The Cave

James blinked.

"Okay... well. We could just step out into the rain for a moment so we're out of the blast radius. And we could warn the others on the other side via yelling, like our lovely friend Kratzer has been so kind to do," he said gesturing to the wall of rocks. "If someone would like to do the honors."

"It wouldn't kill me," Lucifer quietly said. He wanted to remove Jaron's hand again, but the man seemed insistent on keeping it there.

"Well, not all of us are immortal rulers of hell," King Kartiel spat back, walking over to the pile of rocks and giving it a good kick. "Some of us can die, and I don't feel like doing that again. So how about this. You guys let me handle this and we all get to keep our lives. Good? Good."

Lucifer looked nervously over at the man who had just gotten up. He had said to stop arguing, and he had honestly tried! He hadn't even meant to in the first place. King Kartiel just really seemed to like getting into fights with him.


Reyes jerked his foot out of the guy's grasp. "It's called an injury," he said, growing increasingly frustrated with the horrible turn of events and the man's attitude. "I'd appreciate it if you left my foot alone."

He was trying to keep his voice cool, but he was already thinking of what this would lead to. He couldn't stay around if his abilities came to light. He'd have to fake his own death. Leave and never come back, at least for awhile. His show would be over. Everything he had worked so hard for was going to disappear, all because his instincts had failed him for once.

James lifted up his hands and shook his head. "Fine, fine. If you have a better solution than blowing it up, go for it."

"Not dying sounds good," said Jaron, looking down at his feet. This king was aggressive, but that was to be expected of kings. "Go ahead." He felt the urge to steal something - his kleptomania, driven by anxiety - but he wasn't sure there was anything to steal. He tightened his grip on Lucifer's shoulder.



Kendrik gave Reyes a deadpan stare. "Ya know what I mean," the hound said, pushing himself next to Reyes. "Why it's" - he closed his eyes to concentrate and find the right word - "fixin' itself. And don't lie ta me, 'cause I'm stronger than ya."

Reyes stared at him for a moment.

Now that he thought about it, the man beside him wasn't exactly a human himself. He must have been accustomed to odd things, and was likely good at keeping said odd things a secret. Where was the harm in telling him the truth.

He peered down at his foot, then back up at Kendrik. "I honestly don't know," he admitted. "My body just heals itself. I think it started after my twentieth birthday, but it's been so long that I can't clearly recall the specifics. I try to hide it because it's not exactly a normal thing, and because I'm technically supposed to be dead by now."


King Kartiel thought for a moment, studying the other occupants on his side of the cave. He nodded to himself. Then he went over to each one of them, and, with an impressive show of strength that even Lucifer was surprised by, dragged them all to the center of the room. He made sure all of them were holding onto him. "As long as I'm touching you, we should be good," he said. "So whatever you do, don't let go."

"I don't understand. What are we doin-" Lucifer started.

"You'll find out," King Kartiel interrupted before promptly turning his attention to Jaron instead. "Kendrik's the name of that other guy, right? I think I've got a good mental image of him. The name helps, but I can rely on the image alone if that's not enough or is an alias."

There was a sudden burst of warmth from around them. Lucifer immediately recognized the feeling. It was magic, though not his own. Small purple particles began to build up all around them. The particles suddenly shot up and covered them. A second later, he found himself tumbling onto the shores of what appeared to be a beach.

There was a loud noise as King Kartiel fell onto something that was decidedly not sand - it was Kendrik. "Shoot," King Kartiel said, getting up off of him. "I've been doing locations so long that I forgot about how it works with people. I have to visualize a spot next to them, or else I'll end up right on top of them."

"Why?!" Kendrik growled, pushing himself back up. He cracked his knuckles and spat sand out of his mouth. How had this idiot - who Kendrik was fairly sure was one of the teenagers - gotten down here? The hound sure hadn't heard him, or the people he'd brought along. In any case, his back groaned, Reyes had just said he should be dead, and Kendrik was getting tired and frustrated of everything. Nothing made sense here.

So Kendrik was almost tempted to pull out his sword when a white blur pushed him into the sand. Except, of course, he realized that blur was Jaron.

Kendrik wrapped his arms around Jaron. Their heads side-by-side, Kendrik whispered into Jaron's ear, "They didn't do anything to ya, right? 'cause -"

"No," said Jaron. Kendrik realized Jaron, shaking slightly and voice weaker than normal, was crying. "They're fine, so don't hurt them, please."

The hound huffed, but a smile betrayed his true feelings. He closed his eyes and tightened his hug.

What in the heavens of Nye was going on?

James had been resistant to Kartiel’s pull, but before he could rip himself from the teenager’s grasp, he found himself falling on top of Lucifer, narrowly missing the man’s horns. James violently pushed himself off, muscles screaming at the very action. In a mix of pain and frustrated confusion he let out a hiss through his teeth and stomped through the sand towards the man who’d brought them there, who was still lying in the sand.

He stared down at Kartiel with a fierce gaze, but spoke with a cold, even tone. “I understand you wanted to pass through the barrier without causing harm to the others, but you should have given fore-warning. I didn’t want to come here, and I would’ve rather stayed in that cave all by my damn self. I didn’t know you were going to take me with you. So let it be clear now that you never, ever grab me again without my consent.”

Kratzer, in the meantime, was picking himself up out of the sand and shaking it out of his hair with a scowl. Lucifer, seriously? So long as Boomslang didn't show up. . .

~

Viper was fairly certain she'd just seen a group of people disappear as she poked her head over the mouth of the cave. Now, she'd seen a lot of odd things, but spontaneous spoofing - or invisibility - was not one of them. Until now.

"That feeling when you get left behind because you were trying to move rocks," Raiden said to himself as he walked out from behind the rocks.
"But...That Levi guy...what did he say he was again?" he scratched his chin as he sat against a fallen rock.
"God of...of The End..." he mumbled before it all clicked like T. Hanos.
"...Minecraft?"

". . .Hello?" she asked, stepping into the cave and out of the rain.

On one hand, Kendrik would've loved to join in going after the teenager, given how his back ached and stifled his breathing (unless that was just Jaron). On the other hand, the teenager had brought Jaron, so Kendrik owed him. Besides, this probably wasn't the best time or place for a fight.

Kendrik tried to push himself up, but Jaron wouldn't respond. Despite some nudging, the fox stayed still. After a brief panic - had Jaron's anxiety gotten the better of him? - Kendrik put a hand under Jaron's mouth. Yep, the fox was still breathing; he'd just fallen asleep. Smiling, Kendrik gently pushed Jaron onto the sand. After he rode up, Kendrik grabbed Jaron and carried him in his arms. The fox weighed like a ton of bricks, but it felt comforting.

"It's happened," Kendrik said, walking up to the angry man. "Punching him'll feel great, but it won't do anything for ya."

Raiden spun round to see a girl climbing into the cave.
"Hello hello! Welcome to The Cave (insert trademark here)," he said, gesturing around him.
"We offer shelter from the rain, zero-point-five star service, and really bad sleeping arrangements. There's also the small possibility of being teleported away, so uh...yeah. There's that. I'm Raiden, by the way," he finished, holding out a hand for a handshake.

“I know. I don’t plan on punching him,” James replied cooly, looking down at Kendrik. There was no point in punching Kartiel. He wasn’t worth his time or energy - which now had to be spent figuring out where in Jord’s name he was, and how the hell there was a beach beneath the cave.