~I would like to know how quickly they move in a straight line when chasing a target.~

This roleplay was GMed by the very wonderful Jihgfed. Respec'!

Jihgfed's Abattoir(#3897RFJ)

From afar, to the room, Jihgfed will gather a scene-set together. How are you getting here: vehicle, or foot? Hoofing it would probably take half a day, depending on how careful you are about taking Lupus.
You paged the room with 'Kevin is gonna do what he's told, quite simply.'.
Emma pages to the room: Hmm. By car, via one of the Fury kinfolks?
Jihgfed pages to the room: Hi Laura. You got a kinfolk to lend us a car?
From afar, to the room, Laura looks at Emma. Jessica?
Emma pages to the room: Well, yeah. I mean it's twinky, but it's totally in character for Jessica to do that.
You paged the room with 'Or Anji, likewise.'.
Emma pages to the room: Not our fault that all our alts are Fury kin!!
From afar, to the room, Laura quotes Salem, OOC, a long time ago. "These my bitches." ;)
From afar, to the room, Emma howls.
You paged the room with 'OK, shall we agree on some method of travel?'.
Emma pages to the room: I think Jihg is setting up a starter pose?

The night's settled softly over the empty landscape of locked-up warehouses and burnt out shacks. Chain link fence runs haphazardly around, growing out of the earth like spines. The truck is parked a mile back, pulled off-road and now just a hunched-over shape on the flat horizon. In one direction looms the city, a hazy polluted blotch on the skyline, and in the other, large now, clearly visible quietly glowing like a campfire near at hand, is the tire yard. The smoke is black against a light blue sky, hiding the bulging moon within it. The yard is ringed round with fence, and there's a small guard post where the road punctures it.

Emma stands motionless as she eyes the tire yard and its fiery glow. Her face is settled and determined, her posture rigid. She glances to her two companions, giving them each a faint nod. "Yi said it wasn't guarded really on this side of things. But what I really want to scout out, is the umbral side of things."

Kevin spent most of the car journey towards the three garou's target in silence, with just his thoughts for company. He speaks now for the first time in half an hour or so. "If it's where the fight's going to be, it's where we should be now. No point scouting this side of it if we're not going to have the showdown here."

Laura was quiet as well, and remains so as she takes a long look at the physical side of the problem. "We can get an idea of the layout from this side. There may be a few things we can do here that will have an effect there," she says quietly, after having a particularily long staredown with the fence. She draws her mirror out of her sleeve. "Ready?"

Emma nods to both of them. "Let's hop umbra side and see what it looks like now. Kev, you first. Laura, you alright going last?" She shifts her weight now, the first sign of her anxiousness.

"Righty ho," Kevin agrees. "Set 'er up, Laura." He confronts the theurge's mirror with a furrowed brow, and focuses on stepping sideways into the Umbra.

Laura turns the gleaming metal to give Kevin a better angle, her answer to Emma just a nod. She holds the mirror steady for Kevin, and for Emma as well, waiting her turn with very little trepidation.

Emma waits her turn and then nods to Laura with a faint smile as she concentrates on the mirror. After a few moments, she crosses over, waiting anxiously for her packmate to join them.

Laura follows after, absently checking the cord binding the mirror to her wrist before focusing on her reflection and letting it draw her through.

The Gauntlet here is strong but thin and peppered with finger-sized holes like the linked fence which girdles the land. Passage through it is swift but not effortless. On the other side the flat lay of the land stretches on for miles like desert, and the distant city seems to spring not from it but from the sky above, like it's floating on a layer of thick black smog. Here the warehouses are husks of buildings, more empty space than brick, and their windows are eyes. It is a spiritual wasteland, inactive and dry and brittle as old bones. A spider moves about, tirelessly tracing out the lines of fences, leaving faeces and web behind, while up above wind elementals limp through the astral sky. In the distance an earth elemental sluggishly studies its own belly. The only life here is the fire: it looms up, flashes of pain and green brilliance, invisible beneath the whirling dance of smoke spirits that ring it like dancing zealots in a pageant, like jet black children around the May pole. Nothing but flashes can be seen through them, nothing but flashes and the great gibbous moon which here at least bludgeons through the great spire of smoke like a baseball bat through pressboard.

Kevin wriggles his way through the mirror and immediately shifts through the forms as far as hispo, whereupon he cocks his head to the umbral air and inhales deeply. The scent of burning pervades the atmosphere and he gives a snort of disgust as he checks his immediate surroundings for any danger.

