Catalysts: IC 2.0 Announcement in OP!

She retracted her tail from his middle body, leaving him to fix his clothing, once he woke up. She took the moment to ensure that her whole clutch was fertilised, twisting the lower half of her snake body to keep the circulation. Seeing no more need to observe him, she returned to the lobby to consider her next moves.

She could do as promised, rescue his girlfriend from the abusive parents, letting her twins absorb the energy while bringing the girl back, and growing more of the plants. Two tasks done in one go. "Perfect. Let the giver have his prize, let the guilty receive justice, let the Gemini have their blood, let the home return to glory..."

She left the hotel and made her way to the girlfriend's house. Through her chanting, their names occurred to her. Tyler and Kate. What lovely names. Hopefully Kate would not mind her using Tyler as a means to breed her new security staff. Reaching the home, she used a similar method to get into the parent's bedroom.

Preventing outcry was simple enough. As she pressed her slightly bulging belly to their chests, hissing in joy as the children extracted the life right out of them, she returned to Kate's room and liberated her in a similar fashion, taking her with speed to the hotel. By the time she was chained to the bed in Tyler's room, he was already awake, whimpering in fear of Steph.

"Oh, how I enjoy watching you suffer, how I suffered for so long." She turned her attention to Kate, somewhat more sympathetically. "Your parents will bother you no more. I'm afraid the majority of the population is either dead, or will die thanks to the police and army. I brought you here for his sake, so long as he provides me with material..." She left the room without another word, letting plants brush against her waist to grow more.

Returning to her own room, she lay down on the couch once more, taking her human form again. The bulge had increased slightly, most likely from the absorption of the parents. She closed her eyes to think. The foliage had to be grown over the walls and lights to ensure that the place would be secure in time for the first spawn of snakes, but she couldn't let her twins develop too much. Hopefully Ragnarok could help once... if he returned.

Nox recoiled at Ragnarok's touch. He spun around, nearly touching his blade to Ragnarok's neck. "We have no weapons. How should we arm them?" A policeman on patrol came around, and was jumped by the mob. One man grabbed the cop's gun. Many more followed suit from the dead police. There were sirens in the distance. But no police cars came. Only a large, heavily armed helicopter. "You think we're fucked?"

"Police stations hold weaponry. As do these corpses. We'll attack no problem." He looked about. They were doing as he had thought. Brilliant. And of course then came the helicopter. He looked up and laughed. "Oh hell no, we're not fucked. We just need a way to jump our asses up there and kill them. Simple enough, if we're prepared. I'll just need to get to higher ground before jumping onto the landing skits."

Nox held him back. "It's my turn to protect you now. He ran to a nearby building and attempted to scale it. After some deliberation he made it to the roof. He was behind the copter. It began to turn. At just the right time he jumped and landed inside.

"Uhh... Right." Winter stretched her arms out in preparation before approaching the metal door. "Stand back, this is never very predictable."

She reached out her right hand, spreading her fingers, and pushed it against the door before closing her eyes to concentrate. The mental click happened so quickly this time that she was almost taken by surprise as the door began thrashing violently back and forth like a caged animal.

It took a great deal of willpower to stand so close to the monster, touching it with her outstretched hand, but eventually the enraged door screeched against its hinges and tore off, flinging itself inward and crashing down the corridor for several meters before the life left it and it ceased its convulsions.

Winter retracted her arm, which produced a faint, rusty squeal as it moved, and felt cold to the touch for a brief moment.

She went out to hunt more people. By the time she had returned to the hotel, her children were storing the energy of five, and had grown outward by another two inches. It was enough to completely cover the lobby, as well as the first three floors, and continue speeding up the other nine. Thirteen levels in total, perfect.

That would be enough for the moment. The main thing was that the lower floors would be suitable for the snakes. Speaking of which, she turned to look at her steadily growing body. Some would die, some would never hatch in her. But replenishing them was simple enough. She smiled and returned to the hum of her room. For once in her life, things were going how she wanted them to.

"One life to one centimetre. Let them grow as they wish, let the plants transform the building. Let the sanctuary of the abandoned be formed..." She closed her eyes as a mist began to form in the lobby and the two levels. A mist that would take care of the nourishment of the snakes, without being harmful to catalysts...

