trans_9 | Are All Of Our Wires Crossed Correctly?

"Okay, is it just me, or are we going to be utterly and completely slagged, scarpped, and what ever other word you wanna call it if we stick around here too long. We need to have some kind block or wall or something."

Now properly plantsuited and much more composed, Satori flew in to meet up with Rearguard, going well over the heads of the zombies. Resting comfortably over her heart was an oversized eyeball-like thing, about the size of a tennis ball, connected to a series of tendrils fastened around her neck, shoulder, arm, waist, and one attached to her headband. The eye flitted around erratically, Satori relishing the comfortable feeling of other people's surface thoughts.

None, of course, were coming from the horde. As she had suspected, whatever they are, they're already dead. Not even spirits, just animated lifeless corpses. She came to a soft landing inside the defensive perimeter, looking out at the lack of fortifications and significant presence of zombies.

"I'm here to help." Satori glanced around for someone who looked in-charge, her hands lighting up as she prepared to get back to beating back zombies. "I don't know how well I can actually destroy things like this, but I should at least be able to keep them down pretty thoroughly. Can you work with that?"

"[Your help is very much appreciated,]" Jonas said, trying to remember if he had seen this person before. A brief flicker through his memory banks told him that he had not. Had there been a Pod Release?

"[We are quite capable of destroying them, if you can suppress them in any way. If you would like, you can stand behind us with Mei Ling. The rest of us are entirely inedible to these creatures.]"

He zapped a few more zombies with the laser beam from his forehead, dropping them to the ground. "[If you have located a place that we might retreat to for better terrain, we would also be most grateful.]"

"I wasn't--" Satori hesitated, blinking in confusion. This person was definitely alive, so why couldn't she read anything? She had lost the Eye for a while; did something happen to it?

There'd be time to worry about that later. "I wasn't looking for tactical options. I was sent to help fight, so that's what I'm going to do."

Lumbering up behind Satori was Marco, who wasn't plantsuited up.

This was because Marco was still a gorilla - there was no way he was going to demorph just so some freaky tentacles could attach some weird-looking suit to him.

Marco was convinced. This place was insane. Tentacles! From the freaking wall! That was so not cool.

If he didn't end up as zombie-lunch, he was so going to complain about this to Jake for the rest of his life.

He looked out at the hordes of zombies and paused. <Okay, I'd like to back now.> He said in open thought-speak. <Anyone got any red slippers so I can start chanting, 'There's no place like home?'>

Satori raised her hands and launched two orbs of energy upwards, which the split into fans of smaller orbs, which then split into shotgun blasts of laser-like beams, knocking down the first couple rows of zombies. Wide coverage, but not enough power to crack skulls.

She then closed her eyes, and her Third Eye opened, looking towards the gorilla behind her. Looking into the unguarded parts of Marco's mind, she lifted his name (foreign, but what wasn't in this place?) and tried to figure out what he was talking about with the red slippers and chanting, but the answers there were about as confusing as the comment itself. She decided to just drop the issue.

"I don't think it's going to be that easy, 'Marco'. Why don't you lend a hand while you're here?"

"Sorryminecomeinyellow," blurts the third oncomer -fresh from the Vatican and decked out in a red onesie- as he screeches to halt by the group, "I scouted ahead. You guys'll hopefully know the lay of the land better than me, but top level seems pretty thin on Evil Dead."

"Well, we can't stay here." Marcus said, mechanically firing bullet after bullet out into the horde. He's trying not to think about the fact that a talking gorilla and some kind of witch ~~and robots~~ were on his team; as long as they were focused on the zombies, there wouldn't be an issue.

Marco swaggered a little when the cute girl said his name. Awesome - at least one person recognized him. He'd been finding it a little odd that there weren't cries of "Animorph!" wherever he went.

But then, he was stuck in some weird place filled with zombies and tentacles that wanted to dress you. What wasn't weird right now?

