Arrival: Accusations & Strange Acquaintances

Found at Wikimedia © Copyright Andrew Balet
and licensed for reuse under this
Share Alike Creative Commons Licence.

So Nicois being taken to meet a bunch of scientists by a possessed gunslinger and his seemingly unaware apprentice. It turns out the scientists are hanging out in one of the few intact buildings within a university campus in the boroughs. Heading inside without being halted, she soon spots a dozen folk lurking about the cafeteria who respond to their entry with shock and grabbing at their weapons. Naturally Nico surmises they have no real defences and not that the defences customarily don't bother McCormack (the possessed gunslinger.

Nico is taken into a laboratory where several scientists bustle about but her attention is immediately drawn to a German man in his middle twenties with a multitude of facial piercings (eyebrow, lip, ears), little black horns and little claws instead of nails. She immediately accuses him of being a demon to which he blithely responds that they are merely coral implants from pre-Arrival times. She doesn't buy that. After all, the Arrival was twenty years ago. Unless they implanted him before the age of ten it just couldn't be possible. Upon finding out that he trained as a heart surgeon before the Arrival.... Let's say that the only reason why she didn't shoot him right there was because she was on his turf.

The obvious demon, Dr. Alvin Gruber, shows her a recording of his documentary from Germany where he debunked supernatural phenomena and it does show his 'implants'. All this does is convince her that there must have been demonic possessions slipping under the radar pre-Arrival.

Allan McCormack seems thoroughly amused by her declarations though he's not uncouth enough to laugh outright.

Finally, Dr. Gruber explains that the scientists have another mission for her after the destruction of the Snuffleupacus. They want to get the creature’s brain using their refitted ambulance but the noise would likely draw some critters. Gruber offers her a silver sword for her assistance.

Nico offers to provide cover by drawing monster attention to the destruction of the nearby leaper nest. They were next on her agenda, after all, and with the Snuffleupacus dead there'd be nothing to reduce their numbers anyhow. She elects to go gather up a posse from Bob's Home and Warehouse 13. She heads off on her own while the cowboy does his own thing though they plan to meet up again later on at Bob’s Home.

Nico drops by Bob’s Home first and brushes off his queries about the amulet, saying she hadn’t gotten what she needed to make that deal with Styx yet. She figured that with a bigger reputation she might be better positioned to bargain her continued assistance in exchange for the amulet. She drummed up some support for the leaper nest clearing out and then headed off to Warehouse 13 to finish gathering her posse.

Of course she needs to sleep out in the field but that's a whole other post.