Moon's Order: Chadwyck, Lyni, Lysis, Rex

[Yoshimitsu]

The second team of the Moon's Order finds themselves on the outskirts of the Elven Forest. The grass is overgrown, making it a chore to wade through, and the forest itself is dark and cold. While there is not a cloud overhead, there is an ominous feeling in the air. No one can see deep into the forest, the density of the trees blocking nearly all the light from above. The air around them is silent.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck leaned back against a thick tree trunk at the edge of the Elven Forest. The forest ahead of him was dark and ominous, as if a cloud hung over the area. The grass around his feet grew wild and unkempt, it was thick and tangled around his feet when he tried to walk. It caused the young man an immense annoyance that clouded his features even now, as he closed his eyes in peaceful thought.

He was dressed as he normally would be: in a tee-shirt beneath a black, biker-cut jacket with several more zippers than were necessary. Blue jeans covered his legs and black leather boots were on his feet. His hair was blue-black with a streak of bleached blonde in his fringe, though he preferred his hair shorter than he had in the past.

He peered into the dark forest stretching out before him, his green-hazel eyes reflecting the twisted, ancient trees.

Chadwyck didn't know for what purpose he had been summoned to this place. This realm of war between two gods that he had been thrust into. But that wasn't the worst part. He couldn't remember anything of the life he had lived before this place; shadows danced at the edge of his mind as phantom memories taunted him. He didn't know who he had been or who he was missing, but he felt the pain of loss despite not knowing the reason why.

His memories had been taken from him as cost for his crossing into this realm. He knew that this was not where he belonged, but he didn't know where he was meant to be. He missed someone immensely, but couldn't place a name or even a face; nor why they meant so much to him. He knew nothing, and it drove him crazy.

Even the woman he traveled with; something about her seemed so familiar, yet he had never met her before in his life. Had they known each other in his other life, or was his mind playing tricks on him? He couldn't answer. All he knew was that he wanted his memories returned to him, no matter what the cost.

"Lysis," he said to the woman, "something seems off about this place. It's just the sort of place I'd expect to find one of those items Sem wants us to find."

And maybe, he added in his mind, a way to get back home.

 

[Rex]

Once again. He would try again. Rex focused on his open palm. He was sitting in a area with a lot more grass then he'd ever seen before. There was a forest nearby. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't like it. Most of his attention was focused on the task at hand, however. The Umbrakinetic could not, for the life of him, control the shadows. This was not a good time to forget how to control his powers.

His powers wouldn't respond to him. He had lost his ability to control the shadows. That was not a good thing to happen here. Slowly, he stood up, picking up a black combat shotgun that way lying in the grass next to him.

The black furred river otter Halfer was wearing a pair of blue jeans, an open black long sleeved coat, and a black cap. There was a holster on his belt with a Browning Hi-Power handgun in it, and straps on his jacket for his shotgun, a SPAS-12. The two weapons were all he had to defend himself now that his powers were gone.

He had come to this world not of his own free will. He had been pulled here to fight a meaningless battle. He had to pay a cost to get here, he knew that much. That cost, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be his powers. He was normal now, as normal as he had been in a while, anyway. He didn't like that.

There was a man not too far away from him. He knew the mission objective, what ever it was. Rex himself was just a foot soldier, a tool to be pointed at the enemy. There wasn't really much other choice in the matter, he guessed. He just had to stay alive, and maybe, just maybe, he'd make it back home.

 

[Shiny Motley]

(OOC: SEM I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER SO I'M GOING TO GO AHEAD AND POST D:< Also, I haven’t seriously RP’d in forever, so apologies if this sounds a little... off, or rusty. ^^

Lyni yawned, stretching to release the stiffness she felt in her limbs from sitting in such an awkward position for so long. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have been sleeping in a tree. But then again, under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t be as lost as she felt now.

The girl looked around, trying to take in everything around her. Behind her stood a dense forest of trees; she couldn’t hear anything going there, and hoped that the forest might be able to act as a place of either shelter or food. Then again, there was something almost sinister about the darkness of the woods, like they were inviting her to get lost in them and never find a way out. Well, that wouldn’t have been hard at all, considering her track record of figuring out a way to lose herself in her own home. In front of her was an empty plain, with high grasses all around. Although she would’ve felt a lot less claustrophobic down there, the openness would’ve made her feel vulnerable to enemies.

