In the wee hours of the morning, before dawn, Kaz tracked Bernie down. Bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, she says, as a greeting, "Yo, hey. I'm thinkin', it's the gibbous, Rotem ain't nowhere around, and I wanna go kick some butt. Or maybe just patrol. I'm never real sure. Come with?"

Bernie isn't bouncing, but she doesn't look too far from it; the antsy energy of the recent full moon is still definitely there. She nods. "Sure, yeah, tha'd be cool. Shouldn't bring anythin', right?"

Kaz grins slowly. "Well, this's Umbra, an' it ain't like you're gonna have time t'read a book, so yeah, jus' bring y'self." The Rialto's Umbra, once they get there, sparkles. This is, of course, the Umbra, so everything seems more real, sharper, in better focus somehow. The theater itself is the very picture of what you might imagine the old place to have been like, when it still ran plays. Majestic, elegant, and compelling. Kaz has shifted to glabro even before they reached, and even in the Rialto, she's glaring around warily, watchfully.

Her backpack left behind, the cub moves a little differently than usual. It's not that big a counterweight, but it does make some difference. She stands in one place and turns after entering the Umbra. "...wow," she remarks, "'s nice, this side. I thought alla th' city was s'posta be nasty over here?"

Shadow Claws emerges from off in a corner. Perhaps he came in through one of the windows. He gives Bernie a long look, and then heads out again the same way he came. Kaz falls into Crinos. ~Most places are. This one, we keep special. It got fucked up when the Plant exploded, but we took it back. Made it better than it had been. Most of the Umbra around here, it's Wyrm /and/ Weaver central. Y'gotta keep on your toes, or you won't have any left.~ She pauses, and then adds, ~We're clear, here? We run into somethin' huge, we're buggin', yeah? But if we run into somethin' I think you can handle, we ain't goin' anywhere? An' you'll trust me as to which, an' all?~

Bernie follows suit, switching rather more laboriously up into the warform, and watches Shadow Claws' emergence and disappearance with interest. She nods. ~Gotcha,~ she replies, ~You lead, I'll follow. No problem.~

Once they emerge from the Rialto, by the usual side door, it becomes clear just what Kaz meant. There are strands of Weaver fiber everywhere, dripping from buildings, following the electricity wires, choking the occasional rare Wyld spirit. Kaz reverts to all fours for the moment, ears twitching, occasionally, with each sound, wincing somewhat. She seems to know the Elson area fairly well, even having wary pseudo-communications with a couple of the local Weaver spirits. Through Shadow Claws, who eventually re-emerges looking grumpier than he did before, she's able to tell Bernie some of the results of these conversations. Most of them aren't very illuminating, but the one sparrow spirit they meet at least has interesting gossip about some of the other local birds. Kaz, even as she converses with this small spirit, has most of her attention on the area.

In this form, Bernie can't shove her hands in her pockets, so she ends up crossing her arms lightly in front of her chest, instead. It's actually easier for her to do that in crinos than homid, as long as she watches out for the claws... Most of her attention, though, is definitely on the surroundings. The Weaver stuff is actually kind of nifty looking, where it isn't choking things, and she grins at the things a little bird tells them. She keeps looking about, taking in the different look of the place.

The bird finishes with, *And I don't know /where/ she gets her food from, it's just scandalous,* gives Shadow Claws a dubious look, and flies away. Shadow Claws just snorts and cleans his whiskers. Kaz glances around once or twice, and then starts moving again, keeping to shadows. The rat spirit makes a brief inquisitive chuckle, after a few minutes of heading towards Regan Street, and tells Kaz, who immediately translates, *The twins are back.* 'The twins' turn out to be two raccoon spirits holed up in the remains of an Umbral building that has evidently been destroyed in the Realm, given how it's slowly fading, Umbrally. They seem to be keeping their home free of Weaver encroachment, but just barely. Kaz gives them a somewhat toothy grin and starts clearing spider strands away from the area. One of them glares at Kaz; the other blinks several times, grumbles low in its throat, and waddles over near Bernie, giving her the occasional warily curious glance.

~Hey,~ Bernie greets the curious spirit, friendly, but trying to be quiet, and unfolds her arms to give it a small wave, intended, at least, to be nonthreatening. She looks over to Kaz, adding, ~Y'want a hand with that? Or, anythin' I oughta do?~

~Yeah. Clear stuff. Get th' webbin' outta here.~ There really is quite a lot of it, obscuring sight lines and inhibiting movement. The curious raccoon, who seems to be something of a youngster, sniffs at Bernie's ankle.

Reads-In-Dark keeps her leg still, not wanting to frighten it off, and leans up and forward to tentatively grasp a few strands of the webbing. Watching how the Galliard's working it it, she starts pulling the stuff away from the fading building.

