Where is a random firefighter handing out extinguisher backpacks when you need one?  "Thanks Beth, hopefully it doesn't take to long to find, if it is even down here."  Joe is perfectly calm.  Well, okay.  He's more annoyed than calm, but that isn't up there with panic.

OOC: Why is my brain suddenly expecting Katy?  Probably because despite all the hairy people already wandering around, she's the most 'stray animal'.

Beth and Joe find the expected fire extinguisher next to the fuse box.  Sparks occasionally shower down onto a burning cardboard box of spare fuses from a badly mangled thick cable that feeds the fuse box from outside.

Meanwhile, Emerald finds a dog sized roach with mud caked on its underside.  It takes a few nervous steps back, furtively wiggling its antennae that course with an electric arc like a Jacob's Ladder.

"D-did you find it?" the maintenance guy asks.

Bethany eeps and goes to grab the extinguisher and spray the burning box! "We found the fuse box! Someone ripped a big cable from the fuse box and it caught a box on fire!"

Bethany IS in partial panic mode. At least it's not full-on panic?

"EEEEK!" Emerald's voice can be heard screaming, "GIANT ELECTRIC BUG! GIANTBUGGIANTBUGGIANTBUG!" she is running back to the others, scared. At her size, "dog-sized" means the bug is bigger than her. Emerald can be seen flailing her arms at herself as she runs to the others, as if trying to swat invisible insects off of her.

OK. So it's full-on panic now. Bethany's eyes go wide at the screaming.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:07, Sun 13 Apr 2014.

  "So, if you can hear me over the screaming.  Mr. Maintenance person, do you have any advice on Cockroaches the size of Dobermans with that both eat, and spit electricity?  Because remain calm seems to have been thrown out the window."

Joe is going to guess no.

The box fire is extinguished easily enough.  Simply sliding it away from the fuse box will likely prevent it from catching fire again.  When Emmy scrams, the bug Eeeees! as well and runs to hide.  Emerald is able to tell the sound it made was more like a "yikes!" from a unique language than just animal noise.

"W-what?!  You sure?  Animal control?" is the best advice the maintenance guy can think of.

Emerald's ears perk up. She says, "Hold on! That thing just spoke its own sentient language!"
She quickly says in EEE-speech, "Hold on! I didn't mean to scare you, I was frightened and thought you were going to hurt me! Are you friendly?"

Bethany gives a "wha?" expression as she hears insect squees coming from Emerald.

  "Well I was going to suggest we just get out of her since we cant' fix the power anyways, not spend time trying to smash."  Well, okay it was more because he'd expect the electric bug to explode than any concern for it's buggy health.

"EeeEe," the overgrown bug answers, roughly translating to, "OK.  I'm hungry.  Let's find food."

It skitters over to the base of the stairs and hesitates, wiggling its zappy feelers.

"E," it says, indicating that the coast is clear and it's safe to follow.  It then skurries up the stiars that head inside.

Maintenance guy says, "Waait.  Did I hear right?  Talking bug?  What did it say?  'Try the fuse box, it's delicious?"

Emerald says, "Close. It said it wants food and offered we go looking for food together." she then calls out to the bug, making clicking noises and eees. Translating to "Wait! Danger that way! Stay with me. I know this place. I will get you food." and turns to the others, quickly translating what she just told it.

Once she is sure the bug can see her and is following her, she leads it back outside while dialing the colonel on her cell.

  "Fuse box is a lost cause at the moment anyway.  Thanks for trying to help though."

  He looks over to Beth, and comments "You okay now that we know the giant bug isn't about to eat your face?" For NOW.

 Emerald winds up having to raise and wiggle her arms to communicate the parts of her message that require antannae wiggles.  The roach pauses, wiggling its antannae in a "oh... uh..." manner.  It then follows her lead but warns her to "watch out for the aggressive, noisy, four-leg bug outside," that chased it.

"Uh... you're welcome," Tech Support Face answers, "Thanks for putting out the fire.  And dealing with the giant talking roach."

Colonel answers his phone.  "How goes it, Emerald?"

Emerald answers the colonel with, "I have a giant, sapient cockroach with me. It wants food but is otherwise harmless. So I'm going to take it to the food storage area. However, it warned me of another large bug having chased it in here. Could be referring to a dog, or another actual giant bug."

Even as she's on the phone, she is heading towards where she remembers the food storage being kept. "Please advise."

Meanwhile, Bethany is just watching this while holding her breath. Then lets out a sigh of relief when Emerald and the bug are out of sight. "That was scary..."

The little boy from earlier peaks inside the basement. He cautiously goes down the stairs and seems to have a flashlight of his own.

  Even if she glows in the dark, Joe isn't going to leave Beth alone in it.  "Honestly, I'm kind of surprised it went that well."

  Suddenly, more flashlight!  "Oh, Hi.  The fusebox is out, of the wall."

“If there is any means of containing the creature, I would advise you do so,” Bradley answers, “Bring it back to the basement to 'hide you both from the other bug' it warned you about.  Lock all exits.  I'll call for backup.  Otherwise, people outside will assume 'monster' if they see a giant roach.  And people could get hurt in the panic.  Ask your bug friend for more detail about the other bug.  Where, when, and description.”

