[CLOSED] Lost in the Forest of Forever Fall

(Arriving from Arrival III thread)

Markus flew high above the forest, not turning back to check if any guards are chasing him. He was starting to strain under the weight of Nathaniel, wind howling past his ears. They had only been flying for about ten minutes, but he couldn't take it much longer. Looking down, Markus saw that they were right above the center of the Forest of Forever Fall. "Prepare yourself for a bumpy landing!" Markus called down to Nathaniel.

Markus heard a small 'click' as Switchblade retracted into it's compact form. Nathaniel didn't hear it, as Markus has enhanced hearing and vision thanks to the Grimm blood flowing through his body. They both started to fall, before Markus got below Nathaniel, and, a meter or so above the ground, activated his gauntlet's repulser to cushion his landing. It was still quite painful, as Nathaniel landed on top of Markus. Luckily they had landed in a small clearing, and so no tree branches were in their way.

Markus rolled Nathaniel off him and got up, before offering a helping hand to Nathaniel. "Um . . . Where's Mike and Lucius? Markus pondered aloud, quickly surveying the area.

Mike hopped from tree to tree, as fast as he could to get away from the guards that he never noticed weren't chasing him. He groaned as he became tired from carrying Lucius. He turned around, to find he had lost the guards. He hopped down to ground level, using his blades to slow himself and land safely. He put Lucius down, stretched his arm, and then it hit him. Not only had he been so hyped up that he had forgotten to remember the way here, but he also realised he had lost markus and Nathaniel. He turned to Lucius.
"There is a slight chance we may be lost." Mike said to Lucius, without a smile on his face for once.

Lucius finally regained his strength after practically now moving while the guards chased after them.

"There is a slight chance we may be lost.", Mike said.

Lucius immediately stood up.

"What!? Lost!?"

"Where are we? Are we still in Beacon? Where's Markus and Nathaniel? Lost!?"

Lucius then calmed down for a bit and then returned from his rarely occurring state of panic to his usual and calm demeanor. He checked if he had his two shields on him and luckily they were. Trying to remember what had happened earlier, he remembered that the Beacon Guards found out about the fight.

"We ran away but... we're still returning to our dorms in the end... Won't running away just give us a much heavier punishment?"

Mike looked around at the dense forest around him, trying to figure out which way they had come. Although he seemed his normal, unbothered self on the outside, inside his head he was cursing himself for not remembering the most basic rule of navigating a forest. He heard Lucius speak behind him. He was asking a lot of questions, and that didn't help Mike think. He turned to Lucius.
"Yes. We're lost. I have no idea where the others are. And yes, I suppose we'll be killed by the guards when we get back." He said, dropping his smile again, and temporarily showing his anger. Then his face lit up again.
"But we'll get through this. No matter how much trouble we get in, we'll be together. At least we can share the blame." He said. He couldn't show his anger now. Mike was supposed to be the calm one, the one with the It'll be fine! Attitude. If he was worried, it meant bad things for the team. He couldn't have Lucius worrying. It would just make everything worse. He just hoped Lucius hadn't picked up on that.

Nathaniel's first thought, after getting over the sickness he seemed to have acquired from flying over a cliff and across a forest, was that this was bad. Very bad. Their escape from Beacon had been sharp and abrupt, but not so much that he hadn't noticed the two most damaging issues. Firstly, the Guard had opted not to chase after them. While to most people this might seem like an  indication that the Guard wasn't angry enough to chase after them, he have some (admittedly basic) experience with this kind of organisation and knew that not chasing after the offender is a much more ominous thing to do. There were two possible reasons for them doing this- firstly, they might be preparing a more powerful welcome party to seize them when the returned- after all, it wasn't like they could run forever. Secondly, and by far the more dangerous situation, was that they wanted to go and look for more evidence and information. They had already demonstrated that they knew who they were, so they might want to check out the team dormitory to see what they could gather. That would be just about the worst thing that could happen right now. He didn't know what the Guard was like with privacy, but having three different locks on a chest in the corner had to arouse suspicion. The only question was whether they'd open it there and then or wait for him to return. He wasn't optimistic about the outcome.
He cursed himself silently, thinking of all the things he could have done differently in hindsight. There was attacking Mike, not going back and hiding the chest when he had the chance, having the idiotic notion that it would be a good idea to store the most incriminating articles he owned in a public area in the first place, not to mention enough money to keep anyone rich for a lifetime. If he'd had time to think it through, he wouldn't have run from the guards. It would have been a much better idea for them to 'convince' them that they hadn't seen what they thought they had. And to top it all off, they seemed to have lost Mike and Lucius along the way.
Nathaniel sighed deeply. This 'school' thing seemed like a lot of effort just for a little training in putting down animals.

