01-23-2017, 12:10 PM
Loud scratching of stone echoed through the cave as the door swung open slowly, giving way to Amber’s determination and strength. The howl of stone could make a person’s ears bleed. Tell and company had to cover their ears, unprepared for the loud shriek Amber had caused with the door. Just a enough room to squeeze through the crack between the two doors now.
“Let’s go!” Amber yelled out to the group as she motioned them through the doors. Everyone filed in behind the next passing through the door, Amber being the last to do so. She covered the door while the rest went through then followed in trying to get the door closed as she passed through. Unfortunately, the door enjoyed being wide open as it was difficult to close behind her, just as it was to open in the first place. With another loud yell that echoed across the walls of the cave, she jerked on the door with massive strength. Slowly the door creaked shut.
With the door closed completely, the faunus fell to the ground and breathed heavily. She had been carrying forty-ish extra pounds, lugging around other people, tearing down ceilings, anything you can think of with someone with the strength she does. Sooner or later it becomes too taxing, even for the strongest willed people. Down on her knees, the young teen tried to catch her breath. Everyone else was doing the same thing, but they had just been running away. Jade grew worried of Amber’s worn state and rushed to her side.
“You alright Amber?” She asked putting her hand on the feline’s shoulder. The faunus panted heavily looking down at the floor. Her hair covered most of her face.
“Just peachy.” She responded after several more deep breaths. An aggravated tone could be felt in her voice through the rough respiration. “Just give me a minute if you could please?”
“Okay, just relax for now.” She said, standing back up and observing their surroundings. The seemed to still be in the cave system, but it was a bit different than on the other side of the door. Depictions were carved into the walls of the cave of various things, but what caught the half-canine’s attention was the pictures of what looked like humans and animals being experimented on. In the next relevant panel, it seemed to describe the after effects of the experimentation, showing the normal human in the first panel and slowly changing to some kind of tendril monstrosity in the last. It looked mostly human with the exception of tentacles growing out of it’s back. There was some text in a caption but it was some other-worldly language no one in their group could identify, not even Brandon.
“Remarkable.” The astronomer said in a hushed tone. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Right, well if there’s no way we can read it, there’s no point in lingering.” Tell pointed out. “We should continue moving, a group of trolls chased us down this hall and I’m sure it won’t take them long to get through that door.”
“We can’t, Amber is still taking a rest.” Jade said to Tell.
“Time isn’t a luxury we can afford right now! If you don’t like it, you can stay here and die. Not that it matters much for you primes.” He said turning to continue down the hall with his soldiers.
“If it wasn’t for Amber, most of your men would be dead right now!” Jade yelled out. “She carried Smith out of danger when he was injured even with the equipment she’s carrying now. She is probably the only reason those dwarves didn’t kill us.” Tell turned his head back at Jade, sort of surprised. An odd expression she had not expected to see from him.
“You were ambushed, by dwarves?” He asked looking back down at Brandon who was still examining the wall carvings. He nodded to Tell in agreement with the prime.
“Our friend Ms. Veritz here protected the group by overpowering them. Jade helped but, I’m fairly certain the could have overwhelmed us if it was not for Amber.” Tell’s attitude had changed rather quickly, he had not expected for a prime to risk their unending life for anyone but themselves. He walked up to the faunus who had finally taken a seat and caught her breath up to a steady pace and crouched down to her level.
“You have my sincerest thanks for keeping my soldier safe. I misjudged you before, but I see now that there are some primes who care for the rest of us whose lives are not eternal.” The feline faunus nodded to the captain. He held his hand out help her up, which she took with a smirk and stood with him.
“I’m good now, let’s continue. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we get out of this gods forsaken cave.” Amber maneuvered around Tell and took the lead. The captain had no arguments with that. Smith had recovered from his previous wound and was able to walk by himself now, which was nice or else Amber would have to be carrying him. Piers was lucky to be alive, slung over Selena’s back unconcious. His condition was stable for now, but it was apparent he wouldn’t be fighting for some time. Nevertheless, Tell was glad all of his crew had made it this far. If it wasn’t for Jade and Amber, they may all be dead by now.
--------
Amber in lead, they traversed the horrid cave. The carvings in the walls only grew more frequent as the got deeper. They unsettled Amber to her bones, considering the many test subjects pictured reminded her of what happened on The Death Island. Something she was trying to erase from her memory completely. Although her memory of the island after the attack from Flesh-y was somewhat scrambled and fogged she did remember going completely insane and turning into a giant zombie monster. The thought of fighting another Flesh-y was a bit too much for her to bear.
The cave began to grow wider as they ventured further in. Every once in awhile needing to choose between a fork in the road and dodging inconspicuous traps from pressure plates in the floor. Luckily, Amber and Jade’s keen senses made traps like these easy to spot. They had each other’s backs like it was second nature. They had know each other no more than a few days but nonetheless have become a great team and they trusted each other with their lives.
