Gulags and Ghouls

SIBERIAN TUNDRA

The Car barreled through the frigid Siberian winter at high speeds. The vast, open tundra provided excellent ground for burning rubber, but the speed was necessary. The Car travelled through a winding path, and ended in sight of the Siberian Gulag that was situation in the middle of an island at the center of large, frozen artificial lake. The only bridge into the medival fortress turned hell hole prison was out, so the Car punched its after burners and activated its jump mechanisms.

The Car came to a stop inside the grounds of the Gulag, a shanty town that grown to support the people who guarded the Gulag as well as its inmates. The town was completely devoid of life, and had seen destruction- not by bombs or bullets, but by claws and blades, every narrow street and every flimsy log building having seen the struggle of hand to hand combat, with weapons that carved through them.  

SHANTY TOWN

Mobile sentry guns, air dropped minutes in advance of The Car's arrival, turned their guns on the noisy arrival. Perched on high ground or patrolling strategic alley ways, they identified the vehicle as one of their own, and turned their attention back on the large, ominous stone structure, maintaining a perimeter just outside the entrance. They were guided only by motion sensors, so they lacked the ability to discern friend from foe save for the ones coming out of the car.

The Cockpit slid open, as well as the Car's transport compartment, sliding open to let out their passenger. It was Red Scorpion in a fully winterized battle uniform, while from the compartment out came the cyborg Bernadette in a heavy winter coat. In addition to sentry guns, A small ammo dump was in the Shanty Town, filled mostly with refills for the sentry bots, but also a small collection of standard firearms and a mini radio tower.

"...Oi, I'm supposed to be a robot aren't I? Why do I feel cold?" Captain Bernadette asked.

"It means your limbs are seizing up, but don't worry, your fluids won't freeze. Better yet, you drive the car and give me support. I have to go in and find our contact." Scorpion said, her tone mechanical and cold as ever. Bernadette took one good, long look at the darkened entrance that had been ripped open from the inside.

"Fuckin in there? While I stay in the comfy car? You got yourself a deal boss. good luck." Bernadette quickly put herself in the cockpit and made all the wonderful "ooooh" sounds at the technology therein. It wasn't long after that Scorpion eventually began her grapple hook assisted climb up to the castle's top, while leaving a noise maker at the entrance.

Bernadette looked at the motion detectors detecting signals from inside the Gulag. Baleful howls and swift footsteps heralded a horde of hungering undead pouring from the entrance, and Bernadette cursed as she saw the living dead swarming out. Thankfully, the sentry guns turned their guns on the Ghouls and gunned them down with algorithmic efficiency, while the English Captain operated the minigun on the turret. Bullets rip through undead like tissue paper, spraying necrotized guts onto the snow. But the sentry guns' choice for efficiency over bullet spraying meant Ghouls were able to climb onto the car, striking feebly at the reinforced window.

"...Comfy car, my english arse! Where's the shock button on this thing?! Damnit Ellie!" Bernadette cursed and backed up into a shack, then tried to drive away with a ghoul still on the window. She didn't sign up for dealing with the living dead, seeing some bearded russian inmate in his tattered rags, trying to claw his way in, hell itself reflected in his long dead and rotten eyes. A sentry drone catches the ghoul and splatters his brain on the windows with a terrifying mechanical accuracy. Bernadette runs and guns with the car.

Chaos, blood and undead filled the streets of the shanty town, allowing Red Scorpion to infiltrate the Gulag with less resistance... and search for the Contact.

Flying over Russia was something he always wanted to do, Khellendros' family had migrated from this lonely part of the country before the second world war and had eventually made their way to Canada, but he always wondered about the country from which his family had come and so he flew over this land when he had the chance. It was when he was flying over an old forced labour camp in Siberia that he and Malys both noticed something was off.

