Through the windows, there was something to give pause, and luckily around that time it seems that everyone paused. Therefore, it wasn't rude to just trail off mid-sentence like that. Good to know. Next most important problem, that sandstorm was gigantic. Seiga immediately got down from her levitating perch and wrapped her veil around her face. She ran over to and immediately grabbed Yoshika by the arm and started to drag her along, shouting "Move, now!" The jiangshi dragged her heels for a moment, pointing at Zero while saying, "But he's so coooooooolll..." as they left the room.
In Seiga's surprisingly brief experience with sandstorms in the Gobi Desert, she managed to learn quickly that these things move much faster than they look. She probably had a minute or so before it hit, so no time to get properly set up. She dragged Yoshika to behind a bookshelf, and tore off a piece of her skirt. Yoshika was confused, and even more confused when she took the strip and tied it around her face. "Seiga, are we playing "Dodge the Knife" right now? It's a really wei-" she said before getting a second strip tied around her mouth. "Mmemmph, mmph em mmphy mmphy," she added. Seiga grabbed her head and stared directly at her, making sure she knew the severity of this when she said, "Keep your head down until I say so. Don't look up, and don't move past me." She pulled her in and held her close, trying to keep her self as a barrier between whatever debris blew through the bookcase.
Somewhere along an unfamiliar road.
The increasingly thundering roar of the sandstorm prevented Sadness from hearing Sophie's "Why?" question to her last statement. With one hand in Cole's, she brought her free hand up to her makeshift mask, tugging it up to keep it from being pulled down or off her. The spirit of compassion might note that though she was instinctively squinting as the wind and sand began to howl around them, for a girl her apparent age Sophie was not visibly fearful.
edited 20th Jun '16 10:30:24 AM by Demovere
While Rex was trying to see who was inside, a teenager, probably around his age, with white hair and a curved staff landed near the library's entrance with another soldier and wondered what was going on.
The second soldier simply pointed out the windows were broken and used his jetpack to fly inside the library. Meanwhile, Wells and another guy from his group offered their hands to help everyone get inside.
"Just take him inside. I need to look for someone first"
Rex took off and started looking for the pet shop. At least he had his goggles on so he wouldn't get sand in his eyes.
edited 20th Jun '16 2:41:40 PM by DeisTheAlcano
Lune listened to Plague Knight’s orders and pulled out her Divine Arm sword and her Hyper Blaster Rifle. These zombies were in her way of survival, and since they were dead already, it doesn’t matter if they died once more, right? Besides, what will Caro, Sans, Karkat, Kieri, Zelda and Ben think if she died right here? With that in mind, Lune cut and blasted her way through the horde of zombies blocking the entrance to the market.
edited 20th Jun '16 2:02:31 PM by josh6243
Grocery store
Garrett considered what to do for a moment, wondering if he should hide in one of the nearby buildings not surrounded by zombies, but then decided to rush after Lune towards the store. Safety in numbers. He'd rather keep well-armed company, especially as most of his gadgetry wouldn't be as efficient against this kind of enemy. He had his dagger out to make quick stabs at any zombies that got too close but he didn't expect to achieve much with it. "Open?!" he shouted inquiringly once the first person got to the store's front door.
edited 20th Jun '16 3:14:44 PM by Korodzik
As the front of sand hit the city, it got worse. The shifting of the city was teleporting pockets of the sandstorm around, which kept their momentum even as they were usually rotated. What had been a solid front of sand going in one direction instead became a chaotic maelstrom of sand and wind going in multiple directions.
The good news, such as it was, was that the zombies were not immune to the sandstorm and many that were outside got helplessly thrown to the ground and rendered into no threat by the storm.
... But not all of them.
Sadness, Sophie, and Cole basically couldn't see anything, but thankfully Cole could feel his way towards the library with his abilities. Over the din of the storm, they could vaguely hear some kind of clicking sound, then more clearly heard a roar. If they could see, the three of them would see two alien creatures with teeth that formed an unsettling grin
◊ charging down the street towards them. The one in front went straight for Cole, pincers forward and ready to stab and tear into him.
((OOC: Chryssalids are non-autohit enemies.))