No, wait, the plain wasn’t that empty, now that she had a closer look at it. There were a few figures around, though Lyni was still too groggy to be able to make out who they were. Well, it wouldn’t have mattered too much if she knew what they looked like; almost everyone was a stranger here, and whoever showed up would’ve had to prove to her that they were on the same side. Anyone else would’ve found themselves with an icicle through their chest.

Lyni considered climbing down the tree and questioning the people, but decided against it. The risk of an ambush attack was too great, and if they saw a defenseless little girl in front of them, what was going to stop them from attacking her? And even though she felt confident in her control over her powers, a fight against two or more people, whom were probably more experienced in fighting than she was, was suicidal at best. Plus, just act of getting down the tree itself was a quagmire for her; why the heck she even decided that climbing it was a good idea was beyond her.

If she wasn’t stuck up in a tree, wondering whether the people below her were allies or enemies, Lyni would’ve looked like any normal little girl. She couldn’t have been more than twelve, and was rather short for someone her age as well. In fact, from far away, she could’ve easily passed as fourth-grader. Her jet black hair was put up into twin, high pigtails, and her outfit wasn’t anything extraordinary either: a light blue hooded jacket over a simple white blouse, complete with dark blue jeans and white sneakers. The only things that set her apart from others her age were the little silvery gadget she held in her hands, and those intense violet eyes that showed experience beyond what the average person would go through in a lifetime.

Then again, she wasn’t an average person.

Memories suddenly swarmed back to her, and Lyni wondered why she had even bothered to remember her past. She recalled the time her friends had all abandoned her after they found out about her abnormal powers, when she had accidentally frozen a classmate in fear. Then came the name-calling, and finally, unable to take it anymore, the girl had ran away from the city. She remembered that she had some sort of help from someone, but she couldn’t quite remember the person’s face, name, or voice; just that they had helped her.

A sudden chill around her snapped the girl back to reality, and she found herself to be surrounded by icy leaves. Right, any sudden emotional changes within her usually led to a sudden outburst of her powers if she wasn’t careful. As she tried to calm herself down to let the ice melt, Lyni suddenly slipped from the tree, and found herself falling. It would’ve been any acrophobic person’s nightmare, and, being the kid that she is, Lyni did the only sensible thing that she thought of: screaming.

“Aiya!” she cried out as she landed on the soft grass. She blinked a few times, realizing that the tone of her voice was off. Why didn’t it sound right? Her voice, which had usually sounded so musical, sounded almost bland and, well, normal. Then she realized that she had to have paid a price to come to this world; apparently, this “price” had something to do with her voice. It wasn’t like she had asked to come here in the first place, and on top of that, her singing abilities were taken away as well! What was next, she couldn’t play even a simple scale on her ice flute?

Looking around, she noticed that she had landed in front of what appeared to be an otter, except this otter was larger than any otter she knew, and was clothed with some sort of a gun in its hand. What the heck? Further off, she heard the sound of footsteps and soft chattering; she suspected that it was from the other figures she saw from her tree. Lyni quickly got up to her feet, and turned a knob on her silvery gadget. At first it seemed as if nothing had happened, but the sound of branches falling as if they had been cut could be heard in the distance. “Who are you,” she panted, her heartbeat quickly accelerating with the sudden rush of adrenaline, “and what are you doing here?” Not the most threatening thing she could've said, but the girl was too shaken up at the moment to care.

 

[Rex]

Putting his shotgun up on his shoulder, Rex had walked over to the edge of the forest, and was in the middle of peering through the trees into the shadowy interior. Suddenly a child, easily younger then he was, fell out of the tree closest to him. She practically landed right at his feet. Scrambling back up, she immediately began interrogating the otter Halfer.

"Jesus, kid, you're going to give someone a heart attack," he said, putting his free hand up, "I'm Rex Thompson, a solider, just like everyone else here. We're here looking for something."

Rex looked back to where the man and woman were standing. They were the fellow members of his group, so he should probably tell them something.

