Ella's adventure troop.

"Huh? Oh, thanks!" Light said to Exilon while she flew up into the air charging up electricity. "Hey mermaid! Ya know what happens when electricity meets water? No? Well then!" Electricity was mostly charging where her arms where while she put her hands by her waist and made some massive energy ball and it grew large enough to hold it over her head with two arms, you could tell she was getting just a bit carried away. "Get a load of..." Suddenly it appeared that she had dissapeared out of thin air but after a second she showed up behind the mermaid but was high above it. "This!" She shouted as she threw it straight down at the mermaid, she panted after throwing it.

"Still in here!" Mellidus roared. He barley made it out before the lightning hit.

An area on Persephone's back was stinging and throbbing unbearably and her right arm and leg were numb. She reached her left arm around behind her to feel the spot and found a large swath of skin to be tender and severely swollen. The last thing she could remember was the Adventure Troop engaged in a fight with several dridders, a sudden sharp pain, and then darkness. Oh no! Had she been bitten by one of them? Were her insides already beginning to slowly liquify?
She slowly turned her aching head down and looked at herself. Her clothing had been stripped off, even down to her undergarments and shoes, and her ankles were tied together in a mass of silk at one end of a short cable tethering her to the trunk of a tree. She was seated uncomfortably atop a high branch, and all around her she could see nothing but foliage and webs. Her fears seemed quite justified. She made her best attempt at struggling to get free, yet this would have been in vain even if she weren't partially paralyzed - not to mention that if she did break free it wouldn't accomplish much if she were indeed being digested from the inside.
The rest of the group were nowhere to be seen, but she wasn't alone - indistinct dark shapes were moving about here and there in the distance.
[I'll post the rest of Persephone's return adventure when I come up with it.]

Ella speed through the temple. They thought they could keep her contained!? How stupid of them to try. She was going to make a break from this place. When from up above she heard moaning.

(Spades, I think you keep forgetting to say whether or not our efforts are getting anywhere, for instance, again we have to assume that the lightning hit her due to how you typed. You're the one in charge here, so with the no auto-hitting rule, you have to be the one to decide whether our attacks hit her or not, and make sure to include that in your posts. :3)

Exilon was practically grinning ear to ear. This was more like it. Getting to have some fun and show off her rockin' tunes. Still, the mermaid was putting up more fight than expected. Actually, no, this is about as much fight as she would have expected had she given her actions more thought beforehand. Just then, she looked up, as the mermaid lit up like a star. Exilon saw he opportunity to add in a heap more damage. Four construct electric guitars appeared in the air around her, and Exilon jumped up and did a spin. As she landed, she strummed a chord on her staff guitar, and the four construct guitars reacted in turn, sending out a massive combined soundwave at the Mermaid. If it didn't knock her back a little, it would at least blow out her eardrums, at the very least temporarily.

The mermaid was stunned by the lightning bolt and when the sound wave hit she was knocked backward. Not wanting to endure this abuse any longer the mermaid dived back under water. Normally for an unsolisited attack such as this Mellidus would have tried to kill the mermaid. But the group had put up a good fight and didn't want to push this too far.

"Good job you guys. I see why Ella picked you. Except for you light. You nearly killed me."

Oddly enough, rather than slowly losing more and more feeling in her body as she had been grimly expecting, Persephone found her limbs to be slowly regaining their function. This was too fortuitous a development to question right that minute, so she tried a little harder to free herself. Even if her situation were completely hopeless, she might as well spend her final moments giving it her best shot.
She knew better than to call for help. Even though her present bondage made it clear that at least one of the dridders knew she was here, no good could come of risking the rest of them coming by to investigate, or giving away that she was awake. Nevertheless, she couldn't prevent her struggles from squeezing out a few moans.
As she continued trying to work her legs free, she wondered if anyone were concerned about her absence. Exilon and Ella at least should have noticed... or could one or both of them have been captured as well? She took a second look around and found none of them visible outside, but she did notice that the tree to which she was tied had a dark hollow near at the base of the branch she was sitting on, near enough for her to crawl into it. Perhaps someone was in there. What she found when she entered wasn't a prisoner, though - the nook was completely coated inside with a blanket of silk and housed a sleeping dridder that stirred at her presence.
The dridder tilted her head to look at Persephone without standing up. "So you're awake. Took long enough." The dridder gradually pushed herself off the floor of the cavity, one leg at a time, and turned around to face Persephone. "I haven't killed you by the way. I gave you the smallest of doses so you should be back to normal in a few hours. Just enough time for that Salvalophytha you brought to wear off."
The predator stroked her belly with her fingertips in a gesture that suggested that she had eaten it.

Smiley accepted the medication from Damon with a nod. After taking it, he could breathe a little better, but the coughing was still there. He looked at Mellidus. "Ah... so... shall we get going then?"

Light looked down in embarrestment. "Oh... Yeah... Um... Sorry about that heheh..." She apologised... once again. "Next time i'll be more carefull... but you had to admit I did do good... besides from almost hurting you... So... What he said... Shall we keep going?"