Jack Frost's attempt to ice up the windows certainly helped, though with the sands suddenly coming in from multiple angles it couldn't stop the sand entirely. It still made the situation inside much better, and in the upper floors it was easy for people to take cover in the bookshelves. On the first floor, Caro's shield stood firm easily as those inside waited, completely safe. The sand made everything dim and get a yellow-tan tint to it all. Though the heat from the light above was being mostly blocked, keeping the ice up was still very difficult for Jack, due to both the ambient heat and the heat caused by friction of the sand blasting against his ice. Still, with some effort he could at least still keep the ice out on one side-
Something busted through the ice over to his side on the second floor. Not sand, it was too sudden, and the hole it made was too big. There was a growl and inhuman shriek, then a four legged alien creature
rushed around the bookshelves nearby Jack and charged straight at him, rearing up on its hind legs to stab at him with its spike-like front legs. The attack would also transfer toxins if it hit, but it was likely that it wouldn't affect Jack.
Elsewhere on the second floor, a second one of the same type of creature effortlessly bounded over the bookcase that Seiga and Yoshika were nearby, and lunged at them to bite at their necks and deliver a large dose of toxins if it hit.
A third of the creature ran over to the open area above the lobby and leapt down, eliciting yells of surprise from the militia members outside Caro's shield and a prompt amount of gunfire as it charged straight for the closest vulnerable person.
((OOC: Again, chryssalids are non-autohit enemies.))
Between the four of them, Plague Knight, Specter Knight, Lune, and Garrett were able to make their way to the front of the store and right inside since all the glass doors and windows were busted. The storm started to hit just as they were getting inside, and unfortunately right near the entrance things weren't much better than outside. Since the front side was the only one with significant windows or doors though, traveling deeper inside and among the store aisles would protect them from the sandstorm.
But it was also pitch black in the safe areas of the store, and safe wasn't totally applicable because there were still more zombies in here. A group of them were even lurching out of the dark interior towards the group as they entered the store.
It was hard to hear over the storm but if they went a bit further in they could make out that the crying was coming from the aisle for baking goods.
edited 20th Jun '16 3:20:16 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Four Arms turned towards the sudden shrieking noise, but before he could do anything about it, the insect-like creature pounced down onto the lobby, and was taking some serious fire. Four Arms glared at the creature. "Oh, you wanna dance, bug boy? Time to call an exterminator!" he exclaimed, picking up the nearest, biggest sofa he could find. "Watch out, guys!" Four Arms exclaimed, as he lifted the sofa over his head with all four arms and tossed it directly at the bug-like monster.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Sans didn't even get much time to say anything before some kind of weird insect creature showed up in the lobby, it didn't look like a zombie but that wasn't much of a surprise anymore. At the very least, it was a single creature so it shouldn't be as troublesome to deal with, plus it was focusing on those military guys.
"caro, how about we try doing our tie-and-fire combo?" he asked the girl, still keeping himself rather nonchalant
Thanks to all the distractions, it shouldn't be too hard to catch that thing offguard so if Caro was capable of keeping the thing in place, Sans would immediately follow it up with his Gaster Blasters, that coupled with the attacks coming from the others should be more than enough to kill it.
But if there was one thing that Sans knew about insects was that they normally didn't come individually, which meant there were probably more of those things lurking around, so he made sure to pay attention to his surroundings to see if any more of those would try to jump on them. He had already heard a very unsettling shriek coming from the second floor, which meant there were probably more on the upper floors as well.
Juri, Library
In her efforts to secure the Library, Juri had eventually wandered upstairs once the first floor was barricaded and was beginning to move the bookcases to barricade the second floor windows when she eventually heard of the sandstorm coming. It caused her to stop and ready herself for the sandstorm. However, Juri noticed a creature about ready to attack Jack Frost, who had been using his ice powers to freeze the windows. A creature that looked fairly sharp and inhuman. Thinking quickly, Juri aimed a kick at one of the bookshelves beside the creature, hoping to cause the bookcase to fall onto the creature and crush it beneath a heavy pile of books without harm to Jack Frost.
Wizard Needs Food BadlySomewhere along an unfamiliar road.
"Cole!"
Recognizing the sound of a creature's roar over the sandstorm around them, Sophie acted: she let go of Cole's hand, quickly stepped in front of him, and brought her hands together, one on top of the other.
