Bring it Back Again

A week after a mysterious earthquake rippled over Old Tokyo - an earthquake without a source or reason that most anyone knew about. 

There are some though, that know the source of the earthquake, that some cult was attempting to summon a demon beneath Old Tokyo. That they may or may not have succeeded. Whether they did or not is unknown to even those that know about the earthquake. Though it seems unlikely that the demon was summoned in the end. Given that no demon had risen from the rubble of Old Tokyo or attempted to destroy the city adjacent. 

A week has passed since then, a week that has seen the rise of many unfortunate but seemingly small and unconnected problems through the city. Ruptured gas lines, clogged toilets, systems that have been in use for years suddenly not working as they should. Small inconvienences which are piling up and causing tensions in the city to rise. One such is the virus that has been spreading through the city. A simple-seeming cold which has as of yet claimed no lives but which is virilent in its disposition. 

While no one yet has been killed by this strange illness, nor has anyone been cured of it. Either through natural or medical means. Which means that every case of the cold remains. No one knows the source of it, but no one is particularly concerned about it either. After all modern medicine is a wonderful thing, and no one has died of it yet right?

Right?

Ryuusei ended the call with a sigh. "Shit!" That was the third pizza place he tried and it was also closed due to staff illness. Just what the hell was going on? So many people getting sick in such a short time was crazy! The world he'd...come from, was light-years behind this place in just about everything, but there...

...His train of thought got derailed by his stomach growling.

"Shut up!"

He decided to go look for a place to eat. He left the unmarked white cargo van in a parking garage and hit the streets.

Sighing to himself Terrence opened his eyes ending his current round of meditation and internal energy manipulation training, something he had picked up once more after settling into the apartment after the Old Tokyo incident. He shut the television off that was left running in the background as he meditated, listening to the news around the city so he could try to get a bit more up to date with current events of the area, still he could only handle so much "Fuck..I think my brain is oozing out of my ear listening to the news drone on, but gotta do it". He grumbled as he turned away and pulled out a faded light blue jean jacket from the closet to slide on "It does feel good to wear modern clothing again.." he admitted to himself more than anything as he stepped into his heavy hiking boots and left the apartment.

  He was well aware he was still being observed since its only been a week since his arrival on world and he was certain he'd be on the 'Extraterrestrial Intermediary. ' branch's watchlist probably for a long time since his method of arrival was anything but subtle much to his chagrin and his interference during the cult incident probably didn't help matters any. However that aside he felt he was being on..fairly good behavior ever since then mainly due to his desire to knuckle down and really get his bearings about this world so he had been doing a fair bit of research, more leaning towards the supernatural side of things if he could dig up information.

  However that didn't stop him from taking walks and keeping his nose down when possible as sometimes his best method of gathering information is to just do some wandering and keeping an ear out for rumors around the city keeping a mental checklist of things that niggled his gut instinct to look into later. "A bit of fresh air will do me some good I think, can't keep cooped up like an animal all the time." he mused taking a deep breath of air before going for a walk towards downtown.

He'd gone several blocks now; passing several closed businesses. It wasn't just places that served food but other stores.

This included a comic shop, that whenever he'd passed it, usually only had one or two people at a time...

...Then his eyes spotted the 'Out of Business' sigh on the door, so nevermind...

There weren't that many people out and about; he figured they were trying to avoid getting sick...or just using the excuse to skip work. Well, whatever the reason, it made it easy to spot a somewhat familiar face.

(I think that's the crazy fucker with the lamp-post...What was his name, Jerry? Larry?)

The green-haired teen in red t-tee and camo pants figured the man's name as he silently crossed the street and appeared behind him.

"Hey, Berry, sup?"

Having eventually made his way downtown on his outing Terrence had kept an ear out for any unusual rumors in regards to the illness going around the city or anything really that seemed curious or suspicious, he wasn't expecting to gather anything worth noting on any one outing but that wouldn't stop him from at least makin daily attempts. The alternative was him pickin fights with gangs around the city but he didn't want the government branch liaisons gettin on his case for vigilante style actions or the sort. So here he was behaving while at least feelin he was being somewhat productive towards his own goals.

At least that was the case until he felt someone suddenly focusing on him from across the street and now homing right in on him, however not feelin any sort of danger he didn't make an attempt to evade as whoever it was came up behind him to speak...and get his name wrong. He was sorely tempted to try to ignore the person speaking to him and claim its a case of mistaken identity but given how the guy came right up to him there was obviously some level of recognition. Instead of responding right away he made a nodding motion to move closer towards a storefront so they were not speakin the middle of the sidewalk before turning to address the green haired teen and immediately recognized that head of green hair from the failed demon summoning incident.

  "Don't think I gave out my name, and for what its worth its not Berry. Terrence is what I go by. What business do ya got with me?" he asked in a fairly neutral tone as they were strangers as far as he was aware of.

There's another person on the street, an older gentleman with gray hair and a hacking cough. The cough is so bad in fact, that he drops to his knees not more than ten feet away from the pair of men talking to one another on the street and then keels over. 

A quick examination of the man shows him to be breathing, but very shallowly. There's black flecks all over his lips, and some sort of dark substance in his mouth. He doesn't rouse to being shaken or called out to. In fact, he doesn't rouse at all.

Ryuusei fallowed the man over to the storefront. When the man corrected him on the name, he apologized. "Eh, sorry bout that...shit was kinda crazy last week." As for why he apporached... "No reason really, just saw you out here.

He eyed the storefront and let out a laugh. "You picked the perfect spot to stop and chat. Knock out a couple windows and we'd be back at 'The Temple'. Careful, Brother Jimmystick might just jump out and try to hold you up..."

...The sound of a hard cough interrupted him. Ryuusei turned to find an aged man approaching...then drop to the ground in a coughing fit.

He was taken aback by the old man; he heard the saying 'cough up a lung'...but by the sounds of it, the old man was actually going to!