Something shiny caught Amber off guard. It glimmered from the ceiling in the darkness of the cave. With closer inspection, it was the ooze from earlier that had found its disgusting way into Amber’s clothes. She still had this odd feeling from it on her shoulder.
“Look, it’s more of that goop from the entrance of the cave. What do you think this is?” Amber said looking up at it from a distance to make sure she was not in the splash zone again. Brandon stepped forward to examine it closer.
“My initial impression of this ‘goop’, you call it, is could be some kind of excrement from gods no what. It’s hardly natural with that kind of pearlescent glow.” He said. “Judging from earlier, it doesn’t seem to be harmful in any way, but whatever causes it most certainly could be. We should tread lightly.” The feline faunus tried to ignore the ooze as she walked around it, but it became hard the further they went. It became more frequent as they got deeper into the caves. Seeping through walls and splattered all over the floor from where it had fallen from the ceiling. Everyone was starting to get grossed out from it.
“Okay, I’m becoming worried.” Amber’s voice cracked at the sight of all the ooze spread around the cave.
“We’ll be alright, everyone just stick together.” Jade said staying close to Amber’s backside. They had to maneuver around the ooze mostly to avoid stepping in it. Finally, the cave opened up into a ruined room of stone. Some pillar-like structures reached for the ceiling but couldn’t quite touch it. The goop in the cave vanished after the entrance, thankfully.
Before Brandon could get a decent look at the pillars in the room, he was halted by loud, low-pitched whail. It’s deathly echo reached into everyone’s ears, clawing at their eardrums.
“We’ve got company!” Amber yelled out as she swung Razorback loose of it’s holster. Jade had Little Sn0w ready quickly as well.
From atop the pillar a pearlescent glow shined. The same bluish green hue as the goop in the cave. It slowly became brighter as whatever emitted the light, and that hellish sound, came closer to the edge to look upon it’s prey. Just like in the pictures in the first part of the cave, a humanoid figure appeared with tentacles for arms, not to mention the tendrils sticking out of many parts of it’s body. It had no human head, it was more of a mass of solidified pearlescent ooze. It’s pure look made Amber shiver, it looked like Flesh-y 2.0. With another loud screech, it leaped down and splattered ooze everywhere as it landed in front of the group. It’s ominous appearance loomed over them, striking either fear or disgust in their minds. Perhaps both.
“Let’s go!” Amber yelled out to the group as she motioned them through the doors. Everyone filed in behind the next passing through the door, Amber being the last to do so. She covered the door while the rest went through then followed in trying to get the door closed as she passed through. Unfortunately, the door enjoyed being wide open as it was difficult to close behind her, just as it was to open in the first place. With another loud yell that echoed across the walls of the cave, she jerked on the door with massive strength. Slowly the door creaked shut.
With the door closed completely, the faunus fell to the ground and breathed heavily. She had been carrying forty-ish extra pounds, lugging around other people, tearing down ceilings, anything you can think of with someone with the strength she does. Sooner or later it becomes too taxing, even for the strongest willed people. Down on her knees, the young teen tried to catch her breath. Everyone else was doing the same thing, but they had just been running away. Jade grew worried of Amber’s worn state and rushed to her side.
“You alright Amber?” She asked putting her hand on the feline’s shoulder. The faunus panted heavily looking down at the floor. Her hair covered most of her face.
“Just peachy.” She responded after several more deep breaths. An aggravated tone could be felt in her voice through the rough respiration. “Just give me a minute if you could please?”
“Okay, just relax for now.” She said, standing back up and observing their surroundings. The seemed to still be in the cave system, but it was a bit different than on the other side of the door. Depictions were carved into the walls of the cave of various things, but what caught the half-canine’s attention was the pictures of what looked like humans and animals being experimented on. In the next relevant panel, it seemed to describe the after effects of the experimentation, showing the normal human in the first panel and slowly changing to some kind of tendril monstrosity in the last. It looked mostly human with the exception of tentacles growing out of it’s back. There was some text in a caption but it was some other-worldly language no one in their group could identify, not even Brandon.
“Remarkable.” The astronomer said in a hushed tone. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Right, well if there’s no way we can read it, there’s no point in lingering.” Tell pointed out. “We should continue moving, a group of trolls chased us down this hall and I’m sure it won’t take them long to get through that door.”
“We can’t, Amber is still taking a rest.” Jade said to Tell.
“Time isn’t a luxury we can afford right now! If you don’t like it, you can stay here and die. Not that it matters much for you primes.” He said turning to continue down the hall with his soldiers.
