Log:Kaarg on the Loose, Scene 1

Kaarg on the Loose 2015/08/21 Griffin Indira Rick 1

The sun is setting and the alien district is filled with the sound of cars on their commutes home. And then, there's a peculiar sight. A large, humanoid...frog creature with slick, pinkish skin and webbed digits is leaping out of the open door of Starguard. Too far behind it, Indira is running after it in a panic, lifting the front tresses of her dress so she can keep up.

"Boshti va! Someone stop it before--!" she cries out urgently, but too late. The frog-like being with large craggy jaws as made it to a storm drain and squeezes its body through, disappearing from sight.

Griffin is walking by Starguard on a random patrol of the Alien District. It reminds him of just how different of a world this is.

He sees the frog-being and immediately thinks 'HYPNOTOAD' and snickers. Then he sees local VIP & Ambassador Indira run out after it. She calls for someone to stop it, but before he can get up to speed and cross traffic the amphibic alien is gone. He crosses over the busy road just as quickly though to offer his assistance.

About three seconds after the MEGAFROG squeezes into the storm drain, Breach comes hurtling out of the doors of Starguard. He just barely manages to avoid smashing his helmet into the top of the door frame as he inexplicably sails out of the building and onto the steps, covered in a thick, pink-white slop on his chest, shoulders, and hands.

Landing in a crouch beside Indira - did he plan to do that?! - Breach straightens up and swivels his head to and fro. Pursing his lips for a few moments, Breach inquires, "Where did that motherpussbucket go /NOW/?"

Naturally, a thick clump of pink-white sludge chooses this moment to fall from the top of his helmet to *SPLUT* against the pavement.

Indira points to the storm drain it disappeared down. "It went down below. To your...what do you call these? Cisterns?" she translates too primative a word for the sewers. Although cisterns sounds nicer than stink filled sewers. She looks beyond distraught. "The Kaarg must be found! They breed fast and are a danger to this planet." Now that she's stopped running and as Griffin gets closer and Breach catches up, it's easy to see the large bite taken out of her right shoulder, abou the size of...well...the Kaarg's massive jaws. The injury looks more like the flesh of a fruit someone's bitten into, with bluish juices around the edges.

Griffin notices the injury immediately. He sees Breach as well. He gives him a nod as he pulls out a pressurized biogel applicator or STIMpak from his MEDpack. He turns a dial and a LED goes off on top. "A Clarg?" He asks "Fast breeders... slippery. Anything else we should know?"

"More importantly can I trest your wound?" He asks as he lifts the applicator towards her injury.

"Sewers," replies Breach. He may be eyeballing the storm drains in the same fashion you would eyeball that pile of poop on the back seat of the bus. Do you know what the dry cleaning bills are like for Smart Armor Systems?

"Isn't that a Klingon god or something? Kaarg'oth the All-Smiting or some drek?"

Breach recollects himself from time-skip reminiscences. He nods to Griffin and glances over at Indira's shoulder. Cautiously, Breach reaches out with a gloved hand to support Indira as Griffin produces a product of MODERN MEDICAL SCIENCE.

"Ma'am, that's a more significant injury than you led me to believe."

"Kaarg," Indira repeats slowly. "I do not know Klingon. They are....avrada-keel. What is your word for it?" Her collar lights up a bit and it translates for her. "The Ever-Eating," she explains to Breach. Something in the way she pronounces it makes it sound like a dire title.

She had been holding her shoulder after the bite and then gave chase, so it was mostly concealed. "Forgiveness, Breach. There was no time to care for it with a Kaarg loose. Soon there could be many. And they will be hungry. I think that merchant brought it here intentionally."

Indira looks to Griffin and offers a smile at the prepared man. "Many thanks. You may try your...tressing," she gracefully accepts Griffin's help and tries to stay still, which would be difficult without Breach's support.

"Of course. I'll do what I can to stop the Krarg- but first let's get you patched up. This will only prevent you from getting an infection & aid in healing. It'll fill in the chunk left and leave a biological lattice. It's pretty neat actually." Griffin explains. "This is gonna sting a second."