...And then he stopped...

Ryuusei slowly moved to examine him; from the looks of it, the old man was still breathing, but what was that around his mouth?

Fuck, he wasn't a doctor, but he had the feeling gramps needed one and fished out his phone to call an ambulance.

Terrence snorted at the window comment "Fair enough I suppose, and yeah that was me who actually did that to that cultist, just gave him a swift kick through it. good ti--" his attention was quickly pulled away at the same moment as the guy he was talkin to at the distressing sound of the older gentleman hacking and collapsing.

  Immediately he followed up with Ryuusei to kneel by the older gentleman trying to gently rouse him "Hey..hey! stay wtih us here" he said even as he dug his own phone while he noticed the green haired kid making a ambulance call. His eyes narrowed at the substance around the guy's lips and mouth and quickly took pictures "this shit ain't natural." He hissed quietly as he sent off a message to Rayne.

*Got somethin nasty here. Pictures speak more than I can describe. This doesn't seem to be the same sickness that's been goin around..or if it its its way more advanced..* he sent off along with the images he took of the guy's lips and mouth. *Another person here is already contacting emergency services.*

It doesn't take long for the sound of an emergancy vehicle to be heard heading in the direction of the pair of men who called for one. The man doesn't respond, but the black gunk on his mouth?

It... moves. 

That's right. It wiggles. 

It slaughs out of his mouth and then JUMPS at Ryuusei!

Ryuusei ended the call...then quickly focused electricity into the device, frying the battery and card. As he did this, he noticed...movement from the shit on the ground. He stepped back and addressed the older man. "Hey, if you're snappin pics, mind getting a video of this?" This was starting to look like that 'Black Oil' from a show he'd seen called 'The X-Files'...

...And that's when the blob flew at him!

"Shiii...!" Ryuusei quickly lept back a couple of feet, and with his hand still electrified, threw a small ball of lightning at the blob. The ball wasn't super high-voltage, but surely it should kill something that small...

...Right?

Time seemed to slow down as Terrence's instincts warned him of danger a moment before the black crap around the now deceased man's mouth started to -move- and in a moment of clarity snapped the phone back up to take pictures with one hand on the phone while the other started charging up a sphere of dark blue energy  at the tips of his fingers. "Watch out!" he called to Ryuusei but it seemed as if the teen was already ontop of it.

 He kept the small sphere of ki charged at his fingers pointed at the blob waiting to see if it so much twitched after the teen electrocuted it, he'd snipe it if it did otherwise he'd let the energy dissipate. With pictures of the black goo moving on its own to intelligently seek out another he fired off another set of images to Rayne *Unless y'all ain't telling me something there is more to this than it seems. This shit can act on its own.*

 His gaze turned to Ryuusei "Help me keep any onlookers back away from the body and this shit, it ain't safe."

The little bolt of lightning, small as it is seems to have the opposite effect than what is desired. Rather than frying the little blob of black ooze, the ligtning strikes it and the ooze... GROWS. Not signifigantly, but it goes from being about the size of a quarter to nearly double that size. Wiggling on the ground as if pleased with itself, Terrence's attack hit's it a moment later and... it grows again. Now easily the size of a moderately sized rat the black ooze continues to hunt the man who hit it with the initial lightning strike. 

It's surprisingly quick at this size, and more than willing to jump the intervening space between itself and the man that it is seeking out mindlessly. 

At least there's plenty of fodder for pictures at this point?

This was a nice city but not one she wanted to stick around in with everything she had witnessed so far. The illness while concerning wasn’t her main reason for being here. She was still scouting this place and send off regular reports. She was thankful for the abandoned building she had found. The homeless population didn’t pay her any mind and she could go about her business without interruption. She was out again to find some suitable sources of interest so she could stay here longer. She had reported the illness but the Collective didn’t care about disease as they viewed that as a biological problem and not a Collective problem. She could see the point but what if this was a direct effect of conduit energy? She made that argument and was told if it was a concern then to investigate the possibility and collect samples. That is what she was out to do now. The problem being she had to get access to a corpse for analysis. That was the hard part.

She had been working her way into the more populated areas hoping to find a dead biological to analyze and came up empty handed. She was about to double back when she registered an electrical discharge that wasn’t within the parameters of the power grid having an arc flash or similar event. She didn’t waste time and moved to observe what was going. Her initial reaction was to cloak and she did to move toward the disturbance. As she got closer she noted two organics in a contest against what appeared to be a black slime creature. That was interesting as she had not cataloged any such beings on this world. She stopped herself from moving closer as again this wasn’t her fight and it seemed that the two organics had it in hand.  She would get closer and see what this creature was and scan it.

It seemed intent on one and not the other. That was another interesting trait. She wondered what caused it. She moved to what would he considered half a block away to observe them more closely. What she did was against all protocol and dropped her cloak for closer observation without it being strange.

What she really wanted was the body to study.

Okey, that was freaky! Not only did the lightning cause it to grow, but it didn't seem bothered by the heat at all!

He jumped to the side as the slightly bigger blob lunged at him. (Shit that was close!) He landed in front of the pole holding the intersection's traffic lights. With a moment to catch a breather, he was able to sense the brief elevation in Terrence's energy. (He knows how to use his Ki?) ''He watched as the man fired the small blast at the blob...

...Which was then eaten by the the thing!

"You gotta be...shittin me!" As he watched the blob grow to that of a moderately-sized rodent. (I think that did more than the lightning bolt.) Eating life energy kind of made sense to him, but his attack? Was the electricity or Elemental energy in gener..."AHH!"

Once the blob finished growing, it came at him again...but now much faster! A green blurr shot up the pole and Ryuusei reappeared standing on top. (Li'l fucker's fast, I'll give it that, but...)

Sirens approached from down the street...

...Can't he have just ONE thought uninterrupted?!

