Secret of the Medallions

[Erverain]

Marcellus had memorized roughly half of the Atlas before the light began to become insufficient. Looking around, he noticed that Tori was already asleep, and Rain was enticing more animals, this time it seems as an alarm system. The strange man still bothered him, but that would have to wait.
Hmm... we should probably start cooking those animals as soon as possible, since we don't have any salt or anything...  

[Sentama Lin]

"Stealth..." Connell muttered with a small sigh, regretting his choice of outfit right now. Not that his white hair and white outfit made it impossible to be stealthy (his attire was purposely made identifiable so people who need medical assistance can see him). It merely made it harder.

He looked around to make sure there was nobody surrounding them, and, relieved, he was glad to observe that he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Trees, animals, plants, just that -- nothing else. He hoped that that was really all he saw.  

[xDarkPisces]

"The key is to be harder to move than the choice is. You can let these things get to you... I have a feeling that this might only be the beginning of things to come." He concentrated on stepping lightly, focusing each step and causing the dirt to give way a bit with each foot fall to muffle the sound. Stealth obviously wasn't in his bag of tricks, but he could manage it, if necessary. As he walked, he gazed around him at the thick forest foliage, marveling at the eerie way the trees seemed to close in as a wall in the distance, blocking out any means of escape. He'd never been in this forest before... In fact, in all the years he had trained with the other Medallion wielders, he had never once set foot past the perimeter road that skirted the massive complex. All he needed had always been provided right there for him. Why leave? But now... This promised to be an interesting journey... an interesting rescue, if rescue it really was.  

[Roland Karloseth]

"I have the same feeling. I just hope it doesn't get more interesting than we can handle." Karloseth said. Eventually, they made it back to the compound. His worst fears had been confirmed: it was now a base of operations for the beings that had been wreaking havoc as of late. "s**t. Alright, here's the plan. You guys wait here. I will sneak in and try to find Reyix. Mainly, you two are a backup plan. Logic would be that if something happens, some sort of alarm will be raised. THAT will be your cue to save the day. It's just harder for me to freeze time and make an escape if there is more people to involve in the time freeze."  

[Sentama Lin]

"Backup... alright... Just be careful?" Connell replied. It didn't sound much like an agreement to Karloseth's plan. In fact, Connell was a bit nervous about just having one person with him. But Karloseth can freeze time and just run out of there if needed, so he wouldn't get hurt. Would he be able to tell them if he found Reyix though?

Connell leant against one of the outer walls of the campus, in the shadows, to not attract attention. He watched as spotlights slowly wandered the landscape, searching for people, and sighed.  

[xDarkPisces]

The evening sun was growing dimmer by the minute, and the fading light caused eerie, forest-borne shadows to creep outward into the complex beneath the searchlights. Tokk stood just behind Connell, struggling to stay still. He wasn't good at this whole stealth business, and the lack of activity made him more than a little restless. He tried to busy his mind by focusing on the shadows, every curve and branch and twist. They seemed to quiver in the approaching twilight.

Suddenly he felt very exposed and insecure. He withdrew into his mind and struggled to speak to Connell with his mind. It was a clumsy effort, but he focused on the words... "I feel like we're being watched... or are about to be... We should move somewhere else..." As he focused on the words, his eyes remained locked on the shadows that seemed to quiver ever more now... He wasn't imagining it. They -were- quivering. 'What the hell..?' he thought to himself.  

[Red Glacier]

he starts cooking all the meat with the deer first sense it was the biggest amount. he jabbed at it with a clean stick and flipped it over numerous times til it started getting good in its stages  

[Sentama Lin]

Connell tilted his head, as if hearing a message. "Something... danger... suspicious... We're being watched, you think?" he thought, turned to Tokk, then spoke. He looked down and watched the shadows definitely dancing underneath them. With no second thought he looked over to Tokk and nodded, motioning, with limited movement, to walk farther along the wall.  

