Abandoned

You are in a forest. It is vast, and it has not seen people in countless years. Trees tower above you, and it is often difficult to maneuver through the thick layer of foliage on the forest floor. Night has begun to fall. You need shelter. But finding shelter in this place is not difficult - scattered throughout the sprawling forest are countless ruins of a civilization that was abandoned long ago.







These places will be a place to rest, but they are not places of safety. Something turned a growing hub of civilization into an abandoned array of buildings, and that something still lurks among the decaying walls...

Spoiler

These two are lacking character profiles, so I'll list brief descriptions of both of them below. The two are from a Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood fanfiction where good versions of the bad guys from another reality end up in the main story, so, if you've seen FMA:B, the two of them might seem a little familiar as the roleplay progresses.

Arthur: White. A young man with auburn hair thrown into a small ponytail and blue eyes. Is wearing a white collared shirt, black jacket, black pants and hiking boots. Has a strange red tattoo of a snake biting its own tail on his thigh, but is currently hidden underneath his pants. Appears to be in his twenties and is average height. Is rather handsome.

Julius: White. A young man with short and spiky black hair and dark purple eyes. Is currently wearing a black suit and matching fedora, much to his frustration. Also has a pair of tacky sunglasses on. Has a tattoo identical to Arthur's on the back of his left hand. Another notable feature is his sharp teeth. Appears to be somewhere in his twenties and is taller than average.

They had been walking through the forest for the past few hours, but Arthur still hadn't determined how they had ended up there in the first place. It couldn't have been what had happened to them before. This expansive forest matched none of the locations he had seen in Amestris, and his brother had confirmed that belief. They were somewhere else. Where that somewhere else was, he wasn't sure.

"Hey, En-"

"Arthur," he corrected. It was best to play things safe here, even if it seemed like they were the only ones in these cursed woods. They could never tell just who was listening in on their conversations. "We talked about this. You call me Arthur, I call you Julius."

His brother shrugged. In turn, he sighed - he had doubted the reminder would amount to much, and it looked his suspicions were confirmed.

"Hey, Arthur," Julius started again, giving him a pointed look before gesturing at the building ahead of them. It wasn't the first one they had passed, but they had no need to go into any of the buildings. If worse came to worst, they could continue their search for whatever had brought them here in the dark of night. "I think we should go in there. It's a tall building. If we get up to the top floor, we could get a good look at this place."

He thought for a moment.

It did sound like a good idea.

"Alright," he agreed, "let's go check out that building."

Spoiler

In my refusal to use human characters, I'm going to bring out Lunis.
He's an ex-tracker and assassin. Lunis generally wears black shorts, full of a large assortment of pockets to keep knives and vials of poison (though he's far more likely to use his claws). In this case, he's also wrapped a lot of vines and leaves around himself for the sake of cover. And, uh, he's a bipedal black panther. *shrug*

He hated this place.

It was the perfect place for the old him - countless structures and places to hide in, thick vines and trees obscuring his every move, and even two people to follow. And they were idiots. They lumbered around the buildings blindly, striking up occasional conversations and giving enough hints that they weren't who they said they were. Granted, they were smart enough to realize they might be followed, but they would've made Lunis's job so easy if he was actually interested in the soul-sucking isolation of the assassin business. Especially hunting in a place as familiar as this, though the air was drier, and his surroundings more resembled a forest than a jungle.

He'd only followed them because he'd had no idea where he was, and he'd figured he could get some answers from them. Except, of course, they didn't know how they'd gotten here either. Unless that was also a ruse; he doubted it. No matter what, night was rearing its ugly head, and he didn't want to be caught outside in such a desolate place. So, when the two slipped into the tall building, he waited for a minute, sneaked through vines to the entrance, and made his way inside. So far, so easy.

