Mable watched the others from the sideline, feeling a bit twitchy due to her inability to help. They seemed to be doing alright so far, no one had been killed in a gruesome fashion at least. The armadillos fighting Rafael and Sieve were thoroughly being suppressed so far. The monster fighting Rafael couldn't keep up with it's opponent, each of it's powerful swings easily being avoided by Rafael's strange movements. After being knocked back by yet another blow, it seemed to lose it's temper and simply lunged at the man, attempting to grab him with it's long arms.

Sieve's attack had knocked it's target onto it's back, it was confused for a moment, not knowing how it had been attacked, but didn't dwell on it. It instead curled it's self into a ball and quickly rolled towards where it last saw Sieve. It was effectively blind like this, but far more durable.

Septim's attack was enough to distract four of them from Evfimiia, who was their first target since she was closer to them. They held their arms in front of their faces to protect their them, but not before one of them was struck in the right eye by a stray projectile and fell to the ground. It began to panic and curled into a ball, then rolling towards Septim blindly. The other three turned their backs to Septim and set their sights on Evfimiia again, believing her to be the easier target. However they stopped once Kaede got in the way running quickly past them and setting herself between them and the ball carrier. They didn't see her as much of a threat at first and kept running, but stopped as she began to transform. They didn't quite know how to react to the sudden change. Two of them ran towards her in a straight path as they were provoked by the challenge while the third attempted to circle around her and continue chasing Evfimiia.

Meanwhile Mable had thought of the perfect way to help without setting foot on the field. They were playing a sport, it was basically the result of someone throwing a dart at a board with random unoriginal ideas on it, but it was still a sport. And since this was a sport, her team needed something for sure, 100% required. No doubt. Totally necessary.

"Lets go team~ lets go!" Mable clapped her hands and danced, cheering on her allies. "W! R! E! C! K! E! D! What's that spell!? Wriggity wrecked! Show em what you can do! I believe in you!" As she did this extremely vital performance, her mark began to glow with a pale light. At the same time the marked on the field would notice that their bodies felt lighter and stronger.

Rafael was amused that the armadillo monster couldn't keep up with him. He swayed under another attack, his head and eye staying locked onto the beast. His fist came around and plowed into the creatures side with a meaty whump. Their armor was like his, all natural and tough but still a little pliable due to the organic nature. Another miss from the beast and another attack landing in the side of its ribs. One of the core ways of ruining someones day in a fight was to take out their core. No core, no power in your attacks. Of course the creature was getting angry and made a very foolish mistake. It lunged right at him for a bear hug.

Laughing he let the beast catch him in the hug. As the creatures arms encircled him his hands changed, bringing about those wicked looking claws once more. It had pulled him into its only unarmored spot and he capitalized on it. With unnatural flexibility his hands drove into the creatures stomach, pointing up and hunting for its heart and lungs while blood poured from its ruined abdominals. His fingers flexed in a grabbing motion as he dug in, slicing apart every organ between him and his target. Of course it probably still had time to throw him away but it would be very injured.

Rafael was barely listening to what everyone else was saying but he was hoping to finish this off to move on to another target. The girls voice from before was carrying over, was she acting like a cheerleader for the group? Well at least she was trying to be useful...why was he feeling lighter and stronger? Was that something she could do? He honestly didn't believe in magic, it just wasn't a thing from where he was and it most certainly wasn't psionic. He'd have to question about this later.

The shielded abomination began to roll at quick speeds, unable to see where our poor skeleton doctor was located. At this moment Sieve set his arms behind him, took a deep breath and began to float by a few centimeters.

At this point it's essential to establish that by no means is breathing necessary when lungs, veins, nostrils and all the mushy wet bits are taken out of the organic equation to life. Rather, our calcium hero needed to store large amounts of air inside of him in order to cast spells effectively. It wasn't "breathing" so much as it was sucking. If you asked Sieve to describe the noise made from this process he'd use cute and flowery language, no doubt referencing wind instruments and the like. If you were to ask people from other worlds they would more accurately pin the sound down as "homicidal vacuum cleaner".

In his old world he was only able to glide at slow and wobbly speeds, sparingly used to hover over the occasional oil puddle. However, after having been blessed with extensive knowledge of wind magic, Sieve found himself being able to glide around at a running speed, with the option to steer himself by twirling his robes. Sieve was learning all of this while swerving around like an idiot, dodging the catwarrior repeatedly.

With the doctor's black robes, small body and pointy mask, an outsider would have compared the scene to a mosquito divebombing a housecat. Sieve was busy screaming the entire time to really get a grip on his steering.

