'Well, it could be worse.' The goblin rationalized, reminding himself that his own crew had come out of the debacle alive and relatively okay... well, mostly okay. He looked away from the hole and back to Erathun. The dragon's broad snout was hovering a few feet above Zhenn'arh, whose breathing was sounding nosier than it had a few moments ago. "Kid, how's that healing going?"

Era's rigid face didn't betray the fierce and sudden anger that rippled through him, but his widened eyes did hold a look of intensity that Keedle couldn't miss. And even if he had, the dragon's rushed words more than carried those emotions to the forefront, "It's not!" He flexed his golden wings outward, then pulled them in tight against his sides, "You should have asked me about healing! I didn't know this was going to happen!" Before Keedle could get a word in, the young Erathun continued to unload all the tension that had been building up from the start, "I can't heal what I can't see! I don't know if-" His yellow and olive-scaled snout dropped down low, hovering over the troll before drawing back with a side to side shake, "I don't know where the bullets are! I can't- I don't know how to fix that! You should have asked!"

"Hey, hey!" In the face of the Green's targeted wrath, Keedle raised his voice and pivoted himself to better face the child that was many, many times his own mass, "Just use a speck of your magic, Rath, that's all I'm asking!" With one hand to brace his awkwardly seated position, the other was waved in the air for emphasis. "Look, I'm not saying-"

"That's not how it works! It could go wrong - I can't!" Erathun cut him off with a heightened snarl, shaking his head again, "You should have known that!"

Heat from the dragon's breath washed over the goblin, hitting with enough force to make the little man squint and draw back a little. What hit harder was the panic beneath the snarls though, and it deflated the verbal fight Keedle had been about to gear up for. "Alright kid, just..." In a rare moment, Keedle's own tones had lowered in quieted acquiescence, and he dropped that hand that had been ready to waggle a pointed finger at the other.

-I can handle the humans for now.- In the beat that followed this, Chloe's disjointed vocals broke in, -Erathun can't carry everyone, as it is.- A few discreet steps brought her six-limbed form hovering directly over the agents, where her attention fell now that all immediate fires had been put out; at least, the ones that she could help with. Chloe scooped up two of the three UECH workers and stepped over Keedle as she moved towards the side of the small garage, with her path directed towards the larger one, -Get them to safety, and I'll clean up here.-

But, that's also one of two reasons why he'd brought Erathun.

"Hey kid, you good over there? I need ya!" He didn't try to stand just yet, not with the way his ankle and foot were throbbing, but he was noting some spots of concern on his gray-skinned friend. Though his keen night vision didn't come with the kind of color-enhanced visuals that Eltican dragons were gifted with, he could tell that Zhenn had shouldered at least one bullet; or was it two, or three? The troll's clothing was so eclectically colored and patterned, it was hard to tell in the dark. But he was breathing okayish, and that was a solid sign.

Erathun had just managed to shake himself free of the garage rubble, with a bit of help from Chloe's dexterous limbs. His breath was still coming in quick and heavy, and his mind spinning as it tried to make sense of all that had happened in such a short amount of time. At Keedle's request, he looked across to the little man with a touch of disbelief. How could the goblin be this level-headed and casual after just screaming his head off in pure terror a minute ago? How could Chloe be so calm? ...what was going to happen with three unconscious humans and a wrecked vehicle?

"Yo, Rath!" Keedle swiveled around from his seated position to look at the gawking dragon, "Zhenn needs a touch of magic."

Erathun started forward, his large paws sweeping slowly over the ground without much conscious prompting. His rattled mind had turned to the troll, where his heightened eyes could see the deep crimson of fresh blood that Keedle's eyes struggled to define, blossoming against a patch of orange and yellow fabric. A similar, smaller spot was welling up a few inches above that. Both in the chest, which wasn't an ideal spot. There were important organs there. Arteries. Possible bullets or fragments thereof.

