Peace is once again restored to the storming village as the lightning has dissipated from the kitchen, all four gunmen in green cloaks standing by the two doorways facing the man in blue standing on the countertop of the island, protecting the three behind him, the golden cyborg and senile gunslinger already standing. Rising from the ground after the pause is the third, that being the woman with pink hair, raising her head up at the man in blue before turning her gaze to the ones who were firing at her, discerning them to be adults some of whom are in their twenties and others perhaps beyond forties. One of the women who looks to be in her middle ages exchanges glances with her, breaking the gaze out of awkwardness. The gunslinger's arm is still raised, tightly gripping his handgun, same as the cyborg's arms, one of which is still extended as a shield with the other being in the state of a firearm. They keep their arms raised as do their four opponents, as does the man on the table, however he's the only one to have his arms up yet be without weapons, exposing his open hands pointing at the two pairs.
The man stares at the two women to his left before turning to the two men in front of him, silently analyzing the situation he just dropped himself in, the bright streaks coursing through his body gently pulsating the same as the pencil emblem on his chest.
Between the two men who stare back at the masked figure in silence, a third male squeezes in between from the room ahead, though this one is significantly younger than the other two as in fact he fits more within teenage, a young one at that as he looks to be perhaps even thirteen years old. He's also dressed in a cloak, thus his arms are hidden, staring up at the man with hazel eyes, fascinated by the one standing who notices and faces him next. He's the first to speak, asking in a hesitant voice, "Are you…Meditat?"
Tilting his head slightly at the question, the man in blue nods before confirming in his modulated voice yet spoken softly in a manner that's friendly despite not sounding naturally human: "I am, are any of you hurt?"
Suddenly all the other gunmen show greater shock in their faces, some of their jaws dropped by the epiphany. They turn their attention onto the boy next, who lets out a relieved sigh before admitting, "Oh shoot, I thought you were at best other scavengers and at worst pirates."
He turns to the woman in the oversized hoodie before apologizing earnestly, "Sorry for shooting you ma'am."
Astounded by the apology for an act that could've ended her life so abruptly, the woman just awkwardly raises both hands and sheepishly assures, "It's fine, don't feel bad about it."
Above her, Meditat sighs, not in relief but rather some disappointment before acknowledging, "So you are all local survivors, I take it that at least some of you are from a different village that got struck with the infestation."
Facing back up at Meditat, the boy nods his head and answers, "Yeah, we're all from the same village that got hit, not far from here. I…never would've expected to come across you though…wait how did you know we aren't from here?"
Pausing the current conversation, Meditat turns around to face down his three allies before commanding, "Check if any of them are injured, I'd hope none of you landed any strikes."
The three behind him sigh as they sense the disappointment in the order, for they did open fire on the exact people they were intended to save and protect, and had the battle not been prematurely halted it could have led to devastating consequences for the other side. Both of the cyborg's arms transform, the left arm functioning as the extended shield deactivates the energy net to shrivel back into the tentacle that retracts to proper arm's length as the head of said tentacle reshapes to form clawed hands as the other arm also morphs into a smoother natural arm with those same hands growing out of the barrel, reverting her body back to its cybernetic default state before lowering her head and apologizing, "Sorry Medit…got it."
She taps on the woman's shoulder, signaling her to follow as she approaches the two women she was shooting at earlier.
Meditat then faces forward and vaults down the countertop now that de-escalation has been achieved, landing beside the gunslinger, his boots squishing down the chunks of stew and crunching on the glass. As the gunslinger turns to face him, he takes a few steps back and glances down before answering that question he held off, "We followed a trail from that village to get here, oddly enough tracking based on the stew that I see has been…spilled. I apologize for that."
He walks around the table to which the gunslinger follows at his side, listening to him then ask, "Is there anyone else in your party? Anyone in a critical state who needs assistance?" On the other side of the kitchen, the cyborg and woman stop in front of the two survivors.
With a strange hand wave that even she seems unsure of after the fact, the woman with pink hair greets: "Hey, I'm Kokei, uh sorry for kind of sneaking in and getting near your food."
One of the survivors who's on the older side, middle aged, sighs before shaking her head and assuring, "You have nothing to be sorry about, we're the ones who started shooting at you without asking questions. My name's Aspen, they didn't hit you, right?"
Kokei nervously giggles before assuring, "Nobody did, I'm fine." She raises her hands to gaze at her drenched palms before jesting, "I just got a little of a mess on myself."
Beside her, the cyborg worriedly assesses, "Were either of you hit? Sorry for opening fire on you, I should've tried de-escalating the situation, that wasn't…professional of me. You can call me Dana by the way," to which Kokei turns to her with a raised eyebrow, somewhat taken aback by the blunt introduction especially given the choice of still masking her face with a heavily modified voice.
There doesn't seem to be a great reaction from that name though as the other surviving woman smiles softly, perhaps in her late twenties but not appearing near the age of her comrade, reporting back brightly: "Neither of us were hit luckily, besides maybe slamming my shoulder into the frame a bit at least I'm fine." She turns to Aspen who appends, "Same," to which the younger survivor faces Dana before introducing, "By the way, I'm Maple, and you're all okay, I get it, you're fine, I'm not sure if I would've easily listened to be fair with all the chaos going on…."
Dana chuckles awkwardly and lowers her head with the acknowledgement, "Ahah yeah, I guess so…."
During that conversation, Meditat and the old gunslinger slowly approach the boy between the two men, the boy answering the question facing Meditat, "Everyone who's…with us right now is here, it's just the five of us. And I'm fine, I wasn't hurt," before turning to face the man to his left who seems to be in his late twenties or so before remarking, "They stuffed me in the back before anything could really happen."
