Kavax raised an eyeridge at the sight. He then grumbles sort-of-quietly to the others. "This conspiracy is looking shadier and less intelligent by the moment. Also, I have a steadily rising urge to Destroy things, particularly that warehouse. What do the rest of you think?"
Carlos shakes his head, "Not until we can confirm if Jessica is there or not." He gives Kavax a pat on the shoulder... or would if he was able to reach, "I think we should get to solving that."
"If you want to destroy something, destroy that door. But let me go in first."
Kavax snorted out a light puff of smoke. "You know me. I have a tendency to be hard on doors. And I don't have anything against the warehouse as a whole, but I'm pretty sure at least one of the things in there is on my kill list. But there's probably others that aren't. So, charging on in recklessly, or do we have a plan?"
"We don't have enough information to go in with much of a plan. But there may be a Hunter in there, and we're trying to get her out before it's too late. We go in, stick together, and we move cautiously without staying in one place for too long."
The hunter agrees with Jerry, "The plan checks out, let's see what we ca find out, did Jessica give you any information?"
Tiring slightly of the discussion, Amelia walked over and tried the door. If it was open then this bickering was less than useful, and if it was not they'd need destructive powers.
Amelia grabs onto a metal plate that seems roughly where a door handle should be. She can get a grip on the edges but it barely budges. Next to the metal plate is something that has a lot of buttons, a screen, and a few other flashy bits.
A large figure sends a trash can flying back towards the flame throwers, one blast ends up mostly in the sky. One ends up stumbling down, a chunk of it dropping off...
Clearly, the numbers formed some kind of code, but Amelia had no clue how to solve such a riddle. Nor was she so inclined to waste the time. Instead, she stepped aside and gestured to Kavax. They might as well force the issue while at least some of them were busy outside.
Amelia grabs onto a metal plate that seems roughly where a door handle should be. She can get a grip on the edges but it barely budges. Next to the metal plate is something that has a lot of buttons, a screen, and a few other flashy bits.
A large figure sends a trash can flying back towards the flame throwers, one blast ends up mostly in the sky. One ends up stumbling down, a chunk of it dropping off...
Kavax contemplated the warehouse. That door looked well reinforced. But had they paid the same attention to the walls?
He then simply charged at whichever of the door or the wall next to it looked weaker, building speed and then slamming into it like a wrecking ball.
Paralyzed with action, it isn't until the avatar of destruction makes a solid smashing noise as he charges the wall. It isn't long before Carlos jumps and wakes up from what was going on.
"What the---"
He was about to say something about structural integrity, but then again, you couldn't cry over destroyed doors. The saying did not flow right and he was happy he did not say that one out loud.
The ground shook as the metal buckled and cinderblocks crumbled under the impact of Kavax's destructive charge. A large fist size hole was made through to the interior - dim light, hissing of machinery, and a few voices became apparent.
The people in the hazmat turn as well at the noise. Now several feet away, one turned his flamethrower towards the hunters.
Her sword-blade flicking out of its handle with a clack Amelia spun her other hand in a circle, trying to bar the enemies entry. More specifically, she attempted to bar the fire there mechanical wands could shoot. Being burned alive was a constant threat for anyone with sorcerous talents, and she did not enjoy the idea any more in this time than she had in her own.
Carlos sees the impact and immediately draws his shotgun, "Stand back." he didn't want to shoot, not knowing the full situation, but hoped it was enough to dissuade them. "No one has to get hurt, we're here for one reason. Where's the angel?"
Kavax briefly turned increduously toward the flamethrower wielders.
"Hey, I pretty much said I was going to wreak havoc. Why act surprised, and do you really think a flamer would bother me any?"
He then turned back to the small hole and worked on making it bigger, hard claws and draconic strength tearing at crumbling concrete and twisting steel, at least until he had a hole big enough to walk through.
The flames veered off wildly at Amelia's magic, the heat and flickers making through. Amelia could tell the barrier would not hold long without reinforcement.
Carlos's stern words caused one hazmat suit figure to pause, though turns towards the others "The Major has a lot of subjects in these warehouses, but I'm not sure if any are Angels...
As Kavax rips himself an opening, he can hear muted commotion. Now able to see through, there is some sort of metal walkway, waist high walls with electronic components, thick tinted glass that reached up to the ceiling. The lights on the other side is far brighter, and Kavax can see a person on the other side who looks like they're shouting, but barely hears anything even with his impressive senses.
"If you are unsure, then we shall check," Amelia said cheerfully, checking the hole the now hopefully unconcused Kavax had torn open. She looked inside to see what was happening, maintaining the barrier to keep the fire off them.
Not wanting to rip a hole in a wall without using it, Kavax goes first, then looks around on the other side to try to see what might be going on.
Looking around, Carlos raises an eyebrow at the man in the hazmat suit. "The Major?"
As Kavax entered the large jagged hole, he steps onto a metal platform. Looking around, he found a row of observation booths. While each is large, most of them only have one occupant, a couple of booths have 2, some are empty. In front of each booth is a digital display with buttons and switches.
