[hr][h1][color=darkslategray]PLAGUE[/color][/h1][hr] The rest of the day went fairly well for Plague and his men. Roark went to a nearby convenience store and bought some supplies while Daniel went to the hardware store to pick up tools and things he could use to make explosive traps. Once they both got back, the group moved up to the sixth floor of the building. Plague himself situated himself on the seventh floor, where the CEO's office was. They no longer travelled by way of the streets anymore, and got around through a maintenance tunnel leading to the sewers at the bottom of the building. When he got back, Daniel locked the doors, wrapped chains around the handles, and, if an intruder really just didn't get it, placed a bomb with a tripwire just behind the doors. Roark put boards up on the inside of the windows to dissuade explorers. The security room no longer worked, but none of them had the skills to repair it. Plague spent an hour or so exploring the sewers with his crew of phages, trying to figure out where the different entrance points were. Soon he more-or-less had a mental map of the entire sewer system under Isabella Isle. Talia kept watch with her phone; if anyone showed up, she would send a text out. [u]8:00 PM [/u] Plague walked down the steps to the sixth floor with a black backpack on his shoulders. He looked around at the newly-rennovated sixth floor; they had made good progress in setting it up, but it was still somewhat dirty. Unlike the floor they had been on before, this level consisted of a central hallway with individual offices along it. The hallway was square-shaped, ending where it began. There were fourteen rectangular offices, a few closets, and a bathroom on the sixth floor. They had set up in offices 601, 602, and 603, which overlooked the main street that ran through the Ghost Town. With tools Daniel had bought, they had busted through the walls separating them and made a very primitive doorway between them, joining them into one large room. This was their observation room, and until they had more men would be the home of their operation. Offices 606,607, and 608 were wired to explode if anyone opened their locked doors. Office 604 (which was in the center of the building, facing 601) was the armory, and was currently empty save a few of Daniel's bombs, some RPGs, and a few grenades on a shelf. Plague hoped to rob a gun shop in Union Point in the near future. Plague walked into Office 601. Daniel was sitting on an exam table (rooms 610, 611, and 612 had once been a doctor's office) eating a piece of jerky. Roark was eating a McDonalds cheeseburger. Talia stood at the window with a pair of binoculars. Byon was patrolling the hallway, watching for any intruders. Plague looked over to Daniel and Roark. "Come with me," he said. "We're going to go see Khan." "What about?" Daniel asked. "We need some new recruits," Plague replied. "And I'm not taking the burnouts this time. I'm going to pick them myself." Roark and Daniel both got up and picked up their guns. "Keep watch until I return," Plague said to Talia. "Inform Byon if any intruders come. I don't want you leaving this room." [hr] A few minutes later, Plague climbed down the ladder into the sewers, Daniel and Roark right behind him. They walked along the edge, Plague taking point with a flashlight, and walked through the maintenance tunnel under the channel between Isabella and Estella Isles. Roark kept his eyes peeled for any signs of movement, and had his gun at shoulder level. Once they reached the other side of the tunnel, Plague stopped. He heard something up ahead, something animalistic and dog-like. It reminded him a bit of Broken Hyena, one of Khan's hounds. He was safe, though; it required a special level of stupid for that dog to get off of its chain. There were gunshots not far away and a doglike howl. "Keep your weapons up," Plague said. "Broken Hyena is loose down here." "Fuck," Daniel muttered, drawing his Glock from its holster in his jacket. They skirted around the tunnel, being very careful so as to avoid detection from the canine beast. Plague had generated four phages by this time, and they crawled along the walls as he walked. They reached the tunnel Plague was looking for without incident. Once arriving, they removed their masks and placed them in the duffel bag. Then they climbed the ladder and entered a dark alley in the middle of the Iron District. [hr][h1][color=powderblue]Taylor Pierpoint[/color], [color=gold]Carole Elias[/color], and Eli Vaughn[/h1][hr] Things were quickly beginning to get out of hand. Drake was dancing with a lampshade on his head, Jen was irreparably drunk, and probably would be for the rest of her life (luckily Taylor didn’t give her a full-sized bottle), people who she didn’t know were walking in the door, and now some girl who Taylor had never met was asking her about the party. To top it all off, Taylor was at the point on the drunkenness scale where she wasn’t happily complacent, but was just confused and found it difficult to process information. “The better question is; why not have a party?” Taylor asked. “Now, um, who are you with? Sorry, I've had a lot to drink and this party's getting a little out of control.” Then, to Taylor’s relief, Ratchet walked in and started talking to Meifeng and Jen. Taylor looked over at her. “Ah, bonjour! Welcome to the party!” Taylor said. “Generally my parties don’t revolve entirely around hard liquor, but considering that the city has practically burned to the ground in the last few days, I figured we could use a little trashing! If you’d like, the refrigerator has non-alcoholic things in