The Dead Forest (Increased Orc activity due to skirmish)

[The Proclaimer]

Quinn stood up slowly, throwing the pack over his shoulder. Checking with his real hand, he found and counted all of his supplies attached to his body by belts and straps. As he stepped off the transport, he looked in the direction Twitch asked and shook his head.

"Never seen his scrawny arse before," he said, then chuckled a bit.

Looking down, he shook his head as he reattached the prosthetic. It appeared to slide on sideways. As it reached the base of his wrist, he twisted and a sudden hiss was issued out. A blue mist was excreted through two different ports as the blood in his veins mixed with a bright blue plasma which connected his brain to the movement of his prosthetic. His nervous system included it in feeling, as the nanites in his bloodstream carried chemical coding to his brain. Stretching it out, he then made a fist to test it out.  

[Maximos]

Showtime...

Max moved the empty plate on his lap aside, resting it on the seat. He took a very deep breath in, as he watched everyone disembark, and then let a slow and steady one back out.

He stood, Max was the last one off the chopper, hopping down resting his hand and part of his weight on the floor of the steel magic box. He heard Damion, and immediately turned to respond to Twitch.

Yes. He's a friend.

Maximos said with a nod, and a small smile followed by a turn of his head to the kitty head draped over his shoulder.

Rae, I'm afraid I'll need you to walk for this one.

He whispered something. It was the sort of gentle thing that even a cat would have to be so close to hear.

And then she was on the ground and off.

And then he stepped forward waving his hand toward himself in a universal "Over here." gesture. A gestured joined a calling out of...

Damion!

That ought to bring him over. For what? Well he'd see that soon wouldnt he? Just like everyone else. A few hundred meters ahead was the forest, wreckage from Sun Vs. Rage. Max already watched that scene, he needed to know where the true evil sat....A large red eye on the ground marked that. It was large and surrounded by a ring. And it was toward that, that the shadow took his steps.

He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as something caught his eye.

There was a marker here. A ball of emotion left right here, for someone who expected someone who could see emotion would find it. A message, a breadcrumb perhaps. And it came from a source, that made the shadow grimace to recall. Was it anger or pain? Was he maybe sad she was involved? Or angry at the idea of seeing her.

Tellus...

He said, his voice cold and emotionless dropping no clues as to what lied within his heart. But the look and the tone faded as he lifted his hand. And then he stood, turning to face the crowd.

Over here!

He called out.

Everyone please stand around this mark, I'm afraid I can only do this once.  

[The Proclaimer]

Quinn looked up from his hand to Maximos. Looking around and taking in every aspect of the place he could, he proceeded over to where he was called to, pulling out the Jericho pistol as he did so- just so he wouldn't be surprised.

He stood near to Maximos, rubbing his bearded jaw with a yawn.  

[Pocket Gal]

Katie had already turned her attention to the approaching man. It didn't take her long to remember Damion. He was on of the first people she'd met at the stadium.

For now she was more interested in where Maximos stood. He was calling them over to something. She strolled over to him, intrigued at what she might possibly find. She wasn't sure what she had expected, but this definitely wasn't it.

Quinn was pulling out his gun. She did a quick glance out of the corner of her eyes.

He could only do this once? Why did this worry her?

"Maximos, I hope you know what you're doing."

She'd kick his a** if this thing transported her into oblivion or something of the like.  

[Eternal Dirge]

" Heya Rae! You do Cat's now too?" Damion said, his voice tinged with suprise as the streak of white materialized into a cat. So he was right, that was Maximos he had seen. He bent down to scoop Rae up in his arms, using all his care to be gentle with her. " Come on, Maxi's calling us." He said, trotting towards the group.

He didn't know everyone, but he recognized Katie from their fight from before and gave her a nod since his arms were full of Rae. His fingers moved in an almost tapping motion on the cat Rae's head, scratching gently instead of tapping. " S'goin on?" He had only caught the last little bit of what Maximos had said, something about only doing something once.

It was then that he noticed the big eye on the ground, standing to the outside of it for amoment as he stared mistrustfully." Whas'is?" Damion asked as he stepped over and into the eye drawing.  

[Maximos]

Maximos stood in the dead center of the circle, a hand out at either side. He would wait until everyone had gathered, as everyone save for perhaps Twitch who had come due to Lazenca, had come to see this.

This is where our foes stood. This mark is their doing.

Maximos addressed the group, and gestured to the symbol around him. It was simple deduction. Heavy magic was used here, and the entire area magically reeked of nothingness. For those with the senses to read such, splotches of the dark arcana still polluted the area.