Erathun felt his magic swell, but he didn't dare guide it forward yet. He wasn't training to be a healer like his sister. That was Maruui's goal to chase, not his. If he offered his magic in the wrong way, he could make things worse; trap dirt in a deep wound, force more cellular growth than the body could handle, shift a lodged bullet into a dangerous area...

As the young dragon quietly panicked over these things, Keedle was scooting himself back, moving towards the agents as Chloe circled back to the group, "You really came in clutch there, Chloe! Nice work grabbing these guys. I knew there was... ahh, wait. I recognize the gal, here. Not the two guys though... where's the taller fellow?"

-Zhenn'arh got to him before I could.- Chloe answered, without needing to elaborate. Keedle hadn't been able to snap the troll out of his frenzy before the shots were fired, and that very frenzy had bought the tusked powerhouse a few fleeting seconds of consciousness against the effects of the darts.

For a second time, Keedle's giant ears sagged down in visible dismay. Maybe the plan hadn't gone quite as well as he'd thought.

The dragon breathed out a deep, slow breath, feeling some semblance of control trickle back to him now that the cover of night was again on their side, and his true senses and body were back under his control. "...no." Their was a hitch to his word as adrenaline still surged through his veins, but at least Erathun was now certain he'd not gotten hit by any of those bullets, and other than some definite bruising and minor scrapes from the collapsed roof, his sturdy form had otherwise shrugged off any serious harm. And if he was hurt worse, the young Era was not about to admit that to Chloe.

He watched her step up, quickly and methodically scanning over the debris before honing in on the partially-crushed Honda. For a nearly eleven-ton creature, the alien's unsettling, six-legged scuttle brought her into the heart of the debris as sure-footedly as a spider traversing their own web, without causing any further collapse or major shift of broken wood or tile. Two stout hind limbs and a single forelimb braced the ground, finding voids in the wreckage where she could reach the solid cement below. The other three forelimbs took on the task of maneuvering the mangled car and the burden laying across it, slowly and carefully hoisting it up, while trying to prevent any further collapse, -Can you move?-

As one of the few other beings capable of understanding Chloe's speech without the use of a translator or her telepathy, Keedle had an instant-fire response to the big creature, "Aye, yeah, yeah! Just move it! Hurry!" He was still clawing at the cement, all thoughts of the agents and their mission in the rearview as the fear of getting crushed left little room for anything else.

The second the vehicle was lifted high enough, the goblin was tumbling forward under his own momentum, and being snatched up a second later in one of Chloe's large hands. In a whirl of movement, he was then deposited in the lawn next to Zhenn and James, while the alien turned to the task of helping Erathun extricate himself from the garage.

Keedle dropped heavily onto his back, panting hard to catch his breath as he stared up at the dark sky above, and wincingly gave his ankle an experimental roll. "Hakkar's hell, that.. got a little... dicey. Good job sticking... to the plan, boys. ...and girl. Ahhh, my ankle though." After just a few moments to descend from his short-lived panic, Keedle propped himself back up, looking to Zhenn'arh first, and then to James. "You guys okay? Guys?!" Neither were moving.

-I knocked James out, for his safety. The agents too.- Chloe's twittered response drew a look of surprise from Keedle. It was only then that the goblin became aware of the three agents laying neatly in a row a few yards away. Disheveled and dirt-covered, but somehow alive.

Above it all, the little engineer's cries pierced the bedlam, "Holy mackerels, Rath!" His voice had climbed to its highest setting, sputtered out between coughs as dust and smoke invaded the half-demolished garage. "S-stop moving! You're gonna crush me!" Keedle had turned his claws against the floor, scrabbling desperately to pull himself forward after two blown tires had dropped the chassis down and nearly pancaked him beneath it, as the honda itself now bore the weight of fallen structural beams and roofing. Claw and scrape as he might though, the goblin only succeeded in breaking the pointed tips of his sturdy fingernails. One foot was trapped firmly between cement and metal. "I-I'm stuck! I'm stuck!"

