The Black Sand Bar:

[Like Totally Not A Mule]

Italics and Red would run. Well, just about run, that is: there wasn't any way they'd just leave a patron behind. If the danger was that fast, it could be anywhere.

Before much longer, they would come on to a new scene of violence. Two fresh bodies lay on the ground. One guard had the top of his head (about eye level) laying several feet away from the rest of his body, with a missing ring finger and acid burns all over his arms, chest, and part of his face.

The other guard had been rather messily torn nearly in half - while the spine still held together, it looked as though someone had hacked at him with a sword, then held him aloft and upside down to steal his jewelry before being unceremoniously dumped on the ground.

The sand looked totally messy, but partially dragged out, once again headed for the jungle. Smoke raised from the sand and in some of the trees next to the trail. Lastly, a Hawaiian shirt was gently rocking on a tree, soaked with blood on the right size as though someone had been grazed by a bullet.

[********]

"...I've seen that shirt before."

[Like Totally Not A Mule]

[I should have quoted, damn.]

[Kazyan]

((*flails* I'm still here!))

Fadis sped up to keep up with them, abnormally quick for someone whose legs were so short.

When they all reached the new crime scene, she stopped running very abruptly, and stared. Part of her mind were trying to not see this, some others committed mutiny against those, and then some more tried to un-see this. Nope. So much blood, everywhere. Tall orange-skin people dead in yet more gruesome ways...Fadis spun around to loook away, short of breath. She bent her knnes and made a motion somewhat like a bow, staring at the sand.

Breathe.

Fadis said something that sounded like mumbled English, but then she repeated it as a shout, directed away from the scene. More of her native tongue that nobody knew.

Now, calm down.

Fadis spun around, her expression serious again. If something was killing people here, who was to say her friends wouldn't be next? It was like waking up to find someone else in her party* drained, with sparse clue as to where the vampire came from, and then it happening again the next day...she had to find out what was going on, not just for her sake, but for Ellie's, and Ross's...

She nudged Red with her free hand. "Take the shirt. I know Main Gaian scientists can find out what a person is if they have their blood. Take it. Look for the person with the shirt's feetprints." Then, she looked up at Italics, and pointed her rapier at the corpses. "Do they have weapons? Sword or gun?" Fadis blinked, then scratched her hairline in furious thought. "If they do not, then the person who did this took the guns or sword that hurt the man with the special shirt..." Mentally review whether she got the order of those clauses right, and thinking about the evidence again. The puzle was hard, but it made more sense when she thought about it in the context of her more powerful spatial reasoning. The three people arranged at the scene like so, so what was probably going on at the time? "...or another person hit the man with the shirt, and he is running, and not the one who killed these people. If they have a gun or sword, the man with the shirt is the killer." Fadis huffed, then pointed her rapier into the forest. "And while you do that, I'll go." She gave them the "Any questions?" look, followed by the "Seriously, questions; I'm winging this" look.

*In absence of a better English translation; others would be "circle of acquaintances" or "tribe"

[Arretsu]

Terra nodded, "Yes I would expect her to be tired. She has been worried about you, and with you not here on the island, she had become restless. The murders here are not helping her stress levels either. You should really keep a eye on that. The woman of my line have had miscarriages before..."

With a shake of her head, she sighed heavily.

"But yes we must talk, I must tell you what was, and what is to come." Her ancient power suddenly pulsed, but she reigned it in, locking it back under tight control. She hated to speak of this, to tell a outsider what her curse entailed. "You're child will possibly be cursed. Actually, feeling his power now, he most likely will be. A curse that plagues only the strongest of my line...I do not tell many this...But you must know, I guess it is your right to know."

Glancing passed Damon towards the tent where Ellie rested, sadness glimmered in her eyes, and a sigh of defeat escaped from her lips. "I had wished for Ellie to never have children...But in the end she was meant to be a mother, and a psion was to be her lover." Terra laughed bitterly. "I bet you didn't know I was raised by a psion family." In the distance Terra could feel the panicked aura's of the islands regulars, and the energy of the newly spilled blood seeping into the sand.

[Like Totally Not A Mule]

"That one guy who kept muttering about the voices. I know this was his... excuse me."

He'd wander a few steps away, breathe deep, and then-

HURK!

"Uhm... actually, that is a good question. Their guns are gone..." Italics would approach the scene, then get on his knees. After looking around nervously, he'd use the corner of his shirt to dig into the sand, coming up with the half-buried hilt of the standard combat knife the patrols had. "I wouldn't go alone. Buddy, you okay?"

