the least dangerous prey, so they moved on whilst the first of their numbers rolled up to make a lunge and got halfway through a hiss before—SPLRRTCH. The bullet was well placed indeed, though really this target was hard to miss, fat as they were and with as many writhing legs as they had it seemed impossible not to hit something important and immediately after the back of its flabby head exploded into an almost comical amount of gore. This was what made them so perfect. They had the absolute minimum of vital organs required to function and were otherwise nothing but thick fat juicy red meat. Even getting a hole blasted in them large enough for a woman—let’s say Halima—shove her entire arm through it wasn’t enough to kill them but it certainly put it in a bad way slouching sadly and pathetically as yet more shots rang off.

She attacked the lead one, with its thick rounded hide, two bullets dinging off but denting it. Pressing hard enough that the folded plate threatened to come loose and pulsing flesh could be seen below. The third bullet was more successful. Losing a bit of it’s the spectacular penetrative power that her first assault had-had it only succeeded in blasting a good square foot of chunky red meat out of it. Alas, it was only angry now.

Near the back of the pack, one had diverted its attention to the bug with a hole in it, and with a little chitter began to consider whether cannibalism was the better option for a faster meal.

Lize proved another viable target, grounded as she was, she didn’t smell particularly nice. Certainly not as juicy as the other targets but she was small and she was in the way and more importantly she was mean, striking the first bug when she got the opportunity, sending jolts of electricity through the juicy mass of flesh but if Halima’s gunshots were not enough to bring one down then a few burns were not. Lize retreated first damaging one before it could retaliate but it was rearing back with a hiss to lunge at her when next she tried, and strike though she might it was only a matter of time before the bug decided it was worth suffering some burns on the inside of its mouths to wrench it from her grasp. Maybe even her hand. Which would make it terribly easy for the curious pillbug that had followed it to drop on her.

Should they catch her those sharp teeth would not have as easy a time getting through metal as they would flesh (or wood) but they were determined, and she would not be nearly as cute after they were done chewing.

Kant on the other hand?

Oh Kant, was he a native to Empyrea or did he simply fit in well?

Even he may not know.

What a continent this was if eight-foot-tall crocodile men were just sleeping in the swamps. The pillbugs did their best to avoid him all the same, the undulating waves didn’t stop them, if anything they seemed oddly equipped to use the added momentum to sling themselves forward but the falling trees were certainly a problem. Disarray spread through their numbers but the truth is they were never particularly organized before, those not currently engaged reared upon their backs and hissed at him ferociously and since he had come to Edris’ aid now he too was in their line of sights—in the end the break down was thus:

2 had committed themselves to cannibalism
1 was desperate not to be cannibalized
1 was still pursuing Halima now significantly worse for wear
2 were making their way towards Jackie
1 was trying to wrestle with Lize’s baton
1 more was trying to take advantage of the opening provided
4 more in that same general vicinity were menacing Edris, Kant, and Lize

None of them had died before, Empyrea’s visitors were so nice!

Strength is only a virtue if you are wielding to wield it…

The cracking of wood wakes you suddenly, the crack of thunder, there’s a fight taking place. Perilously close to the pile of bodies that were being feasted on, it appears you were only spared from death by other’s predilection for violence, but with trees collapsing all around you it’s only a matter of time before you’re caught in the line of fire Zane.