A New Conflict
Well, this was a fine start to a horrible night. Recapping the whole incident so far was... Troubling, to say the least. A strange man appearing and sending him off to the gym, only for an accident to happen while everyone was there. The strange bell like sounds that only they seemed to have heard, shortly after these sounds they were sent here. A Hell Hound, a living creature of folklore of all things, had almost found them and would probably have killed them. Then this power, these Familiar's that had appeared with them, and to put the cherry on top a strange man appears and tells them to go to Yohan's house.
So many questions roamed through his mind. Who were the two men he had encountered? Could they be related to all of this somehow? The first man was certainly suspicious, though how involved he was with this whole thing and how much he knew of what would transpire remained a mystery. The second man seemed to have just found them and has taken interest in them. Is it possible the first man had informed the second man of them coming? That put a scary thought in Yohan's mind: It would mean the two had planned for all of this. Though only a theory to him for now, things were too suspicious and events happened too well one after the other to just shrug it off. There wasn't a choice in the matter, caution had to be taken from here on.
A new question arose from thinking about this, how many people lived among them that knew of this place? Was it possible they had been observed for years if this was the case? Once again, he could only think of this as a theory. There was no real proof or evidence of anything he had thought of so far. For all he knew this was just a "thing" that happened often and the reason no one talked about it was because no one came back to tell the tale. Perhaps he could convince some of the others to help him investigate into matters tomorrow, after all the man did expect them to return here together. It seemed like a good idea to try to get to know some of them.
Briefly coming back to reality, he looked around at everyone and his head turned as he searched the place for any more signs of those creatures. Such terrible and horrifying things seemed almost impossible to exist, just like the Hell Hound, yet they had almost died to them as well. Well, it looked like his free time was going to be spent trying to figure at least some things out now. "I know what he's on about. I don't know how it's connected to all of this, but if it can get us out of here sooner, we should at least try." As he listened to his own words, he made things sound easier than they could be for his position. He couldn't question the man's interest for now, if this was a trap and the house had already been destroyed, it was better to find out than to wait and be attacked again.
At least he knew where to go, that was a start. As he walked off without another word, hoping to whatever divine powers that may exist that had brought them here that the others would follow him, he once more went back into his train of thought. That accident, he'll probably see it on the news when they get home. There's no way it would just vanish, at least he hoped so anyway. For now, he moved his focus to the strange sound they had all heard. There was a limit to how many times one could ask the same question and word it differently, no matter how many times he focused on all of this, no matter how much he focused on each one individually, his mind would only race and tire itself out at this point. Ignorance truly was bliss in this moment, as the curious mind he now possessed had been added to the list of things that could go wrong and did.
As he walked out into an opening of the town, he pushed aside any curious thoughts about how much this place resembled Timberland for now and focused on the building that should be where his home was. Well, it may have taken about ten minutes to walk over here, but the building stood out clearly as the only one that had not been crushed in this area. That's when trouble decided to voice it's ugly opinion. "Hey, I got an idea." Though his form did not appear, Yohan knew who's voice it was. "Let's leave them. Dead weight is never a good thing to carry, and they look like trouble."
"Can you please shut up for one day?" Yohan already knew the white haired boy would just brush him off, as the figure now stood at his right side and seemed to be more off than usual. He now stood with an almost eerie Cheshire cat's grin, his teeth looking more sharper now than before as his eyes had turned slightly more demonic to fit the expression he was going for. Yohan could see the white hair looked wild and moved slowly with an almost savage feeling coming off of it.
"You know you want to." The figure spoke slowly and with a malice intent behind it's tone of voice. "Why bother bringing more pain into your life? Parents didn't do that enough for ya?" The figure chuckles as he raises up his right hand and slowly had his fingers rise up and the tips of his fingers becoming sharper, letting every crack and strain of the extension be heard to all.
"I'm not playing this game." Yohan tried to brush him off again, but the boy just wasn't having it and suddenly appeared in front of Yohan, though he now stood directly in front of the door to the building. Yohan's eyes narrowed into a glare as he stared down the boy. "Get out of my way."
