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p o p p e t ♥
a whisper in the wind

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#51
Old 08-10-2014, 03:56 PM

((Great posts guys! Keep up the fabulous work!))

Ella was running in darkness. How do cave people even see down here!? she wondered. They certainly hadn't been carrying flashlights, just lingering in the darkness, somehow knowing where to and where not to go. She heard a whisper of her name and suddenly something grabbed her and Ellie let out a startled scream.

This time it was much quieter, already having realized that it was Alex before she could stop it. "Alex!" she said, greatly relieved. "Oh Alex, I fell into a trapdoor and lost my torch and then there were cave people. There are cave people down here!" She was desperately trying to tell him that they were in the company of creepy creatures, when he said what was already on her mind. It was time to go.

The footsteps echoed all around. Outlines moving in the darkness, barely illuminated by Alex's flashlight. And where in the caves were they even at? Well, they were nearer to the Yoga Studio now then they might have thought. If they found their way back to the storage room where Ellie had initially found merely a costume of a cave person, they'd also find another trapdoor, or wall, if you will.

Suddenly, something wrapped around Ellie's ankle. It was a cold clammy hand, attached to a cave person! "Get out," it hissed, working its way up Ellie's leg. The strawberry-haired girl shrieked again, trying to fling herself away from the thing. "Alex!" she wailed in horror, grasping desperately for him.


((I totally imagine them running through caves like they do in all the shows, in one, out another, randomly splitting up and being followed by the cave people, sometimes chasing them by accident. XD))

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#52
Old 08-10-2014, 06:05 PM

Allan had eventually moved back to be behind Sarah and was ready to watch the footage over her shoulder. He squinted at the screen and tried to see what she could, but his depth perception worked much better on things that weren't 2D and grainy. When she blew the image up he could see it, too. "Is that thing... glowing?" Whatever the things was, its looks definitely put it on the creepier scale of villains they've encountered. 'I hope no one else runs into these,' he thought, knowing someone would anyway. There was a bit of a repetitive pattern in their group, but there was also a comfort in knowing that their "monsters" were just people. The only thing that really put off Allan was wondering when they would have their first violent encounter. Some people are crazy. His mother made sure he knew that every day.

He didn't look at Sarah, wanting to see instead how long the footage was looped for, and rubbed his chin. "It knew where the cameras were. Inside job?" He pulled up a chair to her left. "Time to see if any of the other cameras are looped, or if they found a different way out." Suddenly there was a knock on the door. "Though we may wanna hurry up..." Allan could see May waving through the cracked blinds. "A certain someone might be back soon, and last time we were here he threatened to boot the van."

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#53
Old 08-10-2014, 06:43 PM

"We can get out of here right now and pretend we watched them on TV, while they are actually copied on my HD where we can watch them again at any time. I won't tell, if you don't," Sarah said with hint of humor in her voice at the last sentence, although her expression remained serious. As surprising as it may seem, she wasn't above a little bit of cheating and false truth when it came to solving cases. In fact, she thought that being able to adjust situations so they benefited them came with good detective skills.

If he didn't disagree, the girl hurriedly unplugged the adapter and hid in her bag, turning TV on and fast forwarding it to be in middle of one of the tapes as if they had been watching it there all the while. Few more minutes, and all the other recordings were lined up neatly in two piles - the ones they had 'watched' and the ones they hadn't yet, one still in VHS that was now turned off. "Let's go," the girl spoke, putting bag on her shoulder with all her belongings in it. Stopping by deputy's desk she gave him slight smile and thanked the man, saying that they hadn't had time to go through all, but even so it had been very helpful and the gang appreciated it. It was said in quiet, soft voice as always, but perhaps because of that seemed even more sincere. And it was - after all, it didn't matter where or how they watched the tapes, as long as they got the chance to do it.

As they headed for the van, Sarah was frowning and chewing on inside of her cheek. "Would you mind swinging by the yoga studio on cliff side now?" she asked Allan, glancing at him before they got in the vehicle. When she requested something, it usually meant she had an idea, a hunch if you will. But in typical Sarah-manner, she wouldn't really speak about it until she was sure she was right and there could be no doubts about it. Still, if he inquired, the girl would try to vaguely explain her idea. It'd even be good, to hear his opinion.

This time, she sat in the back of van in the 'spy' part, transferring the videos from her laptop to the computer built in there. While the files were copying, the girl took out her phone and glanced at it, considering calling Ella to hear if they've found out what she thought Alex and Ellie had, but figured that soon they would know for sure and placed phone back in pocket. Sometimes, it wasn't safe to call her friends while they were investigating - what if the somewhat ditzy red head had forgotten to put it on vibrate and chirpy ringtone would alert the monsters, or rather, perps of her presence? Sarah couldn't risk her friend getting in trouble.

Ever_After
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#54
Old 08-11-2014, 04:36 AM

Her blood turned to ice even as her heart pounded in her ears. Still in the mixed state of shock and fear the adrenaline that normally poured through her on cases just wasn't cutting it. The thing was advancing at a rate one would expect from something with four legs. Matty's command of running was what finally kicked her legs into gear. She had barley turned when she felt the thing shifting the air behind her.

In a move that still wasn't beaten out of her after years of doing this Jo turned to face the monster breathing down her neck. It was right there and oh wow it was way scarier up close. A scream got caught in her throat as a blur of black cut across the ground in her peripheral vision. Oobis.Taking the moment to pull herself together she sent a panicked look at Matty. This was bad.