That man being referenced chuckles and shakes his head before reproving, "Well you don't even know how to handle a gun yet, I have no clue why you chose to start a firefight here. Maybe you're a bit too trigger happy with that thing, you sparked one hell of a fire you could've just talked through." He then turns to Meditat before introducing, "Oh right, I'm Alder, nice to meet you man."
The other man, who's perhaps in his fifties if not deeper given the aging on his face and receding of his gray hair, glares at Alder before lecturing, "Pine here wouldn't have done anything if you kept your eye on him, like you were supposed to. And why did you give him your arm anyways? It should never not be on you. He was this close to getting himself into a fight and getting shot by this fellow right here," before pointing at the significantly older gunslinger who takes a step back in surprise to the callout.
That gunslinger holds his hands up and chuckles before easing, "Hey now I wasn't going to kill the kid, if I got a shot on him it would've been to subdue him."
Meditat turns and glares straight at the man after having indirectly confessed to planning on shooting him, to which the man chuckles again before dropping his arms and continuing, "Anyways, name's Ekitai, kids are like that, give any kid a weapon and they'll think they can take the E.G.A on themselves. Knew a guy who tried-, never mind, anyways what's your name?"
Meditat sighs in disappointment and shakes his head from the near exposure that Ekitai smiles to cover up as the man just raises one eyebrow but nonetheless drops the subject and answers plainly, "Hemlock, just glad you're not one of them pirate folks." He then turns to face Meditat to comment, "Didn't know you were leading your own crew now."
Meditat turns to face Hemlock but awkwardly lowers his head from the complications of the situation, though before finding a verbal response his head perks towards Pine who broaches, "Well I think we're overstaying our visit here, we basically found everything worth scavenging in this place, we don't really need the food anyways and we'll probably find some on the way. But we should get going, who knows if any pirates are nearby, and the longer we sit around the further the others will get."
Pine turns around and walks back through the doorway, leaving the kitchen which Meditat watches before he turns to Hemlock and asks, "Wait, what 'others?'"
Alder sighs before answering for him with a head shake, "To put it simply, when we were escaping our home village, we were in a group about double the size, but with everything going on we split off and we've been trying to reconvene this whole time. But Pine's right for once, we're stalling now," before he starts to walk ahead, passing Meditat's left.
Alder turns towards the two other survivors with Dana and Kokei to announce with a louder voice, "Come on, let's get a move, pack what you got, we'll figure food out later but we don't have the time to try cooking here."
Meditat spins around to face Alder as Hemlock grunts and turns around to walk back into the doorway he originally emerged from as Aspen shouts back, "Got it!"
Spinning around over and over again to first turn to Hemlock, then Aspen, and then to Alder who turns around to head for the doorway, Meditat blurts the offer: "Wait, we can help you, we came here to aid any survivors we could locate, we'll help you find the rest of your group," which pulls the attention of Dana, Kokei, Aspen, and Maple all at once, their three faces visibly appalled as is all of their frozen bodies.
Ekitai turns to Meditat and tilts his head with uncertainty, and past the doorway Pine freezes up but doesn't turn around, just standing in place. Alder turns to face Meditat with shock at the suggestion, and after glancing to catch Hemlock's surprised face, he faces Meditat and gleefully accepts: "Well hey, we are one lucky bunch to run into you, I can't say no to something like that? The others will be blown out the Earth when they see us with you!"
Hemlock shrugs his shoulders and admits more casually, "Extra help couldn't hurt, never thought I'd see the day but we do appreciate it. We just need to get our stuff, I think it's all in this house, then we can get on with it."
Inside the kitchen, Meditat nods to Hemlock before turning to face Kokei and Dana on the other side to relay the command, "Help those two with packing up, me and Ekitai will help these survivors. We'll rendezvous in front of the door and depart once we've confirmed all the belongings," to which Dana copies, "Alright, see you outside," before nodding to Kokei, all while the boy faces the other way standing past the frame, and his open hand curls into a fist that clenches tight.
Over the course of a little over ten minutes, the five survivors branch off around the house to collect their belongings, aided by the Bellators who split off to help on an individual basis.
Up in one of the bedrooms which has a twin sized bed on the corner, Ekitai holds a physical canvas backpack wide open as the central pouch is exposed, allowing Hemlock to grab handfuls of clothing sitting on said bed and drop it inside the bag, letting it gradually fill.
Down in a living room as identified by the grounded sofas around tables, Dana similarly holds a canvas backpack open with her hands, allowing Aspen to easily grab a handful of small black boxes in the shape of old camera batteries from a heap on a sofa to then drop it inside said bag, helped by two of Dana's tentacles grown from below her armpits, functioning as a second pair of hands to also grab and drop these compartments.
In one of the bedrooms which appear in fact to be the master bedroom given the king sized bed, Maple and Kokei sit on opposite sides of another canvas backpack also open, each of them stowing clothing they have on a pile beside them separated from the rest of the litter crowding the ground, some of which they use as cushions, the volume filled of the bag already leaving the pouch quite open.
In the office room, the backpack is left open as it's also almost filled, but there's more to add as Alder pushes in a small white briefcase inside as Meditat, standing by the bag, reaches his hand towards a bandolier full of pouches, projecting a wire onto the bandolier from his palm which reels it into his grasp, waiting for Alder to step aside so he can place the bandolier in.
Stepping out of the doorway to exit the office, Alder –who carries the backpack slung over his shoulders– leads Meditat into the lobby where they make a turn to approach the front door, the backpack now nearly full. As they approach the doorway, Meditat turns to him and queries, "Are you certain that Pine doesn't need help with his packing? I can go search for him now that you're set, the faster everyone is ready, the better."