"Grew a backbone suddenly?" The boy chuckled as he points his twisted fingers at Yohan's direction. "That's unlike you. Earlier today, you were struggling to shake off that feeling of death enclosing in on your heart. How can you say anything to me when you are so weak that you could just do it again?" The fingers suddenly shot forward, the sound of blades being unsheathed rang out through the air as they headed straight for Yohan with full speed...
... Only to stop in front of his face, inches away as Yohan didn't move, looking more angry now by this action. The fingers retract as the boy licks the top row of his teeth tauntingly. "Face it, boy. You need me. Without me, you'd be hanging by the rope right now with those pathetic and dull eyes of yours rolled into the back of your head!" Yohan began to walk towards the door as the boy continued. "The more you repress me, the worse it will all be the day you explode! What would mother think of you, knowing her little boy has so many holes in his head!" Yohan's arm moved to swipe through the boy, causing him to poof into smoke clouds as Yohan grabbed hold of the doorknob and opened it quickly.
"Get lost, I don't need you. Never have, never will." Yohan walked into the building, leaving it open for the others as the white boy put himself back together at the bottom of the stairs, staring at the direction of the house as his eyes narrowed and his grin returned full force.
"That's right, deny yourself the pleasures of being human. You have two people you could unleash those teenage hormones out on and yet you instead want to get them home? There is such a thing as being too kind to other people, you know! Watch, the moment you let your guard down around them, they'll just stab you in the back like all the rest! Don't blame me when you find yourself bleeding out on the floor!" Letting out a small chuckle, the boy fades away into smoke and was gone.
"I'm going to have nightmares again, aren't I?" Yohan rubbed his forehead in frustration as he closed his eyes briefly. Letting out a tired sigh, he opened his eyes and walked over to the door that lead down into the basement. He had no memories of being down there, there was just something that told him not to go down there. But it was the only place he could think to search, well, technically it wasn't even his home, but he knew he might as well start with the most suspicious place in the building.
If the others had indeed followed him, he would make a motion with his arm to let them know to come down this way. Grabbing hold of the basement door, he opened it slowly to see stairs descending down into... Complete darkness. Well, he certainly wasn't expecting this, and a thought of how his place looked much better than this version tempted him to speak outloud, but he felt he would just be annoying the others by this point. Looking around, his eyes caught sight of a candle and a box of matches next to it. Raising his left brow as he saw this, he slowly reached over to grab hold of the holder the candle rested in and grabbed one of the matches.
Looking over at the wall nearest to him, he held the match up high on it before quickly striking down on it to make a small fire alit. He brought it over carefully to the top of the candle and set it alit, raising up the match and blowing out the fire on it as he put it down where the candle used to rest before looking down nervously. Letting out a nervous breath, he slowly began to descend down into the stairs into the basement, each step making a loud thud as he found himself surrounded by mostly darkness. Once he saw the stairs end, he swallowed nervously and slowly set down as he raised up the candle slightly and his eyes widened at the sight he could make out.
Some kind of strange device was set on the wall opposite to him, having a small space at the top of it as the rest was hooked up to the wall itself. The rest of the room he could make out looked to be covered in sketches of said device, strange writing and letters were used to point out various things on each sketch, but he could make none of them out. Walking over some of the sketches on the floor and making his way over to the device, he carefully placed the candle down near it so that he wouldn't set some of the sketches ablaze. One sketch he could see seemed to make out placing your hand in the hole and speaking a word, he could just barely make it out as his eyes narrowed slightly to try to focus in on it.
"I can ask questions later." He spoke to himself, not wanting to risk staying in this place for longer than needed. He turned to look at the device and tried to make out how something so strange could be set up like this. But the instructions couldn't be wrong, right? If they were, they would probably face something far worse than that Hell Hound. No, he had to stay positive. They were going to get home, and that was that! He reached out his hand slowly to place his it in the hole in the device, looking back over to the sketch once he did before looking back at it. "Well, here goes nothing." After all, it was the only option they had, right? Taking in a quick breath and letting it out, he finally mustered up the courage to speak the word. "Gaia!"
