CoLC crossover RP, main thread

"Ah, yes sir," Riley replied. He wasn't sure if there was a precise way to explain it, but he tried.

Since he was going to be staying, he pulled out Salamence's pokeball and let him rest, then switched him out for Lucario. After taking in the scenery, he stared at Riley in bewilderment.

"We were assigned to help Fastanook and now we're watching the hospital overnight," he explained. Gently, he stooped down to pick Fastanook up. There had to be a bed inside for him to leave the gremlin.

"What were you helping him with?" Lucario asked as he followed Riley.

"Girl trouble."

"...you say that as if you'd know."

"Shut up," Riley snapped, forgetting to even use his aura.

"Don't..... don't mind if I..." Rick trailed off as he grabbed the nearest crepe, looked at it unsteadily, and popped it into his mouth. "Oh, that's good. I... approve."

HE held out the bottle invitingly. "You sure y-you *urp* you don't wanna drink? Give that newly reborn liver a workout?"

Cole didn't really respond to Miss Tairee, just settling for remaining where he was, keeping his face hidden. He didn't seem to have any real interest in the little bit of remaining food or the screen, or much of anything else at the moment beyond what he was doing.

"Why not?" Rex felt he already knew the answer. The way he saw it, Makoto probably didn't want to be disruptive and felt unnecessary decorations were childish. And a certain prosecutor that had probably never heard of the word 'fun' didn't help with that. "It is your room. If there's a place in the world where you can do whatever you want it should be there"

Ben glanced over at Miss Tairee, seeming embarrassed, but nodded and sat next to her.

"I'm sorry... I'm still working on it," he told her with an audible sigh in his voice. "Something fun and distracting, if that's possible. Something so I don't have to keep thinking about this whole thing..."

He glanced over at Cole, who seemed pre-occupied with cuddling into Miss Tairee. He then looked over at Louie.

"Hey, either of you guys watch my show?" he asked. "I saw the first episode and it was cool!"

I took a bite of one of the other crepes. "Well...technically I didn't say I wouldn't, I said I'd think about it. And I have, and...I don't want to risk bothering the people upstairs if things get out of hand, but other than that..."

Well, might as well at least take the bottle. I looked down the neck of the thing. "I've never really done it before, actually, and depending on how this challenge goes I might not be able to after. Wouldn't dream of it otherwise...especially considering this ain't great company for it."

...

I took a curious sip, and then immediately spat it out to the side.

"What is in this!?" I cried, examining the label in disgust. "Besides the obvious and all."

Home Sweet Home

“... You’d think that’d be true, right?” Makoto asked. To be honest, it'd be amazing if Sae even noticed any extra things on the walls anyway, since she was so caught up in work. “I just… got caught up in all the things I had to do, so buying things just to decorate my room never occurred to me much.” And it was probably a waste of money, but she decided to keep that to herself. She was getting negative again. “I’ll try to keep that in mind when I get back, but until then…” It was completely dark outside now, but the lantern was keeping the room well lit enough for her to be fine with it.

“Sorry about interrupting us earlier,” she said, taking his hand again. “How about we test out those ninja skills that you claim to have?”

It was dark again when the movie ended. Rean stretched, getting out of his seat. The movie was pretty nice, like an animated version of a story his dad might've read to him as a kid. He felt kind of bad for Wendy, though. A lot of things went wrong for the poor girl while she was in Neverland, and she didn't really get to have fun like her brothers did. Watching Hook get humiliated was oddly funny, though. Since it was dark, Rean suggested the two of them go the library to rest, and so they headed out.

Dave the doctor seemed was busy getting himself drunk, but he was able to find a stout, nice lady by the name of Martha who helpfully led the trainer to one of the spare patient rooms to put Fastanook in. "Will you be needing your own room, dearie?" Martha then asked after they had the gremlin squared away.

"You have a show? I don't really watch shows, since I'm out doing my training" Louie said, giving a nod, "that sounds cool to me!"

"Alright boys, we'll put on Ben's show, starting at the second episode how about" the Miss Tairee copy said, as Miss Tairee at the desks got to scribbling in her scroll to make that happen with the screen across from them. "Cole, would you like to just go on to bed?" the librarian duplicate gently asked the little boy as she kept hugging him.

After the movie had ended, it was already pretty dark by the time they were done watching. Rean then suggested to Herc that they should start heading towards the Library and naturally he agreed so the pair of them started heading out of the amphitheatre. But there was something that he needed to face once he reached the Library and of course it was Ben.

Hercules couldn't help but feel a little anxious about him I mean he had tried to protect Ben from the Predator but ended up letting Rean die in front of him. Would he still be mad at him? Would he able be to speak with him again? There was only one way to find out.

Edited by TheStarscream759 on Jul 12th 2018 at 12:09:49 PM

Riley was very grateful for Martha's help. It was either have her put Fastanook to bed or wander around aimlessly. When she asked about his own sleep, he shook his head.