Rodney only took a half-step backwards when Bloom warned him, but when the door started to thrash about, he leapt backwards a couple of feet. When it finally stopped its would-be rampage, he leaned over, gazed into the hallway after it, and gave a silent curse.

"That's some... erm, pretty impressive stuff there," he said. "I can see what you mean about unpredictability."

He tentatively stepped inside and looked around. "Looks like we need to go this way, from what I can tell."

She shrugged her shoulders and got up once more, preparing herself a rather large meal. Twenty people, a total of ten inches on her waist. Given they were twins, that would put her at six months. No problem, she had no need to wait, by gathering the energy that would grow them, she would bring their protection about faster. A balanced deal.

Scoffing her food raw, she hardly noticed as her gorgon side appeared. Her initial disgust countered her hunger, but that vanished once she was back in her better form. Rubbing her waist softly, she returned to the lobby at a steady pace, taking the time to admire the plants as the mist wafted around the ground. Perfect disguise as well as food source. And none leaked beyond the hotel doorway.

Leaving the premesis, she proceeded to hunt through the nastier street, absorbing the life out of her quota of twenty, leaving dried husks in their place. Each time, her waist grew a little more. However it was no hamper to her agility or other advantages. Swallowing a pet dog whole after shifting her jaw into an even more snake like position, she returned to her new home and set about growing out the plants.

"Let the dawn mark the beginning, let the green consume the pale, let the work be done in the darkness. Let my children come to a perfect home..." For the first time in several hours, she sat down and returned her focus to the TV. The scales had risen up past her navel...

He saw the damages being done to the helicopter and brought his laughing boomingly above the ruckus of the crowd, gaining their attention. He spoke up as news copter searchlights focused on him and the helicopter.

"I AM THE FABLED PROPHET OF OLD. NO, YOU REMEMBER ME DON'T YOU? BEFORE THEY ATTACKED YOU! I AM THE FOURTH CATALYST THEY MADE. THAT'S RIGHT, THEY MAKE US CATALYSTS! WE ARE HUMANS AND THEN BECOME THE CATALYSTS, IT IS A NECESSARY EVOLUTION! QUICKLY! LET US MARCH ON THEIR BASE CALLED FORT AURUM. NONE SHALL WITHSTAND OUR POWER."

Many looked to him with zeal and marched. They only perceived what they wished, but his intentions were made clear. He will make EVERYONE into a catalyst. Humanity WOULD be replaced.

Nox quickly dispatched the occupants of the helicopter. With no pilot it began to crash. He jumped out. He returned to Ragnarok. "We need to leave. Now." He hoped no more bio weapons would come by.

"No, onwards, to Aurum. We'll get the fucking serum. I've become stronger, Nox. Much stronger.. Shall we go on a rampage, sir Cady? I daresay they will pay for making us into what we are!" He snarled and marched flowing energy into Nox; this would make Nox doubly as strong as during his typical rampages wherein he became overpowered as it was.

She soon became bored with watching the TV, lying on her back to stare down at her waist, body draped over the other end, the lower end stretched out as the snakes continued to develop. Getting up, she went out into the hallway and surveyed the plants as they continued their accelerated growth. Already on her floor the lights were being covered.

Tyler and Kate. Tightening her lips in contempt, she made her way to their room, opening the door slowly. The wisps of mist already forming didn't protrude through the door. They were both huddled up on the bed in fright, watching something on the TV. She looked down at the ground and left them in peace.

Stopping by the spa on the same level as her room, she took special care in guiding the plant's growth. This was where she'd begin spawning the snakes, and possibly delivering the twins. Ensuring it was in perfect condition was a priority. Spongy moss was already spreading over the tiled floor, much more comfortable than the cold hard surface.

The welcome of her room was well received. Taking a break from the DVD's, she changed it to the standard channels. What she saw wasn't too surprising. "Typical. I hope you enjoy your sermon, but make sure you come home soon love. You don't want to miss the redecorating I've been doing..."

He walked with Ragnarok. He needed explaining. But first, he had objections. "We're not ready. I'm not ready. They have some fear factor too. You'll see it shortly." As if on cue another abomination attacked them. This one had an odd, emaciated look. It moved in an odd twitching manner. Altogether unnerving.