"That's gunfire down there. Should we check it out?" Thinking on it, Khell decided that he hadn't seen anything quite so strange as gunfire in a supposedly abandoned part of the country in quite some time. "Sure, why not? It's not like we have any pressing business anywhere else at the moment." They flew in lower to see a car zipping around the village outside the castle-like prison, mowing down a large number of what looked to be very ragged looking people. "I don't think they're greeting whoever's in that car quite right..." "Take us in for a pass, clear them out with Inferno and I'll dismount and try to get in contact with whoever is driving that vehicle." "Right"

Flying low over the rooftops of the shanty town, Malys unleashed her fiery wrath upon the rushing and milling masses of "people" on the ground, most vanishing in the blaze with others catching on fire and in their attempts to douse the flames, bumping into and setting others of their number on fire. Khellendros leapt from Malys' back in the fiery wake and landed on the ground while drawing his sword and shield. "To the driver of the unknown vehicle, please respond. I am Khellendros and my fire happy companion is Malystrix. What is your name and purpose here? Do you require any assistance?" He was suddenly greeted by gunfire from some sort of small, treaded robotic. The bullets they were firing weren't even harmful to him and certainly wouldn't be harmful to Malys, but they were effective against the horde running amok. That's cute, but it's not particularly clever, is it? He walks over and knocks it to the ground, making it flail around helplessly. "Sir, these are remotely accessible, signals are tracing back to the vehicle in question." What the hell, why not? "Hack them and own them, might as well not have them wasting ammo on us when they should be exterminating whatever these things are." Within seconds the drones that were firing at him ceased and proceeded to turn back to the real enemy in the village. One of these villagers got past the drones and the blaze to take a run at Khell, he casually cut it in half as he moved along towards the vehicle. "I have taken control of your drones, not that it was particularly difficult. We shall assist you. Looks like your lucky day." Another one of the creatures ran towards him, he quickly sheathed Wrath and slammed it to the ground with his shield so that he could examine it. He was a male, late-thirties, but ragged, malnourished and quite clearly in no condition to be properly alive. "Whatever he was in life, he is not as such anymore." redrawing Wrath, he quickly downward thrusts into its head to end it's miserable existence.

Not quite so savvy with the technology available, The captain watched helplessly as her remote control over Ellie's pet drones were taken over. But, they were still shooting the dead people so no one was complaining.
Once the undead horde was thinned out and Bernadette was sure no ugly undead Gulag prisoner was going to eat what was left of her flesh, she opened the cockpit and exited. Bernadette was wearing a winter great coat and her outback hat, though her cybernetic nature was very apparent. With a glowing red left eye and her pretty blonde hair only on one side, she approached and rendered a British salute with a cybernetic hand.

"Thanks for the assist, Guv'nah, though my taciturn employer won't appreciate you making a codswallop of her guns on wheels. Captain Bernadette St. Croix the name, and I am the Batman to a very much more interesting character... who owns this car I'm driving." She explained, in a most enthusiastic cockney English accent. She then drew her AA-12 Shotgun and blasted away at an undead torso than crept up on Khell.

"Buggers don't know how to stay dead!" She cursed, seeing the torso now bereft on a left arm and shoulder, and a face.

She kept the shotgun slung around her neck and hanging, ready for action. Every single body that went down around them seemed prone to getting up again. That didn't sit well with the paranoid cyborg lady. "Anyway. In case you didn't know, this place isn't going to be standing much longer. The Russians are going to bomb it to kingdom come at dawn... less than two hours away. Don't want to be here when they bring the party favors. Now... as to why we are here, my employer wishes to know why."

She fiddles with a remote control built into her arm. The main weapon of the car came alive, and fully extended. Powered up, it was aimed in Khellendros's general direction. It was a fully functional Railgun. "You're not with the Russians are you? I hope you don't mind us snooping around. I hope you really don't." She asked in a rather calm voice.

Listening to the explanation given by the quite clearly Englishwoman from the car, Khell slowly lowered his guard. It was most curious as to why the Russians would want to bomb this place, probably to contain whatever was going on here, they always had a bit of a tendency towards overreaction when they could just send in a small well-trained force to deal with the problem. "Sir, energy signature detected targeted on you." Well, that escalated pretty quickly. "No, I am most certainly not with the Russians... At the moment-but I can assure you I take no issue with you snooping around out here. Was even planning on helping you guys out once I got the explanation, so can you put the big gun behind you away? You're making me nervous." He starts to smile behind the helmet even though no one can see it. "Malys, I might have a situation here, mind coming in for a landing?" "Sure thing." When Malys lands behind Khell and looks the cyborg-warrior woman over, "Weren't you in Washington a while back?"