Emma looks around with a gritty look on her face. After a moment she too takes a more appropriate form, landing in Crinos. ~Lets not get too close yet. Watch the smoke, see what they do... Child-Holder, that's your department. Power-Up, that's going to be your obstacle course come time for cleaning up.~

Laura swallows audibly as she locks her eyes on the huge, corrupted elemental. She rolls her shoulders, then takes her time changing to Crinos. Her alpha's order, or request, nets a short affirmative chuff. The Fury's ears lay back, and she tries to get a better look at the smoke spirits.

Power-Up's ears stand up as he also focuses in on the dancing smoke spirits. ~By Gaia's breath, they move quickly,~ he comments thoughtfully, pacing a few steps to one side to get a better view. ~I would like to know how quickly they move in a straight line when chasing a target.~

~It would also be good to see at what point they chase and where they give up.~ She licks her lips lightly, snorting heavily as she eyes the task at hand. ~I'll move up a bit. When they give chase I'll move and start running off - watch to see where their leash ends.~ She shifts down to Hispo then and moves slowly forward, trying to find the line at which point the spirits begin to pay attention to her.

The Garou are a quarter-click off the tire yard, though the flames are practically invisible beneath the thick blanket of swirling smoke. The spirits are coal-black and built like twigs, they trail bulging tails of ashen smoke behind them like bladders, like an queen's fat egg sac. They swirl fast and tireless, in wild, repetetive motion, giving occasional glimpse at the mounds of sludge and fire beyond. Their eyes are wild and restless and empty: they pay no attention to the Garou's approach, no matter how close Laura gets.

Child-Holder's nose twitches, and she takes a few steps after her alpha. She still watches the spirits, counting them, assessing their strength, mulling over their position. What little she can see of the fire spirit draws even more of her attention.

~Let me,~ Power-Up requests. ~I am the fastest. The only way we will know how fast they move when the real attack comes, is to test them now. If I lead them a chase and you remain in hiding you will know what we have to face and if they catch me... better that they do so now then when the true fight comes. But first, perhaps we should check the fire from every angle? Circle around it?~~

Stone-Spirit snorts out, ~No Power-Up. You are the fastest Garou we have. You are invaluable to this mission. I only bring my claws. I'll give them a test and you'll see how quickly they move. If I fall, another can lead. If you fall, there is no one else that has a chance of outrunning them.~ With that, the Hispo stretches out her paws, claws flexing into the ground as her body ripples with anticipation. ~It will only be a short coup.~ She releases all the energy from her hindquarters then, bolting forward and running straight toward a spot in the circle of smoke spirits. It's a quick strafe, and then she is moving out again, as fast as her paws will carry her in fact.

Child-Holder's brow furrows, her attention split between the spirits and her alpha. Stone-Spirit's 'if I fall' comment lays the theurge's ears back, but the black crinos doesn't make any other reply. Her nose twitches again, and she stares off to the south.

The Garou, for all their rage and tactics, are ignored: even as Stone-Spirit comes powerfully up on their very haunches, the smoke elementals pay no attention, save for when one, green-eyed and smelling of phlegm, angrily flicks its three metre tail at her and fills her coat with ash.

Power-Up licks his toothy muzzle thoughtfully. ~As you wish, Stone-Spirit,~ he begins, but by the time he's reached even that point in his speech the Get has gone sprinting off. He tenses up and prepares for action himself, poised to dash after her, or in the other direction, should either be called for.

Stone-Spirit comes charging back out after her first pass, slowing once she realizes none have followed. Her lope ends back at the others and she gives her fur a thorough shake, softly growling. ~They didn't budge... but, I think if timed right, and some luck, we could run straight through. But.. no guarantees they wouldn't give chase then.~ She looks to the Theurge first, ~What do you think?~

Child-Holder turns away from her observation. ~I do not think the smoke is entirely tainted. My sense would be overwhelmed by the fire, but the spirits do not turn the wrong ways. They still twist. It's the fire that makes them tainted...and they follow the wind. Look.~ She points a claw at the sky, indicating the southerly direction of the wind. ~So they follow fire and the wind, until they rise too high. Only the tainted ones will attack us, I think...I wonder how Cycle-Breaker and Runner-rhya made them chase.~ She rumbles. ~We might run straight through. Should we try?~ The Fury's disjointed rambling stops on that question, and she cocks her head to the Ahroun.

