Apocalypse RP #3: The Vanishing

[Philote]

"We could always take the long way around this" Nix suggests. "Perhaps grab a car and work our way to another town that is far away from all this nonsense."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

As you wait, the sky slowly becomes lighter. Though the morning sun isn't peeking above the trees quite yet its light is already streaming through the forest and taking away the need for flashlights. Normally this sort of dawn would be greeted by the cries of frogs and birds, but just as usual the air around you is empty and silent. Which is the reason you hear the door open so clearly.

"I told you I wasn't imagining things last night." comes the voice of a young man, practically giddy with vindication. "Do you see any buildings? The smiling face on Jack's Japery? What about the big dumb hamburger? Nothing, nada, gone with the wind!"

"It's impossible." comes a shaky, older mans voice.

"Ain't nothing impossible anymore. Impossible shouldn't even be a word, we should take it out of the dictionary and put it down like Old Yeller." The young man replies.

"Hush up, Sebastian." commands a older woman. "And stay here."

You hear the clicking of a cane on pavement coming closer to the edge.

[Philote]

"Hide, I'll stall them" Nix quickly says, trying to keep his voice low as he rushes for the wall.

Nix climbs up, using his power to speed up the process. "Um, hello?" He says, waving a phased hand up in the air before cautiously peaking his head over the side to take a peak. "Mind if I come up and we get to know each other?"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Seeing them, it's easy to tell which voice belonged to who. The timid voice of the older man fit him to a tee, even though he was the tallest among them. Sporting a balding head and a prominent gut, his pale face, glasses, and choice of clothing (a button up shirt, khakis, and a sweater vest even in this sort of summer weather) bring to mind the indoorsy type. He visibly flinches and takes a step back when Nix's head pops up.

The boy, who could only be Sebastion, was in many ways the older mans polar opposite. This only became more apparent when you saw them side by side as they were now. Not a day over 14 if you had to guess, shorts and a t-shirt showing off a well earned tan, with a full head of brown hair that stopped just above his shoulders. His shirt said "Marley Bluefins"in big blue letters surrounding a cartoon fish dunking a basketball. The second he see's you he starts talking again. "No way in hell, you can't come up. How d'we know you ain't a highlander or something? Move o-"

"Sebastian, didn't I tell you to hush up?" Says the last person, and Sebastian instantly closes his mouth. The woman is close to you, and she is old. While the man might be in his late 40's, and Sebastian was a teenager, this woman couldn't be a day younger than 65, maybe 70 judging by the wrinkles of her weatherbeaten face. She's wearing a sundress that used to be white, but has yellowed with age and gives off the smell of old cigarettes. Her hair is a tight grey bun on her head, and she rests on a metal hospital cane. As she looks you over she gives of the vibe of a severe schoolteacher searching for imperfections, with the implication that she would use that cane as soon as she found one. "You can come on up if you answer this question. Did you do all this," she says, running her cane over the edge of the drop off, "with some sort of ability?"

[Philote]

Nix finishes climbing his way up, but keeps near the edge. "No, no. You're actually the ones popping into my home town. Are you sure one of you didn't accidentally bring this place with you?"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Sebastian and the man look at one another, and the old woman raises an eyebrow. "Son," she starts delicately "where exactly do you think you are?"

[Philote]

"You're about three hours from the coast by my estimation. I've lived here my whole life and I know that a water park wasn't within walking distance of my house. Whatever happened, must have happened on your end to send you guys here."

(Vault, I don't think you ever mentioned this town's name)

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"What are you, stupid? We didn't move." Sebastian says.

"Abigale." says the older man, shakily. He points away, down the side of the edge. The old woman looks, and breathes in sharply.

From up here it's far more obvious that something is wrong. This place isn't alone, there appears to be a whole city out there slammed up unnaturally against the forest you came from. A road goes nowhere. Off in the distance you can see a tall building cleanly cut in half at the divide.

It's as though someone had cut the middle out of a cake, and slid what remained together.