Alder shrugs his shoulders while passing the front door and making contact with the grass beyond the wooden floor as he reminds, "Well it's what he said, and I kind of realized pretty quickly that things go easiest if you just let him do what he wants."
Further ahead of them, Maple and Kokei chatter amongst each other, same as Dana and Aspen though they break their focus to face the two joining them. Behind them, Ekitai stretches his arms over his head as Hemlock, who wears his own bag, pads the back of his backpack to feel its shape as though trying to judge if he did truly store everything last minute.
Meditat shakes his head and contends, "I understand, but I should check regardless, I can at least offer to help even if he declines. He was in one of the living rooms, correct?"
"Who? We're all here," queries a young male voice which pulls Meditat's attention forward, finding that among the waiting crowd is that boy who already has his own bag slung over his shoulders, gripping the straps with his hands.
Stunned in silence for a few moments, Meditat snaps out with a shaking head to reconfigure, resuming his stroll ahead and nodding with the observation: "I see that we're all accounted for, very well." He turns and continues walking off to the right, distancing slightly from the group and raising his right hand forwards as he formulates, "Given the larger group size, I'll create a pod for us to navigate quickly, I'll make sure to remain below the branches. A van design should suffice for the time being, we'll choose a different solution once we regroup with the rest."
His hand ignites in an azure flame, though just as it blasts forwards, Pine's eyes widen and he charges at Meditat while shouting, "Hey, what do you think you're doing?!?!"
Bewildered, Meditat abruptly ceases the creation at no more than a general shape the size of a pod but yet to be chiseled, letting the flames disperse and dropping his arm to turn towards Pine before asking, "Is there a problem?"
Pine stops and throws both hands in the air as he lectures angrily, "Well yeah, we can't just drive around without a care in the world, we'll be a giant loud flying object to grab the attention of anyone near us! It's basically announcing to all the pirates here to come for us, we'll be taken out in no time!"
Tilting his head in perplexity to the frantic concerns, Meditat just guarantees, "I'll keep the pod's engine quiet, and if visibility is an issue then I can cloak the body. Pirates may have decent technology, but it's far from cutting edge, they won't be able to detect us so we'll be safe."
That statement fails to instill confidence as instead Pine shakes his head before nagging in that same aggressive voice, "No you don't get it, normal pirates are pretty easy to keep away from if you're smart about it but about a week ago we started to hear about this new pirate group, they're different. They have way more tech than anyone we've seen before, most pirates are pretty brainless but these ones have real tactics, I don't know if they're cutting edge for you but they're definitely compared to everyone else. It's just too dangerous, we'll be safest on foot, besides I know the direction to where the other group should be headed so we'll be able to catch up pretty easily."
Arguing with a child, Meditat just sighs softly and lowers his head, Alder's statement being proven so quickly, and with low shoulders he surrenders, "If you feel safest this way, very well, we can move on foot."
"It's not about feeling the safest, it's about being the safest," corrects Pine before turning around and beginning to stroll off before murmuring, "Besides, it's not like you'd know here."
Meditat perks his head up from the near whisper, though before he can try interpreting what he catches, the other four survivors begin to walk ahead along with Pine, followed by the rest of the Bellators. Meditat glances at the group already moving ahead, and after another sigh, he follows with steady strides to catch up, remaining by Alder's side.
The group of nine begins their expedition on foot, walking away from the tree house they battled blindly in, beginning to pass other houses many of which had doors already open from the earlier searches that have finally struck a result, however that result leads into a new search to immediately follow up on. Without a clear sight of the sky and sun, discerning time becomes difficult just at a glance, though while it can be estimated that morning has likely passed by now, the day has only truly just begun for their first solid mission has, to save the second half of these refugees who might've remained unknown from outside help had the Bellators not run into this first group.
Early on in the expedition, the same sight of those colossal though distant trees are what surrounds the party of nine, larger than the redwoods that surrounds the Peak, branches thicker than the hikers below, strong enough to rest on. Many layers of these branches hover between the ground, the upper layers denser with an intricate network that rests bunches of leaves over each other to form roofs that stack upon each other, resulting in a rigid barrier to isolate the ground from the sky.
While the group walks along the pebble road, that road has a dead end that's being approached, the trail stopping like a branch cut off. They reach that end but continue in the same direction, forward, as while Kokei and Meditat face back at the conclusion of the road, they face ahead to continue by the lead, ironically by the youngest in the party.
Facing said lead, Meditat tilts his head before wondering, "Where are we headed to exactly? I understand we are aiming to reach the other half of the group you were originally with, but is there a reason you're confident that they would be headed in this direction? If the plan was to simply escape the village, could they not have left in any other direction?"
Marching at the front but not turning his head, Pine releases an irritated groan before explaining, "We weren't just running somewhere random, we had a plan. There's this city not far out of the forest, it has the most people now so it's the best place to be or at least the safest. We already agreed to keep making our way there no matter what, so that's what they are doing, and that's what we are doing."
Following along, Meditat glances at Alder who walks beside him before he once again faces Pine to query, "It is beyond this forest? At least when deploying to your home village, the forest appeared rather large, is it realistic to reach the edge on foot? Even then, what would the distance be from the edge to the city?"
Grumbling more from the question, Pine just snaps back: "It is realistic, we had this plan before, other people did this too, I know what I'm doing so stop asking questions about everything. If you want to attract all the pirates, at least don't do it near us."
Both Meditat and Kokei show shock at the aggressiveness of the argument, Kokei frowning as Meditat's head slightly lowers before muttering, "I'm…assessing the safety of the plan…."