"I have to be ready for when tomorrow comes," he explained, "just in case. Thank you, though." With that, he gestured for Lucario to follow him in the direction of the lobby, which seemed like as good a place as any to meditate for the night, stretching their aura sense.

Cole still kept quiet, peeking out slightly at Ben's question, watching as the other two boys were getting ready to watch the show. When Miss Tairee asked him about going to bed, however, he immediately clutched at her even tighter, the faintest noise that might have been a whimper escaping. "No, no no no no no I want to stay with you now, I wanna stay here..." he murmured, though perhaps sounding just a bit sleepy even as he did.

Rick looked down at the bottle, then back to the cupboard where he had gotten it from, the into the slightly smaller bottle that served as his private stash, then the ingredients that he had distilled this liver-scouring concoction from.

"Th-there's grapes or something in there somewhere..." he admitted. "I'll be honest, I just threw whatever was in the cupboard in here." He mulled the thorny over as he struggled to align the cars in his train of thought into a workable order.

"Cough syrup might have *uurp* been a part of it?" He took in Lewis's skeptical look.

"Look, you try getting yourself smashed when your liver is made out of solid titanium."

Hopefully Makoto would think more about herself in the future after it was pointed out. Rex knew that was hardly going to change her attitude overnight but it was something. Still, it wasn't the most cheerful topic and she noticed that and changed the subject to the... thing at the cinema they had to cut short.

"It's fine, I like talking to you"

She did however feel ready to continue, even joking that she wanted to see Rex's ninja skills he had bragged so much about. It should go without saying that while Six had taught him a lot of things, he rarely talked about emotional stuff or any of this. Ironically Holiday was the one that had tried the most and now Rex was seriously regretting not listening to her. But he he was a fast learner anyway and there was no way Makoto could know he wasn't all that experienced himself. That is, if he weren't blushing already.

"Uh, yeah, those. I-I..." he coughed, he had to think of something quick "Only if you show me that confident attitude of yours from back there first"

Nailed it.

Edited by DeisTheAlcano on Aug 4th 2018 at 3:04:41 PM

Ben grinned and nodded, leaning back and watching the episode as it came on the screen. He saw the name 'Washington, BC' show up on the screen and his eyes widened.

"Oh, this is the one where I fight Dr. Animo! I remember him saying that! Okay this one's good!" Ben insisted. He watched happily until the moment where Heatblast, after having saved the kid from the burning building, decides to get distracted by the kid's sumo slammer cards.

"Oh great, it's this one," Ben muttered, an audible groan in his voice. Soon, Ben-on-screen was going Grey Matter to open cereal boxes at the supermarket.

This was making him look bad.

"C'mon, I was stupid back then, I know better now!" he insisted. Soon, however, Animo attacked the supermarket with his giant frog, and mutated some kind of rodent and a bird into his servants. Ben pointed towards Animo.

"That's the first supervillain I ever fought. Now check this out." Soon enough, Ben outsmarted the giant rodent by trapping it under some shelves, forcing Animo to retreat with his frog and his giant bird, but not without the technology he stole.

Max-on-screen started echoing the sort of sentiment that the others had been trying to drill into his head for a long time:

While Ben-on-screen brushed it off with a snarky comment about greeting cards, Ben himself looked down at his shoes, twiddling his fingers sheepishly. The trio on-screen did their research on Animo and soon found themselves at the Smithsonian's natural history museum, as Animo resurrected a mammoth and a T. rex to try and stop the group.

"Here's a good part, check this out!" Ben shouted, as Ben-on-screen went Four Arms to wrestle with the mammoth. Four Arms grabbed the beast by the trunk and started to spin it around before throwing it against the wall of the museum. Ben cheered and laughed, looking excited. "See what I mean? Awesome, isn't it?!" said Ben.

Ben continued to look excited as the fight between Stinkfly and the bird (who had grabbed Gwen and was holding her captive) commenced, with Stinkfly rescuing his cousin from the bird's clutches after a fight by the Washington Monument. Ben was jumping up and down while sitting on the couch, his funk seeming to have washed away as he got to watch videos of himself being awesome.

"Oh man, isn't this great?! If only I could do stuff like this in the City!" Ben said giddily. By this point Ben, still in the form of Stinkfly, had started to fight Animo and his T. rex as they tried to attack his academic rival. Stinkfly dodged Animo's attacks and fought back, but he then noticed a prized gold sumo slammer card that had gotten dislodged from the dinosaur's talon during the fight.

Luckily, Stinkfly knew better than to go for the card as he went to save the man from danger, and sure enough Animo's machine was destroyed, his monstrous creations turned back to normal, and Animo was rendered helpless. The scientist was arrested by the police, and Ben-on-screen hopped back into the RV, as he accepted that being a hero for its own reward was good.

Ben cheered and clapped. "That was great! And I have a good theme song too don't you think?" He smirked at Louie. "Told you I got smarter about things."

