And so with the consensus it would be best to save the person in question, a fair number of you agreed to meet up again tomorrow in order to retrieve them from the underground from where the wisp supposedly hailed. You all agreed on the time to be about six o clock tomorrow at the city’s central terminal, a little before the time stops usually occurred. As the train continued to make it’s loop it stopped at each of it’s stops as per usual, the frozen passengers unharmed by the violence it had suffered. It wasn’t until the train had returned back to the point where time had frozen initially that they, and the rest of the city, came back to life once more. Nightfall finally came, and the city returned to it’s last hustle and bustle before some of its residents started to sleep. Others, worked into late hours, unaware of the events that had transpired. As the next day approached, you all met up at the terminal and once again stepped on to the town loop together. Sure enough, the moment each member of the team had entered the vessel time seemed to halt and, so did all of the other passengers inside. The wisp flitted to the front of the train, repeating its actions from the day before. Sitting at the control panel he closed his eyes in concentration, focusing hard until the panel started to glow a bright blue. The vessel began to move forward, slow at first before achieving its regular bullet speed. But as it plunged into the underground railway it began to rock slightly as if it had been slid off of it’s tracks and lodged into water. [hr] [center][img]http://puu.sh/ornzC/ce5b9b69a1.png[/img] [u]The River Styx[/u][/center] When it left the tunnel, it no longer surfaced into the lazy sunset of the city, but bottomed out into a rather dark, wide enclosure. Rows of dagger like stalactites hung from the ceiling like giant candelabra, their image reflected in the great pool below. It was if the vessel was sailing over a great pointed castle that rippled underneath them. The halls of the kingdom were narrow and jagged with barely enough room to slip past without scraping the hull of the tunnel. The passengers continued to sleep, their lives still in stasis as they were taken through the halls of this dark realm. [color=Deepskyblue]“I… I think they went this way,”[/color] the wisp said, taking the left path as they came to a fork in the river. The front of the vessel tipped forward and slowly but surely dipped down into the dark waters, fully submerging into inky black nothingness. With only the glow from the little blue dot and console, they continued on like this for quite some time. Despite the train not being made for any sort of water travel it remained strong, taking in no water during it’s maiden voyage into the deep. [hr] [center] [img]http://puu.sh/ornCS/47b27870a2.jpg[/img] [u]The Gates of Horn and Ivory[/u][/center] Eventually the makeshift ship resurfaced into a large, domelike cave enshrouded in a dreamlike blue light that emanated from an opening at the top of it’s farthest wall. Harsh shadows poured over rocks protruding from black waters as thin, tendril like vines reached to coat their surfaces. Thicker vines lined the walls until almost no surface was left untouched by wooden coils. Some sprouted from the middle of the lake to form a great bridge made of bark and vine, as if a tree had grown from the water especially for their purposes. The bridge reached to meet the bottom of a long path that snaked upwards to reach the source of the light. At the foot of the trail, a set of gates made of ram’s horn stood high, held open by thick, limb sized roots. Its lock sat discarded nearby, broken into two pieces. Meanwhile, a series of statues guarded the gates, each with it’s back turned to the other ones. The first stood to the front, facing towards the lake. It was a humanoid figure of a man with robotic joints that wore a large harp like instrument on its back, strings very much real and made of silver. The statue’s eyes were closed serenely, as if it were locked in a deep slumber. To its side, facing away towards a wall was a similar looking statue but where its thighs began roots made of stone began to grow, adhering it to the floor below. In it’s hands it held an orb of made of waves and in the other, one of earth. The third and final statue stood to greet visitors at the gate. Unlike it’s closest brother, its stone eyes were wide open and filled with insatiable rage. His gloved hands were clenched at his sides, dripping with a red water that was too thin to be blood. [color=DarkGray]“… I brought some things for everyone- just in case,”[/color] the white haired male said, inspecting the dripping coming from the statues palm warily before setting the cello case he had been carrying with him onto the floor. Propping it open with shaky hands revealed he had been carrying a myriad of different types of weapons that had been strapped to the inside. He took two large butcher knives and left the rest of the assortment to the others, waiting before scaling the height of the stairs. The brightness of the opening was blinding, so much so that it was hard for him, or anyone else to see through until emerging onto the other side. [hr] [center] [img]http://puu.sh/ornVE/17dd70e869.jpg[/img] [u]The Tree of False Dreams[/u][/center] An ancient tree towered in the middle of a vast field of golden grass, reaching up to meet what looked like to be an endless white sky. Leafless branches stretched out into the void to create an almost canopy-like covering. Its roots extended across three distinct pathways leading in separate directions. To each of the trees sides were pathways marked with the red water that had been dripping from the statues fingers moments before. Tiny red seeds scattered each pathway, leading to smaller, more bent and broken looking trees. Their bodies twisted unrealistically, as if they had been formed of three separate entities. Knotholes in the tree bodies looked like mouths in mid scream, the faint outlines of heads in the bark barely noticeable from far away. The third path however, remained clear of markings or seeds. It wound over to the top of a hill where a building that looked distinctly like a large hospital stood against the backdrop of the sky. Vines had begun to grow from the building, spilling out of its windows and into the field below. A quick scan revealed that the inhabitant that they were searching for was inside the building, still breathing. Still alive. But they were being attacked by monsters as they spoke. Making a mad dash down the trail, they managed to smash open the glass doors to the building. Once inside, they began to hear a voice speak overhead, the sounds of a struggle and finally a [i]scream[/i]. [hr][hr]