Revealed Part 1

[Kangaroo Hopscotch]

Thanatos was startled by the sudden appearance of William, but after recognizing who he was Thnatos beamed broadly. "William! Good to see you! What are you doing here? How did you get away?" Curiosity filled his mind at his colleague's presence and escape, and he was also quite happy to see him. Another person's company would be greatly appreciated in this empty place.

 

[Kyira]

Could this all be happening? Or was it simply a dream? Tyra watched as the white sand ran through her slender fingers, where was she? Last thing she could remember was getting caught in the middle of a tornado, that seemingly came out of nowhere.
Now she was at a remote island, or at least that's what it seemed like, the blue, unpolluted waves lapped gently against the white sand that was glittering in the sunlight. It seemed like something you'd see off a movie...a really cheesy movie.
She felt a swift breeze blow past her, she inhaled the salty air before she felt something messing with her hair, she quickly snapped her head around, but no one was there. She looked around again, then realized whatever it was, was weighing down her hair. She rummaged through the tangled mess of brown follicles before finally grasping the small metallic object. She yanked it out and looked at it, it was a small pendant with a lotus flower design, strung on a thin silver chain. Who knows what else got stuck up there?
She thought it was pretty, honestly, and the greenish glow intrigued her. She slung it around her neck before looking out of the ocean. The minute she put it on, she felt better, it felt like it belonged there.

If anything, she needed to find other people, if there were any. What could have happened? She suddenly remember, while she was in the tornado, she saw a tree flying toward her. A full grown tree, was lifted out of the ground and was then swing toward her head like a baseball bat, and her head was the baseball.
Speaking of which,
"Ah!..ow....oh, geez..." She grunted as the painful memory hit her like a wall of water, she rubbed her temples, trying to dull the headache.

After probably thirty minutes of sitting in the same position, she glanced back at the ocean. As if on cue, she saw something on the horizon, she couldn't tell at first what it was, but as it neared the beach, she could make out the dark silhouette of a person running toward land. But...he's on water...?

Though ignoring that fact, she was just happy to see someone, "Hey!" She yelled, waving her arms in the air, "OVER HERE!" It sound stupid, though what else was she supposed to say?

((Sorry everyone, I know it's taken me a while.))

 

[Shadowseldil]

"Yeah, I'd like to know too," Keith said as he started down the stairs.
"There will be time for explanations later," Melody said as she started to follow, "We--" She stopped and turned. "Hold it!" she demanded, then relaxed slightly. There were only two of them, and they were not dressed like conquerors. And there were no soulless.
She lowered her arms to her side and spoke to the people scrambling after them, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

 

[Skipper.]

Made in Taiwan

Will shrugged. "I'm not sure-- I think a building fell on me. . ." He knew for a fact what had happened, but he had a plan, and didn't want to spoil it. "Though. . ." He glanced around, as though trying to understand exactly where he was. "I'm not really sure where to go from. . . here-- Have you seen anyone else?" His gaze returned to Thanatos.

* * *

"OVER HERE!"

Skip nearly jumped out of his skin. But of course, he tripped over a small wave, and executed a masterful face-plant in the seawater, thereafter sinking quickly below the surface.

Now, it might be found odd that he could trip over a wave, but walking on water wasn't like walking on land. Rather, it was like trying to walk over a ridiculously bumpy surface that moved beneath one's feet. Stumbling was quite an easy thing to do.

He resurfaced, spluttering. Placing his hands atop the seawater on either side of him, he heaved himself back up. After regaining his balance, he tried again to walk toward shore, to wherever that person was. Maybe she (the voice had definitely been feminine) could help him figure out what the heck was going on. Four steps later, Skip found himself underwater once more. Having given up, he decided to swim. After all, what had once been a large smudge on the horizon, was now a very, very large smudge that blocked out the horizon. He figured he could swim that far.

Three minutes later, Skip reached the shore. Odd, it had seemed a longer distance than that. Surely, it should have taken at least twenty minutes. Dismissing the thought, he glanced around to find whoever it was that had shouted. There.

