The gravel road turned to dirt as the hovertruck exited the narrow mountain pass and entered the forest. The vehicle resembled what might have been mistaken for a pickup truck on Earth, save that the wheels were replaced with ground-effect vectored thrust fans. It rattled and clattered a little during the transition from rough gravel to soft dirt, bringing the clamor of technology to the pristine silence of the wilderness.

Nora adjusted her glasses from where they had nearly fallen off of her face, and replaced her hand back at the wheel of the truck. "Feels like the levi-shocks are out of alignment," she muttered automatically aloud - a nervous habit the blonde scientist had tried to kick, but to no avail. "I'll have to take a look at it when we get there."

"Lady, we're gonna be lucky to get there in one piece in this clanker," grumbled the gray wolf in the seat next to her, his prominent black eyebrows quirked as he glanced sidelong at her with a grimace. He reached up with rear paw to scratch at his neck under the thick collar strapped there, but hesitated and then dropped the paw back. "You musta done somethin' real bad to get shunted off to this place in the middle of nowhere. Whadja do, run over the CEO's favorite pet?"

It was still a bizarre thing to see the wolf's lips move in a way that could form human speech, and only the need to keep focused on the road ahead kept Nora from staring out of the corner of her eye. "First off, this 'clanker' is a vintage Seriel-model with modular fuel cell-injection, one of the most reliable vehicles of its day - a classic that could easily keep working forever," and here she winced as the engine bit off a cough that shuddered the cab, and quickly added, "with the right maintenance, of course. Second, Georgia Stahlmansche doesn't keep pets, unless you count her pride and joy, the FA-11 Armada robotic assault unit, and I'd be hard-pressed to run one of those over with anything less than a Stenian medium tank.

"And third," she continued as she slumped over the console and beat it with a frustrated fist, "the lab wouldn't have blown up like that if they'd just given me a better power source to begin with! I warned them of the possibility of an overload, and it wasn't even like anyone got hurt in the explosion!" Her hands came off the wheel as she gestured broadly in front of herself. "How do they expect me to make the next generation walking weapons platform if they give me toys to play with?!"

The wolf, with a pained expression, lunged against his seatbelt and managed to hook his front paws over the rim of the wheel, just in time to yank the hovertruck back onto the road from its near-collision with a tree. "Okay, okay, I believe ya! Just keep yer eyes on the road, will ya? I didn't get out of that lab just to die out here!"

Nora regained control of the wheel as the wolf sat back and wiped his forehead with a paw in an exaggerated fashion. "Oh, what am I gonna do, Boxcar?" she wailed. "I'm not good with people, or with going outside, or being an administrator - I just want to do science!"

The wolf named Boxcar patted her on the shoulder with a paw, then pointed ahead with his nose as they finally came out of the thick screen of trees and out into a mountain glen. "Hey, there it is! That must be the place."

The road ended directly in front of a two-vehicle garage attached to the side of the wooden building that stood at the end of their journey. It looked like a large log-sided cabin, two stories tall and maple-colored with a gently sloping roof of brick red tiles. A large bay window stood to the left of the front door, which opened onto a covered porch. A gray stone chimney pointed to the sunny early-summer sky, and a large satellite dish signaled that the rustic look of the building belied a remaining connection to civilization.

Just across from the dirt road and a stretch of grass from the cabin was a tan sandy beach surrounding a crystal-clear lake, a little bigger than an Olympic-sized swimming pool and - through some twist of geologic fate - sat in a sand-and-stone depression rather than in a muddy-bottomed hole. Rising above the roof, tall evergreen and deciduous trees made it clear that stepping out the back door would land a person right into the forest again, a forest that seemed to skitter up to the back of the lodge from its hiding place in the mountains that nestled the valley without making it claustrophobic.

"So, here it is, Boxcar...
"I'd rather be back in my lab, but...this is amazing," admitted Nora with a smile as she adjusted her glasses while leaning forward.

"Hey, anything's better than my cage back at Cybertronics HQ." Boxcar's ears perked as he turned his head slightly as the front door of the lodge opened. "Look, I think that's the handyman who's supposed to give us the grand tour."

A brown-haired human wearing a heather gray T-shirt, relaxed blue jeans, gray mechanic's gloves with red fingers, and tennis shoes to match his gloves stepped out onto the porch with a friendly wave. Nora pulled the truck to a stop just outside the garage, and after helping Boxcar out of his seat belt, she found herself shaking hands with the turquoise-eyed man.

"Justin Hobbes, freelance maintenance," introduced the young man as he looked the two over. "I've just finished the work that Cybertronics Unlimited asked me to do, so I'm ready to turn the place over to you whenever you're ready."

"N-Nora Minder, R&D for Cybertronics Unlimited," stammered Nora as she looked up at the man who was about nine inches taller than her, by her estimation.

"Boxcar, wolf," Boxcar introduced himself without preamble as he sniffed Justin's hand. "Huh, machine oil, metal tang, and the distinct lack of ambient mana comin' from you...yer not a native to this planet, are ya?"

Justin yanked his hand back like he'd been bitten as he stared at the wolf, but then gave out a kind-hearted laugh at his open surprise. "Got it in one! Came from a null-mana world, so I have terrible reactions to magic. How could you tell?"

"I smell super powers," answered Boxcar simply. "That's why the company sent me with the perfesser here."

Nora wasn't sure whether Boxcar had merely mispronounced "professor" with his grumbly drawl, or if his canine muzzle couldn't handle the word.

"If what I hear about this place is true, then you're going to need that talent," offered Justin amiably. "So! You two ready for the tour?"

Nora reached up to the edge of one lens of her slimline glasses, and a quick stroke pulled up a Heads-Up Display that brought her a multitude of data wirelessly from the portable computer terminal in her long white lab coat's pocket. She checked the time, and it had just become ten o'clock in the morning. "The others should be arriving soon," she said as she turned the display off with a tap. "We...we could just wait for them to show up in the bus so we could do the tour in one go for everyone?"

Justin cradled his chin with a hand thoughtfully, then gave a lopsided smirk and nodded. "Fine by me - I'm getting paid by the hour anyway. If you want, I can park your Seriel in the garage for you."

"Oh, it's not mine, it's a company loaner," explained Nora as she handed over the vehicle key. Then she gasped. "You recognized the model?!"

The man shrugged as he got into the cab. "I'm a mechanic, I worked on one that some Vertolian wanted to get restored - while upsizing it to let his eight-foot-tall frame fit into it. After all the work that took, I'd recognized those ground effect fins anywhere."

Boxcar sighed as the two humans began jabbering in technobabble and working on the vehicle, and he went to the edge of the road to look out and see who was coming up the road next...

"We haven't taken a wrong turn, have we?..." Winters muttered to himself as he eased the BMW onto the unpolished gravel road. "The navigator says we're on course, but it's been wrong before."

"I believe we're on track, Winters. The mountain range in the distance closely resembles the one from the invitation," the woman beside him responded, pointing a gloved finger at the long ridge filling the horizon. "Please stop worrying."

"Of course, Lady Jane. My apologies, Lady Jane," he responded quickly, avoiding eye contact. It was a matter of professionalism to never look directly at nobility, and the woman he was escorting was certainly that. Everything about her, from her tall, trim posture to the beautiful golden coat of arms emblazoned on the back of her hunter green jacket, commanded respect, but a baroness should expect nothing less.

"Are you wearing your sidearm, Winters?" she asked, scanning the horizon for their destination. He tapped the side of his coat with a hand in response, confirming her suspicion.

"Did I not ask you to leave it behind?"

The assistant winced. "The royal family insisted, Lady Jane."

"Hmph," Amie huffed, scowling. "I expect you to keep it both out of sight and mind. This is a diplomatic affair, but more than that it is a natural retreat. I would prefer to not present ourselves as a threat, if you please."

"Permission to speak my mind, Lady Jane?" the assistant asked crisply, though Amie detected a hint of fear in his voice.

"Granted," she replied, glancing at him.