They had to get Oobis away from that thing and get out of there. Opening her mouth to tell Matty just that the high pitched noise that came out of his mouth drew her up short. Any other time and she would have busted out laughing. Following his line of sight blue eyes locked on the one of the pair of very much not normal animal eyes hiding in the bush.

"Yeah running was a good idea." looking back over at the black cat running circles around the ghoul she called out. "There's more of them we've got to get out of here."


Turning to run Jo reached out to give Mattys arm a quick tug just to mack sure he was following her.
They would come back with Alex and...Alex and Ella. oh what if these things were the reason Oobis had heard their friend's scream. " Oobis can you take us to where you think you hear Ella scream?"

Cows Go Moo
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#55
Old 08-12-2014, 05:29 AM

Relieved as Alexander was for Ella’s safety, the feeling was short-lived as another creature attached itself around Ella’s ankle, hissing the same “get out” that was hurled toward Alex.

“Get off of her!”

Without a second thought Alex had given the cave-person a hard kick to what he thought to be its wrist and grabbed her hand. He rarely became too violent (preferring to entrap his foes), but when it came to his friends (or his pride) he wasn’t afraid to use his fists or feet to make a point. Ella, in particular, had seen some of his less proud moments when he duked it out with some of their past enemies as well as treated a few of his bruises and cuts whenever he became too banged up to go home. In this case however, these monsters were faster than they were strong.

“We need-“ he looked around for a second before leading her down a random pathway “-to find a way out of here. Do you think there’s a way to get up the mountain? If my hunch is correct, we might be able to find a door to the outside.”

Between all their conversation they were still trying to avoid the ghouls, but hopefully they would be able to shake them off with these last few turns.


Quote:
OOC: Our last few posts visualized

Last edited by Cows Go Moo; 08-12-2014 at 05:42 AM..

Penella Goldeater
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#56
Old 08-13-2014, 07:10 AM

The ghoul chasing Oobis, couldn't seem to turn very well. It lumbered after the cat as best it could but nearly toppled over on the quick turns. The ghouls in the bushes burst forth into the half empty tractor yard. Oobis darted straight in between them, into the thicket of shrubbery and called out from deep within the greenery. These bushes are new, the dirt's all turned up and there's little yellow tages on some of them. The fence is cut away and...

A muffled oof was all they heard.

Mathias did the math and didn'ta like it. Three ghouls, two humans and a cat missing in action... Oobis. What had happened to him?? They had to get to those bushes. The ghouls were pretty well surrounding them. Matty turned to Joleen and tried to sound brave. Even, cocky. It was all bluster of course but he tried: Hey, Jo. Remember the football players that tried to pick on me in highschool? I learned a lot from them. Get to the bushes, I'll be there soon.

He took off, running full out. Wide and away from the nearest ghoul and terribly close to the other two, then he swooped around in a half circle. The two ghouls nearest the bushes grabbed at him, missed and bumped into each other. They were mad now. Matty took off running back to the first ghoul, hoping, when they untangled themselves, they would be mad enough to follow Matty. Leaving Jo free to cover the distance across the tractor yard. To the bushes

...

Meanwhile Oobis had run into a tire. There were lots of them. Eighteen of them, attached to some sort of truck. This wasn't a tractor thingy but a tractor thingy could be driven up onto the back of the truck. Maybe. Oobis didn't have much mind for machines but there was a ramp just like the one in his kitty palace back at Matty's apartment. The ramp made it easy for Oobis to get to the second floor of his cat house. The ramp could make it easier for a tractor to be put on a truck.

There was sort of a road here. Or there was now that this truck had driven through a bunch of times. Oobis started to call out to his friends but thought better of it. He would draw the attention of the ghouls too and they did NOT want them back here. The cat was sure of that. He crept onto the back of the truck and laid low. Listening.

p o p p e t ♥
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#57
Old 08-13-2014, 08:22 PM

((Hahaha! I LOVE that Moo! ))

Her leg was free from those cold clammy fingers. Alex grabbed her hand and then they were running. He couldn't see Ellie while pulling her along, but she was staring at him dreamily with half lidded sky blue eyes. Her hunky hero...

Wait, wasn't this the path she'd come down? "I can't really tell," she said, snapping out of it. "But if we're where I think we are, there should be a storage room up ahead," she spoke loudly as they ran so he could hear her. And Ellie was right. Just up this narrow passage was a storage room. It had a door that they could close behind them, and inside there would be an extra creepy cave person costume, along with boxes of yoga equipment.

Inside the storage room, Ellie put her back against a wall to catch her breath. Sure, she was in shape. She did yoga and pilates with the best of them. But she was not one for cardio... running, jogging, not her thing. The most running Ellie ever did, was when she was running from masked psychos. She supposed that was a good enough reason as any. Who wouldn't run from a psycho in a mask who was angry at you? Or to a sale. Ellie supposed she ran sometimes then, too.

"Oh," she suddenly said, pulling her phone from the waist of her skirt. She pressed a button on the side, and it lit up. "I don't know why I didn't think of this before," she said, with more cheer than anyone hiding from cave people should have. Who wouldn't be cheerful locked in a room with Alex though, she wondered.

Ellie shined the light around the room. "Look," she said, shining the light on a yoga label. "These boxes have yoga supplies in them." She pulled the top open on one of them, but inside wasn't yoga equipment at all. It looked like digging, and mining supplies and hard hats and things of that nature.

