She instinctively clings to her with both arms, even with how much pain her left, dislocated arm is in. Carrie is a whole foot taller than Chong Yang, not to mention that goth clothing tends to be bulky and heavy, so it's definitely not the most comfortable carrying in the world. She's trying her best to breathe in and out slowly, trying to force herself to stay calm despite her pain. She's not in a lot of pain, but she's pretty sure that's just because it feels like there's more adrenaline in her blood than actual blood cells. When she calms down, this is all gonna hurt like hell.

She glances around, trying to stay focused despite the fact things keep going to chaos every time they stand still for more than two seconds. She's mostly making sure that Chong Yang won't accidentally drag her into a ray of light, because this isn't exactly a great time to be ousted as a fanta.

She politely but firmly tries to wriggle out of Chong Yang's hold. She doesn't want to risk getting turned into a husky- not when she's injured like this and can't dash back to the shade. She almost falls in doing so, but manages to stay on her feet despite her lingering dizziness and the adrenaline making her shaky. She tries to speak, and finds her voice is shaky and a lot less confident than normal, but still there. "Thanks, but I..." She tries to get rid of the waver in her voice. She hates sounding scared like this. "But I can't call the police if you're carrying me."

She grabs onto another shelf to stay balanced, nearly tearing it down by accident until she steadies herself again. She's very conscious of the light coming from the nearby window- she feels her skin prickle and the hair on her arms raise whenever she's near UV. She tightly closes her eyes for a long moment, trying to shove the dizziness away. She doesn't have a concussion, but she's never dealt with pain anything like this before which isn't great in a situation like this.

"You should get out of here too." She manages. She glances around, making sure Kali has already done so, and considering she doesn't see the kid anywhere, she hopefully did. She nearly falls trying to keep herself balanced, and the dizziness worsens for a long moment before returning to a dull buzz in the back of her mind, but she stays upright. "I don't have a phone with me, so you should probably call the police, not me."

(He's really only meant to be mentioned in passing but ye I'll put him down under NPC's)



Every time he touches something for more than a moment, she tries to make him let go of it. Occasionally she even resorts to (lightly) smacking his hand, like how one dissuades a toddler. None of this stuff really annoys her that much, but she acts like it does. She especially dislikes it when he touches pictures of her family, though that mostly applies to the photos of her husband. She doesn't care quite as much if he messes with a picture of one of her many cats.

She lets out a quiet, but audible, sigh of relief when he stops messing with her stuff and chooses to lean in the chair instead. She adjusts her papers again, making sure to put her calendar stuff at the bottom of the pile and work documents at the top. "Are you done wasting my time, Xavier? I'm very busy, and you're distracting me. We can discuss meet-ups when I am not in the middle of research, and when I'm not actively working."

'Researching' sleeping cats, she means.

Her phone then beeps. It's a work notification- her computer would've beeped too if it wasn't closed. She pauses in her glaring at him to check the notification, and huffs. "Check your phone. New mission. New target." She casually shows him her phone screen so he can check. "They better be paying you extra, making you go in and out like this."

"Is he..." Chong Yang wheezes. "Is he out for now?" She stumbles back to let Carrie straighten herself. The lizardfolk is sprawled across the floor, dashes of dark blood across his sickly green skin. He doesn't seem to be moving now, save for the faint twitching of his hands tipped in claws. For good measure, Chong Yang prods at him with her foot. Or tries to, at least - what she ends up doing is kicking him, because she can't quite control her shattered ankle and the next best thing she can do to move her foot is to swing her leg.

The man gives a strangled grunt, tries to push himself up, but ends up flailing to the ground and muttering a string of curses.

Alarmed, Chong Yang grabs Carrie's arm. "Keep him down. I dunno, like, keep hitting him with that shelf or something." Carrie is definitely stronger than her, and in better shape, solely due to the fact that she could stand on both legs. Leaving the job up to the other girl, Chong Yang drags herself along the shelves a few steps away so she could at least not worry about getting whipped by a lizard tail, and pulls out her phone.

She hesitates.

Could she afford to be questioned by the police? There was no question about it that if they arrived, she, Carrie, and most likely Maya, the other girl, and the cashier, would all be requested to remain for witness testimony. She has no qualms with being a witness and helping out getting the dangerous lizard man dealt with so he couldn't hurt more people. It's just...