Looking around, all he saw were trees with red leaves. Though he had also noticed a change in the mood somehow. And he caught a glimpse of an unhappy face from Mike.

Mike? Not smiling? Hmm...

"Uhh...", he wanted to say something but he thought that right now isn't the time. He needs to find where his other companions were. If anything were to happen to them, not only would he had failed himself but he also would just feel responsible for them. He would never let that happen again.

I'm not familiar with this place...

"Hey Mike, where did we run off to?"

Not only was this place new to Lucius but he was quite cautious of the danger that lurks in this place. The Emerald forest had Grimm in them and thus what makes this forest so different.

Markus looked round the clearing. There were some large rocks to his left, good for cover, and a rather large pile of petals and leaves to his right, good for camouflage.

"Hey, I'm sorry for hitting you before, I don't know what came over me, he said, addressing Nathaniel.

Suddenly, a roar could be heard from the trees at the clearing's edge, and two Ursa stormed out. They caught scent of the duo, and charged at them, followed by a Boarbatusk who had only one tusk, a sharp stump in place of the other, burst through a small pile of rocks to their left.

Mike hummed to himself as he figured out where to go next. He turned around again as Lucius asked his next question, although his face was much more composed, and looked a lot more like the real Mike this time.
"Uuh... I don't know. I was trying to follow the others, but I lost them. So I kept going, but we just got more lost. This will be interesting." He said to Lucius, before firing one of his blades at a branch high above his head. He retracted it relatively slowly, before pulling himself up onto the branch.
"Well. We came through on these branches, and there should be marks left by where my blade embedded itself into them. So we should be able to follow these markings." Mike said, searching the branch he was sat on for one such mark. Then he heard a distant roar. He sat bolt upright, almost falling off his perch.
"Do you think that's them?" He asked Lucius. But, before Lucius had a chance to answer, Mike was off, jumping between trees, making sure to remember the route this time.

Well, that... hadn't taken long. It was maybe twenty seconds since they'd touched down and they were already under attack by Grimm. Not just that, but two different kinds at once. Interesting. He grabbed Teres-Aris and pointed it at one of the charging Ursa, before he changed his mind. Thinking about it, he'd never seen Markus fight before, and now might be the ideal time to do so. Lowering the halberd, he walked off to the side and leaned against one of the trees, arms crossed, appearing completely unfazed by the three monsters. The way he saw it they might have to fight together once they returned to Beacon, and he'd rather get an idea of how Markus fought before that happened. Besides, if his leader couldn't handle himself in combat he obviously didn't deserve to be one.

As Nathaniel slumped himself against a tree away from the fray, Markus called out "Hey! I get that you're angry at me for before, but you could at least-!!" Markus was cut off by the Boarbatusk ramming into him at full speed. Fortunately, it hit him straight on and neither of the tusks hurt him, however he would have a bruise from the snout's impact.

While Markus was punching it out with the Boarbatusk, neither him nor Nathaniel noticed that the Ursa seemed to have retreated, so it was all the more surprising when the tree that Nathaniel was leaning on shuddered, then was uprooted with a great SNAP before being brought down with alarming speed, right at Nathaniel's head!


