Onward: Red

[voidtreckermods]

They are in the vortex for what seems like forever but is perhaps not that much time at all. They do not hunger, they are tired enough that it feels like they have been struggling against the chaos of the sea for a few hours yet how much time they have been flying in truth, is unknowable.

They emerge, pushing up out of the vortex. There were four rockpools and now, as they land on a vast plain they will find they have all arrived at the same destination.

The sky is black, pin pricked with stars and in the distance, on the horizon there is a glowing white light. The light is bright, bouncing off the ripples of water and giving them light to see.

For it is water they stand on, a vast ocean, inky black in the darkness. They stand on it with ease and yet, if they wish, they can dive down into it. The water is clear and yet they will find no plants or fish.

Monsters though, they will find a plenty. As the voidtreckers arrive, their footsteps rippling on the sea, they are joined by creatures. Giant crabs, shark head beasts, water snakes. They stand between the voidtreckers and the light on the horizon.

Somewhere in this sea it seems there is a giant squid, as tentacles reach out of the water to grab the ankles of the void warriors and pull them down to the inky depths.

The voidtreckers feel a pull towards the light, yet the horizon seems endlessly far away, getting no closer as they fight their way towards it.

Comments

Duo Maxwell | OTA

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo had jumped into the rock pool not knowing what to expect when the water rose around him. It exploded about him, near frigid water that strangely didn't make him shiver. He was thrown up with the force of the 'not-geyser' and then... it was almost like he was being held in place. Almost floating in the center of the water spout.

He didn't have time to work out how or why as things came out of the water, filaments of the water itself trying to wrap around him and pull him into the spinning vortex of liquid about him.

His daggers flashed, slicing at the watery arms reaching for him.

Again and again.

Over and over.

How long did he struggle against them? Duo had no idea. It could have been for minutes or hours. Time meant nothing. All he knew was that he couldn't be pulled into that vortex.

And then, all at once, he was spat out.

Duo was on his hands and knees, daggers clutched in both hands and breathing hard. He looked up, his braid hanging down into the dark waters below him. Darkness. Dark sky. Dark waters. And beyond that... a light.

"The hell...?

He struggled to his feet. "What the actual hell>/i>?!" He yelled into the darkness as more of his team started to pop up around him. Those that had gone to other pools, all ending up in the one place. And as he looked toward that light, he could see them. See movement... Getting there wasn't gonna be easy.

[marriedanidiot]

"Duo?"

Nerdanel stumbles out behind him.

"What... what is this?"

A dark world. A light in the distance. And...

"Monsters." She says grimly, and moves to stand beside him, reaching for the obsidian knife that was her husband's first gift to her on the train.

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo immediately threw a hand out to steady Nerdanel and shot a quick glance to where she was looking.

"Yeah... I dunno what's going on but looks like we're going through those..." And by those he meant a damn horde of monsters that were waiting to rip them a new one. And he really, really didn't like standing on the water as he was. He wasn't Jesus. He had no reason to be standing on water. But Duo was trying his hardest not to think about it too much.

He caught sight of Nerdanel pulling out a knife and flashed her a big grin. "... You up for clearing a path through the nightmare fuel?"

[rieper]

So far this was without a doubt the most absurd and unrealistic mission they had been sent on, from 47's point of view anyway. This was unlike anything he had experienced and even space had seemed plausible and realistic to him compared to this. At least that had had familiar aspects and adapting to it was easy.

47 thought the primitive island world would be another easy mission, too, frankly. He was trained in underwater combat and maneuvering. That wouldn't hinder him from completely this mission in the least. But the unexpected place they ended up in after the rockpools did indeed turn out to be portals--well, that was the most bizarre factor 47 had encountered this whole time so far. Besides maybe the initial kidnapping by the train in the first place.

The hitman stood still for a moment as he assessed the new surroundings. Despite the unusual situation he now found himself in he continued to remain calm and do what he always did. Nothing could really shake him when he had no emotions to cause him fear and nothing but experience in remaining unreadable his entire life. He was prepared for the unknown. He was trained to adapt on the fly. He could handle this the same way as every other mission.

The light in the distance was an obvious lure. With nothing else to go on 47 knew they would head towards it. Even if it was a trap it was all they had. Other than the monsters that stood in their way.

That wasn't too unfamiliar by now at least. 47 squared off against the monsters closest to him as he prepared to move forward towards their new goal. He was in the middle of pulling out weapons to fight with when suddenly--

--he was tugged viciously under water by a tentacle that wrapped around his ankles too quickly for him to react.