Eleth converged into a small ball of energy between her hands; a second later, she opened her eyes in squints, barely seeing the creature get close enough -
- before bringing the ball to bear on the creature's stomach, its energy blasting forward in the shape of a lion. The short-range force only struck forward and away from the direction Sophie was facing in, so Cole and Sadness were safe behind her; if it connected, the creature would also be forced back several feet in addition to being damaged - maybe even knocked down if its balance had been jarred enough.
edited 20th Jun '16 4:55:54 PM by Demovere
Cole had experienced sandstorms back home, in the aptly named Hissing Wastes, but they had never been anything like this. Having shed his tunic to offer protection to the two girls meant he was mostly just grimacing and keeping his head ducked to try and hide behind the brim of his hat, trying to focus on moving through the weather towards the mass of emotions that was the library.
The faint clicking might not have alarmed anyone else, but he raised his head quickly at it, grimacing against the sand. He was trying to squint through it, without much luck, but he could detect enough to know something...bad was coming for them.
Before he could do anything, the strange girl pulled away, though he quickly opened his senses to keep an awareness of her, taking the chance to pull Sadness out of her tank, electing to just hold her tightly against his side in one arm rather than put her down.
The girl did...something, he was aware of what felt like a disruption in the air for a moment, and he hoped whatever it was would be enough. "Come here!" He reached out for her, grasping at the air before finding her shoulder, putting a hand on it. "We need to find somewhere to hide! There should be buildings on either side of this street! We can at least get in them and be able to see!"
Library - Excuse me while I multitask
Thankfully, her barrier held up against the raging storm of shifting sands and everyone inside was still safe.
Unfortunately, a strange and rather creepy gigantic insectoid creature appeared and started to attack those outside the barrier.
Sans suggested that they dealt with the enemy the same way they had with the previous ones. She quickly complied, making chains erupt from the floor below the creature and attemped to grab it with them and pin it down on the ground.
The girl Sophie was magical. That was good to know.
Sadness struggled a bit as Cole picked her clean out of her tank². She gripped the edge of the glass wall for a second, wanting to reach in and mash buttons to try and blow up those creepy monstery things, but just as soon realized that she might accidentally blow up Sophie as well, who was doing her magicky thing right in front of them. The emotion stopped struggling and went limp in Cole's arm. A tank was not the best thing to rely on for a security blanket, anyways.
And thus, as Cole and Sophie tried to save their own, her, and each other's lives, she hung there like a sack of potatoes, idly keeping the scarf on her face from slipping down and wishing that she had a handle on her own powers so she could do something more helpful than blink sand out of her eyes.
Currently writing something. Currently procrastinating.The turbulence was getting worse by the minute. Rex thought about landind and continuing the search on his motorbike, the wind would have a harder time trying to push him around if he was closer to the ground. Before he could actually land though, one of his turbines gave up due to the sand getting everywhere and fell apart, sendind him tumbling against a dune.
Rex got up and tried get rid of the sand on his clothes which was a bit difficult given where he was. He could barely hear anything over the sound of the wind but he still thought that maybe Sadness would be close enough to hear him.
"Sadness?" he shouted at the top of his lungs, but stopped shortly after to cough since yelling only made him catch sand with his mouth.
edited 20th Jun '16 7:48:22 PM by DeisTheAlcano
Plague Knight and the others managed to get inside the supermarket, narrowly avoiding the storm. However, it turned out there were more zombies within, waiting in the pitch darkness of the store.....
"Damnable infestation!" the knight cried out in anger and shot at the pair of zombies with his shotgun. "Everyone stay together!" he said to the others.
DAMMIT MARK, STOP HITTING HELPY!!The clicking sounds of the Chryssalids along with the roar of the sandstorm would serve to muffle a smaller sounds of something creeping up from behind the obviously hostile predator. Unlike most of the mindless monsters going around attacking people indiscriminately though, this creature had its eyes on more dangerous prey, namely the Chryssalids. With the people defending themselves and the aliens bounding over to attack in a hurry, the encroached Negi Springfield crawled towards them rapidly on all fours like a hunting cat, getting ready to spring. When the melee ensued, the bestial boy launched himself forward in a blur that only let out the faintest of hisses with his claws outstretched and reinforced with dark magics, attempting to perform a slam his ever so sharp appendages into the broad backs of one of the creatures, specifically the one Sophie wasn't engaging.
edited 20th Jun '16 8:15:23 PM by Makaioh
The librarian did have a point. But there was no time left to argue about technicalities, for something else was coming towards the library. Luckily, the sandstorm was some distance away when it was first spotted, giving Ara plenty of time to rush to the barricade and try to hold it in place.