Mike and Lucius were stumbling along the path, Mike swinging along the tree branches like some sort of Monkey, (which Markus secretly suspected is Mike's spirit animal), and Lucius walking along the pink, soft floor, shuffling the petals aside with each step he took. Suddenly, a howl came from their left, and when Mike and Lucius went to investigate, they discovered three beowolves chasing some rabbits that kept dodging, weaving in-and-out of the soft piles of petals and flowers. Suddenly, the biggest of the three stopped, sniffed the air, and snarled, halting his two companions. Mike and Lucius were hidden in the trees, and the wolves couldn't smell them through the musk of tree-sap and leaves, which was prominent throughout all the forest. A small rabbit darted between one petal-pile and the next, distracting the beowolves and the strange scent they caught for a moment fled their minds. Mike and Lucius looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

"Hey, wait!", Lucius wasn't as athletic as Mike so he could only watch him as he jumped from tree to tree and couldn't see him anymore. Then he heard some rustling of leaves and he noticed a pack of Beowolves.

Oh... no... I'm alone... I'm alone... I'm all alone again... Anyone!? Anyone!?

Lucius had his panic attack. He wasn't capable of dealing with the Grimm on his own. Otherwise, he'd go into a state of berserk. He had a mentally where he needed to see another person with him if he ever were to face the Grimm to remind him of his responsibility to protect. Otherwise, his hatred for them would be released. And the worst part was that these were Beowolves. The same kind of Grimm that killed his companions before.

He immediately turned his two shields into its offensive mode. The shields retracted and two hidden blades revealed.

M-Must k-k-kill Grimm...

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

He charged towards the pack of Grimm blinded by his rage. Filling the hidden blades with his aura and thus expanding its length. Then aimed one of the blades at one Grimm and the other at another.

Mike looked down at the three beowolves below him. He raised his blades to point at the closest one. Then he was startled by a shout below. He looked down to see Lucius charging out from behind a bush to attack the Grimm. Mike had no doubt that Lucius was a good fighter, but with two Shields it wasn't going to be easy. As well as the fact there were three of the beasts. And the fact that he wasn't even thinking about what he was doing. Mike once again readied his blades to fire at the wolves, before firing one straight towards the nearest one.

Well that was irritating. Nathaniel quick stepped to the right as the tree came crashing down, frowning. Of all the trees to try and club him with, why did it have to be the one he was leaning on? He watched as Markus was thrown around by the Boarbatusk and sighed at his outburst. He obviously didn't have a clue what was going on here. He turned to face the Ursa, arms still crossed, Teres-Aris still slung across his back. Was it seriously too much to ask that he was allowed a little peace? He had more important things to do than put down every animal he came across. Looking it up and down, he was unimpressed by what he saw. “Desist.”

Markus was pinned down on the floor by the Boarbatusk, seemingly unfazed by this threat. He suddenly twisted his body and gave the Grimm Hog an Iron-plated thruster-boosted backhand, which struck it at such an angle that it snapped his other tusk off and sent both itself and its lost tooth a couple of meters to the right. Markus stood up in the blink of an eye, using his new aura-powers to help him. Looking at his hands, he exclaimed "Huh. Flash step. Wonder what else I can do?"

Now Markus extended his blade and held it as if it were a lance, and charged at the dazed opponent at full speed. Switchblade pierced it's eye, bypassing the extra-thick skull, and straight through to it's brain.
After retracting his blade Markus watched, emotionless, as the animal squealed and writhed for a moment before falling silent. Dead.

Meanwhile, the Ursa threw aside the massive tree-club after dislodging it from the floor. For a moment it stood there, confused, it's brain trying to process what the small mammal had said. Then, it responded, not with words as such, more with a roar and a leap towards it's opponent, swinging its massive paws as it approached Nathaniel.

((OOC: I can't handle controlling 6-7 grimm and my own character at once. Mike or Lucius, post your own Grimm reactions and actions, as long as you don't OP them.))

Nathaniel leaped forward and rolled beneath the Ursa's clumsy strike, coming to his feet a few metres beyond where it had been standing, and faced back towards it. His eyes narrowed. This was irritating. He decided to put this down as another type of Grimm he really couldn't stand. He didn't really expect the brute to listen to him but he supposed it was worth trying. It could face him and die, or it could face Markus and probably die. For most people that should have been a no-brainer, and yet it still insisted on trying to kill him. More than anything, it was that kind of stubborn stupidity which got on his nerves. He rested his hand on the shaft of Teres-Aris but figured it was worth one more effort. "Him." He pointed to Markus. "Fight. Him."