Edited by AllHailThrall on Jul 12th 2018 at 11:09:01 AM

Two's hug was what finally allowed Yuna to breathe once again, and she was able to let her true feelings out without restrictions. She hugged her blue-haired friend tightly and let her anguished cries be heard and her tears poured from their eyes more intensely than before. Each sobbing breath was followed by a muffled wail on her remaining best friend's chest, as the grieving hero tried to rid herself of the searing pain tearing at her heart.

Yet, even in that state, she remained adamant in her beliefs.

The second Two stated she would place her own, recently regained happiness at stake, the young girl's hug tightened significantly, and her head started shaking from side to side. With the Hero Club gone alongside the rest of the world, Two was one of the very few friends Yuna had left; and she was sure her heart would not be able to withstand seeing them suffer, even for her sake. Especially for her sake. After all, Togo had done what she had done for the sake of the Hero Club as a whole...

She barely nodded when she heard Caboose make his suggestion, as well as when Veela approached, and absolutely refused to part ways with Two's chest, even though it was probably already partially soaked in tears by that point. The glass of water, for the time being, remained untouched.

"Ugh, that explains it..." I thought about wiping down the puddle of hurriedly rejected witch doctor, but figured it'd be gone in the morning anyway. "I'm just...gonna get a wine." Just because I'd never drunk didn't mean I'd never learned how heavy different boozes were, culinary kid and all. If I was gonna drink now I was going light, between lack of personal experience and courtesy to the people holed up upstairs.

There was a cask of red wine sitting in the storage. I took a cup and sampled some.

A decent amount of sweet, but the scent was a little much...you could sorta taste the ethanol but not to the point of it being distracting. I took it back to the table.

A concerned chirp.

I shrugged at the shuppet, and had some more. "Don't worry, I got this under control."

"Alright, Cole, alright. We'll stay right here, then. Just let me know if you want to go somewhere else to sit; I'll even come with you" the Miss Tairee copy said gently, watching the show, but not seeming terribly interested in it.

Louie was at first, confused when the show came on. "So, that's supposed to be Ben?" Louie asked, pointing to the cartoon character on the waterfall screen.

"Mhmm. That's just part of how the Bleeding Effect ends up working. This is still what actually happened" the Miss Tairee copy clarified with a nod.

As the show went on, Louie got fairly into it, and was enthusiastic to continue.

Meanwhile, across the lobby, there was a blur around Yuna and the others, as suddenly a slightly tinted dome appeared around them; it was muffling sound, but was otherwise intangible. With another blur, another copy of Miss Tairee appeared close by, and walked into the dome. "I don't mean to be rude; I just can't have you potentially bothering other patrons. You'll have to stay in here unless she quiets down" the new Miss Tairee copy mentioned, then sighed. "Now, is there anything else I can help you with? I would suggest getting some rest, given the hour" this new duplicate librarian added.

Time went on in the library, and the boys eventually petered out and fell asleep. Having settled them in with some blankets, the Miss Tairee copy sighed, glancing out at the city at large as the sky started to tint orange. "... I'm sorry, boys" the Miss Tairee copy muttered sadly, running the back of her hand over Ben's hair, "remember that it's not aimed at you, Ben..."

The world then blurred...

It had taken a day for the king's men to ride out to the Western forests, and another day to ride back with their passenger secured in the carriage. Despite plenty of misgivings from both the men and from their passenger in return, they had arrived without incident, and managed to get the her to the castle without any of the populace seeing her. Now, late into the night, Akyaliha, high priestess of the lamia tribe, was before the king of Vusluora in his study. There was silence as she sat there, while the king himself was actually standing behind his desk, looking out the window at the back wall, out across his capital. Akyaliha slowly turned her head left, and then right, to look back over her shoulders, noticing something about this meeting.

"... I'm surprised you're willing to speak with me without any guards present" Akyaliha said, to finally break some of that tension.

"... If something were to happen to me in this room tonight, you would be the one blamed, and all your people would suffer the consequences" the king calmly pointed out, still not looking away from the window. Then, he let out a tired sigh of a man who was well progressed in age. "A little part of me does think that perhaps, I would deserve it anyway. However, your people would not" he added, finally turning to face the lamia.

"You would do what it takes to protect your people, wouldn't you? I feel the same way, but years ago I did not... That is why, I think, things became as bad as they did" the king said in a somewhat guilty tone, carefully sitting down in his chair. "When I was but a boy, my mother told me that a good king takes care of his people. My father, however, felt differently, and taught me that so long as the kingdom lives, then any problems for the common folk are clearly not important; that they would pass, in time... When the troubles with other races began, I paid them no mind, thinking back to my father's teachings, that they would surely pass, in time... But then those orcs attacked this city; I witnessed first hand the horrors that my people had been going through, and that is when I remembered what my mother had told me... It was then, far too late, that I decided it was time to take action" he continued on at length.

