Pierce frowns at hecate's casual disregard for the AI, that's just something you do not do, especially with a military AI, it's just a bad idea all around, espically given the warning signs with how particular it was with it's name
Scath touches Hope. Ask voice if small moving room has vents. Blood drinker enter and no touch anything. Ask voice if know how blood drinker get out. Scath sniffs to see if there was anyone else in the elevator with the blood drinker. Did dead man enter elevator? Maybe blood drinker make self look like dead man, since no-one notice dead man dead?
The room smells strongly of the blood drinker, as if he spent some degree of time inside, though he didn't move or pace, simply stood in place.
"The only person capable of making the elevators that go to this level move is me. There are no vents. That means that you are most likely correct. Likely he took the place of the dead guard." her voice sounded sad. "During a lockdown, guards would be the only ones allowed on the elevators. I may have freed this man by mistake. I will examine my memories of those who entered from this floor and left via it. It will only take a moment."
After a moment. "Indeed. A guard entered the room of the male, who had not been eating. After a few minutes, the guard emerged and went to check on the female. The female proceeded to escape, while the guard moved to the elevators. As things went into lockdown... he moved to the outside. If the guard is dead, then what occurred is clear."
Pierce asks the AI "could you please warn the other residents in level A about the creature, it's known abilities and whatnot.
"As you wish, Agent Pierce." Came the response effectively immediately.
It hadn't ALREADY done that? ...Note to self, do not rely on the computer here for anything. It may be capable, but it is not intelligent. Being around technology again had almost made her forget that old stuff couldn't really be trusted unless you gave it specific commands and thought of everything yourself.
...
Sigh. She really missed her home.
"Skylar, please keep us informed if there's any sign that the creature is approaching this chamber." she said, deliberately using the system's name.
Blood drinker's sneaky. Take moving box to where guard got out. Tell others.
"Of course, Miss Hecate. I am also making a note to increase your rations back to full." There was a touch of playfulness in the voice.
"Scath would also like for you to know that he is traveling topside, you should enter the elevator at your leisure."
The interesting thing about the trip out, as Scath (and possibly Pierce) had discovered, was that it was woefully arcane. Lots of twists and turns that probably were absolutely unnecessary to the entire process.
On the other hand, moving about in the twisty-turny hallways, left one feeling like they were moving even when they were standing still, a slightly heavy feeling in the pit of their stomaches.
"...You know, this is when I think that it would be great to have a real map of the facility and a transmitter we could use to send directions to the kitty... Probably be easier on everyone if we acted as Mission Control."
"You currently have all of those things save for the first. And no one but myself has full access to the first at any singular point in time." came the reply. "If you would like to stay here while Scath hunts, however, I am happy to oblige; it is something that has occurred with reasonable frequency thus far."
RJ sighed. "I'm going to take a shower. Skylar please tell Scath I said good luck."
Pierce's eyes open in sudden recognition "and the reason that is is because the facility rearranges itself to inconvenience intruders and attackers... If my guess is right, then that's bloody impressive
"You are correct, Agent Pierce. The only way to leave is with my guidance... or to be able to be -very- persistent." came the response. "Or, apparently, simply leaving the world entirely."
Scath moves along as directed, smelling for the thing's smell.
Scath sits in the box as it moves through the facility, before eventually arriving at its destination. Indeed, the scent of the bloodsucker continues onwards, and in fact, is in the same direction Skylar is guiding Scath.
It's also the same basic path she always leads Scath on when he's leaving, save for a bit at the beginning (This elevator and the elevator he normally rides are not the same one.). Eventually his trail and the vampire's trail merge, as he travels towards 'freedom'.
Onward and onward he goes, until finally, he reaches more of the airlocked doors, as Skylar opens them. It's daylight outside, with blue skies overhead, and the sun beating down. The scent follows the solid-gray smooth walkways through Scath's hunting grounds. A soldier is waiting for Scath with the collar that he'd normally slip into his pack, but this time, it has one of Skylar's 'eyes' dangling from it, a full sphere rather than a hemisphere. "If you wouldn't mind carrying this, your pet humans have requested that we all maintain contact, and this way you can be heard, and they can see what you find." Came Skylar's voice, ostensibly from the orb.
Roy goes with Pierce to find the kitty.
Bear, of course, goes also.
Scath rumbles unhappily, but lets the soldier put the collar on. He does stare into the soldier's eyes the entire time, with fangs showing.
Once the soldier nervously attaches the collar, he huffs in amusement and then looks at Hope, wondering why Hope can't wear the collar.
