Marcus couldn't help but curl his toes in his boots, feeling the familiar tugging on his nonexistent stomach. Having only traveled by portal a few times in life, Marcus had never gotten used to the feeling of needing to vomit while lacking the proper physiology to even have the feeling in the first place. It didn't last too long thankfully, as, after a second of travel, Charlotte and Marcus found themselves in the middle of an overgrown garden that lead into a building. Looking around he could see that nature had long since reclaimed the surrounding area, Marcus could see trees growing out from other buildings, some partially destroyed or just out turned into rubble. Amid the momentary awe, the sound of someone puking caught his attention, Marcus's head snapped to the location finding Charlotte hunched over emptying the contents of her stomach. Grimacing slightly Marcus walked over and helped pull back her hair while rubbing her back, waiting for her to stop before using a simple spell to create an orb of water with a thin invisible barrier wrapped around it. Handing it over to Charlotte he asked, "Feeling better? I know portals can be a little unforgiving on the stomach."
Grabbing the water orb Charlotte rinsed her mouth a few times before drinking the rest, "Thanks for that, and I'll be fine, just need to take it slow for a little bit and I should be good to go." After emptying her stomach, Charlotte had a chance to take a better look around at where they had come out from. Looking at the garden and surrounding buildings she couldn't help but ask, "What do think?"
Marcus shrugged his shoulders while moving towards the closet building that hadn't completely fallen apart. "I'm not entirely sure, if this is earth then we have been gone for a lot longer than two hundred years or we just landed in the middle of an abandoned complex. Either way, we won't find out where we are by taking in the view." As Marcus was speaking he was moving the various vines that had covered the side of the building eventually finding a door, with a slight tug he ripped it right off the hinges before placing it at his side, looking back at Charlotte he made an exaggerated bow, "Ladies first."
Rolling her eyes, Charlotte walked past Marcus briefly looking over her shoulder, "Come on you dork, your the one that said we have to find our answers." As Charlotte continued to walk down the hallway she peered into each room, "Seems like the entire place has been ransacked," stopping briefly to push a door open slight more she waved her hand, producing an orb of light that was 1 foot in length, completely illuminating the once dark room, "Look at this, it looks like before it was abandoned everyone in the room was rioting."
As Marcus walked through the same hallway listening to Charlotte, he couldn't help but feel slightly strange about the building, the feeling was on the tip of his tongue and when he followed Charlotte into the room, he knew why. Inside was filled with chairs and computers that were all but ruined, moving to a door in the back of the room, Marcus opened it, revealing a small office. In it were a slightly less destroyed computer, a moldy wooden desk, and two filing cabinets. Marcus behind the desk and open the first drawer, pulling out an almost completely molded book and a rusted piece of metal. Placing them on the desk he tapped the air instantly creating a magic formation and spoke one word, "Reverse." As he watched the metal and book repair themselves at a visible rate, he felt a mixture of sadness and reassurance, grabbing the now pristine book and nameplate, he called out the Charlotte. "Hey Hun, you might want to see this!" Hearing Marcus call out to her she made her way towards the door Marcus had wandered into, she could see him flipping through a textbook and a shining nameplate next to him.
Picking up the nameplate, she mused "Dick Watkins? What parent would name their kid Dick?"
Rolling his eye Marcus continued looking through the business textbook as he said, "He was a good man and teacher. He used to teach Business Law, he helped me a lot when I got behind in my classes."
Charlotte was confused for a moment, but before she could say anything Marcus closed the textbook before handing it to her. "University of South Dakota: Rules and Regulations. So does this mean..."
Nodding his head Marcus spoke in a somewhat solemn tone, "Looks like we are home, just not the same one we left. I thought it was a little weird that these buildings were a little too modern to be this run down, but with the saturation in the air it only makes sense that plant growth would be this fast." Looking around the office he added, "At least we know where we are. It could take a few days but we could-" Before Marcus could finish his sentence, a scream had echoed out from deeper inside the building. Making brief eye contact with Charlotte, they both took off running toward the source of the noise.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inside of a ruined building a three men and two women were making there way into various different rooms tearing each one apart in their search. A stout man with an impressive beard and a scar running across his left eye, wielding a large axe, was cutting the each table and desk in half, calling out, "Come on lass, if you come out now we'll promise we'll use polished chain ands cuffs before dragging you back." Walking over to a table that had been flipped on its side, and deafly swung his axe across the surface of it, with a grin he looked over to see if he hit mark. Finding nothing on the other side of the table he clicked his tongue before moving on to the next set a tables and desk. "Come on, we aren't gonna hurt ya, we're gonna take you to a ne-"
"Shut it Balmyr, we won't find the girl if you keep on running that damn mouth." Balmyr glared at the tall man on the other side of the room, wearing sleek leather armor, and holding a intricate dagger in one hand while while moving tables and desk with the other.