Beside him, Alder shakes his head and sighs before comforting, "Don't worry, he's just like that. I admit the plan is sort of intense, but we're not the first to try this expedition and from what's been passed around, people have succeeded with it. And if some people on their own could get all the way there on foot, there's no way we wouldn't with your help!"
Meditat turns to him and slowly chuckles dryly from the uplifting attempt, nodding his head and following: "Understood, I'm keeping a lookout." He raises his head and gazes around at the branches above as behind him Kokei turns her head back to Maple who's currently speaking.
Further along the green path, where now Pine is distinctly at the head of the group given that the rest are relying on him for any sense of direction due to the lack of a road, Dana gazes at Aspen and Maple beside her and listens in on their conversation. Her attention however diverts forth and she perks her head up upon noticing that within her sights ahead, among the enormous trees are others that are ones that are significantly skinnier, more akin to regular forest trees with a lighter salmon red tone. While they are scattered amongst the larger common trees, there are quite many of them, as due to their slimmer size, there are denser clusters.
Closer to the salmon trees, their leaves are significantly lower than the ones towering high above the group, the branches attached to them thinner and thus weaker against the breeze, causing them to sway subtly as the leaves rustle. The bark isn't as rigid either, perhaps as the trunks are about as broad as the shoulders of those who pass them, admired by Kokei who breaks her focus from the Hemlock's monologue to Ekitai.
Eventually down the trail, those gigantic trees that once were all that could be seen in all directions is heavily obscured by the thick subforest of salmon red trees, as while the top ceiling of green leaves still remains as do those thick trunks if peering between the red, the difference in density between the two types of trees results in one being harder to notice.
In fact, the group cannot simply move in a straight line but instead need to weave between the trees, which isn't terribly difficult by any means due to their thin bodies, though it does add marginal difficulty in maintaining clear sights of the leader who doesn't seem to turn around at all to check the statuses of those following him. Meditat takes notice of this neglect, gazing at the boy for a few seconds in intrigue before his attention is pulled to his side as Alder directly addresses him.
Surrounded still by the thin red trees, it's difficult to tell with sight alone that the ground is at a subtle incline, enough just to sense the slight additional effort to walk but not enough to become exhausted of any sort. Some of the branches of the salmon trees are rather low, low enough that they're in the way of the group as Kokei has to bend down to duck below one of them. On the other side, Ekitai grabs one of the branches and raises it out of the way, grunting from the obstacle. He then turns to Hemlock to ask, "So living in these parts, you do a lot of walking everyday? Sounds rough."
Hemlock glances at him after walking underneath the branch Ekitai had raised before shaking his head and explaining, "Not really now, I used to be one hell of a runner but you know, toys wear out over time. This is probably the most exercise I've done in years, one hell of an excuse honestly. Best part is I had a reason a week back, after what everyone's been calling the Cull, lotta village folk have been moving out since it's been hard to sustain a village when you only have half of it. Some people try grouping up to other villages, but the big dream everyone's been looking at is the city, and since everyone has that same dream, that city's been probably the most functional place around here. We were even planning on making that hike for a while now but we've just been putting it off since it's not the easiest to just leave everything behind, but I guess this is the universe shoving us forwards aye?"
Observing the trees while listening to the explanation, Ekitai's eyebrow raises and he turns to the man before questioning, "How do you know that the city wasn't hit by this? Your contacts told you something?"
Smirking gleefully, Hemlock turns forward and simply answers, "Nope, we're just praying that they didn't. Because I don't know what the hell we'll do if they did."
Stunned by the blunt acknowledgement of ignorance, Ekitai can only nod his head and react, "Respect, this is one hell of a pilgrimage to be taking all off on hope but hey, I guess I wouldn't have many better ideas anyways."
Gradually the incline steepens, eventually reaching a point where not only is it visible simply by noticing the angle between the trunks of the salmon trees and the ground, but even by the noticeable physical exertion just by walking, the rate of movement dragging just slightly with a discernible rise of huffing to keep moving. Especially Hemlock struggles with Ekitai trying harder to cloak his pain, though it can be read on his grimace, at least more than easily by Dana who glances at him before shaking her head in concern.
She reasonably shows the least fatigue, only slowing her steps to match the pace of the rest of the group, however there are exceptions as her attention is fixed to her side upon Aspen shouting, "Hey Pine, slow down!" Her gaze trails Aspen's forward, finding that while the majority of the group is still close together, Pine has been distancing further ahead, the lead slowly letting himself get separated from the pack.
At first the boy doesn't show any reaction but instead just keeps walking at the same faster pace, warranting Aspen to once again shout louder: "PINE, HOLD UP!!"
At last the boy stops, spinning around to face back at the group from a distance before complaining back with great volume, "COME ON, WE CAN REST LATER, WE'VE BARELY GOTTEN ANYWHERE!! WE'LL NEVER MAKE IT LIKE THIS!!" He then turns around and resumes his walk at the same brisk pace as before, faster than the rest of the group, intentionally ignoring the request to much of Aspen's dismay given her groan.
She chuffs and shakes her head before muttering, "Kids, I swear they expect everyone to run just as fast as them."
Next to her, Dana huffs through what would be her nose as if a comedically triggered exhale, watching the boy only get further away. She then faces Aspen before remarking casually, "Family's like that, isn't it? To be honest, I was like that to my father too. They'll change eventually, at least I hope I did."
That reflection only seems to perplex Aspen given her raised eyebrow as she turns to face Dana, but upon her eyes widening upon the comprehension of what she was trying to do, Aspen shakes her head and clarifies, "Oh wait sorry, he's not actually my kid, I guess it kind of came off like that."
Struck by a wave of awkward shame from the failed attempt at connecting, Dana drops her head low and apologizes, "Oh, sorry for the assumption."