It was then that the strange woman who was penalized earlier began cheering. Sieve had read tales of blue-skinned humans that lived in the ocean, but never thought he'd meet a merfolk. Her boon immediately made him feel his ribcage swell with capacity, as well as cause his body to float several inches more.

Oh, how truly putrid of me. If anyone were to see under my garments.... indecent!!

It was then that an idea had occured to the mentally-blushing magician. Clumsily teetering down to the field, Sieve carefully pointed his black wooden wand. He mentally selected the location of his spell, bringing it close so as to be able to pour more energy into it. A wall of hard, reinforced air materialized between the cat and the insect. The skeleton switched hands and began the second part of his questionable plan.

"You fight like a dairy farmer! In fact, if I didn't know any better I'd even sa-"

The creature began to roll, now having heard the bony mosquito and his cries. Sieve was a little disappointed, as he spent an embarassingly long amount of time creating that insult and wanted it to sting. On impact, the beast broke the wall, causing the sound barrier contained within to pop, ringing alongside squeals of confusion. At times like this it was nice to not have eardrums.

The creature didn't have time to properly stand up before Sieve began the final step. A set of black, thin robes billowed viciously with the gale, giving Sieve the ephemeral appearance of a spectral crow. For the first time since being re-re-alive he looked hauntingly elegant. An enhanced, direct sphere of air streaked towards the opponent's head. Protecting humans from threats filled the little skeleton with something a little more substantial than air.

Evfimiia Serdiatnitskiia

---

For a moment she stood there, staring flabbergasted at the round orb in her hands. She was supposed to get this to the basket at the end of the field, or everyone here explodes. Was she really comfortable holding such a thing with her bare hands?

"Go!"

Those words tore her out of her introspection, as she remembered the Linebackers who may very well be near enough to tear her head off her shoulders. There was no such thing of course, for the foxgirl had somehow turned into some monstrous being, and was current.y distracting the other armadillos away from her, though some still passed her.

Galvanized by the others' actions, and aware she might very well be holding their lives in her hands, she jumped towards the end basket, though she realized too late that her body seemed lighter and stronger than it was before. With a resounding thwack, she slammed into the plate above the basket, though she still managed to get the ball in the hoop by sheer dumb luck.

With her teammates keeping most of the Linebackers busy Evfimiia only had one to deal with now. Thankfully she was far faster than the creature, and combined with Mable's cheering it was no longer even a contest. It was hardly graceful but Evfimiia scored the goal for them. The moment the ball passed through the rim a loud buzzer blared throughout the room. The Armadillos that hadn't already been eviscerated stopped in their tracks and fell to the floor dead. Smoke poured out of their mouths, as if something inside their heads had exploded. The buzzer stopped right before the voice from the speaker spoke up again.

"Oh, it's over already... huh." There was a sound like the shuffling of papers before they spoke again. "Congratulations! Not only did you succeed in scoring a goal without anyone dying, you've also won the special bonus prize!" From the ceiling another hole opened, out fell a red treasure chest lined with gold. The chest landed with a thud, not even cracking from the fall. Mable let out a gasp and rushed over to the chest. She unlocked the latch and opened the lid with glee in her eyes. Her smile turned stiff at what she saw, however.

"This thing is empty." She said in monotone. "What are we supposed to do with this?" She asked, but the speaker remained silent. Mable shrugged her shoulders and took a closer look into the chest. As her head reached the middle of it a tingling sensation came over her body and she appeared to be sucked inside of the chest. Ten seconds passed as nothing happened to the chest, until Mable suddenly burst from it gasping for air.

"Awawawa...gah...fuaff.." She made various strange noises as she attempted to compose herself. "The box- space..." She rambled before taking a deep breath and shaking her head, causing her thick strands of hair to painfully slap her face. "Gah..." She stood to her feet and looked at the other marked individuals. "It looks like we'll be able to stuff anything into this thing, it kinda reminds me of those uh, bags from that game. I'll call it the forever bottom box!" She seemed pleased with herself for naming something that likely already had a name.

She looked at the dead Linebackers, then to the chest. "Hey uh, you think we can eat these things?" She asked. She then glanced at the steel bleachers. "Oh~ we could use those too. Can someone cut those up and shove em in the box?"

Rafael's search was short lived as he tore the organs out. The beasts bulk fell back, since most of its weight was on its spine. Smoke poured from its mouth, along with the other ones in the vicinity. "Well that was anti-climactic." He muttered as the blood on his hands soaked in, leaving no trace. While the others were distracted with the box dull cracking sounds came from his body. His torso split open revealing a massive maw of razor sharp teeth. In went the heart and lungs of the Linebacker. A dull thump and his body was closed once more, leaving not a single seam or evidence his body could do it.

