[center][abbr=Ace Cadet][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/190924/544c85ab5c75bc61a4bb5ce40dc0caa6.png[/img][/abbr]
[color=salmon][sub][i]Friday Morning[/i][/sub]
Word Count: 1596 (+3 exp)
[u]Level[/u]: [b]9[/b] - [u]Total EXP[/u]: 506/90
[b]Location:[/b] College of Winterhold?, The Frozen Highlands[/color][/center]
When Ace woke up, it was a slow process. His consciousness returned, and he heard and smelt burning logs in a fireplace nearby. He blinked his eyes open, finding that he was lying on his side on hard ground. He didn't get that prickling sensation of anyone else being in the room with him, but he did feel something. Intangible, uncomfortable. It was all around him, and even on him - he might be imagining it, but the residual magic of that teleportation spell seemed to cling to his clothes and skin. Goosebumps formed and the hunter sat up quickly, pressing a hand to his mouth to stop a few dry heaves. 

So the Seekers on the White Team had just been separated from each other and randomly teleported to different places? Or something? This was the worst. It more than giggisux. How were they supposed to get into contact with each other, let alone meet up again? Were they even still in the general area?

Ace closed his eyes again and took a few long, deep breaths through his nose. Finally he removed his hand and started assessing himself. It didn't look or feel like his body had changed, thank the heavens and everything else. His gear was also all accounted for and unaltered. His bee- right, that Bnahabra-looking tag along, that had managed to stick with him somehow. Probably because it had been literally sticking to his coat, the little hooks on its neopteran legs allowing a good grip. It did look pretty dizzy though.

[color=salmon]"Told you,"[/color] he murmured to it with a hint of a humor, petting its soft furry mane. 

Alright, he had to find out where he was and then find everyone else. A cursory look told him this was a bunk room, maybe part of a larger dorm. Ace rubbed his forehead and willed the worst of his discomfort away, but before he stood up motion in the corner of his vision caught his attention. He turned to the nearest bed, or more accurately the space under it. 

They looked like little people, dressed in tunics and pointed caps. They shuffled together at the far end under the bed, though when Ace's eyes found them all four turned to look his way. [url=https://i.imgur.com/uoDat1B.png]They[/url] sported wide grins on angry red faces, which did not look friendly in the slightest. Armed with little [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/e2719c51204b.png]pickaxes[/url], the gnomes toddled toward Ace with surprising speed and didn't hesitate to take swings at him. 

[color=salmon]"What the-!"[/color] The Cadet scrambled back, kicking a few away as he got to his feet. He was more taken by surprise than in real danger, as though their tiny weapons were painful as they hacked at his legs they weren't making any deep wounds. It would be death by a thousand cuts only if he let them do it. 

A flash of Yato shattered three of the gnomes one by one, a single slash all it took to destroy the things. The humbee recovering and dive bombing with a ram of armored head took care of the fourth. They had basically exploded into pieces, leaving no ashes or even spirits behind.

[color=salmon]"Guess we weren't gnome alone after all,"[/color] Ace said, though the humbee did not appear to understand wordplay. The hunter figured that the area might be dangerous, but he hadn't expected the ambush in this room, however ineffectual it had been. He swept the underneaths of the other three beds to make sure there weren't any other nasty surprises waiting, but he only found some pieces of scrap metal and springs (which he took) and a few dirty magazines (which he quickly shoved back under with a flushed face when he realized what he was looking at).

Well now that he was already looking around, he figured he had better investigate the room as a whole in case he could find anything useful. The nightstands beside each bed were the next logical place to look, so he opened the draws unceremoniously. Normally he might have felt bad about raiding what must have been people's personal belongings, but that had all flown out the window after being forcibly teleported and then attacked by violent little people. He found a bag of some big biscuits shaped like bones in one, along with the shed fur of some animal on the mattress next to it. Forgetting that they'd sent the machine that made impossible creatures back to the Avenger, he took some tufts of the hair as a bio-sample. Plus the biscuits of course. The next drawer had some sort of sleeping mask, emphasis on mask as it featured some air purifying device affixed to it that would cover the wearer's nose. Next was empty pill bottles and scattered [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/be2ef8f0cd9b.png]pills[/url]. Reading the labels on the bottles told Ace nothing, as he was unfamiliar with the names and ingredients listed. 