"Hey you two, it appears we've got a local over here!" he called to Chadwyck and Lysis.

 

[Sem]

"I agree," came the confident voice of the female in response to Chadwyck's remark. "Definitely not the the best place for a picnic."

Lysis walked with a single pistol in her hand, always keeping one eye on the shadows of the woods. The whole trip wasn't her idea of a vacation - though the battles were fun. Still, she had paid a price to come at the whims of some mysterious man. Literally. He held her entire wealth ransom. If she didn't perform then she would never see her money, cars, houses, or anything ever again. She definitely had a bone to pick with him. Most other people that had been brought to the island lost things such their memories or other sentimental things, as far as she was aware. But not her, she had simply lost her fortune. What could she say? She had been living in a material world, and she was a material girl.

Sem said that the way to return home was to collect a set of artifacts. If that's what need to be done then she would do it. She trusted him more than others seemed to, but this was due to having met him before their current situation. She had met Chadwyck before as well, but he couldn't remember her, which was a shame - they had had such fun together. The witch was also here and Lysis knew her as well. The witch seemed to remember everyone except for Sem, and seemed slightly more off her rocker than usual.

Everyone else was a stranger, but they all seemed to be strong strangers, and Lysis getting the chance to exchange blows with any of them would lessen the irritation she felt for being there in the first place.

"But, there could very well be an artifact in there so I suppose we don't have any other choice really," she continued. "It'll be fun," she added with a grin.

Miss Fox was clothed in dark-wash jeans that hugged her thighs like a second skin before loosening a bit on her lower legs, covering her boots down to the ankle. On her feet were black leather boots, stylish and fancy-looking, with a thick high heel, but they didn't seem quite so flimsy as regular footwear would be. The sound they made as she walk suggested they weren't designed for streets and runways. A red blouse was worn under a black trench, which reached to the woman's knees. Her long black hair was pulled up in a ponytail and her midnight-blue eyes were alert and calculating.

The woman heard a scream and was able to catch sight of what seemed like a child falling to the ground. The half-beast they were working with was closest to her.

"Hey you two, it appears we've got a local over here!" the half-breed said.

Lysis made her way over and stood over the girl. The woman's pistol wasn't pointed at the girl, and was rather held up near Lysis' head. Her other hand was on her hip, and being as tall as she was, especially in heels, along with her apathetic gaze, could have been quite intimidating.

"A local?" Lysis said with a raised brow, examining the girl. "I doubt it. The real question is whether or not she's on our side." As soon as she said that she pointed her pistol at the girl's head. "You better be a Moon."

 

[Shiny Motley]

Lyni stared at the freakishly tall otter, and blinked a few times in confusion. Local? The girl smiled at the thought. Yes, if these people thought that she was a harmless person from this planet, they probably wouldn’t harm her then. Then she felt the pistol touching her skull, and, looking up, saw a woman standing above her.

The girl considered knocking the gun aside, but knew that would only end with her getting attacked in some other way. Then something registered in her mind. Moon, did that person say? The girl opened her mouth, but hesitated before saying anything. What if she was on the other side, and only wanted fight her? What if it was a trap to make her feel more secure into trusting them, before they stabbed her in the back?

Then again, something about the tone of the woman’s voice suggested that it wasn’t quite the case, so Lyni finally replied, “Yeah, I’m part of the Moon Order.” Deciding that playing as a harmless little kid was her best option at this point, she continued, “Please, I just want to go home! I don’t know where I am, and my voice sounds all strange, and some dude just told me that I had to find some stupid thing before I could go back. Can you please help me?” Well, it wasn’t a lie, but it was definitely out of character for Lyni to plead like this. Just to convince the woman that she really was in trouble, the girl summoned a tiny bit of water to her eyes, to make it look like she was crying. She even turned her little gadget off, but kept it in the palm of her hand in case she still needed it for self-defense.

 

[Chadwyck]

The other person who had been traveling with Chadwyck and Lysis, a sort of otter thing, called over to the pair of them as they were talking. Lysis immediately went over to have a look at what was going on; Chadwyck lingered a moment, surveying the treeline once again. It sounded like something was moving out there, in the trees.

