The Exception, The Guardian, and The Monster

Plat
Ceila has been flying all around the area looking for stray experiments or nochmal in the wake of the fight. She spots Cypress with their face down in the mud and flies toward them to see if they’re still alive.

Astroray 

They are, but clearly having a hard time breathing.

Plat 

“Cypress,” she says with concern, immediately trying to lift their face out of the mud. “Are you all right??”

Astroray 

"HWLP"

Plat 

"Hold on, I've got you," she says. It takes heaving, but she manages to lift their face out of the mud, so they can at least breathe better. She's slowly dragging their body away from the mud.

Astroray 

Cypress exhales harshly, mud shooting out of their nose. Their mouth hangs open, inhaling deeply. "Thank you.......I wasn't able to catch her..."

Plat 

"What happened? Did she hurt you?"

Astroray 

"Mmm, I'm paralyzed for the moment but it's not permanent."

Plat 

"The fight's over now," she says. "I can go alert everyone that you've been located. Someone can stay here with you until it passes."

Astroray 

"I don't think the effects will last long...but I'd appreciate the gesture."

Plat 

"All right." She's quiet a second. "So, what direction did she run off in? How many escaped with her?"

Astroray 

"A limited amount of individuals...that way." They nudge with their snout in the direction Thiessen left.

"There's a knochen in the compound that needs tending to..."

Plat 

She looks off that direction, then back to them. "Oh right, you said there was an unconscious one in there? Somebody's probably finding them now, I bet. I wonder if they'll know where she's going."

Astroray 

Cypress experimentally flexes their toes and stretch their arms before sitting up. They give their face a good shake and flick mud off of their face. "I'm sure they'll know something."

Plat 

"Oh, is the feeling in your body returning now?"

Astroray 

"Yes, slowly." Their legs give visible effort in attempting to lift their body, but refuse to obey.

Plat 

"Oof... I'll stay here until it's all the way back. Unless your shadow power somehow still works."

Astroray 

"Mmm, tried it earlier, doesn't work well." They give another heave and manage to lift their body.

Plat 

Ceila's quiet for a moment as she watches them. "So did you spend the entire battle going after her?"

Astroray 

"For the most part, yes. I pinned her, but she had quite a lot of that gas on hand."

Plat 

So that's what got you. "We're all going to have to figure out how to counter that gas if we want to kill her, it seems."

Astroray 

"Next time, I'd like to pair with a wind knochen. It'd be easier to redirect the gas. Poison might work as well." They begin walking towards the rest of the group.

Plat 

"I'd say we should have worked together, but I was busy using my wind to knock people out of trees." She follows them.

Astroray 

"I apologize, I got overconfident."

Plat 

"It's all right, I would've been too focused on them to go after her." She'll go quiet if they have nothing else to say.

Near the compound, the nochmal seem to be gathering around the area as everyone is recovering from the fight and acting in its aftermath. Esredes lands with Alise in the middle of it all. He asks where the healing knochen are located, and is pointed to a spot where a knochen is tending to a couple wounded knochen. He approaches the knochen with her in hand. "How are they holding up?"

Momo 

The healing knochen smiles awkwardly. "It could be far worse. The one who had gone feral are knocked out, and from what some of the experiments have told us, they'll be back to normal when they wake up. Oh!" She spots Alise in his hands. "A prisoner? Or did she help?"

Plat 

"She helped a lot. She was the one who set off the gas and distracted them. I saw her fighting several uncanny at once. Quite a powerful one here, but she's exhausted. I think she deserves a rest after all of that." He carefully sets her down. Please save her, he thought. We all need her.

Momo 

The knochen looks Alise over a bit. "... oh my. Quite the uncanny we have here. Her scales have protected her from many exterior wounds, but... she does have some internal bleeding."
"H...hey..." Alise mumbles weakly. "Are they saying I'm gonna die...?"

Plat 

"Hold," Esredes says in response to her, then continues to the knochen. "How bad's the internal bleeding? Do you think your magic can at least minimize it?"

Momo 

"Of course I can minimize it... but the rest of the recovery will be up to her. She is also uncanny. They tend to be more unstable..." The knochen looks down at Alise. "She's awfully fluffy."