A blond human named Raymond came with Eli.  “Dang.  What coulda done that?”

Emerald returns and looks at Bethany and Kevin. "Maybe one of you could bring some food? The roach is hungry and Bradley's asking me to keep the roach here."

Bethany goes back to tensing up at the sight of the bug.

Seeing Raymond and Eli, Bethany says, "Don't be alarmed, but that giant cockroach over there did... I think it was looking for food."

Eli looks at the cockroach a moment, eyes wide. "...woah..."

Bethany nods and begins heading out.

Emerald then turns to say to the cockroach, "Alright... tell me more about the other bug. What does it look like?"

Meanwhile, Eli looks at the fusebox, scrunching his face. "...yeesh." Then gets to examining the box with rubber gloves on. "What can you tell me about this fusebox?" Eli asks the technician without looking at him. Eli also looks for the information that is normally written right on the thing, such as the specifications, wattage, ohms, voltage, anything on the wiring of the building. He at least, doesn't seem to be jumping into the wiring or anything yet. He just looks like a curious kid.

  "We might need to get a crate of batteries for it to suck on, if the fuse box and electric antenna are any hint."

  He looks to Emerald, and says "As concerned as we are for the thing, a more important question is probably are there more of them."

"I can tell you that fuse boxes are too dangerous for little girls," the tech help guy on the phone answers Eli.  But Eli is quickly able to figure out all the tech specs of the fuse box without the techie's help and it is, in fact, dangerous.  Especially with an exposed main line.  The sooner the power company turns it off, the better!  Sparks for effect!

Ray ohs.  "Thanks for the update, Miss.  Don't worry, I'll protect you."

He interposes himself between the bug and Beth, hoping to make her feel safer.  The bug watches him hungrily.

"That bug feels like yummy buzz box," it tells Emmy, its antennae zapping a bit, "The loud bug was brown and black.  Had four long legs.  Long sharp teeth."

The roach gets distracted by the sparking power line.  "Eee!"

Eli blushes. "...not a little girl..." he grumbles.

Emerald ohs... first, she answers the bug. "That bug is not food. But I'll ask him if he has any."

Then talks to her phone. "The bug said giant bug it met was loud, brown and black, had long legs, and long sharp teeth. Could be a dog..."

Emerald then looks at Raymond, still talking into the phone. "A blond teen boy and a brown-haired little-boy entered the room. The roach says the fuse box was yummy and that the blond 'feels' like the fuze box. There a reason a roach that eats fuse boxes might think the blond looks yummy?"

Eli says, "Tell the techie I'm not a girl, and we need the power to this area turned off as soon as possible. The sparks could set a fire."

  "As someone who had needlessly adorable curls at a very young age, you have my honest sympathies kid."

  Joe facepalms at this escalating into bugs saying people look delicious.

"Don't know," Bradley answers Emmy.

"I have electric powers," Raymond adds.

"Already called the power company," Techie says, "They said they'd get a man down there ASAP."

"Fuzzy ladybug," the roach addresses Emerald, "What are those sounds you and the other bugs make?"

"There's a knock at the basement door.  "Fire department.  Anyone down there?"

Emerald covers the phone and yells up, "Come on down! Be aware, there are multiples mutants and a harmless giant roach down here!"

She then looks back at the bug and answers, "It's how we talk to each other. Everyone here has something they can do that the others can't. I can talk to anyone that can talk, even if they talk different."

Emerald looks at Raymond. "Electric powers... good. You might be the bug's only chance at getting more food."

Eli, meanwhile, peaks up at the door from the bottom of the stairs to see if the main coming is, in fact, someone from the fire department.

  "Are rechargeable batteries to suck on in short supply, or something?  Could we not refer to a person as a food source for giant bugs here even if you meant it harmlessly?"

  He blinks, figuring the fire department would care less about manners and more about checking for fires and unconscious people near fires.  Of course it's been a strange day  "No fires yet, but I have no idea how long the torn off fuse box can or will remain safely that way."

"Just great..." the person upstairs grumbles as he descends the stairs.  He pauses at the bottom and stares at the scene, fire extinguisher in hand.

"Wasn't expecting to see so many young people down here...  Well I need you kids to clear out.  Could be dangerous and it'll get crowded once the other firefighters catch up."

He begins to work his way toward the fuse box, giving the roach a wide birth.

Roach zaps his antennae happily.  <squee>"Yay!  Useful symbiotic survival strategy!"</squee>

Raymond glances at Joe.  "Thanks."

Emerald says, "Alright. C'mon everyone, now that the firefighters are here, we can go back. Although..."

Emerald asks the bug, <squee>"Are there other bugs like you around here?"</squee>

Bethany and Eli start to head out.

Crystal pulled on her moms arm and pointed at the purse that sat beside them. She had convinced her mom to let her come and find out about being part of the citizens patrol, but all the lights had gone out shortly after they had found their seats. Her mom reached into her purse and pulled out the small flashlight she had there. The 10 year old brunette smiled and pulled out the pamphlet she had gotten in the mail.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:41, Fri 20 June 2014.