(You're right. Go ahead and name it.)

[Philote]

"Yeah, you're in Colchester now" Nix says, doing his best to explain as he takes in the sight.

"It probably was one of you. Wanting to get out of Marley and accidentally moving this whole mess here. Unless you all have powers unrelated to this, because I haven't heard of anyone having two powers yet. Even having one power seems pretty rare."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Oh to hell with this!" Sebastian says, walking toward the open road. "I'm going to the beach."

"Sebastian!" The old woman says severely, but the boy justs waves her off.

"It's the easiest way to settle this. If the ocean is still there, he's full of it." He says, turning back around to stare at Nix. "How about it, Highlander? You wanna keep screwing with us, or should I go check?"

[Philote]

Nix shrugs and lets the boy walk off.

To the elderly lady. "So, how many of you got caught up in this transportation that happened? Nobody got left behind right?"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Just the three of us, yes." says the old woman, shaking her head as Sebastian disappears down the road. "My name is Abigail, that man hiding behind me is Conner."

"Pleasure." the man says, from a good distance behind Abigale.

"And I believe you've heard the name of my idiot grandson." She finishes. "Sorry if he seems hostile, but we haven't had the best luck with strangers. Especially ones that travel alone."

[Philote]

"I know exactly what you mean. My definition of strangers has completely changed over the last couple days. Just yesterday I met a man who could absorb knives into and out of his body."

"You'll understand then if I ask what powers you have. Just a safety precaution." Nix waves his hands together and causes them to phase past each other. "See, I can do this. No worries about telling me if you can do something."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

She considers this, then nods. "I suppose." Sh says, holding out her right arm. There's a sound like rustling as the old leathery skin starts to become colorful, turning red, or blue, or black all over. In another moment you see beady little eyes dotting the arm, watching you. Then it explodes with with the sounds of wings as birds of every type emerge from her arm. Seagulls, colorful exotic cocktails, small black magpies take off, circling in the air around her before landing on her arm in a row. She moves her arm across her chest, and smiles at Nix with yellowed teeth.

"That's my power: I'm queen of the birds." She says as, for the first time since you came out of hiding, you hear the song of birds. "Conner back there can do the same thing with clouds."

[Philote]

"Hiding them?" Nix asks. "I thought I was being pretty open with my power, showing you first and all."

Nix thinks for a moment and doesn't find any specific reason to distrust these people yet. "Oh and did you mention something about traveling alone a moment ago? I was still distracted by all these new sights I was taking in. I actually have some friends that I was traveling with. I'm not sure where they went but you might meet them in a moment. We don't mean any harm, we're about as confused as you all are."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

She waves her arm and the birds take flight all around them, scattering back over the building and into the trees. In particular you see a little yellow canary streak off in the direction Sebastian went.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"Nix...is ...is it safe?" comes Ben's nervous whisper over the edge of the wall.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

A bluetit lands above Ben on the edge and gives a happy little chirp before hopping over to the edge and looking down. Abigail grins again. "Just the three of you, hmm?" she says. "Yes, come on up son."

[Philote]

"Can you take us inside? We haven't had a place to rest in some time."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"I suppose." she says.

"Abigail wait." Connor says, showing backbone for the first time since he showed up. "We don't know these people. W-w-what if they've already got friends after Sebastian?"

"Conner, you can't go around distrusting everyone. It leads to not caring. And people you don't care about vanish." She says, turning and waving at you to follow her. "Open the thunder wall." she orders Conner, and the man, with one last worried look at your party, moves up ahead of her to the door.

What looks like a wall of angry grey cotton stands in his way after he pulls open the door, and as you get closer you can feel your hair start to stand on end from static electricity. He reaches toward the mass, touching it with his hand, and it parts just wide enough to show a small corridor beyond, leading to another glass door. He steps to the side as the old woman makes her way in.

"Don't touch this." She says, gesturing to the grey cloud hanging around the edges of the door.