Crowd Control || Lore Drop
Two crews cross paths in an attempt to hunt the INTERLOPER's fall.
"You got a lot of demands for a woman who told me the last time we ain't huntin' together anymore, you know."
"And you have a lot of nerve acting like that's not something we have in common- being demanding. Now shut up and crouch down." Pig rolls a single glowing red eye, Sow settled behind a dead tree she'd clearly overturned recently, if the ripped up surface of the ground nearby is any indication. "I was almost expecting Hymn not to tell you to meet me."
"Why, 'cause you decided the Fall was more important than my home? Nah, can't hold that against you, can I? Just the only place that bothered t' give me any sort a' shelter the past few decades- s'fine, it can be ripped offa the map by a ravenous horde- I'll find a different group a' freaks willin' to overlook my nature, I'm sure it exists." Pig's sarcasm is cutting, and as he unloads equipment nearby and examines his cleaver, Sow sighs.
"I didn't-"
"I know what ya did. I know what ya said. Pig first, evac second. I know you ain't got a lot of love in ya for the Gods- but the sideshow ain't got no gods in it nowhere. Just my friends. Just Runt's friends. I didn't come out here 'cause you made a particularly appealin' case about it, or even because I want to chase a fall this close to the one we trained the girls on- I'm here because there's folk who can't fight for themselves in that circus. And there ain't no honor in baseless slaughter." He casts a glance over his shoulder. "And I don't need ya to think I'm doin' the right thing, but I do need ya to respect that I'm doin' it anyway."
Sow sits silently, watching Pig work and the fins at her cheeks flattening beneath the hood of her cloak- guilty. "You would have been here anyway, then, even if we all returned to sound the alarm- Carousel and Hymn had it covered, this way-"
"Drop it. Where's Dethrone, Ain't that shitheel bird supposed to be running your recon?"
"He is. In Earth-"
"Looking for Stygian."
"I told you I was going to help him."
"Suppose ya did." He wrenches the handle of his cleaver up, checking the installed vials with a frown before locking it back into place again. "But that means we don't have a fucking Torchbearer."
"Can you ask Pierrot?"
"No. I told him t' stick with the circus, if they need fire-support, I'd rather he be the one providing it."
Sow shakes her head, moving to her feet before whistling sharply. It takes a moment, but eventually a ridgespine streak appears, a thin band of godsbone around its ankle. "Wail, I need you to go to the marketplace- find Dethrone, bring him here." She insists, the bird squawking once and vanishing over the horizon mere moments later.
"Is she going to be able to cover that distance in-"
"Two days? Maybe. But Dethrone's in the Marketplace- if she finds him maybe-"
"You're bettin' the farm on backup from all the way in Earth?"
"Closer than most of our other options, Pig, we don't have time for coordination, we have two days before this hits the circus." Pig finally looks out over the ridge- to the swarm below.
It looks like hundreds of Wildclaws, each one glowing with a strange blue light and clad in thick carbon plating with singular, thin blades in place of wings, the remaining flesh blanched white and patterned with crawling circuitry. They screech and bicker in a single metallic voice, tearing up fleshy earth with claws and teeth in the pursuit of... something. Each head lifts, gulping with a notable desperation before quickly burying their faces in the ground once more- and every so often, one produces something from the depths- bone, a pearl, a scrap of flesh- something belonging to a dragon- something-
"They're trying to eat enough magic t' stave off their fall. They're-"
"A wandering extinction event, if they hit anything populated." Sow confirms, sighing softly. "And there's two of us."
"I don't think I'm particularly fond a' them odds." Pig mutters, shaking his head.
"What if you double 'em?" Both guardians turn, cleavers drawn, at the sound of a voice over their shoulders. "If I wanted to sneak up on you I definitely wouldn't have said something- In fact I wouldn't have come up the ridge at all." It's a wildclaw, clad in black and balanced on a single silvery prosthetic strobing steadily with pale red light, he's clearly not a member of the cyan-lit pack just below- a thronebreaker, though, that much is clear.
"Oh great. It's one a' them freaks from out in Lightning."
"I have a name? It's on my jacket it's right he-" The smaller dragon protests. "You know what- that doesn't matter- look- you don't really have the time to distrust me on this- I can help you, you just have to agree to give me a hand here- an unpaid intern hand."
"You're right on one thing, we don't trust you." Sow mutters, not moving her grip from her cleaver. "Especially not when I know that symbol on your jacket, and it's never been anything good."
"Hope Adder Enterprises promises any and all distaste for their activities can be brought up with HR at your most timely opportunities. But we don't have an HR department anymore, on account of the Cataclysm, so-"
"I'm going to kill him just so I don't have t' listen to him yammering anymore." Pig observes, stepping forward and hefting his weapon- the wildclaw flickering like the damage on a VHS tape before appearing just slightly further out of reach. "What the-"
"Again! not a lot of time to go into detail about any of this- but look- I need the data those drones are carrying, or they're going to fire me and I've got so many loans to pay off, alright? So I need this job, and I'll be honest I give you two a solid 3% chance, going into that swarm alone." He holds his hands up hesitantly. "My name is Bast, and before that thing down there was a god it was a company asset, alright? I can help you, I know how it works."
"... You're still pretty fuckin' small." Sow observes, Pig's affect on her voice for a moment. "The plan is crowd control, and you're pretty crowd sized."
"I didn't come out here alone." the Wildclaw- Bast insists. "MIND, Combat assessment confirmed- High Threat Protocol." The crane contraption perched atop his shoulder stirs to life, eyes glowing a pale and unearthly blue- blinking faintly as it summons... something from seemingly nowhere. A crack splits in the air not unlike those that accompany a godfall, and Pig bares his teeth- only for the expression to fall as something somewhat... familiar, spills from within.
"...Pig isn't that the Guardian who mulched you while we were chasing Encore."
"She didn't mulch shit. Caught me off guard and-"
"Argument determined false. I proved more physically capable than Entity: Pig in hand-to-hand combat. Solution returned: Mulched." Pig scowls, chest puffing and wings unfurling from his back before folding again. "We are fighting on the same side, now."
"Keep your bot far the fuck away from me, tiny." Pig grunts, walking to the ridge to look at INTERLOPER below.
"She's not- Forget it. MIND, I need eyes on the ground."
"Seeking uplink with Entity: INTERLOPER." The newcomer replies. She's massive, the frame of a guardian in a state not unlike what she's been seemingly summoned to hunt, a body run with cables and tubing carrying bright blue magic through flesh and bone, bare skull replaced at the broken front with a thick steel snout and trailing fabric hanging around her body not unlike the garb worn by Sow to endure the harsher environments of Plague. "Uplink failed. Entity: INTERLOPER now separated from H.A.E. control."
"Shit."
"That sounds confident." Sow sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. "What does any of that mean?"
"It means I'm going to have to do a lot more for minimum wage."
