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!

This thread occurs concurrently with the thread "KAKUHM"
KAKUHM has ended.

Join This Quest

If you would like to participate in this quest, post with your character in this thread. Completing this quest will require some teamwork, so don't be afraid to roleplay it out! Feel free to request a GM when you feel you may be ready to proceed.

Participants:
Fortune, Morigarra, Othello, Gabriel, Ringo, Howl

The walls of Orion had never quite evoked any curiosity from the duiker. Yet, on her return trip to the bones of her home, she couldn't quite ignore the massive swarm of dark creatures. An infestation had almost suddenly begun to run rampant. The sparsile vault was rife with the beasts. Beyond the gathering was a festering wound in the cavern's side, crackling purple energy glowing sharp against the blue. While it unsettled her that something had been lurking just within the rock face for who knows how long, it incited her childhood enthusiasm for exploration.

So, with quite a bit more bravado than expected, she made to tread lightly about the gathering of batcats—darting between the ruined buildings and using darkness to her advantage. She could only hope to succeed in avoiding alert ears.

Having been led back home during quite the event, all Morigarra could think of was dad. He wanted to be back there! Fighting or not, he couldn't bare the thought of Carni being there without him.

Alas, the boy was set to follow Fortune. He did not linger long within Canis (seeing as the adults were elsewhere at the time). Before anyone could protest, the leggy bird was chasing after Fortune - all the way to Orion. He saw the way she snuck about and, thinking it was a fun little game, did his best to imitate.

Othello was starting to grow fond of Orion more than Monoceros. Monoceros had too many memories that he didn't like thinking about anymore, however none of those memories coincided with Orion. In fact, he hardly had any memories about Orion. Besides remembering the beautiful stars above, he barely remembers anything besides the room itself and meeting a few others there. Besides that, nothing else had really happened there... besides falling off a cliff to his doom and mutating, but of course he doesn't remember that.

He noticed two others gathering around something on the other side of the room where energy seemed to be coming from, but as he had just jauntily entered the cave just moments ago, he was otherwise unaware of the events that happened causing such energy. Othello cautiously strolled over, noticing the glow of energy coming from the wall where the two had gathered. Looking around, he noticed things flying, threatening, but Othello paid them no mind now, as they seemed to be staying away... for now.

Gabriel, having retreated back towards the shadows, peered out towards the strange phenomenon that had appeared right before its eyes. Those crimson eyes narrowed slowly as it peered, knowing that it had to study this, to find out more. Strange figures- replicas of the creature it had moments ago been trying to subdue- now slunk through the streets, but Gabriel had already hidden itself safely away from them. Gabriel had never seen anything like this before- it seemed to defy all the science that it had begin to sort into rules, but then, magic was notoriously unreliable.

Like a shadow, Gabriel slid out of the small alleyway and kept to the dark, claws scraping quietly in its eagerness. It barely glanced the way of the other Gembounds- even the one it'd been helping to fight Batcat. As of right now, this seemed more impoertant. And, well - if the other Gembounds had no idea it was there, that was most definitely for the best.

So, it kept its head down, and slunk, peering at the strange anomaly from behind every small enough obstacle it could find, and gradually pressing closer.

Not too far from the fighting wolf and batcat, not too far from the hole in the wall or the gembound gathering to check it out, a crystal shell was trembling.

Inside, a newcomer to the caves stirred, woken by the insanity outside its glass shell. It didn't take long for jaunty legs to push free, however, and soon the newly born pup spilled almost silently onto the floor of Orion, its crystal shell splintered and broken in its wake.

The pup opened pale eyes for the first time and unlike so many before him, he was given no chances to become accustomed to his new world.

Something was burning him. Not bad, but it hurt and he scrambled away from whatever it was; spotting the others moving towards a hole in the wall nearby the pup's instincts had its scrambling moving to follow them.

Alas, newly born pups did not sneak. In fact, with pain still scalding his pelt, short stumpy legs not moving fast enough to catch up... The pup squealed sharply, yelping for help, because this new life was confusing and why did the air hurt!? The pup had no idea how close it'd been to the energy leak upon hatching out.

Just a hair too close, perhaps. The pup continued its noisy protests, still hobbling to try and catch up to the nearest gembound. What an unlucky break for these explorers.

The lapidary was back in ride or die fashion—he was going to get to that mysterious hole in the wall and steal whatever was in it or die a horrible death by the batcat swarm raging about the area. With a soft pant-hoot upon arriving into Orion, Howl easily pocketed some shards of labradorite and clear quartz before continuing to his intended target. What a klepto.

Pink diamond jingling reassuringly against his left ear, the thief clambered atop a cluster of ruined buildings, keeping up high to avoid bumping into any of the angry creatures. He paid no mind to the veritable menagerie of gembound gathering to investigate his prize. They wouldn't make it. He'd make sure of it. But first, he had to get there first. So, he made an attempt. And failed. He happened to step just too hard on the edge of a wall and down he fell. Howl flopped onto the ground in a shower of dust and cobblestone.

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 small canid was drawing fairly close to the crack when it felt the ground shudder beneath its paws and was very nearly thrown off balance for a moment. They leaped back, its lungs almost fit to burst and ears flattening in response to the sudden the sudden mounting of pressure in the room. The small dog felt intrigue, but also a slight sense of relief as the clones fled the room in their drones. Where they went to, however, was anyone's guess; Gabriel put that thought aside and planned to find out later, after it'd completed its task and figured out the source of the strange energy.

It wouldn't need to wait long, as the quake caused the wall to crumble; but the sight beyond answered few questions and created many, many more. But, by the energy sparking, Gabriel guessed that it wouldn't have to wait too long to answer those, either; but if it did, it would wait. It was learning more now, seeing otherworldly anomalies that it could never have dreamt of, and what it really wanted to know was; why? settling down just outside of the crumbled building, behind a large portion of wall, Gabriel watched and waited with blood-red eyes agleam.

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!"