Exilon panted heavily. She'd used up a lot of her stamina with those moves, but it wasn't something that wouldn't replenish herself. Even so, something had just occurred to her and it was important enough to warrant her speaking. She transformed her staff into a microphone and started mouthing words into it, and it created a female voice, loud and clear enough for even Mellidus to hear it. "We're missing another person," she informed the group.

Mort watched the defeated Mermaid flee and raised an eyebrow. They had managed to drive off a foe that size. Of course, they got lucky this time because the fairy seemed adept at lightning spells, and the mermaid just so happened to be in a large body of water. How convenient. He doubted that they would have been able to drive her away so easily if she had crawled out of the water. It was unlikely they would be so fortunate a second time. He felt a harsher tugging at his cloak. Faran looked up at him with hurt eyes. He had just done nothing and potentially risked the lives of the troop by not joining the fight.

"Oh come on Faran. Don't look at me like that. I had no idea what that fish was capable of. What if I had joined the action, only to join a hopeless fight and die right in front of your eyes? Do you want that?"

She looked away and stared at the floor silently.

"Thats what I thought. The best course of action was to do nothing. Now I know that size doesn't matter in this place. That is useful information Faran. Now I know that despite the incredible size of these creatures, they can still be defeated."

Exilon announced to everyone that someone was missing. Mort looked around, and sure enough there was someone missiong. He felt the tugging of his cloak again. Faran looked up at him again, this time with puppy dog eyes.

"No... Oh no. No no no! Don't even try that! If that fool managed to get lost and eaten by some freakish creature, what concern is that to us? There is no point in a rescue mission if they are already dead."

The puppy dog eyes only got wider and even more adorable.

"Grrrr.... Fine! I'll help these morons find their foolish friends. But if we end up dying along with them its entirely your fault. Got it?"

She grinned and hugged him tightly. No emotion crossed his face as he looked down at her and sighed. Here we go again. This girl would be the death of him.

Damon slithered over to mortis a blank expression on his face. "You are a dead weight, all your threats have nothing behind them and for all your tough talk you are useless." Damon smiled "Useless people die."
Then he slithered away.

Michael was still running through the trees, escape was all that mattered, every leaf was going to eat him now, every insect was a hungry dridder. Fear dried his mouth and clenched his fists as it fogged his mind, the hallucinated dridder webs turned real but he kept running, a small white strand coiled around his ankle and he fell. He ripped the silk away and crawled into a hollow between two tree roots shuddering quietly, death was breathing on the back of his neck.

Grrrrr! Who does this guy think he is? Mort had to fight not to show that he was extremely irritated by his comment. Nothing behind his words huh? Well he'd show that reptile just how much there was behind his words next time danger reared its head! This scaly freak obviously doesn't understand logic at all. Joining a fight you are unlikely to win is foolish, not brave. Besides... There was more then just his life at stake. Faran wouldn't last two minutes in this world by herself. If he dies, she is as good as dead.

Damon reminded Mort greatly of his past self. He appeared to be sharing his mind and body with a demonic entity of considerable power. Quite similar to his own situation, except he was alone inside his mind. Damon appeared to be incredibly cocky, and obviously wasn't afraid to make people angry. The same as he was, a long time ago.

A terrible thought struck him. Was he... getting old? Physical aging was impossible of course due to the way his soul was. Faran too was immortal, but for a different reason entirely. His mind appears to have aged. Including his previously normal human life, Mort was 97 years old. Only 2 years ago, he was just like Damon. Unafraid of everything, believeing himself to be number one. Well he still did... but not to such an extent. Damon was so full of energy and eagerness to fight. Willing to take risks and charge the enemy head on. Just as he once did.

But times changed. He met Faran and, a very long story short, she tamed his more evil tendencies. In turn, he feels a great amount of love for her, but would never show it. It is the kind of love a father would have for his daughter, even though she is not his child. He is still very arrogant and proud, but prefers to keep it to himself now, and no longer murders people for no reason, like he once did.

He removed that train of thought from his mind and focused on the task at hand. It looked like trying to find the missing troop member was going to be the first thing to do.

He turned to Damon.

"Well... We'd better go find the missing troop members before they get swallowed up by something. Why don't YOU lead the way 'Reptile'? I'm just soooo useless you see, so I need to use your scaly body as a meatshield. Oh but you're so tough that wont be a problem right? Right? Lead on. Lets get going."

Damon calmly replied "I do not lead; the leader takes the first hit and knows nothing of the opponent. Let the heroes and fools go first. I also do not intend on assisting the recovery of the missing members, if they were foolish enough or too scared to stay with the group then they are weak and do not deserve to rejoin us. Like wise if you are useless I let you take all the hits directed at you and then some. If you truly think of yourself that as so weak then do something about it. As far as how tough I am, and I regret saying it, but before the parasite had taken up residence on my mind I was nothing more than prey."