Sopping wet, he ambled over to the girl sitting in the sand, near the water. As he walked, he examined the necklace a second time. It hadn't really changed since he'd last looked at it, but he'd felt compelled to study it every so often. Honestly, he'd expected to see the words "Made in Taiwan" printed on the back, but instead, he found two lines, which he assumed could only be the Roman numeral "II." He didn't get it.

Strangely enough, by the time he'd looked up from the necklace, he was standing not ten feet from. . . whoever she was. But that wasn't the strange part -- he was already dry. This sudden realization confused him so much that he didn't think to speak to the stranger he'd come to meet.

 

[Big Al545]

Alex leaned more onto his crutch, standing on his wounded leg was giving him searing pain.
"I'm Alex Jackson, and this is my brother, Mathias Jackson," said Alex.
Mathias had taken a slight step forward when they turned around, standing right next to Alex, prepared to protect his wounded brother.

 

[Kangaroo Hopscotch]

Thanatos shook his head. "Not a single sign of another human being, or even habitation. This place is completely empty from the looks of it." Thanatos frowned, a though occurring to him. "And that could prove rather difficult for us. Do you think we should look around to see if anyone else is around?"

 

[Shadowseldil]

Melody evaluated the two of them suspiciously. Then, as if stating some trite trivia, said, "You're wounded. Hmph." She paused a second, then sighed before continuing, "Well, come along. The soulless will kill you if they find you here. But what are you doing here in the first place?"

 

[Big Al545]

Mathias look at Alex, then turned back to Melody.
"We were looking for someone we saw in the woods,"Mathias glanced at Keith,"I saw him and he had a cut on his head, and we were going to help him."
Alex had stayed calm even when Melody mentioned the Soulless killing them.
"Why would they kill us? We haven't done anything wrong," said Alex.

 

[LUColt27]

Blake noted the presence of the two others who had decided to join them. "What happened to you?" he said to Alex. The leg didn't appear to be in particularly good shape, but he figured that if they needed help, he'd step in.

 

[Winds of Faith]

Why was the world suddenly against her? What had she done to deserve this?

Evelyn stomped down the sidewalk, weaving her way through the massive crowds that covered nearly every inch of New York streets. She was dressed in a plain navy blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans, compared to her usual long sleeve sweater and pencil skirt. Casual Friday? How childish. Though she decided to partake anyway. She reached up and brushed a lock of brown hair that had fallen out of the silver clip that was holding the rest of her follicles up, behind her ear.
Though, at least she has a job, no matter how idiotic it can be at times. Since she was recently fired from her old one, she was somewhat happy to have a roof over her head...even if it wasn't as nice as her old one. Though most of them were happy she left, none of them really liked her anyway...

She turned to walk across the street, and strangely no cars were coming...no people either. Though ignoring that fact she speed up her pace and walked across the pavement.

Someone screamed, she stopped dead in the middle of the street, she hadn't been living in New York very long, but long enough to know that under no circumstance to you stopped and stand in the middle of the road. Though her mind was focused on one thing now. The large metallic object rolling toward her.

She barley had time to think before she was pushed out of the way of the car, and onto the sidewalk next to the road. And she glanced over to her horror to see a girl, lying on the street, directly in the path of the car. The girl struggled to get up before the car rolled over her....and she was gone.
With a shaky breath Evelyn stood up, and straightened out her shirt to see people staring wide-eyed at her. She regained composure and began to walk down the sidewalk. She felt somewhat bad for the girl, but at least she was still living, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

As she walked down the sidewalk, the ground began to shake, and she fell over. The ground shook and rolled and the buildings began to creak. She tried to keep steady as people's screams and cries filled her ears. She glance up to see the building above her collapse on top of her.

But, she felt nothing, she heard nothing. It was all quiet...
Evelyn opened her grey eyes, and found herself lying on the dirt ground.

"Disgusting..." She said as she sat up and brushed off her shirt, which had a large piece of metal stuck on it, and then examined the forest around her.

