Sullivan Van Daal
Gilgamesh Descendant
Tunnel System
The group had headed into the tunnels faster than Sullivan had expected. He didn't follow them, because he couldn't be bothered to. If there was anything of enough importance in there, he would find out about it pretty soon anyways. It wasn't like the others to keep too quiet. They could rush ahead if they wanted - he would follow behind, at his own pace.
The tunnel grew steadily larger as he made his way slowly underground, following the faint sounds of footsteps echoing from the darkness a while in front of him. It seemed to lead pretty far under the church, definitely way further than a sinkhole should. The tunnel was definitely not natural - there was no dirt, only cold, hard stone. Sullivan had given the walls a few taps, and they seemed to be solid, hard as concrete and a sickly green. It was all very strange.
Sullivan himself seemed to be radiating a faint, colourless light, as if the world knew that he wanted to see, and therefore illuminated it for him. Up till now, this faint glow was enough for him to press, in his own, slow pace, forward without the use of a flashlight. He moved very slowly, like an old man in an art gallery, taking in every detail of the tunnel and committing it to memory. A bat flew past him, and he noted that it was flying with a sense of purpose not usually found in bats. He had committed the powers that the other members of this little club had demonstrated thus far to memory, and knew that the one who could turn into a bat was Ana, their resident 'little girl', not that she was that little - he had been involved in some pretty sketchy things when
he was her age.
He turned around when he heard voices, and, curious, hastened to make his way back to the entrance. Ana could find her way by herself, so that wasn't a problem. She had no doubt recognised him on her way in, and since she hadn't said anything, he could assume that there wasn't anything urgent. This was much more interesting. A blonde girl, wearing blue clothes and a white trenchcoat, had just jumped from the top of the sinkhole, and landed on her feet within the drop. That spoke volumes about how dangerous she was - no normal person could possibly do that so casually. Even Sullivan himself had considered jumping down to be an unnecessary risk. She wore a mask that covered her mouth, and a brown necklace, which was hard to make out amidst her more flashy clothes. She seemed young - definitely younger than himself, although that counted for little.
"Hansel, I think your other club members went down the tunnels." the girl said, staring directly at where Sullivan was standing in the darkness. Intrigued, he gave her a little wave, but received no response. The fact that Hansel - the leader of their little club - was supposed to be in New York, but instead was right here, did not seem to surprise him.
"Caliburn, can you track them?" Hansel's voice travelled down from the top of the sinkhole, where she was probably standing. So the girl's name was Caliburn - the name of the sword that had chosen King Arthur as the ruler. At least, that's what he remembered. Arthurian legend hadn't really interested him that much, so his understanding of it was rather rudimentary. Well, that was certainly quite interesting.
"No. The ground turns hard in the tunnels." Caliburn replied. She did not take her eyes off Sullivan, who had remained in his position, hands in his pockets, watching everything with an amused glint in his eyes. He watched as Hansel scrambled down the ladder that had appeared there in his brief absence, and concluded that they must have come out of some side-tunnel he had passed whilst making his way into the underground complex.
"All right, I'll make something to track them." she said, and knelt down, writing something on the ground. Sullivan couldn't see what it was she wrote, but it was probably a spell, or a rune, or an alchemy circle, or something like that. When she finished, she yelled "Summon!", and a bloodhound appeared by her side, blinking into existence out of nowhere. Sullivan raised his eyebrows and gave a small smirk of amusement - this was turning out to be quite interesting. If she could summon bloodhounds, then she's got to have some sort of knowledge of magic. It might just be her special power (while she was away on the night of the 'awakening', it made sense that she would have gotten powers too), but the writing/drawing of something would imply that she was somehow using spells.
The bloodhound ran into the tunnels, and Sullivan stepped to the side in order to let it past. Hansel and Caliburn (who was now holding a glowing sword - maybe Caliburn itself, or perhaps a replica), ran past him. Hansel said something about NARF getting its hands (whatever NARF was) on 'them', which he assumed referred to their club members.
Sullivan, after a quick debate with himself, rushed after the two girls and the blood hound. If his sheep were in danger, no matter the source, it was a shepherd's duty to go and protect them. Besides, he was curious.
Kaede 'Maple' Shonozaki
Nekomata Descendant
Elish Manor
Well, this was certainly awkward. She had headed down to the basement and found... what was basically a gigantic underground complex, with everything you could possibly need. It had lit up the instant she stepped inside - pretty cool. It was like she had descended into a cave of sorts, and the manor she was in previously was simply built on top of it. Which, for all she knew, might be true. A bookshelf-lined moss path in the midst of what was essentially a labyrinth had brought her into a small room, containing only a small table, covered with pieces of paper seemingly torn out of books - Notes about each and every single member of the Super-Myth club, herself and Lanaya included. Some were circled. It was as if he was on to something, and pursuing a line of research that would lead him to some goal.
Except it wasn't. A final, most recent note was written in a flowing cursive, a handwriting she recognised from earlier as being one of the maid's. She couldn't remember who it was, but that was hardly relevant. It read: "Registered emotions: Happiness, Sadness, Guilt, Love. Master is continuing to learn. Master has shown incredible self-sacrifice. Will record more observations." That gave her more questions than it answered.
But one thing was clear to her - Lanaya was abnormal. A mystery, one that she had no business trying to unravel.
-~-~-
Lanaya appeared behind her a few moments after she had skimmed through the notes that were the most readily apparent. He was dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt, black pants, and a similarly black vest. He was smiling, although Kaede could tell it wasn't a smile of happiness, but one of something else. Perhaps even a strange sort of sadness. Who knows?
"Time's short. We should go soon. There's something different in the direction of the... That place where Anima wanted to go to. I feel something, and it's best if we head there soon. We have some time to talk, if you want, before we leave." Lanaya walked past her and sat down on the lone chair in front of the table where all the notes were, and began to take them and put them, one by one, into the bag he had brought with him. It was then that Kaede realised that he had probably meant for her to read all of this. She didn't bother to try and figure out why - Lanaya was so different from the shallow, boring humans she had become used to dealing with that there was no point. She would get nowhere. "These are about all of us. Fate works so strangely, but I can never once figure it out. I'm sure there are a lot of questions you want to ask. Tell me."
There was something strange in his eyes, something Kaede was not familiar with but recognised, from all those TV shows and movies she had studied in her efforts to forge her 'new' personality. She did not like what she saw, and felt her muscles tense unpleasantly. Already, he had shown her treatment that she could assume was 'special'. It was clear that he rarely had guests, and he had described her in his 'notes' as being the easiest to interact with. It looked like he thought of himself as somehow inhuman, just like she did. It was the perfect setup for something she would rather not be part of. Those kind of relationships were pointless and forged on superficial and fragile foundations, waiting to be broken apart by society. She had no need for those kinds of delusions. At least, that was what she told herself.
"Well, Lana-nya, you've certainly done a lot of research." She said, managing to sound perfectly at ease and even jovial despite her discomfort. It was a skill she had perfected over time, a skill that was essential to success in this appearance-obsessed society that she had made herself part of. Sometimes, she wondered whether it was worth all this trouble just to have superficial 'friends', and her existence would begin to seem unbearably fabricated and insincere. After all, in the end, it was just an elaborate farce. "My father would be very interested - he's quite a myth-enthusiast, and he knows his stuff. He's a kind man, so he might be able to lend a hand with all of this. What say I introduce you to him later?"
Dammit, didn't she want to stay a good distance away from this guy? What was she doing, inviting him over to meet her father?
"Anyways, we should get going. If there's something strange where the others have gone, we ought to join them, no?"
