The emergence of the cult... (Open RP)

Rez heard the bat introduce himself and he was just about to do the same, when he heard someone else speak up. The strange thing though, was that the voice wasn't from anyone here. Rez looked around for somebody coming up to the group, but they were the only ones there.


'Wonder what that was...'


Just then, Spiral pointed towards Clash who seemed very embarrassed. 

"Oh jeez I- uh- that wasn't- it- uh..."

Rez reached to put a hand on Clash's shoulder.

"You okay there Clash? You seem a little stressed out about that strange voice."

"Aiden, huh? Well, my name's Sam! You doing alright? Ya seem a bit... down..." he trailed off, looking at Clash, who was looking embarrassed at the fact that a random person congratulated Shalina on getting a revolver. "Uh... You alright?" Sam looked a bit worried. "Why are ya acting like you said that?". Sam looked around at everyone else's reaction, with Terry's being quite funny. with a joking tone, Sam says "Terry! You see a ghost or something?"

((Sorry for the delay, all!))

Aiden didn't seem to notice the awkward situation that had arisen by a mysterious voice emanating from the hedgehog that welcomed him into the group, instead admittedly caught up in the short laugh the lioness had given at the preposition of himself joining their troupe. As someone who hadn't interacted with another mobian in a long time, a sudden feeling of anxiety washed over him, and he went to reply to Shalina but found himself choking on thin air.

"I-ck." The short, lean bat swallowed, "Uhhhh.. yes, I- I did come for the..." He squinted at the small poster, plastered to the side of the building to make out more clearly what the thing actually said and so he knew what they were talking about, "... the kidnapper!" Aiden called out, a little louder than he'd planned. "I came for the... yes, to catch the... kidnapper." He finished in a whisper, cheeks flushing red

"I wouldn't worry to much about it, everyone gets nervous when they first hold a handgun, the more you use it the better you'll feel with it, besides its not even the scariest gun I own."

The words Terry spoke seemed to have relaxed the young lioness a little bit, her stance loosening up a bit, and her tail, which was previously pointed straight up in her alert state, relaxed a bit into its swaying usual arch. She eyed the revolver in her jacket pocket for a lingering moment before returning her gaze back up to those around her, and before she could react, a voice unexpectedly cut off her thoughts,

"Yoooooo! That's a sweet revolver! congrats, little lady!"

"I- Uh... Thanks...?" Came her confused response as she looked around for the unseen source, her brown eye flinging wildly back and forth as she searched only to no avail. Terry's question was similarly playing in her head until Clash's sheepish voice made itself known once again,

"Oh jeez I- uh- that wasn't- it- uh..."

The lioness noticed his embarrassment and was similarly confused- Who was that voice and why was Clash so embarrassed about it? Her attention was quickly dragged back to Aiden, who was shyly eying the wanted poster and uttered out part of his response with a surprising volume, catching Shalina off guard for a moment and her body jolted slightly in response. His voice quickly went to that of a whisper in apparent embarrassment, which made the lioness give out a lighthearted chuckle.



"You're so cute!"


Wait... She froze with the realization she accidentally let the thought slip out, her cheeks burning with a light shade of pink for a moment. 'Gee, way to make a first impression, Shalina!' her mind scolded her, 'If he doesn't get scared off, he's probably gonna think you're weird!'

"Oh, geez, uh, sorry, I didn't mean to let that slip out, I--"

Clash was certainly very embarrassed, everyone noticed the voice. It was then that Rez had put his hand on his shoulder, spooking poor Clash.
Furthermore, Sam's poor choice of words finally let out his inner thoughts.

"Thanks a lot Kane! You speak a little too loud and now you put me into this situation! How am I supposed to explain this?!"

Clash took a deep breath, before raising his hand.

"O-K, everyone! I'd like to explain what the heck that was, or who Kane is." "But, to do that, I need to pat everyone on the head."
"I know, weird request, but to see whom I'm talking about, I need to touch some optical nerves, and the safest way to do that, is by touching someone's head."