[aggressivelygood]

Sven yelled out as Tobias disappeared beneath the watery floor. He ran to the spot where the man had been standing only seconds ago, falling to his knees and hands with a splash. Below the black surface of the water, the shadowed mass of the kraken writhed in the darkness, Tobias caught in its grip. A feeling of horror rose in Sven's body and his hands broke the surface, and he gasped with surprise as the water suddenly shifting to behave as itself again.

Reeling back, he sprang to his feet, bare soles splashing against the inky surface. Reflected starlight quivered under his steps. Sven dove, bracing himself against the primal terror in the back of his head that he was going to snap his fingers against the floor. Instead it was the floor itself that broke, and Sven plunged in. He swam downward with as much haste as his tired body could muster, pulling out the Petals of Nil and struggling to force his power into it. The weapon resisted as it had before, but eventually it sprung to life. The unassuming looking branch stretched to the shape of a sword, flames burning brilliantly all along the blade and filling the water with orange glow. Once again, Sven felt himself stumble at the sudden break in resistance, like a door he'd been pressing against with all his might suddenly swinging open.

He swung the weapon. The creature below roared as Sven's flaming blade bit into its tentacle, the thick, straining muscle fighting the course of the swing before finally being cut through. Sven scrabbled one handedly at the disembodied tentacle still wrapped about Tobias's ankles, finally tearing the cursed thing free and grabbing the larger man's arm to guide him towards the surface.

[rieper]

47 was by no means still while all of this happened around him. The tug underwater had been unexpected but the hitman was trained how to deal with adaptation to a chaotic situation. As the beast drug him further downward 47 remained calm as he reached for one of his knives. The creature's erratic tugging made this motion harder than it seemed and took longer than expected. Sven's reaction time was superb and 47 found himself free before he could complete the deed himself.

The hitman countered Sven's attempt to head back up however, wagging a hand in a negative fashion to indicate he didn't want to go yet. Instead, he slipped out of Sven's hold with ease born of practice at the maneuver and indicated he was going back down to finish the job. If Sven was worried about oxygen, he needn't be. 47 grabbed his scuba mask and put it on, using a diver's technique to clear the mask of water before he slipped it fully into place.

Then 47 dove further down into the water without looking back. His swimming technique was smooth and powerful, and he clearly looked like he knew what he was doing.

[marriedanidiot]

Nerdanel has lost sight of her husband, and with the bond muted, she cannot feel her remaining son, and Feanaro's bright flame is little more than a glimmer, as bad as when he died.

She coughs as she breathes naturally again, pushes herself to her feet to look around frantically, looking for fellow team members and kin.

"Is... this the Void?"

[aggressivelygood]

"Don't say that," Sven groans. He pulls his head free of his bubble helmet, staring off onto the horizon. "That's the last thing I want to hear right now. I mean, you could be right--I still don't want to hear it."

Deafening himself to the possibility that this is the void won't help them figure out what's going on, but he doesn't know how to handle this situation if that turns out to be true. Magic labyrinths on the other hand? They're daunting, especially when he still can't feel the magic he's certain must exist in a place like this, flowing around them like the energy of a storm riding the air, but at least they're a familiar-ish concept.

"Are you okay?"

[marriedanidiot]

She manages a brief smile.

"Well. I'm not getting a headache so... perhaps not?"

She takes stock and nods.

"I am well enough... you?"

Samata Mahto | ota

[les_magique]

"Right proper devilish." Samata observed, looking around. An infinite black sea. All that was missing was the sea devils to poke them with tridents and wailing sinners drowning in it to be right out of one of the weekly sermons she grew up listening to. She looked around, nervously, though also somewhat relieved to be out of that god awful whirlpool.

The moment of relative peace didn't last very long, though. A crab the size of a pony erupted out of the water and, rather than waiting to see if it was hostile, Samata IMMEDIATELY shouted an invocation and fired a sizzling bolt of orange magic at it. The crab flailed as the magic missile cracked its shell.

It was the first time she'd actually cast the spell in the field. And it had WORKED! Her excitement was as great as it was short lived, for she needed a minute to prepare another one, and the crab might be injured, but it wasn't dead yet and it was still advancing on her angrily.

She backed up, thinking through the spells she still had left. She'd already used up her shield and her missile.

[schrodingersghost]

A burst of bright green energy hits the crab's shell, forcing it away even as it singes its shell. A glance back would reveal that that the energy was coming from the hand of a white-haired teenage boy, who glowed faintly in the darkness.

"Hey, you okay?"

[les_magique]

Oh sure, he can just do it whenever he wants.

