Screeeeee-

"Ow! Dammit." Toxin snarled at the spot on the building where he'd been attempting to scratch, backing away from it. It wasn't like his claws needed sharpening, but he'd figured that doing it would help him vent his frustration a little.

So much for that. All it did was give him a headache from the high pitched noise. He bared his teeth at the building again simply because it made him feel better, then jumped onto the building, scrambling up its side until he reached a ledge. He sat there, eyepatches narrowed as he stared down at the city and sulked.

Stupid Spider-Man. Stupid Venom. Stupid no fighting rules.

There's only so much symbiote-wrangling a person can take. And after spending more than a little time trying to settle Toxin down and convince him to act as close to reasonable as he can get, Pat's decided on a new plan: he's going to wear out Toxin until he's too tired to complain.

Why are we doing this is again?

"You're always saying you want out, so come out. Exercise time."

What?

"You heard me. Suit up, we're going for a run."

It's not long before Toxin's given up on prodding for answers and the two are just scrambling through the city, running, jumping, and webslinging, with only occasional pauses on the side of a building to see if anyone else is out and about.

||All crew-mates. Please report to the Obs Deck to meet your new crew-mates.||

It's time for all the newbies to get a chance to have a formal meeting with the crew. Given the confusion of their arrival, that's probably a good thing.

Word gets out among the crew mates, spreading in a game of whisper down the meat-alley, that an informal crew meeting is what's happening, free from Stacy's prying ears, and sure enough, as soon as everyone's in the room, they're gestured to move in close, and a wall of blue energy goes up around them all.

((ooc note))

Shawn? was screaming his head off. Though those screams were in fact coming from the Yeerk. Shawn's general approach to life had managed to deflect every attempt to use his memories against him, and he was currently doing everything in his power to annoy the Yeerk.

"...I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, here they are a-standing in a row...Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head, just give 'em a twist, a flick of the wrist, that's what the showman said..."

Ax had escaped the Controllers on board. Brainy had not been so lucky. Neither had Sam and Tim. And who knew how many others on board had Yeerks wrapped around their brains, controlling their every movement, pretending that everything was normal until the time came to strike.

Who do you trust, podlings?

Things can happen without Stacy knowing, that much is apparent now. The damage to her sensors is significant. But the fighting clued her in.

After it's all over, after those captured have been rescued, after the injured have been tended to, only the nest is left, and Stacy takes care of it.

||Infestation of Cluster 42, Level 4, Sector 7, Sublevel 12, Zone 37 has been detected. Triggering internal defenses. Decontamination commencing.||

There is a pause.

||Decontamination complete.||

Simple as that, once she knows the problem was there. Her internal sensors are damaged, especially in the city, and so are some of the systems monitoring them. You have to know what's broken to know to fix it.

Such a simple thing and it only took one man dying to make it happen. (His body is gone, by the way, ripped to shreds and eaten. There's not even a spot of blood on the floor. That's the bugs' doing. The bugs' bodies are gone too--that's Stacy's doing).

||Any injured personnel that still have not received medical attention, report to the nearest lift, and you will be transported to the MedBay. Any uninjured personnel, report to the Living Area, to the restroom facilities to undergo decontamination of xenobiological material. Then report to the Obs Deck to meet your new crew-mates.||

Said crew-mates--and the Doctor, who'd skipped out and miraculously ducked and weaved his way to the lift when he'd realized the Master was there--are there and waiting, and just a tad confused.

[ooc: read this first]

It was time to get a little more organized, share some information with each other. She had a talk with that bigface kid, Jaime, to see if he could do anything to shield them from Stacy's prying eyes and he said he had a few ideas, so a meeting place was chosen, and it was time to gather.

Cybil had a good authoritative, shouting voice.

"Everyone, listen up! We're meeting down in the city near that big tree. Grab whoever you see and get down there."

Indeed they were. People were starting to gather there.

[ooc: Instead of little subthreads, everyone post in one thread as people arrive. Try to keep the convo general, like everyone talking to each other, instead of devolving into private conversations.]

Pat had found himself exploring the city, and discovered two things thus far: one, that seeing an entire city looking so empty unnerved him in a vague sort of way, and two, the sight of all those buildings made Toxin restless.