<Hey, I can lend a hand,> Marco said to the girl. <By the way, have you seen my TV show?>

Satori floated about a foot off the ground to get a better angle over the heads of the frontliners. She made the onslaught look pretty effortless, but the truth was that she couldn't keep this up for that much longer, especially after the first battle in the pod caverns.

"No, I don't recognize you." Satori responded to what he was thinking, rather than what he was saying, without looking away from the zombies ahead. "Nor do I know what a 'TV show' is, let alone an 'Animorph'."

Jonas nodded to the man in red -- that looked like a super hero outfit if he had ever seen one, although not one he recognized.

"[We are familiar with the area. Which way has the least zombies?]" He looked around at his fellow less-meaty beings. "[Some of us are going to need to stay here, in case the team gets the gets the doors open, but we should get the more edible people somewhere safe.]"

A few precise blasts with the laser from his forehead took out the zombies that the first new arrival had knocked down.

Wally, who has come and gone between here and the Vatican several times while the others chimed in, estimates, "Most of them seem to be gravitating towards the City and your guys in the Popecave. If you can avoid that and the womb with all the pod people in, you should be able to get through without too much hassle."

Claudia's completely weirded out by the time she somehow found herself with whom she could only figure to be the comm team Leon Kennedy had told her about. She didn't even know what the hell was going on, how she'd gotten where she was... Anything really, and she was getting more than a little annoyed.

Thankfully though, she's no longer naked and she even had a weapon!! A Tesla. It looked old, but hey! It kicked major butt. Maybe not Zombie butt, but normal butts it did indeed kick.

Her eyes widened seeing the others who were there and she mouthed a silent 'Kickass' before clearing her throat. "Ummm... Leon Kennedy told me to come here?"

Marco stopped paying attention to everyone else (although he still kept an eye on those zombies). Because right then, he didn't really care what everyone was planning.

He wanted to how the hell that girl could know his name when she said she didn't recognise him.

With a narrowing of his gorilla eyes, he turned to stare at her. <I never told you my name, and I never said anything about Animorphs,> he accused. <So how do you know that if you don't recognise me? You're not a Leeran!> He quickly glanced around at the others, before turning his attention back to the girl. <Who the hell are you people?!>

Whether it left her trustworthy or not, it was second nature for Satori to read people like a book. However, she conceded that being distrusted right now might be a little counter-productive, since there were zombies to kill.

"I can explain later." Satori quickly tried to defuse the paranoia. "There are more important things to do right now, wouldn't you agree?"

Marco stared, his suspicions not allayed one bit. <You are definitely going to explain later,> he growled. <And stay out of my head, lady!>

And until he found proof that he could trust her, Marco was going to be watching her, very closely.

"Fine." Satori returned to the task at hand - incapacitating zombies. "Just do something about these corpses."

<Yeah yeah, I'll get to it. Don't get your knickers in a twist.> Knuckle-walking forward to one zombie who was lunching towards them, he picks it up, holds it high over his head, and tosses it into five other zombies who were heading towards them, knocking them over like bowling pins.

<Strike!> he said, with satisfaction.

"Ummm," Claudia holds her hand up trying to draw any of the others attention. "I was told I needed to come here by Leon KENNEDY... Something about working on the Comms?"

<Ah, right. That.> Marco said. He's completed forgotten about that guy telling him that they were actually meant to be doing something other than killing zombies. <Err...where exactly are these Comms anyways?> Marco considered himself pretty tech savvy - well, not as much as Ax, obviously, but he held his own - but that didn't mean he was able to just look around and say, "Ah, those mysterious-looking gadgets with blinking lights over there are obviously the Comms."

King felt significantly better now that he was armed once again, (and he'd been rather surprised to find Grace among the inventory, but he wasn't complaining. She was after all his very favorite overkill weapon) and while he probably could have gone down to the Vatican to help out with the zombie cleaning, after fighting zombies in the buff you get kind of a sour taste in your mouth.

So he came up to help with the comms, instead. He could be relatively useful with technology, when he actually wanted to be, so it wasn't a completely baseless choice. It was also a relief that the undead was relatively thinner up here, so he focused on the whole shooting and killing thing.

