I1: Undercover

[Will Stanton]

A figure with shaggy brown hair walked up towards where the news had reported the giant cockroaches in Westminster.

MI-13 had shut off the news, and Will Stanton wanted to know why.

[Narrator]

There's a cordon around the area that the broadcast happened, as well as two temporary quarantine tents. Inside the cordon a number of people in black suits are investigating various parts of the area, all wearing dust masks over their noses and mouths, and goggles over their eyes.

A number of the investigators within the cordon seem to be going about things in a... less than scientific manner.

At least, it didn't look much like any science Will knew.

But perhaps that wasn't saying much.

[Teri Napliotis]

Meanwhile Teri was sitting on a rooftop roughly a block away, currently in the process of trying to put the earpiece for the radio back into her ear after having flown to the roof. The fact that she's nervous about being out on official X-Team business doesn't help.

[Will Stanton]

"Do you sense any of those massive cockroaches?" Will whispered under his breath through the earpiece,while trying to find an angle around the cordoned off area to peer into the tents.

[Teri Napliotis]

"We're checking. They don't come with a label." she answers , opting to just hold the thing next to her ear for now while she spreads her mind out to all the creepy crawlies lurking about, mainly the endless expanse of bugs and spiders underneath the city.

[Narrator]

The creatures that Teri usually makes contact with seem a bit uneasy to be here. Many of them had fled the area before she even came.

There's definitely... something moving around. One such presence is in one of the quarantine tents.

[Teri Napliotis]

She gathers up a small cloud of flies and forces them into the tent from various angles to try and see if she can get a better impression of what's inside, even if it's just it's general shape from landing a bunch of flies on it and feeling it out.

[Narrator]

The tent itself is presently zipped shut to prevent contamination, a filtered fan feeding it fresh air.

What's inside feels like it might be an insect, except... not.

There are other presences in the area that are similar to it, but they seem to be smart enough to try to avoid the investigators.

[Teri Napliotis]

She tries to give it a nudge to see if she can make it do anything while flies fruitlessly search for a way inside.

"There is something inside but we've never run into anything like it." she tells Will over the radio.

[Narrator]

She gets just the faintest taste of it. Like a whisper.

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[Teri Napliotis]

She physically stumbles back and falls on her ass when she hears the bug.

"This isn't right! Bugs don't think or say anything!"

[Will Stanton]

"Teri! What is it?" Will harsh whispered, while looking around for where the entrance to the cordon was--were they coming from inside the house, or a base outside?

[Narrator]

The actual rolls of cordon tape seem to be situated at the backs of two SUVs, likely where the quarantine tents were unloaded from. The cordon encircles the man's house, as well as a neighbor's.

[Teri Napliotis]

"They're just thinking this one thing over and over. Opening cracks, making them wider." she says, pulling herself together. "Maybe there's more somewhere, trying to get out."

The tents might be sealed but maybe the house is not. A small army of cockroaches and flies gathers in the sewers underneath the house and slowly spreads out in an attempt to find a pipe that leads into a faucet or toilet inside the cordoned off building.

[Will Stanton]

Similarly, though less dramatically, Will tried to circle around, to see if the back was less well-guarded.

[Narrator]

The cordon as a whole isn't that tightly guarded, though certainly people were keeping an eye out to see if anyone crosses the tape. It seems more geared towards keeping something in than out. Most of the agents seem to be searching the area. Around back Will finds a concentration of agents combing the area the man initially laid the trap by his rubbish bins. One agent is marking the pavement around the bins with chalk.

But that doesn't quite look like the sort of chalk outlines that crime scene investigators do. There's markings on it in a language Will doesn't know.

Teri has a bit more success. Via the usual means, the building is almost painfully easy to infiltrate. It's an old home. As before though, the natural vermin seem wary of the place.

[Teri Napliotis]

She doesn't give them much choice and pushes the swarm onward. With things already being weird she decides she doesn't have to be too secretive and just spreads the bugs out over all surfaces to get an impression of the inside. If she encounters any boots with the carpet of critters she does aim to avoid swarming over them out of courtesy to anyone who might be inside.