This area smacks of the nothing.

The Shadow looked up from the ground with a bright smile across his features.

I do.

He said to Katie with a nod, while simultaneously showing that "nothing can go wrong" grin of his. He took a step forward, and then turned, beginning to pace a slow circle around the rune.

Time as you well know, is a fluid mechanism. It flows like a stream.

He made a wave motion with his hand.

Some have the power to halt it, few to reverse it, and fewer still to change it. And if...

A gentle glow ignited in his right eye. It looked as if someone had just struck up a torch and a quaff of white billowed from the socket. Maximos hand rose up, tapping his face just beneath the eye.

...you have the right eyes. You can look back on the stream, and see what came before.

There was a pause. A chance for questions perhaps? A moment to prepare himself?

I'm going to lay bare the events that transpired here. I'm going to give our enemies a face. As well as our allies. There will be no stopping this display, no replaying the image, or pausing it.

Obviously it meant they had to pay attention, close attention. He looked around the assembly as whole and let a long pause pass for everyone to digest what was said before his silence was broken.

Is everyone ready?  

[Eternal Dirge]

Damion gave an affirmatory nod, looking up as Maximos explained. He trusted his friends, even if he didn't trust the symbol at their feet. His mind briefly flashed back to Roh for amoment before he refocused on the process at hand. Some of Maximos's comments struck him as....odd though. Smacked of Nothing? what the hell did that mean?

In due time, probably.  

[Pocket Gal]

Katie nodded at Damion as he approached. It was all he was getting though. Her thoughts were simply focused on the task at hand. She wanted to know what Maximos was about to do.

She looked up to where Max's hand rose, watching him tap beneath his one eye. To her surprise it was just going to be a showing of events transpired. That was interesting for she knew that she couldn't do anything like that.

"I was born ready."

Har har.  

[Uberwulf X]

~Wondering.~

Lazenca, hands in pockets, went to the circle. He knew most of what happened, having been here personally.. but what about when he left? Might as well join and see what the dilly was, yo.

"Mhm," was his response to Maximos.  

[Maximos]

Maximos nodded slowly as his gaze shifting around the circle.

Then lets begin.

He took a deep breath filling his lungs, and then shut both eyes, and leaned his head back. One step at a time, just as he was taught. White seeped from his right eyelid like smoke through a door frame.

There was silence, an unnatural kind of pause before the storm. It seemed even the birds and forest animals stood at attention as most denizens of the natural did in the face of something wholly unnatural.

And then his eye opened. A bolt of white soared straight upwards a good ten feet into the air before cascading out and down in all directions covering a good twenty feet with the party as its center. It seemed like a fog of sorts, or a very thin veil, and thats precisely what it was. Those outside would see the veil not the image, but for those inside there an entirely different show on display.

Silhouettes slowly came into view, just fuzzy humanoid shapes without faces moving backwards very quickly. Maximos gritted his teeth. Soon the images took on more details, individuals were seen arriving at the scene and fighting against the dead shades that littered the floor only in reverse, as it was truly show their departures. Faces came, and a low rumbles and buzzes, the buds of voices.

People looked like ghosts with severely washed out hints of color to them. From inside the bubble one could see the world as it was, at the time being displayed even outside the bubble. That was to say that a distance away Sunstrike and Rage were fighting as the fires were put out, and the forest reset itself.

To Maximos' right was Victor. Close by was Teira, laying on the floor. An image of a cloaked woman brought a staff to her head, she stood up, the woman brought the staff back to herself.

Farther...

Maximos said through gnashed teeth, a line of black ran down from his eye. The image paused, blurred, and then burst into motion, people were little more than blurs of motion and gray zooming back and forth. There was a fight going on all around the group, but so fast it was nearly impossible to follow.

Then without warning it stopped.

A dark haired, and tanned skinned man stood alone in an empty forest and waited.

Here...

Maximos said. He'd found the time marker. His eye closed for a moment, his right hand moving up to wipe away the black tear from his face. The image hovered in mid air. The shadow leaned forward, hands on his knees and held up his left, with his index finger up, the universal symbol for "One second please."  

[Eternal Dirge]

To someone so used to more primitive technologies and magics, this was something new and alittle frightening. Thus it was with Damion anyways, spinning in place like a wind up key, eyes wide and mouth open. Who were these people? What had happened to the color? Could the heroes save the...wait, wrong cartoon. When everything stopped, that made things better, and Damion could focus on this odd man that they had stopped at.

" Rae, who's that?"