Seeing Chiasma went to his knees, Heather flipped her badge holder around and spoke a prayer in Old Norse. [img=100x100]http://i.imgur.com/Vg3YZ8v.jpg[/img] The valknut glowed as if it were in bright sunlight, illuminating the area, and healing energy flowed into the mercenary. Heather crouched and pulled Chiasma's right arm over her shoulders, then straightened to help him back to his feet. "No time to waste, let's get to that door."

Huddled behind a mailbox, a crouched figure is watching the mass of zombies and seemingly taking notes. He continuously points around as if trying to follow lines before returning to jotting things down in a small note book. His shoulder looks singed, it's likely he's faced one of these creatures already.

"Lungs work, this is not puppet theory animation as the anchoring runes would suggest. Sudden appearance indicates it may be a manifestation but physical attributes are solid so they are not to be counted or treated as ethereal. Vessels of will? Hivemind behavior? Power clearly comes from outside source, may be the robed.... difference in rune color is significant.... Power reaches from white to the orange, variation of sponge theory animation most likely.... Is robe the source? White powers orange but what powers white? Aetheric currents to busy to tell at the moment, moon help us if there's more than one white source but white being THE source does not sound any better."

The figure continues to hide behind the box talking to himself, so focused on the creatures he has not yet noticed there may be anyone else around.

[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/mcjiggs-characters/]McJigg[/url] notices the sudden appearance of magic behind him and quickly turns around. "Black runes... runes may denote a coding language for function instead of order of relay..." He drops the notebook on the ground and creates a null barrier in front of himself as he braces to absorb the blast. He begins to give off slight teal glow with the activation of his powers. "Beautiful beast, highly complex, who or what made you..."

McJigg is fully taken aback. "SPEECH!?". With the approaching zombie he tries to take a step back but bumps into the mailbox. "Forget sponge animation theory this may be remote possession, but the more importantly..." McJigg extends his hand and with his powers tries to attune to one of the runes on the zombies leg. "Are these anchors or corks?" He yanks on the arcane geometry of the rune as if trying to dislodge a part from a construct.

"Corks then." McJigg gets tackled but remains standing as he's pushed against the mailbox. He tries his best to grapple the zombie, grabbing it's arms near the runes. Beginning to siphon the zombies energy he diverts it to himself to bolster his own strength. "I still don't understand your purpose though. What does any of this achieve?"

"Ugh..." McJigg turns to face the zombies as he shakes his arms in disgust. "Really? Retribution?..." He removes his jacket and throws it on the ground, looking to the robed figure and shouting "More zombies? Look, if it's a pokemon battle you want... Mailbox! I choose you!" McJigg delivers a kick the mailbox and expends a good amount of the energy he had absorbed from the first zombie. It goes flying towards the charging zombies.

From her jacket pocket, Heather pulled out what looked like a small soda bottle. She holstered her pistol as she shook the bottle, then opened it and let the carbonated holy water, blessed by a Rune priest working out of Clarkstown, spray over the nearest of the undead.

McJigg starts rushing forward, he did not like the looks of the arcane circles and runes that had briefly appeared in the air. At this point he finally notices the other two fighting zombie from the other side. He shouts out to them "Don't let the robed man cast anything!"

There were still three zombies to get through and McJigg had already expended most of his absorbed energy kicking the mailbox. He would attempt to expend the last of it to vault over the zombies and charge the robed figure.

Heather drew her pistol again and reloaded with the special magazine; the one with silver bullets that had been blessed by her mother, a more learned Gydhja of Freya. She was not in time to prevent the robed mage from summoning his reinforcements, but perhaps she could prevent him from summoning more. She aimed carefully, firing from a Weaver stance and letting the weapon settle before firing again, and again...