[Erverain]

The scent of slowly cooking meat was something Marcellus had not smelled in a long time. It was almost... nostalgic. His face darkened for the briefest of moments.
No sense dragging that up now. I should probably check in on the others.
Focusing his awareness on the link between himself and the rescue group, Marcellus piggybacked his awareness on theirs.
Hmm, let's see... No problems for Karloseth so far... Tokk and Pale Boy seem agitated for some reason, though. I wonder why.
Bleeding his awareness into the surrounding area, Marcellus noticed several... things... had encircled the two.
What the hell are those? I've never seen anything like them, even in books... I should probably warn them. Shifting his awareness into a more communicative wave, Marcellus alerted them to their predicament. Heads up. You two are surrounded by at least six unknown lifeforms. Karloseth is fine at the moment, he hasn't been spotted. You two, however, are in a bit of a pinch. Try and take one alive. I may be able to get something out of it.  

[Roland Karloseth]

Karloseth sprinted across the courtyard, making sure to stay ahead of the searchlights. He dialed up the power on his gloves to the max, and charged headfirst at the main building. Once he was about 7 feet away from the wall, he jumped and sent one big blast from each glove, which had a jet propulsion effect and made him land on the roof. He picked a place with a good distance between search lights, which were operated by drones. He went over to the small door on the roof and lifted the trapdoor looking thing up, and jumped down. He was in.

Karloseth ran down a few hallways, taking care to avoid all cameras and people. "Good thing I know the layout," he mumbled to himself. He glanced down one long hallway and, seeing the path was clear, he sprinted down it. As he got about three-quarters of the way down the hall, he ran head-first into an invisible wall. The bad part about it though was that the wall grabbed him. He was stuck to the wall, and an electric current was passed through it. He saw the creature he had conversed with earlier materialize in front of him before he passed out......

Outside, the only thing that changed was that the searchlights swept around in a more frenzied manner.  

[Sentama Lin]

"I don't like this." Connell replied, still moving as hastily as he could along the wall of the complex. The search lights moved hurriedly now, spontaneous, chaotic, random, as if searching for something. "They're searching for us... Karloseth's been found..." Connell thought. His foot caught in one of the shadows, however.

It was like a disfigured hand rose from a puddle of ebony, grasping for him and keeping him held.

"What... what's this?!" He said, clenching at a root, a twig, a fixture -- anything that could be grasped, anything that could help him away from the shadow. The shadowed hand slowly began sinking, and trying to bring him with it.  

[xDarkPisces]

Tokk's head snapped forward, as he had been gazing around him anxiously, searching for anything out of the ordinary. This... this was most certainly out of the ordinary. A shadowmerge. Briefly he recalled his instructors speaking of them.

Gazing into the shiny black pool of living shadow, Tokk found himself almost mesmerized, pulled in though he was not yet snagged by it's dark, flowing depths. Then he popped out of his daze and took a hard stance. Business. Connell. He grunted loudly as he stomped the ground and thrust an open palm forward, bringing his off hand up in an uppercut motion. The earth responded to his movements, and the ground around the pool began to tremble and shift, turning instantly to quicksand. The shadow instantly released its grip on Connell, temporarily retreating into the sea of darkness cast over them by the forest itself. Tokk nodded to Connell, ensuring that he hadn't been injured. "I think something's wrong... Karloseth usually just uses time stop, therefore he should've been back almost instantaneously, right? And-.." he was cut short as the shadowmerge returned in full force, larger now with tiny ripples manifesting across the glossy black surface.

Slowly the creature pulled itself from a puddle into a humanoid shape, never losing the glossy sheen or the ripple effect. Tokk crouched down low, then growled as he hefted his arms upward, bringing an egg-shaped case up and over the shadow, encasing it. To his dismay, however, the shadow instantly began bleeding out through the tiny crevices in the rock and dirt, albeit slowly. Tokk looked to Connell. "That won't hold him long. We have to find Karloseth and get the hell out of here. NOW."