Bernie watched as the cyber dragon came down from the sky to join them. She actually saw her in action back in Washington. She offered her the same courtesy, seeing how well she fought. "Aye, I was, Tin Dragon, I was supporting a real Dragon Girl. Mercenary work brings us all over the world, but only my boss takes me to the nicest places." Bernie deactivated the Rail Gun, sending it back to standby mode. Once she determined that Khellendros was not obvious threat, she wasn't going to object to him poking around inside the Gulag.

She picks up the noise maker Ellie used, essentially a wireless speaker, and turns it off, plunging the cold tundra into silence. A ghoul was slowly getting up nearby, and again, she blasts it apart.

She opens a channel on her wrist to radio Ellie. "Boss, we've got company. Not undead, and not hostile. Might be going in. Warned him about the place being bombed soon."

"He's welcome to make his own way." Came a cold, mechanical reply, a voice altered by a masking device. The response was followed by a guttural growl, then suppressed gunshots, then silence. "Tell him there's still a lot of movement on the ground floor. 70 plus contacts. This Gulag must have been overcrowded when it was operational."

"Right. Well, there's the front door, Ser Black Knight. A big, dark Gulag filled with flesh eating ghouls and John Lennon knows what. I think I'll stay out here and have me some smokes, in the company of automated gun drones and some Beatles songs. Cheerio." Bernie climbed back into the cockpit, leaned back in the seat and fired up a playlist, the first song playing was 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'.

Without much further ado, the Gulag awaited.

This could be a lot of fun. "We're mercenaries by trade as well, I'll be heading inside." Turning around he gauged the third floor windows to be well within reach. "Malys, I leave the first floor to you, do not overdo it and do not bring the building down, most of the first floor should be accessible due to the large corridors." with that, he jumps to the third floor of the prison, if he can't find the average window, he'll just rip bars out of their mortaring and then make his way into the prison proper. "Oh, I almost forgot." Once Malys starts making her way into the building, out of range of the drones, he turns control of them back to Bernadette. "Drones are all yours again, good luck Ms. Bernadette."

"Yes, dad, I'll be careful" She turns around and makes her way into the forward entrance, where she is greeted by the host of undead inside. The structure is all stone, I can use Inferno without too much difficulty and at least I don't need to breathe, using up all the air in here might even help this place a bit. When they approach she unleashes her consuming fire upon them, incinerating most on contact. Tapping into the communications line that Bernadette used, "Clearing the first floor, there's going to be a lot of fire and carbon dioxide, be careful when traversing please."

Khellendros, on the third floor, "May I ask the name of the one doing this investigation? If we're going to work together we might as well know who we're dealing with. I am Khellendros if that helps, mercenary and military weapons contractor. And the floor cleaner on the first level is Malystrix, my daughter." Drawing his weapon again he begins clearing out the ghouls. Untrained and undisciplined, they quickly fall before Khell's sword like wheat before a thresher. I could do this all day wearing a blindfold, killing undead in D&D is way harder than this and I'm soloing most of them. Hearing The Beatles playing from outside, "I think I have a much more appropriate track for this to be honest, but I'll let it slide since Lennon was a great man," clicking off external audio for a moment, "Alex, put on Dead Bite, maximum volume external if you will, might as well draw some in."

"Russia!?" Dante asked, practically screaming with disbelief as he looked at Samhain from across the counter. Samhain let out a little sigh as he closed his eyes to collect himself. When his eyes opened slowly they fixated on Dante in a warning as to watch his tone. "That's not fair! I was supposed to go to movies with my friends tonight!" He said. Samhain just rolled his eyes as he stepped from around the counter, making use of his cane to gimp around and come face to face with Dante. The room to the newly established pawnshop had been decorated with the most valuable occult items in the world. Ancient texts that had long been forgotten to all magi, the glyphs and sigils of times long past. Such secrets surrounded them, but all that mattered now was the young boy, the large African gentleman in the suit, and the little corgi whom sat on the counter top like he owned the place.