Fire no longer crackles under her skin, but there was no telling when it would return, a single spark exploding into an inferno, feeding the monster somewhere inside her. Earlier, she had burnt the magazines, so it was bound to be easier to control. Slowly, she taps out the number.

But this is the police, and if she so much as slips the tiniest bit, it would be all too easy to connect her to the accident years ago, the investigation she had barely been able to slip away from. If she calls the police now, they might search her record, and find that she was too close to that specific building at that time to be a coincidence. Her knuckles whitened as she clenches her hand around her phone.

But then there's the lizardfolk! And Carrie, an innocent who got involved in this stupid mess, and then everyone else who may get hurt if the man was allowed to go free! What to do, what to do... she thins her lips, feeling her spine lock up, rigid vertebra by vertebra.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the decision is made for her when her ears pick up a wail in the distance. Her eyes go wide, and she can't deliberate any longer.

"I'm- I'm really sorry!" Every muscle screams as she makes a run for where she had last seen the cashier, hoping for some back door she could exit out of. She can't stay until the police come. So rushed was she that her leg seized up and she staggered, crashing into Carrie, sending her sprawling into the long panes of light cast by the windows.

((Thanks! I only just needed his name to be there because I have a terrible memory and I don't want to name her husband as some rando later xD))

Xavier sighs, giving the most dramatic eyeroll he has had the pleasure of doling out today. "Damn right," he huffs, pulling out his phone. "Can't even get enough time to have a proper chat. But crime doesn't wait, I suppose." As is his style to overly dramatise everything, instead of clicking open his phone like a normal person, he spins it once, tosses it into the air, and snatches it back with a shallow bow before smugly leaning back into his chair and swiping his finger over the screen. It lights up and indeed, a message from his higher ups sits front and center in his notifications.

His relaxed manner begins to melt away as he reads the mission briefing. There are times where he can mess around, but official business is never one of those times. The document is pretty standard, opening with a mess of codes and names of the various people that it went through before getting approved to be sent to him. The payload, though, is interesting.

He sits up straight, eyes intense. A influential businessman had been outed as an Anomaly, reported by his secretary in private to the Corporation. A whole book's worth of pages follow, detailing things from his company's work protocols to his personal habits. So far, the man hasn't shown any signs of aggression or ill intention to those around him, but Xavier knew too well that it wouldn't be the case for long. Better eliminate a problem at its root than to let it sprout and grow, tangling everything around it into something unrecogniseable.

With a graceful swing of his legs, Xavier is standing, the hem of his jacket sweeping out behind him. This would be exciting - the word "Infiltration" hangs in his mind even after he slips his phone away; it has been quite a while since one of these types of missions. It meant he would be alone, and as much as he loved his team, nothing could quite beat the thrill of a solitary task.

"Albert Guneysie," he muses. The man is no doubt paranoid at this point, knowing that any one of his moves could spell disaster for him. Even if he didn't know his secret had been reported, he wouldn't want anyone to find out and report him, after all. Or, Xavier thinks with a trill of excitement, the man could have already called guards to him, trying to defend against the inevitable.

He goes over the document once again in his mind, focusing on the floor plans and the information about employees and their locations. Then, he swings open the door to the office and steps out, twisting around to give Freya a wink. "Thanks for agreeing to drive me there, Freya."

Carrie, who had smacked the lizardperson several more times to try and help, crashes onto her back with the sun in her face. There's a strange sound, like a quiet vacuum, and a slight pop. In the short timeframe of the noise, maybe half or even a third of a second, the girl vanishes.

In her place is an equally startled dog. It looks to be a husky, though if so it's the most massive husky in the world. Over its fluffy body, looking a little baggy now against its fuzzy but thin legs, is the exact same set of clothes Carrie was wearing. Even the lipstick and eyeshadow remains, though it looks ridiculous on the fluffy creature as opposed to its edgy but pleasant look on the person. It lays there surprised, fluffy grey legs splayed awkwardly in the air, for a short moment before quickly getting to its four feet, staring at her with its strangely expressive face, blue eyes wide.