Chuckling now from the clarity of the situation which has brought about a humorous angle, Aspen doesn't seem offended but rather laughs off the misinterpretation, "Oh don't worry, maybe it's just that I'm starting to treat him like how I treat mine. But no, we're not like one big family, no no."
Nodding her head as she reels from the awkwardness of her mistake, Dana copies cautiously so as to not make further misinterpretations, "Understood, that threw me off. I guess if you were a full group of ten, that would be quite the large family anyways."
Chuckling again from the verbalization of that absurd point, Aspen nods her head and agrees, "Yeah, that would be a bit much, especially to fit all inside those little houses we got. Well, I mean that's not to say we're all just strangers, well for one you can't really be strangers when you live in the same circle your whole life, I guess in a way it's like everyone's a family. Sorry wait now I'm making it more confusing, anyways though it did help a bit with the evacuation when we all pretty decently knew each other, I guess we're all like friends in that way." She then turns to face Dana before clarifying, "Or wait, okay I'm not trying to make this confusing but I guess there is some family in this group, we're not all from different houses. Actually Pine's father was in our group, he was sort of the one leading the evacuation and led us away from the village. A lot of people look up to him, but he's in the other half of the group that got split up with us during the whole mess, so I guess he's not with us right now."
Walking alongside Alder, Meditat turns his head towards Aspen towards the tail end of that explanation, gazing curiously in contemplation as Dana sighs softly before understanding in a pensive tone, "Ah…I see…no wonder he's being so urgent. I'd probably act the same way in his shoes…."
Aspen frowns at that shared understanding, corroborating: "Yeah….," though she perks her head up and jests upliftingly, "But at the same time he's always been like this so maybe that's just his nature. But like you said, he'll mature in time, all kids are a pain, that just comes with the job."
Dana perks her head back up with an intrigued tilt, turning to face Aspen once again to recall curiously, "Oh wait, you mentioned that you have a kid, right? Did he also get split off in the other group?"
Oddly, Aspen's optimistic expression quickly drops from a smile to a frown as does her head, and in a softer voice she murmurs, "It's…complicated. Let's not talk about it, okay?"
That sudden shift in tone stumps Dana who straightens her neck, silent for a few seconds before cautiously abiding, "Of course…." Her gaze lingers on Aspen for a few more moments before turning her head forth, remaining silent upon the abrupt shutdown. Aspen similarly falls silent in speech, the only sounds emitting from her mouth being grunts from the toil of the climb.
For only so long does the party battle against the uphill climb, ultimately leveling out back to a primarily flat ground that can be easily walked along without much additional effort, allowing the whole group to condense as they close the distance to the boy still leading at the front. This is further helped by the fact that the density of the salmon trees has lightened, as while it's no doubt that there are far more of them than the colossal trees that form the ceiling, they are not as tightly covering the field, but instead scattered in broader clusters that opens the space up more.
Sight far in the distance is still difficult as the trees remain an obstruction that forms a solid fog, as while it may have been hours since the journey began, the surrounding environment still feels similar or at least it's impossible to track any greater landmarks to identify milestones. At the very least, the sparser trees provide a longer distance to render the environment, a longer range that allows for Maple to notice a dense batch of not trees but rather flowers on the ground up ahead, vibrant colors of blues, greens, yellows, pinks, reds, purples, and shades all within the rainbow which even under the filtered light still gleam bright. She smiles upon noticing this field, a sudden injection of diversity in an environment where greens and browns had dominated her sight. Drawn like a moth to light, her stroll to conserve energy shifts to a speedy walk bordering on a jog without outright breaking into intense swinging. The acceleration is at least enough for Kokei to notice, at first perplexed by the faster movement as if anything she should be tiring, but once she follows the trail of sight her eyes similarly light up and she too is drawn faster. Both of their accelerations perk the attention of Meditat away from his conversation with Dana, watching the two pass him, approaching Pine as he's still decently ahead.
They just nearly pass Pine but just as they reach the edge of the field, the local destination as both Kokei and Maple come to an abrupt stop to simply admire the ground. Only a few seconds need to pass before the rest of the group catch up, pushing them back into a hiking stroll but their heads are now fixed down to the flowers which already dance finely in the wind but sway furthermore when walked through, difficult to avoid due to the sheer density of the field. While most of them are pretty short, only reaching up to perhaps their ankle or slightly higher, there's a notable few that stick out to the shins and even waists, not enough to need to push through but a variety that can be admired.
As Kokei gently admires one taller green flower with the graze of her hand, Maple watches her before asking inquisitively, "So just wondering…do you have stuff like this where you're from? I mean I'd guess since it's just nature but you know."
Kokei retracts her hand from the flower and turns her gaze to face Maple, taking in the question and considering it for a few silent moments with a scrunched forehead. She then gently smiles before answering, "Not as much just outside like this, not as much as I would like at least. I guess I try decorating my apartment with as many flowers as I can sanely do but you know, no matter how close I get it'll never really be the same."
Maple tilts her head with a puzzled face before seeking, "How so?"
Kokei sighs in a frown under soft reflection, her hand grazing on another tall flower as she explains, "I mean the flowers aren't just in natural earth sitting outside like this, they're in artificial soil encased in floating pots, and the flowers themselves are either plucked out of the ground and transported across space usually drowned in artificial preservatives and enhancers or just fully grown artificially, some of them aren't even grown, they're just made in a factory or something."
From puzzled to bewildered, astonished by what sounds like magic, Maple just stares with wide eyes before slowly nodding her head and hesitantly following, "Uh huh…so it's not the same…I got it…. But I guess things there must be a lot nicer, I mean I'm in a bubble but not enough of a bubble to not know we're sort of seen as the dumps from where you're from."