He walked over and listened to the girl's sob-story, but something didn't sit right with him. She seemed like any normal, defenseless little girl; but from what he could tell, everyone who had been brought here to fight in this war had some sort of ability that made them useful. He'd yet to see a person who wasn't some sort of warrior, but then again, he wasn't sure how the selection process had worked. She could very well be some helpless girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, Chadwyck felt that there was more to her than met the eye.

"If she's that upset," Chadwyck said as he saw the tears form in her eyes, "let her come with us. She's no more a stranger to me than either of you two." Then the young man turned and looked at the girl herself, "but just so you know, we're heading straight into that ominous looking forest right there, if you can't defend yourself, your chances aren't very good. We might not be able to protect you, so you'll have to protect yourself."

He wasn't trying to be mean, he was trying to be honest. This was a war, after all, and they weren't summoned to babysit a helpless little girl.

 

[Shiny Motley]

Lyni let the “tears” stream down her face, and nodded when the man suggested that she could follow the group. “But just so you know,” he added, “we're heading straight into that ominous looking forest right there, if you can't defend yourself, your chances aren't very good. We might not be able to protect you, so you'll have to protect yourself.”

There seemed to be some sort of a hidden meaning behind his words, but the girl couldn’t quite grasp what it was. She did, however, get that maybe she hadn’t completely convinced these three people (or whatever you should call that furry thing) that she was upset. Whatever, it didn’t matter now. “I-I can defend myself just fine!” she said, using her sleeve to wipe away the excess water. “I’ve seen worse than mysterious, dark forests, mkay?”

Smiling a little, she continued, “If y’all aren’t gonna hurt me, I don’t see much of a problem with me tagging along your group.” Then, surprising even herself, Lyni attached herself to the furry otter, burying herself into the creature’s fur. She giggled a little, and decided that it wouldn’t hurt to introduce herself. “The name’s Linda, but I prefer either Lyn or Lyni.”

Wow, way to go with trying to act defenseless.

 

[Rex]

Rex kept silent as the three of them conversed. If there was anything the short time he'd spent on this world had told him, it was that he was scared of Lysis. The otter Halfer listened to her sob story, frowning slightly. It sounded a little weird, but he didn't have any reason not to believe her. Maybe whatever she had lost had been her own powers, kind of like him.

Then, suddenly, the girl attached herself to him, putting the otter Halfer slightly off balance. Once he'd stopped himself by falling over by dropping his right arm behind him, putting his shotgun's tip against the ground, he looked down at the girl.

"Uh... I'm Rex!" he said, smiling a little.

 

[Sem]

"Tch." Lysis looked on at the girl with a glower. She didn't much care for those who tried to seem weak in order to avoid possible conflict or gain pity. And the waterworks on top of it, too. It was disgusting, and very unbecoming. The girl, Lyni, hadn't left a good first impression, and Lysis couldn't care less at this point whether the girl could defend herself or not, especially since she had invited herself to tag along.

Lysis wanted to say a great many things to the girl but decided that it was better to stay silent. She caught up with Chadwyck, allowing the girl and the half-breed to chat as the group started to make their way into the forest.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck glanced at Lysis and then over his shoulder at the girl and the otter walking a ways behind them. They were entering the treeline now; and within a few minutes they'd be walking through the thick of the forest. He had no idea what they would find, but he was hoping that it would be something worthwhile. "I think the girl is hiding something." He said nonchalantly to Lysis. It was odd, but out of the two, now three, people traveling with him; the young woman was the one he trusted most easily. Though he had no idea why.

He drew his sword and cut through a troublesome branch in front of them. The forest seemed like a place that should frighten people; most people anyway. Chadwyck was ready for anything and nothing really frightened him. His fear had been driven from him a long time ago. "I don't trust her. Something. There's something off." He glanced over his shoulder again. Interesting group. "But maybe she could prove useful."

Maybe live bait. He thought with a smirk, as he heard something moving through the trees.

 

[Rex]

Rex did his best to pull away from the small girl, and hurried after Chadwyck and Lysis into the forest. The man was literally cutting a path through the trees in front of them, making the going fairly easy. Within a moment, he'd caught up to them, leaving the girl behind.