Plat 

"Right... if this one recovers, I have a plan for how we can use her. But I'll be sending over someone else to take care of her once you're done with her." He then looks to Alise. "Make it." Let's put it that way. There's a chance.

Momo 

Alise smiles a bit. "Thanks."
The knochen smiles a bit to Esredes. "Yes sir. I'll get to work right away. If there are any developments, I'll let you know right away."

Plat 

"Please do. It will be much appreciated." With that, he takes one last glance at her before he walks away. Can't make it look like I know her now...

Astroray 

Cypress returns to the base and spots Esredes, nodding briefly and approaching him.

Plat 

Esredes is quick to notice Cypress and Ceila as he returns to the middle of the gathering. "Cypress!" He calls out, coming over quickly. "Are you all right?" He hadn't seen Cypress since he ordered them to scout. Had he been given the time to realize they weren't here until now, he'd have become worried.

Astroray 

"Quite alright now. That gas packs a punch." Their face still somewhat caked in mud.

Plat 

"What happened with you? Did you end up inhaling it?" Oh dear, that couldn't have been pleasant.

Astroray 

"I attempted to get the scientist, but was met with two doses of gas. I am restored, as you can see."

Plat 

Oh my, they went right for her. That's good thinking. He didn't actually see her the entire fight. "I take it you're fine besides the mud, then? It was a valiant effort to get so close to disposing of her."

Astroray 

"Thought I was the best one to try to get close. I failed though, she escaped with a small handful of uncannys."

Plat 

"But thanks to them, we at least know what direction she went in," Ceila added, pointing with her tail.
"Only a small handful left? Well, she's lost most of her army today. After we're done here, we'll send a party after her. She won't have anything left but death."

Astroray 

"Ah, that reminds me, she left an unconscious knochen in the compound along with a slew of chemicals."

Plat 

"Oh, right." He remembered them saying that before, and turns his gaze towards the compound. "Has anyone gone down there to investigate?"
Ceila shrugged. "I've been flying around, so I don't know."
"Well, if you'd like to come with me to investigate, feel free." He seems to be referring to Cypress more than Ceila. "I need to make sure everyone is accounted for first, though. And Ceila," he turns to her for a moment. "Meet me out here afterwards. For now, see what else you have to do."
She nods, and begins to walk away.

Astroray 

"I will join you." They move closer to Esredes, implying they are ready  to follow.

Plat 

Esredes goes around the group, talking to people and making sure everyone is present. Afterwards, he moves back towards the compound and its all but nonexistent exterior. He shifts to human form again, approaching the trapdoor and opening it. "Let's see what horrors she's managed to create in here..."

Momo 

The inside is the same as Cypress last saw. The two main rooms with a few smaller ones along a large hallway. On one end, the door is open to the office. On the other, the door is shut, but Esredes can pick up Alise's scent from the inside.

Astroray 

"Untouched.....that fight was her last stand. I doubt she has many more surprises for us." They nudge the first main room open with their meaty paw.

Inside, Jack remains unconscious, propped up against the wall, head hanging low.

Plat 

Esredes enters the room with them, observing its state of being. It definitely looks like there was a struggle in here. And judging by the scent, this is where she was kept... But his attention is quick to focus on Jack, lying there. Oh, it's this little brat, he thinks as he stands in front of him, observing him up close.
"I recognize this one. It's a kid with resonance magic. How fortunate for him that he got knocked out. He'd have been slaughtered out there with little trouble." I'm glad Alise managed to unleash a bit of her vengeance.

Astroray 

"Hm, I see. What's your plan then? You seem acquainted with them."

Plat 

"We'll take him back to the base as a prisoner and see how we can get information out of a young mind like this. Hopefully he's still easily impressionable enough to open up." He pauses a moment to observe Jack. "Maybe just feeding the thing better would do it. It looks like she's been depriving him of meals..."

Astroray 

"I wouldn't doubt it. A woman of such depravity stooping as low as to starve a child. Put them on my back, I'll carry them out and we can find bindings unless there's some in here. With the closet of chemicals this woman has I have no doubt she'd have cuffs of some kind."