"... So that is why, my people had to die?" Akyaliha asked, not really sounding sympathetic, in fact sounding a bit angry.

"I don't ask for you to forgive me. I wouldn't expect you to, either; I certainly would not, were our roles reversed" the king answered, shaking his head slowly. "I was only hoping that you would perhaps understand... As I said, I take the protection of my people very seriously. For this, 'deal' to go through, your people would become a part of my people... And I would have to take that very seriously, too" he elaborated.

This got Akyaliha to think a bit, glancing down with a slight frown. "... It's not what I'd prefer, but I suppose it's not the worst. Can you really promise me that you will do what you can against any persecution my people would face? Can you promise me that any crimes of humans against lamias will be taken just as seriously as crimes of lamias against humans?" Akyaliha asked, still a bit angry.

The king stared at her silently in thought. "... With all the people sworn under my rule, I cannot promise that this would all happen without incident" the king calmly admitted, "however, I can promise that I will take them seriously."

"... And will you do anything about what was already done against us? About what that bastard Sir Tristen did to us?" Akyaliha questioned him, a clear bitterness still residing.

"That... Is a more complicated matter. The men who attacked your village were ultimately acting under my own orders; furthermore, they believed what they were doing was in the right. Since that has also been undone, I do not believe it would help my people's opinion of yours if I were to punish those men. Would you still have me punish Tristen, just for killing you?" the king responded.

"It's not about me, it's about my daughter!" Akyaliha spoke up, her anger boiling up as she slammed a fist on the desk, to the king's mild surprise. She stared at his expression, realization slowly coming to her. "... You don't even know, do you? What he actually did?" the lamia muttered.

"... Why don't you elaborate" the king suggested after a short pause.

There was a few minutes of explaining, and the king was silent in thought for a time, his hands folded in front of him on the desk. Finally, a bit hesitantly, he spoke. "... I'm afraid, there's still likely nothing to be done" the king muttered, staring at his hands. "My court would think you are making it up; telling lies out of a petty desire to see revenge against Sir Tristen for killing you. Word would then spread down to the common folk, and their opinion of your people would only fall further" he concluded.

Akyaliha was appropriately shocked, clenching her teeth and fists in anger, but didn't seem to have a counter argument. Finally, and slowly, she asked, "... Do you think I'm just, making it up?"

Once again, the king remained silent, but not for as long this time. "... Honestly, I would have to think on it" the king told her truthfully and quietly. "I think our business here is concluded for now. You will be shown to a room you can stay in" he informed the lamia. With that, the discussion was dismissed.

Miss Tairee appeared, just as one of her, already feeling a bit used to suddenly snapping back into one body, so she wasn't very lagged this time. "... Let me guess, I'm sitting out of this next day, aren't I?" Miss Tairee asked simply. There was a sound of writing heard in response, and words appearing in her vision.

"Indeed. It will make a nice pattern, for you to be gone on the third day, the thirteenth day, and now also the twenty third day."

Miss Tairee let out a sigh and glanced down. "So it's going to be as bad as those two, again" Miss Tairee muttered; it wasn't a question. There was however, more scribbling sounds she could hear, and more sentences showing up in her sight.

"It should certainly be a trying day. However, this time they will be able to fight. It is a different kind of circumstances to be tested against. Would you like to see?"

"Honestly no, but I guess if I know it'll be easier after I get sent..." Miss Tairee trailed off, finally looking over to one side, spotting Tset Diy Signh'ere sitting on a couch with a bucket of popcorn, and Tester next to the couch; in front of them was... Well, let's be simple and just call it a multidimensional theater screen. "What are you two doing here?" the secretary asked, in that particular tone of someone who suspects that they already know the answer, and that they don't like the answer either.

"Well, Director and Developer knew you were about to have the day off, so they let us have the time off too. I haven't actually seen much of what's going on in that city other than that peaceful day, so I figured I'd watch, and I invited Tester to join me; I thought it would be fun" Tset answered at length in a casual tone, then held up the popcorn bucket slightly and mentioned, "you're welcome to join too."

"It's not as fun down there in the middle of it" Miss Tairee answered angrily through grit teeth, and stormed off. Tset watched her leaving with a raised eyebrow, then glanced over at Tester.

"As usual mister Signh'ere, you lack a certain degree of tact" Tester commented.

"Oh, come on. She knows I wasn't trying to be disrespectful" Tset responded, glancing over towards where Miss Tairee left, then back at Tester again. "... Right?" he asked, a little uncertainly. There was more of the sound of a pen writing on paper in the air, and the two witnessed new words becoming visible to them.

"She is emotional because of what was just barely happening in the city in her relative perspective. She will probably calm down, later."

"Well uh, alright... Would you just let her know that I'm sorry, big man?" Tset said, looking upwards.

"You know it doesn't matter where you're looking" Tester pointed out.

"Give me a break, it's a force of habit" Tset muttered, and got ready to watch the show...