Rolling his shoulders he went over to the chest just as Mable sprang from it with a gasp and thwack of her hair. Apparently it could hold more than its physical form let on. "Dimensional box, box of holding, various names for a single function." He said, the girls name for it didn't really roll off the tongue very well. Not that he had one. She asked if the Linebackers were edible, which got him to shrug. "We're sure if you lot can make a fire they'll be edible. If it's meat we can eat it, our mutation won't allow for any other disease or illness to infiltrate our body." He said with a shrug.

At the mention of the bleachers he gave them a once over before he got up close. It didn't take him long to find the bolts holding them together. His fingers changed shape and he started disassembling the metal contraption. No point ripping it apart if there's an easy way of doing things. It seemed he was all about conserving energy.

---

"Yes, I am a real mage. I would be glad to display to you my magic sometimes," she said to Mable with a smile. She always found the curiosity of non-magicals adorable.

Soon after, a lot more people gathered at the entrance of the cavern. Illia observed all sorts of people, from what looked like winged lizardman, an eerie-looking man wearing a mask with a beak on it, to a man dressed fully in something that looked like to be a heavy armor of some sort. This was definitely a unique bunch, she thought to herself.

After the introductions were over, they all went deeper into the cave. Mable had shot down the idea of them splitting up. Not that there was anywhere to split to seeing how the cave was linear so far.

But then, the cave suddenly grew to a terribly wide space. It had stopped being a cave altogether. It was something that she was wholly unfamiliar with.

And then, a booming sound suddenly came out of nowhere, enveloping the entire place.

She quickly identified it as some sort of sound magic. Something like this was quite common back on her home world.

The voice then explained the game they were about to play. A game? She certainly didn't expect that they would be playing any games once they were here. She thought they would be fighting monsters and solving traps and puzzles.

The game was soon played. Thanks to the nature of the game, she couldn't really participate much, if at all, thanks to her robes. She couldn't run around chasing after the ball, and there was a limit for the distance they had to shoot the ball into the hoop from, so she couldn't just shoot it there from midfield with her magic.

In the end, her teammates took care of everything.

And their reward? A box with infinite storage capability.

Interesting. She could make one herself given the right materials and time. It is pretty difficult for an ordinary mage to do however.

So the one behind all this must be quite the powerful magician indeed.

Sieve stood proudly with his hands on his hipbones and gazed at the dead warrior rabbit. The magician's pride vanished like smoke from the creature's mouths as soon as he remembered that he wasn't wearing boots, leaving white bone exposed for all to see. He began gliding like a cat doused in water back to where he had primly set them down.

LewdlewdlewdlewdlewdlewdlewdLewdLEWDLEWDLEWD!!!

His body released the pent up air within his ribcage, sounding less like a sigh of relief and more like a blender with a brick inside of it. The mer-woman explained that their reward allowed the impromptu party to store things to a ridiculous degree. Sieve wondered what would happen if he were to place one of his bones inside of it, but snapped back to a chipper and formal tone as soon as his party members began to discuss the consumption of their opponents. The skeleton neatly held his wand horizontally with both hands and began to rattle. "Excuse me, but as a member of the Necro-organic Sanitization Squadron I advise that any and all bodies found be burned immediately to suppress the spread of plague!"

His body language remained stiff throughout his first team interaction. I'm not as strange as some of the other folk here, but it'd be wise to be hidden for a bit more, lest I be immolated.

~Lizaveta Koshkov~

Year:
2334
Location:
Outer Rim, Planetoid Chadus F88
Factory - *static*

"Ah fuck, the hell am I even keeping this log for now?" She sighed, yawning as she stuffed the recorder back into her uniform, resting her rifle on her shoulder. Not like she was going to be using it again, eh? She was gonna be stuck here and have little hope for rescue by the Empire. Airlocks sealed, life support literally blew to hell, no spacesuits, shuttles, coms were busted beyond repair and no one but the rare pirates traveled out this far. Typical, really. Should have been expected being sent this far out. Probably were waiting for her to croak, really so they could salvage the tech from her body and give it to their next pet project.

Jackals, the lot of them.

Not that she could really blame them. She was already living on borrowed time - clones didn't exactly have long life expectancy and she already lived two years longer than they thought. Of course they'd finally get tired of her doing what she did best - just serve like a good little soldier 'for the glory of the empire' Propaganda, really. Really effective propaganda though. The danger with clones, is that sure, for the first few years of life they'll follow orders...but then they start thinkin' for themselves and then you well, have created a problem for yourself.

She wasn't a hero though, so she had really no intention to try and do that. She just did as she was told.