Erathun had held back on the bellow that wanted to escape his maw as so much of the building crumbled on top of him. Splintered bits of wood bit into his hide, while a heavy beam slammed across his neck and the front edge of one hunched wing. A harsh hiss slipped past bared fangs and he started to squirm back and flex his shoulders, torn between wanting to rid himself of the heavy debris, while also being cognizant of the very tiny man buried somewhere below it all. "...where are you?" He rasped out, blinking irritants from large eyes that suddenly saw the darkened landscape with new clarity and deeper hues, "I..." A section of roof tiles clattered down from the top of his head as he swung his dial upward, trying to pinpoint Keedle, and get a glimpse of what was happening outside. The dragon winced, and his stomach knotted further, "-I can't see you. If I move.. things are going to fall, I can't..." 'I don't know what to do!'

-Stay calm.-

It took Erathun a second or two to recognize this voice. He rarely interacted with the nocturnal Chloe, and thanks to his innate magics, was one of the very few who could understand her native speech.

-Give me a moment, I'll come to you.- The voice warbled out again, and now he saw, through half-squinted and watering eyes, a flurry of movement from a now silent sinkhole. The SUV had either fallen or been pulled into the depths of the earth, as Erathun could no longer see it. But he did see the six-legged alien emerge at last, nimbly extricating herself from the trap with a stretch and scrabble of her long, curiously jointed limbs. Shuttling quickly back and forth, he watched her extract Zhenn'arh and James, setting each along the ground before diving back into the hole. Three humans followed, each laid out on in the dewy grass.

Were they dead?! The startling thought crossed Erathun's mind, as none of the five were moving. Wait, no - he could see the movement of chests rising and falling. They were alive, just... passed out? The young dragon didn't have much attention to spare as Keedle's voice pierced the darkness again, and Chloe came surging in their direction.

In the garage, Keedle was frantically dragging himself beneath the honda, wedging his small form under the partially collapsed vehicle as all hell broke loose a few yards behind him. "R-rath, now's the time to shed skin!" He rattled out between clattering teeth, "Get outside, through the side door! I'll c-cover ya!" And despite having ducked immediately for cover, the goblin was reaching back with one hand to dig into one of his many jacket pockets, while the other arm was being used to actively pull him in an crawl across the ground until he was partially shielded behind a tire.

Erathun felt his head swim as his hands and knees struck the cement, while the sting of his earlier scrape was well beyond sensation now. He'd flinched dramatically at the gunfire, and vaguely recalled hitting his head against the side of the car when the lights went fully out. He'd just gotten behind the honda when Keedle started shouting at him again. The goblin's voice barely registered above the pounding in his ears and the panicked, ragged breaths he was drawing in as fear engulfed him.

-R-rath, now's the time...!- Erathun hadn't caught all of what the little man was saying, but he heard enough. If only the terror of self preservation hadn't been so intense, the young dragon might have stopped to consider the confines of where he was, or what Keedle was rattling on about. But with bullets flying, and his own predatory senses screaming at him about a lurking danger beneath, Erathun acted on pure instinct. He didn't bother shedding his human clothes, and instead let them fray and burst apart under the sudden expanse of mass as he dropped his human guise and let his natural form break free. In a matter of seconds, fifty-one feet and several tons of green scale and dense muscle unfurled in the confines of the single-story garage, with golden wings buffeting the thick cloud of gray from the smoke bomb Keedle had deployed...

The smoke shield mattered little anyway, as the front end of the SUV, along with the four that had been near it before the lights cut out, had dropped downward into the earth as the ground gave way beneath them...