As the ambulence approached, he realized he needed to keep the blob away from the EMTs, so he quickly jumped to the nearest roof and called down to it. "Hey ya shit rat! Fuck the appetizers, and come get the main course!"

Unable to bite back the curse that came up Terrence let out a quiet 'fuck me' under his breath after the mass of goop showed its capacity to absorb at least certain types of energy, with its newfound size attacking Ryuusei prompted Terrence to quickly stuff his phone away and call out to several nearby onlookers "Keep Back! This is a dangerous situation!" he said his eyes scanning the crowd and pausing briefly with his expression briefly reading surprise as his gaze passed over one girl.

*I don't feel anything from her?! I didn't even know she was there till I saw her some kind of golem or robot or something?! Fuck.no time to delve into this* he cursed inwardly as he pulled his eyes away and moved to follow Ryuusei as the young man made it a point to lure the blob away. He wholeheartedly agreed with the idea of drawing the thing away. He'd make the leap up onto the building after the guy once it was certain the blob would follow. Once on the roof he'd double check his phone making sure its working and tracking his location, while he'd be to busy to keep Rayne in the loop at least he'd them updated on his current location.

 With that settled away he called ahead to the blob's current meal ticket "Oi Good idea getting this away from normal folk, I'm keeping an eye out for some means to capture this thing a container of sorts but not sure if I"ll have much luck up here, also we need to figure out how to slow or corral this damn thing, for now keep an eye out for a empty lot or currently vacant construction area. Can you use a fire element?" He kept Ryuusei in the loop with his train of thought even as he scanned the rooftops or even nearby streets for anything that might work as a canister or container to hold the glob.

The situation seemed to go the way she had run the statistics for and the two intital combatants were luring away the creature. That wouldn't work as one of the combatants was the being from the alley the other day. He seemed more than capable of dealing with this but as it seemd to eat energy and grow it may not be a good thing if they kept hitting it with energy.

When the EMTs arrived their radios would start to play numbers stations broadcasts. She quickly decided to exit the situation as that was her cue to leave as well. She wanted to see the conclusion of this scenario but not at the expense of wrecking havoc on all lower tech level radios. She waited until the crowd was paying attention to the EMTs and then teleported to a building that gave her observation of the two organics and the blob.

As she teleported she called for a weapon. Her rifle should be good if the blob creature wanted to cause problems and she could engage it without hitting either person. As she took position she noted that the one from the alley was waiting on something. She quickly changed rounds and put a tracker round in. She could tag him to follow later. That would be the best course of action. She also readied a grenade. You never knew with unknown creatures what would work. 

"Organics....let's move....I want to capture that thing and study it...come on, it has been three milliseconds since I moved here and you are making me feel like it will be a full minute before you actually move."

The black blob seems to consider chasing after the man it initially 'chose' however Terrence is closer and it wiggles toward him a little bit. Perhaps it's more intelligent than originally thought? Or less. It's hard to say. Either way Terrence retreats as well and the black blob seems indecisive. Right up until the EMT's come piling out of the ambulance. Then they are much closer than either of the two men and it wiggles unnoticed toward the EMT's. 

The ambulance technicians compltely ignore Terrence's warnings about this being a dangerous location, (though the onlookers take a hesitant step back) and don't seem to notice the small black scurrying blob at all. They hurry toward the man on the ground and start performing CPR in the hopes of getting him back. It's to little avail however and quickly they're shaking their heads and popping him into the ambulance. 

Those who are particularly observant might notice that the blob attaches to the ankle of one of the EMT's and... quickly disappears.

***

Amongst the onlookers is a tall man with slicked-back black hair. The only thing remarkable about him really aside from the fact that he is clearly not Japanese, is his height. He's easily six-four, lanky and on the thinner side. That and he doesn't seem appalled by the fact that there's a man laying on the ground - dead. In fact he's smiling lightly. His green eyes glitter in the light and he turns from the sight of the man being piled into the ambulance and heads toward the nearest alleyway.

He watched the street below, so far it seemed like the blob was continuing its pursuit of him.

Soon Terrence made his way onto the roof, so surely with both meal tickets now up there it would fallow, right?

...Right?

"Fire's kinda tricky, but I get what you're sayin." He mostly specialized in Wind and Lightining Artes, Fire was still something he didn't have the best control over yet. Sure if all they needed was a flamethrower he could accommodate that, but that would be extremely dangerous if the blob could consume fire as well.

"Sorry, tryin to keep an eye on the mouth diarrhea." It looked like it was trying to decide what to do? Was it not totally mindless? Can it think?

Fuck, that was a scary thought...

At present, his gaze should've been on the roof, as a female voice called to them. (Great! Now what?) He turned to face the woman armed with a rifle of some kind. "You wanna take a shot at it, be my guest." (A bullet might do something to it...)

...Like cause its brain to break with three targets!

He turned back to the edge, but continued to address her. "...And I PREFER meatbag!"

 ...And then it was gone...

(Shit! Took my eyes off it for a couple...milliseconds...and the little fucker vanished!) What happened, he jumped away whenever the blob lunged at him before, so maybe it was trying to come up through the building?

He scanned the street, saw a sewer grating. "Aw hell, if it went down there it could be anywhere!" But he continued to watch the streets, maybe it was going after the crowd? He looked towards where people were fleeing from, no blob...but while others couldn't flee fast enough, one big guy was taking his sweet-ass time.

Having been keeping an eye on the blob somewhat as he had frantically looked around for some kind of object that would work as a container he missed its initial breaking away from him and Ryuusei. "Sonovabitch! Its on the move!" he shouted as he jumped back down barely catching track of it again on its way  towards the EMT's and the body.

 Eyes narrowed as he focused on the little shit even as he swiftly made it back to the gathering. His teeth grit in frustration as he momentarily lost track of it again as his view was obstructed for just an instant as another medic came around to check the body just in time as the goop slid up a leg out of sight.