"Oi, you...still alive?" She walked over to one of the people that she had just killed. Was quite the fun little bloodbath, indeed. Ah, so tiring though. "Heh, guess I'm getting sloppy. Silly me~" She giggled, giving the man a saccharine smile before pulling out her pistol. "Sorry about this...I'd say for the 'glory of the empire' or whatever other bullshit, but I'll spare you the lies."

The pistol fired, burying a bullet into the mans skull. She stretched again, briefly checking the magazine in her pistol and rifle. Someone from the rebels might be foolish enough to come check on their mining facility, but she doubted it. Heh, maybe if she got rid of the uniform and guns she could pass for a lost child? Maybe would be fun, but the empire wouldn't let her live so easily.

"Ah, the Empire is so troublesome~" She sighed, shaking her head with a tired smile. "Sending little 'ol me out here to do all their dirty work and not even having the courtesy of sending me out with a bang. Just going to let me rot away slowly...tsk." Ah, man, after a workout like that she was tired. "They even made sure to dismantle that robot before sending me here..." She pulled up her holographic com unit, a simple message displaying on the screen.

"Help. Dismantling."

Hah, she almost felt like crying. That robot actually thought she could help. She wanted too - the big lug was just about the only thing or person that had any bit of consistency in her life.

"Welp, that's just the way the nuke explodes." She chuckled dryly, tossing the headset carelessly onto the ground, sitting against one of the cold metal walls of the mining facility. "Ah, so tired. The nanites must be getting slow and rusty, heh. Well, nothing like a nap after a good brawl to unwind..." She leaned against the wall, and eventually her breathing slowed as sleep overcame her.

---

"Hrm...nooo...my muffin~" She giggled in her sleep - she must have been quite the sight. A child wearing a military uniform covered in what appeared to be dry blood in a number of places. She was passed out on the ground, smiling contentedly while she slept, chewing lightly on the butt of her rifle. "Hands off...bolt face...can't eat anyways..." Whatever she was dreaming about, seemed pleasant at least. It wasn't until a gentle breeze brushed past did the child slowly open her eyes, and immediately notice something was completely wrong.

"GAH!" She stood up swiftly, wide eyed and looking more than a little trigger happy from the way she was clutching the gun as if her life depended on it. "Whodawhereisthis?...Grass? Why is there..." She spun, readying her abilities to try and combat any threat she might run into in this place. Was...was this a dream? Most of her dreams typically involved some super lewd...well, things you're never going to know about.

"Not a dream...afterlife? Hell looks particularly green this time of year..." With life support as weakened as it was, she was guaranteed to run out of oxygen in half an hour...but she still had her guns and combat knife. She doubted such tools would even be allowed in 'heaven' if it even existed. Still, it didn't seem like she was in any immediate danger. She lowered her gun, grumbling quietly to herself as she tried to make sense of this situation.

It was then, she became highly aware of a massive group of...things. People? Somewhere towards the east? Or was it west? gah, finding directions on new planets was difficult when you couldn't use the sun as a reliable guide, and the stars were useless to navigate by since, well, daytime. Well, if there were people, she might as well check it out. Who knows, maybe could be fun.

"Huh, well I dunno what in the name of the emperors soiled holy boxers is going on here," Just to make sure, she checked her ammo again and the spare magazines she had on her. "But lets see what's up, eh?~" She slung the rifle over her shoulder, and set off at a calm walk towards the mass of people that she somehow knew the location of - however she did that. Did she suddenly develop a new psionic ability? Wasn't unheard of for clones with extensive modification to later develop new mutations later, but that couldn't be it.

Eh, if only she didn't trash her com unit.

It didn't take her long to get to the mass of people, and what she saw was...disturbing to say the least! Those...those definitely weren't humans. They seemed to be gathered around some sort of cave of sorts?

"Hmm..." She observed the group, placing a hand to her chin and thinking for a few seconds. Finally seeming to come to some sort of conclusion, she nodded with a sigh. "Yep, I've finally lost it."

Alternatively, and much more logically, she might have accidentally got teleported to another galaxy somehow...which also meant no empire.

...huh.

"Well, heh, might as well see how far this rabbit hole goes. Maybe I'll met a cute alien, heh..."

---

---

The beast's meditation over his new situation was broken when several unknown creatures made their way inside. Having been in the shadows with eyes that were barely illuminated, Jackal didn't move a muscle. Everything about this situation was unfamiliar to him, the mark, these hairless mammals and other odd specimens, and the unnatural environment. Even the cave seemed artificial, how flat and square everything was. He didn't want to admit it, but the lizard-warrior was in some form of terror.