At first, nothing happened. It was possible the device had been here for years, and the time spent had caused it to malfunction perhaps? There was no way, it just had to be his imagination! Then, it happened, the device started to spark and glow! In any other situation, he would dare to say it was a beautiful sight to behold! The device started to make a hum that at first was low, but grew in sound as the device glowed brighter. As the device continued to stir up, the entire room around them suddenly began to shake! Suddenly, a bright blue color erupted from the device and spread it's way throughout the room, the stairs all moving down into the ground as the way they had come in suddenly slams shut! There was no backing out now, this device was taking them to wherever whether they had a choice or not!
With a flash of blue light, a bright blue circle suddenly erupts without warning over where the device was, Yohan only realizing at the last second his hand was now stuck in it! The others would see, in what felt like an instant, Yohan is lifted up from the ground and pulled in full force! Though he was gone, the others would quickly find themselves being pulled in towards it with increasing speed, in very little time at all they could now only see bright blue light as they felt themselves seemingly disconnect from reality itself...
When Yohan opens his eyes, he finds himself back in his actual basement, his eyes widening as he found himself standing just where he was, hand within the hole in what seemed like the same strange device. Pulling his hand quickly out of it, he looked around to see all the sketches were now gone, and when he looked behind him, he could see stairs popping up. Clearly his parents had not told him a few things, and he tried to make a good note to remember to search around the place at a later time? Wait, why did he want to do things later? That's when it hit him, his body suddenly feeling heavy like a boulder and his mind quickly losing any train of thought.
He felt dizzy, his eyes quickly becoming half closed as he swayed from side to side before ultimately his eyes closed completely and his body gave up to let itself fall down on the ground. In no time at all, he was asleep! As the basement returns completely to normal, the device momentarily makes a low sound similar to a growl before shutting down entirely. Now unable to be seen by everyone, the white haired boy stood near Yohan as he stared down at his body, though this time he looked normal for some reason. "So I guess this is just how it is. Time for another dream, a new door has opened and five others dragged out of the comforts of reality. I can only hope they don't disappoint me." With those words, and a strange feeling coming over Yohan in his sleep, the boy fades away, waiting for the day he will be called upon again.
Ricky couldn't move his arms or legs, they felt numb by this point. The numbing was nothing compared to the pain that pulsed throughout his body with every beat his heart took. He was stuck to this uncomfortable wall, and these people were crazy. The torture had not let up, and they were making sure Ricky had time to let all the torture he had endured so far sink in. "Alright." One of the robed figures spoke up. "How did you get here? How did you use the Magical Portal?!"
"It wasn't easy, you know." Ricky looked up at the figure and grinned slightly. "But I don't trust you with crap!" This earned Ricky a sudden smack across his face, his cheek aching from having to endure further pain as he groaned out slightly.
"Insolent fool! I will not tolerate this attitude any longer!" The figure suddenly grabbed hold of a weapon and raised it up, causing Ricky's eyes to widen. "This ends now!"
"Stop!" Another voice sounded from the distance, Ricky could only make out a person standing in front of some light in the distance. "We need him."
"Need him?! For what?!" The robed figure shouted out in anger.
"There were faint readings earlier. He must of brought some others with him. Ask him where he is from!" This caused the robed figure to throw the weapon aside, only to grab hold of Ricky's collar and raise him up roughly.
"Alright boy. Where are you from?"
"I come from Timberland. Why do you care?" Ricky felt himself dropping back to his former position as the figure released his collar.
"He says he is from Timberland! Is there a Magical Portal nearby it that could of released such massive Magic?!"
"I recall the Emperor having handed out some Portal's to those who agreed to serve him some months ago. If that is the case, this boy is one of them. However, The Black his body has endured should of easily morphed him into a demon."
"So what are you implying, General?"
"This boy could be useful to the Sukodo Empire. Do not torture him any longer, rather conduct an experiment on him. Let's see how strong he can get when exposed to high amounts of Black. Have it done by sunrise."
"But rushing his development like this will have severe consequences down the road. Are you certain you wish for this to be done?"
"I am. I have full confidence he will serve us well until he breaks down. Literally." Then, everything faded to black for poor Ricky.