[Issue] We Fought A Zoo

[Narrator]

The Blackbird touches down in the largely empty employee parking area of the Highland Zoo. As the team exits, they can clearly see that, even from the outside, the previously defunct zoo is a work in progress. The nearby service entrance doesn't even appear to have anything other than a camera as security. But perhaps that's just what Grant and the not-so-good doctor want people to think.

[Robin Stanton]

"It's less creepy than an abandoned zoo, but not by much..." Robin says as she wanders down the ramp of the plane and looks around.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Abandoned places tend to encourage people to want to do something with them. Under renovation? That's someone else's problem," Tereza says, tucking the radio in her ear as she walks down the ramp.

[Robin Stanton]

"See that's thinkin'." Robin nods and then, mid-stride shifts into a large panther that prowls towards the entrance from, hopefully, an angle that the camera isn't covering.

[Narrator]

As she gets a better look deeper into the entrance, Robin finds security less lacking than it initially appeared. She sees a fenced-in corridor with a rolling gate and a small guardhouse at the far end. The guardhouse is occupied, but luckily the guard on duty doesn't seem to have seen anything.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin flattens out and spreads herself thin over the ground, trying her best to mimic the color and texture of the floor as the puddle of shapeshifter slowly crawls through the corridor and towards the guard house, intending to slip underneath the gate.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza watches Robin's maneuver and then follows after, trying to get as close to the gate as possible while still being out of the line of the camera. Ice covers up her hands as she moves.

[Narrator]

The guard is paying more attention to the surveillance monitors than her actual surroundings, and so doesn't spot either the faint movement of the ground under the fence or the skulking cryokinetic closing on her position. So far, so good.

[Ainsley Green]

Ainsley was waiting patiently for Sam's cue. She'd let him know when to go out, because unlike certain rock stars, he did not.

[Robin Stanton]

Shimmying her way all the way to the guardhouse Robin forms a giant hand that shoots up from the ground and tries to grab the guard's entire head to keep them from shouting or otherwise sounding the alarm.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam for her part has the flock spread thin over the area, hoping to not alert Flayer or other psychic creations of the doctor. She's a ways behind Tereza so she can keep an eye (or several) on the plane.

[Narrator]

To her credit, the guard reacts before being grabbed. But not quickly enough to manage any more than a "What the mmph!"

However, despite no reachable target, she reaches for a taser without hesitation.

[Robin Stanton]

Robin frantically tries knock the guard's head back against something before the taser makes contact with her...

[Narrator]

With the thud of head against wall, the woman is down for the count. Giant Hand wins!

Sam can sense many minds somewhere ahead, both employees above and others below. The ones below are easier to sense on account of many strong emotions: confusion, fear, and despair chief among them.

[Samantha McManus]

"We're going to need you when we get below, Ainsley," Sam sends, gesturing to the gangplank of the plane as she makes her way to Tereza.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza watches the camera for a moment and then covers the lens in ice with a small gesture. Hopefully it'll just look like it's fogged up as she ducks under it and makes for the gate. "Is there a release, Robin?"

[Ainsley Green]

"Right. Coal and I will ready ourselves to to move on your command."

Ainsley motioned for Coal to follow him down the gang plank and get ready to book it.

[Robin Stanton]

"Prolly! Lemme look." she says, letting the unconscious guard down to the ground and checking for a way to open the gate.

[Narrator]

On the small desk, between the security monitor and a small portable radio used to reduce the sheer monotony of the job, is a clearly labeled set of buttons for opening and closing the gate and an alarm.

[Robin Stanton]

Which Robin pushes. The gate one that is.

[Narrator]

A motor whirrs to life and the gate rolls open, allowing the others to pass.

Beyond is a short road leading to a loading dock with three places for vehicles, one of which is occupied. The occupant in question is the same horned semi from the racetrack. This is definitely the right place.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"We may want to spike the truck's tires," Tereza says quietly, surveying and looking for guards, "Don't want them using it to get away."

[Samantha McManus]

"Look for drag-marks around it, too." Sam says as she nears.

"It'll give us an idea where they took him."

[Narrator]

There, stuck to the edge of the adjacent roll-up door into the building, is a scrap of black material. On closer examination, it feels like the unstable molecule fabric of a shifter's X-Suit.

As they find this, a sound like television static begins to fill the air, growing louder, harsher and more primal-fear-inducing by the second.

[Tereza Rozanov]

For a werewolf, fear elicits a particular angry response and Tereza has to stop as she moves, pressing her hands to her head as she fights her wolf's urge to go into hellbeast mode.

[Robin Stanton]

"Do you guys hear that? What is that?" Robin frowns as she staggers forward.

[Samantha McManus]

"Someone who..."

She grits her teeth as they grow faintly sharp, her ears flicking to points as her hair goes wild. Her frame wrenches, becoming lanky under her suit.

"...someone who didn't do their homework. Fear is the Battle Crow's meat and broth..." she hisses.

[Narrator]

Coal begins to whine just before the storm drains around the loading area disgorge hissing, rattling, sinuous forms with too many legs. They look like armored rattlesnakes with the legs of centipedes. Not too dangerous to the team unless there are a lot of them. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of the absolutely venomous looking things.