Mike grinned as his blade from his right arm hit his target. The other two had been preoccupied, and barely noticed the blade until it's target howled in pain. There was no escaping Mike now. At least, not for the injured one. Mike retracted the blades quickly, zooming down to meet his target. He raised his left arm to strike. When he hit his target, it was his feet, kicked out in front of him. Then his left hand made contact with the creatures face, along with his weapon. The momentum gained via gravity and the retraction of the weapon allowed for a lot of force. The creature died before it could do anything. Then Mike stood up, assessing his other targets. This would be easy between him and Lucius.

The first Beowolf that Lucius targeted was successfully hit, though he only managed to cut of one of its arms and it started running and fled to a nearby bush. The other Beowolf managed to dodge and then hit Lucius' stomach. His shirt was torn and three large marks appeared on his stomach but it somehow did not manage to pierce through his skin.

Though it looked painful, it seemed as if he did not care and thus he swings the right shield's hidden blade at the Beowolf's head which had successfully cut it off and then pierced the severed head with the left shield's hidden blade. He then started to run to where the Beowolf had fled to while the head of the Beowolf he had just mutilated was still attached to the hidden blade of his left shield.

"M-M-MUST K-K-KILL GRIMM!!!!!"

Lucius! Calm down! It's all over! You still have to find Markus and Nathaniel, his sense of reason said to him in his mind as it tried to calm him down but it was ignored.

Mike turned to Lucius, watching him fight the Grimm. One of them fled, and, once the other was dead, Lucius gave chase.
"Lucius! Stop! There's no point!" He called, trying to stop him.
"We have more important things to do." He said, hoping it would help bring the enraged boy to his senses. He didn't like him like this. Mike didn't like mindless violence. He was taught only to kill when necessary, and take mercy upon all.

Markus heard the "M-M-MUST K-K-KILL GRIMM!!!!!" with his advanced hearing.That sounds like Lucius, but it couldn't be him, could it? He's the calmest one of us all! He turned to tell Nathaniel about this new-found information on the possible location of their team-mates when he heard some rustling in the trees next to the clearing. He had a suspicion what it was and a quick 360 confirmed it.

Earlier there were two Ursa and a Borbatusk. The Boarbatusk was dead, and one Ursa seemed to be having a conversation with Nathaniel (which Markus considered quite strange), however the other Ursa was nowhere in sight. Suddenly, the trees to the left of him splintered with a great CRASH, followed by the cause- the Ursa -bounding towards Markus with alarming speed.

Markus' visions of his past self came to him at the worst of times, this being one of them. This flashback was clearer than others, as the pills were obviously taking effect. time seemed to slow down. He appeared to be in a sort of Dojo, a martial arts training facility. There was a man there, wearing a white plain t-shirt and grey shorts. "Use your enemy's momentum against them," he explained, putting his left leg forward.
Markus' eyes were glazed over and pulsing a bright blue light, a blank expression on his face. He put his left leg forward.

"Good. Now, when your enemy gets within arm's reach, bend down, put one hand under his foot as it falls, but remember the strength techniques we learned, and the other hand on his chest, and," a man ran up to him and the teacher swiftly folded over and the next thing he knew the running man was flying over the instructor."Lift!" the instructor finished, barely winded.

By now the Ursa was barely two meters away and getting closer by the second. Markus, eyes still glazed, bent over, and hauled the confused Ursa far over his head. The Ursa flew into the forest, far away from the clearing. Markus blinked, eyes returning to their normal light blue, swayed for a second before collapsing on the floor. He was still conscious, but he needed a minute to 'wake up' fully.