"Perhaps if you do not wish to pose a threat, you should not wear a sword by your side, Lady Jane," Winters replied, referring to the razor-sharp longsword sheathed with a thick leather belt behind her seat. Amie was the only member of her household to carry a weapon openly. She had refused immediately to having a bodyguard accompanying her, and after a considerable amount of bickering she convinced her parents to let her arm herself, on the terms that she wield a 'noble weapon.' In other words, an old weapon. Gold and steel, not black and composite plastic. She settled on the English twoedged longsword eleven years ago and it had not left her side since.

A long pause followed the suggestion. Winters was right, of course, but the Jane household does not take orders from anyone outside their bloodline, so Winters was wrong. He was always wrong, and yet he never let it stop him from voicing his thoughts (with permission granted), something Amie was secretly grateful for. Unlike her elders, Amie never saw herself as any better than anyone else, and any opinion was better than no opinion. Still, she was expected to act the part, and she settled for a peaceful middle ground:

"That will be all, Winters."

"As you wish, Lady Jane-oof!" Winters grunted. The gravel had devolved into an uneven hard dirt track. "Goodness, this is unlike any place we have been ambassadors to. I will have to clean the car."

"Come now, Winters, chin up! A change of pace may do us well," the baroness responded cheerfully. She was far more excited about the prospect of untainted wilderness than she let on.

Winters raised an eyebrow as the lodge came into view. It looked nothing like the luxury he was accustomed to, which lead to a certain degree of dread about the days to come, and he could only hope her ladyship was correct.

Ashley inhaled sharply as she recovered from a particularly loud scream. The spotlights were trained on her, and most of the crowd cheered for her to continue. Ashley remained focused on the sound of their drummer, as it was his job to keep everyone on tempo. Shifting her grip on the microphone slightly, Ashley softly whispered. "I'm scared to get close, I hate being alone..." as she continued her cover of "Can you feel my heart." Ashley and her band were partway through the song. It was just over three minutes in length, though Ashley had been sung at least four songs prior to this one. Her throat was sore, and Ashley knew that she desperately needed a drink. The show had to go on, however, and Ashley started the next verse. One minute and thirty one seconds felt like three minutes as it went by. Ashley was relieved when it finished. Her throat was sore and her lungs were tired. Waving goodnight to the crowd at the bar and giving them a big smile, Ashley headed backstage. Once she was out of sight Ashley gave a groan and flopped down on a nearby couch. Reaching for a a nearby bottle of honey, Ashley grabbed a plastic spoon from a catering tray and poured herself a spoonful of honey. Honey was nice after singing so intensely since it coated and soothed the throat.

Grabbing a nearby bottle of warm water, another throat treatment, Ashley downed the bottle in seconds. Twisting the cap back on Ashley threw the bottle into a nearby bin and dropped her head back as she tried to relax for a bit. Their drummer walked backstage and offered a caring. "You alright, Ashe?" to Ashley, which she gave a thumbs up to since she didn't want to speak for a bit. Ashley was tired from singing and wanted to get home and sleep properly. She was safe to sleep in their rec room, but Ashley always felt better sleeping at home. Especially with her secrets. Ashley heard the other members of her band walk in and say their goodbyes as they turned to leave. The three of them lived together, and it was only natural that they would want to get home sooner rather than later since the home was completely empty without them.

Ashley heard the back door open and heard clapping and cheering. It was one of the annoying things about being the main show for the night in that you didn't get to leave quietly afterwards. After spending a few extra minutes on the couch to avoid the inevitable Ashley got up and stretched. Heading to a nearby bathroom, Ashley closed the door and locked it to maintain her privacy. A few minutes later, Ashley looked herself over in the mirror to make sure everything was in place, before checking for cameras. Finding no cameras or other prying eyes Ashley brought her hands up and pointed her index fingers inward. A small arc of electricity arced between them, and Ashley smiled at herself. It was reassuring to Ashley to see that she could still generate her electricity. Ashley had been able to do this for three years by now, but it was always nice to know that it wasn't fading away. Heading out of the bathroom, Ashley opened the back door and braced herself for shouting and cheering.

The silence was deafening. Ashley looked around at the empty alleyway with a raised eyebrow and gave a sigh of relief. It was nice to have some peace after a night of noise and singing. Taking a step out, Ashley heard a crunch of paper and looked down at her feet. Under her left boot was an envelope with her name on it, written in a fanciful cursive that was surprisingly easy to read. Picking up the letter, Ashley opened it and pulled out the contents. It was strange to receive something in this fashion since most of the time things were delivered digitally. Skimming over the letter, it mentioned a gathering of special individuals at a lodge where they could freely practice their unique talents, and included an address that wasn't far out of town.

Giving it a shrug, Ashley figured she could at least try it. If it turned out to be a trap, Ashley knew that she had one of the most powerful forces of nature on her side to help her out. Very few things could stand up to a billion volts of electricity. There was also her... Other side. Just thinking about it caused a stir within Ashley. She couldn't control her transformations, and was thankful for the ability to control herself when she transformed. Ashley knew that she needed to master that half of her sooner rather than later encase she started to lose control of her transformed self too.

The thought of that sent a shiver down her spine. It was concerning. Perhaps this was what the letter was talking about? Folding it up and cramming it into her pocket, Ashley walked home. The next day. Ashley dressed in a tough leather outfit, complete with gloves and packed a backpack full of clothes and other small items before grabbing the keys to her apartment and the keys to her bike along with her helmet, Ashley turned and walked out the door. She didn't know how long it would be until she came back, so she used every lock she could find. Walking down to the apartment garage Ashley walked over to her bike, and old Nightrod Special Ashley put on her helmet, plain black full face design, and zipped up her jacket. Tugging on a pair of gloves Ashley made sure everything was in place before she started her bike and left. It was 9:30 AM by the time she started to leave. Ashley stopped for a quick bite to eat at 9:40 AM.

Sam desperately worked to decipher more of the craft's strange alien computer language, even as the enemy vessel fired again. Her small fighter automatically fired its attitude thrusters, kicking its nose angle up and to the right before activating its overdrive. The g-forces shoved Sam backward into the pilot's seat and she fought blackout with every bit of strength she could muster. Through the confusion, the fighter's computer declared dire warnings in a language she could not hope to understand.

"Great," Sam grumbled internally. "Even more party crashers."

Her laptop automatically switched windows to display new information. Her impromptu diagnostic program had identified more of the ship's systems; this time, describing a type of energy field projector which promised unfathomable speeds if engaged. With her shields failing and demands for surrender inbound, she found little other choice than to highlight the code and click 'enter'.



Life had not offered Samantha Cole the same options as others. From an early age, she'd been granted access to a level of critical thinking and problem solving others could only envy. But that talent had come with a price, as all things did. This was how she found herself on the streets of New York, selling her skills to anyone who would pay. At least she had been able to set up shop in this abandoned warehouse. Here, she could proceed with her experiments without interruption, though also unaided.

That thought would have been less prominent in her mind, had she not just escaped from the clutches of a mob boss. Instead, it turned the corners of her mouth downward into a sullen scowl. Sam dropped the circuit board on her workbench and gently, with the deliberate care of someone trying very hard not to throw things, replaced her soldering iron into its ESD-safe cradle. The board was, of course, ruined. She'd overheated the MCU and damaged several of the traces connecting it to the backing.

"Another trip to the scrapyard," she sighed.

This project had been foremost on her mind since her capture by Don Antonio Mantovani, the head of the local mafia. It was under his captivity that Sam had done some of her best work, though motivated by fear of death...or worse. She had to credit him with that much: He had gotten her to produce results. That thought lingered in her mind for a moment as she went back to the primary assembly. How could she praise her enemy?

"Sun Tzu did..." said the voice of her subconscious. She answered with a crude remark about it having been four millennia since his opinion mattered and went back to the controls. Without that new board, she would have to monitor the output of the device and adjust the controls manually, but it was still possible to get to a tangible result. However, just as she started up the test run, the lights in the facility died.