That fear drove curiosity, to study the situation before him and then decide on his next actions, a basic principle of reason. However, more perplexing was that these animals were...speaking. The sounds were unfamiliar to him yet he somehow understood these alien words to him as if he was raised by it. He however, avoided to dwell to much in thought of the language as he was more interested in the very fact that these beasts were speaking a language.

These strange creatures were not Gorgasi, yet they were sapient; They walked and talked in a matter that may even be more sophisticated intelligence then his own. Knowing this, Jackal no longer saw these strangers as prey or predators, still he kept hidden as a new strange monster appeared to challenge them in some strange sport; Likely the reason to the unnatural cave structure. So the beast watched, studied they're strange dialects, and waited.

When the beast was defeated, and the group had inspected some container in the back, the reptilian monster rose from his place of hiding. At first he crawled out of the darkness in a slow matter, moving more like a lizard with a side-to-side motion rather then that of a humanoid, his yellow eyes were beaming from his silhouette. Once he was out of the shadows the alien lifted his body upright to his full height.

There was a pause, as Jackal was unsure of what to make of these strangers exactly. Despite how some varied from others in race, they seemed to function as some kind of group or tribe, this detail gave him some reason to question.
"...Friend.. or foe." He finally spoke. Since he was still adapting to the new information of this alien tongue, Jackal's words were paused and stressed to some extent which exposed his unfamiliarity.

As Mable was carrying the last of the deceased armadillos towards the box she heard the strange man that had been making even stranger noises speak up. "Plague?" She looked around, then back to him and blinked a few times. "The black plague? That was taken care of forever ago." She shoved the dead beast into the box, then looked back to Sieve. "Is that why you're dressed like that? Don't tell me you have spices stuffed in that beak too?" Mable let out a short chuckle before heading back towards the way they had come in, box in hand after the bleachers had been placed inside of it as well.

There stood what looked like a giant lizard man. She had seen him earlier now that she thought about it. The way he spoke made it seem as if he had only just now learned English. Now that she thought about it everyone here seemed to speak English, that was oddly convenient. "Have you been hiding? No need to be shy buddy!" Mable beamed at Jackal. "We're all in this together after all, try to help out next time." She said, walking past him.

The wall raised upwards once she approached it, thankfully they weren't locked inside anymore. As she made her way back to the outside she saw a young girl in the passage. She was one of the younger looking people she had seen so far. "Ah! Another adorable one has shown up." she said with excitement. "You just missed the action though, we're headed back outside now. I'm Mable by the way." She motioned for the girl to follow her and made her way back to the cave's entrance.

As expected she was met by a noisy crowd eager to hear good news. She sat the box down onto the ground and opened it up, then pulling out each of the dead armadillos. "Rejoice, your hunters have come back from the hunt with food!" She raised her hands triumphantly as the crowd reacted.

"What the hell is that?"

"Is that even edible?"

"That's not even enough for half of us."

"Yeah she's blue and all but I'd still hit it."

"How do we even cook that?"

"Oh stop being ungrateful!" Mable yelled. "And I swear I heard something way off topic!.. Oh well." Mable shrugged her shoulders and sat against the wall. Their first expedition had been fairly easy, but it wasn't even close enough to what they needed. Now that she thought about it, the bottomless box had been their bonus prize, what was their primary prize supposed to be?

As if on cue the wall began to rumble, Mable hopped to her feet and jumped away from it. It almost felt like an earthquake, but the movement was all clearly coming from inside the wall. About three hundred meters away from them a large hole opened in the wall. The hole was fifty meters up the side of the wall, and was in the shape of a rectangle as large as a king sized bed. A torrent of water came rushing from the hole, at the same time the ground below it changed. The grass sunk unto the ground, creating a ditch that grew until it was around seventy meters wide, it then extended in a straight line outwards until it vanished into the thickness of the fog. The torrent of water fell into the new ditch, quickly filling it up. Before long what looked like a river formed.

Up until now Mable was able to find some sort of excuse for the things she'd seen, however even coming from a planet as technologically advanced as she had this confounded her. She responded as eloquently as she possibly could.

"Buah, wha?"

To Septim’s surprise, his intent to side step the panicked counter of the creature manifested in a slightly disorienting manner. One moment he was about to take a step, and the next he was simply a few meters to the right of where he had been. Blinking in surprise as he felt the mark on his hand pulse with a faint warmth, he hummed in surprise as the creature rolled past him aimlessly.

Ignoring it in favor of giving chase to the three, Septim blinked in surprise as he almost stumbled instead. His body felt lighter and faster than what he was used to, and he quickly looked towards Mable who was cheering by the stands. Perceptive eyes noted the soft glow that seemed to come from her hand as she danced about, but he filed it as something to be discussed with everyone here at a later time.