"I think we should figure out a way to keep the zombies out before we start getting all distracted by technology. You know, just in case we feel like living the rest of today."

She so recognized that dude! He's been one of the naked guys... From when she's woken up in LaLa Land. She glanced over at the comm systems and then back to him, her eyebrow arching a bit. "Umm I have a better idea. How about you burly dudes do the zombie thing? And those of us not burly start on fandangling the comm system?"

"I'm working on it."

Actually she has been working on it. Well, she was after she got over the whole 'hogodzombiesarecomingtoeatme' shock. However, more people were here! This was good, and Mei Ling could get over cowering to crawl back to the comm console and get back to working on fixing it.

"Could always just--" chk-chk-BOOM "--take it with us--" chk-chk-BOOM "--somewhere safer." Marcus says, glancing at the comm system for a moment before returning his focus to the horde. It doesn't look as if it'd be impossible to carry, and they really do need to get to a better location.

"Many undead are here, but they seem to die again easily enough," Lhel noted, still swinging his blade without restraint or mercy. "I merely wish I might understand why they do not obey my commands." His glance went briefly to Mei Ling and the other living arrivals, but were dismissed merely as more people in need of protection. Protection the skeletal knight would happily provide.

His mail was marred by the repeated attacks, covered in scuffs and some of the metal plates were even dinged up from the horde, but overall he was in far better shape than most of the mortals would be in the same circumstances. "Are we certain that any efforts at moving this system mightn't simply make any efforts to use it in vain? Thy idea has merit, but I ken not what it is, so I fear I must inquire." When one had no lungs to burn, or muscles to ache, fighting while conversing actually became very simple.

Marco tried not to stare at the bone-guy. He really did.

Okay, not really. But still, this was really pushing the ends of freakiness here. Clearly, Marco was certifiably insane.

But since Marco was obviously completely nuts, he might as well play along with the whole fix-alien-gadgets-while-dodging-zombies thing. It's not like he had anything better to do, right?

Lumbering up to Mei Ling, he pointed at the comm system. <Hey, mind taking a break from the techno-wizardry while I carry this to somewhere with less zombies?>

"[As soon as I do not need to divert my attention to the zombies, I can interface with the comms, if necessary,]" Jonas said. "[And I suggest that one or two people stay here, to warn the others if they come back through here.]"

He was not about to potentially leave Cassie to the zombies.

Speaking of the zombies, the magical bombardment just trickled out.

Satori dropped back to the ground, mentally exhausted. Spell Card Duels never exceed a few minutes, and she was already far beyond her endurance limits.

Looking up at the advancing zombies, they suddenly seem a lot more menacing than they did a minute ago.

Turns out, that's not just that Satori thought the zombies were more menacing.

Out of the rear of the incoming horde came a BIG one. The monster dragged it's head along the ceiling because it was taller than the cooridor, and it's shoulders were JUST short of reaching all the way across. It was charging through the incoming horde, and trampling them under it's feat or bashing them out of the way as it came. It also had a most unusual weapon. The weapon was made of metal, shaped like a man, wearing a plantsuit, flailing like a madman, and screaming "MAKE IT STOP! GOD MAKE IT STOP! I'M SORRY ABOUT ALL THOSE TIMES I TOOK YOUR NAME IN VAIN!"

Marcus' first thought when he saw the giant zombie coming towards them was 'holy %&$% a Terminator!'. Before he could fully process the fact that the 'Terminator' appeared to be talking, he had aimed two shots squarely at the robot's head. ... not that shotgun rounds were going to do much.

Shot ricocheted off Robo's head and eyes. It caused no meaningful damage whatsoever. He was smashed into another zombie that splattered on the wall. "OW! SHIT! NO NOT ME DUMBASS! THE BIG ONE! SHOOT THE BIG ONE!"

"[What in the name of--]"

Jonas didn't even bother to finish his question, leaping up in the air and becoming intangible so that he could fly up at get a better headshot at the giant zombie.

"[Where did this thing come from?!]"