~You are the knife-moon,~ Power-Up muses. ~If we can avoid fighting them all... if it is the fire that causes the taint, would it suffice to put the fire out? Perhaps if I and others were to lure them away from the fire, and while they chase us, the remainder killed the fire...?~

The sound of the spirits is like the whistle of whips as they fly by the ear. Deeper is the inferno of crackles and roars that the fire makes, and behind the Garou, all along the still flat plain, is only silence.

Stone-Spirit licks at her muzzle in thought. ~We should try to break through. We need to see the fire within anyway. If they do not all chase, then we deal with those that do. Power-Up, you lure off any that give us chase. Child-Holder and I will break straight through to get a look on the inside. It's hard to breath in there, so we won't have much time to get our peek. You all ready?~

~If the real fire was smothered, this one would be affected. That is simple. We may still need to fight it, and it's end would only be temporary. Someone would light it again.~ Child-Holder growls to the Glass Walker. At Emma's suggestion, she nods, then edges out to the side. ~Yes. We should see how difficult they are to get claws into,~ she rumbles to her alpha.

~So be it,~ Power-Up agrees, and he begins to purposefully walk away from the other two garou to adopt a position, once more, of readiness to spring into action if required, while his companions are carrying out their plan.

Stone-Spirit gives a low growl, ~All of us, Power-Up be ready to get them off of us if we prove to slow.~ Then she starts moving, slowly at first, then pushing with a burst of speed to try and get straight through the ring of smoke.

Child-Holder charges in after her alpha, remaining in crinos. She runs in a sort of awkward dashing lope, then works out her gait and picks up speed. She's right on Stone-Spirit's tail.

The Garou wait, though not long, for a moment when the swirl of spirits fan out, form a sort of corridor, thick though it is with smoke and acrid air. Stone-Spirit keeps an even keel, her heavy paws driving her smoothly through the spirits, which, for the most part, pay her no mind: the eyes of their long fragile faces are empty except for the faint flash of fire reflected in their smoke. Child-Holder has to struggle to keep up, while Power-Up has to struggle not to overtake them, to keep his slow pace between the ghoulish faces pressing in on him. They get about halfway in, some fifteen metres, when a sudden veer on the part of a green-eyed, wet-breathed spirit sends it steaming straight into Child-Holder's path, potentially blocking her and Power-Up off from Stone-Spirit in the lead.

Stone-Spirit takes a half step to the side as the spirit moves in for an interception pass. She has to focus on slowing, and at the same time look to see what is ahead of her. When she can turn to look at what's come at them, she sees the smoke spirit and its intense green eyed glare at her small party. ~Get past it. Power-Up, shake it off of Child-Holder.~

Child-Holder closes her eyes, sucks in a short breath and tries to rush through part of the spirit. Typical wolverine bullheadedness, seems like, as well as testing a theory.

Power-Up moves in last of the three, separated from the other two by a moderate distance, jinking and swerving from side to side in contrast to the other garou's direct dash through the heart of the fire and spirits.

Half of Stone-Spirit's words are lost in the air-sucking howl of movement, though the intention is clear. Child-Holder and the smoke meet kitty-corner, the thing's wet breath driving up her nostrils, smelling of plague and bile, burning her eyes. It draws gashes along her side and then she's lost in smoke, submerged in its tail, blind and muffled.

With a maddened roar, Stone-Spirit whirls and goes driving back to find her packmate. ~Child-Holder!~ The call goes out loud and anxious as she sends a paw striking through the smoke to try and find her.

Blind, deaf and trying like hell not to suck in even the tiniest breath, Child-Holder digs in fore- and hindclaws and continues scrambling forwards in her attempts to escape. Even when Stone-Spirit calls, she doesn't make a sound, aside from the scrape of claws on soil.

Power-Up stops his ducking and diving when he hears the command to him to rescue Child-Holder. He comes in at an angle, relying more on his nose than his eyes when it comes to targeting his attack. His aim is to charge the spirit that has hold of the Black Fury, and slam into it at an angle, clawing it as he makes contact and then bouncing off, hoping to not only hurt it and make it let go of Child-Holder, but divert its attention to him.

While Stone-Spirit's claws dig in and she struggles to stop, turn, redivert her mammoth inertia, Power-Up keeps on going, pouring on speed to catch the creature from behind, his claws whistling through its smokey tail and coming out along its back, carving out glistening patterns of spirit stuff, making its thin alien limbs twist and sending it screaming further along, on its way, the trail of smoke lagging behind it. Child-Holder comes out practically in Stone-Spirit's face, and it's all she can do to avoid a mouthful of her packmate's claws. The lag in their speed has cause them to be surrounded and swarmed by the spirits: they are in the centre of the maelstrom, now, it screams around them with effortless speed, blinding and suffocating, robbing thought. The flash of fire is now like the mind-numbing blink of lights on a midnight amusement park ride, meaningless and overpowering. The spirits come crashing in, not aiming for the Garou but taking no pains to avoid them, either. One stops, buffeted by his kind, to stare at them, glowing green.