That moment of distraction seemed to be enough for the spiderbreed to leap and drop the ball into the basket. Lowering his weapons and standing straight as the challenge ended rather abruptly, he was admittedly… a bit disappointed? That hadn’t been much of a challenge if Septim compared it to other Marks he had faced before. Letting the manifestations disappear into motes of light, he rubbed at the back of his neck as he approached the chest Mable was already marvelling over. About to ask what laid within, he stopped quickly as the girl’s appearance distorted before disappearing inside.

Blinking in surprise at the notion of a bottomless chest, Septim was a bit in awe of earning one so easily. It seemed a bit cumbersome to carry around, but such a thing would have been an artifact of great value back home. Doing his part in loading the chest with their kills, he glanced at the draconic being that decided to reveal itself now for a moment before following Mable back up the tunnel towards the surface.

Ignoring the crowd for a moment after he stepped back into the light, Septim cocked his head instead as a faint rumbling reached his ears. Looking back at the wall as the sound grew louder, he couldn’t have imagined the formation of a river as their prize for victory. Staring at the flow of fresh water for a few moments, his mind processed the new information before he turned towards the other marked.

“We need to have a team meeting. Now. Also, my name’s Septim to those I haven’t introduced myself to yet.”

~Lizaveta Koshkov~

Just...what was going on here? Liza observed the next events that unfolded before her with some manner of bewilderment. Oh sure, her training prepared her for all sorts of different scenarios and survival techniques, but this was completely beyond her experience. Oh sure, sure, there aliens and whatnot...most were subjugated and uh...reeducated, she had to deal with a few xenos every now and then...and had uh, fun times with a few xenos every now and then too.

What she wasn't trained for...was what looked to be some (incredibly attractive mind you) Alien thing with blue skin. What? She liked the tall ones. That was definitely not an alien that existed where she was from. Or the armadillo looking things. They looked tasty though. She wondered if she could cook them up? Hm. She was feeling a bit hungry after her recent, uh, well, mission.

Well, she'd stop thinking about it too hard. She wasn't trained to think about things - just do as she was told.

"Yeah she's blue and all but I'd still hit it."

"Heh, I'd let her hit me!" Liza laughed, immediately becoming aware of the fact she should probably wash up a bit. Mable was it? Cute name. Just missed the action though? Aww, damn it. Well, enough gawking and thinking about various things one could do with handcuffs in a zero-gravity area and onto information finding. Before she could take a single step though - the terrain shifted completely. A hole opened in the wall, causing water to flow through and quickly carve a path through the earth. That...definitely was not how terraforming worked. Maybe extremely advanced terraforming tech, but nothing the Empire was capable of.

Goddamn.

“We need to have a team meeting. Now. Also, my name’s Septim to those I haven’t introduced myself to yet.”

Team meeting? Well, since Mable seemed to have included her in that little team she might as well say hi too. She walked over to the group, walking up to one of the armadillos. And well, might as well make one of her flamboyant introductions. Quite suddenly, the small child like human with a rifle slung over her shoulder jumped onto the nearest armadillo.

"Hup!~" She landed on the dead creature, extended her arms and doing a little twirl atop the groups recent conquest. "Wahaha!" She laughed, coming to a halt and giving everyone gathered a friendly military salute. "Lizaveta Koshkov, Advanced Clone trooper, serial number 588-B, at your service!~" She tilted her head ever so slightly, still wearing a bright overly sweet seeming grin. "Nice to meet all of you!~" She giggled. "Nice haul you've got here. Hey hey, can I eat this? It looks tasty and I haven't eaten in...a few hours. Little nanos and I are hungry."

She seemed intent on ignoring this 'team meeting' Septim seemed to be trying to have.

---

---

Jackal was perplexed at the strange creature's choices of words. Excitement maybe? Regardless, the blue one's point was clear that they were 'friendly'. He followed her and the group out of the cave and back into the world, albeit he had kept some distance from them as a sort of precaution. When the same blue creature offered food the primitive reptile immediately ran, losing his bipedal stance in favor of crawling, towards one of the presented armadillos and snatched it away from her reach with his maw. He then proceeded to crawl some meters away from the crowd to inspect the 'food.' He had placed the carcass from his mouth to his hands to study the hard leathery hide and soft underbelly.

Jackal nipped at the belly of the small beast to investigate its taste with a small strip of raw flesh. Contempt with its taste, which seemed safe enough to eat, the Gorgasi Stood upright once more from his crouched position and held the armadillo carcass by the tail. He released a jet of flames from his maw upon the corpse, cooking and roasting it to charred remains to a blackened crisp. Such burnt meat would taste horrid for most, but for Jackal's race it is preferred.

