Gregory was still worried that something in those tunnels made people crazy.

"He going crazy." Gregory responded to Calypso. "Raider too." Gregory made a symbol with his hand as if to ward off some sort of evil. "The tunnels are evil."

He looked over his shoulder at the large woman. "Can you heal sick head?"

Doug nods in agreement and pats KB's shoulder. After a moment he says,

"What's hurting the town is a lack of unity. This might be a learning experience for it, for us."

She didn't understand what Gregory meant and shrugged a little. "I heal..." struggling for the right words she hesitated, "if it bloods... ah, bleeds? You mean this?"

Then after giving it a moments thought she added, "I cannot heal crazy." making a circling gesture next to her head while pointing with a finger at it.

"He's not crazy," Calypso sighs. "Listen...I'll try to explain if you want, but it would make more sense if it came from him. He's not going to hurt you. He didn't hurt any of the rest of us, see?"

She holds her arms out and spins around to show him that she is, in fact, intact.

"And I haven't been down there, so you know I'm not crazy."

Gregory still felt uneasy. "Raider was in tunnels too. He says crazy stuff. Then Steve kill stranger. I will go crazy too, don't want to hurt friends." He looks over his shoulder as is to imply that the woman with the muscles was his friend too.

"I don't know this place but if friends are in danger... you should help.", stated the large woman sitting behind Gregory.

"If you want, I help, too.", she offered, trying to win Calypsos sympathy. She appeared to be a nature spirit to her... much as Gregory. Maybe her punishment proved to turn out for the better to her.

Gregory tilted his head back and brought his arms up in frustration. "I know you not cray." He then levels off his gaze to meet Calypso's. "I will head back, because I trust you. I still think he wants to hurt more people."

"If he tries to hurt my new friend, will you help stop him?"

Gregory motions for Calypso to climb aboard. "Hop on."

Calypso eyes the horse. "Is there room?"

She adds, "And if it looks like he's going to do anything like that again, I'll stop him."

With a wave of a hand she indicates the snowy surroundings.

"We are in my element now."

If she can find a spot on the horse, she'll awkwardly climb aboard and hold on for dear life.

The large woman reached down to help Calypso obviously strong enough to carry her with one arm. Placing her right behind her she said friendly, "Hold on... horse is very fast".

Hesitantly, Seven took Raider's hand and gasped as she felt herself becoming insubstantial. She let herself glance back as they drifted through the woods, towards the hidden tunnels.

Raider moved the two of them as fast as he could, but that wasn't any faster than the average person could run. He was going to have to learn a faster method of travel soon. He really wished he could fly like Courier, those times he hitched a ride had been a ton of fun. He was already used to floating upwards and hovering above the countryside to get a better view of places and to make maps and things, but to be able to zoom around the way Courier did would be great. As he thought about it, he tried to put on a bit more speed and thought maybe he was moving just a little faster.

It still took much more time than he would have liked though. Finally he sailed through the ground to avoid the tunnel guards and resurfaced after a minute and made the rest of the way using a his small flashlight to find the entrance. Once inside he smiled and let go of Seven's hand. "Here we are, it's not much, but it should be safe. When I get back I'll have Courier fly KB and I over the city to the tunnel entrance so that we don't take so long. Here take this lamp, but don't go exploring. Just sit tight and I'll be back as soon as I can." He smiled and waved. On the way out he sent to Courier, *On the way back.*

An hour later...

Courier and KB are sitting by the fire the only sound to be heard is the light wind through the trees and the crackle and pop of the wood burning. In the distance the sound of a horse at full gallop begins to cut through the ambient noise. A minute later a massive horse, of a breed never seen before enters the clearing bearing Gregory, Calypso and another being huge in stature and clothed in rough cut and loose robes. The three dismount before the campfire Gregory watching Courier suspiciously.

As Doug is about to speak a message comes through the link:

Sitting atop the beastly horse, Gregory points right at Courier. "That him! He the one!" Now that he had the newcomer's attention, he began to dismount. "What did you do to Doug? Where is my friend?"

If he begins to move closer, Gregory will shout to the muscle girl. "Don't let him get close. He will kill you too."

All of it was a ruse of course. Gregory wanted to teach Courier a lesson in trust.