In the middle of the prison fort, Kelsey stood in front of Wells, still in her armor, her expression unclear, but the confusion in her tone when she spoke, obvious. "You want to recruit me?" Kelsey asked, just plainly disbelieving.

"Oh you wouldn't have been my first choice either, believe me" Wells said bluntly. "However, the circumstances are complicated. Besides, Rex tells us that you're trying to make some sort of amends for the things you've done; some sort of redemption, I suppose" the lieutenant went on.

"What do you mean, the circumstances are complicated?" Kelsey muttered, now a little suspicious.

Wells huffed, and looked at her with his eyebrows going down a little. "It should be clear even to you, that we have our hands full. We don't have much liberty about deciding where we get help from, so long as it's someone who won't end up biting us in return" Wells answered; it wasn't a lie, but evidently he didn't feel like telling her the whole truth. "It does mean though, that I'm going to need you to meet us halfway; show that you're willing to actually follow along with our rules" the lieutenant added, motioning for one of the bystanders, Eight Four. The Spartan approached and reached for one of Kelsey's arms, but she jerked away from him.

"You're not taking this armor from me unless you kill me" Kelsey stated, nearly growling it out as she stared towards Eight Four. "Besides, I didn't agree yet" she added, glancing back towards Wells.

Wells obviously wasn't very happy, but after a moment, he motioned for Eight Four to stand down, and the Spartan backed off. "Fine, you keep your gear for now, but I'm still going to need you to stay here for the night, even if you aren't going to join us" Wells told her, not in a threatening tone, but the indication was still evident, especially with all the other militia members around.

"... Alright. For the night" Kelsey said, in a very similar tone. "I'll need to think it over, anyway" she mentioned, as if to make it her idea for her to stay the night. Militia members led her off to somewhere to stay that wasn't a cell, but still somewhere they could keep an eye on her easily. Throughout the night and the watch shifts, Wells eventually got some sleep, waking up just a few minutes before the world blurred...

Then looking around the cave he was in, now alone. Wells lowered his eyebrows; he didn't like this. Checking himself quickly, he was mildly satisfied that he was both himself and had his normal gear on him, and he got his walkie talkie. "This is Wells, all units, report in" Wells said, getting only quiet static in response. "Repeat, this is Wells. All militia who can hear me, sound off" the lieutenant repeated, still getting nothing.

"Brilliant" Wells muttered angrily, putting away the walkie talkie and drawing his phaser, before regarding the tunnel choices that were around him.

At the estate that Rex and Makoto had left far behind them, the confused man just watched the street where they had driven away, expression slightly amazed.

"Darturien, what was that noise?" another man asked, emerging from the inside of the estate.

"A young couple, with a magic construct mount" Darturien answered, glancing back at the other man briefly, then returning to his watch over the wall. "The noise was made by the construct as they rode it away" he elaborated.

"What about the couple themselves?" the second man added.

"Nothing to concern ourselves with, I think... This next one coming to us though, now this is important" Darturien responded, grinning as he looked out over the wall. He quickly hopped down from the crate, and moved over to the front gate, unlatching it. In walked Lady Valentina, followed quickly by the mysterious man in the cloak, and Darturien closed and secured the gate behind them again.

"Finally. I was beginning to worry you were all dead already" Lady Valentina commented, as if she had half been expecting that. "We should all speak, now that we're here" she added as she headed into the first room of the estate.

"I'll go fetch Amelia" Darturien said with a nod, going further into the estate.

"I only just finally found her, not half an hour ago" the mysterious man commented as he entered, glancing around as if on the lookout for any eavesdroppers or traps. "You're lucky, Valentina; I was about to give up and come back without you" he added towards the sorceress.

"I think you're the one who's lucky that you found me" Lady Valentina muttered in a slightly joking tone, then looked over as Darturien returned to the room, accompanied by Lady Amelia. "Good, we're all here. You all need to be aware of the dangers we're facing here" the sorceress told them.

"How bad is it, Valentina? Really?" Amelia asked, a bit cautiously.

"Unfortunately it seems that on some days this entire city becomes a battle ground. Even without, I have seen first hand that the other inhabitants can be quite quick to violent squabbles. Since they view all of us as murderers, then our best option is to simply remain in hiding; thankfully, they do seem a bit dull. However, they possess technologies and powers beyond what would even be possible back home, so don't underestimate them; we can probably handle it, as long as we're all together" Valentina explained. "Still, if they don't even know we're here, then they won't know to come attack any of us. Especially Sir Tristen" the sorceress continued, glancing over at the knight. The rest of the party did too, getting him to glance about at them and take a slight step back.

"... What? Why are you all looking at me that way? It's not my fault this has happened" Sir Tristen muttered defensively.

"In a way, it sort of is" Valentina pointed out calmly.

"You're the one that lamia has a grudge with" Amelia added, clear from her tone that there was a lot more than just that that she was mad about.

