Vic Martel (Nobody)'s Story

While Devon was in the process of dismounting Jericho another cape came tumbling by, apparently an acquaintance of Jericho. He hadn't bothered listening in on the conversation, picking up just a piece here and there not enough to form anything coherent, but the lady seemed to be quite distressed. Though with an abhorrent and it's minions running amok that likely would be the default disposition, though this seemed to be something more personal given the tone.

While this conversation was happening in the background Devon had walked to the dome and done a quick run around making significant effort to ignore the human tomato exhibition. It was an odd site to be sure, aside from a sizable dent and signs of it being pushed into the surface below it was a completely smooth metal dome on a slanted metal lifesize statue of a parking garage. He brought the bracelet to his face and spoke into it. "Display cape biosign within 60 feet on visor, lock to closest three signals. Connect communications with cape Sähkö through helmet radio." Moments later a brightly colored blob appeared on his visor, the mess of canned human trapped under the dome.

He walked a few steps away from the dome while grabbing the rifle from his back. "I will be creating a few air holes in the dome, avoid moving as much as possible or you might be grazed by one of my bullets." He spoke through the radio while laying down on the metal surface. He had no idea how thick the dome was, but by the shape of the blob they were pretty much pressed against the dome in most places, he'd have to fire within a hair's breadth from the signature. The sniper rifle still had the abhorrent piercing ammo loaded so no matter the kind of metal as long as it wasn't tinker made he would be able to pierce it. He placed his shot, squeezed the trigger and without delay the bullet started carving a path through the dome. He aimed for another few places hoping the extra holes would increase the airflow inside the dome. When the magazine ran dry of the special ammo he got up and slung the weapon onto his back once more.

Given the degree of difficulty the bullets had with carving their way through the material trying to carve a man sized hole through the dome would be a very difficult task, fortunately with the way it was pressed into the surface below it seemed whatever material it was the parking garage was of a softer kind. Devon looked around for a stairwell and once he had found it he made a dash for it as he yelled to Jericho and Sähkö at the same time. "Jericho I'm relying on you to keep an eye on tangle and his minions, I'll be one floor below here. I should be able to carve out a hole from below the dome."

Once in place on the floor below he grabbed his revolver. While it would be faster to use the assault rifle the bullets simply wouldn't home in a tight enough curve for the job. With pinpoint precision he began carving a crater into the roof with a slightly smaller radius than the dome. Once again he had to leave just enough distance between the blob he saw on screen and the path of the bullets, too little and the material would curl up or the bullet would even break through, almost certainly wounding whomever were below. Too much and the material would retain enough strength to keep the three trapped under the dome.

Jericho's heart fell to a shutter-stop for a moment, the words biting at his mind nearly as much as the heat from the makeshift lighter did. He stared blankly as Vic left, holding the eeriest silence in his mind when she departed. He went to call back, confusion holding his thoughts in place before he stopped, and tried, to force himself to focus on what was actually important. His back turned to the wind, and Jericho nodded in silence as a response to Devon, walking his humanoid shape to the edge of the parking garage roof as his 'Wendigo' form rippled and began extending a thick garden hose-like rope of bone towards the back of the humanoid.
The panic had seized hold.
The stress built, held his stupid heart in a vice grip.
He had screwed it all up again.



Jericho's gaze fell beyond the edge of the roof, watching blankly as a small group, maybe three or five individual masses, of matter persons ran by in the alley-street below. Behind them, chased a larger group of plant 'minions', some of which were simply amalgamations of vines and roots strung together into pseudopods that propelled churning masses of thorns and alien-intelligence. Others looked like shrubbery tried to take the shape of something animalistic and mobile, one even looked like a horse flipped front-to-end and scuttled with an almost insectile sort of fluidity. They were beautifully horrific, in an odd plant-like manner. There were eight of the minions, eight too many.

The meat The capes obviously weren't expecting a rescue, evidentially made obvious by the way the woman falling behind shrieked when a fleshy 'net' of bone and muscle fell on the leading minion. The plant creature was forced to the ground, encapsulated by a mass of meat that immediately began yanking itself in multiple directions, twisting and turning whilst contacting and pulling at 'limb' and center mass. The net rose up abruptly, swirling up into the sky as it brought the plant along for the ride, thrashing and flailing in silence as it was. Underneath the arms of the 'net' were maws that alternated between chewing with a fervor matched only by hyenas cracking open bone, to holding with the grip of a crocodile-locking its jaw tighter than a pit-bull could ever wish for.
Atop the roof, the child riding upon the Wendigo form was treated to the sight of random chunks and bulges of pulsating ink swirling back towards the main body, building surprisingly slow into a putty mound of solid black blankness behind one hind leg. The mass shifted, constantly swirling as it sloshed it's way to the same edge of the roof before throwing itself over like the once humanoid form had before.

A dog-sized maw plummeted from the edge of the parking garage roof, impacting with another plant minion as row upon row of teeth sawed their way into plant 'flesh'. Connected to the maw was another length of bone, as wide around as a garden hose. Ink pulsed around the 'lips' of the gigantic mouth as a quartet of tendrils rapidly grew and extended outward, wrapping around the mass of matter in the hold of an uncountable amount of hooked teeth.
Without warning, the 'Wendigo' form of Jericho pulsed once with ink, before an arm came up and gently took hold of the riding Mara to set her down. The moment her feet touched the ground, the form turned, barreled over the edge of the roof and landed upon yet another plant-minion, snapping and breaking bone that healed within mere half seconds. An arm as thick around as an apes, and swirling with ink as it grew in length, slammed into yet another plant beast. The foe skittered to the side, wrapping a trio of pseudopods around the offending furry limb before abruptly trying to escape. In the palm of the huge mitt, another mouth formed, gnashing and chewing for a moment before a thick, ropy tongue lashed out and wrapped around a pseudopod in return for the former grapple.

Mass was added to the conglomeration of Jericho, cold efficiency taking note of the capes down the alley who- in small part due to the shrieking woman rushing forward and abruptly shoulder-checking another unoccupied plant- went from retreat to relentless aggression. With their aid, the group of plants were decimated in short procedure... Though one of the cape group succumbed to a whipping limb that impacted with a noise like a roll of bubble-wrap popping all at once. Another fell as one particularly vengeful plant wrapped the entirety of a 'limb' around her torso and proceeded to violently thrash her about, the whiplash was enough to end it her from there.
The moments after the skirmish finished, between the remaining two capes panting and tending to their own wounds and Jericho's relentless consumption of what unmoving plant matter there was left, the 'ink-artisan' pulsed back up towards the rooftop, bringing all the chewing forms back up as the Wendigo form melted away and became an amorphous mass that oozed and pulled its way back up.

He spent the rest of his time waiting for Jasmin to be freed assaulting any plant minion group that dared come too close, ravishing or disabling and then consuming with a ferocity that would've been sickening on genuine flesh and blood. It still wasn't enough to distract him wholeheartedly from the nearly overwhelming sensation of anxiety and sadness that Vic had managed to instill.