"Article three of the Alien Hostility Mitigation Act requires all threats from non-aliens to be reported immediately to local and state authority." The tall fellow didn't miss a beat in reciting this bit of legislation, countering Keedle's gutsy stubbornness with a frustratingly calm, knowing tone. As the goblin's little talons were piercing the fabric of the backpack's handle, the agent looked blatantly in Zhenn'arh's direction, "Article seven defers to the use of lethal force when-"

"Hey, hey!" Keedle snapped, waving a hand in the fellow's direction as his temper frayed and he caught on to what the man might be attempting, "Ain't no reason to be bringing up your fancy laws and legal bullshit. This deal's under the rug, you and I both know that. Zhenny, ignore this creep! Look-" The words came a little more quickly now, but were clear and deliberate as he glared between the man and the prawn that was still shaking against the dirt and gravel, "-I'll meet you halfway, and open the bag so you can see I got the goods. Zhenny here will grab James, and you'll bring Friend out, k'?"

Without giving the man time to properly answer him, Keedle reached a sweaty palm for the front zipper of the backpack and pulled it open. A number of folders were illuminated by the headlights as the flap fell downward, exposing the contents within. Though unlabeled, it was clear the folders were filled with paper, and the goblin took the extra step of pulling a handful of these sheets out to wave above his head, "See? Got your schematics right here. Now Zhenn, you grab James so the kid can take a look at him. ..Zhenn?"

Keedle glanced back, and then upwards at the forest troll that was towering over him. Even with the fellow's eyes narrowed against the blinding light, Keedle could see just how deeply flushed they had become. The sclera weren't just blushed pink, they were quickly deepening to a crimson hue. The goblin's ears reflexively flattened back for a second or two, much like a cat that found themselves unexpectedly before a coyote.

"We only brought the adult." The agent answered back at length, collected and unphased as he watched the little man's control begin to collapse. He'd moved his hand deliberately to the holster at his side, his focus now rapt on Zhenn'arh. "Considering how dangerous it was, I couldn't negotiate a release. Not even for those papers."

The reality of the situation began to dawn on Keedle all at once. The agent wasn't even looking at the backpack or the papers that were being held up. His fingers were curling blatantly around the gun at his side, all while James kicked and floundered just a few yards beyond their reach. "Rath, move back." He murmured sharply, then reached back to slap a hand against Zhenn's leg, desperately trying to jolt the troll out of his growing frenzy before it was too late, "Zhenn, I need you to snap the hell out of it! Now's not the time to spiral." To the agent, his rapid-fire speech came pitched with bitter venom, "I shoulda known you creeps would try to pull a fast one on me. Well I got news for you, you're little ploy's not gonna work. You're gonna get back in your car, get Friend, and we'll start this deal fresh, got it?" He was keenly aware of Erathun's feet scuffling slowly backwards behind him, while Zhenn'arh hadn't budged an inch. Sweat collected across his temples, "And you're gonna get your hands off those guns, before you provoke something none of us can stop."

In his ongoing struggles, James made a sudden, sharp squeal of noise and twisted on the ground, as if being attacked. Zhenn'arh's muscled tightened, and his weight shifted subtly forward. The movement was slight, and he didn't offer so much as a growl of sound or threatening word to go with it, but he didn't need to. That faint shift in position was all the agents needed to seize on the moment they'd been trying to tease forward from the beginning. An electro-dart was fired, right alongside that of a pistol round. Keedle flung himself backwards with a yelp, diving first behind the backpack, then scrambling for the dusty honda civic. Erathun had already been slowly stepping back, and dove right along side the goblin, while the troll burst forward...

The lights flickered suddenly around them, and then dimmed and fell into darkness. As a second round of shots followed the first in rapid succession, the ground seemed to quake, and a now silence drone dropped like dead weight from the sky...

Keedle's plan might have been thwarted, but the goblin always had a contingency plan for his contingency plans.

Behind him, Keedle scarcely registered a dull 'crack' as Zhenn'arh rolled one shoulder, and then the other while lowering the arm that had been raised to shield his eyes. The troll couldn't quite see who was still inside the vehicle anyway, but he had spotted the woman and the very recognizable weapon she carried. With her eyes now turned to him, he adjusted his stance, dropping his naturally slouched form by a few inches, until his shadow fell over the goblin, and one long arm hung just slightly in front of Erathun.