  "Fuck, lost it!" he growled before turning his focus finally to the dark haired girl who had called them organics and was seemingly willing to offer assistance, the fact he couldn't feel anything from her life energy wise was still driving him a bit batty *Not human..what is she? Where did she come from?* he had questions but shelved them for the moment as he spoke "If yer willing to help did you see where that dark blob had went? I lost sight of it around the medics so I'm willin to bet good money its on one of their bodies."

  He finally remembered to check his phone and noted that Rayne had gotten back to him "Right, damn we need to keep everyone here until Tactical team arrives. They should be here shortly." He briefly glanced at the Ambulance wondering if he'd have to stop it from leaving as he wasn't sure how to approach the EMT's without causing a panic.

Organics were such a hassle at times. She had really been muttering out loud again and the one took it as conversation. She ignored it and snapped in just in time to see the blob go toward a leg of one od the medical organics. As she was about to see it confirmed one of the other medical organics blocked her view!

“DAMMIT! Move!”

She didn’t bother answering the one who said to take the shot. She teleported into the middle of the medical organics. She snatched the first one up and he was instantly bathed in in a blue light and then set aside.

“Not you, carry on. You on the gurney come here.”

She pointed to the spot in front of her as if she expected to be obeyed without question. As the other medical organics and crowd organics began to stare.

“Nobody leave, I must scan you all!”

While Terrence tries to figure out a subtle way of getting into the midst of the EMT's... Someone else has a brighter idea. Which is to teleport into their midst and demand that a dead guy stand up. Immediately the EMT's scatter - into the ambulance. It's only a step away so they're pretty quick about it and the ambulance in question takes off. 

Meanwhile a black van (very subtle), comes cruising down the street full-tilt and stops not more than a few meters from where Terrence is currently holed up. Five guys in tactical gear come crawling out in the time it takes the ambulance to scurry to the end of the street. "See if you can locate our Alpha target." One of the guys says to the guy on his right who peels off of the formation and starts to look over the quickly dispersing crowd. "You see if you can locate... What was his name? Yea." This to another of the guys in the formation who also peels off to start looking for someone else. 

Meanwhile, one of the people in the crowd is pointing at Scarlett in horror and shock. "She just dissappeared and reappeared! I saw her! She flashed a blue light at one of the EMT's! She's an ALIEN!"

Suddenly the tactical unit is stairing at Scarlett with REAL interest. 

***

The man walking down the alley stops briefly as he notices the tactical van, his smile flashing into a near-grin as he turns back and continues on his way up the alleyway. Anyone watching him might find it odd that he's wearing a suit, black jacket and black pants with a white dress shirt. Certainly more dressed-up than any of the other civilians in the area. But he's far less interesting than the tactical unit.

Things have certainly taken a...turn. That girl teleproted down to the down to the street and wants to...probe people?

"She sounded like a robot earlier, guess she wants to see if they're metric."

The appearance of another large vehicle caught his attention; it was a black van and it stopped near the ambulance and out came five heavily armed individuals.

(These must be the guys he was talkin about.)

It looked like they were checking the on-lookers...but then quickly turned attention to the girl after someone called her an 'ALIEN'.

He also noticed that the Man in black was still lurking around, but once the van showed up the guy slipped into an alley. Something seemed...off...about him and it didn't seem like the other two had noticed him. So Ryuusei zipped across the way as a green blurr and landed on a roof overlooking the alley the man had entered.

(Okey Spook, let's see what you're up to.) As he crouched down to observe him.

Having been wracking his brain on how to approach the EMT's in such a way to avoid panic Terrence missed how the girl(?) vanished from nearby and..in the middle of the medics and his brain needed a moment to process what was going on and when it did he really -really- had to suppress the urge to facepalm however he did decide that he wanted a hard drink later despite his normal reluctance to consume alcohol.

 Of course as the Tactical team arrived things started to spiral even more outta control and at that point given how the situation was escalating he needed to get his ass in gear as he passed by the tactical unit's leader "I'm sorry about this, I'm Rayne's contact out here, the blob is on one of those two medics" he said pointing to two of them "I had been tracking it but lost sight of it for a brief moment and given how fast it can move it could have only gotten to one of those two at the time, also please allow me to try and get this girl to stand down she's..just trying to help" he said in a somewhat exasperated tone "Had asked if she had seen where that goop had went and this was the result"

 Feeling a bit responsible for the situation Terrence had given the Unit leader a quick breakdown of the situation before approaching the red cloaked girl who had been scanning the medics with something, he couldn't really be upset with her as it was a bit his fault for asking if she saw where it went, considering how she was acting almost like a robot or android in her manner of speech he wondered if his words had acted like some kinda query and she was simply going about finding the answer in the most direct means possible.

 Regardless if he was right or wrong he needed to get her to back down "Hey, Hey! Stop that, your scaring them!" he said as he got close enough to lightly place a hand on the synthetic person's shoulder "Please miss..pull back would you? Let the tactical unit that's arrived take over the situation or if you do need to scan..or whatever your doing can you do it from a distance?" he asked at least trying to compromise with her and deescalate the situation some. His free hand tucked into his pocket again and took out his phone to text Rayne *Sorry. Need someone from your branch to come. Situation's grown complicated with another off worlder here. Trying to keep situation stable but uh..don't exactly have any authority here.*

The fact that the organics here weren’t cooperating and it was infuriating. She was about to carry on with her actions until more organics showed up and this time they seemed to be authority  organics. That would be helpful. It wasn’t until she was called alien that the rebuke made her think about the situation. The authority units may be here for her.

“Ok snitch in the crowd, I’ll scan you last. So that I impact your schedule for the day.”

It’s wasn’t until two or three of the authority organics were close that she stopped her demands and assessed the situation. She looked around at the people and their weapons. Minor powered weapons with cases rounds. No threat unless they came in mass and firing. She was going to tell them to mind their own business until someone touched her. She flinched and stiffen at the touch but the words were familiar.

“Giagi?”

