"Is this really the time for this, Jolly?" Billy asked. "We haven't found anything important at the last two places."
The elf Partial was holding his hand up in the air as a dome of cloud stuff kept the bulk of the rain and all the wind at bay. Whatever wasn't being redirected by his magic, Jolene was wicking away into fanciful throwing knives of ice to keep them dry. Billy shivered, remembering the accuracy training the woman had been undergoing since her run at the Mage Dance in the Hog Parade. Even with his growing control over
"True, but what we've been looking at has been a longshot until we got the information Sam and Danny discovered. Well, I think it would be more apt to say they dove right through the red-handed culprits and some clues stuck to their clothes, but you get what I mean," Jolene said, flicking a pair of icy blades into the packed earth when her hands got full.
"I guess that's my point. Do you think they will be okay without us there?" Billy glanced over his shoulder, his will parting a section of the cloud dome around them.
The hurricane was just visible in the horizon and a call for sheltering of all non-essential personnel and civilians had been put out by the Zebelos. Even as they made their way north from the Embassy, a team of Cloth Muscles with an elf in their ranks was blaring the warning on repeat with
Thankfully, Jolene was an old hand at circumventing patrols and authority figures; a vestige of her more rebellious time in Wildwood. When her first love had passed away, the auburn haired mermaid's priorities had shifted significantly. Now she was powerful enough to be able to ignore the patrols, but she gave them the courtesy of diplomacy as they continued north.
"There are very few things that would make me worry about those two," Jolene said. Billy knew she meant the two Bunkerites. "And you throw Devon, April and those two Tendrils and things are leaning very much in their favor."
"Right. Anthony and Hec are watching them over too," Billy said, relaxing slightly. The rotation of his Djinn Legs slowing noticeably as the burden on his mind lessened. They sped back up slightly when he thought about Master Terrigan, but the man was as immovable as one of the fabled mountains to the north of Florida.
"Nothing to worry about," Jolene said, giving the young elf a dazzling smile before glancing off to the side to check her Implant's map. They still call it an LPS, but that's so cumbersome. It's just a minimap! Jolene had long abandoned the argument with the Bunkerites, but it didn't stop her rolling her eyes when they mentioned it. "Should be just around this warehouse."
April, after having learned of Jolene and Billy's efforts, had given them directions to the long term storage locale the Zebelos used. It was pretty much as far north as the Faction's territory went, which also meant it was as far north as the populated region of Ocala went along that border. They passed the mostly abandoned warehouse that once housed a vehicle parts distribution center before farmland stretched out before them. Big swaths of it were destroyed or flooded thanks to the hurricane bearing down on the city, but most of it looked to be holding.
At the edge of the field stood a lone Crystal Ward, its cobbled together tower a little less cobbled than the others within the city. The base of it was on an old bottling plant, which had seemingly inspired whoever had built it to shape it like... a bottle. Wide base around the height of the pre-Fall building, before necking at the waist, swelling and then tapering to the top where the Metier Crystal shone bright even during the storm. Several thin columns were visible even from their vantage point to hold up the wider middle floor of the tower while giving the illusion of a bottle. That dude would get along great with Ron.
Jolene chuckled to herself, getting an old look from Billy. "Don't worry about it. Just thinking of Ronan."
"True. He'd probably appreciate that design!" Billy said, eyes lighting up as he took the lead towards the Ward.
The mermaid shook her head, speeding up slightly so as to remain in the range of his Gift. She hadn't known Billy other than in passing before Ronan had saved him, but she didn't recall the boy being quite so exuberant before. As a matter of fact, all the youths of Wildwood had seemingly become more forward overnight since the Bunkerites had crashed the dystopian reality they lived in. A positive change, to say the least, but one of the more subtle ones Jolene had managed to put her finger on. She was brought out of her musings when Billy paused, tilting his head to the side as he looked to the northwest.
"What's up?"
"Big fire over there," the youth said, parting his dome and pointing to the distance. Jolene squinted, even clearing her eyes with her nictitating membrane to try to pick out what the elf was seeing. Of course, everything just looked like various shades of grey and white thanks to the storm, but she took his word for it.