The man beside the SUV didn't pay any mind to Zhenn's posturing. Looking unfazed by the three, and only mildly piqued at the goblin's bullheadedness, he nodded behind him, "Fair enough. Claire, bring it out."

The woman shifted the rifle to one hand and leaned into the opened rear door she'd stepped out of only moments ago. Whatever words she spoke were too muffled to hear, but her movements were sharp and deliberate, and after a few moments of struggle, she was stepping back and hauling someone else out of the vehicle.

Past the glare of highbeams, and beyond the opened door, James staggered into view, stumbling under the woman's forceful grasp. With his hands behind his back, the prawn stood with a visible tremble, his spindly limbs shaking and his antenna twittering wildly.

"Satisfied?" The man called out. He'd reached back to take Jame's by one spiny elbow and hauled the alien forward, until he was standing, quivering in front of the headlights.

Erathun took in a quaking breath. He didn't often interact with the prawn, but something about Jame's movements made his stomach tighten. Was the alien hurt? Or just really frightened? He glanced for the umpteenth time to Zhenn'arh, then down to Keedle. He didn't notice the pink tint that had begun to color the whites of the troll's eyes, but even his human-guised ears could hear the way Keedle's voice had climbed a little, when next the little man spoke.

"The hell'd you do to him?! James, get over here!" The hand that had pointed at the man now opened and gestured emphatically in the prawn's direction, "You guys are lucky I'm willing ta-"

"Hand over the bag." Bluntly, the tall fellow interrupted Keedle, while giving prawn a shove against his back. James staggered forward and fell, dropping to his knees in a daze.

"Aye!" Keedle barked out, his emotions climbing, "No need to be so rough!" The strap on the backpack twisted beneath the goblin's grasp, almost as if the man was using it as an anchor to keep himself from charging forward. But despite the way James struggled in front of the SUV, his efforts to stand made difficult by his ongoing tremors, Keedle held his ground. And because he didn't move forward, neither did Zhenn'arh or Erathun. "James, c'mon - just get over here, by Zhenny and Rath. Away from those creeps."

Stone faced, the man spoke again, "Your turn now, hand over the bag." Behind him, the woman had settled the dart-rifle into both hands again.

Erathun felt his skin crawl at the sharp, pitched noise. He wanted to shuffle his feet too, but resisted the urge by curling his toes down against the thin slippers he wore, as if he were a tree trying to ground its roots into the earth for stability. The kid focused instead on the goblin's voice, and the hotly muttered words he'd breathed out, while wondering just how much of this was planned out between the goblin and these... scientists, was it? Laboratory workers? Keedle really hadn't bothered to give he or Zhenn'arh many details this evening, and the unknowns were beginning to test the young dragon's nerves. Without moving his head, Era shifted a quick side-eye to Zhenn'arh.

The troll's gaze was for the long driveway that rolled out beyond the cement lip of the garage, winding through the dark meadow before eventually connecting to a series of quiet, backwoods gravel roads. He could hear the slow crunch of tires rolling over them, barely creeping along for several minutes. Whatever tension might be riding in him, he didn't show any outward sign of it; his broad, two-toed feet were motionless against the cool floor, and his hands held loose and idle at his sides. But he was alert, this much Era had noted, as he followed the painfully slow approach of the vehicle somewhere beyond the veil of darkness.

And then two beams of lights cut through the meadow. They bounced slowly as they moved, then grew brighter as the headlights veered towards the buildings, and a Chevy Tahoe of undecipherable color appeared beyond the final bend in the lane. All three squinted, with Zhenn'arh raising an arm above his eyes as the glare of light all but blinded them.