Then he continues along the trail, not knowing that Roy and Bear (and Pierce?) are coming with him.
"Once a person is outside of the facility, I will be unable to communicate or see normally. Long-reaching functions are denied to me currently. This is a piece of my... as you would call it, body. It is an extension of myself. I will be unable to aid you other than as a messenger. The other cat is on his way. I am unsure of the rest, though they will be required topside soon."
Skylar says as Scath begins to follow the trail, the man's hands still shaking slightly. A trained soldier isn't quite trained enough to deal with a ball of muscle, fur, and bones on a good day.
Shortly after Scath begins to pad off, following the trail (I believe you have to move at half speed if you want to succeed on a 10), Pierce, Roy, and Bear arrive topside and can see Scath following the scent trail along the road straight ahead.
As Scath follows along, the path doesn't diverge. It heads straight for a guard station. There's a guard standing next to a guard uniform, looking completely zoned out. Zoned out, meaning he doesn't even look in your direction as you pad forward. The gate is closed, and the trail continues onwards past the gate.
Scath ignores the gate guard, as he's a useless two leg. He continues following the scent.
The scent travels onwards past the closed gate.
Scath climbs the gate, and drops down on the other side.
Scath is pleasantly surprised with the gate doesn't do anything terrible to him as he crosses.
Pierce and Roy are handed another little black orb, which allows them to see what Scath is doing and communicate with with both him and Skylar while they are outside.
As soon as the man passed through the gate, he ducked into the nearby woods, which would slow him tremendously (and make the trail much simpler for Scath to follow!)
"All right, I need a computer and some kind of searching system." Hecate said. She'd probably have to physically type anything relevant here... sigh... but oh well. With the communications systems in place, she ought to have no trouble talking with Pierce, Scath, and the others. Assuming the machine was forthcoming - and she'd have a good laugh at anybody who panicked about her introducing futuristic super-viruses into their machines, as if she wouldn't have done that the day she'd arrived had she been able to - she'd immediately begin work on gathering information about the area (maps and terrain, et cetera) and myths and legends about the creature they were fighting.
The creature wasn't natural to this world, so there probably wasn't much, but... worth a try, at least.
Scath will slow down only slightly, leaving blazes on the trees as he goes as a trail for the slower two-legs to catch up.
Hecate, asking for this sort of thing, is lead to a pitch black room, as the others leave. It isn't pitch black because it's dark. It's pitch black because the walls seem to absorb light. A few moments as she enters, holographic lights begin to dance and bob until they congeal into Skylar's form... that of a young, amber-colored Half-elven girl. She waves one hand with a smirk, and turns into thousands of motes of light.
The motes form into a terrain map, all a dull Amber, except points of interest. Everything is in the yellow-spectrum, making it a little difficult to work with, but Hecate quickly discovers that she can see everything. And the facility is shifting. Constantly. Sometimes things just disappear when no one is inside of them... she's not sure whether that's a bug or a feature. The roads have a distinct color, the trees, the fence, and Scath and Pierce have distinctive glows, as each is carrying a piece of Skylar, their icons blipping on and off to keep track of their movement. What's perhaps more interesting is that there isn't a single actual interface in sight.
"BWAHAHAHA- I-I mean, I believe this will do." Hecate said, coughing a bit after her outburst. "Please tell me you at least have a global positioning system setup, or some kind of map of the terrain you can overlay? The more we can see about what's expected elsewhere, the better off we'll be for resolving this little problem of yours. I'd like to be able to give general information about what's ahead, at least, even if we don't have many specific details."
She paused for a moment. "Also, people were acting funny when the bad guys were around, right?"
"Indeed. There are several satellites constantly watching much of the skies, and thus the land. I was not designed for managing multiple sources of sensory input, but am adjusting as best I can. By focusing on a specific area, you will deprive other functions. Luckily, this becomes obvious as you zoom in... I am not going to need to look towards Soviet Xin. It depends on what you mean by 'Funny'. I did not laugh."
"Do a search for 'idiom'." Hecate answered. "Or just consult your internal dictionary, because where I'm from, 'funny' has the meanings of both 'amusing' and 'warranting suspicion', and it's the latter we're concerned about here. People were behaving in a way that was inconsistent with their normal, expected reactions to situations?"
