Summary:Investigating in the Disaster Zone, Nick and Isis are attacked as well as make some interesting discoveries Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Nick is prowling at the edge of the Disaster Zone. South side. He'd turned over some information to SHIELD earlier that's rather important and he intends to let them follow up on it. But there's a lot of things going down around here and he wants to know what they are. The number of 'werewolves' reported is way above what it should be and what it should be is 0. Nick's been around for years. He's never seen another mutant like himself.
Ever.
But he has seen a mutant like Isis. Isis. And she should be around here Somewhere.
Isis doesn't really like the Disaster Zone. It 'feels' bad to her and after her run with the dream lady, it's a place she'd rather avoid.
While Nick prowls, the feline-like mutant has found a perch in the sun, she's crouched there, almost sphynx-like while she watches him.
"People like me in there…" she says as she raises her chin to further inside the zone. "Can't smell anything like a werewolf though. Not that that means anything. They might have bathed or something. Can we get ice cream now?"
"Isis…" Nick sighs. "Can you come down here. If someone's around they're going to see you."
He sniffs. Hrm. Actually she's right. He can't smell anything right now. And that's weird. If there are people here living regularly he ought to smell them. It's not like there's running water down here.
"We're going in there." He says changing course. The wind picks up.
Wait… what was that? Smells kind of like.
Kind of like Nick.
"If they see me, they'll just think I belong here…" Isis answers but leaps down nimbly anyway, padding over to join Nick. "I don't like how it feels here, Nick."
Isis had said she couldn't smell werewolf, but he's right there's nothing special to pick up.
"We are?" She sounds a bit sad about that… then wind changes and she turns into it. "That way …" she stalks off, knowing Nick will follow. Her nose is good. "Some minds here … nothing that feels like yours, yet."
Which means they're a still fair way away. Isis' empathic range is wide but not infinite.
Nick stalks up to one of the walls and peers inside. Then he frowns. "This place is a mess. It looks like it's was abandoned in a big hurry."
He sniffs again and starts to move but as he grips what used to be a windowsill the concrete crumbles away. He stops and looks closer.
"Isis… Look…"
There are marks all along the interior. Big convex depressions. That might be made by some kind of, say, compression wave.
Like from a werewolf with a voice box.
"Someone's been through here. Everyone ran. They left everything behind. And… they were chased."
"It's always a mess, Nick. It's horrible here. Worse than the sewers the Morlocks live in." Isis really does hate the Disaster Zone. While Nick looks around, so does she, sniffing and peering at things, letting her own Empathic sense see what else might be out there.
When Nick points out the depressions, she runs her fingers along them. "Do you think it was done by one of voice box things? That's an awfully big bark. But why would they chase them?"
Isis looks around, looking for anything that might give them a clue. "Do you think they wanted to take them? Like that other one?"
"Maybe…" Nick says as he climbs over the crumbling wall and into the space. He glances about. "No blood. No drag marks. Either they picked the people up - literally snatched them - and carried them off or everyone got out."
It's possible too that they were chased some distance and then dragged off. "I- nnngh!"
Nick suddenly buckles. There's a high pitched noise, right at the edge of his hearing. Piercing. Isis can feel a mind drawing near. Two minds. Feral. Just like her.
They feel just like the people around her when she was being held in a cage.
The sound when it comes is annoying to Isis but not painful like it is to Nick. "Nick!" The feline-like mutant bounds to the buckled werewolf, standing over him as she turns trying to work out where those minds are coming from. "Get up, get up, get up… they're coming."
It's hard for her to focus when the fear and her instinct pushes at her. She growls, in the feline way of hers. Working out where they're coming from and stopping, facing that direction.
Her claws come out as her lips pull back, revealing those sharp fangs of hers. She'll fight. She won't cave or end up a basket case. Not this time. Nick needs her.
Nick tries to struggle to his feet but they're still closing in and it's hard for him to move. It feels like someone is driving an ice pick through his head. "Ow. Ow. What the he-"
WHUFF! The wall next to them blasts inward and sends Nick - and Isis - slamming down onto the ground. On the other side are two large lupine beings. One black, one grey. They are huge. They've each got a foot or two on Nick and they move in to try to grab the two mutants.
"Go, go, go…." Isis tries to get Nick to run as he struggles. "Need to get you earphones…. " The sound is annoying to her, but that's it. Her hearing goes much, much higher than that.
When the 'whuff' comes, it's easy to know her down. She's slight - it's been said a good breeze would send her flying.