She stumbled through the ruins. The tree roots were thicker than usual. Strange, Serena thought. She needed to find Cole. Cole was the sole reason she had the will to live. Serena pulled on a vine. It was thick and strong. Strong enough to climb. Slowly, she climbed to the top. The ruins were very fragile, and she was careful where she stepped. Finally, she shouted, "COLE!" Nothing. "COLE!" Someone came up behind her. Serena whipped around, holding her knife to the persons neck. "Whoa!"
"Cole!"
"Miss me?"
"So much."
They quickly kissed, and climbed down the building.

Spoiler

Welcome to the roleplay, you guys! I'm not sure if you'd be interested in it, @LonelyMelodies, but I have a Discord for my storybooks and roleplays. If you use this invite code, you should be able to join it: wz7PJz2. It's not mandatory, but I thought you might want to join in on some of the fun!

"We're not alone," Arthur suddenly whispered, keeping his voice as quiet as he could. It had taken him some time to notice it due to his initial confusion, but neither he nor his brother had survived this long solely on luck. It took a certain amount of awareness and instinct to get to the point they were currently at.

"I noticed, too." A pause. "Wonder if dear old Dad sent them."

"I don't know," Arthur admitted as they approached a rotten set of stairs. He tentatively put his foot down, only to draw it back and put it on a more sturdy part of the step before beginning his ascent. "But whoever they are, I don't think they're friendly."

His brother followed his path up the decaying staircase. "Well, they're in for a surprise." He raised his left hand up and casually looked at the tattoo on it. "I have been itching for a fight lately, and this guy seems like the perfect opponent for me."

Hmm. It appeared they were both smarter and more dangerous than he'd originally assumed. They still didn't quite know who they were dealing with; even halfway across the floor from those two, Lunis's ears were remarkably good at picking up their conversation. He'd always prided himself on that, so long as he forgot the pesky little fox who'd always managed to sneak up on him regardless. Whether he could fight them, however, was more up to debate. The two had also assumed he was associated with their father, which made Lunis wonder what kind of terrible father they had. Perhaps they had beaten back people like Lunis before. Not that he necessarily wanted to fight - he just wanted to watch and figure our their story. He'd just have to avoid getting punched in the face.

He stopped, hiding behind a pillar. Lunis watched as the two climbed up the stairs quietly, testing each step to see if it held. Given the mold and holes littering the steps, he decided it wouldn't be in his best interests to follow them that way. Fortunately enough, among the rotting floors and battered walls, a cluster of vines stretched through a hole in the ceiling, just big enough for him to fit through. When he was sure they had reached the next floor, he crouched and walked over to the vines. Gripping them, he pulled himself up, fitting his claws into grooves on the wall to keep from making too much noise.

Spoiler

I'll just throw Riku in here, but he'll be from Earth, and not all of that space stuff. So...yeah.

Riku crouched and stared through a crack in the wall. He was currently watching a Panther -- covered in vines and leaves for some odd reason -- climb up some vines. It seemed like it was watching those other two people, who looked familiar for some reason. He shook his head. He couldn't pass up an opportunity like this!
And so he waited for the panther to climb up through the hole. Once it had done that, he threw his voice so it wouldn't immediately trace back to him.
"I am T'challa," he said ominously. He wondered if this panther would get the reference.

Cole and Serena climbed down vines and jumped down next to the building. The walls were rotted and Cole punched the wall until a hole formed. Serena climbed in, clearing the vines and over growth with her knife. She grabbed Cole's wrist and helped him through the hole.
"You hurt?" Serena asked.
"Yeah." He pointed to a gash in his leg. "It's not bad."
"It still needs some attention."
He sighed. "Ok."
She touched up his leg. "Better?"
"Mhm."
They wrapped their hands together, and walked through the ruins.

Damn, he'd been spotted. Or, at least, he was pretty sure of it, though he didn't understand what the person had said. Worse yet, the voice didn't sound like either of the others, so this had to be yet another person in the room. Had this new person been here this whole time? Had they been stalking Lunis? Was this how the other two knew Lunis had been following them? He wasn't going to stay around to find out.