His feast was interrupted when some distance away water came fourth from a part of the flat mountain from a whole that wasn't there before. Water was a vital supply, so the curious reptile moved cautiously over towards the ditch to investigate; scarfing down his burnt armadillo along the way.

As the two creatures called her bluff and charged toward her, Kaede closed her eyes and hoped those claws weren't as sharp as they looked... but she never found out, as a buzzer sounded and the creatures collapsed, along with the rest of their kind.

Oh, gods... I thought they were going to kill me for sure. They weren't afraid at all...

She transformed back to normal and dropped to her knees, trying to catch her breath as tears started to form at the corners of her eyes.

I shouldn't have come down here... I'm no adventurer. I should just wait outside with everyone else.

She followed the group back to the surface, barely taking any notice of the new additions or the spoils of their conflict.

---

The creation of an instant river snapped her thoughts back to reality, distracting her for the moment.

"Ah... This seems as though it was prepared for us..."
Perhaps the game does not end at the cave's entrance after all.

“We need to have a team meeting. Now. Also, my name’s Septim to those I haven’t introduced myself to yet.”

Kaede heard Septim's announcement and went over to sit next to him.

"I agree. We need to plan our next steps from here."

It didn't take the mutated man long to undo the nuts and bolts of the bleachers. He let the others carry it into the box while he continued his disassembly. While he worked he listened to them talk, beak face mentioned plague. "Been a few thousand years in recorded history since someone was hit by a plague." He said while tossing bolts and nuts into the dimensional box. Aside from the very dirt under their feet they had grabbed anything of value left in the field. He kept the idea of agriculture to himself, he doubted anyone had seeds just laying in their pockets.

The group left the room and went down the hall to the group of people. The loud girl, Mable, just shot off at the mouth again and people weren't particularly pleased with the idea of eating the Linebackers. "Hey if they don't eat it it's just more for us. They can starve for being picky." He said, clearly more of a survivalist than a 'make the people feel nice' type. A rumbling was quick to pop up and now there was water. Well that was always good, dehydration would kill you twice as fast as hunger.

"Hm...mysterious wall, opening to a type of ball game, now a river. Anything else gonna open up, wall-god?" He said while looking at the wall expectantly. He honestly didn't believe in gods, he was made with science with a dash of cruelty after all. Oh well, someone quipped up about a team meeting. "Why do we need a team meeting, kiddo?" Rafael questioned, not particularly please. He was anti-social by nature thanks to his...inhuman appearance. He was acting friendly since it eased tensions and it was impossible to read his face. He didn't have one.

Septim was right, they needed to hash out a plan. They were all in this together, regardless of how much they wanted to be. Even still, it seemed some of them had little interest in discussion. Mable looked up at the girl that had just introduced herself. She was curious as to what she meant by 'clone.' Cloning sapient beings was outlawed in the entire galaxy where she was from. For there to be a place where child soldiers were created was almost inconceivable. She sure didn't act like a child soldier though. "Sure, you can have some, just don't uh, burn all of it like that lizard over there." She turned towards Rafael. "Since you don't want to join us, how about you dismantle these things for us? We could use their plating for armor or something I bet." She said, then turning to Septim and Kaede.

"So, how long until most of the people here die of starvation? Not everyone here is the same biologically so it'll be hard to guess, but I'm assuming after a few days things will get rough. Hrmm~" Mable lowered her head in thought, thinking about the events in the cave. "Also is it just me, or does it seem like we've been put into some kinda game? Win and loss conditions, prizes, even an announcer."

“You don’t mind Liza, do you?” Septim asked amusedly as he glanced over the new girl. Posture indicated training despite the seemingly lax nature, clone probably indicated very early training or perhaps even designed for a specific purpose? Not enough information to be certain.

Frowning behind his helmet as one of the six went up in flames, Septim held back the urge to give the giant reptile a friendly warning shot to the hand. The darn thing hadn’t even participated, and it was taking an entire sixth of their current food supply?! Instead, he manifested a handgun and sent a round into the ground at Jackal’s feet. “That’s your freebie,” he said in a friendly tone, “next time, no work, no food.” Letting the manifestation fade away afterwards, he hoped the message had gotten through to the dragonic being.

“Because working together is easier if we know each other's names and what each of us can do.” Septim answered the armored humanoid before he tilted his head. “Also, any relevant past experience would be nice to bring up. There seems to be people from all sorts of time periods and worlds.” Tapping his helmet, the frontal section seemed to disconnect and attach to his face before he pulled the rest off; leaving Septim with a gas-mask-esque piece.