One never knew what might come in handy though, so he scooped the pills into one of the bottles and pocketed it along with the mask. Maybe Sandalphon could scan them and determine what they were for. Maybe they could even help with the symptoms of her disease. 

Ace acknowledged that that was wishful thinking and moved to the last nightstand, from which a [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/5abf839131fa.png]frog toy[/url] hopped out of the open drawer and bounced around the ground. Since making those toys in Christmas Village, the hunter had a deeper appreciation for the work that went into them, especially ones with simple movement like this. It was pretty cute too. The humbee had flitted down to follow the toy curiously until it eventually wound down and came to a stop. 

[color=salmon]"Bring that here,"[/color] Ace told the humbee as he opened his bag once more. He went to go fetch it himself but was pleasantly surprised when the bug actually listened to him and grasped the toy in its legs before it flew over to him with it. It dropped the toy into the bag, pleased with itself. Ace gave it a smile, coupled with a playfully suspicious look. [color=salmon]"Oh so you understood that but not the joke?"[/color]

It titled its head innocently. The thing was nice and all, and it probably really was stuck with the Seekers now, but the hunter didn't want it getting into trouble let alone danger. It might be able to handle itself given it had attacked one of the gnomes of its own accord, but for now... Ace withdrew the one pal sphere he had on him, the one he'd practiced making from scratch before, and tossed it at the humbee. Maybe it was the wrong capture device for this particular kind of creature as when it was sucked inside there was some sort of visual distortion that didn't look like how capturing the reindrix had, but after a few airborne shakes it seemed to have worked regardless. He took the blue crystal sphere and affixed it to his belt where it would be easy to reach quickly.

Having walked around the room already, Ace had seen a single set of doors that was his way out. He waited to open them, because besides the fire crackling away in the center of the room, he also heard some sort of movement above. Looking up was only stone ceiling though, and he found it weird that he would be able to hear anything through a thick layer of stone like that. That must mean there was something else in the room still.

Given the ceiling was clear, Ace stepped onto the poster bed frames to get a look at the space above them. So far nothing, nothing, and a light weight disc that wasn't quite flat (whatever it was, he was taking it). Over the last one he checked, he spotted a dark shape that he initially thought was another toy of some sort. When he reached out to take it and was met with the feel of cold metal and rough twine he furrowed his brow and hopped down to hold it next to the fire light.

This couldn't be a toy, despite being a doll of some sort. It looked like a wooden carving of a human, tied up and impaled with old nails. To Ace it gave off a sense of foreboding, especially when he turned it over in his hand and saw that a photo of a girl was nailed onto the doll's [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/8fe9f63834da.png]face[/url].

He shouldn't take it. He didn't even want to be touching it. But in a situation like this, how could he leave it? What if it was something meant to hurt whoever this girl was? What if it was connected to something else? He couldn't even destroy it without knowing what that would do. 

The hunter must have stood there squirming and fretting for longer than he'd thought, because his mounting anxiety over the object was only broken when he heard something beyond the door in the room. His head snapped in that direction, and with doll still in hand he ran over to press his ear to the door. He definitely heard [i]something[/i], but it was impossible to tell who or what it was. 

Obviously the only thing to do now was open it.

With little hesitation Ace took one of the door handles and opened it wide in one push. Immediately the green glow of the next room flooded into the dormitory, and Ace found himself in some sort [url=https://i.imgur.com/kGHOvcT.png]laboratory[/url].

More surprising was that at the same time, the other side of the double doors swung inward to reveal a familiar eugief's face. [color=salmon]"...Heismay!"[/color]