Shimmer, Glimmer, & Gleam - A Quest of Loss & Gain

You dismount at speed, right where the impromptu barriers are being erected, calling out for the liquor bottles that have been destined for some time now to blow the hell up. The person fused to its lupine fursuit is lingering, helping other non-combatants onto the freeway by lifting them over a rather inconvenient car hood. It waves at you between two of them and calls out: "I'm a firefighter!"

Oh! "Neat! I'm gonna do the opposite of that now!"

There is a conspicuous speeding of the lift-and-move process while you start popping open hoods; you nestle bottles into the engines, snip wires and push them into the alcohol, not stopping to look at what SWAT is doing. You haven't had contact with the intelligence behind the cops, but you know their secret now; they're fielding these temporary manifestations using survivors as the anchor. No wonder the squadcars had "hostage negotiators". Those people must be terrified of the police, or obsessed with them, or...well, no time right now. The point being, they were the things letting the cop-puppets manifest, and now the APC seems to be the source of this, well, army.

"What is this?" 'Brian' calls out as you start running down the line of vans, slapping your creations one at a time, expending your power and feeling your stomach growl and your body get hit by waves of lethargy. Big changes.

"TIME BOMBS LET'S GO LET'S GO -"

You let the blonde spider pick you up and place you on her back, nestling tightly into her human torso while she skitters away. Whether she still knows what a time bomb is or is reacting to your stress (or her own) is irrelevant; she's booking it down this freeway while you search through your pockets for the last of anything that might give you energy.

You have lost your energy. Physical actions may be riskier.

There's something you're not hearing or seeing that's bothering you. SWAT, SWAT...like, the nightmare of SWAT is not an army, it's that it could happen any time, any where, for no reason at all, right? People don't think SWAT is going to lay siege to their house from the outside, they think SWAT is going to kick in their bedroom door. But the thing is, SWAT did lay siege from outside, especially in hostage situations, it shows up all the time in crime dramas and police procedurals...

And when they did they would have helicopters. Immediately. Faster than the APCs even. You raise your binoculars and scan the skyline, the building roofs, but nothing, absolutely nothing. Well, no, scratch that, not nothing, IS THAT A FUCKING DRAGON WRAPPED AROUND HARROW TOWERS -

MYSTERY SOLVED YOU GUESS!

You get on the walkie-talkie and contact Jill. "My compliments to the vanguard; alert the folks at home and let them know we're coming in hot. They are to aim for the vehicles; tell Asset Protection to try and aim for where drivers would logically be."

Bless her, Jill doesn't even question it. "Confirmed, Elector."

...

And we're gonna repress that set of feelings for the moment, we are busy.

You're just about thinking that maybe the bombs didn't work when the sound of, as a random, nonspecific example, about eight vans exploding at the same time announces to anything hungry in Salt Bay City that the shit is going down. So much for that freeway exit; y'all will need to go around if you want to finish pillaging IU-SBC at any point. At least someone else is gonna fight the pi-

Oh.

Right.

THE DRAGON.

You raise your binoculars and see vast wings of red, orange, gold, and silver-colored glass, like a winter sunset, spread wide and cast shadows of color over vast swathes of the city.

Choose 1
[ ] Keep running
[ ] Go to ground until you stop hearing sounds that could reasonably be interpreted as draconic

Orders are issued quickly; everyone but the vanguard takes the nearest exit and shelters beneath an overpass, where you stay high with this spider-woman, watching through binoculars. The dragon moves with a shocking grace but, then, should you be shocked? Something like this shouldn't be able to fly and for that matter, neither should you, but dollars to doughnuts these wings will work when they finish growing in. You witness it dive and come back up with the APC in its talons; you watch it drop the vehicle, and while you don't see the impact, you can all-too-easily imagine who or whatever is driving it suddenly learning why cars are supposed to have crumple zones. The beast's roar of triumph is interrupted by gunfire from nearby buildings, SWAT snipers that must be manifesting in the range of reinforcements...

Another APC is snatched up, and then frozen by a titanic spew of molten glass from the sunset-colored wyrm's mouth. A third is flung over the skyline, vanishing somewhere in the suburbs.

There is not a fourth.

You can feel everyone holding their breath as the dragon flies directly along the freeway towards your position. Your mount-slash-new-friend scrambles beneath the overpass, clinging high and only not being upside-down because you can't be. With a deliberateness that cannot be the product of chance, the dragon lands atop the overpass; you can hear the titanic splashing of blood from its wounds, the sizzle as they meet asphalt and begin to melt it.

And you, you alone, hear something else, in a voice so laced with confidence that you find yourself absently trying to salute after it speaks.


Its piece, seemingly, spoken, the wyrm takes off, causing the overpass to bend, and groan, and buckle, but it remains intact. By unspoken agreement, all of you make double-time back towards Jillian's Farm & Fleet. The vanguard has already made it by the time all of you arrive, and anyone not holding a gun ushers everyone inside where sleeping bags are being rolled out, food is being brought, and many hands are looking to make light work.

After five hours pass, it is concluded that the pursuit is over. You're safe, for now. Praise be.

In the end, three of the wounded died on-route. Nothing that could have been done, but the young surgeon is still torn up about it. Charles is seeing to him, as best he can, while the other two doctors at home take over triage. Nattie is going to lose her leg from the knee down. It is what it is; she won't be the only amputation.

There are slightly less than four days before Hoch arrives at this position. Choose 1
[ ] Pressure Nattie into joining your community
[ ] Wait for Hoch before doing or saying fucking anything
[ ] Float the idea of Threshold Innovations assistance with Doctor Heller's request rather than a formal alliance/brain drain

Orchid has been torn between several conflicting impulses and lessons during this mission. Prioritize 1
[ ] Perfect can't be the enemy of good
[ ] The man from Threshold was right; the new alien life of Domus is beautiful and worth loving
[ ] For the new world to be born, the old one has to die
[ ] Write-in?