Stone-Spirit lets out a growl, voice harsh and strained. ~Move! Run through!~ She reaches to grab hold of Laura and tug her in the direction of those blasted blinking lights of the fire, snorting and growling. ~Everyone get through.~ And with another tug to let the Fury know she is moving, she moves as quickly as she can through the smoke spirits to get through toward the fire itself, watching to see that Kevin follows too.

Child-Holder catches a breath, hesitating as they're confronted by the spirit. Orders overrule curiousity, and she plunges into the maelstrom ahead, running straight for the fire. The lack of good air makes her vision swim, so she just aims for the light and runs.

Power-Up slashes at the smoke spirit as he dives past it and, it almost seems, through it, so insubstantial it is. He doesn't find himself bouncing off it or otherwise halted by it significantly -- it's too, well, smoky. He doesn't linger in the smoke, heat and stench of the fire any longer than he can help, but when he is certain that Child-Holder is free and making her own way out, he follows after her, still relying more on scent than sight to head after the theurge's track.

Disoriented now, out of sync with the rhythm of the maelstorm's swarming flow, the Garou are buffeted on all sides by the wire-thin elementals and the smoke which follows in their wake. Often their interference is merely a choking nuisance, robbing them of sight and sense and breath, hindering their movement, but nothing else; but the spirits that glow with the green of the corrupt fire they circle, their breath stings the flesh and scours the fur, and when they pass by they leave deep gashing wounds in muscle and skin. Child-Holder, slowed by her earlier encounter, bleary-eyed and unbreathing, is worst off, leaving her moving slower and only with pain, while the Ragabash and the Ahroun, though their wounds sting like they've been rubbed at with charcoal, aren't any slowed down. The Garou are within the tail of the last of the elementals, hidden in its darkness, and beyond they can feel the intense heat of the great fire itself.

Stone-Spirit keeps hold on Child Holder, so that she doesn't look track of her packmate. She keeps an ear, often useless, out for the Ragabash as well, and just keeps barking her orders through. ~Keep moving. Don't stop.~ The heat of the fire is what drives her now, trying to get closer to it so they can see what is going on past the circle of spirits and smoke.

Jihgfed pages to the room: That's one damage to Emma and Kevin, and two more to Laura.

Child-Holder fights onward, choking and coughing as she feels the heat on her face. She presses her body lower to the groud, trying to suck up anything that might resemble cleaner air. Unable to see, she stays as close to Stone-Spirit as she can.

Power-Up closes his eyes to slits as the heat on his face increases, and with his head down and his front paws slashing at any spirit that comes close enough to strike, he keeps moving forwards, hoping that he's still on the track of the other two whose scent is almost masked by the reek of the burning rubber and the heat of the flames.

It's like moving from the fireside to hanging over the fire itself. The heat is a wall that wilts fur and bleaches eyes shut. The landscape flickers and waves like it's been painted in grease. There are no tires here, no fences or guard towers, nothing distinguishable as human: there are mounds of black sludge which burn with balefire, tongues of green flame which ripple and spark. The heat seems to suck all energy and sense out of the Garou; even the ground moves and rolls like it's on fire. Not far off, staring at them, is a massive monster the size of an ox. It stands on top of the sludge, its legs melting into it. Eyeless and mouthless, its a creature of pure green hate, its flesh just wet fire, its horns like giant, sloppy tongues hanging from its stunted head, dripping flame.

Child-Holder gets a watery look at the flickering green thing, then shuts her eyes. More coughing and choking, and the Fury slowly starts the change to her hispo form. She stays at the very edge of the awful pit, growling low in her throat.

Stone-Spirit catches sight of their target and growls low and angry. ~Alright. Out... now.~ She calls with a heavy wheeze to her lungs. It is all too overpowering just now for them, and she doesn't want to lose anyone on a mere scouting mission. ~Move fast through the smoke.. go go go.~ She turns herself around and begins moving in reverse direction, as fast as her paws and lungs will work.