Seven frowned, her nose wrinkling as she smelled the air. Why didn't he want her to explore? She nodded at Raider as she took the flashlight to show she understood and sat down, letting her nose to start cataloging the smells.

Doug pauses as Raider sends his message. He briefly considers walking over but decides Gregory wouldn't take that too well so he says,

(To the newcommer) "Hey there. I'm Doug. Pleased to meet you."

(To Gregory) Doug says evenly, "You know who I am Gregory. You've watched me fly, you've seen my strength, and you can feel me in your mind."

"You might not have seen the Doctor but you saw the brand new tortured body, and then you saw the monster wearing his face. You're the one who told me."

"Do you think that was the second person he'd tortured to death for his amusement? The hundreth? The thousandth? What do you think I should have done? Let him get away, kill someone else, and then come back wearing their face?"

Is he telling the truth? Gregory wasn't sure. The totured body still had him freaked out. It had reminded him of his parent's bodies after the aberrated monsters killed them. He fled as they began to eat his parents. This whole scenario brought back so many memories that he had wished to forget. If his eyes were not already crying, they would see that he was crying in rage and fear,

"I don't want to see toture and death!" He railed at Doug. "I don't want to think that my friends are same as the 'Things' out there!" His hands gesticulated to the West towards the Blight. "I don't want to think I am becoming like them!"

Gregory collapsed to his knees in the snow. Soft sobs could be heard from him.

Calypso comes up behind Gregory and spreads her cloak around him in a comforting embrace.

"It's all right," she soothes. "Everything is all right... He's not like that. You'll never be like that..."

Still keeping his distance, Doug sits down and rests.

Dismounting from the huge horse the large woman stands just there unsure what to do. She has never been welcomed before like that - usually strange folks would make a detour around her or just run away. Her hood still covering most of her face she smiled at Doug and nodded towards him.

"I am Anna, I want to help - I mean no harm."

Looking over to Gregory she continued, "He said you in danger - and snow Spirit said - Friends stay together. I want to be friend.", Anna spoke with a heavy german accent.

She didn't understand what was going on, but her intentions were sincere.

After a moment of awkward silence Anna stepped carefully closer to Doug, keeping him between her and the campfire. She watched the fire suspiciously as she slowly lowered to a crouching position.

"I was banned from home - people think I'm Monster, but I got feelings and soul. Crying boy said you are danger?" she pointed carefully at Doug.

"You got mindtrick enemy?"

Anna tried to be very carefully with her motions, not wanting to rouse any suspicion or hostile intentions.

Gregory reaches out with a hand and grabs Anna's leg. "He has no mindtrick. He just kills people he thinks are bad." Gregory shakes his head as he rises and approaches Doug and addresses him. "We were all there, and you killed him. We could (have)questioned him first. Then if he shapeshifter, you kill him." A tiny smile comes across Greg's face, as he reaches down and grabs handful of snow. After making it into a ball, he throws it at Doug. "Don't do something like that again!"

(To Anna) Doug says gently,

"I don't think you're a monster. English isn't your first language is it?"

(To Gregory) Doug lets the snowball hit (very oddly it bounces) and says evenly,

"If we'd talked to him he'd deny it and try to get away, or maybe try to kill us by shifting into a stronger form. He was very dangerous, so I treated him like he was very dangerous."

"But it's done now. Squid only had the one shapeshifter. This shouldn't happen again."

Anna nodded to Doug. "I come from Germany... where am I now? You not british, I think."

She smiled a little, relieved that the situation has unwound.

Nodding towards Gregory she added, "He was very scared - you hunt bad people?"

Doug draws a very crude map of North America on the snow and says,

"You're in North America, East Coast, right about... here."


Doug nods seriously and says,

"Very bad. He was a real killer, liked to hurt people slowly."

"My power is strength, but also speech, if you allow I can talk to you directly. Ask the others, all I can do is talk." Doug taps his head.

Anna nodded in response to Dougs words.

"I need to trust - so you can trust me. I said to him", pointing at Gregory, "that I want to help. I need new home - don't want to be hunted like Monster... but I look like one...", Anna lowered her head looking to the floor as if she was guilty of something. Her huge appearance beliying the fragile person inside.