Clash now waits with his hand raised, face being super flushed

Terry wasn't the only one who heard the voice as well, and the consensus seemed to be that yes, it was some kind of mysterious voice, but he was the only one to think it was spectral in nature. "At least I'm not hearing things" he thought to himself. He glared daggers at Sam for a brief second before loosening up and smirking "well, for all I know it might have been one! You dunno what kinda weird and cooky sh*t you can find around these backwater places, gotta keep your wits about you".

His trail of thought was briefly punctured by the bat that had recently appeared, he had taken notice of him but he didn't register in his mind until he barked out he wanted to help with the kidnapper. Terry briefly winced at the noise, sighed quietly as not to upset him "Join the club my friend, my names terry" he said smiling professionally.

He heard Shalina going off again, now she was bumbling around with the voice as well, equally confused jabbering on like she had lost all train of thought. "You're so cute!" he heard her remark before quickly shutting up and going a light pink "Oh for goodness sake, how old is this chick anyway? What she doing in a place like this while she's already getting heart-eyed at men she doesn't even know" He scooted over to Shalina lightly jabbing her in the arm "Stay focused here, we dunno what this guy might turn out like" he whispered sternly, He didn't want a casualty on his hands from sheer incompetence, but considering the group around him, they seemed more like boy scouts than actual hitmen or bounty hunters. Would he need to train all these people as well? Or were they stronger than he thought? He opted to just keep quiet and keep an eye on them, he did have the experience advantage overall, and nothing has been able to stop a bullet in the past.

"O-K, everyone! I'd like to explain what the heck that was, or who Kane is." "But, to do that, I need to pat everyone on the head."
"I know, weird request, but to see whom I'm talking about, I need to touch some optical nerves, and the safest way to do that, is by touching someone's head."

He twisted his head around and looked intently at clash, who the hell was Kane? And why did he need to pat him on the head to figure that out? He strode over to clash, grabbed his wrist lightly, and brought it down to about waist height. "Look, how about you explain what this Kane being is, and then ill let you pet me on the head like some kinda pup hmm?" He whistled with a playful tone "Lemme guess, a ghost right? Some kinda ghost you got attached to your soul or something?" He was glaring into his eyes at this point, his professionalism was fading somewhat but he had to know if this was a ghost or not. He wouldn't be able to focus is Kane the friendly ghost was gonna follow him around and ogle his weaponry. "Well?"

Rez was a little confused by Clash's request, but he was intrigued to find out who this Kane person was and where that voice came from.

"O-okay I guess! What's the worst that could happen? I mean I'm only letting someone I just met touch nerve points on my head that I have no idea what it will do to me."

Rez chuckled as he finished his sentence, but then Terry walked over towards the young hedgehog and grabbed his wrist, saying that he tell them about who this Kane character was before he did anything else.

"Woah, Terry! Chillax! What's your deal with spirits? I mean Spiral here I guess could be classified as somewhat of a possessive spirit since he fuses with my body to give me my speed."

Spiral during all this commotion was cowering behind Rez, slightly scared by Terry's sudden change in demeanor. Rez gently pulled Spiral out from behind him and petting him on the head to calm him down.

"So if Spiral is nice, then that must mean that not all ghosts are bad right?"

Aiden's cheeks flushed a violent shade of red, a stark change to the usual dull grey of his fur. His knees grew shaky, and the wingless bat could feel himself jitter a little in a mix of nerve and unfamiliar emotion. Did she... call him... Cute? Aiden was immediately reduced to a bashful and very rapid thumb-twiddle. Did she really call him cute?

God he was hopeless. The bat had not seen anyone in the last 5 months of staying there in the town, besides those he'd bumped into at the store out of necessity, and the overwhelming supply of social interaction here made the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand to attention. They might as well have saluted, as he was very quickly yanked away from whatever fantasy was forming in his mind by the Hedgehog-Clash-'s outburst.

The flightless mobian dropped to a very frightened crouch at the mention of touching his head, let alone accessing his nervous system, the one thing he didn't want people to touch. 

"I-I-I-I-I-I-..." Aiden stammered, flustered by Shalina's comment and the sudden offer to touch him by Clash. But before he could continue, Terry'd handled the hedgehog.