[Robin Stanton]

"Oh ewww, what the fuck!" Robin shouts as she turns her feet into rock and tries to stomp on the advancing things. In her disgust she didn't really think this all the way through and her regular legs struggle to lift her stone-feet very well.

[Ainsley Green]

Ainsley had been keeping a safe distance between himself and the rest of tbe group, allowing them to clear a path. When Coal reacted however, he made a move to get closer, and caught wind of the situation.

"Of course they're bloody insects!" Ainsley thinks loudly enough for Sam to pick up. He was already trying to keep it together

It takes Ainsley a moment to realize they are not bugs, but reptiles.

"Stand down!" He commands in a weird mental language Sam can only presume is the Ainsley equivalent to Parseltongue.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Ice spikes erupt from the ground around Tereza, her joints popping as her wolf continues to try to take over.

[Narrator]

"Oh ewww, what the fuck!" Robin shouts as she turns her feet into rock and tries to stomp on the advancing things. In her disgust she didn't really think this all the way through and her regular legs struggle to lift her stone-feet very well.

Robin manages to turn a few snakipedes into goo, but others begin crawling up her legs while some try in vain tos strike her feet.

Ainsley had been keeping a safe distance between himself and the rest of tbe group, allowing them to clear a path. When Coal reacted however, he made a move to get closer, and caught wind of the situation.

"Of course they're bloody insects!" Ainsley thinks loudly enough for Sam to pick up. He was already trying to keep it together

It takes Ainsley a moment to realize they are not bugs, but reptiles.

"Stand down!" He commands in a weird mental language Sam can only presume is the Ainsley equivalent to Parseltongue.

Many of the creepy critters stop and stare at Ainsley. But at least as many, the ones more arthropod than snake, just crawl over their brethren to try and get at the team.

Ice spikes erupt from the ground around Tereza, her joints popping as her wolf continues to try to take over.

A good dozen crawlies find themselves skewered by spikes. Unfortunately, they are still coming from the drains.

[Robin Stanton]

"Nope! Nope! Nope!" Robin exclaims as her body races the climbing snakipedes in turning to stone, which is not exactly a long-term solution unless she just wants to go full statue and now she's trapped her squishy parts into an exceedingly small corner. "Mistakes were made!" she decides as her hair braid turns into an arm with a clenched fist that frantically swipes at the climbing creatures.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam wades into the fray, her body quickly shifting into a creature that at first looks like nothing so much as a large mustelid.

However the stings and bites of the creatures don't seem to give her nearly as much pause as they should as she yanks them off Robin one after another with her teeth.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza jerks her arms towards the closest drains and the ice flows with the motion, slamming into the drains and whatever is in their path, more ice building on it as it goes.

[Ainsley Green]

Ainsley notices the biological differences between the two groups and attempts something sly. He attempts to turn the more reptilian ones against the ones more insectoid in nature.

"Icky imposters! Destroy imposters!"

[Narrator]

"Nope! Nope! Nope!" Robin exclaims as her body races the climbing snakipedes in turning to stone, which is not exactly a long-term solution unless she just wants to go full statue and now she's trapped her squishy parts into an exceedingly small corner. "Mistakes were made!" she decides as her hair braid turns into an arm with a clenched fist that frantically swipes at the climbing creatures.

Sam wades into the fray, her body quickly shifting into a creature that at first looks like nothing so much as a large mustelid.

However the stings and bites of the creatures don't seem to give her nearly as much pause as they should as she yanks them off Robin one after another with her teeth.

Robin and Sam's combined efforts free the former from being swarmed by the scribbling horde. Hopefully, Sam's capable of ejecting the venom from her system before it does anything but deliver a burning sensation.

Tereza jerks her arms towards the closest drains and the ice flows with the motion, slamming into the drains and whatever is in their path, more ice building on it as it goes.

A mass of snakipedes is crushed against the curb by the miniature glacier rushing across the blacktop, blocking the drain with their writhing bodies as much as the ice itself. But can she block the rest before the team is overwhelmed?

Ainsley notices the biological differences between the two groups and attempts something sly. He attempts to turn the more reptilian ones against the ones more insectoid in nature.

"Icky imposters! Destroy imposters!"

Ainsley's gambit pays off! Absolute chaos erupts as the more reptilian faction attacks and the two clans roil around each other in a frenzy.


As the team battles the creatures, a man in a lab coat whose I.D. badge identifies him as Phil exits the building by a door next to the big dock doors. While his earbuds make him oblivious to the horrendous rattling, the sight of the battle causes him to freeze halfway through the act of removing a carton of cigarettes from a pocket and drop it. Now is as good an opportunity to escape as they might get short of killing all the angry snakipedes in a prolonged battle.

[Robin Stanton]

"Sam to the rescue!" Robin cheers as she's freed of enough snakepedes to shift back to normal and leap back from the mass while her braid continues to punch at the ones that try to approach.

"You gonna be okay with the bites? They look like they could be mondo poisonous..."

[Ainsley Green]

Ainsley let's the animals duke it out as he noticed 'Phil' out for his break.

"Coal, pin him! Don't bite, just scare!" Ainsley calls to his friend, hoping to catch him and steal his ID badge for further access into the facility beyond the first door.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza falls back towards Sam and Robin, leaving hummocks of ice behind her to try to sly down the horde.