  "Look lad. I know ye want to go with yer friends. But don'tcha ferget just who letcha have this life." Samhain said, his Scottish accent thick as his hazel eyes narrowed as they bore into Dante's. It was apparent that Dante was too familiar with Samhain to be intimidated, but he was not one to forget a debt. No matter how steadfast Dante was he knew this was only going to end in one way. "There'll be more dances and movies. Somethin' like this... it'll find a way to leave ye." Samhain explained before reaching out and clasping his shoulder down, shaking the obviously mad and dejected Dante with the closest thing he could show to positive affection. With a indifferent look on his face, but an anger in his eyes Dante would turn and storm off before going to his room to gather his gear. Samhain sat there and sighed as the large African man stood in the doorway with his typical disarming little smile.

  "If you wish this to be covert...should we not wake up Ulysses?" he asked calmly and softly, but such a kind and gentle voice carried itself thoroughly and clearly. Samhain popped up at the suggestion before smirking and walking over to the painting across the store from the cash register. Pressing the corner piece to the frame cause the painting to unlatch and open like a medicine cabinet. Once the painting was opened it revealed a safe that war warded and protected by magical runes of all kinds. With a wave of the hand, Samhain dispelled the runes and opened the safe, pulling from it a small Jack in the box looking device. The box looked like it was made of glass, and there was an ominous dark black liquid with a glowing purple core pulsing with light, akin to a heartbeat. Turning around the safe closed itself, the runic markings glowing once more as the painting shut.

     "Is that what I think it is?" Dante asked, not sure weather to be hopeful or scared. He had returned after having put on his regular suit and gear to be ready to move out.

  "Well nao... let's find out." Samhain said as he rotated the obsidian handle. The creepiest rendition of "Pop goes the weasel" played with an eerie slowness and the performance all around sounded sad. Almost like a neglected or torn apart child's toy. The part in the melody came where it was "the weasel thought it was all in good fun" before the pop and the lid came off. The liquid roared in a torrent as if the box itself were vomiting out the darkness, arching it upward like a water fountain and splashing it out onto the ground. The liquid void took shape and form before suddenly there was a young man, around Dante's age on his knees gasping for air and looking around. His hands reached out to grab and find his surroundings.

  "M-M-Master Samhain!?" The young man asked in a trembling and frantic voice. "D-Dante?" He called. Samhain looked to Dante who smiled widely before holding hsi hand over his eyes and turning his head.

  "Dude, put it away!" Dante laughed. The other boy jumped a little as darkness immediately formed over him and settled in as solidified clothing. "Ulysses man that's gross. Wear clothes in public!" Dante kept laughing as the other male groaned as he tried to stand to his feet, feeling around.

  "I can't help what the darkness does when you put me in that box ya dick!" The kid said as he looked around, his eyes glassed over like he had suffered some form of severe cataracts. Dante walked over and helped his friend stand up. "Where's Samhain, where's Shia?" Ulysses asked before the large African man, Shia spoke softly in response.

  "It's very good to see you again, Ulysses." He said, his tone just warm enough to convey genuine pleasure and happiness, but still soft enough to keep to his personality. The little corgi on the counter yipped until the blind Ulysses reached out and pet the little critter on the head.

  "It's been a long time, Ulysses." Samhain said, his accent catching the solemn face of the recently freed boy. The blind boy's eyes closed and a sigh escaped him. "Since the last time you've failed me I think you've learned your lesson. So now, you're going to join with Shia, Dante and this little puppy and ye head off to uncover the mystery as to WHY my client hasn't sent me my item...and then get said item. Very simply. If this works... Ye don't need to go back in the box." Samhain promised. The blind boy stiffened in response to the living hell he endured in that darkness.

   "Yes master...Where would you have us go?" He asked. Samhain only smiled.

  "Suit up lads. 'tis about get chilly." He said before snapping his fingers and sending his minions shooting across the veil and out the other end.
**************

   "This is insanity. I was put in that box when I was twelve, four years later and I can hardly stand myself up." Ulysses groaned as he tried to walk forward, stumbling a little before Dante's hand reached out and caught him to help him stand upright. Ulysses muttered a thank you with a small smirk before trying to star in a direction again.