And that was when the creatures attacked.
Two arrived to the second floor, and went after their respective targets, whoever they were. The third, however, made the fatal mistake of dropping down onto the first floor, where most of the fighters and armed forces were located. Naturally, Ara felt compelled to assist in eliminating the newly arrived foes, so she repositioned herself where she knew she wouldn't incur in friendly fire. She'd been involved in a couple of... accidents before, and she did not want to cause any more of them.
After repositioning herself so that she would not accidentally hurt anyone but the opponent in the lobby, she turned abruptly and swung her arms, firing three spears made entirely out of energy towards it. The first two were thrown the second her arms were swung, one after another, and were roughly the same size as the one she was holding in her arms; but the third one was definitely bigger, and was launched a couple of seconds later from directly above her head.
In a snap decision, she raised Yoshika out from under her and directly into the path of the thing. It sunk its fangs deep into Yoshika's backside, pushing her off of Seiga's grasp and pinning her to the ground. She was quick to notice that she was being stabbed by something she couldn't see, responding to this development with a loud "MMMPH", and flailed about in an attempt to escape. Her arms and legs probably got a few glancing blows on the creature's chitin, but who knows if that would get it off of her in any appreciable amount of time.
Seiga, who had scuttled backwards on the carpet, stared at the thing before her. So far, the things she had seen in this City were recognizable enough. Humanoid. Two legs. There had been a grey child with horns earlier, and a robotic man, but these were things she could understand well enough. The mere appearance of this thing bewildered her, it's appearance unlike even the most inhuman of beast or youkai, and though it was only a pause of a second or two she felt like it was much longer as she tried to take in every detail she could make out from behind her veil.
Seiga snapped out of that state quickly enough for her to start running. With Yoshika immobilized at best, she needed someone or something to get rid of it. Now, she remembered her earlier guess that everyone was powerful in this city. She ran through the second floor, looking about the place for a bludgeon that wasn't a book, and shouting over the din of the sandstorm, "Someone get over here and help me!"
[[Library, 2nd Floor]]
Jack jumped at the distinct sound of ice-shattering, and spun to look at the gaping hole in the ice he had managed to lay down. The scattered bits of ice on the floor meant it shattered inwards, which meant that whatever caused it was inside. Was it just a chunk of something picked up by the storm, or something worse?
His answer came in the form of shriek and something purple rushing at him out of the corner of his eye. Twinetender was already moving towards it, but the thing moved far too fast. The thing reared up and stabbed down at Jack with its legs, forcing him to fall backwards to try and get out of reach; the sharp limbs grazing the front of his hoodie but missing his skin. But, now he was laid out on the ground in front of it, and he really didn't want to find out if those legs could hurt him. Nothing really ever had as a spirit, but he wasn't willing to find out.
With a flick of his staff, Jack formed a spike of ice that shot up from the floor towards the creature.
The alien charging forward looked agile and ready to weave through attacks, but magical binding chains, gunshots, laser blasts, magical spears, and an entire sofa was a bit much. Frankly it was hard to tell just what exactly had dealt the killing blow, but the important thing was that nobody had been hurt in the crossfire, and it was dead.
The same could not be said for either of the other two alien creatures upstairs. Gon couldn't get a shot on either of them from the first floor, as they were not near the center of the floor and were obscured from any view on the first floor by the maze of bookshelves.
The one that attacked Jack kept trying to press forward towards him only to have the bookcase fall over onto it and Jack's icicle hit it from underneath. But the alien creature was a bit tougher than its looks might've suggested, and was neither crushed flat nor speared through, and was still alive. It was however momentarily pinned as it pushed up against the bookshelf and started scratching grooves in the floor with its spike legs as it tried to get out from under the bookshelf. It would not be trapped there for long at this rate.
As for the other one, though it did take a few stray whacks from Yoshika's flailing glancing off its carapace, eliciting a shriek of pain, that did not stop it. With Yoshika blind and nobody helping her, there was really nothing stopping it from continuing its attack. It brought its mandibles out of her back and drove them right through her neck, grabbing her shoulders with its hands to lift her off the floor entirely and drive its mandibles in further. It then dropped her on the floor, her neck torn apart to the point of being basically useless, and backed up a moment, tilting its head as it stared down at her, waiting for something that wasn't happening. It didn't know that her brain had to be destroyed to really finish her off, but it let out another roar as it realized something was wrong and reared back, preparing to stab its front legs down on her.