With the rest of the group very occupied enthusiastically discussing the logistics of ghosts and spirits, the Bat very sheepishly tried to avoid any heated conflict by taking a hardly subtle step closer to the lion. He was so busy stopping himself from having a stroke due to all the blood rushing to his cheeks that he wasn't able to roll his eyes with all the angst he could muster at the comparison of a Wisp to the undead.

Aiden tried not to make eye contact with Shalina as he stood beside her, and also tried to keep his distance as he watched the others discuss whoever Kane was.

Clash saw Aiden do what he did, putting a smile on his face for a brief moment.
In fact, everyone seemed fine with the offer, despite it being sudden, strange, and not phrased the best way.

But it was then that Terry had grabbed his wrist.

"Look, how about you explain what this Kane being is, and then ill let you pet me on the head like some kinda pup hmm?" "Lemme guess, a ghost right? Some kinda ghost you got attached to your soul or something?"

Clash was considerably spooked by this, if he wasn't so embarrassed he would have come back with something witty, but this was not the case, as the echidna glared into his eyes.

"Well?"

Clash's bracelets start to glow an intense blue, releasing a large pulse of energy to try to get Terry off of him.
With a nervous squeak, Clash teleports by everyone to give them a quick pat, as he said, but when it got over to Terry's turn, it was more like a quick bonk, as his head was met with a fist rather than a palm.

"Sorry everyone, but you might experience a bit of blurred vision for a bit, it's just what happens." "But Terry, what the hell is wrong with you?! I could've gotten you killed!"

Clash seemed frustrated rather than embarrassed now, as he clenched his wrist and looked at Terry.

"I can explain now since you'll be able to see him in a little bit, but that wasn't cool at all!"

As Clash had mentioned, everyone that he had made contact with's vision would go blurry to the point that it was very hard to see, but it was quite brief as in a couple of seconds, a translucent, red, adult hedgehog with a muscular build and a translucent blue child hedgehog had appeared next to Clash, the blue one appeared frustrated as well.

"The red one is named Kane, and have been here for as long as I remember." "The blue one is named Carter, they are a guardian demon and angel respectively."

Terry slowly turned to meet the gaze of Rez before slowly tilting his head towards the wisp trying its best to calm down squirmed in his hand while his wrist was still firmly wrapped around that of Clash's. "What. The hell. is that" he pointed with fearful anger in his voice. "Get that creature away from here unless you wanna get possessed and need an exorcism!" It was then Shalina's voice chipped in, which just annoyed terry even more "Look. Kid, do you not understand how people get murdered in cold blood? I think this brat WANTS us to think he's harmless. No good comes from the supernatural and if you think there is your either naive or a threat."

It was then at that moment that terry lost his grip and slid backward as an enormous blue flash takes up all of his vision, causing him to cover his eyes with his hand. The next thing he knew, his head felt sore from a light smack to the back of it. As he slowly uncovered his eyes, his vision started blurry before clearing up, before him stood two ghostly spirits beside Clash; One red and of a muscular build called Kane and another younger youthful hedgehog called Carter. At least according to Clash.

As terry straightened himself out and adjusted his jacket he stood there scared and completely dumbfounded, tipping down his hat to avoid eye contact with the spirits. It's not like he didn't want to say something, it's that he did not know how to articulate the vortex of emotions within him. What did come out was gritted teeth, a pistol from his pocket, and a bark that came across no better than an injured dog: "GET AWAY FROM ME!!" He slowly edged away shakily before falling backward after his nerves made him lose footing, falling down near Rez. His gun still aimed directly towards Clash, fear and vitriol building before spilling out as tears.

Rez finally got Spiral to calm down. The alien floated out of his hand and went to rest on Rez's shoulder. Rez was then startled to see Terry suddenly go flying through the air away from Clash.

'What the heck?! It didn't even look like Clash touched him!' Rez thought to himself before Clash suddenly teleported behind him and touched his head.

"H-hey! What happened?! Why can't I see?" Rez asked before Clash explained what was happening.

When Rez's eyesight returned to normal, he saw two more hedgehogs standing next to Clash.

'Woah. So these two have been here the whole time?" Rez said to the young hedgehog.

Terry suddenly seemed to go crazy from seeing Kane and Carter. As he fell backwards next to him, Rez noticed the gun in the echidna's shaking hand which was pointed directly at Clash.

