Comet, destruction of dinosaurs, 50%? These were all words that were new to Gregory, and he tried to picture such a thing in his mind. It wasn't that he was mentally deficient, it was that he had never had an education growing up. He could however dicern the urgency in Raider's voice and combined with what Gregory could understand, meant that they were in trouble. Everyone was in trouble, and Squiddy might be able to save them.

Thinking about how such a thing was possible, gave Gregory a headache.

Doug says,

"10 miles? That's a bit heavy, even for me. If I could get up there, then while I held my breath I could throw chunks of it away. But that seems a little... small."

"What can we do about this?"

Raider looked at Doug, "Honestly, I'm not sure. It's going to depend on the resources these guys have at their disposal."

Looking at the questions in Gregory's eyes, Raider decided for some visual aids. He pushed together a small pile of dirt and found a good sized pebble. Gesturing to the pile, "pretend that is the Earth, our planet. This pebble is the comet. Now watch what happens." Raider threw the rock at the pile and there was a puff of dust and a big hole in the pile where the rock hit. "That's what is going to happen to us if we don't stop it." He looked around the room, "I don't know for sure that these Aberrants ARE trying to stop it, some of them may actually want it to happen, I wouldn't put it past Squiddy. But the important thing is that these guys may be the only hope of stopping it, so I think we need to make contact with one or more of the people in charge here and find out more info. We don't have time for sneaking about any more."

Looking around again he sighed, "Here's what I think we should do. Courier, and Anna, I would like you to pretend to be my body guards, and have Gregory follow us at a safe distance to keep an eye out and rescue us if the need arises. Anyway, I want to talk with one of the leaders in the morning. Right now I need to do one more scouting mission before I get a little rest. I really need to see what's in that dome."

Anna nodded at Raider, glad that he seemed to know what to do. It was an odd picture to see someone like her obviously scared to death.

Can that really happen?! Gregory was horrified at the demonstration provided by Raider. He realized that what might happen could kill everyone. Maybe even himself.



"I can do that." Gregory said with a smile.

Doug nods and reshapes his eufiber into a totally black suit with a full black mask. He looks at his arms and the suit forms big black 'veins' which run down his arms and then spread across the rest of his body. Some of the 'veins' become spikes and then claws. He says,

"What do you think, does it say 'bodyguard'?"

Raider looks at this man he has known for a long time now and reevaluates him. If he didn't know the man he would be intimidated, hell, he did know him and he could see just how dangerous he could be. "Yeah, that will do nicely."

Anna watched as Doug got into his disguise and thought quickly about how she could appear as Raiders bodyguard. Having no better idea she thought she'd be more intimidating without her ragged clothes. Hesitantly she dressed down to a tank top and matching shorts putting down her clothes neatly folded as if they were very prescious to her.

Taking a deep breath she concentrated a moment and started growing even larger until she reached almost double her size somewhere close to 16 feet, the little pieces of clothes she had growing with her immense bulk.

"This ok, too?", she looked unsure at Raider and Doug.

Gregory thought Doug's outfit was cool, if not a little creepy; considering Doug's earlier actions. He looked just like the aberratied beasties of the Blight. Mentally gregory put that image away to use if he needed the services of a 'spike monster'.

"Whoa!" Gregory whispered to himself at seeing Anna grow into a giant woman. Soon, he followed the de-robing of her undergarments, by a hasty removal of his own. Yet unlike Anna, he had never learned about modesty or shame when it came to be naked. After a few seconds, he was standing in the dark cold, and damp tunnels, naked and oblivious to the elements.

From inside his mask Doug said to Anna,

"That's fine. It's very..." Doug briefly searched for a word other than trollish and decided on "...strong looking."

Seeing Gregory disrobe he decided to not comment.

Raider grinned, "Damn! Yeah, that'll do very well. You can relax for a bit. I need to check out that dome first so that I have a better picture of what's going on here, then I need a little bit of rest. We'll go meet the aberrants in the morning."

Waving to everyone he became a ghost and disappeared again. His plan was to appear in the ground near the dome and float up and inside to see what was going on. He had a feeling that it was a big piece to this puzzle.

Anna shrank back to her still huge size and quickly put on her clothes and smiled nervously at the men. She already missed the other women since she felt a lot more comfortable around them and hoped they'd be back soon.

Using her powers she shaped the earth at their camp to provide more comfort and sat down in what resembled a huge two-seat couch of her size. Nervously she waited for the morning. Now that she knew that imminent danger was close she had difficulties to keep her anxiety in check. Every once in a while she looked around nervously and winced each time she heard a noise.

It looked like everyone was going to wait until tomorrow. It was fine with Gregory. He found himself a place to curl up and sleep, still in the nude.

Hours later ...

Outside the sun was still below the horizon but already forcing it's light over the horizon. Orange light illuminated a quiet city covered in a fresh snow. The occasional aberrant moved through the streets on an early errand. Below the streets Raider drifted through the cavern walls and into the room once more. Finding the others asleep he felt himself tempted to get some rest before telling the others what he had found.

Raider yawned and settled in for a short rest. (If anyone wakes and notices him settling in he will ask them to wake him in 4 hours.)

Anna waited impatiently for Raider to wake up. Her nerves itchy at every sound and dance of light made her rest virtually impossible. She didn't know how much time had passed but she decided that Raider had enough sleep.

"Raider... please wake up. What you found?", she tried to wake him up carefully. "Raider... Raaaiiider?", she kept repeating in a low but insistent voice.