No time for that kind of thinking. "I'm fine. Just...rattled. And running out of spells that actually WORK in this world."

Sven, OTA

[aggressivelygood]

The domain Sven found himself in was harrowingly beautiful and yet he felt...deadened. While his teammates gathered themselves behind him, Sven stepped wearily ahead, looking toward the haunting light staining the horizon. The exhaustion of fighting against the water burning in his limbs.

The Petals of Nil remained in dagger form, held to his side. He dare not let the weapon to relax back to its inert state after all the stress it caused him to summon it in the first place. When activated, his power ran through the artefact as though it were part of his own body, like blood circulating through a limb, and Sven hoped keeping the connection open would save him from wearing himself out more than he already had trying to activate the weapon before. Already he could feel that the reserve of power inside of his soul burned less brightly than usual. Damnation, what was it about this place? He could raise infernos without breaking a sweat, and yet their struggle in the geyser had taken so much from him.

With nary a sound, something wet and slick breached the glassy surface below his feet and grabbed his leg. Sven cried out, his mouth filling with water as the starlight above flickered beneath the cold veneer that now enveloped him. His helmet, that he had been carrying under his arm, rapidly shrinks from view as Sven is pulled into the depths. As does the faint glow of the Petals of Nil, which disappears into a pinprick of orange light on the surface as it loses its shape and falls back into its slumber.

Sven struggled against the tentacle, loosing air bubbles from his nose as the lights above him grew dimmer and dimmer. Desperate, he draws into the molten power in his veins.

From above the surface, the water seemed to glow a violent orange red, blistering and popping, heat rising from the glassy floor. After a fraught couple of moments, Sven breached the surface, his body tinged with a deep red glow that seems to emanate from within. He gasped violently as he struggled to pull himself out onto the solid surface of the lake, the steam curling around his body twisting into the blackness around him. He lay on his back, chest heaving as he sputtered out water and smoke.

"Something..." He coughs violently, wheezing out a plume of black smoke. "Something's down there. Just so you know."

[burntlikethesun]

While Rose hadn’t seen Sven go under, being too busy impaling a stupidly large water snake that was trying to make her a snack, curiosity had drawn her towards the glowing boiling area of water. But not too close; she might have been effectively immortal now, but that didn’t make her an idiot.

When a person emerged from the water, she moved quickly to kneel by his side. Neither the glowing, the steaming, nor the smoke put her off. It was unusual for her species (and actually for most of the species that she knew of), yes, but the red wetsuit marked him as a teammate and he was treated as such. She noted with concern that he'd lost his helmet at some point.

Shifting her batons into one hand, she offered the other to Sven in case he wanted help getting to his feet. “Something too friendly?” She asked, peering down into the water with what was probably an unhealthy amount of interest.

[aggressivelygood]

"You could say that." Sven accepted Rose's hand gratefully, pushing himself to his feet with her help. He stole the opportunity to shake her hand while it was still gripped in his, giving her a nod before joining her in squinting into the depths beneath their feet.

"Something slightly cooked, now. Emphasis on the slightly...I think I mostly just pissed it off."

Granted, his priority had been to get to the surface, and he'd succeeded in that goal. He probably boiled that tentacle good and proper, but the rest of the beast is still down there. A sudden panic gripped Sven and he looked around, water flicking out of his hair as he turns. Thankfully, he saw that neither the Petals of Nil nor his helmet had sunk. He retrieved the weapon and put his helmet back on, not willing to risk another almost-drowning if/when the thing surfaces again.

Danny - OTA

[schrodingersghost]

Danny stumbles out of the vortex and looks around. His gaze is immediately drawn up to the sky.

"That is seriously cool," he says aloud. "Hey, does anyone recognize the constellations?"

He takes a few experimental steps on the water. It was weird actually physically walking on water. When he'd done it before it had really been more like floating just above the water.

He wanted to get a better look, though. Danny quietly triggers his transformation... but something was wrong. The light appeared as always, but it was much slower than normal. It took effort to force the rings to complete, and it left him tired and kneeling on the water.

"What was that?"

Xue Yang - OTA

[xue_yang]

Somehow Xue Yang gets convinced to actually partake in the mission and swims with the rest through to the other side. As he ends up on the beach he actually looks mildly interesting in what is around him.

Being unarmed doesn't really mean he is incapable though. He manages to find a rather sharp stick that he uses to pretty much incapacitate any of the smaller creatures he can get to. His reflexes are fast and he's used to using a sword so stabbing their eyes out so they can no longer fight is an easy feat for him..and decidedly more cruel then just killing them.