"s**t no. Call it in, I'll go with her."

The guard stood, wiping the corner of his mouth. Italics glanced at the woods, then to the bodies, and nodded. Like hell he'd go out there. He'd get on the radio and send the message, while Red turned away from the bodies.

"I think he was hit. Look, you can see blood about arm level on the leaves..."

He'd indicate the trail to Fadis, then switch to semi-auto and wait for her to take the lead. So far, she was the most competent of the trio.

[Kazyan]

Fadis winced and turned away from Red--look at that for more than a few seconds, and she'd lose her own dinner. She took a deep breath as well, her rib cage puffed out, and she exhaled hard. Maybe she could just...get drunk and binge to incpacity after all this was over. Relieve the stress.

A sideways glance to take note of the combat knife, but she couldn't figure out what information to get from it. It didn't occur to her to check the knife for blood that matched what was on the Hawaiian shirt, though she did feel like she was missing something. At Italic's wait, it took her an awkward pause to realize that she'd just taken a leader role. This miiiight be a horrible, horrible mistake. But as long as the fear didn't rise above flat anxiety into "THIS IS NOT A DRILL", Fadis could keep moving forward, though slowly for want of heroic courage.

Moving forward is what avines did.

With a nod, she advanced into the jungle, following the trail as best she could, keeping the rapier held out front and ready.

[Like Totally Not A Mule]

The trail would go on, and then steadily start to slow down. Red would point out some torn fabric on a tree, and carefully stuff it in his bulletproof vest front pocket by a corner. It wouldn't take much more time for the sounds of the jungle to steadily subside into an un-natural silence, and the darkness to start to become clingy and oppressive.

"Thith ithn't right..." Red lisp-whispered, feeling the hair on the back of his neck standing up. The trail had neatly skirted the edge of the defenses, and even in the Zone of Silence, there was still something. It was as though the night had swallowed the sounds.

He'd shuffle around and examine the latest blood splatter, and then freeze and slowly back away, carefully bringing his gun to bear on whatever he had seen. What happened next was expected: a twig snapped under his foot, and gunfire erupted from a concealed spot in the bushes, up towards him. A spray of bullets would cut across his leg and against the vest, and Red would drop.

Clickclickclickclick

There was a quiet, almost-female "s**t!" followed by the sound of a body being dropped, and then some full-out running that would almost instantly fade. Whoever the shooter was had ran out of ammo, then used the concealing to make an escape.

"Go! Ffff- I'll live. Get the shooter!"

Red looked at Fadis, applying pressure to his injured leg with one hand as the other scrambled for his dropped weapon.

[Truest Valor]

Arretsu

Cursed.

His child was to be cursed.

Damon took this news in stride, seeing it as yet another challenge to be overcome in his life and in the lives of his growing family. Things would simply need to be taken one day at a time. As for Terra being raised by psions, and Ellie's fate to be tied to one, what could be said? Damon didn't really believe in fate, but it was a pretty strange coincidence.

"I thank you for sharing this information with me."

What more could he even say...?

[Like Totally Not A Mule]

[I do believe I'm gonna play d2 soon.

Waiting a bit longer for post, but if not, then gametime.]

[Kazyan]

Red's fIrst words elicited nothing but a somewhat confused nod, but she found what they meant soon enough. Fadis reflexively flinched at the gunfire and flung herself behind a tree, almost immediately upright again. Her heart pounded and her sensed heightened; the absence and sudden prensence of noise grew clearer with the mounting adrenaline. Something dropped. Something ran. She needed to follow it. Fadis gave red a glance, one of brief uncertainty, but the sounds of retreat faded with her terror. Her somewhat-clearer mind took over.

Follow the killer. Red would live. It was up to a random midget without any particular power...except
...

Fadis turned and ran.

Now, Fadis didn't come anywhere close to the most fIt member of her species. She was dreadfully close to the bottom, really. But that was sort of like complaining that a star was insufficiently hot. Her race had "grown up" on the run, for climbing, for running, for escaping a supernaturally deadly predator. They were kind of stellar at it. They could run away better than anyone, short of teleportation or burrowing.

An avine is faster than you, unless you are an Olympian. Even that's no gaurantee.

An avine does not get tired. Go ahead. Test it. It's not happening without magic. The neural circuitry is a formality.

An avine has better spatial reasoning than you, because that's how you climb things and avoid running into, say, trees.

And if you're trying to run from an avine?

Nope. Niche filled. No saving throw, no spell resistance, no arguing with the DM.

Fadis ran after the voice, and she did it well.