No he couldn’t be here that was several hundred years ago and a different dimension. The touch and kind words caused that same defect in her initial programming which she had isolated from her primary programming. She didn’t know what it was but she was unsure of the way it caused her reactions to differ. She relaxed and turned to look at the organic. It was the organic from the alley. She didn’t know if she should be concerned or relaxed but chose to relax.

“Scarlett, my designation is Scarlett.”

She quickly glanced around and noted all the elevate blood pressure and heart rates of the organics. She was glad that she had teleported and put her weapon away.

“Very well the tactical units…,” said with a bit of skepticism, “can handle this. What do you want me to do?”

The leader of the tactical unit blinks at Terrence a few times, but seems to recognize him. He follows in the man's wake as he approaches the 'alien'. After Terrence's words convince her to calm down, he seems to respect the man a touch more, and orders his tactical team to split up and search the area. Meanwhile he turns his attention on Terrence. "Did you say that the Alpha target is IN one of the EMT's?" He asks, sounding both doubtful and yet alarmed at the same time. 

Meanwhile the ambulance makes good its get-away.

***

The man on the street strides calmly down the alleyway until the man watching him speeds to a rooftop to watch him. At which point he... blinks out of existance. Or at least that's what it looks like. One second he's there, the next he's standing beside Ryuusei. Peering over his shoulder and one hand camly on the other man's back. It's a light touch. 

"What are you looking at mon ami?" His voice has a light French accent, not enough to make it truly difficult to understand him, but its there. Present like rasins in your cereal. He's still smiling. Amused.

He wasn't at all surprised when the man suddenly vanished and tapped him from behind; hell he himself did that earlier to Terrence.

He responded without turning to the man. "Ooooh just enjoyin how you moved through the crowd. You must've lifted some good shit from em."

Then he turned and looked the man over. "Nice suit, coupled with the accent...lemme guess, Lupin the 4th?"

Immensely thankful as the girl(?) was willing to hear him out and back off Terrence smiled in relief  as he took a step back with her "Thank you, they way you were doing it while being the most straightforward was causing a panic which would likely lead to consequences in the long run." He cleared his throat as she stated her 'designation' and asked what she should do now "Give me a moment would you? I need to talk to the leader here.." he asked Scarlett as he quickly turned to the lead officer.

  "Sorry about that, yes that blob.." he brought up his phone and started bringing up images for the unit leader to see what they will be dealing with "is on one of the EMT's on that ambulance, given the last position I saw it and the speed it could move, the brief moment that it was obscured from my view it could have only made it to one of them as there was no other places it could have reached or hidden in that brief moment."

  He licked his lips briefly in thought as he considered what the goop has done thus far "Seems to have some sort of rudimentary intelligence or instinct if your vehicles carry some kind of  hazardous waste or dangerous matieral containers I'd strongly suggest taking one with you as this thing seems different from anythin else that's been goin on as of late and eggheads might get clues from it if it could be captured, and I'm not sure how it'll respond to gunfire."

His eyes peer in the direction of where the ambulance went "I'll leave it to your discretion if you want our assistance or to leave it to you."

Scarlett just waited while she watched the organic who had spoken to her and said she was causing a panic.

“Actually I think that you causing the blob to grow bigger was going…”

He was off talking to the tactical organic. She spread her sensor net out a bit and didn’t really detect anything other than the life forms around here. She did note that they seemed to be using hand held devices. That was curious. 

“I have a question. What are those devices they are using? Can I see one?”

She was curious as she didn’t have these thing on Cygnus Prime. 

“I’ve never seen these types of machines.”

The man tilted his head in confusion, "Lifted?" He didn't seem to understand the context of the word, but his hand lingers on the other man's back until Ryuusei turns and looks at him entirely. "Who is this Lupin-the-third?" 

Even confused he's smiling, looking Ryuusei up and down. He doesn't seem aware that they are standing very close to one another. As if he has no sense of personal space. "I am Kol Demontry." This is accompanied by a little bow where he doesn't actually take his eyes off the other man, his pale hands flickering over his chest. Now that Ryuusei is looking at him more closely, he might realize that there is a faint smoke rising from the man, and a scent like snakes in a small space.

***

The tactical team leader nods to Terrence and quickly gathers his men together. "We'll head to the hospital. Figure out what's going on." 

Meanwhile the crowd is quickly disappearing. They've no interest now that the excitement has died off. Not that there was a huge crowd to begin with given that this is not a particularly well-traveled area. In any case most everyone seems to be ignoring Scarlett now. Including the woman who'd designated her as an 'alien'.

The team leader glances at Scarlett though, "We'll leave one of our team members here. To ah... Help with her." He motions to the woman and one of the men sighs as he's randomly chosen to guard duty. The rest begin piling back into the van. 

Which is the point at which their radio's go off, someone's voice clearly audible saying, "We need units over at JR Tokyo General! Now!" Suddenly the men are moving a LOT faster.

Ryuusei backed up slightly. "I see someone doesn't know about personal space," Though that might be how he robbed someone directly confronting him... "And I said 4th, but you look too old to be either...specially with that hearing problem...and..." He caught a whiff of something. "...bowel control? You just shit yourself?"

He hadn't completely diverted his attention from the scene below, he WAS still trying to track the blob after all. It seemed things were calming down; the ambulance had left and most of the Tactical Unit were doing so as well with someone remaining to watch Robot Girl.


(Shit, did they lose it?) While he'd been able to watch some of what went on, he couldn't really hear anything from on the roof. He opted to ask this 'Kol' guy. "But for reals, did you see a little black blob-thing running around?"

As Terrence stepped into the vehicle behind the officers his gaze remained on the red cloaked girl, her initial appearance along with how she first spoke gave credence to his theory se was some kind of computer..or synthetic entity almost like an A.I. which tracked with his inability to sense her presences through sensing life energy. The change to something that seemed like a personality of sorts at his touch left him with a bit of a niggling in the back of his brain as the door finally shut  blocking the girl from view as the tactical team took off with him. The thoughts stewed in his mind for a few minutes as they quickly raced towards the hospital where the ambulance was heading towards.