Skilled as she was, a small snippet of vision amidst the eye-stinging sandstorm was not enough for Sophie to perfectly judge what she needed to do. The attack did connect with the front chryssalid's chest, sending it backwards multiple feet and knocking it prone, but Sophie had fired it a moment too late; as evidenced by the large gash it had left in her chest with a claw swipe as her blast had hit it.
Meanwhile, as stealthy as Negi might've thought his large, magically infused rage body was, it wasn't stealthy enough to avoid the notice of the rear chryssalid as he charged. It wheeled around suddenly, shifting its momentum easily and stabbing its claws into Negi's chest just under his attempted swipes, which only left deep scratches as they grazed the alien's arms. The creature then hoisted Negi upwards, which also drove the claws in further, and threw him down to the ground on the other side of it, using Negi's own momentum against him. This did at least land Negi nearby Cole and Sophie, but the deep stab wounds were bleeding badly and the constant onslaught of blowing sand was not helping matters. Letting out some more clicks, the creature advanced forward more slowly this time, while the other one struggled to get back on its feet after Sophie's blow.
edited 21st Jun '16 1:16:01 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Grocery store
"Damn, damn, damn!" Garrett swore, realizing that this entire trip might have been a bad idea. He should've stayed in the library, where he'd be completely safe and in no danger at all.
"I'm gonna throw a flash bomb and hide! Close your eyes!" he yelled to the rest of the group, then tossed a flash bomb at the group of zombies approaching them. Without stopping to see if that did anything, he quickly ducked into the darkness between the shelves, then fired a noisemaker arrow into an out-of-the-way corner of the store to hopefully distract some other zombies... and perhaps cover any potential sound of his steps as he moved through the dark, as quietly as possible, towards the source of the crying.
As soon as the first alien creature was dead, Four Arms looked up towards the shrieking upstairs. He glared up at where he presumed the monsters were, rushing as quickly as he could up the stairs to help. Even after Four Arms had cleared out a good number of the bookshelves earlier, there were still many on the second floor, so he had to be quick. He would try and push the bookshelves aside until he saw either one of the creatures.
If he found one, he would reach out to grab it, then attempt to slam it onto the ground repeatedly (much like a certain Avenger attempted to do to a certain puny god).
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Jack breathed heavily, then instantly regretted it as he inhaled a mouthful of sand. Coughing and spluttering, he managed to still keep his eye on the creature as it struggled to get free.
Come on, Jack. Come on! Think! What are you supposed to do to stop it?! Freezing it won't work, with how his powers have been playing up, especially now thanks to the weather. Could he trap it temporarily, until someone else could help? Just long enough to make sure it didn't hurt anyone.
It was worth a shot, and the only one he could think of. Filling his staff with his power, he begin to walk quickly from one side of the creature to the creature to the other, swinging his staff to trap it's legs and lower body in thick ice. He really hoped it worked.
edited 21st Jun '16 6:32:28 AM by Alleydodger

Karkat - Land of Sand and Zephyr
Karkat stood on the outside of the little introduction circle, letting Viola do most of the talking. She wouldn't last a day on Alternia. Way too nice. But he guessed here, being nice was a good thing. Plus, if he decided to stay with her the rest of the time he was stuck here, he could potentially use her to introduce him to other people. More friends meant that he would be doing a better job as a Knight of Blood. Not that he ever cared about it before, but...
...
He really didn't have an explanation for suddenly caring.
Thankfully, he didn't have to think about his horrible life right now, because there was something urgent going on. He looked outside a broken window and saw a massive cloud of sand and paper approaching the library. Sort of like Tavros's planet. Except LOSAZ wasn't completely terrifying. He jumped back and started running down the stairs, screaming at everybody to get off their sorry asses and get to shelter. He noticed everyone was huddling around Caro, and even though he didn't know why, Caro was his friend and he deserved to be a part of that. He squirmed his way through the group to stand right next to Caro and braced himself.
(holds pool noodle threateningly) Do you want to know what we do to artists?