Ragnarok lifted up his left pistol and blew out it's brains almost by instinct, continuing to walk. "We're fucking ready enough. I'm going with or without you; with you provides more chance I live, otherwise do not keep this irritating facade up. I'm done, I've decided we hit them, and we hit them as hard as we can. We WILL have order and chaos balanced."

"As hard as we can is nowhere near hard enough, jackass! This is Indians vs. Predator here! And that creature? It only gets worse from here! We are FUCKED!" Didn't he get it? It was perfectly clear. The enemy was toying with them.

Ragnarok sniffed and stopped, hitting nox gently in the gut. "I can connect to their energies, dumbass. Why else would I be off in fuck all nowhere? To TRAIN. I'm ready. If you're not, then you can run yourself back to the subways with your tail between your legs, but I intend to fight and that's final." He was dead serious on this matter; Nox being with him or not didn't help anymore.

Nox twirled around and just barely touched his blade to Ragnarok's neck. "Tail between my legs, you say? I'm merely stating that we already have the serum, you can cross engineer a copy, there is nothing to gain. Unless you mean the new orbital weapon we don't know how to pilot.

Ragnarok pointed the barrel against Nox's stomach; it'd be a ricochet kill. He grinned widely. "They have the fucking changelogs, actually, so we can see what damages exsist and how to fix them. That's useful. As for the weapon, it's going to be destroyed soon enough. And you're going to be the one to fucking crash it. I hate space."

Nox lowered the blade. "You just don't want your face fucked by an alien spider with acid blood." He turned and walked on, on to Aurum, on to the twilight hours. This fight would be tough. There would be major losses. What is life but a polarized lie?

Fåil_Whåle wrote:

Rodney only took a half-step backwards when Bloom warned him, but when the door started to thrash about, he leapt backwards a couple of feet. When it finally stopped its would-be rampage, he leaned over, gazed into the hallway after it, and gave a silent curse.

"That's some... erm, pretty impressive stuff there," he said. "I can see what you mean about unpredictability."

He tentatively stepped inside and looked around. "Looks like we need to go this way, from what I can tell."

"Heh... Thank you, I suppose. Let's just hope we didn't alert this guy to our pr-"

Winter paused to consider this last statement.

"Who am I kidding, the guy practically is this place now. He knows we're here. Let's just follow his rules and see what we can do..."

Fighting off the fear and revulsion that coursed through her from the distant sounds of bees, Winter followed Dali inside the news station.

Ragnarok kept marching and smiled, preparing his other pistol. "It's quite simple, Nox. Those animals need someone to befriend them. I'm somewhat good with animals, hence my gorgon fuck-buddy." He cracked his neck as they approached the gate before smiling at the MP. "Leave now and you can see your wife and kids. Stay and you die a bloody death, that is altogether unneccessary."

Nox grew tired of the diplomatic route. He jumped into the air, trench coat trailing behind. He slashed downwards. He landed at a kneel, with his blade well planted in the second rib. He sprung up. The guard slumped down.

Ragnarok snarled in anger. "Don't ever fucking mess up like that again!" He wakled past and started killing the soldiers, preparing to assault the main office building as their milita came in. He laughed, little to no damage sustained by him or his little assistant Nox. "Right, let's just find what we came for before we leave."

She eventually switched back to the DVD's as the news became repetitive and boring. Her shirt was torn in several places from slightly bungled escape attempts, one man had managed to escape and fight back. Still, she was alone for the moment, and she didn't care if people saw her in tatty clothes anyway. Ragnarok would probably enjoy tearing it apart when he felt the urge again.

Her eyes flicked shut once more. From all the absorbing, the snakes were already close to arrival. Depending on how things went over the next few days, she would probably need them to be ready. She'd always been curios as to what it felt like to have two hundred snakes swimming around in her, probably like boiling spaghetti in a pot undoubtedly.

"There are too many fucking files! Cataclysm, Cars, Cats, Syrup, Not even saying that, ah, here. Serum. Ah, yes. I have the file. And about that flying WMD?" The satellite would certainly be a problem if the European American Union ever launched it.