"So uh, what exactly are we here to find?" the otter Halfer asked.

 

[Shiny Motley]

(pfffft darn writer's block D: this was the best I could do amidst schoolwork and whatnot )

Lyni was just enjoying herself, with the otter, who had introduced himself as Rex, nice and close to her, when she suddenly felt the creature break away from her. Confused, she looked around, and noticed that the man and the woman had already left.

Not wanting to get left behind, the girl dashed away as well. She was lucky to have the body of a sprinter, quickly catching up to the group before they got too far. Panting, Lyni followed the others through the forest, avoiding a branch here and there as the man in front carved a sort of path for them.

As they got deeper into the forest, Lyni began hearing strange noises. Normally, things like that wouldn’t have scared her, but the fact that she was in some unknown world with parts of her memory missing somehow made the hair on the back of her neck rise. Crap, she thought to herself, noticing the smirk on the man’s face. She decided to ignore it for now, though; even though she had acted like a baby earlier, she would defend herself if these people did end up trying to use her for their own personal gain. Even if they were her allies for the time being, she still valued her own life above anyone else’s.

Well, maybe that was a lie.

 

[Sem]

Lysis walked behind Chadwyck as he cut the group a path through the woods. She wasn't focusing on much besides the woods around them. It brought back memories of her training, during times when groups of children would wander through the woods and survive for days on end, and sometimes come into contact with other groups of children, whom they either had to befriend or kill.

The young woman's senses were attuned and alert, sensitive to the slightest shift in weight in the footsteps of those around her. The woods themselves were silent, and so it sounded as though the four of them were making quite a lot of noise. They were moving as stealthily as they could, but they had to cut branches due to how thick the forest was.

As they progressed the trees has become larger and larger until it seemed as if one could support an entire house up in its branches. That was when Lysis noticed just that.

"Look," Lysis pointed out by nodding up into the trees. High above them were several giant tree-houses, seemingly grown out of the trees themselves instead of constructed - as if their existence was as natural as the air the group was breathing.

Each home was large and elaborate, but the doorways and windows were dark, black. The forest was still as silent as ever, and the homes reeked of emptiness.

"This seems as good a place as any to start looking for our artifacts," Lysis said to the group. "We should check out these houses, see what we can find out, and preferably check them out separately so that we're not here all day," she winked. "And not like we've seen anything here, but do keep your guards up and try not to make so much noise."

With that Lysis chose the nearest tree and began ascending the staircase that spiraled all the way up to the tree-house. The woman moved with her pistol at the ready. After a moment she had arrived at the top, finding herself facing the main doorway to the large home. The forest was already quite dark, and so the space just beyond a few feet of the door was shrouded in darkness.

The young lady produced a small flashlight and turned it on, shining it on the front of the house, specifically at the doorway. Everything seemed in good condition, but the smell of rotting leaves and wood wafted out from inside of the home. There was also the smell of death. It was faint, aged, dry, but still recognizable to those who knew the scent.

Shiny her light directly in front of her, gun still ready, Lysis walked into the home with every bit as much confidence as she always had. The home was about as elegant inside as it was on the outside, at least, it would have been had it not been empty for so long. Beautiful hand-crafted rugs were torn and falling apart from the seams. Curtains were littered with holes and rips, and the place smelled really dusty on top of the stench of rotting leaves and death. None of the furniture looked as polished as it must have once did.

The woman's footsteps were light as she wandered the home. In what she assumed to be the kitchen Lysis discovered a bit of a mess, but it wasn't much worse than the rest of the house. She expected to find the smell of rancid food, but there was no food to be found. That was concerning. A large armoir-like piece of furniture grabbed her attention and she walked over to it, pulling the doors opening and revealing bottles full of dark liquid.

"Whoever lived here knew how to party," she mused as she took a bottle in her hand. She couldn't read the language, and seemed entirely alien from any language on earth, which was to be expected she supposed. She highly doubted they were on earth. Lysis opened the bottle and filled her nose with the aroma of the wine-like substance. The glimmer of a glass caught her eye and Lysis knew she had to have some. Taking a glass she poured the purple liquid into it, swirled it, briefly gave it another whiff, and then took a drink.