"I- I was following the king's orders! Same as you! Besides, how was I supposed to know it would end with us getting kidnapped by a deity none of us had ever heard of?!" Sir Tristen counter argued.

Valentina sighed and shook her head. "I would have to say that Tristen is technically right, Amelia. Besides, now is not the time or place to be talking about who is to blame" Valentina commented to the other woman, then looked around to the rest of the party. "Come on, I think it's a good time for us to rest. Does everyone still remember the watch order we did back during the cleansing?" the sorceress asked them, to which they nodded.

"Good, first will be Tristen" Valentina added simply, and the party dispersed to have four of them sleeping while one stood guard, taking turns throughout the night...

It was Darturien's turn when the world blurred, and Valentina was slowly roused from her slumber by the faint echoes of other city residents trying to find those that they had been with, shouting out through the tunnels... There were, other things, rumbling somewhere out there as well. Valentina only really got on guard though, when she realized that the rest of the party were nowhere in sight. "Merde!" Valentina complained, getting her staff and already getting ready for a fight; that she was back to her normal outfit was currently on the back burner of her mind.

Day twenty three, debris and hubris

Edited by FirockFinion on Jul 13th 2018 at 4:39:42 AM

Day 22-A Good Night

“...I suppose that sounds like a fair deal,” Makoto said, though she did allow her outfit to change back to normal. Armor and spikes generally weren't comfortable for other people to have to deal with, after all. She didn't want to hurt Rex on accident. “I don't need my mask for this.” It had certainly helped give her the push she needed at the start, but Makoto was sure she could hold things together on her own now. She could still tell that he was nervous though. “...We won't do anything either of us aren't comfortable with, okay?”

After finishing their interrupted moment, it was late enough for them to actually go to bed. As promised, Makoto turned the lantern off. It was easier to tune out the darkness knowing that someone was inches away from her and couldn't possibly disappear without her notice.

Day 23- A Bad Morning

Makoto slept through the day transition once again, but woke up laying on the floor of what she recognized as a cave. A dark cave. A dark cave with no one else in sight, and strange noises coming from down the tunnels around her. Rex was gone.

Makoto got to her feet, already feeling the familiar sensation of panic as it set in. Where was the hotel? Where were all the buildings? Where did everyone go?

“I can...I can just call him…” she said under her breath, pulling her now normal smartphone out of her skirt pocket. She hit Rex's number, but nothing happened. No service. Makoto made a small whining sound, her grip on the phone getting tighter. She check Lewis next, only to get the same result. This was useless. It was starting to get hard to breathe, and her eyes locked onto a small shape in the darkness a few feet away. The industrial flashlight was still here. Makoto grabbed it and flicked the switch, creating a large amount of light that calmed her nerves enough to think easier.

She wanted to find out where everyone else went,but the only direction she could go was down, it seemed. Great. Maybe she could just stay here for a few minutes… Her flashlight’s beam could be seen from pretty far down the tunnels connecting to her small cave area. “What's even the point of today?” She said to herself, listening in case something tried to approach her.

"Alright, now you're *hic* getting into it!" Rick enthusiastically threw his bottle in the air, sending its contents sloshing across the counter. "Whoo!" He took another shot.

"Does.... does he want to get into it?" he asked, pointing a finger at Cascabel.

Rick woke up with his customary yell of post-binge drinking horror and immediately clamped his hands to his head. Fighting his way through the hangover he rose to his feet and immediately found himself staring at a patch of luminescent, greenish brightness, a lone light in a stygian darknes...

... it was fungi. Cave fungi. He rolled his eyes "Cliché," He announced to nobody in particular, squinting around at the faint light that the bioluminescent fungi afforded him. There was the faint drip-drip of water from somewhere behind him. There was the softest of noises as a pale-white, eyeless cricket the size of his hand jumped away, chirruping faintly.

There was another chirrup from behind him... and the almost imperceptible sound of something with a very large exoskeleton... something that was settling into an ambush to catch the warm-blooded intruder that had stumbled into its subterranean realm by surprise...

Twenty minutes later, a bloodstained Rick emerged into a nearby tunnel, now wearing an improvised vest of chitin over his normal labcoat while whistling cheerfully all the while.

"Mmmm.... oh yes, that's good.... oh, baby...." Morty mumbled as Jessica continued to passionately embrace him. It was unbelievable - he'd gotten home safey, Rick was nowhere to be found, Jessica was throwing a party in his honor, and when everyone had gotten home he'd stayed behind, and was just on the verg of making it to second base...

"Your lips are so... ticklish." he had managed to sputter before Jessica grabbed him and the two collapsed onto the bed. "Almost like... feelers?"

It was at that moment that Morty awoke with his customary yell of horror at the realization that a) he was still trapped in this city, b) that he was now lying on a cold stone floor rather tham the bed that he had angrily flung himself into the previous day, and c) that what his subconscious mind had assumed was "Jessica" was, in reality, a gigantic eyeless cockroach the size of a Boston terrier, which had been crawling over his face. He screamed and threw the thing off into a corner of the cave, where it miserably rolled itself upright and trundled away.