[Will Stanton]

Will ducked out of sight behind a nearby obstruction--possibly the bins from the house across the way?--and grew his ear into a large funnel, earhorn shape, to try to pick up anything the agents were saying.

[Narrator]

Will does pick up a few choice words. Like "incursion" and "satarim" and "abscess." Not much context, as they're talking in hushed tones.

Teri manages this easily. The house itself is fairly ordinary, though something seems to have been weakening its foundations. There's a team in the basement investigating a large crack that seems to have opened in one wall. Down there is closer to where she felt the other presences.

[Will Stanton]

Will had to get closer, for context. He could try impersonating one of the investigators, but he'd have no clue as to how to respond to any inquiries.

Instead, he shifted into a raven, and flew over the grounds, perching in a convenient location--a tree, or the house itself if nothing was closer.

[Teri Napliotis]

The bugs makes their way downstairs, individual ones heading for the crack to get an idea of it's dimensions and a single one slipping inside.

[Narrator]

Will manages to hear a bit clearer.

"...tunneled here. That much is clear. The abscess is spreading in their wake, but we don't know where the initial incursion originated."

"Typical. Satarim are opportunistic. This isn't the fire, it's just the smoke."

Teri finds the crack itself is fairly narrow, though a creature the size of what was seen on the news could easily have slipped through it. In the dirt beyond there's marks of digging and mandibles. A burrow.

[Teri Napliotis]

"There's a burrow that they probably came through. Whatever 'they' are." she tells Will while sending a couple more bugs down into the burrow to see if she can find out where it leads.

[Will Stanton]

"Be careful--it looks like whatever happened here came through that burrow, rather than starting here. We need to find the epicenter."

[Teri Napliotis]

"We're looking. We might have to move if it goes too far out."

[Will Stanton]

"Roger that."

[Narrator]

A rolling ball of metal speeds past the bugs that Teri has sent into the burrow, a blinking green light on it as it goes deeper.

[Teri Napliotis]

"They just dropped something into the burrow. It's rolling and it has a blinking light."

She tries to send some of the bugs after it to try and determine what it might be, wishing she'd have some speedier flyers.

[Narrator]

Teri manages to keep up fairly well, lagging just behind the probe. It manages to get a few yards in before there's a shower of sparks where it was just moments before. The dying light illuminates something shaped like a cockroach but much larger, its mandibles pulling wires from the destroyed probe.

[Teri Napliotis]

"Nevermind. They're eating it." she updates Will while lining up an array of bugs to try and push past the big one all at once to increase the chance of some slipping past.

[Narrator]

The creature is highly aggressive, and does get a few of them, but at least a couple get past and further into the burrow.

As the tunnel winds on, things just feel... wrong. The dirt's texture isn't the same, but it's hard to say how. The smell is off, and it's getting harder for the bugs to breathe. They're growing sick.

[Teri Napliotis]

"Something's not right. My bugs are dieing off but there's nothing familiar about it... No gas or fire or pesticides..."

[Narrator]

"Well that's torn it," Will hears someone say into a radio. "Close it up. We're already wearing this neighborhood's patience a bit thin."

[Will Stanton]

"Teri, get out, they're closing it up," Will hissed into the mike.

[Teri Napliotis]

Teri pulls her consciousness out of the bugs deep underneath the house and blinks as her senses refocus to her own.

[Narrator]

Just as Teri withdraws her senses, two probes similar to the first one drag something wrapped in plastic between them.

Above ground, there's a muffled "crump" noise.

[Will Stanton]

"What was that?"

[Teri Napliotis]

"Not sure. They brought something covered in plastic into the tunnel and that's the last thing we noticed."

[Will Stanton]

"Damn. They're bugging out up here, too."

[Narrator]

The various investigators are putting things back in order, erasing the chalk designs and generally cleaning up.