Off in the corner, sat the extra costume still. Its eyes caught the light of Ellie's phone and gleamed out of the darkness. Ellie jumped and shrieked. "There's a cave person!" she said, pointing her light and a finger into the corner. It didn't move though. If they examined it, they'd find that the costume was made of a flexible material with rubber on the hands. The glowing eyes were caused by the built in night vision goggles.


((There's a trap door in there that leads to a set of stairs that will bring them into the yoga studio's basement. In there, they should find newspaper clippings of various mining criminals, as well as a letter from the bank to the Yoga Studio informing them that they were bankrupt. You don't have to get that far yet, they can explore the storage room for a minute, I just wanted you to know, Moo so you'd have options. :)))

Cows Go Moo
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#58
Old 08-14-2014, 09:06 PM

Alex nodded at her answer, continuing to head toward the storage room. They weren't being chased anymore, having lost them somewhere between the third round of the reverse chase that often happened when they were trying to outmaneuver their enemies. Usually everyone ended up in one piece, but there were a few times that were too close for comfort...as evidenced by the small tear on Ella's skirt. If she wasn't careful the entire thing would split in half. He shook his head to get rid of the thought as the flashlight revealed the cavern ahead.

"Alright I think I see it!"

He glanced over at Ella who was obviously winded from all the running and mentally sighed, debating whether or not to start everyone on a training regimen. Of everyone, only he and Joleen were actual athletes whereas the rest of them were more about maintenance and solving mysteries. He couldn't blame them of course, but he needed everyone in tip top shape if they were to catch these glowing freaks And speaking of glowing freaks, he had found a pair of goggles atop a box labeled "yoga mats." He put on the goggles and flicked a few of the switches, half-listening to his partner in crime (solving) before realizing that they were for night vision.

Maybe I should take one of these. Then I can pretend to be one of those crawlers, he jested as he pried the boxes open.

"These aren't yoga supplies Ells."

Instead of yoga mats there were wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, and other mechanical doodads that would have been perfect for hot-wiring cars. He of course, pilfered one of the pliers, but it would be for "investigative purposes" if anyone asked. It wasn't often you came across a Heckel & Klein v20 Cutter. Those babies were worth a fortune! Actually, all the mechanical tools were worth a pretty penny, enough so that Alexander had to hold himself back from taking anything else. He'd simply settle with taking pictures of the evidence.

Continuing pry into other boxes, he took a few more pictures of the hard hats, pickaxes, and even jumpsuits of all things. Feeling along the wall for anything undetectable with his newly acquired night vision he gestured for Ella to come over.

"Forget the costume, I think there might be a door here," he admits, trying to find an irregular notch or bump in the wall.

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#59
Old 08-15-2014, 04:11 AM

If she hadn't grown up with him she might have been fooled as it stood everyone in the group had a hard time keeping things from each other. Still Jo let it slide pushing her own fear back, there was work to do and they had faced scarier things then cave people."Be careful."

Staring at the two ghouls Joleen pulled the elastc band out of her hair before twisting it back up into a messy bun. Waiting for Matty to clear the two struggling ghouls, digging her foot into the ground when one of the ghouls made a swipe at him, she took off as son as the two scrambled after her tall friend. The gravel was looser in this area and it made running a tad bit harder.

The bushes were to tall to clear with a jump and there didn't appear to be much space between the over grown shrubbery and the chain link fence. Glancing over to see Matty till dealing with the ghouls- how did he learn that football players?! shaing the thought out of her head Jo crouched down shinning her flashlight into the small opening int he bush the things had made. "Oobis...Oobis are you in there?"
shuffling a little further in she rolled the light around trying to catch a glimpse of black fur.

Sliding her camera into the waist band of her tights Jo went over all the reasons she was going to hate this. The top of the list was she was ninety percent sure that she was going to come out the other side with spider caught in her hair. Sill she had to find Oobis and figure out what those things were doing. Though she could guess stealing tractors was going to be the answer. "Alright I'm going in."

With a bad impression of an army crawl she made it half way into the bush with her hair only getting caught on a twig once. However she now understood why her mother's gardener went on about the difference in a bush and a hedge. Hedges were being, like over grown bushes. Big enough for blonde girls to have to arm crawl through to escape tractor stealing ghoul people.

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#60
Old 08-18-2014, 06:30 AM

The rustling in the bushes caught Oobis's attention. He flattened everything, his ears, his whole body. He was as flat as a cat can get and that's pretty flat. A furry little pancake on the flat back of a trailer. There was a sort of ticking sound behind him, he had heard than gang's van make that noise right after it had been turned off. So this truck had been driven recently. Interesting.

...

Meanwhile, the two ghouls had untangled themselves but seemed to panic when they noticed Jo crawl under the bushes. They scrambled after Joleen. Running right past Mathias like he didn't matter anymore. Hmm, "So what's behind the bushes, you freaks?"

Mathias sounded so calm. It was plain to him now that these were just some more yahoos in costume. Same old song and dance. Heck it might even be the "rival gang" of mystery misfits - up to no good again, inventing mysteries, and expecting to take credit for solving them. Ha.

All three ghouls turned at the sound of Matty's voice.

Their jaws unhinged. Revealing a maw of razor sharp, needle teeth. They made an awful sound. A combination of nails on chalkboard and a terrible screech. The three of them screamed at Mathias and his hands flew to his ears, covering them. It did little to dampen the sound. The wretched screams forced Mathias to his knees. He dimly wondered if his ears were bleeding. When he hit the ground, they stopped screaming and advanced on, the not-so-tall now that he was cowering, Mathias.

Slowly.

With deliberate steps sinking into the gravel.