It stares at her, stiff as a board, for a long moment. Carrie's clothes are comically unfitting on the canine, though by what feels like an extra bit of magic they are somehow staying on. It's injured in the exact same ways Carrie was, its tail hanging low and its breath heavy. It seems to be visibly resisting the urge to let its tongue hang out one side of its mouth. It stays like this, staring and still, for a long moment.

It then dashes for the door. The moment it's out of the light, the sound comes again, and Carrie re-appears, nearly falling in the process. She grabs one of the upright shelves in a quick attempt to balance herself and not fall on her face, almost knocking both the shelf and herself over in doing so. She shoves the shelf away, keeping herself upright while the various items fall loudly to the floor, hurrying away. She may not be as hurt as Chong Yang but she's still injured, so she's not as fast as she could be, but she runs for the door, visibly avoiding any natural light poking through.

She sighs in exasperation, hiding the fact that se would very much like to get out for a while. "I just got it fixed a week ago, Xavier. Remember last time I 'agreed' to drive you?"

He most definitely does- it was another oread run-in. That girl's been frustratingly hard to catch since the majority of any and every modern area has lots of stone and metal which she can vanish into. He'd almost gotten her this time, getting closer than any other attempt, but she'd managed to get into Freya's car, start it, and drive it at top-speed into what was supposed to be Xavier and ended up being a local bookstore, which by some miracle was closed. The only person who got injured was oread, which is what helped him get so close in the first place, but none of them came out on top that time and Freya wasn't pleased to see her car in the middle of the nonfiction section.

"Besides, I need to leave in an hour and a half anyways. Lily hasn't been eating and I need to meet Daren at the vet." She huffs. Lily's real cute. She's some sort of munchkin-calico mix and a very sweet and equally fluffy elderly cat. She still acts like a kitten though. "I need to make sure she's okay, and I'm the one who pays the vet either way so I need to be there. I can't be waiting 20 minutes for you to beat up a businessman. It's a 15-minute drive there and back to begin with, and that's not enough time."

Not enough time unless they hurry, that is.

At first, Chong Yang thinks it's her ears that have popped from sheer stress, but when she shakes her head, she quickly catches sight of the dog that hadn't been there seconds ago. A large dog, dressed in clothing, with makeup smeared (applied?) over its face. The dog stares at her, and she stares right back at it, wondering if all the pain had now caused her to hallucinate.

There's gotta be some explanation for this. She does feel dizzy, but everything else around her is solid, real, so what's up with the dog? It takes her an embarrassingly long time to get her head through the thick of her injuries to also notice that Carrie is missing.

"Oh." Her mouth drops open with a staggered inhale. Carrie is a Fanta, just like herself, except Carrie didn't know she was a Fanta. The sirens wail in the background, growing louder every second. "We need to-"

"Hey!" She yelps as the dog whirls away, knocking over a shelf in the process. "Wait! Come back!" Clenching her jaw, she grabs hold of one of the still standing shelves, using it as a brace for her to clamber carefully over the fallen mess, trying not to fall over or sprain her ankle and make everything worse than it already is. "They'll take you away!"

But the dog is too far already, headed for a door that was likely locked. Chong Yang rubs her arm, the coolness of the store chilling her skin as the heat of adrenaline lifts. There's too many things going on right now. This feels like lab class, where every single one of her groupmates seems to have found a completely new way to destroy something and ask of her assistance.

Her vision swirls as she finally lands in a crouch on the other side of the barrier of twisted metal and strewn goods. A bag of chips crunches under her foot as she sways to the side, trying to catch her balance.

"The back door should be open-" She calls, hoping the dog can hear her from wherever it is. It has to be able to understand her. Carrie was human, barring the ability to transform, previously, and humans understood speech. She hopes that it would be able to infer what she means and not cause more complications at the moment, because now, she needs to deal with the issue of the cameras.

A few more steps takes her to the counter, and she pauses, heaving in breaths, trying to relieve her nausea. Surveillance... surveillance. The computer sits at the corner of the desk, shoved into the corner between the cash register and a wall of sticky notes. Grabbing the mouse, she clicks around, hoping her erratic gestures would activate something of use. She knew she should have taken something related to computer science.