Breathing heavily, he looked around at his surroundings. There was some kind of underground river that threaded through this cavern, with what looked like a gigantic white salamander lolling on the banks. Leathery wings rustled from somewhere above him. He shivered as another cold damp draft blew through the cave.

It was then that a sliver of light glinted from a nearby tunnel, along with the footsteps of what was hopefully another human. Silently thanking whatever god might be responsible for this coincidence, Morty sprinted towards it. "I'm over here! Over here!" he shouted, which was probably not a good thing to do in a cavern system stocked with every terrifying subterranean predator in existence and then some.

Cole didn't have much else to add to conversations for the evening, wanting instead to stay as close to Miss Tairee as humanly possible, so it seemed. Still, one of the new things that came with being human was the fact that he found it far too easy to drift off to sleep, and to stay that way even after being finally set down somewhere.

That said, it also meant there was more of a reaction to changes, when they did come.

Cole blinked his eyes open slowly, frowning a bit, before sitting up slowly. It was still dark, which wasn't unusual, with how Miss Tairee fixed things in the library at night, but...

He felt of the ground under him a moment, groping along, and...this was not a couch. This wasn't...much of anything, it was just...just...

"...oh no..."

His breath came in a quick intake, and he looked around frantically a moment, trying to sort anything out. It was...enclosed, small, there was nothing but the sounds of quiet, of whistling air moving in undefined ways...yes. This was...unfortunately familiar. It was...if it wasn't the Deep Roads, it was something so similar that...

Cole sat quietly for a moment, breathing a little harder, before drawing his knife, clutching at it in shaking hands, putting his back to the wall, looking around in a near panic. Slight whimpers escaped, before sniffles, and finally soft sobbing, even as he tried his very best to just disappear into the wall behind him.

Day 23

Caboose blinked. And then he blinked again. Something seemed wrong here, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He stood up and started walking around, stopping when his face slammed into a wall. The realization that he couldn't see hit the soldier at that moment. "Two! Yuna!" he called. "Who turned off the sun? Hello?" And the library, aside from being a lot more empty, was also more cramped. He couldn't move more than a few feet to the right or left without smashing into a wall. Not that hitting the wall was that bad, it was his head taking the brunt of the impact after all!

The moronic sim trooper began to wander off through what he currently believed to be a transformed library. He walked and walked for what seemed like hours, though was actually not even half a minute, until finally a slight glimmer of light appeared in the distance. Light meant seeing, probably, so it probably was a good thing to move towards, right? Caboose continued towards it, still running into walls despite now having a slight amount of visibility the closer he got.

Eventually, the source of the light was revealed to be a small pool of some red sort of liquid stuff. He found himself wondering how it would taste, but then decided he was full so maybe it would give him an upset stomach. Having been saved from ingesting lava by his odd train of thought, Caboose instead leaned in towards the molten rock. Even with the temperature regulation of his suit, he could feel the heat. This gave him... an idea!

Ripping off a long root growing off a patch of dirt in the rocky caves, Caboose held it close to the very hot lava. The root eventually caught fire, turning it into a portable light source... but Caboose did not think about that. His plan was far more simple, a way to make sure he didn't lose the fire. And so... the soldier set himself aflame.

Many small creatures that had been clinging onto him, failing to bite through his suit due to not possessing strong enough teeth, were killed by the heat. Caboose didn't notice any of this, too proud of himself for this idea. The pride lasted for five seconds before Caboose remembered something. "Oh wait! FIRE IS BAD!" he yelled out, as he began running from the lava in an attempt to escape the flame already on his suit.

It should be pretty noticeable if a flaming man screaming about fire was running through darkened caverns.

Two, Before

"That is kind of her." Miss Tairee didn't have to help us any, so to offer such a gesture was indeed magnanimous. Not that Yuna seemed inclined to drink anything, but I could not blame her. Maybe in a while. Caboose, bless his heart, was eager to help. "If you could please ask him."

I had to stay with Yuna, only now realizing that I said something that she would never agree to, even now that her own life was in shambles. How foolish of me. It was, in the end, what Togo did for her sake. I could not hope to throw away my own happiness to save hers; she would not allow it. "Shhh. It will be okay, my dear Yuna. I'm sorry for making you worry even more." I whispered, rubbing her back reassuringly. It was not much, but I could only hope that together with Caboose we would be able to bring her back from the brink.

My shirt was all wet from her tears, but how could I let such a detail stop me? "We will both find happiness. I promise." And then, unprompted, I started quietly intoning the soothing lullaby the kids back home asked for whenever they could not sleep, gently rocking Yuna in my grasp. I did not know why, but it felt right. It felt like the thing that I should do, to try and bring back her happiness.