Mathias grunted and found his feet. He pushed up quickly and took in the situation. Three to one, three angry ghouls vs one skinny kid. The ghouls hesitated a moment but kept coming at him. He guessed they liked their odds. There was a pattern to their formation. They came at him in a sort of triangle. The lead ghoul, not as tired as the others, had taken point.

Matty decided to go bowling.

It was risky, it was stupid - but it was the best he could up with. He hoped he remembered how to do a somersault, gulped and ran right at them. Barreling into and through the pack of ghouls. He left them in a tangled heap. "Holy cats... it worked."

...

From the back of the trucked Oobis, muttered "I heard that."

Truthfully Oobis had heard all of it. The horrific shrieking, the scuffle. The cat had wanted desperately to streak back through the bushes and check on Matty but he knew he shouldn't. True to his instincts, intuition and past knowledge of how brave and stupid his human could be, the fight was over quickly. Matty had incapacitated the ghouls and he and Jo would be along shortly.

Then the cat had heard something else. Something that made him say, "Uh oh."

The truck started.

...

Last edited by Penella Goldeater; 08-18-2014 at 06:46 AM.. Reason: ...

Alexander J Luthor
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#61
Old 08-18-2014, 07:34 PM

He put a finger to his lips and leaned back against the door frame to watch her work. Admiring how Sarah's hands moved quickly to create a picture scene that so perfectly camouflaged their true intentions it would make Jojo proud. He held the door for her and closed it gently behind them. Allan gave the deputy a high five over Sarah's head, but felt a slight sting of regret when he caught the stares of several desk cops. He said bye to May and followed his friend out.

"That sounds like a good plan. It's the bigger of the two search areas. Plus, what could go wrong in a tractor yard?" Allan looked down each road at the intersection before getting in the van. The van creeped up to the curb before turning left toward the graveyard. It was the shortest road and had less traffic. "Something bugging you?" He glanced at the phone in her hand in the rear view mirror, then back to the road when it disappeared into her pocket.

The weather was pretty nice on the West side of town. Allan waved out the window to some kids playing as they drove past the outer edge of Chinatown. To their right was a large hedgerow and lush, colorful plants that cut them off from the more luxurious residential area. It looked like two pictures awkwardly spliced together as he drove down to the highway that would take them to the Yoga Studio.

He felt safe enough with no one around to speed a bit until they ran into the fog. "Hey, Sarah, can you see this?" He rolled up his window. "This doesn't seem right." The fog looked normal as they drove up the hill, but as they drove on it never crossed in front of the road. He slowed down to thirty to get a better look. "It's almost a straight line through the trees..." It only took him a few seconds to roll up the other window as the smell oozed in. "Ugh! That's not petrichor."

p o p p e t ♥
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#62
Old 08-19-2014, 06:35 AM

While Alex played with the night vision goggles, Ellie held her phone out in front of her at the costume. It was in the same place it had been before, and its creepy eyes were still shining bright. She poked at it with a finger and it fell from the box it was on.

Ellie picked it up. It was incredibly lightweight. Where Ella would have assumed it was that nasty thick rubbery stuff, it was actually a sort of spandex material. Something easy to move in, of course. In fact, it reminded her an awful lot of the material her mother's yoga outfits. Had her mother bought them from the studio?

Something fell from the mouth of the costume, some kind of box, and Ella picked it up. Surely it was whatever made their voices sound so creepy and what allowed them to do that ear piercing screech that Allen had heard. She dropped the costume back onto a box when Alex called her.

Using her phone, she found her way through the boxes until she was at the wall beside him. He was right. There seemed to be little bits of light coming through from the other side. Ellie used her phone to search the wall, while feeling along it with her free hand. Suddenly she bumped a lever, and the whole wall turned, spinning them around and spitting them out the other side where Ella fell with an oompf.

Had it been the first time, Ellie might have been angry, shocked, or even embarrassed. But she wasn't. Because it wasn't the first time. Somehow, Ella had a knack for finding trap doors, falling into traps, falling down, getting captured, and even just plain getting lost. It was kind of her thing. So the norm, that Ella didn't even think twice about falling on her face anymore. "Found it," she said with a smile.

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#63
Old 08-20-2014, 11:54 PM

The last of the branches gave way with a good shove letting Jo drag her way out of the bush. Twigs had pulled strands of her hair out of it's bun and her tights had seen better days. Reaching a hand up she brushed some leaves out of her hair, " I made it to the other side...oh hey there are tire tracks over here!" She hoped Matty could hear her. Though she didn't wait around for his response.

Pulling back a part of the gate that had been cut Jo wormed her way through keeping the flashlight pointed towards the track. Fishing her camera our of the wait band of her tights she snapped a few photos of the tire tracks. They were running parallel to the bush. Shinning the light along one direction of the track her face scrunched. It trialled off into darkness but she was sure that was the direction of the caves. Swinging the light into the other direction she was met with the same thing. Tracks that led to darkness.

Moving her flashlight the beam reflected off of something metal. She opened her mouth to call out to Matty but though better of it. The odds of him being able to hear her were slim and if any of those things were hanging around she didn't need the to hear her.

Light cut across the darkness and the very familiar sound of a car starting. Turning on the spot she had just enough time to raise her camera and snap a picture of the side of the truck as it drove by. Making sure to snap as many pictures as she could. Tightening her fist around the camera Jo glanced over back at the bush she had crawled through. Matty hadn't made his way through the bush yet and the truck was getting away.