((Bed. Now. Never write big posts on your phone.))

[Evil Omens]

The string of horrific murders had drawn the attention of an ever present demonic entity...

It made him hungry.

[Leonardo -S- Virunas]

Evil Omens

The string of horrific murders had drawn the attention of an ever present demonic entity...

It made him hungry.

It sure as ******** did. Though the malevolent monstrosity would appear to be curving his current lusts on the skeletal spine bong that had been made for him on his last visit. What better way to build up even more of an appetite.

This time however, the entity would be clothed for once...

[Like Totally Not A Mule]

Pursuit would ensue. While Fadis had most of the advantages, the (presumed) killer had two of his own: knowing the lay of the land, and, more importantly... The sound of running stopped, followed by rock moving and the faint echo of feet on rock. If not for the lava tube in the path, Fadis would have caught up in another half-minute or so. The moments it would take to find the entrance would add another delay, but it was a minor tactical error: what was nearly at head level for a person was feet over her head. As far as which way to go, there was only one option: downhill.

Time was running out for the runner, no pun intended.

[Catch me if you can, post 1 of 2]

****

By now, more teams were showing up at the scene. Italics had found Red, and at his urging, had gone to find the other body. She turned out to be alive, although bleeding on the right side from several puncture wounds and with a cut dangerously close the corner of her eyes, more pronounced on the right side. A search would not find the knife, although the discarded SMG was nearby in the direction of the chase.

It was another guard, Green, who discovered that the woman wasn't some random patron - it was the sobbing woman from the last kill of her presumed boyfriend. Shitty luck, indeed.

[Confirmed:
- A group of killers: at least two humans, one demihuman, and a large, clawed animal. Possibly more.
- Jewelry souvenirs of all the kills have been taken.
- All of the victims, save for the security guards, have been eaten.
- The first body was put in place deliberately.
- The kills were done with a large, sharp blade, or at least the primary cuts.
- The eyes of the victims (except the security guards) have been expertly removed, as well as a hand.
- The rooms of the victims have been cleaned thoroughly before cleaning staff gets there.
- No money was taken.
- No fingerprints are left.

Unconfirmed:
- Vampires.
- Medical background for a killer.
- Victim profile of dark-haired white American men who are alone

Unexplained:
- Motive.
- Acid burns.
- Messages in blood.
- Evasion of security systems.

If I missed anything, let me know.]

[Kazyan]

After bounds and swerves around the trees, with no substantial hints of slowing down, Fadis thought she was closing the distance to the unseen shooter--though one could never be sure with Main Gaians. After the noises stopped, she did as well, taking a moment to listen. Between hard heartbeats and gust-like breaths, she strained to hear where he came from.

Sliding rock! In...she she strained to hear the direction. The pitter-patter of feet...something she was missing, again...but her heightened senses and mastery of direction pointed her in that direction. Fadis bounced on her feet for a second, before darting off again, towards the source. With her arrival at the unremarkable patch of jungle, sweat glistening in the dim light, nothing immediately presented itself. Rocks. Where? Fadis spun around a few times, looking. There! Tunnel!

The lava tube's faint echoes of the shooter's feet garnered a response. A similar echo--but steadier, and the beats of the footsteps paced at an alarming rate. Leaning slightly forward, she couldn't quite make leaps and strides down the tunnel for the short space above her head, but that only meant she couldn't take extra-special advantage of going downhill.

In the waning light, Fadis couldn't avoid every one of the stray pebbles knocked down into the tube. Deeper in, she stepped on one--and barely flinched.

[Like Totally Not A Mule]

Before long, the tunnels would narrow, and the sound of running would turn into the sound of crawling and profanity. The blood trail would pick back up, and a few minutes later, the man would be revealed. His former straightjacket was dirty and torn, as well as the orange pants. Shoes were still dirty. He'd be feeling around with his hands, looking around for a hole to crawl through. If there were light, it would reveal that he had encountered a dead end. Since there wasn't...

"She said it was here, it wasn't, the voices was wrong, voices is never wrong, wrong, wrong..." Cue fist pounding against rock. "Demons everywhere! I don't understand... demons and trees."

If Fadis cared to listen more to Insane Babble, he'd go on. If not, well, he wasn't going anywhere and was too busy beating rock with bare hands to go for the knife.

"Always right never wrong always right never wrong always wrong never right..."

Smack smack smack!

"Oceans of blood, sin everywhere, carve the truth out of the flesh."

Cue the sound of fumbling for the knife, and then splatters of blood as the guy tried to do said carving.