Lunis jumped back down the hole, falling to the floor below. Landing nimbly, he made his way to the bottom of the stairs and looked up. Nobody. Testing the first step like the others had done, he slowly headed up, eyes focused on the entrance to the above floor to catch any movement.

Riku cleared his throat silently. With a massive grin on his face, he threw his voice again, so that he wouldn't be immediately traced back as the source.
"Hey, bro. What's up with all this sneakin' around?" he asked, changing his voice so it matched that of Erik Killmonger's, from the recent Black Panther movie. Or at least, recent to him.

At the sound of the man's voice, Arthur and Julius came to an abrupt stop. They had only gone a feet few away from the staircase; it was easy for both of them to hear what had been said. Arthur redid the math. There was at least two people besides them wandering through this building. Whoever they were, they hadn't arrived together - the one who had just spoken had ruined the plans of whoever was following them by revealing that the two strangers were there.

Before Arthur could even think of what they should do, Julius was already hurrying back down the stairs to figure out where they were. Arthur sighed. Why did his brother have to be so impulsive? If he wasn't careful, the stairs would give out underneath him-

There was a startled cry, followed by a loud crash.

"I'm okay!" Julius shouted.

Arthur groaned.

The next few seconds were something of a blur. One of the two ran down the stairs, causing Lunis to leap back. For a split second, their eyes met. And then the human fell through the stairs, the step he was standing on collapsing under his feet with a sharp cracking nose. Lunis winced when he heard the loud thump of the human hitting the stairs below.

Too surprised to rely on his wits, Lunis took a step or two back, hearing the human say, "I'm okay!" Then the step underneath Lunis gave way, sending him falling down next to the human.

Julius clutched his head. That hurt. Even though he had said he was okay, he was sure he had gotten a concussion from his head hitting the ground so hard. If not, he had certainly gained an enormous bruise. It was nothing a little alchemy couldn't fix, but it was still irritating as could be. Grabbing his fedora from where it had landed after the fall and readjusting his sunglasses, he let the alchemy run its course - the pain was gone in an instant.

But that still left other things to deal with.

Namely the guy who had fallen down right after him. Seeing that he had already recovered from the fall and the other person hadn't, he wasted no time in heading over to where he had fallen. He had caught a glimpse of him right before the stairs had given out, but that couldn't be right. It must have been his imagination. No chimera would be stupid enough to follow them-

He looked over at their follower.

And immediately did a double-take, because he was looking at a man who was a clear cross between a human and some sort of giant black cat. Had he followed them because he knew who he was? Was that it? But he didn't exactly advertise his identity to strangers, and, if they were still in that reality, he wasn't exactly the same welcoming person he had been before.

"Hey, Arthur!" he shouted, glancing up at the remaining staircase above him. "You've got to come down here!"

"How do you expect me to do that?" his brother shouted, peering back down at him. "You took out a good chunk of the stairs! I can't get across something like that, and I'm not jumping down there."

Riku grimaced as both the panther and the other guy fell through the stairs. He put on another voice -- this one sounding something like a cool voiced female
"Whoops. Are you guys alright?" Once again, he threw his voice. Even if these guys seemed a bit clumsy, they may still be hostile. Best not to reveal himself yet.

When Lunis finally regained consciousness, his vision swam. With a nasty headache and pain running along his body, he struggled to push himself up. He wasn't sure what had happened. Lunis had the vague memory of slamming into one of the steps with his chin. That would explain why his lip felt as bloody as it did. Hopefully none of his vials were broken, though most of them just contained the substances used to make poison, rather than actual poisons.

Propping himself against the nearest wall, Lunis raised his fists against the figure standing in front of him. Or figures? He couldn't tell, unsteady as his vision was. "Stay back," he said, voice slurred. "I'll fight you. All of you."