She was out o shape and she knew that she wouldn't be able to catch it but still she ran after the truck. She would be able to at lest get an idea on the direction it was heading. It could end up leading her to here the tractors here being held.

She had kept some what steady job for maybe seven minutes before the stitch in her side made it's self known with a vengeance. Slowing down she looked back at the way she had come a maybe a mile. Bending over she took in two big lung fulls of air.

Last edited by Ever_After; 08-21-2014 at 03:37 AM..

Cows Go Moo
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#64
Old 08-21-2014, 04:43 AM

"Good job Ella!" Alexander half-exclaimed and half-whispered as the two of them were brought to the other side of whatever room it was.

Taking off the night-vision goggles, he put his flashlight away to take a better look at their environment. There were stairs and a door which he followed without a second thought or opinion. If his hunch was correct (which it was), it would lead to the yoga studio and easy-peasy the case was implicated...except that it wasn't. In fact the stairs led to a basement with various newspaper clippings, final notices, and letters tacked onto the walls. Rather than simple equipment, there was more information about mining, stories about cave-crawlers in the Crystal Caves, and a letter of eviction from some unknown (presumably rich) land owner.

At this point Alex had already taken his phone out to snap pictures of the relevant clippings (particularly the bankruptcy letter) and some of the various costumes laid on the floor. This room, if his detective's hunch was again correct, made the perfect passageway between mining and yoga instruction since it was hidden away from any passing explorers or students. And even better-at this point he picked up one of the costumes to test for elasticity-it was the perfect choke hold.

"You should keep going Ella," he said, "I've got the perfect plan to trap our cave ghouls, but we need to get the others over here first."

He glanced at her with the copyrighted "I-want-to-set-a-trap" look on his face, ready to start spinning a web of metal and rope in the room. His mental gears were already rolling with ideas on how to capture the grunts of the operation, but catching the mastermind would be the real reward.

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#65
Old 08-22-2014, 03:38 AM

It was several minutes before Mathias managed to get through the bushes. Gangly limbs had tangled on, it seemed, every single twig. When he emerged it was into an empty clearing. "Huh? Where?" He looked all around. "Uh.." There were tire tracks and there was a sort of road. It was a newly worn path through the trees. It twisted and turned all down the mountain side, or he imagined it did - since he could only see about three feet in front of him.

The flashlight Jo had lent him lay abandoned in the tractor yard. Lost in the scuffle. He was dragging along an empty backpack and he still had Joleen's phone and pockets full of cookie crumbs. "Great. Just. Great."

He shook crumbs from the phone and thought about calling for backup but Joleen would be beyond ticked if she didn't need help and he put out the APB with the rest of the gang. Was it worth the wrath? Mathias was still going back and forth on that when the bushes rustled behind him. NOPE. No questions there. He was not in the mood to deal with the ghouls again, especially on his own.

Mathias took off at a brisk jog, into the dark and down the road.

...

One minute Oobis was watching Joleen pop out from the shrubbery. The next he was clinging to the back of the truck and it barreled through the forest. The driver had abandoned the ghouls and left without a tractor. Not a good night for them, then. If he'd been feeling more optimistic Oobis would chalk that up as a win.

The cat concentrated on not falling off the back of the truck but wondered where they were going and if the driver was a ghoul too. He couldn't risk climbing up to the rear window to check it out. Not while the truck was in motion, but as soon as he could he'd get a good look at the driver and try to orient himself with where they'd ended up.

The road had straightened out which would have been nice, except, it was getting really, really foggy. Oobis somewhat remembered Mrs. Windsor had said about something about a weird fog cancelling her plans for... yogurt? That didn't sound right. Actually it sounded really, really good and Oobis flicked his tail in irritation, not knowing when he would eat again. He liked yogurt, even though it stuck to his whiskers in a rather undignified way. It got a lot of laughs from his humans when he tried to lick it off his little kitty face.

Last edited by Penella Goldeater; 08-22-2014 at 03:50 AM.. Reason: more words, fixed stuff

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#66
Old 08-23-2014, 02:14 AM

In her usual somewhat dismissive manner, she had replied to Allan that she was 'just thinking about the gang'. It was as close as Sarah normally would get to admitting that she was worried about her friends and what trouble they may be in this very moment. She didn't mind too much when it was her who got in trouble, in fact, it was kind of adrenaline rush, but when it was the other five that had their safety endangered, she felt her heart clench with worry. It helped to ease her mind that until now, none of the crooks had been murderers, but there were always the first time...

When the smell entered the vehicle, the girl wrinkled her nose, trying to battle need to sniffle and sneeze. She managed the latter, but not the first and fetched tissue from her bag with internal, defeated sigh. She couldn't stand any strong chemical smells, not even heavily perfumed person passing by could get this reaction out of her. God help her if they were one of those sickly sweet flowery ones. Since her own taste lay in more fresh and perhaps heavier scents that she thought didn't suit her, she barely ever touched perfume bottles and avoided the section in shops as if it wasn't scents, but plagues trapped in the beautiful vials. The headaches they could give her were fitting for ones a wicked plague could inflict, too.

Due to her unfortunate reaction to the smell, she missed an opportunity to respond to her partner's comment and now it felt awkward to bring it back up again, so, Sarah remained silent for rest of their trip to yoga studio. There was nothing preventing them simply pulling up and parking in the lot and in fact, the whole place seemed rather... Abandoned. There were no lights in any of the windows. Then again, it made a sense on some level, didn't it? If the owners of this place didn't live here, there was no reason for signs of life. But something felt off. Very much so.