"Shit." Sam whispered, after the initial moment of indecision, brought on by surprise, faded. She slammed her laptop shut, pulled its wires free of its ports, and stuffed it into her messenger bag, then swept the device and its associated components into a beaten-up duffel bag. There was no way he could have followed her here, and yet...

Sam hit the switch on an old citizens' band radio she'd scrounged months ago. With its modifications, the device was set to broadcast a primary jamming signal to the local cell towers, by way of a back door into their computer systems. The signal propagated outward, using the full strength of every tower in the network, jamming all the local law enforcement bands with elevator music. There was no way they'd get her into a cage again.

She hiked up her hood around her head and clicked a button near the neckline. An array of infrared LEDs lining the outside edge of the hood flooded the area in front of her with IR light; invisible to the human eye, but quite useful to the LCD screen she used to navigate the darkness. Within seconds, she was out the back door and on her way through the alley. The thought of having to burn yet another base of operations hung heavy on her mind, but there was no choice: She had to remain free. Once outside the given range of her cell phone, a small relay opened inside the power system at the warehouse, allowing a thin piece of foil to bridge the gaps of the main power terminal for the entire facility. The foil, carefully calibrated to vaporize on contact, allowed for the generation of a stable plasma arc, sparking a fire which would tear through the building in minutes.

"Not again," she grated through clenched teeth.



Sam came to with the sensation of slamming against a wall. Upon a brief examination of her surroundings, she determined that she was still securely fastened into the pilot's seat of the small fighter craft she'd stolen from her most recent would-be captors. Her laptop, still jury-rigged to the ship's computer, displayed warnings in several windows while the automated system blared out more alien gibberish. The smell of smoke brought new worries to mind, even as the blue-and-green marble of an alien world spiraled ever closer to her main viewscreen.

"Guess it worked," she murmured, flinching as the navigational control panel exploded in a shower of sparks. She blinked twice and added: "Emphasis on the past-tense..."

"Kanta," the computer announced nonchalantly. "Kanta, Orai."

"Yeah, I get it!" she shouted at the computer. "Now I know how to say 'we're screwed' in two languages!"

She strained against the five-point harness to reach her laptop, managing only a two-finger grip. Apparently, whatever FTL drive this ship possessed had jostled every loose component in the cabin as a result of its use. She managed to get it back into her lap after a brief struggle and began sifting through the data, desperately trying to determine which system would avoid a catastrophic crash. She managed to narrow it down to four choices before blacking out from the acceleration caused by the planet's gravity.

To the inhabitants of Fazia, it could have been just another meteorite -perhaps a bit bigger than the norm, but nothing to panic over. Sam's craft left a plume of superheated atmospheric gasses behind it as it plunged toward the surface; its ultimate destination a heavily wooded area, far from anything one might consider "civilization".

In the depths of the forest, Jaiden was making his way through the trees, his red-tinted eyes turned downward as he searched for signs of his current prey.

"Tch. . . Where is that damnable deer?!?! He was here just a second ago, I swear." Jaiden let out a sigh as he leaned his back against a nearby tree, looking up at the bright blue sky above with a bitter eye. Why am I even doing this? he thought, frustration and agitation causing his brow to furrow in distaste. I know I have myself under control. . . so why do I feel the need to come to this place. The platinum blonde let out a soft sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair. He had been chasing that damn dear for the better part of an hour, meaning to stock up on some more Biotic material so that conversation and the like had less chance of causing an. . . incident. And yet here he was with nothing to show for it on account of him keeping his abilities restrained, lest he get confused for some creature of sorts and attacked. Taking a moment to think about that rather terrible first meeting scenario, he couldn't help but crack a small chuckle and a smile at the ridiculousness of it.

"Welp, might as well turn back an-what the heck is that?" Jaiden's attention was struck from his musings as he saw a brilliant flash of light burst into being within the sky. From this flash, something fell rapidly from the heavens above, shooting across the sky in a veritable ball of fire. Jaiden followed it's decent as it rocketed down at an incline, clipping the treetops right above him and causing a shower of pine needles and tree limbs to rain down upon him. As Jaiden struggle not to get hit by some of the heavier branches of the decimated trees, he'd feel the jarring impact of the object smacking into the ground, the earth shaking ever so slightly beneath his feet. "Well. . . that certainly warrants investigating, don't it?"

---

It'd take sometime before Jaiden reached the crash site, having not only having to walk quite some distance to actually reach it, but also run damage control on any fires that had been caused by the incredible heat that re-entry had likely subjected the craft to. There weren't many, but it only took one spark to start a wild fire, and if there's one thing he didn't want to deal with at the moment, it was forest fires. As such, when he approached the rim of the crash area, seeing the long line of ravaged earth and decimated trees leading up to the cause of this devastation: a small metal craft unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Hmmm. . . people with spaceships like this are usually good at not crashing them on re-entry, so I'm either dealing with an idiot or someone in need of help.

Jaiden weighed his options in his head as he looked over the strange device, before deciding to approach it, moving at a slow and careful pace. You never knew what kind of security systems people had on these kinds of things, and he wasn't eager to see if he could heal from being disintegrated today. As he got closer and closer to the craft without any noticeable reactions from it, he became a bit more bold, taking a moment to brush his hands against the hull. Despite the time that had passed since it crashed, it was still a bit warm to the touch. Continuing to run his hand along the edge of the craft, the blonde stopped once he neared the front end of the craft as he found what could only be the door to the inside of the vessel. However, said door was currently crushed in such a way that opening it through regular means would've been nigh impossible. Luckily for the possible surviviors of this craft, Jaiden had some irregular means at his disposal to get them out of this death trap.

Taking a step away from the craft, he removed his jacket and tossed on the ground nearby, taking a moment to stretch his arms a tad before he began the transformation. First the flesh began to twist and turn along his arms, undulating violently as the limbs began to spasm in a haphazard fashion. Jaiden's breahing became suddenly labored as he fell to a crouch, hands held out to his side as the flesh of his arms suddenly exploded into a mass of swarming tendrils. Like a nest of long, fat maggots on a carcass, they crawled and writhed over each other, altering the shape and structure of his body until the final result was created. The twisting mass of mutated flesh twitch and pulsated momentarily before settling into itself, leaving Jaden panting ever so slightly as he rose to his feet.

Taking a moment to flex his claws, he couldn't help but note how the tips seemed to be composed entirely of strange darkened ivory and yet still seemed to remain a level of flexibility equal to that of his normal fingers. Strange as it was though, it was pretty handy thing, especially when he needed to do something like this. Rearing his monstrous arms back, Jaiden took a deep breath to center himself, then launched forward to lash out against the metallic hide of the craft. He had feared his claws wouldn't be enough to pierce the hide, but upon impact, the metal gave only a middling resistance before succumbing to his strength, allowing him to get a deep grip along the top and bottom of the door. Setting his stance and squaring his shoulders, Jaiden pulled with all of his might, the metal screeching in shrill protest as it was torn out of it's place. The metal door was sent flying as Jaiden as he tossed it behind him, letting his claws disperse back into a mob of tendrils that quickly receded back into his body. And just like that, he was normal again, no sign of his transformation truly present anymore besides the damages incurred upon the craft and the look of fatigue that crept through his features.

"Well then. . . can't say this is what I expected." he muttered under his breath as he stared down into the ships cockpit to find, off all things, a girl. Judging from the hair and clothes, see seemed to be going through an emo phase, so Jaiden was personally chalking this up to her being a stupid runaway and an alien of sorts. "Bit too human-like to be an alien though. . . maybe a half-blood?" Curious of the girl's possible origins, but also cautious enough to not get to close, he settled for the next best thing.

Walking a short distance from the craft to the nearby forest area, Jaiden picked up one of the bigger, longer sticks that he could find before walking back over to where the girl lay unconscious. He'd give the stick a bit of a twirl before setting it to it's intended purpose: Poking this mystery girl awake. And poke her he did, making sure to not be too forceful so as not to hurt her too badly. If she awoke, then he'd simply wave at her. If she stayed a sleep after so many pokes, he'd simply toss the stick aside and start unbuckling her from her seat, thoughts turning towards taking her to the Lodge thing he was supposed to be at for treatment.