He places the stimpak's applicator tip in the center of the wound, and he taps the LED. A substance not to dissimlar to jello- but with the texture of softserve comes out. When it hits the substance starts to kill anything it touches like alcohol. Then it hardens. He deftly molds the STIMpak to the wound as it hardens. He's right it stings, and molding the biogel doesn't feel great either. But better than Space AIDS.

"Looks like a reject from a SyFy channel movie," comments Breach at the request for his "word for it". Breach watches Griffin apply the biogel and frowns slightly, "You don't need to use that stuff on me. I heal fast," he intones in a sour, vaguely distrustful tone of voice. The expression on the exposed lower half of his face suggests he is passingly familiar with healing goo.

"So I have your permission to," Breach pauses a moment, to ensure he uses a translateable word, "Neutralize the Koregrag, ma'am?"

"God I hated SyFy channel movies... I hated everything they did after being SciFi. It was just reality nonsense and crap movies." Griffin comments from the background.

Indira lets out a soft cry at the stinging, then tries to stiffle a second as he starts molding the biogel. She's clearly in pain and trying to bear it. She nods weakly in answer to Breach. "Yes. You must stop it. Capture it before it eats more and reproduces," she answers raggedly.

"Capture?" Griffin asks a bit bewilderedly. "What if it's not an option?"

"Neutralize," emphasizes Breach, for Indira's distracted sake. He smirks at Griffin and shakes his head, "They were trying to bring back the B-movie. Sometimes it was okay, sometimes it was pain."

Breach continues to support Indira with one arm. His other arm helpfully unlatches the security strap on his enormous revolver's holster. This may also help to emphasize what Breach means by 'neutralize'. For Indira's sake, surely.

Indira wouldn't ever order the death of a living being. Which is why Breach is using a very vague euphemism for killing that she can't translate. And she is quite distracted by the pain. If she understood the SyFy reference, she'd be in emotional pain as well. "Do your best to try to capture. If you must knock it out to stop it, I understand."

The painful stinging starts to become a duller pain, and Indira manages to straighten up on her own. "Thank you for your help, both of you. I musn't keep you any longer. The city could be in danger."

Griffin smiles and nods with an expression that says 'Say no more.'

"Alright that gel should set- tell your med teams to examine it. But I'm sure you'll be fine." Griffin says confidently. "B-Movies weren't good either. Classic sure- good? Not on your resurrected life." He says to Breach as he heads towards the sewer grate packing his MEDpack closed.

"Hey. Sharknado was a hit for a reason, man," replies Breach. He pulls his particle revolver from its holster at his hip as he moves toward the nearest manhole. Breach holds the particle revolver with one hand, his other hand moving to hook a finger or two into the openings in the manhole and HEAVE it out and onto the pavement.

"Care to take point, hoss?"

"Be safe," Indira wishes the two heroes luck, sounding concerned for their safety. She carefully grips her shoulder and takes a step back as they prepare to go down.

"I love point. Sharknado was a hit because people in herds are stupid." Griffin says as if the movie itself offended him.

He leaps down into the muck with out even looking down below him. When he lands he gripes- "Gross!" He unbuttons his shirt and unholsters his own weapon.

Breach steps into the hole after Griffin, landing in a crouch. He sweeps the particle revolver around in a covering position until he's sure that Griffin is ready to go. Standing up again, Breach follows Griffin's lead in the oppressive stank and semi-darkness of the Colonial Bay sewer system. Or, you know, whatever kind of tunnel this particular manhole led our intrepid heroes into.

There's a quiet dripping sound in the sewers. Without a fresh breeze, it's distinctly warmer and muggier down below. Oppressively so. The sounds of traffic above are muffled through several feet of concrete and earth.

You paged Porter with 'How is?'

Griffin looks around after tightening his headset. He turns a dial on the right eyepeice and activates his Nightvision. Then thinks twice and rolls the dial back and activates Infrared instead. "

"Ok partner- which way would a Klargian run?" He pans around 360 hoping to catch a heat trail. But that muggy heat makes that unlikely. He dials back to nightvision.

Breach rolls 3D6 with a PERCEPTION of 12- getting 10 which MAKES by 2

"It's basically a Battletoad," replies Breach, as though this should answer everything. He glances this way and that, immediately deciding that he needs to pick up some sensory modifications as he utterly fails to pierce the stygian darkness down here. Then again, he supposes, with his luck he'd probably end up with an enhanced sense of smell and that would be even worse to have down here than no enhanced senses at all.