Plat 

"We'll also need to cover his mouth. He has some sort of supersonic scream for an ability. It knocked my hearing out for an hour."

Astroray 

"Hm, shall we continue the 'tour' then?"

Plat 

"Yes, we'll find the bindings soon enough." He sets out into the hall with Cypress, and on into the next room.

Momo 

In the room is Thiessen's desk with papers and notes piled on top, just as they were, including the papers on Alise.

Astroray 

"Documents here. I'll leave you to it while I search for cuffs." And with that they slip off into the different rooms.

Plat 

Very well then. Esredes picks up the first part of the stack of papers. No chance to grab them before we can see them this time... He's going to skim over each one, but he's definitely particularly interested in finding anything on Alise.

Momo 

Most of them are now the detailed procedure that Thiessen performed, injecting the bone fluid into her, notes on any changes, and future ideas on what to do with other knochen and subjects that she'll obtain later on. One key note that lays on top still stands out. It's written hastily, as if it was a new development she didn't have time for. "Changes back?!"

Plat 

Esredes raises an eyebrow, as well as making a face of disgust at the note. We have to stop her before she tries this on anyone else. She can't have another success. He's wondering if he should make a copy of this later for Alise to keep... or maybe she wouldn't want to. As for the note... What does that mean? He remembers again that Alise changed back when she started to become uncanny the first time, and her scales went away when she calmed down... but she was full on uncanny now. Did she still have a chance of changing back? He continues to look through what other notes are present.

Momo 

There are a few notes made on a map that are in search of other escaped subjects. A big one she seems a little more desperate though is for a knochen called 305, and her start has started closing in on the city of Lebensdauer.

Plat 

Lebensdauer... seems her experiments have a thing for that place, don't they? How does she even get away with it in such a big city? He'd love to know her secret. He wasn't sure how to penetrate that place himself. And 305... he remembers the note about that one on the previous map. Maybe we need to send someone to warn the city, he pondered. I could care less about that place, but it could at least catch her for us. At the very least, now there's another map for the nochmal to go off of... and this one wasn't left behind on purpose.

Momo 

As Cypress searches, they find that one of the spare rooms has plenty of extra items for tying someone up. Rope, chains, leather, a variety of items depending on her temporary prisoner.

Astroray 

Cypress grabs the cuffs, a length of chain, and strips of leather and takes them back to the room with Jack. They delicately put the cuffs on as to not disturb him too much and risk waking him. Once they cuffs are locked, the leather is wrapped around Jack's grill, acting as the most effective muting tool in the compound.

Plat 

After he completes his investigation of the interior, Esredes makes his way back into the room as well, now with papers tucked in his belt and a metal gauntlet tied to it. "I see you found what you needed. You can go ahead and carry him outside."

Astroray 

They nod slow and slight. "Understood." Cypress grabs the knochen's cuffs and hoists him onto their back, jolting them slightly. The sudden shock of hitting Cypress's back causes them to wake. It takes a moment for Jack to fully come to, but there's an immediate sense of panic in their eyes.

Plat 

"Careful, it looks like you woke him up." Fortunately it looks like he won't be doing anything about it.

Astroray 

Seeing Esredes, Jack immediately begins to struggle against Cypress's iron grip, which only tightens with each yank.

Cypress stands on their hind legs and hoists Jack up by the arms, well above the ground. Jack's nostrils flare as he breathes heavily. He attempts to let out a banshee scream, but finds it difficult because of the leather, which not only blocks the sound, but doesn't allow him to take large gulps of air required to create them.

Plat 

Esredes is relieved to see that the leather is doing its job. He holds the door open for Cypress to carry Jack out.

As the three of them exit the building, Esredes takes a brief look around at all the nochmal. He then turns to Cypress and their captive. "You can either watch the child or hand him off to someone else, I'll leave that up to you. Either way, once the unconscious members wake up and I figure out what to do with the loyalty-lacking experiments, we'll be done here. You've done well today, Cypress. Just as well as you did back at the previous lab."

Astroray 

"Thank you for your generous praise, I hope that our efforts here will not prove fruitless in the future. I think for now I will watch over the child and see to it that they are properly contained for questioning." Cypress gives Jack a little shake and in response he kicks around a bit, but quickly wears out. He is still heavily fatigued and his inability to get enough air is keeping him on the edge of passing out.