"Why thank you Damon, i never expected a compliment from you." The deity chuckled

(Sorry for the late reply I've been very sick)

"Right let's get this show on the road!" Mellidus said turning on towards the path. He stared at the naga and Mortis who were having some kind of arrgument.

"Hey if you two keep that up we'll need to rent you a room somewhere!" Mellidus's true nature had returned. The ever joking and with a big fang filled grin on his face.

"Come on you 2 love birds I'd like to find my wife before she gets eaten. And if she does get eaten I'll eat all of you! Just kidding! Not really."

Exilon once again used a soundwave to porpell herself up onto Mellidus' shoulder, and once again making use of her magic, she asked him, "Does that mean we aren't going to look for our missing member?"

"Unless you have something with their scent on it I can't do much about it!" Mellidus shrugged.

"Perhaps we'll run into them on the way. Now keep a sharp eye out! Giant bugs are tricky little bastards." He roared. He stared at Exilon.

"I would not suggest leaving your scent any where on me. Ella is very territorial."

Mean while back in the temple Ella looked at the dridder who was holding Persephone hostage.

"Listen you eight legged beast, I'd be all to happy if you let go of my friend here. Hm? Someone is touching my man!" Ella growled.

"Don't worry i'll go look for whoever is missing! I can take to the skies and I can look around while still being able to see you!" Saying that she bolted up in the leaving small little blue sparks behind her, when she got to an appropiate height she stopped and hoverd. " Ok the group is there and where is... Wait a sec..." She quickly dashed back down to the group. "Um... who are we looking for besides Elle?" She asked.

Exilon turned towards Light and wrote another note. She then folded it into a paper airplane and then reached into her coat. With a hand on her staff, she created a construct drum, on whose dense soundwaves the paper airplane rode up towards Light. The note simply read, "Persephone."

[Slick I assume you recall that I'm in a tree and that that means the temple must be some kind of tree temple thing.]

A million thoughts were swarming around in Persephone's mind. If she hadn't beaten enemies like this many times before she wouldn't have gone on this quest to begin with. However there was one important difference this time: she was entirely unarmed. Naked in fact - she couldn't even use a last resort like throwing her shoe as a distraction. In her years of adventuring she had picked up skills using a variety of weapons from as primitive as swords to as advanced as railguns, but never had she taken the time to train herself in unarmed hand-to-hand combat. The dridder was looming over her, lips wet with saliva, eyes sparkling with sadistic glee. It drew closer until it literally stood directly over her as she stumbled into a lying position, and it began to whisper something in her ear. Persephone wasn't really listening - she heard the words, but her faculties were crumbling one by one giving way to panic.
Her only remote hope was to be miraculously rescued. If any of her companions were nearby they were most likely in a similar predicament, so that was basically a null probability in any case.
Living in space as a capsuleer, supported through technology effectively to the point of immortality, had made Persephone all but forget the fear of death. Back in her ship, if she were ever killed she would always be resurrected with a new cloned body. Before that she lived in a world where people could be revived via magic. Now, though, death was once more a dark specter in the shape of this bloodthirsty arachnid woman.

She was beyond shocked when she heard a familiar voice. As she and the dridder looked its way in unison, she observed that the hole in the tree didn't end after a short distance as she had initially presumed - behind the dridder was a surprisingly large space. Ella's presence managed to fill the whole room for a brief moment before it seemed she was distracted by something.

"Oh whatever, I'll deal with it later!" Ella said. "Now are you going to let my friend go or am I going to have go feral on your ass?"



Mellidus kept moving at rather fast pace but it didn't seem like the others were really motivated like he was.

"Hey are you guys alive back there?" he roared.

Ella having successfully captured the dridder's full attention, Persephone seized what might be her last chance at finding a way to survive this encounter. She quickly glanced around for a potential weapon or anything else that could be used to her advantage. Lo and behold, there was her backpack, tossed carelessly in a corner. It had been torn open and most of its contents dumped out. Next to it were the shredded remnants of her adventure outfit, among which she could see the metallic shine of her pistol. Yes! She dashed toward it...
...and fell on her face with a sharp tug from her ankle. She wasn't thinking and had forgotten that she was tethered in place - just barely out of reach of her belongings. "Smart dridder," she thought momentarily and with no small amount of frustration.

Meanwhile, the dridder had a very quick system in place for surprise guests, or at least those who naively walked across the carpet of silk covering the floor. She yanked on what to anyone else would have been a random strand, and in an instant swept Ella's footing from under her.

Such a cheep and expected trick but Ella played along with the dridder.

"Oof!" she said landing on her back with a thud. "Oh well ms. spider I suppose you have bested me here!" She said over dramaticly.

(I don't suppose I could possibly have a chance to play an assailant to the group at some point? I'm sure I have a creature or two that could give even Mellidus a run for his money.)

Mort did his best to keep pace with Mellidus, but it was difficult to do so with Faran on his back. Regardless, he moved at a suprising speed.