"I'm assuming we can't head toward Mars down here. So... Toward deeper, more remote areas?"

You paged Griffin with 'You're getting a lot of interference from the heat thermals. But what you do catch is some colder webbed footprints that have huge gaps in between each imprint...like leaping. It leads you down the branch tunnel.'

"Wait- I did get something." Griffin says, "We've got a leaper. Battletoads. Well this just became infinitely more fun. I hope there will be speederbikes when we get to level 7. But first level 2- which is this way. I'm getting some weird readings on infrared, so I'll swap over to it at intersections. But we should hurry- these heat patterns won't hold for long." He says as he moves quickly down a branching tunnel to the right of the duo.

"Lead on," replies Breach. He idly contemplates whether or not some kind of telehaptic device would be helpful to him in an environment like this. It takes only a single *SKLRRRRRRCH* underfoot to make Breach decide that long range simulated tactile telemetry might not be wise. Breach charges after Griffin anyhow.

Griffin's visor tracking leads the pair down a branch tunnel, then a long tunnel. Around this part of the sewers, there's some obvious trails once the thermal trail goes cold. Bite marks. A bite taken out of the concrete of a corner wall. A ladder has a chunk bitten out of the bottom rungs. A steam pipe has been bitten and is spewing out steam that fills the path and risks blocking their progress.

From afar, Porter (Uhoh) ughs and also seems to be lagging bad.

Long distance to Porter: Indira is, too

From afar, Porter (Uhoh) sighs and thinks a nap is in order. "Maybe I'll be able to make some of that fancy schmancy late night RP."

You paged Porter with 'Yes! Please do!'

Long distance to Porter: Indira tucks in and pets and hopes to see you later.

"This steam is making the muck worse," Griffin says as he continues pressing forward.

"It's like a Battletoad and a Mouser." He adds after throughly thinking his post-80s references out.

"Belongs on an episode of Captain Planet," complains Breach. He slogs through the muck without other complaints, however, because he supposes it could be worse. There could be insurgents and a hailstorm of bullets in the tunnel too. Regularly, Breach reaches one hand up to his combat harness, lightly brushing gloved fingers over this grenade or that one as he considers fixing the tunnel the hard way.

The steam pipe obscures what's beyond it, visually and audibly. It lets out a high whistling sound that obscures everything else.

"Hang on a sec, Siege," intones Breach. He pulls one of the grenades from his combat harness and eyeballs the venting steam pipe. Absently, Breach considers the possible uses for steam pipes in THE AMAZING FUTURE THAT IS TODAY! Deciding it's for some kind of crazy FUTURE SCIENCE steam-cleaning service, Breach rolls his shoulders and pops the pin on the grenade.

Holding the spoon for a few seconds, Breach eventually decides that NOW IS THE SEASON OF THE STEAM PIPE'S DISCONTENT! Releasing the spoon, Breach heaves his grenade at the gash in the steam pipe and hopes that his aim and timing are true. When it explodes, the grenade releases a huge burst of what at first appears to be steam. Steam, however, turns to crystallizing ice sculptures as the freeze grenade's effects become manifest. For the moment.

Even the future still needs water to cool of the nuclear reactors powering the city. The billowing steam combined with the grenade creates an interesting affect; the steam becomes a frozen cloud and the pipe is sealed. For now.

"No," is Breach's flat reply. He follows Griffin at a comfortable pace, dourly frowning at the frozen turd bobbing away in the river of sludge. "It's a talent I found after I got back to civilization."

"Now that is impressive. They teach you to hurl icebombs like that in EoD training?" Griffin asks as he walks through the cleared passage. He high steps over something that is most certainly unmentionable in polite company... which is not the type in the sewers today. "Geezus- how do you ever make a turd that large?" Griffin says as it floats away from him.

As the remaining misty air from the steam hangs in the dark air, it suddenly swirls as something hurls through it and disturbs the water particles. The pink, slimmy skinned Kaarg has launched itself from the darkness, its large toothed maw open wide as it pounces on Breach and clamps its jaws down on him.

"Well it's better than taking up knitting." Griffin says thinking to himself someone just earned a completely appropo nickname.