Power-Up has never seen or heard of balefire, but all his instincts tell him that this greenish, pale flame is not good and not something to go nearer than he can help. He can't see a thing except the green of the flames and the white sizzle of the heat in front of him, surrounding the enormous vile creature, and his nose can't cope with the sensations being thrown at it. He risks a quick howl when he hears Stone-Spirit's call. ~Are you here? Can you see that?~ he calls out as he tries to turn back and track his way out by the same way that he came in, hoping that the other two are also doing so.

The second they begin to move, the balefire monster is after them, like a cat moving on a suddenly active mouse: it moves like flame, rippling along the ground, fierce and fast as conflagration. The heat comes with it: the Garou pant, drool leaking from their fur, the pads of their paws are slick as grease.

Stone-Spirit lets out a snarl as it gives chase, looking to see that her two companions are with her. ~Yes I see it. Now move. Get through the smoke and to the other side! If it chases us that far, we will make it sorely regret that choice.~

Child-Holder channels her rage for a smaller, faster form. Giving up the pretense of combat readiness, she slips from crinos to lupus and runs as fast as she can back the way they came. Whether her limbs burn, whether she's attacked or blocked, she sprints flat-out. As before, the only sound she makes is a gasp and a wheeze under the exertion.

Power-Up feels more than sees or smells the balefire-spirit stir into motion and begin moving with horribly high speed in his wake. ~It follows! Flee! I will draw it!~ he calls out and turns at an angle some forty-five degrees to the way he estimates that Stone-Spirit and Child-Holder are trying to escape, in an obvious ploy to make it follow him and give them chance to escape. He even slows his pace a little to lure it towards him, while gathering his strength ready to kick back up to top speed if his plan works.

Child-Holder's mad, unrelenting charge through the gauntlet of swirling spirits goes more smoothly than her entry. Speed is her saviour: without dodging, planning, or even looking where she's going, she manages to hit smoke and air and not much else. The heat dies away against her back, and soon she's into the cool night outside. Stone-Spirit, on the other hand, stops when she stops feeling the heat, when the spirit of balefire veers off and flares along the ground towards the slower Ragabash. It's his slowness that makes him a target, not of the monster only, but also of the smoke that rings the flame; ash cloud after ash cloud slakes past him, stinging and slowing him, scraping at his lungs and face. Stone-Spirit, too, in her hesitation and wary-footed turning, is beaten against, like she's standing in the middle of highway traffic.
Jihgfed pages: You take another point.

Child-Holder stumbles to a stop outside, gasping and spitting up ash-black phlegm on the ground. She tries to clear her eyes, nose and mouth, even as the pull of her totem turns her back towards the conflagration of corrupted spirits.

Stone-Spirit snarls at the repeated assault upon her, but does not slow her charge toward the Ragabash. ~Keep moving.. out! Get out Power-Up!~ She comes rushing toward him, claws slashing to try and swipe the tainted spirits away from him and give him some relief from their slowing attacks.

Power-Up dawdles a second or two longer, until the beast's approach starts to almost scorch his tail. And then he growls, and shifts up a gear or two, his four paws moving into a blur of motion, head down, charging in a direct straight line now in 'get the hell out of here' mode. If Emma and Laura aren't safe by now, well, he's done what he can, and no more can he do.

Jihgfed pages: The heat is terrible, it's like you're moving through water, like you can't control your own limbs. You can spend a Willpower point to press through it, as best you can.
You paged Jihgfed with 'Most certainly will.'.

Stone-Spirit finds that moving towards Power-Up across the black distance of smoke is like trying to get from one side to the other of a crowded dance floor. Every bump stings, it's like death by a hundred choking cuts, like there's needles down her nose. Power-Up, on the other hand, at least doesn't care where he's going, so long as it's out. Still the heat is enervating, it saps his strength from him so that what he could have once done without even breathing leaves him gasping and broken-spirited. It's only by will and the dull repetition of training that he even seems to be able to put one foot in front of the other, and it's only by luck that he manages to avoid the worst of the spirits that swirl all around him. He leads the great beast of fire and consumption into the black smoke, which peels before it like water.

Jihgfed pages: You don't take any damage, as such, but you're going to need another Willpower point to act next round, unless you're spending Rage for extra actions/speed, in which case you take a frenzy check (not that you need to worry about that, tiny Rage man).

Power-Up falters for just a second as the heat, the glare of the balefire, and a sudden feeling of weariness combine to slow his run. Then he snarls and forces himself to maintain his speed, heading away from the heat and towards what passes for fresh air in this grim part of the Shadow. He has no idea how far he has to run to achieve safety, but he races on, not daring to turn around and see whether the monster is still following him, or if so, how close it is at his heels.