 Finally he spoke up "Sorry to bother you sir but my gut is telling me our little red friend back there might not stay still, call it an intuition from someone who's seen too much weird shit in his travels." Terrence folded his arms as he continued "She acted almost like a computer..or A.I at first with her speech patterns but you must have noticed almost a shift to a persona when I came into contact with her, and I did leave her query about what she should do unanswered, that might come back to bite me in the ass. I'd be fine with being wrong but.." he left the last bit unsaid.

 "If I were a betting man I'd say its possible one of two possibilities will occur. She'll take off because she only appeared to try and find and scan that blob..whatever the fuck it is, now that its there she might  retreat." He held up a second finger "Or we might see her again  because I didn't give her any instruction so they might follow and ask again or wait for a response. If that is the case may I have permission to stay with us and I take responsibility for actions taken until I can bring her back to Extraterrestrial Intermediary office? I know a couple of workers there."

 He let out a low sigh as they neared the hospital so spat out the last bit in haste so the team lead can focus on the emergency at hand "Sorry its asking alot but from what little I've gleaned from red's actions  they seem at first glance benign or at the very least not hostile and can probably be reasoned with."

She looked at the one standing near her. She still wanted to scan the blob. That would only happen if she followed the one from the alley was followed. She als want to directly observe them. That was part of her programming. Learn. She looked at the organic tactical unit.

“Thank you….bye!”

She cloaked and teleported to the rooftop overlooking the van and when it started moving she started following via running and teleporting to keep pace with the van. She wouldn’t approached but she would watch and follow cloaked. They were displaying actions very similar to how the Slevekian Imperium treated the Archivist by trying to shoot her with a ship weapon! Well she had finished and ran to avoid trouble as her unit type was programmed to do and while she had combat capabilities they preferred to protect those instead of fighting. Organics seemed to want to destroy what they didn’t understand and sometimes did not do the math. She followed along and waited until they stopped again.

She scanned the area for better vantage points. She scanned the buildings for possible entries and exits. She wanted to know what this place was as she had never encountered a place like this before but she did a quick search over her library readings and it matched the hospital she had read about. She liked books organics kept they were nice and on other worlds organics had books of some sort if literature. She liked comparing it to Cygnarian literature to see if there were any stories which seemed similar. She waitedblairbu cloaked while she observed the van.

"Personal space?" Kol echoed, tilting his head to the side like a bird eyeing a particularly tasty treat. His smile never leaves his lips, not even when the man before him suggests that he might have defecated. "Non, non. Why would you say such a thing? You are a very odd one yes?" 

As if he himself is not the odd one. Either way he steps back into Ryuusei's personal space, reaching out to touch the other man fondly on the shoulder. It's a fairly lazy movement, easy to dodge. "Yes, I saw it. This thing you describe. I was sent to watch it yes?" His teeth flash in a grin. "But we have some time to have some fun if you like in the mean-time."

***

The tactical unit approaches the hospital at a break-neck speed (not literally, it's a regular van after all), and with little regard for the care of those inside it. They're trained professionals, used to being tossed around like sardines in a can by forces outside their control. People are pouring out of the hospital as the van comes to a strained stop several yards from the emergancy room entrance. They look terrified, and the van can't get closer with the sheer number of people pouring out. The tactical unit pops out of the van and heads for the nearest nurse.

Terrence gets no response from the unit leader about Scarlett. She is no longer their concern. But rather that of the man they left behind. Who is currently scouring the location she left him in looking for her. Not that he'll find her. 

The nurse blabbers something about something attacking the hospital, but what she's talking about makes little sense and so they allow her to finish helping one of the injured patients out of the way of danger. She coughs several times, shoulders shaking and looking a little gray around the edges as she gets back to her job.

Ryuusei was starting to get the feeling that something was really...off with this guy. So when Kol leaned in to put his hand on his shoulder, the teen ducked around behind him.

This is what he gets for trying to be proactive...

"Fuck you!" Maybe poor choice of words. "I know I'm waaay too young for your kinda fun! And if you touch me, it's gonna be your balls down your throat!"

Boy did he meet a pair while dealing with that blob; first the girl who acted like a robot and now the pervo with 'Demon' in his name. What was next a Ninja?!

...Naw too sane!

Keeping out of the way of the tactical team as he didn't wish to get in the way of any pre-planned strategies for emergencies, however since he forgot to request the use of one he miiight have grabbed a riot shield if there had been one available in the van and brought it out with him as he followed up with the team. His eyes focused intently at the signs of illness or poisoning that the nurse was showing and he felt out with his life sense to see how her life force was doing, trying to search out weaknesses in the flow of energy hinting towards failing organs or muscles as if searching out whatever she was struck with was damaging first or fastest.

 "She's got something nasty if you saw her skin.." he said after she had left also hefting the riot shield first "Sorry I'd like to borrow this. With how that slime can move I want something solid between me and other potential things like it, dunno what's goin on in there but gut is tellin me to be more cautious than usual."

 As he spoke he watched people file out of the hospital quickly before closing his eyes and extending his life sense outward focusing on the hospital itself feeling out pockets of entities that are not fleeing the hospital or that read off or different from normal healthy humans trusting his gut to tell him where he'd find where he needed to go even as he started to make his way into the hospital, if there was something attacking a place of healing he needed to get in there and start damage control if possible. "This place needs to be locked down" he growled under his breath but that was the tactical leaders call. Terrence knew very well he was technically just a civilian who had some ties with Rayne's agency. More importantly if the leader asked him to back down and stay out of the way he'd do so with reluctance but something he always prided himself in was working with authorities if possible, providing they were not corrupt that is.