"Not bad," she nodded after a moment, grinning slightly, downing the rest of the glass and putting the bottle away. With that done she explored the rest of the house before finally deciding to ascend up to the second level. When she turned left at the top her light caught something that would be quite shocking to normal people. There on the ground, leaning against the wall, was a skeleton.

Lysis pulled the side of her mouth back and got closer, examining the thing in more detail. It looked human at a glance, but closer examination revealed slight differences in areas such as structure, height, and the size of certain bones. The clothes on the skeleton looked like the rest of the fabric in the home - old, torn, and dusty.

"What killed you..." Lysis wondered to herself, walking past it and shining a light into a bedroom, where she discovered two more. Those were smaller, probably children. A fourth Lysis found in another bedroom in a corner.

It was when she was about to go back downstairs that she heard a noise. There was a distinct shuffling sound down below, and then a growl. "Probably not one of the others..."

Lysis shone her light down the stairs and scanned the room, finding the source of the noise to be some sort of creature. It could have been a large wolf, it could have been a bear, it could have been a tiger. Lysis wasn't sure how to describe the creature as it rose onto its back feet and let out a feral, guttural, growl.

A shot rang out and a bullet hit the beast between the eyes. More shots were fired from Lysis' gun as she descended the stairs, eyes and flashlight-beam never leaving the monster as she ensured it was dead. As she reached the bottom another beast burst out of the adjacent room and rushed her, but it too met the same fate. The second monster was a bit different, but still similar, with razor sharp claws that could have killed her.

Lysis quickly left the house and began descending the large staircase that had led her up to the house. Putting her light away and grabbing her second pistol she saw that there were dozens of random monsters suddenly filling into the area. A screeching alerted the woman to some air-borne foes as well.

The sound of her shots would have alerted her companions to the danger that was suddenly upon them. She didn't know if these were actually enemies or simply ravenous wildlife. Many of the creatures appeared starved - ready to fight for any food they could get.

Stopping on the stairs Lysis decided that her higher vantage point was a good position, and so she began taking out monster after monster, only to have more take their place.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck continued hacking through the branches that got in front of the group. "Not sure, Rex. Hopefully we know it when we see it."

Compared to the silence of the forest, they were akin to a hurricane. They hadn't met any resistance yet, so it didn't really matter. Then Lysis pointed out the tree houses above them. They were enormous and, oddly enough, they appeared to be grown straight from the tree itself. Like they were natural.

Lysis split off from the group and Chadwyck followed suit, he'd never been much of a team player, why start now? "Don't wander too far off," he muttered, in spite of himself, to Rex and Lyni. He wasn't quite sure why, but he wasn't going to dwell on it. It would be beneficial to have more people in the event of a fight anyway.

He picked a tree and walked up to the stairs, looking up at the tree house, and then deciding that walking was for losers, he lifted up off the ground with the aid of his electrokinesis. He rose up to the door and stepped into the darkness, making a small ball of fire to light up the room.

To say that the room was a disaster area would be putting it lightly, the once beautiful home had been destroyed; it looked like there had been a struggle, or a tornado. Something destructive passed through the house, that much was certain.

Incredibly crafted decorations lay crumbled into piles of decay, some left standing only barely, shambles of what they once were. Beautifully woven curtains were torn and frayed, books fell apart at the bindings, the smell of decay and death hung in the air.

"If there was something here worthwhile, it's definitely gone now." The young man sighed, turning over tables and searching under furniture, only to confirm his suspicion. Having looked over the downstairs, Chadwyck headed up the stairs to the second story.

It was the same story. Nothing but remains of whatever memories this place once held. He opened a closet, and he found a skeleton waiting within. It caught him by surprise, but he wasn't startled, he could smell the death in this place, it was only a matter of time before he found someone. Or what remained of someone.

He wasn't an expert in biology or anything, but it definitely seemed like the skeleton was slightly off; he drew the conclusion that whatever it was, it was almost human but not. "What were you hiding from in there?" He wondered aloud. Then he heard gunshots.