Kokei contemplates on that self awareness, tilting her head from side to side to ponder the nuances of that last statement before she then turns her attention away from the flowers and squarely onto Maple. She shakes her head before elucidating, "I mean it's different for sure, it's all fancy where everything's metal and shiny, everything floats around, I guess it's basically the ultra future some people from centuries ago envisioned. And I guess in some ways it's nice to live in, but I don't know, there's limits to it, it doesn't really feel as real if that makes sense, or at least as real as it once was. And I mean it's not perfect there either, for a long time the city I lived in was always under some kind of danger."
Humming as now Maple is the one to ponder to herself deeply, she perks her head up to Kokei before recalling, "Oh right…I remember hearing something about some kinda war with Exhumans that was going on, one thing I do hear a lot is there's a lot of issues going on over there about that. I guess that's the one thing that was always weird to me, I feel like we got along pretty well together in our village at least, maybe there were occasional fights here and there but we all still worked together."
Sighing again from that reminder, Kokei nods her head and confirms somberly, "Yeah, there was a gang war between basically factions of extremists, the old conflict that's existed basically since they existed." She perks her head up and remembers with a more upbeat tone, "But I mean hey, that was taken care of this year, there's actually a bit of a story to that."
"I mean, that entire situation is completely gone now, isn't it?" Maple mentions in a voice abruptly sober, softly spoken which immediately strikes Kokei as her eyes widen in horror to the realization of her own words and the interpretation they may lead, leading to her shaking her head and hastily retracting, "Wait no, I wasn't talking about that-."
"I figured," Maple immediately interjects to soothe Kokei, which does work as she silences, though frowning as she listens to Maple continue after a soft sigh, "To think it really happened pretty recently too, for one we lost about half of everyone in our community, and same happened with all the neighboring villages. A lot of people moved because of that, and I mean that alone was already so much to deal with, I mean I knew a lot of those people too, I grew up with most of them. And it just all happened so fast…all at once…everything just got really dark and…yeah. And the thing is, some of them actually did things nobody else really could, so not only did we just have half of us but we couldn't even just 'try to cover for the other half' either. I don't know…I mean it sounds like even in general your world is pretty crazy but for us…they were just so different. It really was like magic, and like of course it was normal for us and just a part of our lives but I don't know, I think part of it was always so marvelous to me, even if they said it was just natural for them it was still just so cool. And it's like that magic's just…gone…all of it. Not a single one of them were spared…not even the kids…."
Kokei frowns with a low head, though not only in mourning but in guilt, a guilt that she had no control over as there was nothing she herself had done, and yet there's a guilt in knowing that she was an unknown exception to a horrible, cruel fate that otherwise had no mercy for its victims. Caught off guard as the conversation had diverted so heavily so quickly, she can't find a response to bring out, just leading her to silence especially as she knew that the only response she could give would need to be a lie or at least deceptive, for she could not give the truth knowing it would render the incident so horribly unfair to know perhaps there were exceptions, and everyone else was simply not chosen.
Perhaps that wouldn't be the interpretation and she was just too anxious about being outed as an anomaly, perhaps it was a rather pessimistic mindset to believe what may be interpreted as a miracle would be seen the other way, but especially with the grief she could feel emitting off this survivor who is already fighting for her life, testing what the reaction would be simply wasn't a game she was willing to fancy.
Behind her watches Ekitai with a frown as if tuning into the very process of thought she's drowning through, as while perhaps the declaration of her abilities would further prove the safety of the group, the implications of her survival would be the aftereffects of opening a box he understood being wary of touching.
Despite how beautiful the flower field is, it is only so large and so eventually the group reaches the other end where the vibrant colors meld back into the basic green of the grass. Just at the edge, Kokei runs her hand against a few of the taller flowers to get one more feel before having to pass them, frowning at that silent farewell. She does end up turning her attention towards Dana who calls to her before following with a few other statements which Maple eavesdrops on, still following beside Kokei and watching her respond back to Dana in a back and forth as Meditat and Ekitai's pairings are just slightly ahead of them.
For a long stretch, the ground is relatively flat which is a luxury the survivors were appreciating, as while the long hike itself is still draining, even just short uphill bursts consumed a painfully disproportionate quantity of energy. It's for that reason that concern quickly raises when the group approaches a steep slope significantly greater than even the one trekked previously, for this one would be no doubt a climb as it would seem difficult to even walk up the surface. Hemlock groans at this sight as the rest show similar disappointment, leading Meditat to survey the area not just up the slope but to the left and right.
That examination leads his masked gaze onto a pile of rocks that surround a large aperture with an enterable diameter etched into the slope itself, the ground beyond the aperture gray as the rock of the underground. Intrigue pulls him to diverge from the group momentarily, perplexing Alder who stands in place among Dana and Aspen but just watches him as Pine just stares up the slope as though intent on climbing it.
Meditat instead approaches the gap in the climb, passing the rocks forming the frame to find the gap itself like a circular doorway into what he finds to be a long, hollow tunnel through rock and stone, one that Meditat studies to have a gentle incline from what he can perceive with the limited light passing in through the trees above. In fact, the tunnel seems to widen once past the entrance, inviting a group, another attribute Meditat notes before he turns towards the rest of the group and raises his hand while exclaiming his findings.
Most of the group has still been fixed on the steep climb other than perhaps Alder and next to be Dana who just gazes around herself for a similar alternative before noticing her friend standing off from the group right before shouting to them. Kokei almost immediately turns to face the announcement along with Ekitai, guiding Maple and Hemlock respectively to take notice as Aspen listens beside Dana. Pine is last to turn towards the hollering, to which he shakes his head and begins shouting argumentatively given his angered expression, pointing at the slope as though trying to argue in favor of the climb.