McJigg lands on the other side of the zombies only to be faced with an archer aiming at him. He'd freeze in place a moment as his brain tried to decide what to do next, it could have been his end had Heather's silver bullet not knocked the archer down. In his rush to try and stop the summoning he now found himself caught between two groups of zombies and no absorbed energy to take advantage of. It was a bad place to be and he needed to get himself out. Step one, McJigg lashed out his powers at Jackie to start absorbing energy. Step two, McJigg would use this energy to speed up and run round to Chaisma and Heather. He could redirect Jackie's energy to them if he could only get there, they seemed much more prepared for combat.

McJigg pauses in the flames, unable to reach the others in time. He thinks as the flames begin to creep in, watching the archer raise from the corner of his eye. He needed a stalling tactic, he could maybe still get out of this if he had time to hatch a plan.It was the oldest trick in the book, but it was worth a try. Could he bait the villain to monologue? Moving the arm that was reaching out to Jackie, it now aims at the archer at the archer. Hoping the power drain will slow it, unsteady it's aim, buy time. He thought back to what one of the zombies had said to him and decided to speak plainly.

"If I'm to die for retribution, I'd like to know what debt I owe. What the city owes. What possible transgression demands the deaths of those unaware and to what end does it serve? And for clarity... what is 'Necrobian'? An order... or a lord?"

"Nooooo!" McJigg shouts in panic. "We need him for answers, without him we know nothing!" He steps back as another wall of fire appears, the zombies closing in. Expending the energy he had drawn from Jackie, McJigg releases a shockwave that would hopefully be enough to knock the zombies off their feet and stop their fire from closing in further. To those who caould not see magic, or don't know of his powers, McJigg would begin move his arms somewhat erratically. To those who could see magic, McJigg was beginning to establish and manipulate some ley lines, his goal was to create a power funnel of sorts. A siphon to drain the three zombies of their energy and direct it to Jackie. This would give Jackie strength, hopefully enough to hold out a tad longer, but it was in no manner a healing spell... This process would need about a minute to complete.

McJigg quickly places his mask back on before getting up, ignoring Chaisma's hand. He writes Chalice in the note pad before putting it back into his pocket. "McJigg." He looks and points down the street at his acid burned jacket. "If you care for my badge it's in there." He looks to Heather. "Tell me Detective, do all your interrogations end with a dead perp or just the ones we need to question to stop an Apocalypse?"

"The precinct house in Coventre has a fiber optic link. Not sure if it's still up, but unless you know where their local HQ is?"

McJigg returns his gaze to the group.

"I think that's a solid plan of action, we'll swing by the merc's stash for some gear and head to the Coventre precinct. Detective, if you would be kind enough to call in and let them know we're on our way. Try and get an update on hotspots of activity, while normally I'd love to stop and help out this is an active event to stop. I think it would be better for us to go around and get to researching while others coordinate relief. There's a chance we're going to need to planeswalk to stop this at it's source, so you should both consider some basic survival gear. All we know about the source dimension is that magic humans survive there. Are we all in agreement?"

The path back to the supermarket parking lot was still relatively clear, and Heather's car was still there, with the shopping cart still in the empty space adjacent. She pressed the button on her fob and the trunk popped open. Pushing the bag of groceries to the side, she pulled out a backpack, opened it, took out a pair of magazines, and squeezed the last two boxes of .45 ACP into the pack before zipping it up. "Anyone using nine mil?" She asked, gesturing toward two boxes that remained behind the wheel well.

"I wouldn't be shocked either, better with us than left to wake and cause more havoc alone. The plan is to return him to his people however, a small gesture that I hope my bring a more diplomatic end to this. There's no telling how big the cult is, but with their own dimension I'd hazard a guess at... large.... You're right though, handcuffs would be a good precaution. Have you a set with you Detective?"

McJigg placed Jackie beside the van and stood up, stretching his back. Physical strength was not a strength of his.

McJigg went to the bathroom door but didn't open it, he instead drew a sigil that glowed teal. Opening the door, it no longer connected to the bathroom, but somewhere... else.

"I won't be longer than 10 minutes, but if I'm to return, this door needs to be shut with the sigil intact. If I'm longer than 10 minutes, it means I'm also grabbing snacks for us."

McJigg went through and closed the door.