You paged Jihgfed with 'I'll spend a second. Leaves me with two. Save Rage, it's harder to come by :)'.

Stone-Spirit continues to pump her legs after the other, swiping and snarling as she tries to cut a path through the abyssal smoke. She knows that Kevin is running outwards, so she doesn't aim back toward the heart of the fire, but instead tries to run on an interception pass, quickly fatiguing as she is.

The two Garou race almost side-by-side, Stone-Spirit with a slightly inward arc, though the batter of smoke spirits constantly throws them off sync, and Power-Up is faster: fatigued though he is, he has the literal hound of hell after him, and that counts as incentive. Up ahead, glimpsed through the swirl of darkness, are stars and free air; they move towards it by precious inches. Power-Up feels the heat get worse and worse until flames seem to touch at his back, until he's bathing in liquid metal. He reaches the end, reaches open air, and still it doesn't stop, still the fire plays over his form: his very flesh is burning, his eyes are dry and empty, there's no water or life left in him - and then it's over, and the air is freezing against bare bone from which meat hangs like porkchops. Stone-Spirit can see the spirit had stopped, seconds ago, though with a scream which the Ragabash' crisped ears couldn't hear, it hurled a stream of green fire which streamed through the spirits of ash and coated its target burning gas, before speed blotted it out, and the two of them are free.

Jihgfed pages: Five points of aggravated damage.

You paged Jihgfed with 'Ow. Does that make seven in all or eight?'.

Power-Up feels his hind paws and the whole rear end of his body on fire. Just what it is that keeps him running on feet seared down to white bone is anyone's guess, but somehow he does, throwing his head back as he sprints on and howling out his agony to the unhearing umbra. Maybe it's the sudden awareness of Stone-Spirit running alongside him, though quite how she got these is beyond his pain-crazed brain to figure at the moment. And then suddenly he gulps a breath of air that, while smoke-ridden and stench-filled, is at least comparatively cool, and he feels his face free of smoke. With one last desperate leap the Glass Walker launches himself out of the smoke, his burnt and almost furless hindquarters sending him springing out of the smoke and into the open. He fails to land properly, and rolls over and over when he hits the ground, coming to rest several feet beyond the smoke and flame, wriggling feebly and totally spent.

Stone-Spirit is moving along side of him still, acting as a loyal sentinel might to a battle wounded king. When he leaps clearly out, she turns to put herself between the ring of smoke and fire, and the wounded garou, standing there as she howls for Laura to come to them. If anything else is going to come flying from that infernal ball of fire, it will not be hitting the Walker. ~Don't move,~ she tells him, her tone taut but not uncaring.
Still the smoke whips and whirls in mad display; the green glow still shows in glimpses, but nothing emerges from the layers of blackness, nothing more shows. Everything else is very still, and the flat ground seems to roll out forever. The air is cool, and the air is fresh.

Power-Up doesn't move once he comes to rest, but that isn't so much because of the Get's command to be still, as because he has no ability to any more. He's only able to lie there gasping for breath, face contorted in a snarl of pain. His eyes do open, though, and he stares up at Stone-Spirit mutely.

An unnaturally large wolf with grey fur bristling against it's sizeable muscle. Sharp, intent eyes focus on it's surroundings with marked intelligence. Perhaps nearing three hundred or more pounds, it maintains a high level of agility and grace in motion, while still very capable of a deadly amount of ferocity.

It's one of those times that even a Hispo face does a poor job of disguising the worry and uncertainty. She's facing the wall of smoke, still standing vigil in defense of the downed Garou. Only when he looks to her, does she manage to pull around to return his look. ~You did good - you gave Laura and I enough time to push free of the smoke.~ And as an after thought, she adds with feigned confidance, ~You'll be fine. Laura will mend you right up.~

The blindness is finally shaken. Child-Holder whines as she sees the hideous damage to her fellow Garou, and lopes over to the pair of them. Withouth pause, she jabs her nose against Power-Up's flank. The healing energy of Gaia is called on, and a cool sensation starts to wash over the Glass Walker's skin.

Jihgfed pages to the room: Four points of healing. Finally the upside of having Rage 2.

