Log:Menagerie, Part 1

2008/09/17 	 Crater Jason Michelle Regent 1

Buckingham Garden Park at night. The park is quiet mostly, with only a handful of people about, much fewer than are here by daylight. A few couples stroll hand in hand, a few people walk their dogs, some homeless people make their beds for the night. The paths and walkways are lit by electric lamps. The wooded areas are dark.

Michelle is wandering through the park at night... Normally they'd tell girls not to do this but lets face it who is gonna try to attack a 5-6 foot tall skunk lady?

Crater shuffles along in the park, considering on if it's a good spot to sleep for the night.

"Ruff! Ruff! Ruff ruff!" A dog, a brown and white beagle, starts barking, standing still and staring out at the park creek. The dog's owner is a dark haired Caucasian man in his thirties. He stands, looking at his dog. "C'mon boy," the owner says. "Time to go home..."

Crater, curiosity raising, decides to head that way.

The dog refuses to heed his master's urgings. Instead the beagle continues to stare out at the water. The dog barks and begins to snarl, baring it's teeth. Its ears draw back as it gets agitated about something out in the water. The owner begins to look out at the water as well, asking, "What is it boy?"

Crater keeps heading over?

Michelle hrms and peers over at the water and the dog then back at the water to see if there might be anything in the water.

Jason strolls in from Colonial Heights. He seems to be enjoying a stroll in the cool night air.

Suddenly a hulking from rises out of the water and lumbers onto the shore. The barking dog is spooked and it runs off. The dogs owner, however, remains shocked and transfixed, looking up at the beast as it steps forward.

Man-Gator: A monstrous beast looking like a cross between a body builder and an alligator. It stands upright on stubby hind legs, with a powerful hunched back build. It's eight feet tall of muscle, with bulging arms that seem just a little too long for its body. It's got the snout and deadly jaw of an alligator, but his eyes are both set in the front of his skull instead of on the sides. It's has the tatters of clothing hanging off of body. There's the glint of metal from something hanging around his neck.

Crater blinkblinks and adjusts his goggles, looking at the thing.

The Man-Gator eyes the dog's owner. It looks ready to attack!

Jason stops and looks at the huge creature his eyes going wide, then he darts forward intent on pushing the man out of harms way!

Jason runs forward at top speed - interposing himself in between the monster and the dog's owner

The Man-Gator's eyes shift from the dog owner to Jason. It drops forward, until it's braces on all fours and it tries to bite at Jason's leg!

Jason is just too fast for the Man-gater's attempted grab, as he ducks around the heavy swipe.

Crater was once 5" away. With a pop-pop of displaced air, Crater is now right at the gator-thing, trying to bring a foot down upon its head.

Crater's foot strikes the Man-Gator right in the snout, but it's thick scaly hide protects it from harm.

Michelle watches the Man-gator and gasps "Hey stop right there!" and when she sees him starting to attack she sighs and shakes her head "Great this isnt going to work" and with that she starts focusing on generating a rift to help protect the dog's owner not particularly caring which one she pulls out

A hole in space opens up above the Man-Gator and fire rushes out. The angle is slightly off, and all the fire manages to do is scorch a patch of the grass pitch black.

Jason turns towards the man and attempts to grab him to carry him out of harm's way.

Jason notices the rift that Michelle has made, and his eyes go wide. He forces himself to grab the dog-owner, despite his discomfort, and pulls him away from the creature.

Crater hrms as the thing doesn't seem to be fazed by his attack. "Crater guess Crater need get tougher." He then tries to grab the thing, intending to take it on the gravity express.

Crater grabs the gator! Huzzah! With a pop of displaced air, Crater's teleport is triggered. Hey, there they are up there! About 60 feet up. Or 10". By my calculation.

The Man-Gator tries to escape from Crater's grasp!

In midair, the Man-Gator flexes his muscles and break free of Crater's grasp. He cocks back his fist and retaliates with a punch!

Cruising on an altitude more normal for birds of prey then man, Regent is flying over the city, being able to both see in the dark with Persephone's gift of Night Vision, and Garuda's farvision, Matt sees the altercation brewing and he arc's towards the scene, he suddenly see's a man and a ...gateresque man up in the air..something's amiss here..and he's going to help get to the bottom of it.

Crater may have lost his grasp on the gator, but he managed to do what he intended to. Get the big lug up. He gets knocked away as well, but seems to have not been hurt too badly.

Michelle shakes her head as she looks up in the sky as Crater gets knocked into the air she takes the opportunity to open up another rift and try to blast the guy from a different angle this time likely from straight below him as he'll have a more difficult time to avoid such an attack. She figures she'll stick with fire as she's got it close by already and unleashes more plasma out of a rift.

Jason helps the dog-owner to safety, "You gonna be okay?" He turns back to watch the others who are fighting the strange ,am-beast

The dog owner nods to Jason. "I - I think so. Thanks for saving me!" He turns and starts running away, after his dog.