"Go away …" The feline rolls, dragging herself up to a three point crouch. "Go away …" she growls again, backing that up with wave of emotional fear. That's possibly going to hit Nick, but there's not a lot she can do about that.
Hopefully the fear doesn't make these two attack. Then again, if they do, that could still be used against them.
Nick picks himself up as he's knocked down as the two rush in at Isis. The fear makes them flinch. Balk. One recovers before the other to come in at her and that means that rather than catching her between them there's a gap that she can exploit. Which she'll have to because HER werewolf still isn't in any condition to fight.
WHUFF! Another shockwave comes out from the one in back, this one aimed up to try and cause part of the wall to crumble. It works and heavy chunks of concrete and rebar start raining down as Isis is trying to make her stand.
"Nick. Go! Crawl if you have to." The feral mutant, growls again, judging her timing as the two wolves rush her. With the roof coming down, it's difficult but she manages, somehow. Maybe Nick being there is all she needed.
She's quick as she skitters out of the way, hopefully getting the two of them to run into each other. Then she's up and over the back of one, looking for the collar that holds the voice box. There is a voice box isn't there?
As she scrambles, she launches herself at the other. Trying to tie the two up by being quick, hopefully buying Nick time to get out of there.
The collars are there, with the voice boxes, yes. And she does manage to get on the back of one. The other rushes at Nick who has to brace himself to meet the impact. For a moment it looks like he might get knocked over. But he doesn't and the brown werewolf's retaliation is brutal. He simply claws at the large lupine's exposed stomach.
The growls and snarls of pain and anger fill Isis ears but she's got problems. That problem is the big guy here trying to slam against a wall to get her off his back. Hard.
"Nick!" Isis is gonna be cranky at the wolf later. Not that she can think on it for now. She yowls as sharp claws scratch at the wolf who's shoulders she's on. Down his face, trying to gouge his eyes, to his neck and the collar there.
"Oooof" she's slammed against the wall, but she doesn't let go. Claws slicing at the collar if she can do it - the other one wrapping around the big guys neck as she squeezes, trying to cut his air off.
She'll take a few more hits for that, she's sure.
.~{:--------------:}~.
Nick has finally gotten up to full height and his attacker has doubled over, trying to protected his stomach. So the brown mutant slices him along the arm instead. The werewolf reels back but only until Nick catches his collar and hauls him forward into the wall. Slam. Amazingly that does NOT put the other lupine being out.
The one that Isis is fighting starts to panic. He slams back against the wall over and over. Harder and harder. But eventually he starts to weaken. And then he drops forward onto his knees.
Isis is broadcasting strongly now. A mix of fear and panic and just fierce angry feral emotion. What that does to Nick, or the others is a good question. Not that she cares at the moment. She's got the collar and it dangles from her fingers as she uses the spare arm for leverage.
Slammed against the wall, she yowls again and a spike of 'pain' goes out but she doesn't let go. Just keeps squeezing. She can see Nick - at least he's up … that's something.
When the wolf drops to his knees, she doesn't let go. It lets her get her feet on the ground and get some purchase. She wants to kill him - Nick will get that from the wave of emotion that goes out. All she has to do is snap his neck, right? This is what she was trained to do and that training is kicking in with a vengence.
Nick brings his elbow down on the other werewolfs back and flattens him. That puts him out. The spike of pain has him wincing but it's the spike of rage that has him looking up in panic.
"ISIS NO!" Don't kill him. It hasn't come to that. It's not clear that it ever really would for Nick. It's certainly possible, he's been in life or death situations before. But… this isn't it. They've won. The others aren't a threat.
Isis totally would. She was raised for this. Trained for it. She looks at Nick with wild grey/blue eyes. "He was going to hurt us, hurt you. It would stop it." She's growling, her emotions a mess. There was a threat and she's going to stop it. Holding Nicks eyes for a moment, the feline-like mutant growls again, loosening her grip and slashing the wolfs face with her claws.
It will leave bloody furrows. Ones that will scar. A permanent reminder of her and what she can do.
Using all her strength, she slams the werewolfs face into the ground. If it doesn't knock him, it should at least break his nose.
Panting, trembling with fear and anger, Isis stares back to Nick. "They will never hurt you while I'm around."
"We aren't them." Nick growls. At least she went with something less than lethal. That's important to Nick for some reason and it was likely important to Piotr as well. Sighing, he cuts the collar off of his and goes over to collect the one Isis cut as well.