Power-Up is still panting as the Fury's powers restore his seared flesh to some form of more normal being, but the gasps are more of exhaustion now and less of pain. His hindquarters are still pretty well bare flesh, the fur burnt off almost the whole of his back half, but the remaining burns are a good deal less savage. ~Well,~ he manages to gasp, ~now we know how fast it can move.~

Stone-Spirit stands around to the front of them once she deems that no more evil is coming after them. ~That's not the worst of it. He didn't have to be as fast as you... He shot that ... fiery gas at you from afar.~ She growls low in her throat, eyeing the heap of burning rubber.

Child-Holder pants, shaking herself off and moving closer to the Get of Fenris. Healing, she indicates, brushing her chin against her alpha's side. I think that was balefire. I have seen the Spiral-ikthya use it before, she adds. Very bad.

Power-Up's tongue lolls out, appreciating the comparatively fresh and cool air. ~Did it? I did not... stop to watch...~ He twists his head round to look at Child-Holder. ~Thank you. Are you harmed at all?~

Stone-Spirit lets out a slow huff of air and sniffs over the theurge as well. ~Balefire?~ she asks curiously. ~How do we get around that?~ She pads over to the Ragabash to nose him lightly, ~Can you make it home now? Or you want to rest more?~

Power-Up> You're feeling better, now: the difference between the pain of earlier and what you feel after the healing makes this almost bliss, though it's short-lived. You begin to experience intense pain, right at the base of your spine, near your tail, just where the fire burnt you. It's fiere and stabbing, like something is trying to force its way out of your skin.

Child-Holder is scraped all along her ribs, the wounds hard to see until she moves. A bit of blood tinges the black-soot spittle that she coughs up as well. At least it wasn't the gut this time, she comments dismissively. She moves with a bit of a hobble, due to the injury. We must have ranged weapons. Things to shoot or throw.

Power-Up struggles to his feet defiantly. ~Of course I can make it home,~ he maintains stoutly. Then he falls over again with a whine of pain, his hind legs seeming to give way suddenly. He twists round as though he's trying to reach the base of his tail with his own jaws.

Stone-Spirit gives a short snarl, ~Still yourself Power-Up, we will wait a while longer.~ She moves to the Fury then, nosing the wounds and beginning to lick them clean with her tongue - she afterall, has no other way of helping her packmate. ~We also, don't know if there will be more than one of those creatures...~ she sighs out with frustration.

You paged Jihgfed with 'Let me know if Kevin can figure out what the hell's going on down in his ass area. Otherwise he's just gonna keep on like this.'.

Power-Up's back end begins to bubble and split, as if his skin were boiling, as if he were suffering the worst diarrhea imaginable, though it's a bit high above for that, just lateral with the tail, growing on all sides. It's like a half-dozen tumours sprouting all at once. The smell is terrible, like faeces and death.

Child-Holder licks her muzzle slightly cleaner. They can only do that a few times, she says. Then they lose their power. Like healing, or a mule summoning fire. She rushes closer to Power-Up when his back begins to boil. Back to the other world. Now. She snaps her jaws. Now. The Rite can't be done here. Now.

You paged Jihgfed with 'Can Kevin control himself enough to step sideways in this state?'.

Stone-Spirit growls at this sudden turn of events, ~Up Power-Up, move,
now.~ She nudges him toward the Fury, obeying her command as she hurries to get the Walker crossed over. ~Go, both of you. I will cross last.~

Jihgfed pages: Yes. It's just painful as unprepared buggery.

Power-Up twists again, wildly trying to bite at his own tail and hindquarters, then lets out a wild howl of agony, his front paws digging into the umbral ground and raking up clawmarks. He somehow manages to lurch back to his feet after a few seconds wild clawing at the earth. ~Help... meee....~ he snarls through the pain, and lurches agonisingly slowly, almost dragging the rear half of his body, towards Child-Holder, looking wildly round for her mirror.

Child-Holder forces herself back to her human form, tugging the mirror into her hand. She flashes the reflection of Luna at the Glass Walker's eyes. "You follow him, Emma, I'll go last. My mirror," she says, adopting a submissive sort of position despite the authority in her words. "When we get there, be careful of the Veil."

Stone-Spirit lets out a snort and nods, dropping into homid as well as she moves to help the Walker. "Hold tight Kevin, get across and stay put, and stay low. We'll be right behind you."

Power-Up doesn't make any attempt to shift to a less obvious form than hispo as he makes a staggering dive for the mirror and the world in which he was born; it's all he can do to keep moving as his rear end keeps erupting in vile-smelling lumps and bumps of... who knows what. He brings himself up in front of the mirror and fixates on stepping sideways with more intense, ferocious concentration than, perhaps, he's ever employed in such a position before.