Crater hits the ground, and so does the Man-Gator

Regent sees Crater and the man-Gator fall, and even from this distance, which is not very far for him, he notices the vestiges of humanity on the man, having experienced accidental changes often, he see's the signs of it...."This man is a victim..of circumstances perhaps, but a victim..." he says to himself. His aura blazes as he closes to 5" and says (although he needn't) and gestures with a fierce upward slash and closing of his fist "Gaia hold him fast!" the earth that the gator man lays upon erupts to hold it down.

Hearing the Regent's request, the earth binds the Gator man to the ground, bands of stone growing from the ground itself to wrap around the limbs of the gator.

Crater hits the ground, body twisted in a slightly awkward-looking angle for a few moments. Not long after, his body springs back to normal as he tries to get back to his feet smoothly.

The Man-Gator snarls and tries to break free of his earthen bonds.

The creature strains and just manages to crumble the rocks holding him down.

Crater dusts himself off a bit, not seeming the worse for wear. He raises a brow at the critter still being up. "Hm."

Michelle is probably the least useful person present and she's not getting any better at dealing with these things "Oh man can someone tell this guy to calm down?" the skunk lady growls angrily "Otherwise we're gonna have to pound him into the ground and wait until he wakes up"

Jason notices that the creature has broken free from the ground holding him. o O (I wonder...) O o. He rushes forward and attempts to grab the creature to hold him where he is!

Jason manages to grab the Gator-creature, and he starts to squeeze him - intent on knocking him out!

The Man-Gator struggles against Jason's hold. There's still plenty of fight left in him.

Michelle points at the Man-Gator and says "Stop now and try to talk to us" the skunk lady says "We don't really want to hurt you"

The Man-Gator snarls and thrashes, trying to get free. It does pay a moment's attention to Michelle, if it even understands her words.

Jason nods behind the monstrous creature, "Yeah, what she said! Don' wanna hurt you..."

Regent frowns..."Stronger than Gaia's hold..I shall try something else"

The Man-Gator's strength is waning, but he still struggles to get free!

Swirling winds circle the man-gator's head as the very air from his lungs is forced away..

The Man-Gator chokes and coughs. He flexes his powerful arms as he desperately tries to pry himself free, but Jason manages to keep a grasp on him.

Crater hms. He stretches a bit, a few joints popping. "Well. Crater glad that over."

Jason squeezes harder as the man-gator tries to escape his grasp. The creature goes limp in his arms, "Well we gave him the *chance* didn't we?" he gently lowers the monstrous creature to the ground then looks to the others, "Whadda we do now?"

Michelle whews well its not exactly how she hoped it was going to end "I dunno what to do... do we take him somewhere or hand him over to the authorities?"

Regent nods..and flies closer..."Let me take a look at this thing around his neck.." he draws closer.."but first...Gaia.." he says, "Hold this man fast, so he is no longer a danger to any of us.." the earth wraps the creature up at the ankles and the wrists pinning it to the earth.

Regent says, "Someone should call the meta police as well. 911 and tell them you need the meta police, also, is the civilian ok?"

Jason watches the proceedings, casting a few nervous glances towards Michelle, and Crater. He answers Regent's question, "Yeah, he's fine. He ran off after his dog."

Regent nods.."Who was he..was he involved?" he looks at the tags..."Anyone good with computers?" and while he is, he isn't sure if he wants to get embroiled in this. "Dog tags, Sam Dukes, US Army, Christian, blood type O+.....Military Experiment..or a Meta."

Jason shakes his head, "No, I was just walking through the park, and the creature came up out of the lake right at him and his dog. It looked totally random to me," he looks to Michelle and Crater to confirm his observation.

Crater takes a look. "Crater think Crater know Sam guy. Sometimes see around shelter. Not see lately. Talk about Army stuff sometimes."

Regent frowns.."This smells like...experimentation..dammit." he takes the tags with a quick swipe. "I'm going to have someone research this...Maybe Officer Akeno.."

Michelle hrmfs "You mean your people experiment on other people?" she seems a bit shocked at that thought

Regent nods, "It wouldn't be the first time I've heard of it."

Crater thinks. "Want Crater ask friend about Sam? Sam regular at kitchen, Crater think. Used to be, anyways."

Jason looks at Michelle, "Sometimes," then he glance as Crater, and looks at Regent, "D'ya think you guys have got things covered here?" he lowers his voice to Regent, "I feel kinda exposed - if ya know what I mean."

Regent nods, "I know exactly what you mean bud. Get if the gettings good."

Crater waves. "Bye."

Regent nods to Crater, "Please Crater...Sam is a victim here." turning to jason, "Dude..call the police for us."

Jason nods to Regent, "I will." . o O (Meta police?) O o ...

Michelle sighs and shakes her head "Whoever did this to him should be tossed in jail and throw away the key"

Crater nods. He makes a mental note.

Jason jogs to the edge of the park, and off into the night.

Regent looks at the tags.."Crater..would you like the tags? he is your friend? If you want to investigate, I'll wait here for the police."

Crater nods a bit. "Only place Crater know to check is with friend. Not know official places."