"Not particularly. It is not unwarranted for a guard to wish to interact with a prisoner who is doing badly. The guards are people, although we recognize the not-insignificant risk of interaction. This is why you likely have not had any significant forms of interactions with guards. While they are human in motivation, they recognize that lasting friendships have a significant possibility of dying off. They likewise recognize that many creatures that arrive here are going to indeed be monsters, and getting close to a monster can result in dead family members. As you can see, I have no family, and as such, am not precluded from any such worries. It is strictly advised against in most cases, that those who serve here interact, but it is not required that they not do so, on any grade greater than E. As I was unable to physically see the vampires even when i did look, it was actually a reasonable choice to check in on the creature." There was a brief pause.
"It was assumed that the guard was passing on a message from the male to the female. The guards the male interacted with would assume he was simply another guard as well, unless spoken to. I likewise do not handle voice imprints on every guard, and as such was mistaken by a reasonable facsimile of the guard in question's voice. These were all my mistakes, though no expected reactions were left out innately."
Hecate nodded as she focused on the areas around her... well... friends. "You might want to hire some serving staff for prisoner interaction, then. Guards should not be the prisoners' friends - ideally, they shouldn't even talk to them other than giving commands." she suggested. "Professional detachment goes a long ways, after all, and should help them evaluate requests with less bias and more caution. Remind me to tell you the story of the crystal meme-generators sometime."
"Very well."
While zooming in on the area did provide a lot more visual interaction, sound was still limited to coming from the isolated pockets near her allies. Indeed, and quite cool perhaps, as that the sound seemed to originate from the positions that her friends were. If she closed her eyes and stuck her head into the light motes (she becomes dazzled if she doesn't) she could actually hear as if she were standing in Scath's position, or Pierce's position. But further out was simply visual, and an overhead view, rather than an all-around view. Which wasn't exceptionally useful, given the thick copse of trees in the rural environment they'd apparently entered... but it was still an option, and there were clearings, and even water. If Scath continued following the same-ish direction, which seemed to swerve on occassion, for seemingly unimportant reasons... he'd hit a bit of rapids before long, though the trees moved almost up to the whitewater.
Hecate picked up her communicator and fiddled with it a bit. "Scath, can you hear me?" she asked, hoping that the system had been configured properly. Ah, old technology, so simple it was almost harder to use...
There is no communicator, however.
Scath hears Hecate's voice at exactly the decibels she speaks at, from exactly the distance she is from the light, with a maximum range of twenty feet, scaling included. For this instance, it's at about 5 o'clock and twenty feet away from Scath when she says this.
Meanwhile, Pierce, Bear, and Roy get the same effect from around 1 o'clock, twenty feet away.
In both instances, the sound distinctly does -not- come from the orb.
After a moment, Hecate realizes... the entire room is spherically shaped, aside from the floor being smooth... and the dimensions are a twenty foot radius.
If she zooms in to a 1foot-to-1foot basis, the floor actually shifts upwards to fill more of the room, light contouring along it, though this can only be done directly in conjunction with one of the two spheres, moving steadily as she zooms in, so as not to fling her into the ceiling.
Hecate is just beginning to realize... that Skylar is either a technological marvel, especially for her time... or using significantly powerful magic on multiple wavelengths all at once.
And she begins to realize, just maybe, why Skylar isn't the brightest, as she seems to be filled to the brim with 'processes'.
Ah, I love halfway-decent technology.
"There's some nasty water up ahead. If the target is on foot, they might not have an easy time crossing it." she said, looking at the map to see what lay along the river. Bridges were one thing, as were potential settlements and other areas of interest.
For all intents and purposes, the party is somewhere in upstate New York, near the Mohawk River, with a small tributary being the artificial line of water that cuts things off. There -are- bridges, though each is multiple miles away. Since you knew exactly where you were taken from, you could also use your current knowledge to know that unless those vehicles could move much more quickly than you thought, teleportation magic was most likely used to get you here from the city.
Scath looks over his shoulder at Hecates voice, realizes she's not there, and rumbles annoyed. He pats an ear with his paw in annoyance and keeps going.
At the news about water, Scath pauses for a second.
N O T S O
L O U D
Then continues on, listening with one ear for voices, but wishing she'd whisper.
As Scath gets close enough to begin to hear the water, the trail cuts away from the water and the facility... it would seem the vampire isn't even interested in seeing how deep the rapids are, or how wide.
Hecate glanced towards Skylar. "Please adjust the volume for Scath." she said, waiting a few moments to allow that to happen. "All right, the trail's going..." she consulted the map, reporting what she could about the terrain ahead of the pursuers - and keeping an eye out for any areas that seemed like probable hiding places.
"Very well. I am uncertain why you do not adjust it yourself, however." came the reply.