Immediately the young man rushed down the stairs, only to stop dead at the last step; in the center of the room were two creatures. Chadwyck couldn't say for sure what they were, he had never seen them before. He could tell, though, from their posture and various sharp appendages that they were predators.

The man wasted no time in launching into action; he took hold of his sword hilt and flung it forward, the blade embedding itself into one of the creatures' hide. He thrust his hand forward, the ball of fire he'd been using to light his way growing and exploding against the other beast's flesh. The smell of burning fur filled the room as the creature cried in pain, Chadwyck rushing forward, taking hold of his sword, and dispatching the flaming creature with a quick stroke.

He made the fire subside before moving back outside, he didn't want to burn the forest down by letting his powers run rampant.

Stepping out of the house, Chadwyck spotted Lysis firing upon several creatures; hundreds of them. Every one dispatched was replaced by another. Chadwyck looked up and noticed aerial predators as well; those would be his priority.

A creature dove down at him from the air, the man reacted by leaping up toward it and delivering a bone shattering punch from a flame-encased fist. The air beast fell from the sky like a rock. Chadwyck used the momentum of the punch to roll in mid-air and thrust his legs back, a burst of flames propelling him into the air. A streak of lightning arced across the sky, knocking another creature out of the sky.

There were a lot of them. And they were hungry. But it didn't matter, Chadwyck had dealt with rabid beasts before, he was more dangerous than any of them had ever been.

 

[Shiny Motley]

The forest was thickening, and Lyni was beginning to have the feeling that they weren’t alone. Although everything seemed to be quiet, there was still some sort of ominous, unnatural flickering in the air that unnerved the girl. She constantly glanced around, but could never spy anything other than fallen leaves and the trunks of the trees.

Lyni was too busy trying to see if there was something other than her group in the woods, when the woman’s voice suddenly broke its way into her concentration. Moving her line of sight a little higher, Lyni saw what had caught her companions’ attentions. At first, she thought that the trees were just really big, but as her eyes adjusted, she saw the plants for what they really were: beautiful pieces of architecture, seemingly built, no, growing from the plant itself. She could’ve made a comparison to some piece of music she had played when she was younger, but for some reason, its name kept trying to run away from her mental grasp. Eh, it didn’t matter.

The woman quickly dismissed herself after announcing that she was going to go look for the artifact they were supposed to find. Lyni barely had enough time to register the woman’s words when the man suddenly warned her to not wander off before he, too, left.

As Lyni looked around at the tree houses, she began to realize just how much taller these trees were than the tree she had fallen from earlier was. Being the acrophobic person she was, the girl quickly tried to think up of some excuse for her to escape climbing the trees. Suddenly, she felt another pang of that feeling of being watched from earlier, except this time, the feeling seemed to be more imminent. She took another glance around, but again, she couldn’t see anything. Perhaps her watchers were hiding?

“I’ll be on lookout,” Lyni said to nobody in particular. “I mean, something about this place just gives me the creeps.” And with that, the girl took a few steps back until she was completely outside of the tree house community.

While the rest of her group rummaged through the abandoned houses, Lyni made a few preparations so she could keep an eye out everywhere and anywhere at once. “Let’s see,” she muttered to herself, “a convex lens there should help magnify things, and maybe a mirror here could help me get whatever’s behind me in front of me, per se...” With each word she uttered, some sort of item would appear around her; she was using her control over ice to create a complex system of lenses, mirrors, and other things to give herself a full view of the surrounding area. Adjusting her final little piece, the girl smiled to herself. Perhaps learning a little bit of physics wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Lyni continued watching, seeing how in the far distance to her right, a vine was growing on a tree. To her right, she saw the man opening a closet and finding some sort of a skeleton. Ew, disgusting. And behind her, the girl noticed some leaves rustling in the wind. Wait, wind? She knew that the air was absolutely still. Then why would leaves rustle like that-

A growling sound interrupted the girl’s thoughts, drawing her attention away from the lenses to the scene directly in front of her. She had been focusing so much on the areas shown in her lens-and-mirror system that she forgot about actually checking the area immediately around her. It was too late, though, as Lyni saw a hoard of strange beasts suddenly appear in the community her teammates were in. A few gunshots rang in the air, and Lyni saw the woman, running down a flight of stairs as she warded off the creatures. Above her, she heard the sound of crackling electricity. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she turned her head to look for its source, but she felt disappointed when she noticed the man, a fiery ball of fury, attacking the creatures a few ways off.