'OH GOSH! I knew this guy was going to give us trouble eventually!' Rez thought before saying to Terry,

"Woah, woah, woah, woah there, Terry! Let's not do anything drastic here!" Rez crouched down slowly, holding a hand out to the seemingly terrified echidna to help him back up onto his feet. 

"L-let's just... Put the gun down... And talk this out, okay?"

Aiden watched with sweat beading on his brow as Terry and Kane altercated, He wasn't overly bothered by the actual discussion, but if memory served any purpose, he was all too familiar with the side-effects of an argument between gifted mobians. This fear only got worse when Clash began to exercise his power to escape the situation, the bat was unsure of what to expect when the bracelet on the hedgehog's arm began to glow, but knew enough to expect something.

When Clash disappeared and teleported to someone else, he damn near shat himself. The bat did a double back-flip away from the hedgehog's touch, not only out of instinctive reflex, but out of conscious fear of the consequence of any alteration to his senses. "Woaaahh C-clash, don't." Aiden squeaked with an incredibly frightened deer-in-the-spotlight stare.

He wasn't even bothered by the fact that everyone was now communing with ghosts, nor the fact that Terry had pulled a gun on everyone, but he was incredibly frightened of just Clash right now. The ability to manipulate his senses and the ability to teleport were potentially lethal to the bat. Teleportation alone was enough to scare him, GUN had let word out there was a teleporting assassin looking for people like him, and they were a hedgehog...

"W-who are you?" He whimpered, hands held out in front of him as if in a karate pose.

"Look. Kid, do you not understand how people get murdered in cold blood? I think this brat WANTS us to think he's harmless." Those words spoken by Terry triggered something harsh buried deep in the lioness. A deep, guttural feeling long forgotten mixed in with a jolt of fear as memories long buried peeked to the surface. Loud roars... People screaming, specks of red splattered across the ground... The lioness's breathing hitched as her head started to ache in an effort to recollect her memories, and she was just about to speak when there was a blue flash of light that made her focus back onto the situation at hand


Before she realized it, her head was met with a gentle pat, leaving her stunned with a owlish stare of surprise. She quickly realized Clash was the individual who made contact with her head and she let out a sound partway between a groan and a roar as her vision blurred and she fell to her knees and gripped her head, her sensitive senses being thrown for a loop and overwhelming her.



After a few seconds, she shook her head and stood up, albeit a little off-balance. She managed to regain her focus and was once again listening to what everyone was talking about, although evidently shaken by the experience.



"The red one is named Kane, and have been here for as long as I remember." "The blue one is named Carter, they are a guardian demon and angel respectively."


She could only halfheartedly nod in acknowledgement to Clash's introduction as she focused on eyeing Kane and Carter curiously, trying to memorize every detail her foggy mind could muster. A scent met her nose and she jolted to attention, her visible eye wide and full of alarm. Her heart pounded and she looked around as if a predator were about to pounce, desperately trying to search for the source of the mysterious scent.



She almost near visibly trembled in her spot, bits and pieces of vague memories flying through her head. She knew that scent. She remembered it more than she wanted or should've had to. A grim, musky pine smell mixed with the scent of death, almost funeral home-like. It was a particular type of scent that was faint, almost unnoticeable except to the most sensitive of noses.



"T-Terry..." She half whimpered, turning around to a dark alleyway that seemed empty, except for a vague shadow that seemed to vaguely move for a short moment if one was paying attention, "C-Clash..." She paused, barely able to muster herself to dryly swallow, "Clash isn't the one you should be aiming that gun at right now... I-I smell it... Someone's watching us... Someone dangerous..."

Clash sighed when he had finished, then immediately started noticing the various expressions of his teammates here, starting with... Terry, who was pointing a gun at him, followed by Rez, asking Terry to stop.

He looked over at Aiden, who asked who he was, to which he responded.

"Sorry, I'm Clash, Clash Kopis."

He then looked back to Terry and gave him a defiant look.

"Go on, shoot, I dare yo-"

He was then interrupted by the Lioness, who had mentioned Terry with a very frightened voice, followed by his own.

"Clash isn't the one you should be aiming that gun at right now... I-I smell it... Someone's watching us... Someone dangerous..."