While Pine stands his ground and argues back and forth with Meditat, Hemlock ambles towards the strange opening, leading Ekitai to accompany him. Noticing the divergence, Kokei naturally follows Ekitai, leading Maple to do the same, all four of them splitting from the group which about halves it. Alder turns to face Pine, then Meditat, just listening on their exchange as Dana and Aspen glance at each other before Aspen tilts her head towards the diverging branch, persuading Dana to nod her head and for the both of them to stroll towards the gap too. Meditat raises his hand and tilts the palm upwards before his entire hand is engulfed in azure flames which rise up to form six small black spherical drones smaller than his usual weaponized systems as these are each about the size of a ping pong ball, however they immediately reveal their functionality as their black bodies release a bright blue light that constantly illuminate, hovering in place over his hand before autonomously flying above his shoulders.
Hemlock and Ekitai stare down the tunnel's entrance with Pine and Alder being the only ones left to remain in place, infuriating Pine who grabs his head with both hands and raises his voice, however it's Alder who places his hand on Pine's shoulder to calm him down, prompting Pine to drop his hands and raise his head up to the man. He frowns while listening to Alder's justification, and after a moment of thought, he releases a heavy sigh before Alder drops his hand and begins strolling towards the cavity, leading Pine to ultimately do the same. The last to move, the group fully shifts over towards the tunnel, watching Pine approach them and face the entrance. He frowns and lets out a groan before beginning the trek into the tunnel first, once again taking leadership to which two of the light drones follow him from each side, passing him ahead as Meditat and Alder enter next. The rest of the group is quick to trail behind, Hemlock rolling his shoulders before entering, relieved not to need to climb up what would seem like a tortuous workout, walking alongside two other drones that follow around the middle of the group.
. As Kokei and Maple are the last to enter, the two remaining drones follow their side, providing balanced lighting for the whole group, that blue illumination lighting up the entrance to the tunnel though the light gradually crawls away, reaching deeper into the cave until the green tinted light overpowers it at the gate.
Inside the cave tunnel is enough width for pairs to walk comfortably side by side, allowing the persistence of the pairing system they had already set up with Meditat and Alder behind Pine, followed by Dana and Aspen, Ekitai and Hemlock, finally with Kokei and Maple in the back. That said, they all stay decently close together, naturally budding together given the somewhat ominous space for the only light is the artificial blue that emits from the six small drones following them by the walls.
Able to inspect the walls, Dana and Hemlock note the roughness which would be standard fare for any cave, though they also notice chunks of rocks sitting on the ground beside the walls as if chipped off deliberately. The ceiling is similarly uneven with some rocks depressed lower into the tunnel from above, not exactly stalactites as they're hardly even a foot long though their pointed tips do somewhat concern Alder who raises his head up to inspect them. Meditat is guided by his gaze to notice those hanging rocks, though his gaze lingers longer than Alder's who lowers his own head, for Meditat is entranced by the memory of another cave whose were far more prominent, and yet the cave itself felt oddly familiar, comfortable, like a home as it was one. It was one he had for decades, but one no longer with him, not even when this mission would end.
Despite the end of the tunnel still not being visible as it all fades to darkness, the light drones do at least provide a reasonable range of sight through the fog, more or less a similar distance to what they already had when trekking through the forest of salmon trees. The drones don't seem to emit their lights fully balanced in all directions off their body, as the drones at the front shine a significantly brighter light forwards than what they shine to the sides, especially the sides facing the group so as to not blind them. They hover silently, smoothly following the group at a constant speed, well above the party to avoid becoming obstructions in the way.
It's with these lights that the cave tunnel does clearly have an incline, at least following the general direction that the group were initially headed but not to the same intensity. Against the wall are rocks of various sizes, to small pebbles akin to the ones that formed the roads in the villages to decently larger ones that'd need to be carried with both hands like cannonballs, all of which glimmer when grazed by the blue light. The hanging spikes also shine in the light, lingering ahead which the drones need to adjust for, making smooth turns to swing around the rocks without frequently altering height, keeping a comfortable distance from the crew.
Climbing up and stepping over rocks that litter the center of the tunnel too, the party persist in the only direction they're presented, the space behind them shrinking darker as the light crawls away, leaving them in the same bubble where the past vanishes as the future comes into view. Maple glances back to observe that there's not even a speck of light to indicate the entrance they had entered through at the beginning, signifying the depth that they've explored already, for it's all the same darkness as what she could see if she were to face the other way. The light projecting behind them is also not to the same intensity as the one ahead, leading the trail to be shorter, further cementing an uncomfortable sense that Kokei picks up on with a frown, placing her hand on Maple's shoulder to comfort her. After exchanging glances, Maple sighs before facing forwards again, letting Kokei drop her arm and take once more glance behind her before also facing forwards. She raises her head again and glances around to remind herself of the generally compact space, understanding the uncertainty from this extended underground trek.
Following the boy's lead, Meditat observes the ceiling once again before lowering his stare to the rocks that sit beside the walls, constantly inspecting the mine he had convinced the group down. He then turns towards Alder before inquisitively wondering, "So during the mass evacuation, this group and the other half you were originally with set off for the city, that I understand. Do you know if most of the other evacuees had the same destination in mind? I understand that it was already a popular haven even before this…infestation…there must've been other people who are taking the same path. I ask as once we get you all to safety, we may go back and search for other groups who are in need of escort, and we've yet to run into others."
To that simple question, Alder oddly clenches his teeth in an awkward grimace releasing a soft groan, seeming to struggle to fit words together. When he does finally open his mouth, he only can explain: "Well, issue is-," before Pine finishes, "-what mass evacuation?"