Despite that Sarah never believed her hunches outright, she still made sure to find out if there wasn't a grain of truth in them. Explore every angle and all that. As they got out of the van, her bag once again hoisted on her shoulder, the girl fought the need to shudder slightly. The fog was thick here as well, and it gave the view a creepy vibe, as silly as it was to feel affected by it. "Hmm," she hummed softly, sizing the building up with slight frown and then adjusted her headband as she did only when she was getting ready for 'war'.

She glanced at Allan and then decisively strode up the slight hill, not heading for the main doors. No, she was looking for some kind of back entrance that hopefully would be open. "What do you think about saying that we heard about the fog, grew worried and had some questions, if we find anyone here and they ask why we're here. We could always add that no one responded to door bell, too, right?" Sarah spoke, as usually making her suggestions in form that they could easily be shot down or adjusted. Perhaps it wasn't the most solid of excuses for basically breaking in (well, to be honest, it really wasn't), but it was better than nothing and Allan might have an idea how to make it better.

It wasn't much later that she found simple looking doors and after tentative push, they opened quietly. Slight smile flickered over her features, before she covered her mouth as sneeze overpowered her. As if the constant sniffling and getting short of breath in this overwhelming smell wasn't bad enough. Sarah entered the dark building, pulling out her phone and quickly adjusting it so that it served as flashlight of sorts. "Basement could be a good place to check out," she murmured quietly.

Last edited by sadrain; 08-23-2014 at 04:05 AM..

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#67
Old 08-25-2014, 03:51 AM

Ellie stood up and brushed herself off before doing some snooping of her own. "A foreclosure notice," she exclaimed. She wasn't sure how that could be possible. Her mother alone spent hundreds here a month, and she wasn't the only one. Ella had picked up the notice, but dropped it back on the desk when Alex told her she should go on ahead.

The red-headed girl shrugged. Usually he let the whole gang in on his traps, each of them playing their own part. Perhaps he still would, and that's why he was sending her on. But Ellie wouldn't question him now anyway. He was clearly in the zone. Besides, she trusted him. She was staring at him dreamily again. Finally, she snapped out of it, shaking her head lightly.

Ellie moved out of the basement, climbing a set of stairs to the first floor. It was so dark everywhere. She used her phone again, like she had in the basement, to light her way. Suddenly it beeped loudly, twice. The tell tale sign that the device was about to die. "Oh no," she whispered, "Don't die on me now!"

She heard a door close up ahead. "Alex?" she questioned. But how could he have gotten ahead of her? Was it the ghouls? Ellie rounded a corner, smacking right into Sarah. She dropped her phone and the light went out. "Ow!" she exclaimed, rubbing at her forehead. "Sarah?"

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#68
Old 08-25-2014, 06:36 AM

Allan hit the automatic lock and, looking around first, hit a secondary lock button on his keys. There was a dull clicking as a secondary bolt, much like the one that kept the back door secure, fell into place. The whole property creeped him out. He jogged to catch up to Sarah. 'What a horrible place for a studio.' He thought staring over the countryside. You didn't need to be in the elevated building to see across the wilderness. The strange fog was still there, but for whatever reason it didn't reach quite up the slope to the building.

"I think I'll just go ahead and follow you," Allan muttered. He wanted to keep an eye on the shadows. He thought he could see things moving in the trees, but they were too far away for him to get any details. A gust of wind pulled his focus back into the now and he looked back toward the van. "What?" The wind pushed at the fog, but didn't clear it, and before even a few seconds had passed it was back to its unusual shifting and rolling. 'Whoever is up to this obviously doesn't want us seeing something.' Allan strayed away from Sarah and around to another side of the building. His curiosity was really getting the better of him as he tried to peer through the fog in the hope of seeing what kind of machines could do all this. 'If I find one of these I'm taking it for the next Halloween party.'

It only took a second for the thoughts to be wiped from his mind as he slipped on leaf covered mud puddle and went sliding down the hill. He tried not to shout out as he avoided trees and was already half way down the hill when he realized grabbing one would be better than falling off a small cliff. Allan slowed his descent and was able to slide on his heels and hands the last ten or so feet. "Well, that could have been worse." He looked for a place to rub his hands off, when he realized most of him was caked in mud and forestry debris. Combined with the smelly fog and the clamminess that came with it, Allan was ready to leave.

He walked in what was hopefully the way toward the road that led back up to the yoga studio. The walk back up was going to be a daunting task to say the least, but wasn't as bad as nearly jumping out of his skin when something in the fog rumbled to life right next to him. "What the-" Allan stumbled into a ditch and laid there for a minute. The sound of his heart was pounding in his ears as the newly activated fog machine quieted down. He looked over his head and realized he was next to the road. He scrambled up the slope in time to see the fog slowly taking over. "Tiiiime to go." He took a deep breath and started running up the hill as fast as he could. His muddy shoes slipping and sploshing as he went.


((I had this page up for three hours and forgot about it...))

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#69
Old 08-25-2014, 06:18 PM

"Allan?" she called out softly, realizing he wasn't behind her anymore. He must have wandered away. At least Sarah hoped he had. But surely she would have heard some kind of struggle if someone had sneaked up on her friend and grabbed him? Unless he was knocked out promptly... The girl swallowed nervously, turning around to leave and seek her friend out. She could head deeper in alone, but there was no way she'd leave Allan behind.