Scarlett watched as the people came out of the conveyance and started into the building. She scanned each face and finally the one who had touched her. That wasn’t odd in itself because she had been mauled by an angry creature on another planet. It was what it caused her to recall events on Tuluris Seven and how she observed the organics there. She stopped and teleport down to a position to best follow the one from the alley. She didn’t mind observing like this. It helped you better understand the rules of this society. She followed along and listened but kept her distance so as not to obstruct or accidentally impeded them.

She was fascinated by this, it was exploring and learning at its best possible proximity. She could directly witness how they handled this situation. She could also get her scans to ensure that there was no trace of conduit energy. This was working out very well.

The man with his slicked-back hair widened his bright green eyes at Ryuusei's turn of phrase, shuddering as he turned around and going soft-eyed. "Well, when you make offers like that... How am I to say non?" He flashed his teeth in a broad grin and in a flash of movement too quick to see was suddenly standing in front of the young man again. Trailing a finger down his chest. This guy seems all about invading personal space. And he doesn't seem to understand idioms. At all. "Would you like some privacy mon ami?"

***

The tactical team doesn't seem to mind that Terrence has aquired his own tactical shield. None of them are using one at the moment. Their leader looks at Terrence and nods. "You head up to the emergancy ward. We'll take the main hospital. Divide and conqure sound like a plan to you? I could send some of my guys with you if you like, but I'm not sure how they'll handle... an outworlder."

So far... no one has noticed Scarlett in the least. Though someone throws up nearly right on top of her due to not being able to see her. The fun and joys of being invisible.

HiRyuu slipped out of the supply closet, wiping thr back of his hand across his mouth as he closed the door, leaving the ruined female within for someone else to find. When she woke up...if she woke up...she would have no memory of him or their brief fling. And she would be quite anemic.

He soon realized that he needn't worry about being discrete as the scene in the halls was absolute panic. It was clear that not a single person was paying attention to him as a disorderly mass of doctors, patients, nurses, everyone in the hospital, it seemed, were screaming and running for the nearest exits. His curiosity piqued, he waited for the stampede to die down before heading in the opposite direction.

Whatever had an entire hospital full of humans shitting themselves in terror was something he just had to see. A sweet slice of chaos would be the perfect dessert after the delicious appetizer he'd just devoured.

Ryuusei wasn't standing more than five feet behind the man when instead of simply turning around and walking a few steps to close the gap, he decided to show off that speed again. Ryuusei felt the force of Kol spinning around and dashing towards him and ended up being blown back another couple of feet, however, he remained on his feet and simply glided backwards.

(This dude's fucking crazy! That should've torn him apart!) Maybe it did, Ryuusei couldn't see inside of Kol, perhaps the man's organs HAD smashed into his ribs and were reduced to jelly.

Anyway, he was on guard now in case he actually HAD to fight his way out of this. "No, I'd gladly end your ass right here..." He looked past Kol, down the road and saw that the Tac Unit's van followed behind the ambulance.

"But...I've already got a dance partner for the afternoon." He ducked to the side, and in a green blur, launched across the street back to the first roof he had been on earlier and started roof hopping after the vehicles.

Briefly bowing his head once both in thanks for letting him borrow the shield and understanding about not lending his men "Fully understand that, I'm pretty much an unknown and wouldn't work well with a team that's trained. I wish you luck and safety, just keep aware of objects you can put between yourself and that slime if you come across it." he offered before storming into the building. He eyed the map of the place upon entrance and turned to head down towards the emergency ward.

  He felt a highly unusual presence a ways away in another part of the hospital, one that was absolutely not human and he dearly wanted to go investigate. "Fuck..who or what is that? Focus Terrence, you got a job to do here" he berated himself continuing down into the emergency ward where there would be a high chance for the sludge to be considering. As his eyes wearily scanned the halls and peered into rooms he kept the shield close to his side. Unaware of the stealthed synthetic girl trailing him, something he might have caught if the situation wasn't as hectic but for the moment she was getting a free pass.

  "Where is that slime? It could literally be on anyone right now..not even taking into account if it can split and multiply" he hissed under his breath as he listened for any particularly notable cries.

Scarlett deftly moved to avoid vomit and generally preserve he cloak. One did not wash vomit off their body and not calculate how many times this would happen again while there. She watched the exchange from a safe distance and also checking the position of others in the room. She would follow the one the tactical organic called outworlder. He would be alone and didn’t mind the fact she could assist him if he so required it. She followed along easily enough and did as he did and studied the map. That was very efficient of these organics. They moved a bit more inward and he started speaking to himself. Another odd organic behavior. Oh he said a name. She assigned him the designation he spoke aloud, Terrence.

As they moved she passively scanned for lather organics. She was unimpressed by the facility but then again she had seen organics that were less and advanced than this planet happened to be. She also wanted to catalog some of their medical equipment to see what sort of medicine they were practicing. She focused her attention to keeping out of Terrence’s way and scanning for the blob.

This was starting to remind her of that time she was stalked for days by that pack linked felinoid species who wanted to tear her apart because they thought she was food. Well she did have to fight them off. She had been to several different libraries to read. She went when they closed for the night and read through entire contents but when it came to the organics fiction and science fiction she saw how they would treat those like her. She was technology to be taken apart or replicated for their gain. That’s wasn't how you made contact with someone new.

Oh? That would be a terrible ability if it could split and multiply. That wouldn’t bode well for the organics. They could probably be easily overrun with an unknown organic organism. That was also exciting for her because she would help Archivist find them. She wondered if she would be able to see this creature again.

She followed along silently observing and looking at other areas like vents and air returns that would be in their area. This was good. They may find it.

Kol watches Ryuusei go with a flash of disappoinment in his eyes that doesn't change the smile on his lips. "Another time then..." A flicker of movement and he's gone. Where to... is anyone's guess.