it." Upstairs, one of the second-story bedroom doors exploded open loudly. Carole staggered out, obviously drunk, with Brayden not far behind her. The two were shouting and screaming loudly enough to be heard from the living room. The conversation was so frenzied, however, that it was hard to make out exactly what they were saying. “I’ll just leave, then!” Brayden shouted. “Then go!” Carole yelled back “I don’t care, I’ll find somebody else!” They staggered down the steps. Then Brayden through the front door open and stormed out. Carole tried to run after him, but she fell over and landed on her face in the parlor. She staggered to her feet and looked around the room. She realized that she was only wearing her underwear, but she was too drunk to really care. Taylor considered helping her, but then she considered drinking the glass of fruity alcoholic beverage in her hand and decided that the fruity beverage was less annoying and wasn’t mean to her as often. She'd let someone else do it. Eli Vaughn was having a bad time. Sure, a few beers was fun, but he had once again underestimated his classmates' level of maturity and temperance. Now Drake was dancing with a damn lampshade on his head, Claire was getting laid, Neal was giving somebody a blowjob in the bathroom, and Carole was walking around 3/4 of the way naked. He was a seminarian, for Christ's sake! He didn't do any of this! He considered leaving, but then Carole began to wander off again. Taylor was doing nothing about it; she was too busy getting drunk and killing people with hard liquor. If the girl went numb (she probably would), he could bring her back. For now, however, he decided to follow Carole and make sure that the didn't get herself into trouble. Carole wandered back upstairs to her bedroom. To her surprise, it was taken by Claire and some boy Carole had never seen before. So, she walked into a sitting room overlooking the beach. She was looking for a place to roll up and go to sleep (and/or more alcohol), but instead she found a very sketchy-looking girl with a cigarette standing by the window. Before she could react, she felt someone walk in behind her. "Carole," Eli said. "Go put some clothes on. You're walking around in your underwear." "I...I dun caer," Carole replied, looking over at him. "Well you should. Come on, once you get some clothes on I'll get you some water." "I dun want waetr!" Carole shouted. "I wana geet dwunk..." Eli's stare told her that she wasn't getting anywhere with him, though. She sighed and marched off to her room to put some clothes on. Eli looked back up at Maxine. "Sorry about that," he said. "She's had a bit too much to drink." He could help but smirk. "Um, forgive me, but who are you? I don't remember seeing you come in." [hr][color=dimgray][h1]Sam Clarke[/h1][/color][hr] [hider=Combat by Flobots][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNZEaKxJ3F8[/youtube][/hider] Sam Clarke leaned against a brick wall at the end of a dark alley. He was wearing a black hoodie and jeans, and the heat coming off of the pavement was crippling. A cigar was clenched between his lips, and he was smoking it as he waited for his partner to show up. The streets of Union Point Hills were just beginning to clear of traffic, and the homeless beggars and boys selling water bottles were beginning to pack up and leave with their day’s catch. Police sirens weren’t far off in the distance. Sam heard the moans of a prostitute from a nearby portapotty. This place was filth itself. Tonight, he and Nightingale were going undercover to scope out Fiend territory and try to find intel on the location of the lieutenants. He checked all of the important pieces of equipment: handgun, check. Flashlight, check. Kevlar vest under clothes, check. Motorcycle under a tarp behind a dumpster, check. Sam didn’t feel very good about this. Though he and Nightingale were well-trained, they were in a cesspool of criminal scum with little protection. From a distance, he watched as a woman was dragged off of the street and into an alley. She tried to scream, but a hand clamped over her mouth and pulled her into the beckoning dark. Sam very calmly sat up straight and walked across the street. He entered the alley where the woman was being mugged. Both criminals had a gun. One was holding a knife up to the girl’s throat; the other was unbuckling his belt. The woman’s mouth was covered with duct tape. As he approached, the man unbuckling his belt turned and pointed his gun at Sam. “Yo, back off!” he shouted. Sam disappeared. The man looked very confused. Then the sound of a suppressed pistol firing filled the air. The man looked down and saw that there was now a bloody hole where his penis had once been. Before he could react to it, an invisible hard elbow was thrown into the back of his head. He dropped to the ground like a marionette with the strings cut. The other man dropped his knife and backed away. Sam reappeared out of thin air, and he screamed. Before he could draw his gun, he fell back into a puddle, a bullet hole between his eyes. As the girl sunk to the ground, Sam picked up the bodies and tossed them in a dumpster. In this part of town, no one would care if there was a double homicide in an alley, especially if a NEST agent committed that homicide. When the two boys went missing, everyone would know what happened to them without a full-scale criminal investigation. It was simple, and it was cruel. Sam holstered his gun and walked away without another word. The girl choked out a “thank you”, but he didn’t respond. He sighed and took another puff of his cigar. This was going to be a long night.