Letting his long crimson hair out with a shake of the head, Septim tucked the helmet beneath an arm and looked towards the two that decided the meeting was important enough to pay attention to. His smile was hidden by the piece he still wore, but it reached his eyes. “Mmm. Too many different species to tell, but yes, a few days might drive some desperate,” he agreed with Mable as he glanced over the hundreds alone that he could see, "some might just need to be hungry..."

“Game is… apt, I suppose,” Septim admitted after some thought. The scale of the rewards were far greater than what he was used to, but he knew of some that saw Marks as challenges and dived into them for their own amusement, so Mable’s comparison wasn’t completely out of place. “Given our first reward though, exploring further is a priority. It seems likely we’ll get access to food, shelter, and other necessities as subsequent rewards.”

Plague?

The black plague? That was taken care of forever ago.

Is that why you're dressed like that? Don't tell me you have spices stuffed in that beak too?

Been a few thousand years in recorded history since someone was hit by a plague.

The words launched themselves into Sieve's ribcage like metal spears. They swirled and warped his thoughts, milk of the new world and the tea of the old one mixing and squeezing his non-existent brain juices. The wand that was neatly held in front of him began to violently vibrate as his hands shivered in the way only bones could. The skeleton's entire body began to shake and shudder in surprise.

C-c-could it be?? I've been launched forwards in time?!

A paranoid gaze at those around him fed his mental instability. Merpeople, unholy fusions of man and beast mingling with their human superiors, soldiers with strange muskets and shamelessness. Yes, shamelessness surrounded every pocket of his bone-vision. Exposed ankles, elbows and collarbones as far as two sockets could see. There was even the occasional shoulder. The worst offender was the grey automaton, who stood naked and proud among the group.

The doctor began to quickly adapt to the future in front of him. With a hollow laugh he spoke again, with the recognizable voice of a shrill british man. "Hee, hee. It appears I am also hungry, starved I might add. I am also winking, although you cannot see it, as I am wearing a uniform. Hee, hee."

Sieve wasn't going to win an award for his performance, but it was the best the skeleton could manage under the surge of new information. The plague had been defeated and the world wasn't a big steampunk hellfire junkyard! Yippee! But at the same time, why did he have access to wind magicks? How did he end up here? Why was that silver machine still naked? Sieve would have to find out some other time and roll with it.

---

Aleksander followed the others further into the cave, eager to face what tests the group may face. Though normally he would not party with this diverse group, he followed out of necessity. Stranded from his brothers and eager to escape the lunacy of this strange realm, he silently agreed to aid in what way he can until he finds his brothers or finds some way to get to wherever they went. Until then, this group would have to suffice in aiding him to his goal.

While he did not know what awaited him further inside this place, it was certainly baffling to find a soccer field. Something one would not find in nature, which implied some kind of intelligence behind this situation. Someone or Something wanted people here. What is not known is whether the intent is sinister in nature or not. Not even the voice that announced a game gave any sufficient information to support either possibility. Though he was glad for the creatures as it would be a suitable outlet for the emotions he hid, namely rage.

The event, while short, did give Aleksander the opportunity to note the capabilities of his party. And the prize they won was quite peculiar. He could only guess at explanations for its apparently infinite space, some plausible while others bordered on magic. Unsatisfied with any answer, he turned to notice the others were discussing what future actions to take and some controversy over whether the linebacker creatures would be edible. While Aleksander would consider it a suitable source of sustenance, it would not provide the ideal range of nutrients and would impact his health as he primarily diets on a variety of fruit and vegetables. Rarely does he ever eat meat, and hunger is not enough of a concern for this to be one of those cases.

He followed the group back outside, hoping that maybe he could reestablish contact with LEGION though he was not surprised to see that it was not the case. On the Brightside, however, some EVA functions did come back online after his suit finished repairs. After briefly examining the operational features (mostly relating to tactical situations), he shifted attention back to the conversation at hand.

”Given the artificial designs within the cave, along with the fact that a ‘game’ awaited us, It would be reasonable to assume the cave is linear in nature with subsequent activities to perform for ‘prizes’. I don’t care about these prizes so much as getting out of… wherever this place is. To that end, I will aid so long as it remains necessary in whatever way I can. However, should I find a way out; I fully intend to do so with little respect for the situation of everyone else. This team is one of convenience and I doubt few of us woul ally under normal circumstances. I believe that further exploration of the cave will help me attain my goal and I will aid in any attempts to further advance.” Aleksander said while maintaining a passing interest in the others. He thought back about this situation seeming to be some kind of game. If that holds to be true, then everyone was likely brought here purposefully rather than accidently. But for what reason? And would it ever be known?