The beasts hadn’t made it to her area yet, but she knew it would only be a matter of seconds before they would surround her as well. And besides, being cut off from the rest of the group like this wasn’t exactly advantageous for her. Dropping her ice mirrors and lenses onto the ground, she sprinted forward into the fray, and, when one of the creatures noticed her, she quickly stabbed its heart with an icicle. A few more turned their heads, but she managed to entangle them in a tendril of water, which had frozen to trap them. They fell to the ground, snarling, but Lyni didn’t look back as she continued running.

As she tried to approach the center of the tree house community, she felt as if more and more beasts were approaching her. Lyni whipped out her silvery object in her pocket, and she turned the little red knob on it. At first, it seemed as if nothing had happened. However, after she made a good swiping motion with it, several of the beasts were cut up into several pieces, as if they had gone through a paper shredder. “Nice work, laser-fan,” she muttered to herself, smiling until she realized that more of the creatures had just filled in the gaps of their ranks. Several tried slashing at her, a few attempted to bite her; she covered herself in a tough skin of ice, which she then melted and reformed as muzzles on her attackers.

She seriously hoped that there actually was an end to all this slashing and whatnot.

 

[Rex]

Great. So none of them knew what they were looking for. Rex sighed, just doing his best to keep pace with his three comrades. It wasn't too long before they came across something interesting, a village in the treetops. Lysis and Chad began to explore the nearby trees, while the new girl decided to stay on the ground and keep watch.

With a quick nod to Lyni, Rex made his way up one of the other staircases, shotgun at the ready. The inside of the tree house he entered as dark as can be. Thankfully, the otter Halfer's eyes adjusted to the new lighting with minimal effort. The smell of death and decay hung in the building, though it was a stale scent. Whomever died in this house hadn't died recently.

Moving forward a bit, the otter brushed past several pieces of destroyed furniture, quickly scanning over everything with his eyes. The whole place was in disorder, and all the signs pointed to a struggle of some sort. In the corner of the room was a pile of bones, and there were more on the stairs leading to the next floor. They were too scattered for Rex to get a general feel on what the owners might have looked like, though.

Heading up the stairs, the otter halfer was greeted with the remains of a library. The remains of shelves lined the walls, and the few books that remained that weren't too decayed to read were written in a text he'd never seen before. As this room was a bit higher up, it was also a little brighter, which calmed the otter a bit.

This calm was shattered when a gunshot rang out.

In an instant, the library was seemingly torn to shreds as a group of black alpha wolf-like beasts converged on his location. One leaped at Rex, only to be blasted back by a well aimed shotgun slug. Outnumbered, and not wishing to be cornered in the debris strewn library, the otter took the opening he created and fled down the stairs, onto the first floor of the tree house.

Another creature attacked him there. Just barely hopping aside from its attempt to claw open his leg, Rex lashed out at the creature with a kick, which probably hurt him more then it hurt the monster. Still, it gave him a moment, and another shotgun slug took care of the threat. Heading out of the building, with the rest of the library creatures still hot on his tail, the otter Halfer noted with despair that they had seemingly triggered an entire horde of the beasts, which didn't seem likely to end.

In his lapse in concentration, another one of the wolf-like creatures attempted to attack him. It grabbed his shotgun when Rex brought the firearm up to protect himself with, and threw it back into the building.

"Fuck!" the otter shouted. He drew his Browning Hi-Power from its holster on his leg, and brought that to bare, firing three bullets into the monster into it went down. Two well placed headshots downed another one of the creatures, after which Rex was able to rush into the building and grab his shotgun.

Rearmed, he holstered his handgun and rushed out of the building once more. Heading down the stairs, Rex soon met the horde that had been making its way up to him. Firing a slug into the group made a few stumble and fall, but the rest still behind them surged on, and, slowly, the otter found himself losing ground.

"Dear god, we're going to die here, aren't we...?" he muttered, shooting the creatures again.