"These should be interesting to have someone look at." He sniffs.
"I don't smell any more. Do you feel anything?"
There's still someone out there. But it's hard to tell if they're hostile or not. They might just be hiding.
"Doesn't matter." Isis growls. She's still hyped up from the fight and the emotions that swirling. "People like this only understand one language. Law of the jungle and all that." It is important to the two men though and it's why Isis stopped. She stalks to the edge of the room, nimbly climbing over and unto the rubble as she scents the air and opens her mind.
"There's more out there. Can't tell if they're dangerous. Fear, anger … curiosity. Are you able to hunt?" Hunt. That will give Nick an idea of where his friend is at. This is the scatter brained, quicksilver, woman he usually knows. She's foccused and out for blood.
Nick gives Isis a look. "Depends. If we hunt are you going to pounce on the first thing that skitters across your path?" He kneels down to pat down the werewolf nearest to him. Hrm. What's this? There's something in his pocket. It turns out to be a scrap of fabric, thin and white. Like it came from, possibly, a lab coat. On it there's a few letters and a wolfs-head insignia.
"That looks familiar. Hrm… Lobo Technologies?"
"No. I'm hunting it's different to play." She can feel his emotions though, he's not trying to mask them. "You're disappointed." This is more like the woman they rescued three years ago. Sometimes they must wonder if they've ever made any progress with her.
Stalking back over, still 'listening' for that other mind, Isis crouches in three point crouch as Nick checks the pockets. "Looks like. Why would they have that? Looks like one of those coats Scientists and Doctors wear." leaning close she sniffs at it, trying to get a scent from it. It should have the original wearers on it.
"Did they find someone from Lobo Technologies and hurt them?"
"Maybe. It's torn. This got torn off a lab coat." And it smells like blood. It's no one Isis has smelled before but she has the scent now if ever she encounters it again.
"Could be a victim. Or… a handler? Hard to say." He pulls out a ziploc and bags the scrap of fabric.
"We'll have to look at it closer later. Try to run down whomever is out there while I look around here. Bring them back but don't hurt them, please. Unless they're a threat."
This is why Nicks the PI and Isis is just a gopher. Noting he doesn't respond to her comment about his disappointment, the feline-like mutant remembers the scent and nods. "Why would you say handler? What happened to them, if that's the case?" Lot's of questions from the the woman as she turns to head out and start hunting.
They're easy to follow. All she has to do is follow the emotional trail. When it gets weaker, she turns till its strong again. That's there no one else here though, that's a bit freaky.
"Just keeping an open mind to possibilities. And we haven't seen any other scraps of clothing though I suppose we haven't searched many of these guys." Nick turns away as Isis heads out. Soon he's out of sight.
The emotional trail leads to another, smaller and much more ruined building. There's a staircase that goes down to a basement level just inside. It's coming from down there.
Isis gets a glimpse of feline eyes looking up at her and hears a hiss. Someone isn't happy to see her.
It takes a bit to find the building. The only real upside to Isis' emotional state at the moment is that she's deadly focussed and doesn't get distracted at all.
Entering the building, she's careful. These places aren't stable and even as slim as she is, one wrong move could bring a roof down. "Hello?" she says softly as she heads down the stairs, sending a wave of … calming emotion. That's hard at the moment and she's going to be taxed. The hiss has her stopping, taking the crouch again. Her lips pull back in a snarl, revealing her fangs before she controls herself.
This is where she could really use Nick, or Piotr. They've a way of keeping her balanced.
"I'm Isis. I want to help. What's your name?" Nick might be following, right? He could follow her trail.
Hisssss. There it is again. Isis can see a woman… well kind of like her. But a LOT more feline. Tail. Fur. Ears. Big mane of hair. She growls as Isis starts talking. "Go away! They'll hear you! Or are you one of them?!"
Nick might be following or he might be looking around the place that was ransacked for clues. He DID ask her to bring whomever it was back, after all.
Isis *knows* what Nick asked, she did remember but a girl can hope.
Hisssssss. Isis bites her instinctive response off. It's so very difficult when she's like this.
"We got them. The two big werewolfs? I knocked one out and Nick the other… Nick wants you to come with us." No please or thank you, just statements of fact. "They were bad and we're trying to help."
There's that wave of reassuring emotion again, trying to lull the scared feline into complacence. "They were chasing you?"