  "We should split into teams. Corgi and Ulysses can pair up. Dante I will escort you to the the larger structure. From there you should be able to establish a connection. No?" He asked. Dante looked to Ulysses hesitantly, not sure if splitting up with one group member like this was a good idea. But Shia had a point. "Come, we don't have much time."

  "Yeah. Gimmie a sec, I'm gonna try and jack into the security feeds and see if I can keep us off of their radar when he enter in. Let's keep this as professional and quiet as we can." Dante said before  grabbing his old friend shoulder and giving it a reaffirming shake, similar to Samhain to Dante just moments earlier. With that, Dante and Shia were on their way to the fortress, taking the paths of least resistance as Ulysses heard the Corgi yip and start to trot off as he made his way towards the music playing. Ulysses closed his eyes and in a moment he sunk into the shadows and attached himself to the lone corgi that was now running to the source of the strange, but very good music.

Bernie was relaxing in the car, the temperature regulated, the tea hot, and the undead stayed dead right outside. Their guest had contacted him to ask who he was dealing with. "...Now this might come as a bit of a shocker, or not, but you'll be meeting a Red Scorpion character somewhere in there. Be polite and announce yourself. Scorpion doesn't take kindly to being snuck up on."

Now, if Khellendros thought there would be only one type of undead, he didn't play enough video games. Once the Ghouls wised up to his power, they avoided him. The Third Floor was littered with slain Ghouls, marking the path where Scorpion had been, and she left quite a few surprises on the way. Hard to spot proximity explosives marked off the many paths deeper into the complex, making a cordon to keep a majority of ghouls away from where Ellie was going. Invisible laser trip wires meant a careless man would be peppered with explosives.

The explosives in question were nail bombs (int 6), very vicious anti-infantry weapons that did minimal collateral damage to surroundings. This was only appropriate, as much of the third floor was made of wooden platforms and metal decking, the better for wardens to keep an eye on much larger prison populace.

High explosives were set up near the windows and other means of entry/egress where they could likely be encountered by Dante's group. They weren't meant to be traps, but instead set up as quick ways out. Whoever was inside of the Gulag wanted to get out quickly.

Inside one of the guard control rooms, Red Scorpion was hunched over an old looking PC set up, with the big blocky monitors and large amounts of dated electronic equipment.

GROUND FLOOR
Down on the ground floor, Malys's floor cleaning efforts did not go unnoticed. From the dark bowels of the Gulag, a large hook and chain was launched towards the robot dragon's way. It was connected to the arm of a large undead abomination whose head reached fifteen feet high. He looked to be an amalgam of dead bodies, stitched together into a single super undead being, with a vaguely human face and voice.

"Sniff Sniff. Hrn. I thought there was meat cookin'. This one's got no meat." It sniffed at Malys, a disgusting bulging eye trained on the dragon. In its other hand it carried a large meat cleaver, stained with blood and dripping a ghastly ichor. The abomination slowly lumbered into view, while trying to drag Malys to itself. The monster opened its maw to reveal a jaw filled with dozens of human jaws in place of teeth, wanting to taste the robot.

ABOMINATION: Str 8 Spd 3 Dur 8 Fs 4 Equipment: Occult 7 chain, Occult 8 Cleaver.

She hadn't been expecting the sudden attack from the shadows, heat signatures and the like were useless to track when she'd been cleansing the area with enough heat to melt some of the stonework. "I certainly do not have any meat! And what was cooking is and will continue to be your lot!" She turns and unleashes Inferno on her new opponent and his weapons and slashes at the chain with her talons, hopefully the chain would break before it became a significant hindrance.

Walking along the third floor, "Sir, there are several explosive devices laid out strategically throughout the area." Interesting. Slowing down to take a better look, he zeroed in on one of the devices. "Analyze" Looking at them himself, he already knew they were nail bombs, Nasty little buggers... What triggers you though? "Sir, there are infrared tripwires and proximity detectors on these devices with a remote override." "Perfect, have at it Alex." A few seconds later "Passage is now secure." "Good, reactivate them once we're clear of their threat range." Clicking back into the communications channel, he attempts to address the one he's looking for. "I'm temporarily disabling and then reactivating your little... Party favours, I hope you don't mind too much. What precisely is it that you are looking for anyways? I may be able to assist if I had some more info to go on." Hearing the slight lull in Malys' assault on the prison. Maybe I should have gone in through the front with her, she sounds like she's having more fun than me at least. He keeps walking further into the complex, ready for anything that might come at him from the shadows.