Well this was a fairly messed up team, he decided. A reforming ex-psychopath, a ten year old with the mental age of a three year old, a rampaging Grimm discriminator, and all led by an unstable leader who had yet to show any actual leadership skills. It was like the lead up to a bad joke.
Nathaniel had been pleasantly surprised when Markus had insisted on not dying when he'd had to wrestle with an angry Boarbatusk, and by the looks of things he had been shaping up to be a decent enough fighter, but that move with the Ursa had shed a little light on the matter. He was fluctuating. Of the four people in the team who could have had aura issues, it just had to be the one who was meant to be leading them. First Markus could block a railgun shot, then he could flash step, and then he could apparently control some kind of mild telekinesis. His aura was seriously unstable, and while that might not present much of a hazard in itself, it could have terrible consequences if it dropped away right when it was needed. It would only take a day or to for things to settle down, but that was time they didn't have. Not with the Guard still after them.
Very well. Some kind of intervention would be required here, if they were going to keep this team in one piece. To be frank, Nathaniel wasn't sure whether Markus should have been appointed leader in the first place, but that didn't matter now. What had happened had happened, and now his job was to make sure things worked out. Markus had obviously never had to lead people before, and he needed a little help. Something he wouldn't notice overly, something that wouldn't shatter whatever confidence he had in himself. Nathaniel figured he was up to that. Pulling strings, getting things done... he could make that work. In the meantime though, there were still a lot of problems to solve.
He turned back to the charging Ursa, which had evidently declined his offer of a second chance. Fine. He could kill it with the knowledge that it had brought it upon itself. He pulled Teres-Aris from across his back, cutting it's nearest arm off at the elbow as it swiped at him, before spinning the halberd round and tearing it open from shoulder to groin on the return swing. Stepping past the mortally wounded creature, he began to wipe the blood off his blade. There were more immediate issues to deal with.

Lucius chased after the Grimm but it was too fast for him to catch up. Angered by that, he targeted the tree right beside him and started striking it with his blades until it eventually fell. Finally, he had calmed down and sat on the ground. He was back to his usual self.

I've done it again...

He then hid his hidden blades and returned his two shields to its original state. He sat there for a few seconds to try to remember what he had done earlier. He let out a sigh and then stood up.

I still have to find Markus and Nathaniel...

Mike followed Lucius and finally found him chopping a tree down. He watched as the tree fell, before walking over to him.
"We need to find the others. Come on, I'll race you there!" He said, running off in a random direction, shouting his teammates names.
"MARKUS! TERRY! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Markus faintly heard Mike's call, but not which direction it came from. Suddenly, he shot up, reinvigorated.

"Nathaniel! I think I heard Mike call our names. We should look for them now that we've dealt with our enemies!"

Suddenly, by pure chance, Markus caught Mike's message again, closer, louder, but him nonetheless. Using Switchblade, he flew above the trees and looked around for a bit. He saw a rather massive, hollow-looking tree with several large holes in the trunk. Flying over and temporarily abandoning Nathaniel, he investigated. The holes took in sounds, amplified them, then released them a few seconds later.

Hmm. A rather peculiar sonorous cage, once all this is over I shall try and duplicate this phenomena.

After a minute of experimentation (assisted by his advanced senses and technical mind) and very tedious climbing, he calculated that the output hole of Mike's message, the one pointing at the clearing, was connected to another one on the other side of the tree, presumably the sound input. Making a mental note at the direction, he ventured back to the clearing. He told Nathaniel of this discovery and what direction he thought Mike and Lucius were in.

"They're North-East of us, or at least in that general direction. A ten-minute trek if I'm not mistaken." Unlike most people, who use left, right, forward or backward, Markus has a Compass-mind, meaning he always knows which direction is North, South, East, and West. Even when he's sleeping, his body just . . . knows.

Lucius could finally felt the wound he got from the Beowolf earlier, though it wasn't bleeding it was still really painful. Bearing with it he stood up then he heard Mike telling him.

"We need to find the others. Come on, I'll race you there!" and started running off somewhere then yelling, "MARKUS! TERRY! WHERE ARE YOU?"

He immediately stood up and tried to follow him while enduring the pain from the wound.

Hmm. What an odd thing to come across. Not that it was overly important, he supposed, but it was interesting at the very least. He closed his eyes, focusing his mind, and he felt his awareness begin to sharpen. They were there, just on the edge of his hearing, causing all manner of unseemly noise pollution. It wasn't just extremely annoying, it was liable to bring down more Grimm on top of them. While Nathaniel wasn't entirely sure that he wouldn't enjoy more fighting, it would still be a waste of time they really couldn't afford. He opened his eyes again and the noise cut off once more. He took a bearing from the sun and decided that Markus had been more or less correct on both distance and direction. He set off walking.