Fall Arc: Resonance

[Straken]

Lutz kept a steady pace with the rest of the group, content with watching the slapstick antics of these professional soldiers. Given that the group was still in fact making forward progress, the German didn’t see any real harm in the group having fun. All the while the group played, he took time to inspect the characteristics of the corridors and make a mental map of their headway.

When the group came up the room with the spring, the situation moved in such a way that he felt he needed to intervene. Making his way over to the edge of the water he knelled down to get closer to a face-to-face level with Hotaru.
“This water definitely does look appealing,” he started as he splashed his hand a little in the water, before shaking his hand dry again and pointing to Sarah. “For once I am with Sarah on this one. We have a job to do right now so we should get a move on, but I have been keeping a map of this place so once we are finished we can see about making our way back here for a swim. How’s that sound?”

[CadetNewb]

Hotaru would find herself suddenly splashed in the face with water.

"Hotaru, we can all get as naked as you want later! Just put your armor back on for now, please!" Lolita pleaded the other marine. "We're in the middle of a mission for crying out loud!" The bigger woman reached down to grab the smaller woman's wrist and gently tug like a begging child would for something wanted.

'I hope that water's enough to wash off some of those damn sparkles...' she thought to herself as an afterthought.

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

As if their brief time on the cluster colony hadn't been enough of a roller coaster, gunshots could be heard coming from the hallway they had just travelled. Given that the shots were also muffled, it was safe to guess whoever was firing was beyond the heavy doors that led Swift into the hot springs. It was also quite obvious that whatever was being fired used solid ammunition, giving a loud report with each round dispensed.

Then the door was tackled open, and quickly slammed shut. Next came scratches and heavy thuds against the door as a black-haired young man held the door with all 170 lbs. of himself. By the time anyone could come to his aid, the roughing had stopped. From the sling on his shoulder, the clearly ill-equipped young man grabbed an aged sub-machine gun, dropped the clip, threaded the gun through the door handles, and slammed the clip back in, forming a very shoddy bar.

Turning around, he found himself staring down marines-- and one of them was in a bikini. He ignored her for now, despite his perfectly natural male impulses. "Are you Swift?" he addressed the team in a naturally mellow voice, one that could easily grab their attention simply by being so adverse to the current mood of things. A quick look revealed something must not have gone quite as planned. He wore only kevlar, flak, and a pressure suit that was lacking both sleeves past the elbows, revealing two very detailed and very intricate tattoos that could not be easily understood with just a quick glance. His armaments were sparse: a LP-50 holstered at his left hip, and an old slug-thrower in his left hand, clearly the source of the previous noises. Visible only to the trained eye or one with a predilection for knives were a kukri sheathed horizontally at the small of his back and a balisong sheathed at his right pectoral.

To say it looked like he'd seen trouble would be an understatement.

[Kai]

"You're swift, too, aren't you?" Hotaru responded to the new guy, looking a bit unhappy after the talking down she'd been given just previously. She was pouting and somewhat moody, and, of course, rather damp, standing in a couple feet of hot water as she was, both literally and figuratively.

The Shorter Japanese woman groaned in annoyance as she got out of the water and began to do her best to shake off- when the lights cut out, shrouding the group in complete darkness. There was a splash as Hotaru, in surprise, slipped on the mossy floor and fell back into the pool.

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

"Yes, Fourth--" Squadron, was how he intended to end that sentence, but Irvine cut himself short when the room went dark. Instinctively he dropped to a crouch, pressed his back to the wall, and sought out a light switch. Someone closer could help the poor girl and would no doubt be better equipped for the job. Irvine possessed neither flashlight nor helmet, and therefore lacked any respectable light source. "I can't seem to find a switch," he informed the room calmly, only to then find one. He gave a sigh of relief.

Click. Click. Click-click! "It seems the lights are out for good," he appended. "This switch isn't working."

[Straken]

After the initial surprise from the sudden darkness, Lutz calmly flicked on his helmet’s external flashlight. The recon trooper dropped low and made a survey of the room.
“Somebody had better check on the door we entered through, and any other ways out,” he called once he was satisfied nothing vicious had dropped from any nearby vents he turned back to the pool and began triage.

“Are you alright, ma’am?” Lutz asked Hotaru as he put a leg in and offered out his hand to help the woman out of the pool, “Did you hit your head on anything?”

[Kai]

Lutz would be surprised as he proferred his leg and spoke to- nothing. There were ripples in the water, but from the reflection of his light on the surface, and the haze in the air, he couldn't see underneath. however, even if he were to feel around, he wouldn't find her. She was just, Gone.

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Being right next to the door, and having barred it himself, Irvine was able to answer the request. "Door is still secure- I barred it myself, and I wouldn't suggest going out there." As if to show their agreement, a series of shrieks that were plainly inhuman could be heard from the other side of the door, followed by more scratching- this time it wasn't very innocent either.

"I'm pretty sure they're going to open those doors one way or another. We need a second route."

[Kokuten]

"Hotaru? Hotaru?" went Sarah as she stepped over in the water as well with Lutz. She gave a brief look around hunting grumpily for the flamethrower wielding gal. "Hotaru?" The Medic looked around the room with what faint light the other soldier's flashlight gave to the rest of the room. She saw no trace of her, save for her equipment. With that, she began looking around more frantically, even yanking Lutz back to look under him to see if he had unwittingly bowled her over, but of course that was not the case. She stepped up out of the water.

"HOTARU! Come out here right now you glitter-glazed bitch! This isn't funny!" roared Sarah, her nerves getting ramped up by the banging at the door, and the fact that one of her allys was gone. She looked over at Irvine, who seemed intent on moving on with the new threat, "Listen shit head, we're not going anywhere until we get dumb ass ho back in gear. Fuck whatever's on the other side of that door."

[Straken]

Luts was at a loss as to what was going on, and Sarah panicking wasn’t helping. Given the humidity, darkness, and disturbing noise on top of a missing person, he could feel his nerves wearing down a smidge.

“Calm down, we’ll keep searching, but in the mean time we also need to find a safe place to go from here,” Lutz said to Sarah as he made his began to wade further into the water as he searched the shallow pool with his flashlight; the rippling water dispersing his light through the room in an eerie pattern. “Just, somebody check the other walls, and keep somebody by the barred door.”