@BlessedWrath

A map with undecipherable lines and directions. This place resembled Earth, sure, but Jorvis wasn't so sure the inhabitants of this alternate universe had a respectable grasp of their own geography. Wainwright's confusion surmounted his more rational sentiments. His legs carried him without aim, he followed the intricate curves and contours on the map to the aptly titled 'lodge' scrawled near the edge of the map where it conveniently ended. Was there nothing beyond this place? Did it lead to some unexplored extra-terrestrial dimension? Intrigue struck Jorvis. On the horizon he saw a consortium of browns and mocha, all finished with a rustic wooden overlay: a lodge. This must be the place.

He had no other possessions in hand--interuniversal travel is not what he expected to come out of a faulty experiment. Alas, he was stuck and he had to make the most out of the ordeal. Was anyone else at this lodge? He thought he saw a van of some sort in the distance, and perhaps another traveler some paces ahead of him. Whomever and whatever is at this place must have some kind of importance. Something struck him about the environment, though--whatever sort of lodge it is, it didn't spell "tourist attraction" to his better judgement. The nature of its seclusion seemed intentional, manufactured even. It could be that he's overthinking things again, something he did often.

He continued his trek to the lodge and observed the immediate surroundings as he drew close. His earlier suspicions about the surrounding land being unnatural were snuffed. It was the one of the most beautiful sights he laid his eyes on. Everything was intricate, mountains laid in the right place and fit the right sized crevices, natural cliffs hung high beyond the tips of the trees and almost kissed the sun. Lush greens swirled with warm oranges and cherry reds. When Jorvis looked skyward, his breath left him, it was stolen by the endless expanse of a setting sky whose harsh grey had usurped the soft, inviting mid-day blue. He nearly shed a tear.

Jorvin got his senses about him, this was no time for poetic muse! His venture to the cabin came to an abrupt end once he reached the walkway that led up to the wooden building itself. There was someone to meet his approach, a whimsical looking female with glasses that bespoke a scholar; one versed in a field which required extensive deciphering of smaller items of study: numbers, strings of code. Mathematics was never an area of study he had real interest in, it always came as a byproduct of his chemistry and so he knew enough about algebra and some calculus to work with chemical bases and mixtures but nothing beyond. Jorvin spoke flat, no expression on his face,

"Is this the lodge?"

@Tergonaut

The drive up to the lodge was really nice, Sam was glad he was doing this. During his drive he had lots of time to think and he realized this was exactly what he needed. Just some time away from work and family just to collect himself. He had seen the ads for this place but he hadn't considered coming up until his almost incident the other day. After almost losing it he knew he needed to change something, if he continued just trying to force his powers down he knew that wouldn't end well. His boss seemed pretty keen on the idea of Sam going on this retreat, and he insisted he take one of the company vans (Sam preferred calling them what they were, short busses), probably to get in on the PR stunt.

So there Sam was, driving up a country road in what was little more than a re-purposed school bus with the words "E Z Port" on the side, the name of Sam's bus company. Off in the distance he thought he saw smoke rising from in the forest. He didn't pay it much mind, probably someone camping, he just wanted to get to what would be his new home for the next while. He idly wondered what the other people inhabiting the lodge would be like. He hoped he didn't have a problem with any of them. This relaxing retreat in the woods would be much less pleasant if he accidentally burned the house down.

Finally he pulled over a hill and saw the lodge, and it seemed he wasn't the first one there. He pulled the short bus up to the group, noting the garage attached to the lodge. "Hey, uh, should I park the bus in the garage or just leave it here?" He just kind of addressed his question to the group, as he wasn't sure who would be able to answer his question, maybe the mechanic guy? Or should he have been asking the scientist looking woman? Either way he would wait for an answer to either park in the garage or not before leaving the bus and joining the group.

The car rolled softly up to the face of the lodge. Neither of them spoke for several moments. Winters was trying to take in just how small the lodge was and how many things it lacked, and he hoped sincerely that this was the wrong location. Amie was trying to take in the size and glory of the surrounding landscape, and she was on the verge of exploding from excitement. Both regained their composure at the sight of the group of people standing in front of the lodge, and Winters exited the vehicle to let Lady Jane out, only to find himself face to face with an enormous wolf. Winters felt his hand reach for the concealed gun, but he remembered her ladyship's words and instead adjusted the sleeve of his shirt, nodded a greeting to the beast, and strode to the other side of the car.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he called, bowing to everyone present. "Presenting the Lady Amethyst Jane, Baroness."

Amie stepped carefully out of the car and presented herself. She caught sight of the wolf as well, but refrained herself from making eye contact. Winters retrieved her sword and handed it to her on bent knee, as he had been trained, and Amie slipped the belt and sword onto her waist in one fluid motion, as she had been trained. Hand on hilt, chin up, and back straightened, both she and her assistant (who had returned to his feet and stood silently beside her) waited for a response.

Ashley smiled to herself as she wolfed down a egg and sausage sandwich. Chugging a cup of orange juice, Ashley tossed her trash into the nearby bin and donned her helmet once more. Taking off at 9:45 AM Ashley had an uneventful ride as she pulled up to the lodge at 10:08 AM. There was a parked BMW already here with what appeared to be a butler and someone dressed quite fanciful. Ashley assumed that she was someone important, since most people that traveled with a butler were fairly important, as far as Ashley knew. A woman who looked like she was well versed in science was there, along with what appeared to be a mechanic and a wolf. The wolf was certainly interesting to see, perhaps he would smell the wolf that lay hidden within Ashley?

It mattered little, Ashley removed her helmet and shook her hair out. Setting the helmet onto the seat of her bike, Ashley waved to the small gathering of people as she approached and, when she was within earshot, greeted them. "Morning everyone. This is the lodge I got a letter about, right?" Ashley dug around in her leather coat for a minute before producing the letter she found. It was slightly warm, though it would cool in the air rather quickly. Ashley took a moment to survey the lodge. It was rustic in design, though the attached satellite dish betrayed its more modern construction.

The surrounding area was pretty nice. The quiet was a pleasant change from the life that Ashley was used to. The distinct thrum of noise that created the distinct background ambience of bars and the frequent sounds of engines and other noises dominating her apartment. It was tranquil. Peaceful. Hopefully that didn't get ruined. Ashley looked back to the gathered people and waited for a reply to her greeting. Hopefully she wasn't in the wrong place, that would get quite awkward.

Boxcar, in his prone position on the green grassy lawn next to the garage, yawned widely and returned his gaze down the road toward the forest away from the lodge. He could hear Nora and Justin talking about flux stabilizers and a whole bunch of other words that the wolf considered absolute nonsense. He even had a sneaky suspicion that they were sometimes making up words just to impress each other. The sickening smell of ozone, oil and metal came out of the garage, almost overwhelming the sweet natural scents of wildflowers, tree sap and pine needles that dominated the majority of the air around the lodge. Oh yes, his natural wolf senses made him want to vacate the area, head off into the forest on his own, and start exploring and marking his territory...

He sighed as he winced at the thought of what would happen if he tried to get too far away from Nora right now. Oh well, maybe he could convince her to go "walkies" later...

His wolf ears perked up, and he looked down the road to see a man walking up to the lodge. Boxcar frowned; his color vision wasn't the greatest, but he could smell that it was a human being, tinged with an almost bubbly mixture of elemental magics stirring about in his aura. He was wearing robes that looked to Boxcar like those he had seen in a scientist's picture of his recently-graduated son, except marked with even more decoration, which made Boxcar hazard a guess that this was someone more highly-placed in the world of higher education.

He got to his feet and dashed to the mouth of the garage. "Hey, perfesser! Somebody's coming up the road, I think it's one of those lodgers we were told to expect!"