"Screw it," she seethes, and ducks under the counter, reaching for the cables. Leave the computer stuff to the computer kids. The power is easy enough to cut. Now, the hard drive... If she is lucky, the videos are stored locally. Seeing as this is a gas station, it's highly likely. "Come on now," she murmurs, slamming her eyes shut in concentration, letting a trembling finger alight on the back of the computer. All the times wishing her power would magically disappear, this would be a good time for it to actually work.

((Do you want to have Carrie run into the police or some Corporation agents?))

"And I paid for it, so I see no problem whatsoever." Xavier grins as he settles into the front seat, swinging a leg over the other. The knife is out again, twirling and dancing through his fingers in the way that he knows Freya hates, because the light from outside would always end up getting reflected into her eyes. Somehow.

He hums when she hints at the oread, but his expression goes icy. "We'll have to catch her soon. Boss wasn't happy about it." Xavier wasn't happy about it. Lives had been lost and endangered due to that monster, and there had been nothing he could do about it during their first encounter. His ability is expansive, permeating space to every nook and cranny, able to wind its webs around any Fanta and tie their abilities down, but he can do nothing about solid rock - the girl had figured it out as soon as she was swimming through the pavement, invisible to his senses.

Ah, but the past is the past. Next time, the oread isn't getting away. Damien and Callum had seen to it at his request, and the stage was set. The next time she pokes her head out, she would be leaving the encounter without it.

"Oh Freya, dear," he breaks into a laugh. "It's an infiltration mission." The mission briefing had said nothing about whether or not Freya had to participate, so that was entirely up to her. "Or, well, it's supposed to be." He waves a hand. "The Corporation can handle the fallout. All that matters is that our Mr. Guneysie pays his dues." The curve of his lips turns sharp, sharper than the light glaring from his blade. "I'll be out in 10."

((If you have an idea for it, go for it!))


She dashes out the door, trying to ignore the pain. It's at moments like these that she wishes she had healing powers instead the ability of turning into a massive hairball. She's got enough things to worry about without being injured in a place that's most definitely going to be swarmed with Corporation agents in a short few minutes. She's already got to deal with her friend, who isn't exactly safe to be around when stressed, and now has to deal with some random gal knowing she's like the walmart version of a werewolf. She's not even sure how she could possibly handle the latter- she's thought about it, but thinking is different than doing.

She rushes back to the tree she'd hid under, urgently grabbing her stuff and hoping that nobody's going to stop to question the visibly wounded teen running out of a wrecked store. She hurriedly puts everything back in her backpack, glancing around hoping she's not going to see any chimeras running around from Kalli getting too stressed. Thankfully, she soon spots Kalli, who is stressed but not massive amalgamation of 2 or more animals stressed, and quickly takes her by the hand.

She hurries towards home. She really wishes she had a driver's license, but as a 16-year-old she decided that she wasn't ready then. Plus, it's not like she can drive now even if she wanted to- abruptly changing forms, one of which doesn't have opposable thumbs and can't reach the pedals, isn't great when you're at the wheel of a multi-ton mass of steel going at least 15 miles per hour. Kalli hurries behind, though even with Carrie injured she's still faster than her small friend.

"Well, we have her identity, so- stop twirling that knife you're going to break something." She casts him a frustrated glance, then continues. "So asking her family might be a good way to track her down. They might know her whereabouts, so if we can find that out it's just a matter of breaking whatever rock she's hiding in. I suspect she also knows about those other two, so her capture might make the other two's easier by proxy."

She glances at the screen as he finishes talking, eyes moving back an forth a little as she reads something. "Looks like there's a whole lot of activity right by that area. Little bit north- up by that Urhmaker house that was on the news a few months back." She puts one finger lightly to the screen, moving her finger downwards as she reads through the list. "Lots of theft. Complaints about some run-down barn with lots of shattered glass in it- hurt their foot, apparently. Lots of oread sightings- twice with dead bodies, once with a girl that 'seemed weird', once with the other iads, several times with one of the other iads. One dryad sighting, vanished into a tree like always. Some weird kid threw half a pear at someone and they claimed she had inhuman eyes."

She sighs exasperatedly and shakes her head. "That whole place is fanta central, I guess. Be careful."