A Rose, Unnaturally

[four_is_death]

The lockpicks slide against each other with a gentle metal-on-metal sheeee, then click solidly into place.

Sophia smiles beneath her mask. "Got it."

Comments

[last_one_out]

The silver-eyed man answers it, then says in perfectly fluent Victorian, "Sure, lead the way."

[four_is_death]

A metallic wolf bounds through the doorway on four legs, baring razor-sharp teeth: Eyes' swing goes wide over its head as it turns and bears down on the group crouching behind the counter.

[four_is_death]

Sophia levels her device at it, trying to track its movements, but Eyes is in her backstop -

[unmarred]

Thorny vines sprout through the red rose-bearer's hands, forming into the shape of long knives, with which he attacks the wolf as soon as they turn from vine to steel. His speed is positively unnatural.

[last_one_out]

The silver-eyed man produces a frosted bow and glowing arrow by similar means. He looses the arrow and it embeds itself in the wolf's side, melting whatever metal it touches.

(Other rose-bearers who wonder how this happened might find that they, too, can manifest weapons in this way.)

[four_is_death]

The wolf claws its way along the floor a little further, but then the experiment drives a barbed speartip into the side of its head.

"... Well, that's useful." The creature grins.

[four_is_death]

Sophia's gaze flicks down to the rose she discarded a moment ago.

[last_one_out]

"So, about that leaving we were going to do...?" prompts the silver-eyed man, holding his bow at the ready.

[four_is_death]

Slab nods, though his gaze lingers on the enchanted weaponry. "Okay. Sophia, you know where we're going, you're in the lead."

[four_is_death]

She nods - then snatches up the rose she discarded a moment ago, driving her palm against the sharpened stem. Fighting her way through the pain of unification, she goes through the door with her weapon readied.

Her voice drifts back. "Hall's clear for now. Eyes?"

[four_is_death]

He adjusts his goggles again.

"... Oh shit. We've got a dozen Silencers and a pack of Hounds coming, we need to move!"

The words are hardly out of his mouth before he's dashing out of the door.

[four_is_death]

Slab's mouth compresses into a hard line, and he follows without another word.

[four_is_death]

Even Rose doesn't stop to argue.

[last_one_out]

The silver-eyed man follows, and says incomprehensible things that cause his brother(?) and the floating girl to follow too.

[four_is_death]

There are more dogs in the halls. Sophie thunks away with her small pistol, and splashes the leaders of the trio across the hall. Apparently the gun projects kinetic energy.

When the second leaps for her throat, she smacks it out of the air with a newly-formed mace. Slab makes sure it stays down with a well-placed stomp of his heel.

A dense, white cloud of fog rolls around the corner. Rather than stay to incapacitate the last hound, the group makes a break past it, away from the clinging fog.

[last_one_out]

The silver-eyed man puts a glowing arrow in the last hound as they pass.

[four_is_death]

The fog is slow, but there are a lot of hounds. Fortunately, the hounds are not prepared for this kind of weaponry.

Unfortunately, it appears that they are on the fifth floor. There are a lot of stairs.

The fog is waiting for them on the ground floor: the whole gang settles their masks into place more firmly.

"Eyes?"

"Left corridor has only one silencer between us and air. Our best option."

"Alright. Everyone ready?"

[last_one_out]

"Yeah," says the silver-eyed man, after short consultations with the other two. For some reason, possibly having to do with all the bizarre shit that has recently happened to his brain, he's the only one who speaks all relevant languages.

[four_is_death]

The bizarreness can wait until everyone is sure to survive this.

The gang goes down the chosen hallway at a brisk walk, weapons readied.

A humanoid shape buried in steel plates looms through the mist, and the Experiment hisses in a breath. Unlike the gang, it wears no mask.

"Mine."

The Silencer doesn't hear anything until the experiment shoves a spear in at the base of its neck. It crumples bonelessly, and hit the ground with a clang.

Moments later, the gang emerges from the tower into a moonless night. Squat, concrete buildings surround them: in the distance, other towers like the one they came from loom through the night.

[last_one_out]

Maskless but rose-bearing, the three travellers follow the gang down the hall. They avoid breathing the fog as much as possible, and all three emerge undamaged.

[four_is_death]

There is a complicated bit with some alleys, a sewer grate, a basement, a few flights of stairs, and some rooftops, but finally the gang tumble into an abandoned-looking house and collapse on various mattresses.

The room is rather dilapidated, but clearly some effort has gone into making it cozy. The concrete walls are daubed with abstract paintings in bright colors, and mismatched pieces of furniture have been scattered about.

[greatestgift]

The floating girl declines to collapse. She floats instead, and asks questions of the silver-eyed man.

[last_one_out]

He answers, and then translates for his brother(?), and then gets caught up in acting as translator between those two in their similar but apparently not mutually intelligible languages.

[four_is_death]

Sophia isn't feeling very tired, either.

"... Okay, so. Now we have one escaped experiment, three people from somewhere where they don't speak Victorian, and a bunch of exceedingly strange roses. Is anybody else less confused than me?"

[last_one_out]

The silver-eyed man interrupts himself to translate this for the other two.