A low noise, something that wanted to be a growl, escaped from Erathun's throat. A tingle ran through his hands and feet, and he felt like he couldn't quiet get enough air into his lungs. It caused each breath to tremble, despite his best efforts to control it.

"Steady." It was Zhenn again, and Era wondered how the troll could sound so calm in a moment like this. The SUV had rolled to a slow stop, only a few yards from the garage. "Trust da plan."

-What plan?- Era thought with heightened irritation, yet found himself turning a quick, acknowledging glance to Zhenn'arh anyway. Two of the vehicle's doors were opening now, and the kid felt a rush of heat crawl across his chest.

Keedle shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then slung the backpack of his shoulders and plopped it onto the ground in front of him, green fingers curled into the pack's top handle. "Evening, fellas." He then called out, before the first polished shoe even hit the ground. Small as the goblin was, his voice -just slightly pitched - held out over the low growl of the idling engine.

From the front passenger side, a tall, rotund fellow in a dark sweater and sleek jeans stepped out. From the door behind him, a shorter, stoutly muscled woman followed, and Keedle was the first to recognize the dart gun she carried. Both people appeared to have holstered pistols as well. The goblin, squinting his eyes against the onslaught from the headlights, scoffed, "Oiy, what's with all the heat? We're just here to do a little business, right? Look, I held up my end - just me and my bodyguards, no weapons."

The man took a few steps forward, bringing himself flush with the front of the vehicle, with plenty of space between him and Keedle's crew, "Consider these our bodyguards." His words were heavy and dismissive, "And you won't have to worry about them as long you don't try anything, goblin. Now, bring your supplies forward, and drop them in front of the car, and we'll go from there."

"Should we check for traps first, boss?" Zhenn's priorities were mostly in line with the dragon kit's, even if he was moving towards the front of the building at Keedle's behest. He'd spotted the big square button that would open the doors, but let his finger hover over it as he awaited confirmation on a point that their leader himself had brought up.

Keedle had pulled a secondary flip-phone from his pocket, his lavender eyes glued to the screen as he vaguely listened to his companion's concern. "Nah, we're good." A hand was flapped dismissively in the troll's general direction, before it went back to the phone, "Now that we know Chloe's here, we're set. She'd have warned us if they'd dropped in early to snare the place. We're golden!" The phone was snapped close with a faint click and dropped back into a side pocket, "Get those doors up Zhenn, and Rath, come over here by me."

The man's quick, confident bark of orders hid the absolute thunder that was pounding in his chest, leaving Erathun completely oblivious to just how nervous the seemingly self-assured goblin was. Reluctantly setting aside his desire to drop his human guise in favor of his natural and far more durable skin, Era moved up beside the shorter fellow, and watched as Zhenn'arh finally pressed the button at the other end of the room.

With a groan of a motor and the rattle of chains, one of the four garage doors began to yawn open. Keedle rubbed his hands together in front of him and puffed his chest out. "Get behind me, Zhenn - and don't say a word. You too, Rath." The short fellow's sights turned for the darkness of the meadow now exposed by the open door, a space made even harder to see thanks to the blinding strobe of lights above them. "Leave the talking to me, and don't move past my mark, got it? If they hold up their end, all we got to do is a quick trade, and be on our way. Just let 'em see we're here, we got no weapons on us, and we're holding up our end."

Zhenn cocked an eye down at the goblin as he joined the pair, placing himself a single step behind the little man and the young kid. The last line by Keedle had been muttered to himself, as if the goblin was trying to shore up his own nerves and convince himself of the plan he'd worked so hard on for the past several days. Whatever he'd been scheming, Zhenn'arh was ready to back him up if things went south. And as he waited there, quietly wondering what all the goblin might have up his sleeve, the hum of a vehicle started the countdown to whatever confrontation awaited them...

Beside him, Zhenn's gaze had turned to the trees that dotted the immediate area around the sheds, and the timberline beyond them. "De animals are quiet." He murmured, almost more to himself than to the group. Era looked questioningly up to the darkspear troll, then to Keedle, who was checking his phone again. "We best be careful, they know something we don't."