"Probably a fire due to all the lightning. I remember Sarah used to take care of those during the rainy season back in Wildwood," Jolene said.
"Oh yeah! She'd used those big fire hand things of hers to burn the fire out before it could spread!" Billy said, snapping his fingers at the memory.
"Right. Who knows how many of those there are out there without their own Councilwoman firefighter."
"Hmmm." Billy only sounded partly convinced, but he didn't say anything more as they were hailed by a lizardwoman standing in the wide middle section of the Crystal Ward.
"What are you two doing here!?" she called, confused and worried at the same time. "We got word the shelter order went out!"
"We are here with permission from Il Padre!" Jolene said, flashing a red and grey banner that marked them as allies of the Zebelos Family.
It wasn't verification that Radolfo himself had sent them, especially considering the simple two toned banner could be easily faked, but it would allow them to meet face to face without catching some magic to the face in the process. Not that she thought the Cloth Muscles would be able to harm either of them, but it was an unnecessary effort; they would be recognized from the Hog Parade. The lizardwoman spoke into the tower, glancing briefly in the duo’s direction before heading inside herself.
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"She is not happy right now," Billy provided. His pointed ears were twitching as he snooped on whatever conversation was going on. "Something about already getting the short end of the stick for being on call when the storm arrives and not wanting to deal with foolhardy weirdos."
"How quaint," Jolene said, her eyebrow twitching before she could get herself under control. She did not like being called names, especially ones she didn't even remotely fit. "I can definitely understand why Ron likes to make big statements."
"It's so cool, right? You'd think he would care about what people say but he just does what he thinks is right anyways!" Billy said. Oh, Ron. If only you knew just how much he looks up to you. As endearing as Billy's words were, Jolene had to scold her expression when the lizardwoman and an orc opened a heavy metal door that had been set into the base of the tower where it connected with the old bottling plant.
"You didn't come to this Ward before, did you?"
"No. I was too busy with the ones already in town. A dozen doesn't sound like a lot, but Hec was lonely and each version of him was slightly different from the others until they linked up. He was doing much better after that last one, actually!"
Jolene hadn't had the opportunity to speak with the Hidden Entity Cluster, even with it taking center position in the Embassy, but she vowed to correct that. Ron had shown how a simple hand extended could make a difference. She knew she had to be better about caring for those outside her inner circle. The lizardwoman... maybe only a finger.
"Hello," Jolene said diplomatically, hands folded in front of her. Billy waved, manipulating his dome of cloud stuff into more of an awning to cover them and the pair that approached them in the rain.
"You two really shouldn't be out here," the lizardwoman repeated.
"Astrid, there's no need to be so rude. Don't you recognize them?" the orc huffed. "They are from those folks down south."
"We are part of the Bunker Busters, yes. My name is Jolene and this is William. I'm happy to hear word of our home has spread," Jolene said, giving the man a slight smile before turning to the lizardwoman, Astrid.
"I'm Throk, pleased to meet you. Now, rudeness aside, she isn't totally wrong. It isn't exactly safe and it's not just because of the elementals. Critters have been poking at our defenses quite a bit for the last few days. We never know when one of the true beasties will show up."
"We can handle ourselves, sir!" Billy said, pulling himself up on his immaterial legs.
"Indeed," Jolene said. "We've come hoping to pick through the Zebelos Archive. April De'Zebelos sent us, but Il Padre gave William here full clearance to enter any Crystal Ward at need. Both coincided so, here we are."
"Why would you want to look through a bunch of dusty old papers?" Astrid said, her scaly face curling in distaste. Now I know she would not get along with Dai for sure.
"It is kind of boring," Billy admitted, but his enthusiasm was hard to beat back. "But! There is all kind of important information in there. Did you know, there have been exactly four cullings of cattle herds since the Fall because they gained Refinements that made them too acidic? Samuel said it was probably a magical evolutionary adaptation to being used as cattle by the--"
"Yes, yes, boring almanac type information. Got it. As long as you don't get in the way of our Spool I don't care how much dust you stir up," Astrid said, dismissing the pair and heading towards the tower without another word.
