He's too panicked to listen.

4+2-1 Charm = 5 - miss. She marks experience.

"Nah, man. Nah," Daryl says, shaking his head and wide-eyed. He's got his cellphone out and is already dialing. "I can't deal with this, we gotta call the cops." He holds the phone up to his ear. "Hello, 911? Yeah..."As he walks off down the alley, Ali turns to the others.

"We should go, right?" she mutters.

"Probably, yeah," Mike says with a grimace. "Daisy, are you, uh...?"

"Oh, I'm fine!" Daisy chirps, despite looking demonstrably not fine. She staggers to her feet and the other two support her by the elbows. "Let's go...see if we can meet up with Phuong somewhere..."

With a glance back toward Daryl to make sure he's not going to give chase, Mike slips her arm over his shoulders and the three of them head back into the Black Dog and out its front door.

Phuong is just getting off the bus in Weston when her phone buzzes. Glancing down, she sees that it's a message from Dr. Heath: "Tested the sample you gave me. It's still alive! Whatever it came from, it's a part of the creature that killed that woman. And it was starting to grow, though I put a stop to THAT. Nasty, interesting stuff. Keep me posted, dear girl."

Phuong swallows, dismissing the message, and is just about to call the others when she hears, "Hey! Phuong!!"

She looks up and her eyes widen as she sees Ali jogging toward her. Further down the street, Mike and Daisy are making their way more slowly toward the group, with Daisy stumbling slightly as Mike supports her. "Guys! What happened?!"

"We found the monster," Ali says quietly as she gets close to Phuong. "Well, Daisy did, anyway. Mike managed to drive it back, but it had Daisy in its clutches for a bit first..."

"Fuck," Phuong hisses. She hurries toward the other two. "Daisy! Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I...I'm fine." She's still not moving steadily, but Daisy is only barely leaning on Mike at this point, and as Phuong approaches she slips free of his grasp to stand fully on her own. "Sorry we ran into it without you, but...y'know...things happen!"

"I'm sorry I wasn't there!" Phuong exclaims. "Mike, are you well? It didn't hurt you, did it?"

"Nah," Mike says with a shrug. "I mean, it whacked me with a tentacle or something, but didn't hurt. I've taken worse from you." He grins, and Phuong rolls her eyes.

"Well, that's good. What about you, Ali...Daisy...?"

Ali shrugs. "I also got thrown back by it when I attacked, but I'll live. Daisy..." she glances at the other girl uncertainly.

Daisy shakes her head and tries to stand straighter. "I'm fine! All good," she chirps. "It did something weird to me that slowed my reactions down, made me feel all foggy, but...I should be fine." Should I tell them about the...tongue stuff? Nah, Daisy decides. That's weird and gross and frankly kind of personal.

"All right," Phuong says, her eyes narrowed. "Why are you here?"

"Owner of the bar was there, freaked out, calling the cops," Ali says succinctly. Phuong nods.

"Got it. Let's go, then," she says decisively. She leads the group across the road, where they hop onto the bus heading back toward the center of town. "We'll head back to St. E's to figure out our next move. In the meantime, you can fill me in..."

Forty-five minutes later, they're back in a study room in the St. Evan's library. Everyone looks a bit exhausted from the running around, but Phuong has dutifully grabbed a marker from the tray of the whiteboard on one wall and scribbled onto it:

WHAT WE KNOW

1. No one else went into the alley
2. Two trails from the body
3. Victim collapsed first, then died
4. Monster came into alley with victim
5. Shapeshifting?
6. Mushroom man??
7. Mushroom sample still alive???

"Well, that all pretty much adds up to 'bad,'" Ali mutters, rubbing her face exhaustedly.

"Yeah, no shit," Phuong mutters. "I don't like the way this looks at all. Some kind of...mushroom monster that can shapeshift? And maybe all the mushrooms are alive, still? Part of it somehow? Damn, we need to do more research. We need to figure out what this thing wants, how to find it, how to kill it."

"Well, we're in a pretty good spot for that!" Daisy says. She's perked back up over the journey back to St. E's, though she still looks a bit haggard. "Why don't we split up and try to figure some stuff out? Some of us can hit the books, some of us can work on finding anything on the internet."

"That's not a bad idea," Mike says. "I've got some pretty good Google skills. I can try the web."

"I'll go start poring over the cryptozoology section," Phuong says. "Daisy, want to help?"

"Sure thing!" Daisy chirps.

"I'll take a look in the books, too," Ali says. "Two groups searching might be better than one." She stands abruptly and starts to heads out.

"Well, all right," Mike says. "Check in back here in, like, an hour?"

Daisy smiles. "Sounds good!"