"Ah, it's more beautiful than I imagined..." She said with a sigh, before she heard a moan, just about twenty yard away. She weaved her way through the mass of trees before seeing a girl lying on the ground. The same girl.
She bent down next to the girl, and shook her violently, "Wake up."
The girl moaned, "No...go away."
Evelyn shook her again, "Wake up idiot, you need to find a way out of here...and I need to find someone..." She looked up at the trees, but speaking again, "I think there might be other people here, but you have to trust me."
The girl sat up before stating, "Idiot is a naughty word..." she shook her head, and locks of golden brown hair cascaded over her shoulders. Evelyn frowned, the girl was pretty. "I'm Rachel by the way."
"Mmm...yea...now let's go." She said, not really paying any attention. She got up and started walking through the dense forest, and Rachel followed.

 

[Big Al545]

Alex turned towards Blake, twisting his crutch to suit his position better.
"I was attacked by a wolf," replied Alex,"Wasn't a pretty sight either. "What are you guys doing here anyway," asked Alex.

 

[Shadowseldil]

"Running from the soulless, currently," Keith interjected as the entrance to the hidden passage closed behind them. The darkness swallowed them as it did, although there was a faint orange glow coming from Blake's necklace.
The darkness was suddenly pierced by a spark and a blaze of fire as Melody took down the torch she had just lit. "Technology is a little primitive around here, so we'll have to do with torchlight." She turned to Alax and said, "To answer your question, the soulless would kill you because that is what they do. I don't know why, but they do. If they found you here, they might ignore you at first, but rest assured that one or another of them would kill you before they left."
She led them a few paces down the hall and said, "We can't go too far right away. If they are tracking the necklaces, we need to give them time to get to the ground before we start off. If we just keep moving, they'll follow us until we stop. If they think we have stopped, then they'll make land and look for us. That's when we start moving again."
"Wait," Keith interrupted, "If they're tracking the necklaces, why don't we just leave them here?"
"Good idea," Melody replied sardonically, "You go first."
Keith glared at Melody, and defiantly tugged the necklace from his shirt. As he did, though, he felt a compelling and urgent need to keep wearing the necklace. He told himself that keeping it would mean death, but death did not seem as bad as losing the necklace. While he tried to think of another argument, an irresistible urge flowed through his arm, and before he quite realized it, he had put the necklace back under his shirt.
Melody looked smug but said very seriously, "We can't get rid of the necklaces, and they can't be taken from us until we die. They are ours until we pass them on at our deathbed or are killed before we can. In other words, the only way out of this is death. Now, if you want to die, I can help you with that, but since I think your whole point was to save your sorry skin, you'll just have to go with it."
She sighed, turning from Keith, and said to Matthias and Alex, "So you're refugees, huh? How long have you been here, do you know?"

 

[Big Al545]

Alex was a little shocked by how Melody responded to Keith.
"I've lost track of time when we got here, you wouldn't by any chance have better bandages would you? Denim Jeans don't make good medical supplies," responded Alex.
Alex leaned gently against the tunnel walls. His leg was hurting a lot more than it usually did.
"I think this might be infected or something,"said Alex.

 

[Shadowseldil]

Melody shook her head, "Sorry, I don't. Be grateful it was just a wolf, though." She knelt over the leg and looked at it, "It should manage all right until we can get it looked at. Keith needs some medical attention too. Oh, yeah; that's Keith with the cut on his head, I'm Melody, and he's..."
She stood and, turning to Blake, said, "Actually, we never got your name, did we? Well, now would be a good time for introductions."

 

[Big Al545]

Alex sighed to himself.
"Its okay, I'll deal with it," said Alex.
Alex and Mathias looked at everybody in turn as Melody introduced them.
Mathias had hung back a little from the group, he was always shy when meeting other people.
"Alex on the other hand never had a problem with anything," thought Mathias.

 

[Skipper.]

Three Hands

Thanatos shook his head. "Not a single sign of another human being, or even habitation. This place is completely empty from the looks of it." Thanatos frowned, a though occurring to him. "And that could prove rather difficult for us. Do you think we should look around to see if anyone else is around?"

"Definitely. . ." he replied hesitantly.