Which of these is the biggest threat is hard for Kavax to say as he's not familiar with all the types of people here, though the dragonkin in the booth in front of him are likely ferocious enough as is the familiar face far to the left. The biggest threat would be whoever caught all of them.
Some of the occupants are agitated, but most look well enough for being trapped in very brightly lit boxes -- except the one in the booth next to Jessica. She has what looks like bruises of various ages over brown skin with large mottled grey patches.
From outside, Amelia and anyone looking in can see the metal platform, what appears to be thick glass and electronics.
Amelia saw the buttons, and knew full well that she would not be able to do anything with them. Instead she moved in and saw the booths. "Ah. This may take a while to free them all. Where are all the keys?"
Amelia doesn't see any key holes, but she does see small sliding metal doors over slots at the bottom of each door.
Amelia moved in, and spotted her angelic ally and the young girl. She moved to the door, looking moderately frustrated at only being able to see a door hatch for food rather than a handle for opening the blasted door. "What use is a door with no handle? It does not open like the doors at your markets at my approach."
Shrugging off being ignored, Carlos moves in and sees the room full of curiosities. "What is going on here?" Heading into the room, Carlos looked toward Kavax.
"Let's try to avoid brute force here for a minute." He speaks out to try catches Amelia, "There may be a control panel... Almost like an automated guard post."
He looks around for some kind of device to unlock the cells. I really do not want to use magic here and shrink people out of those holes but I mean...
Kavax moves in and prowls a bit, waiting for when brute force was needed again. "Real question might be; do we let them all out? Actually, can any of the beings in there here us?"
Figuring he'd go for some level of familiarity, Kavax stopped in front of the cell containing dragonkin and tapped on the wall, considering if he actually had any idea how to operate the panel any. He could always just jab buttons at random, but that seemed unwise.
Carlos can see the panels has a variety of buttons, with a variety of symbols and colours. Maybe there is a code here.
When Kavax tapped on the glass, the dragonkin turned towards him - confused and a bit expectant. That close to the glass, Kavax can see on the other side that seemed to be an intercom and spotted near it on his side a wide black button with a speaker symbol on it.
Amelia sees that her frustration with the door seems to have caught the attention of the injured captive who is now crawling slowly in Amelia's direction. As the captive gets closer, Amelia can see dried blood around her nose which looks to have been recently broken and her eyes are tightly shut.
"Get her out of there!" Jerry calls to the others. He stays at the doorway to discourage the people in hazmat suits (and whomever they're fighting) from coming in.
"But a moment, we need to free these people." Clicking her tongue in annoyance at how pointless and needless complex people had made things in this age - was a steel bolt not secure enough? - Amelia considered what she knew. Doors required bolts of some kind, even if they were inside. Focusing her magic as best she was able she attempted to force the locks to open.
Looking over at the others and their door-opening experiments, Kavax spoke up to them first. "If it comes to where you need me to rip doors out of walls, just holler. I'm going to try to talk to some dragonkin here. They might be more keen to respond to someone with the old draconic reverb in his voice, maybe can tell us about whoever locked them up."
And with that, Kavax cautiously, not wanting to destroy the panel, pressed the helpfully labelled speaker button with one taloned finger.
"Hey, I'm probably not who you were expecting to hear. Name's Kavax'Kaotl. Was wondering who you guys are, and who it was that went and locked up a bunch of creatures here, and why. Also if you have any idea how to get the doors open. Without melting them and setting everything on fire, that is."
Carlos moves to the coloured buttons and starts tapping them at random. Really, it worked with most of his other plans so why wouldn't the mundane world be any different?
"Wait... Magic?"
He sees Amelia trying to channel something, Of course, the time traveler would have magic. Right. Of course.
While one of hazmat people seems to be keeping an eye on Jerry and the hole everyone else went into, the rest are preoccupied with the large figures who have started to get more aggressive. One slams into the warehouse. More drones have started to come in over head.
As Kavax hit the button, it turned red. In response to Kavax's calm words come a hissing noise - not hostile, just a hiss for a few moments. The more feminine of the two dragonkin responds, "We were caught by some of the Order - this is their work. she gestures towards the ground. Under her feet there are white runic markings against the light grey concrete foot. "With them, we're all experiment or magic power fodder. There should be a door unlock button there somewhere - though even those Order ones mix it up sometimes" The other dragonkin gave a growling chuckle.
Amelia hears a satisfying click of multiple bolts sliding back at once - seconds before she sees Jessica summon her flaming sword and a loud thud echoes around the warehouse. It catches the attention of some of the other captives as well.
Kavax briefly looked over at the others, then shrugged. These dragonkin felt... familiar, anyway.
"Well, might as well try. Hopefully none of these buttons kills everyone in the room."
And with that he also tried hitting buttons, starting with any that looked door-open-y labelled, and avoiding any with skulls on them.
Well, it sounded like something had happened, but it didn't seem to a problem for this moment. Amelia tried to pull the door of the beaten looking girl open. Jessica's flaming sword suggested that the wrath of the heavens would visit any who attempted to harm her.
"Wish me luck..."