Dante found hmself grabbing Shia and pointing to a thin wire. The large african man noted the wire...and walked through anyway. The rubble cleared and the large man did nothing but brush some minor burns and pick out litle nails that pierced his suit and dug into his flesh a little. Shia then turned and smiled at Dante. "All clear, Sir." He said, almost teasingly. Dante smirked and rolled his eyes as he drew out The Cracker. The song of the day was none other than All Nightmare Long by Metallica. This was truly an old favorite. Quickly Dante used the cracker to pierce through the cyber defenses. There it ws his own superhuman intellect going to town. Shia had garnered quite a bit of attnetion from the exlosion. His own strength was more than enough to pretty much bitch slap the heads off of anyone who came after him. Okay, not really but he was skilled enough and strong enough to hold his own against just about anything. Dante used his superior skills to keep side-stepping out of the way in time, not taking his eyes off the cracker as he noticed the presence of another.

Dante quickly initiated an overflow of junk files and crated "honeypots" of cute fox pictures. The memes all said "What does the Fox say?" with the caption "Imma pwn you son!" at the bottom. Anyone trying to take out any data was instantly losing their time to an influx of fox pictures. Meanwhile Dante began to trace this other source. Whomever decided this was a good place to try and take information from was in for a rude awakening when the cracker locked onto the device it was downloading information to and pulling it up on GPS. With that done Dante clicked his tongue and began heading off.

*****
Nearing Khell
*****

The little corgi was on it's way, showing quite the talent of grace as it managed to somehow go completely untouched as it made it's way through the masses of enemies at semi-impressive speeds. It broek away from the main group of Dante and Shia (Marionette still hiding in the corgi's shadow). It wasn't until it turned the corner and saw a large, hulking thin in black armor. The little Corgi yipped at him. If the man tried to slice him, which the little Corgi hoped not, it would likely roll to the side, like a playful little pup before it's tongue lolled out and it yipped a little. Cute little puppies can't be left alone...can they? If they really could deny this young, little puppy's face then there was something seriously wrong with these two. The stumpy legged mutt's ears went back and it's muzzle turned to a smile as it's eyes narrowed in complacency, looking about as it panted.

KHELL
As Khellendros neared the guard station, he'd get a view on the big boxy screen beside where Scorpion sat. The video playing on the screen was connected to a VHS player and showed the infirmary where a nurse had locked herself in and barricaded the door... she said a few things about enduring the horrors of hell itself come to earth, then put herself on life support then an induced coma.

Scorpion only answered Khellendros's approach once he'd passed under her. In complete silence she descended from the ceiling rafters and snuck up on him. "I'm here to retrieve the nurse. She's one of my people and she'll likely know about what caused the outbreak. Why are you here, really? This gulag is slated for bombing in an hour or so. humor me." Yeah, Scorpion had poor social skills. Also, the Scorpion in the guard room was a hologram.

MALYS
"BLEAARHGH!" The Abomination felt no pain even as its corpulent form was ignited. Now it was a flaming Abomination of flesh trying to destroy Malys, pulling her even closer with unholy strength, swinging its cleaver down to chop her up. Otherworldly energies infused his weapons with profane strength, the souls of all his victims and of the bodies that made him up making an unholy sound.

DANTE
Dante would be in for an unpleasant surprise as the Gulag was some pre-internet and pre-electronics hell hole from the past. Equipment was from the distant era of cassette tapes, large vacuum tube machines, bulky radio sets, black and white surveillance on, gasp, VHS tapes, wired intercoms, type writers and... paper.
The Scorpion turned her attention briefly to the corgi. Ellie was in fact, inured to cute little critters, and a corgi's appearance in an undead infested hell hole only raised questions than answers. She waited and watched what it would do, and seeing it behave normally, she decided to use a small amount of non-toxic foam-crete and applied a meat flavoring agent (Ellie is that prepared) to form a squishy ball / chew toy and tossed it the Corgi's way.