Snarling in response, Balmyr spat "What would you know knife ear? All you've done is spew shit sense we took the job. Instead you sulk about, complaining about get the damn kid while you were suppose to keep a look out, but no, Qiven, you couldn't keep that fucking mouth shut! Now we are not only wanted by the Grove, we also have that fucking thing chasing us!" By now, Balmyr was now in front of Qiven staring him in the eyes while tightly gripping his axe, ready to cut him down.
Qiven returning an equal amount of disdain and anger in his glare hissed, "We would even be in this situation if you hadn't blown all our money in brothels and gambling, we won't be down in a hundred thousands gold in debt to a fucking mob boss!" Staring down at Balmyr, Qiven watch the stout man snarled at him, giving one last huff before walking back to search the other side of the cursing under his breath. Seeing Balmyr walk away, Qiven muttered, "Dwarven pride my ass, more like an over grown gnome..." Before Qiven could process what had happen, he felt like a small boulder crash into his back as an arm hooked around his neck.
"I'LL FUCKING KILL Y-" Cut short of his threat, Qiven swung his head back, smashing it into Balmyr's nose, breaking it in the process. With Balmyr briefly dazed, Qiven manage to click his heels together, making them glow in a magic light as he jump backwards flying into wall breakthrough and landing in the next room. This was enough to get the enraged dwarf off his back, allowing Qiven to draw his short sword and stare down Balmyr a he grabbed his axe, shouting "DWARVEN ANCESTOR, GIVE ME MIGHT!" Finish the short chant, Balmyr's arms and axe began to glow with various runes, causing his muscles to to grow twice in size as he prepared to launch himself at Qiven.
Seeing this, Qiven could only grind his teeth as he grabbed his dagger and dragged it across the edge of his short sword, igniting both in a brilliant black and white flame. Immediately after, both men charged at each other, ready to claim the others life. However, right before they're blades clashed a sultry voice could be heard, "Thunder." Hearing this Qiven and Balmyr both could smell ozone, before a horrible pain racked both their bodies, causing them to collide with one another with a sickening thud. While both of them were still writhing in pain due to the lighting course through there bodies the clacking sound of high heels against stone could be heard. Looking up he could see his boss and group leader, Yesona, a half-elf that inherited the beauty of her mother and magical talents from her father. Like a cat that caught it's pray, she spoke in an amused tone, "Well what do we have here? It seems like we have two equally brain dead idiots trying to kill each other instead of trying to find or target. Now I wonder, should I kill you both here and now or should I leave you to the Grove and the beast? Decisions, decisions, hmmm."
Looking down at the two slightly burnt bodies in front of her she let out a sigh looking back a half-orc man wearing clean white cloths, rounded glasses and a satchel that seemed ready to burst open with the item it held. With a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes she asked, "Kerth, would you kindly patch these two up? We can't have our best tracker and muscle walking around smelling like charcoal can we?" Pinching the bridge of his nose trying to repel the incoming migraine, Kerth simply nodded his head before walking over pulling his group members away from one another. After setting both Qiven and Balmyr parallel from one another, Kerth clapped his hands together producing a white light.
Holding a hand over each both of them Kerth looked towards Yesona, sighing, "It take about thirty minutes, if you didn't stop when you did their brains would have been mush, nothing new to Balmyr, but losing Qiven would put us back quite a bit." With the white light fading from his hands, Kerth pulled out a book from his satchel flipping it open and stopping mid way through the book. Holding the book open with his left hand, Kerth began to slowly create a light green magic circle.
Clicking her tongue, Yesona looked at her two fried group members, saying "Talon found the girl right before these two made a scene, we manage to get her before she could call her beast to the location. We'll be meeting back at camp and immediately leave soon after." Seeing Kerth nod his head, Yesona left without saying another word, quickly making her way to Talon. With the hairs on the back of her neck standing up she couldn't help but feels as if she was being watched, she had felt the mana in the hair shift subtly an hour ago, only to spike before stabilizing. Shaking her head she hastened her pace finding it better to be with someone else then a lone in unknown territory.
As the sound of Yesona's heels faded away Kerth was able to heal the two burnt people before him. While he was drawing the circle Kerth could hear the sound of heels of coming from the hallway, as the sound of the heels came into the room. Releasing an annoyed sight Kerth said, "If you want Balmyr and Qiven in an acceptable state you'll have to give me sometime. I might be doctor, but I'm not a miracle worker."
Kerth froze as he heard someone laugh behind, although it wouldn't have normally shaken him, he had never heard this laugh before. Before he could defend himself, he felt a searing hot pain followed by a hollowing chill. Looking down he could see a sword made of a brackish ice sticking through his chest, dropping to his knees as he tried to heal himself, he could see a beautiful blue dress enter his vision, looking up his mind stalled for a brief moment. Seeing the Ice elf before him he could only speak one word before darkness claim his vision, "Outbreak..."