It takes quite a bit of cutting with claws, as well as pulling. Occasionally, the strands cut skin, or cling to it, but Kaz, apparently used to this, grits her teeth and keeps going. The raccoon, after nibbling tentatively on Bernie's fur and deciding it tastes bad, snorts dismissively and wanders over to its sibling, who is relaxing its glare into something resembling a welcoming look. Slowly.

Reads-In-Dark doesn't mind the clinging so much, just stopping to peel and shake the recalcitrant strands off, but she didn't expect them to be sharp. ~Ow, -fuck-!~ she exclaims the first time she discovers this fact, and gives the guilty bit of webbing a glare as she tosses it away from her with somewhat more force than strictly necessary. ~...well, that hurt,~ she remarks more calmly, giving the wound a look and deciding she'll live. She gets back to work again, a bit more gingerly.

In fact, the wound heals fairly quickly, it's just there seem to be a lot of strands that are cutting rather than sticking. One of the raccoons, the smaller one, starts grooming the other; after a moment, the groomed one snorts, pushes the groomer away, and starts helping Kaz. The smaller one looks briefly forlorn, and then starts helping Bernie, heaving a large sigh as it does so. Most of their help consists of biting the lower down strands of webbing, and getting some rather dramatic disgusted looks in the process, but it does speed it up somewhat. After a few more minutes of cutting, clearing, pushing, and grunting, Kaz declares, ~Fuck it, this'll do til tomorrow.~ Indeed, they appear to have mostly cleared the area.

Reads-In-Dark gives the smaller, sighing raccoon a quite sympathetic look, and continues to work. Now that she expects them, the cuts aren't dignified with anymore comments, just winces. At Kaz's declaration, she steps back, and regards the building, developing a surprised grin. ~Hey... we got a lotta that shit offa there.~

Kaz shoots the cub a grin. ~Yeah, once you get down to doing it, it ain't so bad.~ This seems to be something she's telling /herself/, as well. She tells the raccoons, ~Same time tomorrow?~ They give her a dubious look, but grumble agreement deep in their chests. As the two Garou leave, the smaller one sneezes and starts stalking Shadow Claws carefully. Shadow Claws completely ignores it and disappears into another building.

Reads-In-Dark nods. ~Stings a bit, but at least it's productive...~ She watches the rat spirit wander ahead, curiously. ~We gonna follow him?~

Kaz holds up a hand. ~Maybe,~ she mutters, sniffing the air. ~Depends.~ Shadow Claws slips back again, from the other direction entirely, and announces, in what is evidently a code the two have worked out, *Slimex. Over other side of the street. Think the kid can handle it?* Kaz gives Bernie a brief, assessing look. ~Don't see why not.~ She jerks her head. ~C'mon, Reads. Carefully,~ she adds, and goes down to all fours again, to dash across the street, bringing up against the side of a building and peeking around it.

Reads-In-Dark does what she usually does when she's learning things: as close to exactly what the teacher does as she can manage. She fetches up beside Kaz -- carefully, of course -- against the building, though she doesn't try to peek around the Galliard to see what's past there. ~Should I look?~ she tries to murmur.

~Yeah,~ mutters Kaz, very quietly. It would seem, once Bernie looks, to be a small, unassuming puddle of purple glup, with small green fronds of what looks to be ferns poking out of it. Kaz gestures, and creeps some distance away, where they can talk. ~'At there's Wyrmy. Seen some stuff like this before, lately. Think there might be a larger one that's spawning. Thing is, it'll grow pseudopods at the drop of a hat, it'll move faster'n you might expect, and it'll spear you with the fronds and try and eat you. Them yummy digestive juices, doncha know. So you gotta be careful. I think if we go for surroundin' it, it'll work ok, though.~

Reads-In-Dark leans carefully around the Galliard to look, then straightens and follows her back to where they can speak. ~Okay,~ she replies softly, ~What'll kill it? Do we just... sort of slash it up with our claws? Should we avoid bitin' it? Since you've dealt with 'em b'fore an' all.~

Kaz says, ~Try not to bite it. It don't hurt you any if you do, but it /tastes/ fuckin' bad, an' I think it might fuck with your thinkin' for awhile. Slashin', that's fine, it kills it pretty quick. An', like I say, avoid the fronds.~

Reads-In-Dark nods slowly, flexing her paws a bit, stretching them out. ~A'ight,~ she replies, ~my enemy's fronds are my enemies...~ Quick flash of her grin, rather toothier in crinos.

Kaz nods, establishes an Owl hoot as the signal to go, and gestures Bernie to go over where they'd first spied the thing. She herself maneuvers around to the other side, along with Shadow Claws.