"Well yeah, it's probably Chloe." Keedle returned dismissively, finally giving an answer to Zhenn's earlier question, "She's had three days, she ought to be settled in by now. And you know how the critters respond to her." The phone screen went dark before he tucked it away, "Alright gang, since we're a bit early, we'll head straight across to that smaller garage, and go in through the.. erm, eastern door..? Hang on." The phone came out again, and Keedle thumbed through a few schematics and hastily typed notes. "Yeah, yeah, the eastern door. Stay away from the front garage door."

And then he was breaking cover and moving briskly across a field whose grass had been grazed recently enough to allow him easy travel. Erathun followed after, hunching down slightly despite having no real cover to drop down into. Falling in behind them both, and sharing the same unspoken questions as the boy, Zhenn'arh acted as rear guard.

The trio met no obstacles in their short journey, other than a brief delay at the eastern side-door. With Keedle's lock-picking skills, and a boost from Zhenn'arh to actually reach the lock, this roadblock was quickly overcome, and soon all three were stepping into the dusty building. "Rath, hit the lights. There, next to the door." He pointed out, directing a sharply clawed finger that Erathun couldn't actually see. "Lets see, there should also be a button for the garage doors-"

"You sure we ought to turn on the lights?" Zhenn questioned, "We got de advantage of stealth."

"Nah, we don't need to stealth this anymore. We just needed to get here first, and make sure they didn't booby-trap the place before us. Rath! You found that light switch yet?" The phone came out again, this time as a light source as Keedle fanned it about the building, giving everyone a better view of the space they were in. It looked like a standard garage, with a handful of metal cabinets stacked along the far end, a workbench beside it, and a plethora of tools, bolts, and other items scattered across its surface, beneath a thin layer of dust. The cement floor thry stood over, equally layered in dust and a few errant lengths of board and random scraps, was large enough to accommodate four vehicles, including a grey honda civic with at least one flat tire that occupied the right central spot.

Erathun was frantically looking around the door frame, trying to recall how one turned on a standard light. He so rarely utilized his human form, much less spent any time inside buildings, that the concept of a light switch currently evaded his frazzled mind. Keedle's sharp command had his cheeks flushing again, until the flashlight of the goblin's phone found and hovered over the small switch. Clumsily, the boy grabbed at it, giving it a few wiggles before flipping it up in the right direction. Overhead, florescent lights hummed and flickered to life, causing all three to squint.

Zhenn held back his concern's for Keedle's plans, trusting that the goblin had covered their bases. And though he couldn't fathom where Chloe might be, other than perhaps hiding out in the larger shed, the troll put his focus on their most immediate concerns. With the room now flooded in light, he motioned a hand in Era's direction, "Stay back from da windows."

"And the front of the room." Keedle added, without elaboration, "Anyone see the button for the garage doors? Zhenny, I might need you to lift them up otherwise."

Only the rush of empty air met his grasping fingers.

Rather than getting the face-full of leaves and dirt he'd expected next, Erathun's fall was interrupted by the broad, three-fingered hand of a troll sweeping down and catching against his chest. Zhenn'arh lifted him upwards in the next moment, giving Era just enough leverage to kick his leg free before being set down on the opposite side of the barrier. Without a word, the seven and a half foot troll cleared the obstacle himself with a springing step.

"Oiy, what's all the racket? This is the stealth part of the mission, we need to come in quiet!" Keedle had only just scrapped the sticky webbing from his face, and was currently trying in vain to fling the tattered silk from his fingers as he turned back to admonish the pair.