"This isn't so bad after all." His laughter is rather sinister as he takes down yet another of the crab monsters.

Rose Tyler | Doctor Who AU | OTA

[burntlikethesun]

Well, that was rather like being flushed by a murderous toilet.

Rose was quick to get to her feet and to survey the situation. She didn’t let the improbability of walking on water throw her off, just took it as a given and marked it as another avenue of attack. Her team looked to be in one piece, and it seemed like they’d acquired the rest of the red mission groups along the way. That was helpful. The army of hostile aquatic creatures standing and slithering between them and the only landmark on the horizon? Less so. But they weren’t yet upon them, so she took a moment to prepare herself.

A quick shake of her head proved that the plaits in her hair were still doing their job of keeping her vision clear. The helmet stayed on for its advantage in the water. The flippers, too cumbersome on the surface, came off but were stashed to be easily accessible. And now that there was room to move, she reached for her makeshift batons (a native spear that had been cut in two) and twirled them to reacquaint herself with their weight. She missed her guns, but these would have to do for now.

She saw that some of the others had already taken the fight to the enemy, but Rose was content to wait and watch, using the brief respite to gather whatever strength that she could.

If this was the sort of welcome the missing islanders had received, this mission was going to be more of a recovery than a rescue.

[knifewithnoname]

She's experienced a lot in her months on the train but being swirled by stupid rockpools is up on the most stupid things that has happened to her.

So it is almost a relief to be attacked by crabs. At least crab monsters made sense and weren't swirling water intent on drowning her.

Seeing one nearby, heading for the woman, a new member of the team, she ran towards it and stabbing towards it, trying to find gaps in its shell. There was no point attacking the shell, it was too tough.

[burntlikethesun]

Well, the girl’s got guts, but that alone isn’t going to keep her alive. Luckily what Rose can offer is advice from years of fighting unknown non-human entities. Weak spots may not be the same in every species, but at least she knows where to start.

She spares a brief moment to wonder if teaching this girl to be more lethal makes her a bad role model, but shrugs it off and moves to meet the enemy. “Work smarter, not harder. If you can, target the eyes, nose, gills, belly.” Sure, there are two very sharp, very strong pincers in the way, but that just means those get dealt with first.

She snags a pincer with her batons and then spins away, breaking the claw off and joining the girl behind the crab. “Armor or a shell? Go for the joints. You may not be able to break it, but your knife might get through.”

#1 Attn Danny, Xue Yang, Little One, #2 OTA

[enthunder]

[Within the Vortex]
They aren't the first into their rockpool, but it's close. Safe initially in the centre of the chaotic, interwoven waterspouts, whips of saltwater and weeds quickly begin to lash out and try to separate the four of them and drag them away into the maelstrom.

"Stay together," is all Lightning has time to snap out, before she has to twist around and slice through a tendril about to sweep across the group.

[Towards the Light]
It probably says something, Lightning thinks, that this isn't even the most annoying gauntlet of endless battles on a flat waterscape in pursuit of a nebulous and wildly unhelpful light that she's been forced into in the last year.

At least it means she traverses it with absolute, blithe unconcern, more interested in keeping an eye on the various groups that have split off to deal with the clumping monsters... Until the kraken gets involved, and then everything is gore and launching smoldering crabs into writhing tentacles to get them to release another teammate.

"I take it back," she says eventually, about three coatings of squid blood and crab viscera in. "This really is the worst waterscape I've ever had to fight in."

Towards the Light

[schrodingersghost]

"No kidding," Danny says as he freezes a crab in a block of ice. He throws it up at the kraken's face. "I'm starting to get seriously crabby."

[enthunder]

"Nice shot," Light follows the ice missile with a Blizzara, hoping to capitalise on the moment of staggered confusion from the frozen crab colliding with one huge eye.

It frees her up to give Danny a Look, at least. Which he deserves. "-- Really?"

[knifewithnoname]

She's trying alright! But how do you keep together when water is attacking you and you are swirling and nothing stays still? It is stupid and she kicks out legs and flails her arms, trying to grasp air, as if that will keep her near the others.

She yelps as her leg is caught by a tendril and she twists, trying to cut at it as she is pulled into the maelstrom.

Towards the Light

[xue_yang]

Xue Yang has managed to find a stick that he managed to break into a rather sharp stake and has been using that to take out the eyes of the various monsters. It's the best he can do give his lack of actual weaponry, but it's effective. By taking out their eyes, it leaves them angry but useless. They end up attacking each other because they can't realize the ones they are fighting are their allies. It helps that all their foes are rather dumb.

"This is my first time fighting what should be food."