As Carlos taps, the panel buttons get brighter - some seem to cause a very annoying buzzing noise above Jessica's head, the others make different light panels in her cell get brighter as the buttons on the panel do.
As one near the neighbour cell gets brighter, the injured girl, winces and turns away, stopping her slow crawl.
Kavax's first few tries make a buzzing noise and light up a couple others with no noticable effect yet, but then he comes across a suitable circular button that causes the sound of a bolt unsliding which helps him find the other buttons.
It takes Amelia a bit longer to get this one undone - this door seems to have a lot more damage to it than Jessica's and things keep shaking
One of the large figures throws a dumpster towards the warehouse at some distance from Jerry, but their aim is off and it lands within a meter or so, causing the ground to shake. The hazmat guys struggle to get them to back off. One of the other large figures is leaking some black liquid.
Shoving the door open, Amelia glanced at the damage with mild concern. That was probably OK. "Apologies for the delay. Do you have need of assistance in making a rapid and complete egress from the room?"
There didn't seem to be anything else keeping her there, but she didn't seem at all well.
Opening the door fully, the brightness of the inside of the room is startling. There are lights everywhere. The floor seems to reflect it somehow.
The girl turns her head towards the door as it opens, eyes still closed tight, "Your friends, Jessica? a young, ragged voice. She turns to crawl towards Amelia, "I'd be more rapid... without the light...
Another sharp voice, "Don't. You there, don't let her out of the light. She's shadow-addled, unstable."
Amelia paused, caught between wanting to help the young woman and wondering what in the hells was 'shadow-addled' and what it had to do with the situation. Or who the voice was.
Standing in the door way, Amelia can see a blurry shape where, looking through the glass, she had seen Jessica. There are other blurry shapes in the other direction where the voice came from, one of the other captives.
As the girl crawls closer, Amelia can hear her breathing is pained. From what little Amelia has seen, it seems the girl is - or possibly started as - human and something altered her. The grey mottled marks across her brown skin, maybe a sign of the shadow-addled. Whatever that was, the girl wasn't responding the remark and has clearly been harmed recently in this facility.
Amelia tsked. "The girl clearly hurts within the light. Would reducing the light make her more comfortable while you explain this 'shadow-addled' business?"
Shadow addled?
Carlos had heard stories of things that lurk in shadows, he was sure almost every person had, but the specifics are always different. Boogeymen, umbrites, there were a thousand different creatures that went bump in the night (as well as the titular Bumper).
"What are you? What harm could be drawn here?"
Kavax searched for the source of the voice, while continuing to work on opening the door (or just opening it if it was already fully unlocked.) He planned to scratch a hole in the binding circle just in case as well.
"Hmmph. Who are you that we should trust your word?"
Through gritted teeth as she continued to crawl, "Bedimm. I am a Bedimm, not 'shad--"
"Child is a Homo Sapien who thinks she's Homo Obtenebricatus, tragic really..."
"Should a Kimaris butt-kisser use Latin? Won't you burst into flames?"
The other voice chuckled. Kavax can see that the person appears to be a sharply dressed androgynous black person and the floor beneath them, unlike the other rooms, has sigils in different colours. They turn and somehow look directly at Kavax through the glass.
"Didn't say anything about trust, but surely you wonder why we're under these lights? It's all for Bedimms - and her - their abilities require darkness, our hosts want to experiment with that like the rest of us but they can be unstable - especially an emotional changed one like Rai. Last person to go into her space when the lights were low enough for her to eat broke her nose - after she'd broken his and the door frame and...
A couple feet from Amelia now, "Jessica's friends didn't capture us, didn't take my bondmates. They're letting us out, not experimenting on us -- right?" there was a tone of a barely hanging on by a thin thread of forced hope in her pained voice.
Carlos's sharp wits notice that there is damage to the wall opposite the girl's door and the floor outside of it that would take a lot of force to create. While her injuries look significant - and possible would put someone of a similar size and age down if she was still fully human with no magic experience out of commission, it's likely this one is not as weak or frail as she appears or wants the Hunters to think.
Carlos also notices that there are 5 rooms with people in it - and one room that just has a large box.
"Maybe you aren't as weak as you're making yourself out to be." Carlos moves over and puts his hand up, framing it with his face, "That damage tells a completely different story."
Looking at the others, he idly moves to the room with the box. "And what could this be?"
Pandora? Surely it wouldn't be that obvious.
He started thinking of that one episode of Doctor Who, and decided that he would unfortunately become a curious cat.
Kavax looks between the 'Bedimm' and the 'Mystery Person'.
"Heh, I'm hardly one to judge someone just because they're immensely dangerous and lash out at people who lock them up. As long as they're willing to play nice and don't do anything to get on my bad side. Besides... old experience tells me that the kinds of people who run these operations are usually far more dangerous, and frequently worse monsters than anything they lock up."
Amelia listened, and opened the door. "Indeed, I am not one of the creatures that operate this place. Nor would I be quite so breakable, and some of my friends even less so. I'm sure the young lady will understand that so long as she does no harm none shall come to her. As to yourself...?" She racked her memory for what the words the girl had used might mean.