Home

Dewey slips his way past his parents’ room, noting how neither of them even noticed he’s awake since his mother is too busy poring over the documents of her current court case and his father is similarly wrapped up writing an article of some sort. As he makes his way to the front door he takes out his Soul Key, holding it out. Mareena’s remark about coming to the park transformed doesn’t make any sense, unless…

Aron

Move to Vitcity


Karl

Move to Mall


Nora

You fly towards the park, a bit worried that you still haven't heard anything from Alice.  But you're sure she got home safe.  Maybe the fog is interfering with cell signals, or maybe she's silenced her phone so it doesn't attract monsters?  She could also still be asleep or something...

In your distraction, you almost don't notice the sound of wingbeats until the monsters are on top of you.  Another figure goes flying past you, a blur in the fog.  You don't see any wings, and it's moving with incredible dexterity, stopping on a dime and twirling around.  A purple glow emanates from its hand, and you hear the other wingbeats stop, followed by the figures of some monsters flopping to the ground with a series of thuds.  The figure with the purple glow disappears back into the fog as fast as it appeared.


Dewey

You transform and start making your way towards the park, careful to avoid any monsters lurking in wait while you're on your own like this.  You hear something that sounds like a beast - no, multiple beasts running your way.  You quietly duck into a more defensible position, hoping they'll pass by.  You hear another sound behind them, which sounds familiar.  Something like roller skates, closing fast behind the beasts.  A skidding noise and something snapping loudly, slamming sounds, and a loud crash, followed by the shriek of monsters.  The skating sound disappears into the distance as quickly as it came, moving away from the park.


Tai

You set out for Natsumi's house, unsure whether you're stopping at Mattea's first or not.  You don't hear back from her, so you head on to Natsumi's house.


Leia

You get a message back from Buttons.  "Very well."

You set out for Natsumi's house, but don't hear back from her.


Tai, Leia

You manage to make your way though the for to Natsumi's house, avoiding the shifting figures in the fog and ignoring the distant thuds and rumbles.  Outside, it's a lot more clear that you're not imagining any of it.  You can hear whispering, sliding, and grinding coming from the fog.  In the distance, you hear the loud whirring of some kind of machinery.  A whirring, ripping sound.  As you approach Natsumi's house, a distant, bright jet of flame rips through the fog.  You hear the screeching of monsters and see some running about, engulfed in flame, before one of them is launched by an unseen force and flies past you.  Laughter rings out in the direction of whatever ignited that flame, and you see a demonic, red face glowing faintly before it turns and disappears into the fog.

There's still no response from Natsumi, but her front door is locked.

Buttons arrives just after the face - maybe it also had a body, hard to say - disappeared.  "Hey, you seeing all this?" he asks.  "I ran into some weird... stuff on the way here."

Floyd

You mount your horse and get moving to the park.  You can hear monsters moving through the mists while you ride, and the sounds of fighting.  You hear the sound of something loud thudding - not the distant whatever-it-is, something much closer and very metallic.  A large ball comes flying out of the mist, far enough you don't need to avoid it but close enough to startle you, before the chain it's attached to goes taut and sends it flying back around.  From the sound, you can assume a monster wasn't so lucky.

Move to Park


Nora, Dewey

You continue on, now watching out a lot more carefully for any monsters.  The rest of the trip is mostly uneventful, other than it being way harder to find the stupid park than usual.

Move to Park


Tai, Leia

"Yo, stop!" Buttons yells. "Would you two chill for, like, half a minute?  Why are you freaking out?  If the door's locked, she either already left or she's still asleep or something.  Maybe she silenced her phone so she can sneak around better, or maybe she's still sick."  Buttons rummages around in his pocket.  "Anyway, her pops gamme a key a few years ago, I ain't had to... ahem. I have not had cause to use it in years, but it should still work."

Buttons sticks in the key and pops the lock, pushing the door open.  "Natty? Mr. Tsuki?  You here?"

After a few moments of investigating, you find a few things.  No one's home. There's no sign of anyone breaking in - or out - so she probably didn't get eaten by a monster or anything. Her bed's not carefully made - Buttons assures you that's weird - so she probably left in a hurry.

"Where'd you go, Nat...?"

Leia, Tai

"Yeah, sure..." Buttons mutters. "I'm gonna call Kiran and see if he's at the park yet. Maybe Nat's there."

He takes out his phone and dials it. "Hey, Kiran. You at the park yet? Is Nat with you? Shark girl... Oh, yeah, Somnis. And Mareena? Wait, robots? Giant bird, you don't mean Hinoh? Shit. OK. You said Nat was fine when you came by to drop off her homework, yeah? Jeez, sounds like she was sicker than I thought. She didn't have to go to the hospital or something did she? Huh? Yeah, I heard her. OK, whatever. Hold on. Hey, Mareena has something to say." He taps at the phone and Mareena's voice comes through.

"Hello! Good morning. Well, morning anyway. We're waiting for some others to arrive, so please be patient. But we do need to fix this problem before the portals open again at midnight and a bunch more monsters come out, 'K? So I called everyone. Everyone."