Annabelle Newfield

The gunship is coming, but the sound fades away, and the street gives way to darkness on all sides.

"Missss Newfield."

A piece of that darkness detaches itself, stepping forward. The light comes up on a figure in a grey business suit, his face pale and gaunt, his light greenish eyes not quite right. He has no visible weapons, only carrying a briefcase.

"I hadn't expected anyone to be stepping into thisss... particular scenario. Let alone someone in your peculiar position. I must say, this is a surprise. Under other circumstances, we might have come to an... eh-eh-eh... agreement of mutual benefit. But as it stands..." His largely lipless mouth turns up at the corners in an almost rueful smile that never quite reaches his eyes. "... well, I'm sure you can understand my hesitation. It's quite a pity, really. The opportunities lost..."

He cants his head fractionally, glancing at Annabelle with a single eyebrow cocked.

"But there's no sense crying over every dropped egg."

Donighal

The bolt flies true, and there is one final cry. It echoes, lingering weirdly in the air...

... but then again the gunship itself is lingering in the air, even as the light drains from everything else around. As the once-beast shimmers into translucence a thin line of light draws a doorway in mid-blackness, giving way to a door, and then to a figure.

"Good afternoon, Doctor Donighal," says the pale, gaunt, grey-suited man whose face Donighal might well remember. "I mussst admit, I wasn't expecting you here. You do have a knack for wreaking havoc, don't you?"

He glances over his shoulder briefly at the fading gunship.

"Then again... who better?"

Captain Ryan

Captain Ryan meets with no soldiers on the stairs, but as he proceeds downward, the stairwell goes dark. And more: the air goes... very, very still, in a way that no one with his sense of smell is likely ever to have encountered outside of a microchip production facility or somewhere similarly brought to artificial standstill.

When the light returns the stairs are gone, and the walls around him as well. Instead there is the sort of darkness one only encounters in the mind of someone who cannot be bothered to imagine the presence of the sky: not so much the absence of light as the place one does not want to look, because it is not there. How far it extends would be difficult to say, as there are no objects by which to judge distance. Only a lone figure: gaunt and pale of face, deep-set eyes of greenish-blue, and a scent that resembles someone trying to match a human's but not quite managing. His suit is a respectably cut grey, and he carries a briefcase.

"Captain Ryan," he says calmly, adjusting his tie. "The plot thickens, I see. Who... knew there would be so many factors to consider today?" He shakes his head fractionally, giving a lipless smile that doesn't reach his eyes. "One introduction after another. It really is starting to get more complicated around here than... any of us had imagined when it all began."