Nora and Justin pulled themselves out of their conversation, and they stepped out of the garage back into the light of the morning sun. Nora covered her eyes briefly, before gesturing with her glasses to bring up the list of expected guests for the lodge - or "lodgers" as Boxcar put it so simply - and she was able to match the picture provided with the face of the man arriving. "Doctor Jorvis Wainwright, accidentally traveled here from a planet called 'Earth' during what was apparently a magical experiment..."

Justin shrugged. "I came from a place called Earth, too - but it can't be my Earth, no magic there to use." Then he changed the subject. "Well, you're the host here, Nora, might as well say hi!"

"Eh?!" Nora was caught off-guard by this sudden shift in responsibility. "B-but I thought you were here to help show us around, you can help with the greeting part too, can't you?" Her palms started sweating out of a sudden burst of anxiety.

"You'll be fine," Justin said. "Just gimme a minute to pack up my tools on my Ostrich, then I'll be there to help." With that, he turned around and started loading his tools back into their box, and the box he lifted into a storage compartment on the side of his bird-legged motorcycle.

"I'm here too," grumbled Boxcar as he sat next to Nora in front of the garage. "Just introduce yourself and say 'welcome to the lodge' or something like that...that sounds like something you should say." Then he became silent.

Nora adjusted her glasses as the man approached and asked her, "Is this the lodge?"

"Y-Yes!" blurted out Nora as she nodded, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. "Welcome to the lodge! You're Doctor Jorvin Wainwright, I presume? My name is Nora Minder - I'm the representative from Cybertronics Unlimited here acting as host for those staying at the lodge for our introductory test period!"

The truth of the matter was that Nora, in her last adjustment to her glasses, had pulled up the document of the lodge pamphlet, which included a map that led to the lodge, and some introductory information she had just ad-libbed into her greeting. She congratulated herself for the sudden stroke of quick-witted genius.

Boxcar snorted, and Nora, wrapped up in her thoughts, nearly jumped out of her skin. "O-oh yes, and this is Boxcar, my, um," she scrambled for a word, "assistant."

Before she could be called upon to explain what she meant, a car drove up the road and pulled up in front of the lodge. "Don't mind me," called out Justin as he eased his red-and-white Ostrich out of the garage, "looks like we might need the extra space in the garage soon, so I'll just park my bike on the side over here." And so he drove the cycle that way, his gyroscopic seat keeping him at an even height as the mechanical bird legs propelled him forward until he went around the opposite side of the lodge from the garage.

The car, unlike the hovertruck, was driven along the road with wheels; Nora recognized it as a vehicle from a company that specialized in such throwback designs. As advanced as technology on Faiza was, there was an extraordinary consumer demand for vehicles of very specific types, down to the models favored on distant planets, and this had led to certain models of vehicle being propagated based on what social class they were associated with. The logo, with the letters BMW, wasn't terribly familiar to Nora, but she could tell with a quick comparison with her glasses that it was locally-made with the more advanced navigator system - among other improvements over the native company's planetary technology, including to the engine and wheel components.

Boxcar, meanwhile, had given in to a canine instinct and went running up to the car as it came to a halt. Nora cried, "Boxcar, wait!" but he was already there to sniff at the wheel after it had come to a stop, and then he eyed the driver - another human - who stepped out, wearing the fine yet indistinct clothing of a servant. Boxcar could smell the distinctive odor of a small weapon - a handgun of some type, though he wasn't certain if it was an energy weapon or a slugthrower - coming from the man's jacket, but since the man didn't make any sudden moves, Boxcar merely sat and watched as he went around and opened the door for the other occupant of the sports car. He didn't pick up anything unusual in terms of powers from either of these two arrivals; he could smell expensive perfume, and he mentally noted with some approval that this arrival at least knew how to be subtle about the use of artificial scent.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," the man called, bowing to everyone present. "Presenting the Lady Amethyst Jane, Baroness."

Nora struggled with what to say, and was grateful that she was given several more seconds to figure out what to say while the Baroness was equipped with her sword and belt. She didn't need the introduction to recognize the Baroness, since she had her files available on her glasses display, not to mention how distinctive the Lady's uniform was, but it was announced with such dignity that she felt she needed to respond in kind somehow. This was the representative of the House of Jane from the country of Ridalia, who had co-sponsored this lodge project with Nora's bosses. In other words, she had to make this look good.

"W-welcome to the lodge, your..." Nora desperately ran a quick search for noble titles, then did a quick improvised curtsy with her labcoat as she finished, "ladyship? I'm Nora Minder, your liaison with Cybertronics Unlimited for your stay here at the lodge! We are honored to receive you! I hope you had a nice trip?"

The roar of an engine interrupted any response as another person drove up to the lodge, this one on a sleek black wheeled motorcycle. They stopped, and the curvy rider removed her helmet to reveal a pale-skinned black-haired young woman. She placed the helmet on her cycle's seat and turned to address the group, who had just been rejoined by Justin. "Morning everyone. This is the lodge I got a letter about, right?"

"Yes, it is," answered Justin, cutting off Nora as he approached the cyclist and greeted her with a friendly handshake. Boxcar snorted quietly to himself; while the human male might have been smooth enough to seem innocent, he could smell Justin's attraction immediately. "I'm Justin Hobbes, freelance maintenance. You've got a pretty sweet ride, there. I'd love to see how she handles."

As for Boxcar's senses...he got a mixture of scents from this lodger. There was a scorching smell of ozone accompanied by the sting of electricity, but this was accompanied by a separate smell that was very much like his own. A wolf in human guise? He would need more time to be sure, but if he was reading his superpower sniffer correctly, she had two sets of powers - one over electricity, and the other, more familiar and yet more alien...

Nora was only barely able to stammer out a greeting of her own to this newest arrival - Ashley Chertal, a singer from Segaso City, as her file listed in the lens of her glasses - before everyone's attention was suddenly jolted from the more crowded scene by a streak of light that tore across the sky with a scream. The object went over the lodge and into the forest behind, and there was an explosive crash as the ground shuddered with the impact of the meteoric streak. A long trail of smoke was left in the air behind it, and off in the distance, a rising plume of black smoke climbed into the air.

"What the dog was THAT?!" called out Boxcar into the stunned silence that followed, which was then followed by another stunned silence as those who had not yet heard Boxcar speak were surprised to see the wolf talking.

Justin went immediately back to Nora. "Finish up the introductions, and get their vehicles sorted to see who's parking in the garage and who has to leave their ride on the side," he said to her in a low voice. "There's a tarp we can set up for any extra vehicles that won't fit. I'll head out and see what that was."

As if the universe was playing some kind of strange, recurring gag this morning, Nora found herself unable to answer as yet another vehicle pulled up in front of the lodge - this one a classic short school bus painted with the E Z Port logo on the side, the bus company that had won their contract by being the lowest bidder for public transportation in Segaso City. The bus driver, a somewhat pale, tall and husky-looking human opened the window and asked, "Hey, uh, should I park the bus in the garage or just leave it here?" He seemed uncertain as to who he should address, his eyes darting from Justin to Nora to the others. With the timing, it was possible he may have seen the crashing meteor, or he may only have seen the smoke as he drove up; it was impossible for Nora to know.

Nora recognized him as the fourth person on her list - Samuel Deniel. Boxcar picked up the scent of sulfur and woodsmoke along with hints of a legendary creature of some sort; maybe this human didn't look that impressive, but he could tell that he had a trace of something else in his lineage that definitely wasn't human or mortal.

Justin was already running off into the woods behind the lodge before Nora could protest. For someone who's just temporary hired help, he's sure willing to go running off into danger, she found herself thinking, though she wasn't sure why she felt that way. But he seemed confident enough to do that, and besides, she realized, what would she be able to do? No, it was more important right now to make sure that everyone who would be staying at the lodge was safe and kept away from any danger.

"Okay!" Nora called out, deciding to take her cue from Justin's hurried instructions. She addressed Samuel first. "For now, just pull up to the side here, and we'll figure out which vehicles will be staying in the garage and which will be staying under a tarp to one side! Once we're done with that, we'll start moving luggage onto the porch and then into the lodge!"