Era looked upward at the shadow of the troll beside him, then to what he could make out of the goblin that was now wiping his hands against his shirt. He could feel a sting in his leg where the wire had cut into flesh far more fragile than his natural draconic scales. Then there was the warmth of blood, minor as it was, absorbing into the itchy fabric of his pants. A quick flex of his healing magic would seal up the scrape, but his mind was caught in the crosshairs of Keedle's criticism, and he felt that same pulse of blood bring a flush of color to his face.

"Tripped up a bit by the fence, sorry boss." Zhenn'arh stepped past the kid, and in another swing of his legs, was bypassing Keedle to peer beyond the trees and towards their destination across the second field. "You say da smaller building?"

A scoff of noise came from the goblin, but he didn't further rebuke Zhenn. He scuttled forward instead, putting a hand against the colorful leggings of his much taller companion as a sort of anchor in the darkness of the timberline, and mirrored the troll's gaze across the meadow, "Yeah, yeah, the smaller one. We're about thirty minutes early, but there's a chance they're already there, knowing them." Keedle rose up on his tiptoes, trying in vain to better see past a line of barberries that matched his own height, "Spot any vehicles?"

With slow, cautious steps, Erathun edged up behind the pair. He'd had the focus necessary to flex his magic and tend to the cut in the quiet few seconds of reprieve that had been granted him, and now he joined the others in looking out across the field. There was enough scattered moonlight to see two distinct buildings, one appearing to be a two-story facility with several small windows dotted along its upper walls, while the second looked to be a smaller, single-level storage shed large enough to park a handful of vehicles in.

"Easy, kid." The slow, accented voice from behind drew a flinch from Era, and a quick glance back at the hunch-backed form of the forest troll who'd delivered it. "Nothing out here gonna hurt you. Not in these fields."

For a split second, Erathun wanted to bristle and spit back that he wasn't afraid. That he wouldn't be so jumpy if didn't have to travel in this human guise. But the eleven-year old merely turned back around with a vague nod and a mutter, "I know." He rolled his shoulders, shifting the empty backpack that bounce against his small frame, and looked again for the tops of Keedle's bouncing ears and the spray of wild brown hair that looked just as muted and moon-washed to him as the grass they were traveling through.

"Almost there, guys!" Keedle's sharply whispered voice broke the silence a few beats after Zhenn'arh's failed attempt to ease Erathun's nerves. A bright glow of light briefly illuminated the man from the front, emanating from the phone he'd pulled out to double-check their coordinates, "Just past these trees- should be the smaller of the two buildings." While Era squinted his eyes as the sudden glare of light, and Zhenn cast a critical eye about the landscape as their modest cover was suddenly highlighted, the goblin went on, "Specs say there should be a barbwire fence in that tree line, so I might need a lift, Zhenny. Rath too."

"Right, got ya both." Zhenn took this as his cue to move forward, easily sweeping past his two shorter comrades in a few solid strides and breaking into the narrow band of trees ahead. A low-hanging branch was deftly snapped, removing an obstacle that might have clotheslined the goblin and tripped up the kid, before he stopped beside a length of fencing that was nearly obscured by overgrowth. Past his position through the other side of the trees, and across a smaller field that looked to be semi-maintained, a pair of buildings sat under the quiet glow of a partially clouded moon. "I see the buildings. You sure she's there?"

Keedle stumbled his way out of the overgrown field and over the uneven, root-tangled floor of the timberline, swatting away a matting of spiderweb from his face that Zhenn had simply stepped over moments earlier. "Erggh! Zhenn- help! Don't just stand there!"

The deep shadows of the trees hid the amused grin that lifted the troll's lips, but he held back the chuckle he felt welling in his chest. Now was neither the time nor the place for such things, so he merely reached his long limbs forward and hoisted Keedle off the ground and dropped him over the other side of the prickly fencing, while waiting for the fellow to calm down enough to answer his earlier question, "That spider wont be harming you. Just brush off da webbing." When he turned to offer Erathun a hand next, the boy skirted around his outreaching digits and tackled the fence himself, groping about in the darkness as he tried to find and finagle his way over the obstacle.