This prompted Kane and Carter to return to the anchors and Clash to face the alleyway, going into a slight fighting stance.

"Who's that? Do you know 'em Shalina?"

Terry was still trembling after the reveal of supernatural spirits dramatically being shoved in front of him, he was still petrified of what those spirits could possibly do to him. Sweat built up on his forehead and his heart pounded as squeaks of aiden and the extended hand of a blue bird failed to register to him. His hand continued to shake, the world around him started to blur... 

"T-Terry..."

He wasn't sure why shalina in particular took his attention, maybe it was luck, maybe he was starting to take a mentor outlook to the girl or maybe her babyish voice irritated him enough to cock his head and mouth an irritated "f*ck off"... probably the latter. But in this rude gesture, his eyes went hook line and sinker and his eyes met the gaze of the abyss in a nearby alleyway, the same one that Shalina was gawking pensively at.

"Clash isn't the one you should be aiming that gun at right now... I-I smell it... Someone's watching us... Someone dangerous..."

"Something more dangerous that a literal demon?! What a blatant crock of bull!" Terry pondered, scowling at Shalina. "You expect me to believe that?! I know what's a threat and what's not KID, now rip your eyes away from the alleyways you scamper about in and keep your eyes on the mystic deus ex machinas that kid has stored up his ass!"

Terry was fed up at this point, both with the people around him and the state of affairs, he was a brave one, willing to take risks but he wasn't suicidal nor was he stupid. He knew what threats looked like and they were red, blue and unholy.

Rez was looking back and forth between Terry and Clash, sweat dripping down his neck. He didn't want anyone to get hurt, but he also didn't want to provoke anyone further. He was so focused on what was happening in front of him that he didn't hear Shalina warning them of the danger in the nearby alleyway.


'C'mon Rez! What do I do, what do I do?!' Rez thought as he continued to look between the two.

'Mmmm... I'm sorry Terry, but I can't let you hurt anyone for no reason.'


Rez nodded to Spiral and the little alien quickly flew from Rez's shoulder and into his chest. As a rush of white energy surged from his chest, Rez used his super speed to attempt to grab the gun from Terry's hand, and then get a safe six to seven feet away from the echidna.

If the small, wingless bat had though the situation escalated when Terry drew his weapon, the situation had basically hit the fan for him when people began to encourage or even engage one another. He had to bounce. Aiden didn't have time to respond to Clash's introduction, and the response still left him with a no-less fresh sense of dread towards his company regardless.

Aiden began to back up, as slowly as he could. Although with his currently jittering nerves and his special condition, it looked as though he were taking massive strides backwards. "I.. I'm going to uh." He whispered to no-one in particular.

He greatly regretted having to leave the young lioness's company, but he really didn't want to get locked away somewhere 'safe' if GUN caught word he was involved in trouble. He gave Shalina one last longing glance before choosing to turn and break into a sprint, but as he made eye contact with the lioness, it seemed trouble had found its way to him.

The bat looked out of the corner of his periphery, someone was behind him, or rather, he'd backed up into someone, or near someone, it was difficult to tell. Someone that Shalina seemed to be spooked about, but the rest of the currently aggravated group paid little mind. He too was incredibly spooked, and seeing how far running away had got him, Aiden chose to remain completely still. "Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" He squeaked "Hi?"

Shalina didn't look all that well at the sight of this guy, as if some repressed memories were coming back, a feeling he unfortunately knows.

Clash then heard Rez swipe the gun from Terry's hands, which led him to give Rez an approving nod before seeing Aiden backing into the alleyway containing the shady mobian.


"H-Hey wait, Aiden!"

But it was too late, Aiden was now in his clutches, and was demanding Shalina in exchange for Aiden, or else he'd be killed.

Clash didn't like this scenario at all, there's no way he was going to let a life be sacrificed, but what could he do? Well, he eventually figured it out, if he could just pull off Chaos control again, he'd be able to stop this.

Carter and Kane understood what was about to happen and prepared themselves.

To everyone else, Clash suddenly warps over to behind the figure to roundhouse him in the head, while a glass-like shine surrounds Aiden's neck.

"Some help?!" Clash asks the others as he goes for this.

