ORIGIN

Secret Unlocked!
After Xireidi throws Batcat Jr. into a wall of Orion's ruins and causes a small piece of the wall to break, a strange energy can be seen glowing within—it even harms Batcat Jr. pretty badly, taking it out of the fight! What is this strange energy, and dare you get close enough to peek inside?

Your characters may come and investigate this strange energy, but if they get too close, it will harm them! Can they figure out a way to peek inside?

Also, the area is swarming with angry Batcat clones, but they will not approach the hole in the wall. If you can successfully sneak to the hole in the wall, you're safe! If not, you might encounter some of them!! Either way, be careful!

The surrounding group of Batcat clones were a mixed bunch: some were restless and uneasy, keeping a watch on the energy and pacing about; others were content with just keeping to the rooftops or ceilings and watching from there, occasionally doing flyovers of the area for quick inspection. Some Gembounds had been successful in sneaking by the group.

A few of the clones had been wrestling near a crystal chrysalis that seemed ready to hatch, but when it did, they missed it, too absorbed in their own fight that grew a little personal. It was a noisy thing, and they were quick to notice, honing in on its location and scrabbling after it in slinky motions with their wings pulled loosely into their sides. The shrieked after the pup, coming to a short stop and tumbling over themselves when it entered the vicinity of the energy.

Soft jingling caught the attention of a lone clone and it quietly tried to follow the sound, but a crashing startled it and the clone hissed its fear. A few other clones immediately came toward the sound, but could only smell the dust that had been kicked up into the air. Cautious of what could have caused the disturbance, especially with the energy having them all on edge, they waited until they could sense more information.


Suddenly, there was a shudder and a quake from somewhere else in Orion. The quadrant abruptly fills with a strange light, and the pressure in the air is unbearable - but then it subsides with a gust. The energy within the wall is seemingly sucked out with the gust as the light leaves Orion, and the quake causes the wall to crumble even more.

The commotion scares the colony of Batcat clones up into the vents, their chattering and shrill cries echoing down into Orion until they could no longer be heard. The opening in the wall is larger now: inside are three large chrysalises orbiting each other in a giant space, some of the strange energy still crackling between them, but no longer as a dangerous cloud. The chrysalis stones seem to be black star sapphire, blue-white moonstone, and red sunstone.

Bird-like figures can be seen within them, the glowing from inside intense; however long these beings have been asleep for is unknown, but the light that just pulsed through Orion seems to have stirred them from their long slumber. The energy sparking between their chrysalises starts to grow erratic.

The energy that sparked between the chrysalises suddenly zapped against the walls, the ground, and anything nearby; as if triggered by some unknown event, the stones rattled with their stretching inhabitants, who pressed against their confines until finally, they were free! The room filled with what appeared to be stars—could they be real stars?—and a scrambling of squawking and commotion as the three figures shuffled out of their imprisonment, regained their composure, and took quick glances at each other.

Their crane-like bodies seemed to be made of nothing, but everything. Shifting like dense but light matter, the form of their figures swirled with galaxy-like clouds and star-like glowing spots moved with the current of their translucent bodies, the exact shape of themselves not quite tangible, the stars reaching beyond what would appear to be the limit of their bodies. One had golden eyes, and a golden-ray stone drifting in the center of its body; the second had light-blue eyes and a blue-white stone drifting in the center of its body; and the third had red eyes, and a deep red stone drifting in the center of its body. Each of their stones could barely be seen through the space-like nature of their bodies, from any angle—

Suddenly, the red-eyed bird thrust its head upward in challenge, screeching toward its brother, "Alnilam! What say you, then?"

The golden-eyed bird dismissed the question, shrugging its beak sideways. "A foolish reason, Alnitak. Surely you were not serious?"

The blue-eyed bird was the only one to notice their surroundings, taking its time to peek at the Gembounds beyond the hole in the wall. While its brothers bickered, it recalled their home had been buried under a rockfall without warning while they were in the middle of an argument, and they had all three been forced back into their chrysalises. Its attention turned back to its brothers, but just as it was going to ask them of the incident, Alnitak had taken to the air in an attempt to attack Alnilam, who hunkered down to defend against the spitfire.

Mintaka threw back his wings and screeched at them, "Something has happened, brothers!"