To that answer only more perplexing, Meditat faces Pine and tilts his head, not even sure how to respond. He doesn't need to though as Pine continues, "There was no mass evacuation, it was more like a mass slaughter. What other evacuees are you talking about? They all died, ripped apart and bit off by those monsters. I'm not sure if you've even seen them, but if you have then I'm sure you'd know that it makes no sense for everyone to get out of there in time."
From that horrible answer, Meditat just silences as behind him, everybody else perks their heads up, Ekitai and Kokei in shocked expressions as the rest of the survivors just frown grimly. Meditat lowers his head before apologizing softly, "Oh…I'm so sorry…."
"Yeah I'm not even sure if anyone besides us got out, I mean we tried to help as many people as we could, my dad kept trying to go door to door like an idiot to find anyone he could get and honestly that's probably what let us even get separated in the first place and lost some stuff. I mean we pretty quickly decided where we would go but the plan was all on the fly and kind of stupid; if we didn't get so lucky, we probably wouldn't have even gotten out at all. I mean technically even our own whole group didn't entirely get out.," Pine morbidly explains and yet in a voice that sounds at most irritated despite the graveness of the subject.
Immediately, Aspen mournfully frowns and lowers her head, catching the attention of Dana who turns her head and watches, freezing upon the depressing implication as her head lowers too.
Facing the ground in despair at the tragic news, Meditat can only again apologize: "I'm…so sorry that happened…I didn't."
"Yeah and those things just don't take any hits either, it doesn't help that we lost most of our hunters before," Pine interjects before sarcastically remarking, "But hey, it's a good thing that you're here! I mean you know, it would've been nice to have backup when the actual thing happened, or maybe after we lost half the village and were struggling to keep up."
Raising his head up from the harsh insult which shocks the rest of the group from its sheer aggression, Meditat motions his hands as he tries to explain, "I'm sorry I didn't know this would all happen, had I known I would've tried to-."
"I mean really any time in the last hundred years could've been neat," again interjects Pine before following, "I heard you disappeared for a while but even before that you were the hero of a city that was already a paradise, probably the nicest world in the entire system. And even when you did join The Shield, you guys just never looked at any of these last ten worlds, I guess maybe they just weren't on your priorities." He turns back to stare straight at Meditat with a sharp glare of discontent before he maligns, "Oh right, I can't see anything. I guess I never thought about how convenient a mask is, you can hide your feelings from everyone, or the lack of them," before facing forwards.
Again Meditat falls silent, but he drops his hands as that last insult has evaporated any will to contend. He just stares at the boy before his head drops in slow defeat, humiliated in front of not only his team but all the survivors depending on him. They all turn to face him, warranting a frown from all of them as the sentiment had watered the mood. As a green light ahead begins to creep up on his white mask, Alder faces him with an empathetic frown, gritting his teeth from the difficulty in finding the right words.
As Kokei watches with a guilty frown similar to Dana's lingering gaze, Alder's distracted ahead by the emergent light, which attracts the attention of the group, especially as the distant whispers of the breeze creep into the formerly silent cave.
As sentimental frowns turn to curious stares, the light bleeds deeper into the cave to the point where it begins to conflict with the intensity of the drones, which is when Meditat's attention is finally pulled up with the perk of his head.
That's the moment right before he takes his last step on the rocky ground, stepping onto the green grass past the hole on the other side of the slope, the green tinted light beaming down on the party despite being dimmed down by the umbrella. The breeze pushes against his hood and cape similar to Kokei's and the survivor's hair, all of them soon exiting the cave along with all six of the drones which then ignite themselves in a small burst of blue flames that disperses, erasing them along with the blue light.
Pine comes to a stop at last, letting the rest of the party pause. Meditat's gaze is fixed ahead on the same sight that the rest of the crew also stares at with expressions mixed between shock, surprise, delight, and yet horror. Meditat peers forward and takes another extra step beside Pine for a better view as a few of the other survivors and Bellators shift their positions, all of them trying to catch the same sight, stepping away from the steep slope that the cave tunnel has been etched to, rocks also surrounding it.
However the view that they are all focused on is opposite from that, but instead ahead beneath a moderate slope, still surrounded by those same colossal brown trees maintaining that tall ceiling, however there are no longer any of those slimmer salmon trees that were scattered around on the other side.
Instead, there is a different type of tree, not as thick as the brown pillars but significantly thicker than the salmon ones, their bark a clean white similar to birch albeit with a thickness more akin to a great oak tree if not more. A batch of these trees sit in the valley below the slope, like a vast field about a city block or two, said trees decently tall with thick branches. The branches are thick enough in fact that some support a network of wooden bridges that connect many of these trees, or more specifically connect a system of structures which resemble tree houses though vary massively in scale as some of them are connected between several trees, more to the size of a retail store. They're built of that same white wood shaved as planks to provide a clean white finish almost as if it wasn't wood at all, with windows along the walls and porches that they stand on as foundations which carry railings around the boundaries only opening up to the bridges.
While this unique outpost of sorts, for it doesn't appear to be a typical village especially given the variation of the building sizes, is in itself a wonder, the white trunks and branches are intertwined by a network of alien black roots emerged from the ground, not made with a natural bark texture but a slimy surface with white caustics like veins, embedded not only in the trunks but rise high enough that some of them penetrate through those very buildings and bridges, especially as those roots branch off higher which results in some of those roofs being penetrated by a huge sprawling black crown. Again, the outpost is silent with no activity, desolate, the roots silent, dormant.
An unnerving sight, and one that upon gazing at, Pine's eyes sharpen before he begins walking forwards down the slope, leading Meditat to sigh before following behind along with the rest of the party, for this site could not simply be passed and ignored.