It was only a matter of asking for help and figuring out what to do ne-

Before I could even finish that train of thought, the world around me, Yuna, Caboose, the library, all of it blurred away. I found myself sitting on my knees in the middle of a dark cave where the only source of light was a patch of fluorescent mushrooms. No... no, no nononono, no this isn't right! Not at a moment like this, not right now! How could the day already be finished?! It felt like we barely spent an hour in the library!

I was on my own, slowly getting back up to my feet. My old clothes were back together with my blade, so there was at least that much of familiar weight on my back, but... Yuna wasn't there. Caboose wasn't there. Slowly, I stood up and looked around, feeling frustration growing in me. No, no, why now?! The Writer was as merciless as always, to a second... but why did it feel so unfair? "Why... blazes, why...?"

And then something punched me into a nearby wall. It was large and towering, making vague skittering noises. I could not make out the details even in this dim light, but at this point my patience had run out. I was not in the mood and I've had no time to deal with this monster; I had to find Yuna. "Get out of my way." I groaned, picking myself up. It would not listen, thinking me easy prey... and so I threw it over my shoulder, about ready to call it a fight and hope it learned its lesson.

...we spent some time fighting. Regrettably, I was seeing red during this entire fight, forgoing the use of my sword in favor of brute force and enraged screaming. It was a tough opponent, and in any other situation, I might have relished the fight with a new beast, thinking of what parts of it could be edible. Not today. "Get" Punch. "the fuck" It punched back, barely missing my head. "off me!" Another punch shook it off as I climbed back to my feet, eager to punt it in a fit of wrath and frustration. Its mandibles crunched satisfactorily, but the hit did not paralyze it with pain; rather, it tripped me with a rough tug of its monkey arm, stealing earth from under my legs as it clumsily tried moving back up.

And so we rolled. It screamed, I screamed, punches were exchanged. We were about even, I thought, but sooner or later, one of us would emerge victorious. I could only hope that someone would come to my aid before the beast I fought amidst my newfound profanity and disgusting violence, of bones crunching and snapping, of screams full of rage, pain and desperation, covered in its blood, begging for sweet release...

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Jul 13th 2018 at 8:43:20 PM

Day 23- Tunnel From Cave Entrance- Don't Split The Party

"I'm over here! Over here!" Makoto looked up as a yell echoed down the tunnel. It sounded like a person and not some monster, which was good enough for her to trust it over standing around and waiting to be attacked. She stopped sweeping her flashlight across the cave and kept it in the direction of the sound, walking towards it. At the moment, she didn't bother arming herself by switching out of her school uniform, not wanting to startle whoever she was about to run into. She saw a shadow as someone approached, looking distinctly human, and then the flashlight beam illuminated a teenage boy. The same boy that Rick had offered in exchange for Cole's life just yesterday. Kind of awkward now.

"...Hey, you're Morty, right?" she asked, tilting her light source down so it wasn't shining directly in his face. "Did you get separated too?"

By the time the episode had ended, Ben was leaning back in the seat, taking another bite of pizza. It had been a long day and he was mentally exhausted, both from freaking out and from all the events of the day.

Soon he found himself drifting off into sleep...

Ben shifted in his sleep against the hard damp stone floor he was leaned against. A stalactite dripped water on his back and he shuddered, the cold water jolding him awake. Ben looked around frantically in the cave, which was barely lit by some glowing moss on the wall. He sat up to get a better look, squinting his eyes in the low light.

"Louie?!" he called. Only his echo returned his call. "Cole? Miss Tairee? Anyone?" No response but his echo. Ben sighed. "Figures. Y'know I was thinking the Writer should jump in a hole in the ground but this wasn't what I meant," he muttered, propping himself up onto his feet. He dusted himself off, getting the rocky gravel off of his clothing, which seemed to be returned to normal.

He pulled out his phone, which had a message on it saying there was no signal. Figured, they were how many miles underground? Of course they wouldn't have signal. No, the Writer wanted everyone to run around like rats in a maze.

"Guess I just have to find out where the cheese is," Ben muttered, thinking out loud and looking around the room. There was a tunnel that led out, but it led into pitch darkness. At first Ben felt defeated. He lacked a light source to lead his way through. Then he got an idea, and grinned.

"Well, if I'm gonna find the cheese, looks like I have to sniff it out!" Ben stated proudly, readying the Omnitrix. "Yeah, Wildmutt to the rescue!" With that, he turned the watch's dial to Wildmutt's picture and slammed his hand on the face. The cave flooded with green light, and where Ben once stood, the orange furry alien took his place.

Sniffing around, he started to sense all manner of unfamiliar scents, but it was visible to him, unlike the darkness within the caves. He just needed to latch on to a familiar scent...

...there! He smelled something vaguely familiar down the tunnel. It smelled like another person, someone he knew. With a bestial grunt, Wildmutt started to move down the tunnel with haste. He figured that he should move quickly, in case there was anything dangerous he had to contend with.