Wasn't Thanatos aware that several of his colleagues would be there? Wasn't it common knowledge among the scientists of that field? . . . Well, then again, a good majority of them did not. Thanatos was young. Perhaps he hadn't been let in on the discoveries. . . Still, it was hard for Will to believe; he had just seen Thanatos shape-shift. Only the most knowledgeable of them could exercise their abilities to such an extremity.

William thought for a moment, trying to decide the best path to take. On one hand, following the nearest river or creek would ensure that they stayed hydrated. On the other hand, staying near a source of water would significantly heighten their chances of encountering a dangerous animal. . . On the other hand, Will could send a signal -- a bolt of lightning on a clear day -- so that his colleagues would know of his presence. That would save a lot of time.

His brow furrowed. "I suppose we should." Sending a signal like that so soon would arouse Thanatos' suspicion. Will decided it best to play it dumb for a while -- at least until he could be sure of his partner's intentions. "I don't really know where to go, exactly. . ." He made a point of glancing around at the surrounding landscape. "Let's just start walking, I guess." With that he began walking in the direction of the tallest visible mountain -- their last rendezvous point.

 

[Kyira]

Tyra tried to contain her laughter as she watched the boy face-plant into the water. It was rude, yes, but she couldn't seem to stop. She watched as the boy neared her, he was distracted though, with something in his hand, so he didn't see her laughing.
He didn't say anything, even after he looked up at her, was it because she was laughing, or because her hair was sticking out in every direction?
Either way, she was the first to speak.

"That was beautiful..." She said, still laughing. She stood up before she noticed the necklace he was wearing, it had a faint blue glow to it, and a silhouette of an otter in the center. "Okay, I have three questions for you. Who are you? How did you get here? And do you know what the freak is going on?!" During the last question she raised her hands in the air dramatically. Though in the process she probably looked like a lunatic...

 

[LUColt27]

"Blake. Blake Russel." In the commotion, he had totally forgotten to introduce himself. "Sorry about that, I guess it just slipped my mind at the time." He looked around in the dim torchlight, and remembered what Melody had said about the necklaces. "So, about these necklaces. What do they do? I mean, if the soulless or whoever is in charge of them is searching out these necklaces, I'd imagine that they're not particularly interested in just making fashion statements. Also, since each of ours is slightly different-" He took his out of his shirt to compare with the others- "They must be used to do different things. Correct?"

He was still puzzled about what the soulless were exactly, having never seen one, but given Melody's description of them, he'd much prefer to keep encounters to a minimum for a while. However, since everyone present had a necklace, he figured that he was in good company, and if it came to a fight, he was no slouch in that department, either. Besides, if these necklaces did help him out somehow, he wouldn't mind.

 

[Kangaroo Hopscotch]

Thanatos fell in line behind William, trusting that he would be able to bring them to someplace that they might be able to provide for themselves. While they walked, Thanatos observed the plants around them and drew a definite conclusion. This was not earth, although it closely resembled it. He could see differences in some of the trees in the forest and the way they grew, and in the distance he could see odd mounds of dirt rising into the sky. Perplexed, he tapped Will on the shoulder and pointed at the mounds. "Any idea what caused that?"

 

[Shadowseldil]

Melody looked at Blake as she took a seat in the dusty tunnel. Keith sat too, and he thought it odd that there were no cobwebs of any sort, but then, things were rarely like what one sees in movies. Melody said, "Yeah. It's hard to explain exactly, my..." she paused a second in reflection, "my mentor, a very smart scientist, explained how they worked, but a lot of it went over my head, and even what I do understand, I don't think I could explain. Basically, each necklace possesses some sort of power or ability. It has something to do with the casimir energy, I think. It was pretty confusing. But basically, all the necklaces have different powers. I don't remember them off the top of my head, though. Yours has something to do with strength, or, you can't be killed, or something like that. All I remember was that Master Wei, the last keeper, was very tough."
Keith was silent. He knew what his could do. He had seen it. Whether or not melody knew as well was another thing, but he certainly was not going to go about blabbing his secret.
Melody did not seem reticent to go on about her own powers, but turned her attention to Matthias and Alax and asked, "What about you two? Do you remember your names?"