Carefully, Bernie makes her way back to the side of the building, and peeks around the corner to see if the thing's still where it was. A quick glance to where Kaz and the spirit disappeared, and then back to the wall, waiting.

It takes Kaz some time to get into the proper position, but after a few minutes, there's the owl hoot, and the Kaz, diving for one of the fronds with the evident intention of just cutting it off entirely. Shadow Claws is right behind her, tearing into the side of the creature, rumbling in his chest.

At the signal, Bernie takes a breath and darts out herself, moving in toward the creature. She seems to have a similar idea to Kaz, aiming her first slashes to the area at the base of a frond, hoping to remove the thing as part of the damage her claws are likely to do.

Three fronds go down quickly, the creature making a sound somewhat like a guinea pig's squeal in response. It stabs one of the remaining fronds at Kaz, who ducks it and rips it off, as if she were pulling a root up. Shadow Claws' digging seems to be doing some good, as the squealing continues, a bit louder. Pseudopods start to appear, one slamming into Bernie from behind and dumping her right into the purple heart of the creature, another stabbing at Kaz and pretty much drilling into her abdomen.

Reads-In-Dark squeaks a little, startled, as she's knocked off balance -- it sounds different than her normal squeak, that's for certain, and it would even if it didn't trail off into a deep growl. Kaz didn't say the thing was corrosive or anything, and it doesn't immediately burn or anything, so she decides to try and take advantage of her proximity to the center instead of immediately getting up. She rakes the thing viciously with her forepaws, trying to get her feet into the act as well, while she's at it. One foot's claws catch another frond, near the base, not something she'd actually planned.

It is not, in fact, burning or corrosive, but it is hard to maneuver in the middle of this thing, gelatinous as it is. It's somewhat like trying to balance on a balloon, or in the middle of an earthquake. She does manage to rake it fairly aggressively, though, while Kaz, who has managed to hack her pseudopod off after some effort, is starting to try and join Shadow Claws in mowing from the outside. The frond Bernie's claws caught, though, stabs up and into her thigh and starts pulling at her. It's surprisingly strong, for how thin it is.

~Ow, FUCK!~ the cub exclaims, rather more vehemently than the more simply startled yelp the web strand had elicited, and does her best to curl around and slash the offending frond out of the body of the thing. It'll have trouble eating her if she rips its damn mouth-thing off... she hopes...

It is, actually pulling her further into the center of the gelatinous surface, and somehow she's feeling, already, a little slower, somehow -- but that hacking works to good effect, and it's fairly soon lopped off at the root, and bleeding white blood all over the place. Kaz growls in response to Bernie's exclamation, and both she and Shadow Claws intensify their efforts, Shadow Claws growling low in his throat. The thing is looking increasingly decrepit, large holes ripped out of it.

Reads-In-Dark finishes the frond removal with a furious yank that rips the last few millimeters of connective tissue, blinks once at the dead frond in her paw, swings her arm back and puts all her strength into clubbing the purple thing with its own frond a couple times, almost hitting on emphasis on her growled curse, ~Motherfucking bastard sonuvaBITCH!~ The frond comes down on the first syllable of each of the first two words, as it happens, before she realises, through the haze of the digestive juices, that this is not the most effective way to be doing things, and tosses the frond aside, raking the thing with her claws again on the final word.

Shadow Claws yells approvingly, *You tell 'em, kid!* Kaz is too busy ripping the thing in half to respond to Bernie, but with Bernie's rake, Shadow Claws' persistent attacks, and Kaz's last effort, the thing screams loudly, spits white fluid all over everything, and falls limp. ~Yeah, an' /stay/ out,~ growls Kaz, as if finishing a conversation. While dripping.

Reads-In-Dark pushes up to her feet from the midst of the fluid drenched remains, still looking pissed at the thing, and draws her foot back, giving the corpse a vicious kick and muttering, ~...fucker.~ Of course, about then she winces seriously, and shifts all her weight onto the leg that -hasn't- been perforated. ~....well,~ she remarks after a few moments, much more calmly, ~...I feel better.~ Pause. ~Leg excepted.~

Kaz drips some more. ~I,~ she announces grimly, ~Need a shower.~

Reads-In-Dark laughs, and looks down at herself, noting the copious amount of white fluid matting her fur. ~Got an extra lyin' around?~

Kaz snorts. ~Hot water ain't so hot, sometimes, but feel free t'come Rialto with me an' get this goop off. Or the memory of this goop.~

The cub nods, eyes the corpse, and sticks her tongue out at it. ~Showed =you=,~ she declares, and grins again. ~Yeah, tha'd be good. I don' wanna try an' limp back home an' -then- deal with this shit. Thanks.~