In the next moment, someone ran into her, bumping her forward and Sarah let out a quiet, girlish squeal as she stumbled. She managed to catch her balance in last moment and whipped around, holding her phone out like a weapon and breath whooshed out of her in relief as she recognized Ellie in its light. Immediately, she felt calmer. Seeing the red-head here meant not only that right now one of her friends not in immediate trouble and since Ellie usually was the one to get in trouble, there was good chance everyone else was okay, too. Even more, it meant that her theory could be correct or at least the other pair had had a reason to have a similar hunch to come and explore the studio. Which most likely meant that they would find all the answers here and there was no time to be wasted.

"Ellie, did you and Alex find some kind of passageway to here from caves?" she got straight to the point and glanced at the doors, biting her lip slightly. "Allan wandered away, we need to find him before one of the crook get to him. We saw this caveman in video tape. Where's Alex?" Sarah moved her phone around, light chasing away some of the darkness and stopped when she found Ella's dropped phone. If she guessed correctly and all puzzle pieces fell in their right places (although she currently was missing some, like motivation of the crooks), their leader was already in the process of making a trap somewhere below them.

Last edited by sadrain; 08-25-2014 at 09:49 PM..

Ever_After
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#70
Old 08-26-2014, 03:35 AM

((For reason pertaining to real life problems my post will have to come from my phone, it an iphone so luckily its not too bad. However that means they will be short but I will not let that effect my quality. Sorry for the inconvenience))

When the stinging feeling in her lungs faded Jo finally took stock in the area she had found herself in. She could still see the tail lights growing smaller up ahead but didn't want to stray to from the tractor field. Matty was still back there and they had to find Oobis. At least now they knew how the tractors were being taken and Sarah could figure out the make of the truck from those tire tracks.

Turning back the way she came she swung the flashlight in a wide arch randomly flicking the switch on and off. Hoping Matty had made it through the the bush and could see. If they were really lucky her had found Oobis and they could call the others.

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#71
Old 08-26-2014, 06:42 AM

With the kind of night they'd been having Mathias very first thought was, "Great. Now we've got aliens." Except the light show wasn't all that impressive and he couldn't hear the spaceship. It suddenly seemed much more likely that the single flickering, bouncing beam of light was Joleen's.

Matty whistled out a little tune, a signal to his friend and one that she would know well. He was on his way.

...

Oobis was on his way - he didn't know where. The fog was making him cough and his paws hurt from holding on tight to the back of the truck as it had bounced along, down the mountain. At least the ride was smoother now but he couldn't SEE anything.

He could hear the spray of sea on sand and knew they'd made it down by the beach. They was a click and then a humming mechanical sound. It was like one of those motor doors that open up when the humans want to store cars inside of buildings.

A garbage door. No. That wasn't it. A, um, carriage door sounded a little better but still not exactly right. The cat decided it didn't matter, at the moment, because he was very confused. The garbage door made it's angry humming noise again and closed. The fog began to dissipate Oobis found himself inside a cave. "Ooooooh kay." He slipped off the side of the truck bed and pressed himself into the shadows along the cave wall.

It was still sort of hazy but Oobis saw a human exit the vehicle. He couldn't tell what kind of human it was. They weren't wearing much, just a stretchy one piece romper thing. It looked like a yogurt costume and seemed to flatten out any of the bits that might help him identify the perp. The human had an ease of movement and quiet confidence that reminded Oobis of Mrs. Windsor. This being the second time he thought of her recently the cat began to wonder if he should consider Mrs. Windsor a suspect. Except this human wasn't Mrs. Windsor - Oobis was sure of that and "Stealing tractors. How common."

The well hidden cat put on his best rich human voice and spoken aloud. The truck driving human in the yogurt costume turned around and hissed, rather impressively, really, and that's quite a compliment from a cat. Wild eyes searched the empty cavern room but there was no one around. The human turned and ran, flat shoes slapping on the cavern floor. Oobis followed the sound, sticking to the shadows and keeping low to the ground.

...

Mathias caught up with Joleen. "Hey Jo, what's with the hike down the mountain?" He looked out at where the town would be, underneath them. The creeping fog was illuminated by the streetlights from this vantage point. It looked like the whole town had been swallowed by cotton candy. "Where's Oobis?" when she didn't answer right away - he turned to her. Her face told him everything.

"Come on." He said, pointing ahead, further down the road. "We won't be able to see to drive in that fog and we're already this far down the mountain. We'll walk." He wanted to run. Mathias was more scared now than when the ghouls had been chasing him. He was having a serious case of Dude, Where's my Cat? And hated it.

They picked their way carefully the rest of the way down the mountain coming up on the burbs through the forest, a little off the beaten path.

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#72
Old 08-27-2014, 07:53 AM

This was the part where Alexander entered "The Trap Zone". See, it was like the Twilight Zone except that instead of bizarre scenarios there would be bizarre (but somehow functional) traps set in the room. Luckily, there were a few boxes in the room so hanging the net on the ceiling wasn't quite as hard as it would have been if he had to climb. Each corner was now rigged to be cut with a hair-thin tripwire that he'd soon string along the entrances of the room. He didn't want any chance of the plan going wrong (as it sometimes did) and have another person set the thing off by accident so it would be last on the list of things to do. He had a good idea of what the insides of the Crystal Caves looked like from his past exploration, but now he also had the trapdoors memorized. All trapdoors probably led to the mining area or yoga studio anyway. Unless he was missing something, there shouldn't be an alternate entrance way to the studio. It would be too risky.

On the other hand was the yoga studio. He didn't know what the building's floor plan was and knowing Ella, she'd get herself into a mighty bit of trouble before finding the rest of the gang so perhaps she'd be able to report back to him. Should he set some traps inside the buildings too?