"What is this place... who are these people... why are they so mystic and fast i-" His train of thought was completely shattered by a cyan blur zooming past his vision with a sudden pain in the hand that was holding his gun as if someone just snatched it out of his hands. 

Terry looked around as fast as he could, his eyes blazing across every surface in a desperate attempt to find who took his gun, his breathing sped up and his vision became blurry, he was completely in hysterics and it seemed like he was going to have another heart palpitation, until.

"No... T-Terry, you don't understand; I'm not exaggerating...! These people, t-they... Y-you don't know what they're capable of...! My scars... I think... I think this person is wit--"

Terry froze up and slowly yet nervously tilted his head towards the alleyway which Shalina had warned him about before, once he gazed in that abyss, it glistened back as a blade crept dangerously close to Aiden's neck and the figure stepped forwards, his frame clearly one gained from various fights and battles suffered through a lifetime, His commands were haunting.

"Well, it seems I've been found out. Well, no matter. Listen up, anybody tries to get close to me, and this creature gets his throat gutted, alright? But, there IS a way out of this. Nobody has to get hurt if you comply and be good about it. Just hand me your little lion cub there, and I'll be happily on my way."

The voice shouldn't have been the thing to calm him down but the presence inadvertently brought a stillness to the room, one that terry happily used as a moment to get his breathing back in control. With that under control he briefly pondered the mobians request "If I give him the girl, I could get paid a decent bit of cash for this..." He toyed with this thought for a while before shaking his head. He didn't care about the mobian's history with shalina but he did have a slight soft spot for the lion; She was about the only person here who seemed to show the echidna anything resembling calm.

With this, terry slowly crawled backward towards rez, the fool who had decided to take his gun, terry beamed daggers at him, a stare of quiet, cold anger. Once he reached the bird he spoke quietly but with gritted teeth "Get. Behind. That. Building". Nearby terry was a building tall enough to both climb and get a solid shot with his rifle "if I can get bird-brain here to co-operate, I could take a potshot and get those star-crossed idiots outta there" He thought to himself, still glaring at Rez with little sympathy in his eyes.

Once Clash called for help, Rez was about to run in to assist when he felt someone's presence behind him. He turned around to see Terry staring at him with a look of aggravation on his face.

'Oooooh crap. I knew he would be mad if I took his gun.' Rez thought as he pulled his beak under his scarf and tried to look away from Terry's death stare. 'What was I supposed to do though? He was holding a gun at someone!'

Terry then said sternly,

"Get. Behind. That. Building."

"Y-y-yes sir." Rez said timidly. He sped to the building, and rounded the corner.

As he waited for Terry to catch up, Spiral un-fused, and the two had a short conversation using the translation chip implanted in Rez's neck.

"What should I do, buddy? Terry seems really ticked off that I took his gun!"

"I don't know Rez! I'm as scared as you are!"

"Well I think the first thing I should do is apologize for taking his gun, but I don't necessarily want to just give it back to him! Not after that glare he just gave me."


"Just to be safe, I'll fuse back with you so that if he tries anything, you can rush outta here."


"Ok Spiral. That sounds like a plan." Rez heard footsteps around the building. "Quick! Here he comes!"


"Be careful Rez." Spiral said as he flew back into Rez's chest.

"Look. Terry, before you do anything, I-I just wanna say I'm sorry for taking your gun back there."

Something that glinted in the sunlight flashed out in front of Aidens neck, the person behind him had drawn a knife. A hundred throughs flashed through his mind, quite possibly more. Should he turn and attack? What would he do? Could he escape? He could feel the figure behind him, and hoped that they wouldn't get too close and touch the backpack. It was an empty shell after all, a façade to appear normal.


"hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" He squeaked quietly, looking around at the others with wide eyes.

Of course, time was closing in when the figure started making demands. Especially when they were demands about handing over the beautiful- I mean, very nice young lion that he'd only just met. If he failed this attempt, GUN wouldn't mind. One less person on their witness protection program. And if there really was an assasin after him it'd do them a favour.

Aiden made an attempt to duck himself down, push his neck against the figure's body and then lunge himself forwards, effectively backflipping away from the person with the knife. "Don't you touch herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"