“If it wasn’t for Amber, most of your men would be dead right now!” Jade yelled out. “She carried Smith out of danger when he was injured even with the equipment she’s carrying now. She is probably the only reason those dwarves didn’t kill us.” Tell turned his head back at Jade, sort of surprised. An odd expression she had not expected to see from him.
“You were ambushed, by dwarves?” He asked looking back down at Brandon who was still examining the wall carvings. He nodded to Tell in agreement with the prime.
“Our friend Ms. Veritz here protected the group by overpowering them. Jade helped but, I’m fairly certain the could have overwhelmed us if it was not for Amber.” Tell’s attitude had changed rather quickly, he had not expected for a prime to risk their unending life for anyone but themselves. He walked up to the faunus who had finally taken a seat and caught her breath up to a steady pace and crouched down to her level.
“You have my sincerest thanks for keeping my soldier safe. I misjudged you before, but I see now that there are some primes who care for the rest of us whose lives are not eternal.” The feline faunus nodded to the captain. He held his hand out help her up, which she took with a smirk and stood with him.
“I’m good now, let’s continue. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we get out of this gods forsaken cave.” Amber maneuvered around Tell and took the lead. The captain had no arguments with that. Smith had recovered from his previous wound and was able to walk by himself now, which was nice or else Amber would have to be carrying him. Piers was lucky to be alive, slung over Selena’s back unconcious. His condition was stable for now, but it was apparent he wouldn’t be fighting for some time. Nevertheless, Tell was glad all of his crew had made it this far. If it wasn’t for Jade and Amber, they may all be dead by now.
--------
Amber in lead, they traversed the horrid cave. The carvings in the walls only grew more frequent as the got deeper. They unsettled Amber to her bones, considering the many test subjects pictured reminded her of what happened on The Death Island. Something she was trying to erase from her memory completely. Although her memory of the island after the attack from Flesh-y was somewhat scrambled and fogged she did remember going completely insane and turning into a giant zombie monster. The thought of fighting another Flesh-y was a bit too much for her to bear.
The cave began to grow wider as they ventured further in. Every once in awhile needing to choose between a fork in the road and dodging inconspicuous traps from pressure plates in the floor. Luckily, Amber and Jade’s keen senses made traps like these easy to spot. They had each other’s backs like it was second nature. They had know each other no more than a few days but nonetheless have become a great team and they trusted each other with their lives.
Something shiny caught Amber off guard. It glimmered from the ceiling in the darkness of the cave. With closer inspection, it was the ooze from earlier that had found its disgusting way into Amber’s clothes. She still had this odd feeling from it on her shoulder.
“Look, it’s more of that goop from the entrance of the cave. What do you think this is?” Amber said looking up at it from a distance to make sure she was not in the splash zone again. Brandon stepped forward to examine it closer.
“My initial impression of this ‘goop’, you call it, is could be some kind of excrement from gods no what. It’s hardly natural with that kind of pearlescent glow.” He said. “Judging from earlier, it doesn’t seem to be harmful in any way, but whatever causes it most certainly could be. We should tread lightly.” The feline faunus tried to ignore the ooze as she walked around it, but it became hard the further they went. It became more frequent as they got deeper into the caves. Seeping through walls and splattered all over the floor from where it had fallen from the ceiling. Everyone was starting to get grossed out from it.
“Okay, I’m becoming worried.” Amber’s voice cracked at the sight of all the ooze spread around the cave.
“We’ll be alright, everyone just stick together.” Jade said staying close to Amber’s backside. They had to maneuver around the ooze mostly to avoid stepping in it. Finally, the cave opened up into a ruined room of stone. Some pillar-like structures reached for the ceiling but couldn’t quite touch it. The goop in the cave vanished after the entrance, thankfully.
Before Brandon could get a decent look at the pillars in the room, he was halted by loud, low-pitched whail. It’s deathly echo reached into everyone’s ears, clawing at their eardrums.
“We’ve got company!” Amber yelled out as she swung Razorback loose of it’s holster. Jade had Little Sn0w ready quickly as well.
From atop the pillar a pearlescent glow shined. The same bluish green hue as the goop in the cave. It slowly became brighter as whatever emitted the light, and that hellish sound, came closer to the edge to look upon it’s prey. Just like in the pictures in the first part of the cave, a humanoid figure appeared with tentacles for arms, not to mention the tendrils sticking out of many parts of it’s body. It had no human head, it was more of a mass of solidified pearlescent ooze. It’s pure look made Amber shiver, it looked like Flesh-y 2.0. With another loud screech, it leaped down and splattered ooze everywhere as it landed in front of the group. It’s ominous appearance loomed over them, striking either fear or disgust in their minds. Perhaps both.
Quote:22,015/27,000
"I've been neglected, harassed, beaten, and diminished all my life. What motivates me to continue? The glory of proving people wrong. Being worth more than the numbing existence offered me. To be a hero." - Amber