The Gauntlet, just like the Umbra, is fickle. There are holes in it and hard spots: Stone-Spirit and Power-Up find the former, while Child-Holder runs smack up against the latter. She struggles and forces; it's a full half minute before she manages to push her way through to the other side, where she finds Power-Up, his pain subduing, four long, saggy, pasty white lumps forming off his rear, like unrolled dough, though slowly acquiring shape and fur.

"Down," Laura snaps at the Glass Walker as soon as she's pressed through the Gauntlet-the swiss cheese nature of the thing leaving her unfazed. "Stay down." She crouches near him, nostrils flaring. She winces as her injuries pull and the horrific stench of Power-Up's bubbling backside smacks into her nose.

Emma is crouched near them as well, though she is scanning the horizon and keeping her ears peeled for anything else. She glances to Laura, "What's happening to him?"

They're a good twenty metres off the tire yard, where the fires still burn as bright as ever, making a column of smoke that seems miles high, blotting out stars. The fire nearly blots out the light of the nearby guardhouse, where a man can be barely made out, chair tipped against the wall, trying not to wake himself with his own snoring. The pain has died down. Power-Up's backside continues to change, but now those changes seem mostly superficial. The bubbling and hissing has stopped, the smell is now mostly residual, just what's been thrown up into the air so far. Four new tails dangle from his rear, stuck on at weird angles, one out of a thigh, one riding higher on his back than his normal one. One is made only of bone and the delicate bundle of nerves strung through it; one hangs limply from his thigh, dead, necrotic tissue, bleeding and pussing, stinking faintly of rotten flesh and disease; one ends in fingers, stuck out like buboes, all moving individually, like they're trying desperately to grab hold of something, to stop their pain; the other hangs almost hairless and unable to support its own weight, as it is crowned by a massive head, like a mushroom, or a giant, slitless penis.

Power-Up, once through the mirror, half-walks and half-crawls into what cover and foliage he can find to conceal himself as best he can, eyeing his rump and its new additions with something akin to horror. ~Great Gaia save us all,~ he gasps, and then he attempts to shift, through crinos and into glabro, watching his own body all the while, willing the extra tails to at least disappear in his near-human form.

Laura chokes on the smell, and then again on the sight. She's not one to have a delicate stomach, but the sight of the Glass Walker's new extra pieces is enough to make the Fury retch. "GAIA." She shakes her head. "We have to get him away from here. I have to check him for Taint, and see if...Fuck, that's..." She shakes her head. "I have to see if I can get rid of those. Fuck."

No matter how hard the curious Garou stare, they aren't able to penetrate Kevin's dedicated, newly sprung pants to see if his tails still exist: at any rate, there's no particular bulge.

You paged Jihgfed with 'I guess I'd be able to feel whether they were there or not in glabro?'.
Power-Up> You can feel chaffing as small nubs rub against the rough fabric of your sports pants. They're there, but none are any larger than an inch.

Emma nods her head, "Lets get back to the car and head to the brownstone, we can check on him there." She is breathing heavily now, unsure of what is exactly going on. She glances to Laura and looks her over, "You good to make it that far?"

Power-Up reaches glabro, and as he does so and his clothes reappear while his crinos fur fades away, he reaches behind the seat of his pants with one big, meaty hand, feeling all round himself. "Shrunk," he grunts to the two watching garou. "Won't break the veil like this..." And he shrinks further, into a very shaky-looking and pale homid form. "Let's get the hell out of here and burn rubber back to the farm or my tribe's house or someplace we can look at those... those things properly..."

"I can feel them closing," Laura says to Emma, whether it's true or not. "I need a place with a medical kit, water, fire, earth and air, in case I need to do a Cleansing. Anywhere that isn't here, that's reliably pure."

Emma frowns, "Brownstone may not be the place then. Fury house?" she asks, "It's pure..."

Kevin staggers to his feet, face white and drawn. "Let's just get out of here," he pleads in a thin voice that hints that he's been pushed to his limits and a little beyond.

"I'll prepare him a bed at our house." Laura agrees to that far more readily than might be expected. "Let's go." She offers a hand to Kevin.

Emma moves to help with Kevin on the other side if he wants shoulders to lean on. They move to the car, poor Jessica and her truck is going to stink after this, and slip inside of it. Once situated into the car, Emma looks again to the Theurge. "What is happening to him?"

Kevin isn't too proud to take Laura's hand and use it heavily for support as he trudges wearily back towards the waiting transport.