"Friendly, too," Jolene said flatly, aggravated on Billy's behalf. As dry an effort as sifting through hundreds of statistics and pseudo-newspapers from the Nash and the pre-Faction era of Ocala records had been, the elf had made it bearable by sharing any interesting tidbits he found. His retelling getting cut off had mana curling around her Gator Gauntlet and her eyes narrowed on Astrid's back. Apparently, Throk noticed because he slid between the two of them and chuckled awkwardly.
"Please, don't hold it against her. She's got a young one at home and now she's stuck here until the hurricane all-clear sounds out. It's been a stressful few days," the orc said, hands raised to try to placate the irritated mermaid.
"It's alright, Jolly," Billy said through the comm-plant. "Her loss if she doesn't want to know to watch out for what color of meat marbling could give her instant ulcers."
The thought brought a smile to her face, her azure mana retreating into her body at the same time Throk's shoulders dropped in relief. "Thank you."
"You aren't responsible for others, but it's a good trait in your companions; she's lucky. Now, we do know it's boring but there is some information we might find in the archives. Can we see them?"
"Yeah, follow me. It's not like they are under lock and key. We just don't let random people take a look at them lest they get damaged. At least you two aren't dracos. Last one in here almost toasted a whole section because she sneezed too hard."
The orc led them through the metal double doors and past a cafeteria-looking set up. He retrieved two of the slime goo lanterns the Wildwoodians had seen the Cloth Muscles use before from hooks on the wall before taking them down a long corridor that connected into the old bottling plant itself. Seeing the industrial, sterile architecture from the old world was fascinating, and several of the rusted bits of equipment once used in the building were still laying around the pathway. When they entered the main floor of the plant, they were surprised to see it looked mostly untouched, structurally speaking. The lights from the lanterns cast everything in gloomy shadows, but it didn't detract from the feeling of 'industry' that was so common in the things of the old world.
"Cool, huh? Il Padre tried to keep places like this as pristine as he could. Something about preserving history. He doesn't spend too many resources doing that, especially if a hurricane or some of the early fighting wrecked the building, but untouched places like this he tries to keep 'frozen in time' as he says."
"This is cool! Now I really want to check out the Bunker Ron and the others came from," Billy said, his legs turning into one trailing cloud while he hovered closer to the silent conveyor belts and tanks that made up the plant’s main floor. Many empty plastic bottles were even still paused at the beginning of their hydration journey, waiting to be filled and capped, right on the line.
Throk chuckled at Billy's honest curiosity, waving over his shoulder towards a room with a wide spanning set of plexiglass windows clouded by age and grime. "This is you guys." The orc pulled the squeaky door open, revealing at least three dozen filing cabinets and three desks spread through the room. Everything had a layer of dust as thick as her nail except for the closest desk and filing cabinet. The orc placed both lanterns on the desk, excused himself, told them if they needed anything to go and call for him at the mess hall, and headed back the way he'd come. A snap of his finger lit a small fire on his palm that he used to light the way.
"Well, this looks like it will be... intellectually engaging," Jolene said, sighing. She pulled a short twine from her wrist and tied up her hair out of the way. "Let's recap. Alcohol, alcohol distribution, anything to do with the Tendrils and anything to do with the Crafters sickness thing. That sound about right?"
"Don't forget Partials," Billy said, having nodded along with every statement. The elf paused for a second, glancing at his legs before setting his shoulders. "That corrupting ritual is what made me like this. Probably that cook Daniela mentioned too. Who knows how many people more."
Jolene gave him a soft smile before handing him one of the lanterns. "You got a preference?"
"I'll take the back. Do some light dusting while I walk over there anyway."
Jolene chuckled, watching as the youth did just that with the help of his clouds and Djinn legs acting as weak vacuums just by being present. His other suction alternatives... would likely wreck the room. The mermaid was glad he'd stuck with simple. Leaving the elf to his search, Jolene got down to trying to figure out what sort of system the Zebelos archives used in the hopes of facilitating their search. She didn't expect it would be quick.