C'mon, pops. I've been good. No biting, no mauling, no even threatening to when people're acting stupid. And I was behaving myself even before we got here, remember?

Pat frowned and didn't answer, deciding to peer up at something that he supposed was the equivalent of a skyscraper. A few tendrils snuck out of his shirt collar and poked at him. Please? Anybody gets the wrong idea and I'll let you take care of it. No fights. Come on, I'm bored in here.

Pat sighed, glancing down at one of the tendrils and raising an eyebrow. "No deciding to change your mind about fighting at the last minute."

Would I do that? The tendrils just got a look in return. Trust me, I won't. So can I come out now?

"Only for a few hours," Pat warned as he nodded and more tendrils burst out and the rest of his clothing went decidedly goopier. Toxin grinned toothily as he was given control, and stretched for a moment before scrambling up the side of a building. He glanced around for a moment before web-slinging off, setting out in hopes of finding something more interesting than abandoned buildings.

After the most recent pod-pop had been completed, Stacy began encouraging the crew towards the Obs Deck. They would be most effective if they were familiar with each other, and as the Jaime Reyes Incident had proved, leaving them to meet whenever they happened to cross paths was not effective.

Anyone who stepped into the Hub would be transported to the Obs Deck, no matter where they had intended to go. Those who had been exploring the City were verbally herded towards the Hub, although the energy tentacles did not make an appearance.

||Please report to the Obs Deck for Crew Introductions.||

The Obs Deck hadn't changed very much since they'd last been there. The creepy sculpture was still present, as were the fleshy couches. However, the couches were arranged in a more obvious circle this time.

Come and meet the new -- and in some cases, weirder -- members of your crew.

Despite being stuck on an alien meatship, some things never changed for Pat and Toxin...like Toxin wanting out.

Can I come out now?

"And run around? No."

It's not like I'm going to eat anything. Or anybody. Or get into things, or chew them, or anything else like what you keep telling me not to do.

"There's still the problem of not knowing what you'd run into here...or who'd run into you."

I just said I wasn't gonna do anything!

"Yeah, but you heard what Cybil said happened. I don't want you getting in brawls because somebody saw you and got the wrong idea."

Toxin popped up and grinned brightly-and toothily at Pat, then reabsorbed his fangs. How 'bout I don't show them at all? That's okay, right?

"Give it up, Tox."

Pat, at least, would welcome an interruption in the conversation as he wandered and tried to get a better grip on the ship's layout.

Danny wandered down the halls of the ship. He had finally gotten the guts to check out the food in the Mess Hall. Needless to say, he wasn't expecting a meal cooked by Alton Brown, but it was better than nothing, right?

Right?

He  looked around, for a bit, trying to figure out where to get the food, and finally walked over to the most likely area, a large eye set in the wall. Danny jumped slightly when it scanned him, and made a face when slop oozed on to the tray that popped out of the slot.

"...Ugh. Great, nothing to eat but slop for who knows how long."

First day out of the pod, and already problems. Just like being back home she guessed. But in the meantime, what to do. She debated on going to check to see if her friends and family were locked up. But if that was the case, what could she do? Break them open? It would just mean punishment for her and them. And maybe others, and she wouldn't dare risk so many.

Then again, Stacy wouldn't do that, she obviously needs them, and what they can do. Everybody has a purpose and a function. In the meantime, she could check out the Sensoriums again, and get some practice in. Kate figured being cooped up for six months meant she was extremely overdue. So she headed for the room with her bow and arrow, hoping there would be simulated targets available.

Even though it meant the ship was getting her soldiers, whether they liked it or not.

The place was huge. They'd been looking around, trying to figure out exactly what the hell had happened to them. They've been at it for a few hours, and they have, at this moment, exactly nothing.

At least the trip to the lockers was fruitful. Bri had his ESWAT badge pinned to his suit (Just for the hell of it, not to mention he doesn't want to lose it), and of course, a rather large pistol holstered at his side.

Right now, they've managed to wander into the Obs Deck. It was...definitely something.

Bri let out a low whistle.

"Damn," he said to Pat (they'd managed to lose the weird pale guy earlier), "You'd think they'd get tired of the whole 'Dark and Creepy' motif going on here."

||Pod Release Protocols Initating.||

Again. But this was a separate release. And now there were people to announce pod releases to.

Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.