"The same place as all the others, I imagine." Satori backed away quickly, feeling particularly vulnerable at the moment. "Even if I still had any power left, I don't think I could handle smoething like this."

Marco stared at the giant zombie. <You know that plan we had about moving to a safer place?> he said. <Now might be a really good time to put that into action.>

Mei Ling wasn't too keen on moving before. She was afraid that they might not make it to a safe spot where she could work. One zombie laden place was as bad as another. Buuuuuut... giant zombies definitely added something else to equation.

"...I think so."

Time to go!

Marco picked up the comms console with one giant gorilla fist, and with a flourish from the other, bowed theatrically to Mei Ling.

<Ladies first,> he said.

Suddenly King was wishing desperately to be back in Danica's tower going mano-e-mano with Jarko.

Because this gigantic #^&%ing thing coming towards them made Jarko look like his goddamn Pomeranian.

"You know, I think I've played this video game. Aim for the head and a surprise pops out, right?" he observed, swapping out his electronic pistol and checking to make sure he had the explosive rounds loaded into Grace. "Ladies, might want to give this one a wide birth." He, however, moved forward, avoiding zombies so he cold level the five barrel rifle at the head of the towering ugly and fired.

The giant roared in pain, bashing Robo into the cieling with it's flailing. While Robo commented on this new development, the giant hurled him straight at King. Robo pinwheeled through the air, creating a very dangerous projectile.

Jonas dove to intercept the flying robot, becoming tangible at the last second and knocking him off course.

"[Oof!]"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh $#!%$#!%$#!%$#!%!" King somehow hadn't thought about it throwing things at him. With as much grace as can be expected of someone trying to get the hell out of the way of a robot spinning towards him, King scrambled, but was saved by the other robot breaking the first one's fall. Still.

"Jesus #^&%ing Christ!"

Robo bounced off vision with an ear ringing CLANG, and then landed face first on the ground in a heap. He slowly staggered to his feet, commenting "I'm going to smell like zombie for months."

"[Stacy does provide cleaning facilities,]" Jonas said, staggering upright as well. "[I intend to take full advantage of them later.]"

He eyeballed the giant zombie. "[I don't think my laser is going to be effective in this case. We need more firepower.]"

That much was certain, since the electricty coming from Bumblebee's stingers was having little to no effect.

"WHY WON"T YOU JUST GO DOWN ALREADY!" Bee screamed, trying to dodge the zombies swinging arms.

"I ... may have an idea." Sheathing his sword, Khel strode to the colossal zombie, nimbly avoiding the poorly aimed blows. He then brought one hand up, gathering the unholy energies he needed. The skeletal hand was surrounded by a black and violet aura that felt altogether unnatural and evil to any living being.

"To cause harm at a touch is a spell powered by dark energies," he commented, placing the hand against the tree-like leg, "and in mine own world, this would heal a damaged zombie. However..." He watched with twisted satisfaction as the flesh on the leg melted away, leaving only bone to support the monster's weight.

"These are not from my world." He had a moment to take pride in his work, and only one, before the monster collapsed and fell forward on top of Khel, crushing the death knight beneath its mass.

"The sensoriums!" A thought! Mei Ling turned to her gorilla escort to explain her sudden outburst. "We can go to the sensoriums, fix the comm system there."

How take charge of you, Mei Ling.

Marco didn't have a clue where or what the sensoriums are, but hey, if the she knew where she was going, who was he to complain?

<Lead on then,> And because she was pretty cute... <Hey, I'm Marco, by the way.> he said, with a gorilla grin.

As he went to follow her, he looked around. <Anyone else tagging along?>

"Well that was a neat trick," King commented, although he looked a little weirded out by the whole thing. He also wasn't really sure how they were going to get Skeletor out from underneath the big ugly. Of course, the thing was down, but it wasn't out, and still had its big arms to pull it along so maybe it'd drag itself off of him.

Still, King didn't really think it was wise to just wait around to see if the thing would or not, so he leveled another shot from his rifle at its head.

Are All Of Our Wires Crossed Correctly?

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