As the group began to work on this project, which Nora worried they all would see as a delay tactic to distract them from the sudden meteor fall, she suddenly realized that the fifth person on the list, Jaiden Fairfield, had not yet arrived. Where on Faiza was he? Soon enough, she was grateful for the distraction of figuring out parking and luggage.

Justin, in the meantime, went at a brisk pace through the trees on foot. He was tempted to bring his Ostrich, but he guessed that it was only about a mile away to the site of the crash, and the trees were close enough that the chicken walker bike might get stuck, or trip over a tree root. If he had to, he had some built-in enhancements to his shoes that would lengthen his stride and get him there - or back - more quickly, but the amount of fuel for that upgrade was limited, and at least for now, he didn't feel like this was worth the use of that feature. He jogged through the forest to conserve his strength as he headed toward the rising black pillar of smoke.

Ashley gave Justin a smile and returned the handshake, she gave a brief chuckle at the comment about her bike and figured, with how eager he had been to say hello, that he was far more interested in the rider of the bike than the bike itself. Ashley didn't blame him, he was merely doing what came natural to him. Ashley put the letter back into her coat and returned her attention to the rest of the group. It wasn't long before a deafening roar echoed throughout the area. Ashley's eyes snapped to the sky as she saw a ship plow through the atmosphere and crash into the forest. Ashley covered her ears to help block the noise as a deafening thud erupted from the ground as the spacecraft smacked into the earth.

Justin took off quickly, and Ashley looked to the others briefly before following suit. Her boots were more than happy to find purchase on the rough terrain as she sprinted along. Her lungs heaved as she weaved through the trees towards the crash site. Ashley didn't know what she would do to help, since adding lightning to the situation might just make it worse, but she could at least try to do something rather than sit around and do nothing.

The woods were strangely quiet as Ashley ran. Probably due to the impact that the spacecraft made. Most of the animals had probably scattered in all directions out of fear from the impact. Ashley caught up to Justin fairly quickly, as she was fairly quick on fer feet from the routine habit of having to dodge drinks flung by rowdy members of the audience. Justin was still slightly ahead of her, but Ashley was slowly gaining. Now would've been a good time to have her helmet, but there was no time to return for it. Hopefully there wasn't any falling debris from the spacecraft to land upon them.

Breathing deeply to replenish her depleted lungs, Ashley put as much speed as she could into her legs. A crashed spacecraft could pose more danger than merely crushing those around it. The power core could be compromised, and thus liable to explode.

Hopefully it didn't.

Sam struggled through a fitful sleep, treated to visions of alien tormentors and horrific technological constructs chasing her through a carbon fantasy. Copper traces served as roads, connecting skyscrapers built from capacitors, inductors, and the occasional timing circuit. The occasional pulse of arc-blue energy whizzed past at unfathomable speeds. Sam, uncertain, rounded the corner and nearly collided with another of the terrible creatures.

The metallic spider thing reared up on four of its legs and lunged for her, missing by inches as Sam sent herself into a baseball slide. She slipped through its legs and hooked them with her laptop cord, toppling the beast, then took off running. Two more of the creatures flanked her and reached out again, and Sam, as if by instinct, reached out for one of the blue pulses.

Jaiden, first on scene, could have boggled at the force of the impact. The triangular craft left a deep trench at least fifty feet long before finally coming to rest beneath a stately pine. Some of its needles and cones smoldered on the surface of the ship, though by now it felt like very little heat had been retained by its reflective skin. The trench began as just a tiny scrape in the ground, gradually deepening and widening, which indicated an angled descent. Compared with the original angle, the obvious conclusion was that it had somehow attempted to right itself during the crash, but...

The peace of the woods was interrupted twice more; once by the agonizing process of shapeshifting, and again by the screeching of rent metal. Damaged as it was, and perhaps weakened by the heat of re-entry, the door could not withstand Jaiden's enhanced physiology. A brief survey of the interior of the craft yielded the discovery of one female survivor. When she did not respond to the standard greeting-and-by-the-way-are-you-dead that nearly every first-responder rehearses on the way to render aid, he had fallen back on a more proactive approach.

Unfortunately, Jaiden's advanced 'pokey-stick' technology did nothing to stir Sam from her induced sleep. It began to look as though, if he wanted to help her at all, he'd have to get her out of the harness. The mechanism was in no way similar to standard Faizan systems. It looked to be designed for longer, slender fingers; tendrils, perhaps.

That point became increasingly important as the control console to Sam's right flickered on, partly displaying a few status updates. It was badly damaged, but not enough to provide any ambiguity behind the blood-red inverted triangle and the angular symbol of a diamond, topped with three jagged spikes, in its center. As the smell of smoke filled the cabin, it became clear that the two had somewhat less time to vacate than originally thought.

"Kanta." the computer calmly announced. The voice file crackled and skipped, indicating more systemic damage. "Kanta, Gen Im. Gen Jia Ii Cha Tem.

Tem...
Niish...
Orcha...
Sem...
Iija...
Quan...

The sound of ventilation systems spinning up made a compelling argument for vacating the premises. Though the language could not be immediately understood, there was something of a finality and urgency to its friendly warning.

Okay, so she's not getting up. That's bad. Jaiden ceased his poking of the emo girl as he saw that she was either a really good faker or completely out cold and likely in need of medical attention. Okay, she doesn't seem to have any defense mechanisms installed that are ready to kill me in a gruesome fashion. That's good, means I can get to work tearing out of these restraints.

Leaning into the ship's tiny cockpit, Jaiden struggled to unfastened the girl from her contained, but the damn buckles seemed barely workable for human hands. After a couple secs of pointless fumbling and muttered curses, however, a sudden flash of red light quickly brought his attention on something else as one of the computers seemed to fire up some sort of protocol. Jaiden didn't understand a single thing that was flashing by on the damaged screen, nor what the voice was attempting to communicate to him. One thing that he did understand, however, was the sound of a count-down. That wasn't something he wanted to hear coming from a downed alien fighter.

"Alright, fuck being careful about this. I'm getting you out of here now." Quickly slipped his fingers under the straps, biting his lips in discomfort as he turned each of them into a small, sharp blade. Metamorphing his arms a tiny bit, he pulled upward with as much strength as he could muster in the short time he had, the straps straining against his blades before finally giving way with a snap. Not taking the time to declaw himself, he grabbed at Emo girl's shirt and launched the both of them away from the ship with a mighty leap. Holding her close to his front, he could only grit his teeth in pain as his body went skidding across the ground, various bits of forest debris and and what not tearing through his thin shirt to end up in her back due to the strength of his leap. When he finally slowed to a halt, stopping just shy of smacking into a tree, he pushed emo-girl to the side and rose up, his form lost beneath a mass of tendrils, only for them to harden into a ivory carapace, his face having shifted into a much more monstrous visage.

Ignoring the pain that still resonated in his back, he stepped forward ready to block the unprotected girl from any possible debris that could be heading there way, eyes of glowing red narrowed in anticipation for the coming explosion. There was only one teeny-tiny issue.

The explosion didn't come. It was obvious that something was happening to the craft, though Jaiden couldn't really figure out exactly what that was, but it sure wasn't doing any exploding. Not that Jaiden was complaining, quite the opposite infact, but he could help but wonder what that countdown had been about.

"Welp, question for another day. Right now I need to sit down and focus on fixing up my back before I take this chick to the lodge." Allowing himself to rest beneath a nearby tree that was only slightly singed and damaged from the craft's descent, the man closed his eyes and began to put more energy into accelerating his healing factor. While he patched himself, he considered changing back to his less terrifying form, but the energy cost would likely push him over the line as far as how 'hungry' he could be without being a possible danger. Something that he didn't want to have to deal with at the moment, especially when taking into account the defenseless survivor that was current lying on the ground next to him. Even now, he couldn't help but focus some attention to his ears, sensing the almost melodious beat of her heart. It was the music of life, and it called to a deep, primal nature. But for now, it was best to ignore it.

"Plenty of animals around here. . . It'll be easy to get my fill sometime tonight."