***

The people in the hospital are clearly fleeing away from something. So it's not difficult to determine what way to go. Though there is more than one source to follow so that makes it slightly more difficult. At least until Terrence makes it just slightly past the emergancy ward and into critical care. Most of the people here have cleared out already, but there are a few who could not be moved and thus were left behind. None of them seem to be alive any longer if the chorus of dead-pan beeps is any indication. One terrified nurse is in one of the rooms, hiding behind the curtain. She points Terrence in the direction of some danger, and hurries in his wake toward freedom. 

What Terrence finds is a dog-sized black, sparkling ooze which is climbing off a security guard's body. The man seems to be still breathing at least, but a second look suggests that the stuff may have been in the man's nose and mouth. It however has clearly noticed Terrence, and wobbles toward him inevitably.

When Ryuusei was sure he was far enough away from the man, he shuddered! (The fuck was up with that guy?!) He'd been around some weirdos before...like the girl from earlier...but none of them had creeped him out quite like this 'Kol'.

He'd almost told the man to 'stay away from a school'...buuuut Kol might take that as a challenge...

Anyway, he'd lost sight of the two vehicles. "Shit! Where could they...hello!" And landed on a roof which gave him a view of a hospital.

But could this be the right one? It was the closest to where the old man had fallen, but was it the right one? Then he got a look at the street and saw people fleeing the building. If it wasn't the right place, SOMETHING sure as hell was happening there.

Ryuusei darted across the way and landed on a ledge below a 4th floor window and decided this would be his point of entry. Less risk of being shot by the tactical Unit, if this were indeed the place, and maybe would allow him to get in behind whatever was causing the disturbance.

With a burst of green wind, he blew down the closed window and climbed into one of the Maturnity Ward's hallways.

The hospital was eerily quiet, save for the odd random person still fleeing for the nearest exit. HiRyuu continued in the direction most people had fled from, which turned out to be the emergency wing. The further down the hall he got, the more his skin prickled. Whatever was down here, it was something dark. And intriguing. He stepped to the side as a distraught nurse ran as fast as she could out of the critical care ward. 

The sight he saw when he stepped into the ward was...peculiar. The humans in the room weren't the odd part, the large, sparkly black goo-creature slowly hobbling...wobbling?...towards the upright human was what was setting HiRyuu’s hair on end. It didn't look particularly frightening, but he saw the trails of black residue leader out of the security guard's mouth and nose and put two and two together. 

He hung back, waiting to see what the human with the riot shield did. It was interesting that he wasn't running panicked like the rest of the humans had.

With his focus so intent on the current situation as the blob was located Terrence didn't have the chance to notice the still cloaked girl trailing him, what he didn't miss was the fact that whatever that other unusual life source was in the hospital was inevitably being drawn this way. It wasn't human whatever it was even as a brief glance back told him it was holding some human form.

  Frowning he didn't like the feelin he got from the guy at all but untill he had some kinda proof he put it off for the moment as he stepped into the room with the blob already having mentally written off the guard as done for. Still he had to keep its attention as he rapidly scoured the room. He cursed under his breath as his lack of options was causing him growing agitation as he kept he shield firmly between himself and the blob. "What I would'n't give for some acid or freezing agent to see if you'd melt or at least freeze" he grumbled.

 With a 'tsk' he circled the approaching blob untill he had a straight line between it and a solid wall, then he purposely moved the shield away from him just enough to expose his torso and try to lure it to leap at him like it had shown earlier when it was tryin to get the green haired kid with him. If it took the bait then he'd rapidly bring the shield in front of him and suddenly battering ram the shield against it carrying to the far wall and try to smash it into the wall see if mundane physical trauma can slow it. He'd not wait to see the results as he'd quickly hop away towards the exit taking care to make sure it wasn't clung to the riot shield as he moved away.

She could swear these organics didn’t know that while it was great she would take a shot at the blob. It really couldn’t hurt anything. After all it hadn’t shown that ballistic engagement wouldn’t harm it. The energy engagements seemed to make it larger. She would use a flechette round for maximum damage to see if shredding it would eb effective. She did call for Designated Scarlett Rifle to engage the target. The small amount of conduit energy could be registered but you’d have to be paying attention to feel it as it felt like normal background radiation just flared for a moment. What wouldn’t be missed would be the five rapid shots from the rifle that would upon proximity to target, the blob, turn into almost the speed of sound needles to shred the intend target. Each shot caused her cloak to shimmer and re-engage but her hiding spot was spoiled. She uncloaked and came up from her kneeling shooters position with her rifle blinking out and her sword appearing. She glanced toward HiRyuu. 

“So we meet again, I trust you’ve healed up from our last encounter.”

As Ryuusei blasts down the halls of the maternity ward, he might notice a gentleman that stands out. It might be the fine suit that he wears, or even the fact that he doesn't have the harried expression of a father-to-be much less the terrified expression on the face of most of those fleeing down the hallway. Instead he is calmly watching those that are running by him. Then there's the flash of familiar green eyes and... Did the man from earlier reach the hospital before him?

The man offers a little wave to Ryuusei. "Bonjour!"

***

In the critical care ward, the ooze does exactly what Terrance wants it to do; it leaps at his torso in the hopes of... something. It's impossible to tell what it wants. This action means that Scarlett's attack misses it by a fairly wide margin, and Terrance slams it into the wall, jumping backwards just as quickly. The ooze is compltely undamaged it seems by the slamming - though it'd be hard to tell if it was since it doesn't seem to bleed or anything - and it quickly clammors around the edge of the shield. This one might be a - slight - bit slower than the smaller one from earlier, but its size makes it signifigantly more of a threat. 

***

Behind HiRyuu, another of the blobs slinks out of an air vent and down the wall toward the unsuspecting man...

(The fuck's he doing here?) Then at the shout of 'Bonjour!' several small cries could be heard in a nearby room. "Wait, they're just LEAVIN'em here?!" He opened the door marked 'Nursery' and found no other adults...just a few rows of very tiny people. Not all of them were crying, but hearing the others caused a few more to start up...

"Crap!: