Part 3 - Recovery 1.0

"Yeah Im okay," Elans hand squeases his own hand, the two of them flying though the air like a pair of steriroid fueled frogs. At the end of the tunnel a pair of slidding wooden doors with paper squares sits open for them, the tunnel coming to an end behind them. Touching down in Soul Society the doors close, then vanish. Vaporizing from the bottom up as a mist until the particals vanish into the air he sighs,"Well I guess we have commited to this now. I suppose we should head this way?" Elan smiles and catches her breath.

"Yes, the town we are looking for is supposed to be about two miles up that path. We had to drop in a little farther away than I would have likeed but any closer and someone might have either stumbled across us or sensed the door opening," It was good reasoning, a random person spotting them could be the end of their whole trip as they may raise some kind of Soul Society intruder alarm bringing Gage and Elan to the eyes of the Shinigami.

"Well it looks like your stay has been extended indeffinaltly until we can get this all cleared up. I hope you guys have enough stuff to stay comfortable," Pulling out three wooden planks with several runes carved into them she stands them on their ends so that they are in a triangle to each other. Touching one after the other she speaks the words to a Shinigami Kido that causes a flare of green light to beam up like a collumn. Once the beam hits a hundred feet it flares outward like a canopy and shades the entire village with its red light. Once the sides of the red canopy hit the ground the a ripple of white energy goes out, turning the red energy clear so that the canopy is see through but that is not what Gage see's. He can feel the energy of the canopy still there, hoving just above them in the sky like a cloud, deafening his over all ability to sense energy in the surrounding area on top of sealing off the edges of the village entirely so that he is blind.

Waving Gage smiles, if he was so warmly welcomed to this town then he must at least act the part and wave, prove he is freindly and maybe the people would be willing to guide him where ever he is going. Walking towards the woman Gage and Elan pass several other people that just stand and stare at the two of them, probably curious as to why the Soul Society would have come out here. The mother, whos face went from mild worry to pleasant and happy, greeted them. "Hello, I can't beleive that the Gotie had responded so quickly to our calls. We were getting worried that there was going to be another outbreak before you were able to show up."

Gage was at a loss, not sure of how he should respond to her comment of the Gotie being called out here when Elan speaks up. "No, we got the call and we were nearby so we decided to come out as soon as we could. Can you tell us what is going on? We got a less than accurate report." The womans face fell a bit as she concidered her next words.

"Well the chances are that you were not misinformed. We have had something going around. It is killing people all over the village, the simptoms only lasting for a few hours before they go away. Then within a day they seem to die without warning, the body turning black and liquifying into the soil." A scream echoes behind one of the buildings nearby but the walls of trees all over the landscape has made it so that it is difficult to pinpoint any particular location based on sound. Closing his eyes Gage feels around the area until he finds one body that is drasticly losing energy and another nearby leaning against one of the buildings.

Turning around Gage looks at the crowd and asks as a whole, "Did anyone see who started this?" A man coughs as he looks away for support from the crowd but no one speaks up. Frustrated he steps forward," Fine then! I set it! We are all going to die unless someone does something to stop this plague! Who is going do it you?! You might as well be infected with how close you got to Fero!"

Gage stares at the burning house, not wanting to put it out using Soul Communication in front of everyone. A chill goes down his spine, his left hand resting on the hilt of the sword at his hip. Something was wrong in this little village, something big enough to get his attention but small enough for him to not be able to spot it off the bat. He doesn't get bad feeling all the time but when he does it is almost always something serious, his gut telling him to keep his eyes wide and ready for anything that might be coming.

"Wait a second, did you say Fero? Where is he?" Gage looks back at the hysterical man and around the crowd to see if and where his contact is, maybe that he would be able to spot him nearby.

Gage
Elan

"Just relax, we are students that are looking for extra credit and have gotten out on leave," Elan straightens her outfit and smiles as she strides through the crowd up to the shinigami. Gage following in suit does not smile, his mind to distracted in trying to look like he was supposed to be here. "Hello, what brings you guys this far out?"

The two shinigami are each about five foot nine, the female on the right wearing the same robes as Elan and the man wearing matching robes to Gage's own. At least their outfits are similar. Speaking up the woman smiles and waves at them," We were dispatched when the Gotie got word that there might be some kind of illness going about. We are supposed to get a situational report on whats going here and get back to the Gotie with that information. What are you two doing here?" Elan laughs lightly before clearing her throat.

"Well we are actually still in the achademy and are on leave. We were looking to maybe involve ourselves in something productive to get some good marks with the Gotie, that way we have a better chance to get into the squads that we want." Elan laughs and shoulder bumps Gage so that he has to speak up, even though he really has no idea what to say. "Yeah, I am not the greatest at book learning but I am better with a blade than most anyone I know so I will not get passed up if I can help it."

Everyone is distacted as they search for the source of the scream that no one notices the man stagger out of his hut, the same man that had started the fire in the first place. His eyes, red and swollen searched the crowd before he fell forward to his knees and began to cough. Gage spots him and starts forward when the female Shinigami intercepts him,"No, this has gotten serious. If this disease is spreading this quickly you need to stay away, you shouldn't be this far away from the school in the first place." Turning to the man she takes a knee beside him, patting him on the back after sheathing her blade.

The mans arm reaching out to grab at something begins to fumble in the air, the shinigami stepping backwards to keep her distance incase he was infected. Then the most disgusting transformation began, his skin starting to bubble and tear. Growing larger and continuing to grow in size until he was the size of a horse the raises his face to the crowd, the skin hanging loosly to the bone underneath. Opening a massive distended jaw it roars, the final dredges of skin falling away until its is nothing but a massive black body with a single white bone mask.

"Everyone back!" Leaping backwards the Shinigami calls out,"Gilly! Get everyone back! We need to keep this thing away from the people if this is contagious!" Gilly acts without speaking, lunging about the road, pushing and guiding the frantic civilians away from the fight.

"Gilly, You handle that thing and I'm going to put up the barrier. The Gotie are going to be here in a few days so we have to keep everything sealed down until they arrive." Gilly nods and lifts the club again before dirving it home one more time into the body of the spider hollow, its body twitching and its legs scraping at the ground to get away from the Shinigami and his bug smashing tool.

Finishing the barrier she stands, the barrier large enough to impress him but not large enough to feel like he couldn't take her. "Alright, until this thing is all straightned out we are going to be under lock down so make friends, we are going to have to take shifts watching the totems so that no one breaks the barrier and leaves with what ever this thing is. Nodding his agreement Gage speaks up,"Alright, I will do what I can. My name is Gage." Reaching out with a hand shake she looks at him a little oddly before taking it and smiling back. "The name is Jool. Fifth seat in the Kido Corps. That is Gilly, ninth of the 11th squad. Nice to meet you."

At first Gage couldn't help but look at ear of the hollow as being a human soul just moments ago but after the fourth or fifth one, the giant scyth like hands nearly decapitating a woman on the street, he started to realize that they were more monster than man. Elan had a hard time getting used to it, the hollows dieing roars all sounding like the death cries of a human to her. It had to be the screams that pushed her to dive into the study of the Soul Society culture so indeapth.

Finally Gage finishes his short shift guarding the totems, the hour being late enough for him to head to bed. On his way there he crosses pathes with Jool. "Hello Gage, I trust nothing bad happened."

"No, Gilly just started his watch and I am about to get some rest. There hasnt been an incident in over five hours so I think I am going to get it while I can. Its getting late and I am exhausted. I think Elan is with Eve over in their make shift church." Eve being the towns only preistess makes her to only spiritual confidant unless you wanted to count the Soul Society where were the 'hammers' of the Soul King.

"Sir! Sir! Wake up!" Gage nearly leaps from his bed, standing and looking around for who ever was calling to him. A body in the middle of the doorway speaks once more, the voice that of a younger boy. "You friends, the Shinigami! Something has happened! You need to get to the Chapel! Hurry!" then the boy was gone, his silhouette vanishing as Gage stands up and starts for the Chapel. Gages stomach falls when he realities that he is 'playing' a shingami, one of the other shinigami being Elan. Panic starts to set in as he starts sprinting towards the chapel building, hoping desperately that Elan was alright.

Coming up to the chapel Gage stares at the front steps. It was gruesome, a red pool of blood pouring down the steps into the dirt of the street. Stepping forward Gage walks up the stairs to the main floor of the chapel, the walls and floor of this small room that was no bigger than 15' by 15'. Inside was horrible, flies and death ranked the air, blood covering the walls and floor, the seats in the small room covered in some kind of bloody spray, as if someone was swinging a blood coated sword.

Gage slowly walks the line of the room, seaching for any sign that Elan might be okay. He had no idea what that sign would look like but blind hope tends to stagger around. Searching the room he looks under chairs, kneeling in blood when necisarry and at one point he even finds a single stip of skin. It was hung up on a jutting spliter of one of the pews, someone must have gotten their leg hung on it as they were passing it for some reason. The skin was only an inch long, the texture rubbery and enough to make him gag. It was pale, Gage wiping it off his with sleeve, the color of the skin being pale enough to match Elans leg.

"Thats not all, Jool was killed-er....she is missing too and the other shinigami is unconcious, he apparently passed out after fighting off what ever attacked him at the totems," The woman looks disheveled, her eyes filled with the same kind of panic that makes someone develope a nervous twitch eventually. "We lost some of our town guards too, three of them died fighting what ever it was that attacked Gilly but no one got a good look at it and was able to survive to tell the tale of it.