Too many things were happening all at once. Winters was rather displeased by the meager response to the introduction of Lady Jane, but his concern vanished with the arrival of another guest. It was too late to repeat the theatrics, and Winters was about to greet her when everyone was interrupted by what appeared to be space debris of some kind burning through the atmosphere and smashing into the ground some distance away. Before he could respond, Winters was interrupted yet again as he discovered the wolf could speak, and a fourth time as a bus pulled up. For the first time in his life, the assistant found himself completely unable to speak.

Amusingly, what was mortifying for Winters was exciting for Amie. A new guest! A speaking animal! A mysterious object falling from the sky! All of these needed addressing immediately, but she couldn't do anything without Winters, and he looked to be frozen in time. Thinking swiftly, Amie rebooted him.

"Bring the luggage in, Winters."

Silence. Winters was in another world.

"Winters! Escort the luggage to my suite at once."

Her emphasis on the last two words drew him out of his stupor. He turned to look at her, blinking slowly. Suddenly aware that he was making eye contact, he jolted back to reality and bowed his head.

"As you wish, Lady Jane."

Without another word, Amie stepped briskly past him and everyone else, heading towards the forest. To the wind with impressions. There was both danger and excitement here, and she had been shielded from both for long enough. "It is not your place," her mother chided in the back of her mind. She winced, but put it aside. The Janes could not touch her here, and she would find out for herself if this was or was not her place. Her only hindrance was Winters, the faithful servant, but he was occupied, and would continue to be occupied for some time. Amie smiled quietly to herself. She had done her research, and the lodge would never accompany all of the luggage she brought. She had purchased a considerable amount of time.

"Lady Jane! I-"

"The luggage, Winters," she called back, not even bothering to turn her head. A smug grin came over her face as she imagined the dilemma he was facing. Poor Winters. He would not be pleased at all.

The forest embraced her and she found herself soon isolated from the lodge, the car, the people, the noise...everything was quiet. Glancing quickly over her shoulder to see that no one was watching, she clenched her right hand into a fist. The golden coat of arms on the back glowed briefly, and the "J" melted into nothingness. Concentrating, she cycled between the armaments of her house, concluding with Evade: Increases speed and reaction time by one and one half times. Originally meant for combat, she had found a new use for it; traversing ground. The twin arrows representing the armament blazed into existence, filling the space in the coat of arms as the glow silently faded. New energy poured into Amie's slim frame and she lunged forward, heading towards the pillar of smoke protruding from the treeline.

A warning flashed in her mind; the young lady from the motorcycle had taken flight to the forest immediately, preceded by another man already present at the lodge. The two of them had a good thirty-to-forty second start, but they would not be far ahead now, and it was perhaps too early for Amie to reveal her abilities. Taking advantage of the surroundings, she weaved her way around trees, watching carefully for undesired company and preparing to slip behind cover. The armament could only sustain her for half a minute, but by then she would be very close to her destination. Fifty yards ahead of her, the woman in black came into view. Amie caught her breath and dodged right, making a long arc in an attempt to pass her unnoticed. The hunter green jacket, combined with the rest of her gray and black uniform, provided excellent camouflage, but physically she was not in shape to run for any extended period of time. Already her legs were cramping, as there had been no time to stretch after a long road trip, and her breathing was becoming louder and heavier. Siding with caution, Amie slowed to a stop and took refuge behind the thickest tree available. The symbol on her glove glowed briefly as the last seconds wore away, and it was was soon replaced by the familiar "J" of her name.

She waited for her pulse to slow, then stood up, straightened her jacket, kicked the debris from her boots, brushed a few stray strands of hair from her eyes, and pressed on.

Sam did not stir during Jaiden's respite. Respiration appeared normal, or as close to normal as one could guess without medical experience. There did not appear to be any signs of injury, either; at least on the outside. That left only artificially induced unconsciousness or some kind of blackout. One good movie about fighter planes could tell the average Joe that blackouts happen at high speeds; especially if sudden acceleration occurs. It seemed as though the downed alien craft was just about as ideal a candidate for sudden acceleration as anything else, so that leap of logic wasn't difficult to make. Still...without the advice of a medical expert, it was better to err on the side of caution.

The vessel did...something. There was a sucking sound, a faint echo of an alert sounding from the interior of the craft, then a great 'whoosh' accompanied by a rippling effect surrounding the entire vehicle. Jaiden could feel a gust of wind from that direction. It came without warning, like a pulse of high-velocity pressure, and subsided just as quickly. There was an odd silence, during which the buzz of electricity could be faintly heard. The flickering light from inside the ship blinked out of existence, and plumes of smoke curled around the interior of a spheroid region just outside the fighter; almost as if contained within a glass globe. Then, with just as little warning, the buzzing stopped and the smoke dissipated upward, uninhibited.

As the cycle completed, the air pressure on the interior of the craft equalized by violently drawing in air from the surrounding area. It was a microcosm of the aftermath of the atomic bomb, when the winds came rushing back to fill the vacuum left behind by its awesome power. Leaves, branches, rocks...anything within range of the effect was pulled toward it with considerable force. Naturally, it did not last long. The red glow from the instrument panel blinked twice, another alien confirmation sounded, and the light ceased to be.

Sam finally showed signs of coming to, at that point. She furrowed her brow and wrinkled her nose, and her left hand came to rest on her temple. It took a few minutes, but she finally managed to convince her eyes to allow some sunlight. When Jaiden's fearsome form came into focus, she arched a brow and blinked again.

"Either I'm still out," she offered weakly. "Or you assholes finally caught me."

Justin hadn't been on the move for very long when he heard the sound of fast footsteps behind him. Not being blessed with especially good hearing, he only barely figured out what was causing the noise when the woman he had made a pass at earlier caught up with him and kept pace. For several moments, they simply ran on through the trees, able to use the distant smoke pillar above the tree line as a landmark for their direction. She kept up with him easily enough, leading him to believe that she, too, kept up some kind of daily regimen of exercise like he did. The sound of their breathing and the thud of their feet against the grass-carpeted ground filled the air for several seconds.

On the one hand, seeing her again so soon made his heart pound a little harder - and not just from the exertion of the run. On the other hand, he did feel a little silly about having made such an obvious advance on her in front of so many strangers. What if she had a boyfriend, or had been embarrassed by being approached like that? The thought gnawed at him a bit, even as he chided himself for letting himself fuss over something like this, especially in a situation that could easily turn into a dangerous one.

He did manage to keep his eyes forward instead of letting them stray to his running companion after his initial confirming glance. He let himself get distracted by trying to figure out how to explain how he knew her name, and where he had seen her before...

"Hey, uh, about what I said before back there-"

Suddenly, there was a tremendous rush of air in the distance ahead of them in the direction of the smoke pillar (which had suddenly gotten cut off, as if stopped at the source), followed by an eerie silence that punctuated the pine-scented air, before that silence was then punctured by another loud torrent of wind whistling through tree branches, and the smoke resumed. Justin frowned to himself; had the crashed object detonated somehow? His mind had completely forgotten his attempted apology as he and she both picked up their pace as if through some unspoken signal.

A few minutes later, they came through a break in the trees to discover the impact site, where the sight of the smoking triangular craft dug partway into a furrow in the ground dominated a long, narrow clearing that had not been there earlier this morning. Justin and the woman came to a halt, partly to catch their breath and partly out of trying to piece together the scene - the splintered tree limbs, the alien ship, the dissipating smoke that was beginning to clear up now that any source of fire seemed to have stopped burning...

Justin pointed at the alien ship's open canopy. "Whoever was in there," he panted, "isn't there anymore...so where'd they go?"

Ashley - he still was a little nervous about knowing her name but being pretty sure she didn't know he knew it - turned suddenly, and Justin heard the footsteps moments later. He whirled to face one of the other women who had shown up, the one introduced as a Baroness, who had just caught up with them. He thought she might have been close enough to hear what he had said just now, but he couldn't be entirely sure. Either way, it looks like he had just walked into the middle of an odd mystery.