The repeated broadcasts of calm are having an effect and the feline woman relaxes. A little bit. "Who is Nick? I do not know Nick. Why are you fighting them? No one fights them. There are too many and they are too strong."
Her tail - she has a tail - lashes back and forth. A sure sign that she's still agitated. "They came. They wanted me and others. Anyone who is like an animal. None of us are safe here."
"Come, come. I'll take you to Nick. He's my friend. He saved me. Wolfcub. Nick Gleason…" Isis answers, holding her hand out to the poor feline. "How many are there? Actually, wait till we get to Nick. He'll want to hear it too. We fought two and won. I'll fight more if I have to."
Isis really focusses on keeping things calm, even when she wants to tear the werewolfs who were doing apart.
"No one hurts my friends. Come with me … please…"
It's probably the calming emotional powers that do it more than anything else but the other feline takes Isis hand and lets herself be led. By the time she comes back to Nick he's coming out of the building, writing things on a notepad. He looks up when he sees her.
"So you found whomever it was? Hello. I'm Nick. What did Isis tell you?"
"That you fought the Pack and won."
"We did. Isis was a big part of that."
The feline shakes her head. "No one beats the pack. They'll be back later. More of them."
Isis doesn't say anything, just leads the woman back and goes to Nicks side when they get back. For a moment the feline-like mutant crowds him a bit, rubbing her ears against his arm. A way of saying 'sorry' for … loosing it before.
"Look…" she points to the werewolfs on the ground, out cold. "What's your name, you didn't tell me and I can't keep calling you 'she'." She considers the womans answer. "We can beat the pack, we make a pack of our own to do it. You can't keep hiding, it just gives them what they want. Who … are The Pack, anyway?"
"Felicia…" The feline woman says, leading Nick to quirk a brow. Felicia eh? "The Pack. They're the werewolves and others that live deeper in. They're taking territory. And… people. They say that they're the dominant species. Mutants like us. But we don't realize it. The want to 'help'…"
She shudders and shakes herself. "I don't want to be helped."
"Can't blame you." Nick mutters. "Did they take anyone?"
"Not that I saw. They came. Everyone ran. It's starting to be a… regular thing."
Nick glances at Isis. This has happened regularly?
"Can you find the others?" Isis is thinking and can't help but growl a little. She'll ask Nick about that quirked brow and the sense she's getting from him - later. "What do you mean … help? How's it helping anyone if they take territory, specially here in the Zone, and taking people?"
The regular thing gets Isis' lips pulled back in a snarl. "Regularly? What can we do, Nick? We need to help these people …"
"Get them out. If we can." Nick mutters. It seems its the mutants who are most at risk. So they should prioritize rescuing them if possible. Not that the regular people aren't at risk, they're just more likely to be attacked and not kidnapped.
"Help us see what our destiny is, or some bs like that." Felicia says. "The ones they take come back sometimes but they're… believers. Mostly, though, we don't see them at all. I could try to find the others but they've gone a long way by now."
Nick sighs. "Come with us. We can keep you safe, or safer than you're going to be here."
Felicia looks uncertain. "I don't know if I want to leave my friends."
Isis doesn't think these people will move but she holds her peace on that for the moment. "I meant your friends. The ones that scatter when The Pack comes." she adds to Felicia. "Bring your friends with you."
Nick might kill Isis, later, for that.
"You can't stay here if they keep coming but getting away, to somewhere safe, will give you time to plan and work out a better way of handling this." She doesn't exert any emotional pressure on the feline. Isis has some idea of that.
"I know. I… know." Felicia says. "But… can you really keep us all safe. If I find them will you take us all out? We don't have much money and none of us have ID's or anything like that."
"I can't help you with those but we can at least feed you for now and we have some places to sleep. Take us to them. We'll get you out."
She nods. "Okay. I'll… I'll do it."
Nick looks to Isis. It's gonna be a bit crowded and he's going to need to talk to people to see if someone can help pay for this.
"You'll be safer than in here." Isis adds simply "We have … friends … who might be able to help more." There's room in the offices. They can some mattresses for the floor, that will give more bedding, at least. Isis might need to find somewhere else to stay though.
She'll deal with that later. The Morlocks in M-Town are a possibility.
"We should speak to Miss Potts. There's that foundation I think she's involved with. Marie … Maria… Stark thing." She's short on the details but that's a possibility, isn't it?
"Let's go. The sooner we find them, the sooner we get out of here." And they can work out what Lobo Technologies has to do with all this.