"On to plan 'c',then." Heather pulled a compact out of her pack, opened it, and started whispering in Old Norse. Then she set it down on the workbench, and soon a Chinese woman who didn't look old enough to have a daughter carrying a Detective's badge appeared in the mirror. What she said was not audible to ears not already attuned to the mirror in the compact. Heather's side of the conversation was clear enough. "No, I'm fine, Mother...Does the house phone work?...Great! Can you call the precinct, let them know my radio and cell phone are both out, and I'm headed to the Coventre house with PITT agent McJigg?... Thanks!...Down to the lake? Why would you go there... That almost makes sense. Good luck, and Freyja watch over you." Heather closed the compact. "My mother is going to try to pass on the message, so they may be watching for us at the Coventre Precinct House. What do you have in the way of a saber, about 30 inches long?"

Heather reached for a hilt in the Arcane box, on the theory that at this range, a decent melee weapon would be better than using up ammunition. It came up attached to what looked like a spatha, but as she pulled the sheath off, it [I]shifted[/I] in her hand, the hilt gaining a knuckle guard, and the blade narrowed down until it was nearly a match in weight, length, and balance to the sabers she'd used in fencing, although this blade was slightly curved. But she noticed it had no button at the tip, and she was certain that the edge was much sharper than those fencing blades. There was no time for practice swings; she tested the tip by lunging into the central mass of the construct...

McJigg bites into a peanut butter sandwich as he puts on his combat gear, nodding his head to the music playing on a nearby iPad. He chooses the leftmost mask from a lineup, all physically identical but enchanted differently. He places some basic tools into a backpack along with a box of granola bars. He seemed set to rejoin the others but his favorite song came on.... What else could he do for three minutes? Dance and get hyped up was almost the obvious answer but then he remembered portal stabilizers may be important if they needed a way to return to their home dimension...

Heather examined the edge of her new blade, looking for damage, and noting the valknut just above the crossguard. "Oh, I will be reporting this, and trying to get a warrant, too, once I'm done with my post-apocalypse paperwork. Assuming I can find a surviving judge, that is. *sigh* If only I could trust you to not clear everything - questionable - out of here once we're done saving the world." She turned to McJigg, "Isn't it a shame that so few criminals are worthy of trust?"
Looking in the box again, she found an empty scabbard that looked like it might have held the spatha. On inserting the tip of the sabre, the scabbard shifted to match the blade, which Heather slid in up to the hilt before attaching the scabbard to her belt.

"With my luck, it'll take a few days to find a reasonable judge. But only a few days."

McJigg presses himself back against the closet door to dodge the javelin, it pierces the dufflebag. Having been looped around McJigg's shoulder it drags him to the ground.

"Space manipulation! be very careful with your bullets!"

McJigg reaches into the bag and throws the first object he can grasp at the robed figure. Turns out that object was a granola bar but McJigg's hand remains outstretched as he begins his signature power drain.

Heather drew her sabre and stepped forward, slashing down at the shotgun's barrel with the suddenly glowing blade, hoping to at least knock the aim downward enough...

McJigg gets up having freed himself from the duffel bag's handle. He grabs the javelin and charges the robed figure, the power he had drained now being used to run faster. The blunt end of the javelin was aimed at the head for a knock out blow.

Heather turned to locate the mage, and saw McJigg charging at her as she cast a spell on the body. Was she recovering the body? Heather moved in as McJigg and Chiasma made their attacks, her sabre flaring brightly as she struck at the arm that had parried McJigg's strike, whispering a prayer to Freyja to guide her blade through the mage's defenses.

McJigg hops towards the back of the room, it's getting crowded for his liking. He drops the javelin and reaches out an arm at both the teal robed lady and Jackie, beginning his power drain once again.

The sabre was not the right weapon for cutting through ice, but as soon as the thought passed through Heather's mind, the blade shifted again, becoming a combat chopper about two feet long, and much thicker but just as sharp. She began attacking the barrier, making a hole and enlarging it so that she could cast a healing spell at Chiasma, hoping that it was enough, and in time, to stabilize him.