Raider woke up after only 4 hours and would have loved more even if his body didn't really require the sleep, it still felt better to get a full night sleep. Yawning he looked around at everyone, "Ok, I guess that's as much rest as I can affoard. Let's get this show moving. Doug, Anna, hopefully I won't really be in danger, or you guys either, but if things get ugly I'll say the word "Crap". That'll be your cue to commence being violent. If we run into a mindbender, and for some reason things get tense, and I don't give you a signal within a few seconds start attacking. I'll make a gesture like this," he moves his hand in a hold gesture, "if I want you to look threatning but not actually attack. I think that should cover it. Gregory, is up to you to rescue us if things go bad."

Unless anyone objects he'll lead the way toward where he believes the leaders should be. On the way he explains what he found in the dome.

Anna removed the baggy clothes again folding them neatly where she just sat. Nodding confidently at Raider she said, "I understood", and started to grow again until she reached about double her former size. Annas growth kept her proportions in relativity which made her already huge muscled body appear even more unrealistic in shape and size.

Doug puts his spear heads in his outfit, checks to make sure he's still all spiny and intimidating, and he's ready.

Gregory woke with the rest and watched them prepare for the day. He would shadow them so that they didn't even see him. Keeping an eye on Anna should make following them easy.

The four make use of the new access tunnel to exit out into the basement of a nearby building. Courier, his eufiber making him look like the Shrike's younger brother, shoves a massive stone over the opening to ensure that the tunnel will not be found while they are away. Raider leads the way out followed by Courier and Anna, he green skin deepening in color as it absorbs the early morning sunlight. Behind them Gregory slinks out of the building and begins to shadow the group sticking to the shadows and rubble that line the streets still as the group moves forward.

Raider leads the way to where he believes the city rulers will be. Along the way he prepares what he plans to say and reviews yet again everything he knows. Just before they arrive he will phase out one of his hands so that his ghost form will already be active. If this goes badly, I sure don't want to waste a single second on transforming.

Doug looks at each of the people walking with him to make sure their "in character", if he sees something that would help or that's off he'll open the link and say so.

As the group exits the tunnel and the first rays of the morning sun covers the land with warmth Anna yet again doubles her size topping at about 30 feet. Looking at Doug and Raider she says, "I'm a bit scared. I don't like fight. What do you expect, Raider? What you found out in dome?"

"I really don't expect to fight them. I think they will take a look at us and decide to listen rather than attack on sight. But be prepared just in case. The dome is a massive foundry. They are making and recycling literally tons of metal and shipping it off via train. But they are sending the trains out using gateways rather than actual transport. That is definitely leading me to believe that the real leaders are off somewhere south. My guess is either Florida, Texas or the northern part of South America. Those were among the biggest launch facilities before the burn. At least on this side of the world. I really hope they aren't in China or India."

Gregory continues to shadow the group while he listens to their conversations. Florda? Texsass? South America? China? Indian Gregory was not sure where where these places were, if they were even places, but Raider seemed confident about them. It seemed that Raider had also come to the realization that the leaders were elsewhere.

Doug sees a flaw in all this,

*Raider? If the leaders are in Texas or Florida... who is it we're approaching, and where?* (Doug forwards a similar message to everyone).

Raider frowned, "The real leaders may be elsewhere, but there still has to be someone or some group in charge here and that's who I'm planning to approach. What I need is to know what they are doing to stop the asteriod, then I can put my mind to either helping or maybe redirecting their efforts. Can't do any of that until we find someone who knows though."

The group head out and an hour later they approach the base of the gleaming tower. As they made their way through the city none of the other aberrants made any move to stop or even question their presence. Now as they approach the building two mostly human looking aberrants move to interpose themselves between the doors and the group.

One of them gives you each a thorough looking over before he asks, "What the hell do you want?"

Surveying the area the three of them notice that there appear to be active security systems including automated defense turrets, closed circuit video, and the guards seem to have hands, free radios active. Given what Raider had seen inside it was of little surprise to him that the building would have defenses but he was a bit amazed to see how apparently high tech the facility was. From the look of the weaponry there were at least two directed energy weapons and another half a dozen conventional ballistic turrets just within the fifty or so feet from the main entrance.

Anna tensed up visibly as she looked around trying to assess the situatiion. She really hoped that they could avoid a fight. Trying to put on a more self-confident mean Anna copied Dougs stance and took a deep breath to calm herself down.

Doug remains silent and tries to project an aura of indifference from behind his mask.

Raider scowled at the aberrants, "I want to talk to someone in charge, and there isn't any time to waste."

The aberrant makes a face that conveys a the thought Who the hell do you think you are making demands? He shakes his head, "Yeah, piss off. What makes you think they give two craps to talk to you, eh?"

Raider expected the response but hoped to avoid this. "Several reasons. First is that I know about the asteroid, and have been to it. Second, I can help with the efforts you are making. Third, I'm James' brother, and while I'm not quite as cranky as he is I have my moments, and I'm feeling one coming on..."

Still hidden, Gregory tensed up as Raider identified himself to the others. Gregory didn't see how Raider revealing who he was, was going to help, but then again, they were the smarter ones. Maybe he knew what he was doing.

When Raider threatened to have an epidode, Gregory felt sick. Raider now getting crazy like Doug?!

The guard looks unimpressed and begins to tick points off on his fingers, "Oh, so you know about the clearly visible every night hammer of doom? Big deal. You say you can help, personally I don't know squat but I trust that the bosses will take care of it, their ass is on the line too. Third ... ummm ... who?"

He turns and walks back to the doors joining the other man, "Take a hike whitey, we aren't intimidated."

Raider growled in his throat, but said, "James is one of those bosses, but he's at the other site right now. So, Take me to whoever is in charge in the city at the moment."