Too risky, he thought, Ella can handle herself.

At worst, the cave ghouls would get away but they would have enough evidence to implicate those goons so long as Joleen's father didn't dismiss them and Sheriff Dodson would do their job. They had a nasty habit of turning the blind eye.

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#73
Old 09-07-2014, 11:05 PM

Ellie was still rubbing at her forehead and she nodded. "Yeah," she replied. "We came through a trap door in the basement." Her features took on a dreamy look. "Alex knew to look for it," she added, "he's so smart." She grimaced after that. "You saw cave people, too? Hmm...," Ellie hummed in thought.

"They were in the caves, too. But we found costumes," she explained. "All of the things in the cave attached to the building are labeled 'Yoga Supplies', but it all looks to be mining equipment. And there's a foreclosure letter in the basement for the studio," she filled her friend in. When Sarah shined her light on Ellie's phone, she bent to pick it up. "Thanks," she said.

"Alex is still in the basement, maybe," she said, unsure. "He's got an idea for a trap," she added in that dreamy tone. And of course he did, that was just Alex. "Let's find Allan and then we'll call the others," if they hadn't shown up by then. Ellie tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, unaware at how dirty she'd gotten in the caves, or how tattered bits of her clothes had become. Not that she would care, she had the outfit in a handful of colors. Hopefully she hadn't broken any nails though. That would be a real tragedy.

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#74
Old 09-10-2014, 01:51 PM

Sarah nodded a few times while her friend spoke, although it'd be hardly visible in the darkness. It was as she suspected then. Smile flickered on her lips when the newspaper clippings were mentioned. There was the motive she had been seeking, she was rather sure of it. But when red-head brought up matter of their leader, she sobered up. No reason to get ahead of themselves, the case was still in the solving. Besides, they had to find their friend.

The girl turned around and headed out of the building and around the corner, sniffling with slight disdain as the smell entered her nose once more, although the fog was clearing up some now. Sarah wandered off of the road slightly, carefully feeling her way through the mist so she wouldn't lose her footing and tumble down. Despite her efforts, sneakers slid in grass and mud few times, but she managed to keep her balance. She called out for Allan few times and jumped when rumbling started, in distance, yet close enough for her to realize it was on the property.

Knowing her friend, he'd probably go investigating. Ah, yes, that was probably the reason he had left in the first place - temptation to figure what was making this crazy fog. And without letting her know, of course. Sarah's mouth formed thin line for a moment, as she moved in noise's direction, back on the road and then down. At least she had Ellie with her and faint traces of general plan. Somewhere around the middle of the path, a shape suddenly appeared in the fog and the girl moved on the side, grasping her bag tighter, but they still nearly collided.

"Allan!" she sighed in relief and then took note of his appearance and worry lines settled in her forehead. "Are you alright? Did you find something?" Sarah asked and then proceeded to bring him up to date with what Ellie and Alex had found. If he said he had found something of interest, they could go and investigate it, but the girl thought it might be wiser to go and take photos of the evidence in the building's basement and cave (and expressed as such).

Not to mention, Alex probably would appreciate Allan's help with making the trap. They made quite amazing team for that. Even if she didn't particularly appreciate the whole trap-business, it was somewhat fascinating to watch the two guys create intricate devices from very little. Their adaptability in this situations were truly envy-worthy. She knew how to work machines when they were made, could read tech schemes, but beyond that, she was basically useless.

Hopefully, they'd now be on their way back to the building, Sarah slightly out of breath and trudging behind the two other. She fished around her bag for inhaler and took two puffs, holding her breath and counting to 10 after each, as it was advised. The girl regretted not taking her allergy pill this morning, but what's too late, that's too sorry. As they entered yoga studio, she once more used her phone as flashlight and let Ellie lead the way to basement. She turned on the light (down here, it couldn't attract unwanted attention) so she could properly take photos of the evidence, eyes skimming over the clippings quickly.

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#75
Old 09-13-2014, 07:54 AM

Maybe it was his hair, wet from the man-made fog and mud, covering his eyes and half his sight, or maybe it was the obscene amount of pain that conquered any remaining visibility, but Allan didn't realize he was running right into Sarah until he was practically on top of her. "Oh, thank god," he wheezed, stopping to double over with his hands on his knees being his back's only support. "I hate, running uphill." Thankfully the sweat he worked up helped Allan wipe away most of the mud on his face.

Allan finally straightened up. "Sorry, Sarah." He cupped his hands and pulled them down his arms one at a time, scraping off the bracken and sludge. "The fog is definitely not normal." Eventually there was a circle of mess around him and he was left to think about all that Sarah was telling him. This case was going to be much easier than expected. "And I see I'm not the only one who's gone mucking around." He eyed Ellie's clothes. She couldn't be too happy about that.

It was getting a bit windy, and Allan was still cold and slimy after the fall, so he started walking back to the studio. "After all that, my news isn't as fantastic. It makes sense that whatever is happening is a long time in wait because whoever is up to this had the time and money to build expert fog machines inside trees." Allan pointed a thumb back over his shoulder at the hill.

He scrubbed his feet in the grass, then again on the edge of the steps. "Wow, nice in here, innit?" Though the blue glow of Sarah's cellphone gave it a more eerie touch, it was a very grandiose establishment. Allan's already clammy skin crawled. He practically slid down the stairs and came to a quick stop next to Alex. "Hey, friend!" His fluidity was killed when he plopped onto the hard floor, patiently waiting until his opinion was needed.

 


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