Plat 

"Very well. I'm sure with all we've been able to achieve today, we're only a step away from finishing her off. I'll leave you to your duty." He begins to walk off again. He's going to check up on a few things before making his way back over to the healer.

Momo 

Some time passed as Esredes tends to his business, but before he gets the chance to head to her, she ends up finding him. "Esredes! Hi- I didn't want to bug you- but this is- ah- well-"

Plat 

"What? What is it?" Oh no, this is going to be bad, isn't it. "Did something happen?"

Momo 

"Ah- she's stable! The uncanny you brought me is going to be alright. It's just... she's... she's not... uncanny? Follow me-" the knochen starts to guide him back.

Plat 

He follows her, keeping his pace quick. Did she change back again...?

Momo 

Alise is now asleep, resting on her side, but she had changed back. Or, she's in the process of it. Her hair color has changed back, as well as her arms, and the tail has disappeared. She still has a few scales, but they're fading over time.
"It's... it's impossible. She was so far gone, I don't understand how she changed back."

Plat 

Oh my.... if anything, this is a relief to him. He would've hated for her to stay uncanny. "Because of something that lady did to her, for sure. That's fascinating. She's found a way to reverse uncannyism on accident. Or maybe this one is special."

Momo 

"Wh... we have to tell someone." She looks back at Esredes. "If this woman found a way to give humans our power- This is dangerous! This experiment is very dangerous."

Plat 

"What do you mean give humans our power?"

Momo 

"From what we've learned, most uncanny have shorter lifespans and can't use too much of our power in potions due to the side effects. But if the uncannyism could be reversed, mages could make their potions stronger. It may even extend their lifespans- the possibilities are numerous."

Plat 

Oh my, she's right. "As if being able to gift a human magic through bone marrow wasn't bad enough. Let's hope she doesn't understand how it happened to this one. Either way, we're going to track her down and kill her before she tries anything on anyone else."

Momo 

"Yes sir... but..." She glances down to Alise. "What do we do with this one? Aclyone would certainly want to know about this."

Plat 

"Don't worry, this only further reinforces my plan for this one. I'll let Aclyone know we've found another anomaly as well."

Momo 

"Alright... we're bringing her back with us, right? I know the uncanny experiments who turned on that woman are more than willing to assist us and give information. Perhaps this one will too."

Plat 

"I'm sure she will, too. Is she stable enough to be moved?"

Momo 

"Yes. I've stopped the internal bleeding. She's just going to be asleep for a while."

Plat 

"Thank you. Very well then. I'm going to send over a blue knochen to pick her up and take her. I appreciate your efforts towards these few wounded ones. Let me know when the other two wake up as well."

Momo 

"Of course." She replies. "Take care, sir."

Plat 

Around ten minutes later, the healer is approached by a blue knochen, just as the general said. Ceila's eyes seem curious, but concerned as she stops in front of her, her hand closed with a metal gauntlet. "How are the ones who got hurt holding up?"

Momo 

"Much better. Some of them are starting to wake up. They can't remember anything that happened though during the fight. How are you holding up?"

Plat 

"Oh, I'm fine, just a bit exhausted. I didn't get hurt in the fight. We've got a map and a general idea of where the scientist went, so that keeps my spirits up."

Momo 

"Excellent! Ah, Esredes said you'd be dropping by-" she guides Ceila over to Alise. "You're probably here to pick up her."

Plat 

"Oh, yes, there she is." Ceila's quiet for a second as she leans down to examine Alise. So this is her... she's so cute looking when she's asleep like this. So soft. Poor thing has been through a lot. "Let him know that I'm leaving early and I'll be back to the base soon as possible. I'll make sure she recovers okay." Ceila carefully wraps her arms around her, experimenting a bit until she gets a solid grip. She slips the gauntlet back on one of her hands.

Momo 

Alise groans a bit, but she remains asleep.
The knochen smiles a bit. "Good luck! And keep an eye on that one."

Plat 

"I will. Good luck to everyone getting back too." She lifts off from the ground, adjusting Alise under both her arms and her legs, and flies off in the direction of her house.