Doug attempts to create the link,

*Can you understand me now?*

Anna looked surprised as she perfectly understood Dougs voice.

*"I do... I understand you perfectly."*

Then her surprise changed to fear, *"Are you the Mindcontroller? Please don't make me hurt the others, I beg you!"*

Anna almost stumbled backwards with fear in her eyes.

Anna nodded slowly and willed Doug out of her mind and relaxed as she felt his presence leave.

"I'm sorry...", she stuttered... "I just... I don't want to hurt... no one."

Doug sends the mental signal that would let Anna re-establish the link if she allowed.

Trusting Dougs words she let him re-establish the link.

*"I am so sorry. I've been hunted like a rabid dog and most people I meet either run away or try to take advantage of me. I was lucky to have settled in a small village somewhere in the center of germany but once they discovered how I looked underneath these rags rumors started to spread. Within a week they brought me to the elders of the village and banned me from their midst. I didn't realize the extend of their punishment - they believe that America is the land of Aberrants... like me - but I'm not."*

Gregory seeming to recover, Calypso just sits back on her heels and watches the semi-silent show. She's guessed that Doug has done his mind communication thing with her, and wonders what they're saying.

Snow spirit. Heh. She kind of liked that.

KB watches in silence, her face shows her to be thinking on something else, only paying the barest attention to the conversations.

Some time later, perhaps forty minutes, Raider returns, drifting ethereal through the trees and into camp. He sees that Gregory has returned and that the group is joined by some ... thing, huge and wearing voluminous robes as though to hide it self from sight.

[OOC – Nobody has yet noticed Raider’s return given his phased out state.]

*****

Underground Seven sits alone listening to the sounds of silence broken only by the rare sound of water dripping.

Doug talks slowly and clearly and at the same time sends what he's saying to Anna,

(To everyone) "She says she's from Germany, she was banned from a village for being an aberrant and sent to America."

(Mostly to Anna) "The line between Aberrant and Nova isn't as sharp as we like to think. Lots and lots of novas have a few aberrations, it's the rule rather than the exception."

"We have a kid back in the city who has so many tenticles that you can't see his skin. He also has the mind of an 8 year old. Unless he really is 8 years old he's just barely on this side of the line."

"That's the real difference between us and them; Insanity."

(If anyone else says anything Doug will send it's translation to Anna at the same time).

With hope in her voice Anna said, "I can stay with you? You not sent me away?"

Gregory walks over, picks up his clothes, and gets dressed. If everyone was leaving, he didn't want to leave them behind for someone else. It was all he owned. The clothes, maple syrup and the small pistol.

He waits silently for Raider to take him into the tunnels again.

Doug replies (again mentally as well as verbally)

"You can stay, we don't send people away for looking odd."

"Speaking of being a nova, if I may ask, what do you do? I'm strong, can fly, and have this speach thing, KB here..." (Doug nods to KB)

"...can control the weather, Gregory you've seen. Cal, Seven and Raider I'll let introduce themselves."

Raider calls out from the edge of the clearing, "I'm back." Seeing the huge newcomer and hearing Doug's words, he adds, "I'm Raider, by the way, and at least one of my powers should be pretty obvious. I'm also pretty smart and I can do some basic healing." Looking to the group he adds, "So who is next? Since we don't have Adam to make a warp for us this is looking to be a long night."

Anna removed the hood of her cloak, revealing her face. Her eyes were like liquid Amber without pupils and her skin had a healthy green tint with a texture that reminded of mapleleaves. Dark brown hair framed her average looking face and she smiled motherly. Her rags revealed a little of her neck and her collarbones which obviously belonged to a heavily muscled body. Her voice sounded warm and sincere "I can heal wounds and command the earth. I speak to animals and trees, they help me in danger. If I in much danger I grow like strong tree to defend. Earth gives me power."

She looked around trying to see how the others reacted to her appearance.

Calypso nods, not seeming put off by Anna's looks...but perhaps the ride had warned her that Anna wasn't a normal human.

"I am Calypso. I have learned to call the water. Waters of seas, rivers, this snow and ice, even the water in the sky. It moves as I will."

She glances at Raider. "Where is Seven?"