What he didn't realize, was that he had forgotten something important about the lodge...

---

"What d'ya mean, the door's locked?!"

Boxcar's exclamation - his second in so many minutes - caused Nora to flinch even as she tried the front door handle again as she and the wolf stood on the covered front porch. The door rattled, but the handle kept from turning. "It could be jammed," she tried lamely to explain, even though she knew, with a sinking in her heart, that even if this newer explanation was somehow correct, it would still lead to the same end result. So much for trying to get everyone's luggage moved in while waiting for Justin to return...

Justin. A light suddenly clicked in Nora's mind. "He was going to give us a tour...but he never gave us the key! He must have locked it without knowing we were just about to arrive, and with what happened, forgot all about it!"

Boxcar facepawed. "This day just keeps getting better and better, don't it?..."

Ashley's mind was focused on finding the downed craft, so when Justin attempted to bring up his obvious flirtation earlier it took a lot of willpower to avoid sarcastically asking if this was a good time. Taking another breath, Ashley kept running. The smoke wasn't letting up, and that was a potential nightmare waiting to happen, especially if the fire containment systems were offline. Shortly after, Ashley's ears twitched slightly as she heard a new sound, a sort of sucking sound that indicated what was most likely the aftermath of a fire containment system deploying.

This was a good thing, as the ship was at least no longer on fire. Or had at least put some of the fire out. Turning towards the sound, Ashley arrived at the crash site shortly after Justin did. Taking a look around at the mess Ashley checked first for any fires that might need attention sooner rather than later, or at all. Finding nothing important, Ashley turned her attention towards the spacecraft. Justin pointed out that the occupant was now gone, and Ashley gave a brief walk over to the cockpit to check and make sure this was an accurate assessment.

Her lungs burned and her heart pounded, but Ashley forced herself to breathe slowly and deeply to prevent hyperventilation. Taking a look inside the cockpit, Ashley raised an eyebrow at the torn harness and empty cockpit. Either whoever was previously there was awake, or someone else had come along and cut them free. Something interesting Ashley noticed was that there was a strange mercury-like substance pooling in the cockpit. Ashley knew better than to touch it, as mercury itself was a nasty substance to begin with. Turning back from the cockpit to see Amethyst walking into the clearing, Ashley gave her a slight wave as a greeting. Jumping down from the cockpit, Ashley approached Justin and Amethyst before saying. "Cockpit's empty. Someone else was here earlier." Looking to Justin, Ashley also said. "You might know more about this than I do, but there appears to be a mercury-like substance pooling in the cockpit. I didn't touch it, and I would also advise against touching it. You can take a look if you want."

With nothing more to do, Ashley began to look about slightly in the hopes of finding something that would've betrayed a direction that the pilot could've gone. A brief search did actually turn up something, and Ashley waved Justin and Amethyst over towards a cluster of disturbed and marred bushes. Something had pushed itself through them, and with the alien craft surprisingly intact, it likely didn't come from that. Looking back over to Justin and Amethyst briefly to see if they had anything to say about it, Ashley decided not to wait and pushed through the mangled brush in the hopes of finding the pilot.

What she didn't expect, however, is that she would find two people. A pilot, and someone else.

The woods had gone back to their strange silence again. A few birds chirped, but overall the place was rather still. This was actually a good thing, as the silence would help the search. Wanting to try her luck, Ashley raised her voice and gave a shout. "Hello? Search party is here for survivors of the crashed ship!" It was a bit goofy, but it was honest and forthcoming and would hopefully help Ashley, Justin, and Amethyst find whoever might have been around.

Sam pulled his bus over where the woman pointed before getting out and joining the rest of the group, it seemed they had split up, some going to whatever the source of the smoke was while the others stayed. He idly wondered if he should follow, where there's smoke there's fire, and fire was much less dangerous to him than anyone else there most likely. But there were other matters to attend at the moment, because as the scientist tried to open the door so everyone could get their luggage in she discovered the door was locked. Sam also learned the wolf could talk, which surprised him for a second then he realized that was silly of him. He was part phoenix, a talking wolf was mundane in comparison.

"I mean, I could burn the door down," Sam pondered aloud, "that would get us in, then we'd have the problem of not having a door though." He would prefer to not start his retreat by burning down the front door, but if it came to it he supposed he could. "Or we could just follow the others, make sure they're okay, then grab the keys like a normal person would." Sam did want to go and see what the commotion was about, apparently the smoke he saw wasn't just from someone having a campfire.

"Space debris," as Winters had referred to it, was hardly a fitting description. Amie had never seen anything like it. It was void of any distinct features, yet it was carefully machined to resemble a triangular pyramid of sorts, though a bit longer and apparently controlled from the inside, as indicated by a large hole in the side that displayed some form of cockpit. She moved cautiously, hand hovering by the hilt of her sword, scanning it for any form of threat. Nothing presented itself. Whoever had occupied it was no longer present. And yet she was not without company. The young lady from the forest was here, along with a young fellow. They both seemed decent enough, though not enough to convince Amie to withdraw her hand.

The young lady was waving the other two to a nearby disturbance in the landscape.

"Hello? Search party is here for survivors of the crashed ship!"

Amie twisted around, checking every angle for an immediate response. The hair on her neck stood up as she considered how much danger the three of them were currently in. She grasped the sheath with her left hand and wrapped the fingers of the other gently around the handle, sliding her feet apart into a traditional combat stance in preparation for a strike. It had been ages since Amie had engaged in an actual, literal sword fight. The snobby aristocrat, whose butler carried her luggage, had been replaced by a fierce young swordswoman, edging her way towards the other woman and listening keenly for an excuse to draw steel.

Jaiden didn't respond at first, focused more on making sure his back was healed correctly. Once he was certain that his back would be more or less fine, give or take a few hours of less intensive healing, he turned his eyes towards the now-conscious pilot of the downed vessel.

"Neither." His voice came out oddly resonant and clear, the sides of his disconnected mouth moving more like insect-like mandibles as he spoke. "I just happened to be in the area when you made your lil' crash landing not too far away. I investigated, found you, moved you away from the ship when it started doing funny things, and right now, feeling a little annoyed I just fucked up my back for nothing." Jaiden might've continued, but the sound of voices nearby distracted him. Eyes narrowing slightly beneath the ivory shell of his current form, the man could only let out a sigh at the current situation before deciding on his next course of action. He did, however, have the frame of mind to issue a slight warning the pilot. "We got company, looks like. Be quiet and don't move."

With nary another word, Jaiden closed his eyes for a moment, only for them to spring open again with a menacing red glow behind them, the entirety of their body devolving into a mass of red and black tendrils spread rapidly across the ground in a somewhat sizable radius. As Ashley and Amie turned their attention in the direction where the two resided, the sound of wood cracking would resound through out the clearing as one of the trees was swiftly devoured by the slithering mass. By the time they made their way through the brush entirely, the event would be over before it began.

Where the mass of tendrils had been before was now only bare and soft earth like that of a freshly tilled field. The only patch of grass left was a small circle surrounding the pilot who, along with the two newcomers, would witness the congealing mass of tendrils form into Jaiden's human form, with only one issue.

He was completely in the buff.

"Huh, and here I was expecting those assholes the brat was talking about." Rubbing the back of his head, Jaiden couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed by his actions. "Sorry about the scare, ladies, was just thinking you were some thugs in need of some spooking." Jaiden ceased his apology to look over the two before him, focusing first on Amie, her sword in particular, before switching his attention to Ashley.

"Is she for real here? Who uses a sword nowadays, especially a relic like that one? Normally I'd think she's an eccentric collector, but in this case, she must be pretty serious about using it." Chuckling a bit as he shook his head, Jaiden took a few moments to flex his hands and arms before, wincing slightly as his back continued to reject the notion of movement. Not only that, but his consumption of the tree had only done so much to hold back his inherent hunger. "So, are you peeps from that Lodge thing? Cause if so, I hope you got room for one more for a while. Oh, and my name is Jaiden. Jaiden Fairfield, and it's a pleasure to meet ya."