Getting closer to the guard room, Khellendros noticed the person sitting at the station and began his final approach before, "Sir, heat signature detected above current location." "Fascinating, scan the room ahead, any signatures detected?" "None sir, and there is a smaller entity approaching from the direction which we came from." "Thank you Alex." Might as well keep a few tricks to myself, no point in giving any advantages to an unknown who doesn't have the courtesy to greet me in a civil manner. He walks forward until he hears the yip of a dog behind him and the subsequent statement and question from this... Red Scorpion, Is that a dog? What is it doing here? He turns around and turns his incredulous gaze upon the dog and the girl's makeshift play toy before saying, "That has got to be the strangest thing to find prancing around such a place." Turning to Scorpion, "To answer your question. We, Malys and I, were on our way back from a job when we saw that rather interesting car tearing through the village outside and got curious. As far as the Russians bombing this place back to the stone age goes, it's their property and they can do as they please. And truthfully I'm just lending my aid because why the hell not? And we are more than interested in what could possibly be doing this." He walks over to the corgi and kneels down to pat it on the head and pets it a little, "How did you get in here past all the scary corpses little one?"

Meanwhile, Malys was having such a good time fighting the abomination in the main hall. Cheeky little shit, I wonder how much heat you can handle before you're a charred heap on the ground? Having been dragged into striking range, it swung it's cleaver at her. Tapping into the open comms channel to reach whoever was in range to hear it, "Khell, I think I may need some assistance on the first floor, I have a very large and angry monstrosity trying to slice me up and it is quite... Resilient." As the weapon descended, Malys only had so many options and since disengaging from the chain wasn't one she could do at the moment she had only one option readily available to her, use her available skills and attack! She slams a clawed talon into the side of the blade to try and knock it off target to decrease the damage it could inflict and continued her fiery onslaught on her opponent and the chain between them. She will then attempt to slam her opponent off-balance with her tail while trying to disengage the hooked chain from herself.

The corgi took notice of the foam ball and blinked as the smell of nice salty meat started to cause it's mouth to water. It began to sniff the air in the direction of the ball before blinking. The temptation was so there. He totally just wanted to go to town on that thing, but he knew if there had been a random foam ball, he'd have to play along. Even though he knew there was likely an assailant. There is someone in my shadows. Beware. Ulysses warned the little corgi. It simply sauntered up, for the little ball and put it in it's mouth. Ulyssess waited for the person to reveal themselves, contemplating blocking them off with a wall of shadow, but waiting to see what they did first. No, he would not make a wall. Instead he would alert the corgi and they could pursue and confront this suited individual together.  Ulysses' spread whispers through the shadows to reach Dante's and Shia's ears.

  "What vexes you?" Shia asked Dante as his eyes twitched. Shia threw an arm out and took the head off a rampaging undead. "You look as if you've been struck with irritation." He added in, unsure if he had been clear.

 "I don't know how we did it. We came form a world with no electricity, without internet and ever since we've gotten here I've been so dependent on it.... uuugh it's totally annoying." Dante growled as he realized there was nothing worth hacking in the nearby area. He rubbing his eyes and thought back to his homeland. Cows, horses and a ton of magic. Science was the first thing he ever excelled at, and he was in an element where that was minimized. It looks like the Fox wasn't going to be as useful as he thought. "Woah, what's with that!" Dante said as he got a huge reading on the Cracker. Apparently something was not too far beneath them.

  "Dante?" the large man asked as he saw Dante's eyes widen slightly.
"Put a hole in the floor. There's quite a few BIG things beneath us. Gotta get down there. Go." Dante said. Shia immediately indulged Dante, punching into the ground and causing both him and Dante to fall through and land in the middle of a titanic struggle between an abomination and a dragon. Dante had seen Dragon's before, he lived in an area near a lot of them. This one was probably the most beautiful one he'd ever seen. His two favorite things in one piece. Technology and Dragons. Hell yeah!

"Help the Dragon!"
"What if it's the reason this all-"
"Yeah, cool story Shia, now help the Dragon!" Dante said as he pulled out his pen, pressing the button to transform it into a pair of ballistic combat claws with a chain attached to them. Shia shook his head as Dante threw the claws at the abomination's feet, then ripping at the chord, hoping to get some extra damage.