Fantasy ~0= One Layer Beside =0~

[SP3CT3R]

"Guys. GUYS. This is serious," Jax said, clearly agitated, positioning himself above the severed branch. "We don't have time for a talent show right now. Whatever happened five minutes ago obviously did a lot more than give us powers and we have to stop fucking around and take things seriously before we make everything worse! Just think for three seconds, dammit!"

Now close to a state of hysterics, Jax picked up the branch with one hand. He threw it like a javelin, broken end first, and it sailed high over the treetops and made no noise to indicate where it landed. He roared, "Argh! I can't believe you guys! We might've started the god-freaking apocalypse and all you care about is some stupid game!"

 

[Probably George]

As everyone else delved into their newly founded powers, Greg decided to do a bit of experimenting for himself. To his dismay, All Greg could seemingly do was create small crystals. After a quick grumble, Greg's attention was averted to Jax. There was a shared concern between the two, but as it seemed, no one else was paying attention. The others seemed too enthralled with their new quirks. "Well, it's not like there's much else to do." He addressed Jax. After a bit of thought, Greg thought of 1 thing they could do. "Alright, it's settled!" Without even asking anyone else, Greg decided to lead the group as he begun to walk off. "Let's go Spice Girls! Time to find out what the hell is going on."

 

[skwerl56767]

"Sorry!" Heather apologized to Tyra as the chimera wolf complained about not being able to hear. She felt a little stupid about that; of course the rifle would be loud! She didn't consider that it might hurt someone's hearing. Although in the middle of her self-scolding, she realized that hearing seemed to be okay, the key word being "seemed". I suppose that makes sense, she thought, it wouldn't be practical to deafen yourself with your own weapon every time.
Heather looked up as Mike thanked her. She responded with a sheepish sort of smile, which she showed to Kendrick next as the first thing he did was land and demand if she was the one okay! She laughed, partly to relief the tension in her whole body. "Yeah, I think I'm okay." A quick around the clearing proved that the others seemed fine, if a bit startled; Greg was even creating crystals out of thin air! A teal glow started in her peripheral, and she looked down at one of Kendrick's wings as it abruptly began... molting? She reached down and picked up one of the feathers that fell, which still had the mesmerizing blue aura around it. The molting seemed purposeful, and didn't look like it hurt, but what was it for? Would Kendrick just spontaneously molt now whenever he was worried? "Are you okay?"

Before the seraphim could respond, Mike announced the reason for getting the branch down - and consequently Heather blasting Tyra's ears out - and she thought the idea was a good one, though not just because she wanted to play with her new body. While it was a dream come true, most dreams also have their fair share of strife. No story happens without struggle. She looked at the group's own eldritch horror at the mention of one, wondering what could possibly be scarier than that lurking around.
...Oh balls, what if she just alerted everything around them that they were there?!
With great timing, Jax was the first to freak out about this problem. Heather stared in shock as he picked up the broken bough from the ground, faster than she would expect from a giant stuffie, and threw it out into the forest. Her eye followed it, but it simply vanished without a sound into the trees. She made a sort of stuttering sound, a little scared by how agitated Jax was. How would them existing here start the apocalypse? Though... she looked back at the hole she made in the forest canopy. It had cooled off, but it was still big enough that Tyra could fly through it, if she was diving in from below with her wings close. She then looked down at her claws and strange mechanical-suit-like skin, the flexibility seams and the dull blue lines glowing across the biggest plates. Did any of us change into something this world knows? What if we ARE the apocalypse? Her jaw pulled back into a frown. I'm not ready to be a villain...

"Well, it's not like there's much else to do," Greg answered first, his voice sounding hollow and strange in his new form.
"I-I'm sure I got a little carried away..." Heather admitted. "I shouldn't have tried to shoot it, I just was too excited." She curled up a bit, still holding Kendrick's feather, feeling ashamed. "What if-?"
"Alright, it's settled!" Greg announced.
"W-What?" Heather stammered. Greg started moving toward the least-dense part of the woods, which was narrow and turned a few times. A trail?
"Let's go Spice Girls! Time to find out what the hell is going on."
"Wait, what if it's not safe?!" Heather looked at the others for support, or some kind of guidance, but only felt rising anxiety about all the possibilities of what could happen, and what might be coming for them. She hopped up on her feet with trained agility - despite having never been athletic as a human - and trotted behind Greg, exponentially slowing in uncertainty. She didn't want the group to split up, but she didn't want to leave anyone behind either. Except-? Wasn't someone missing? She mentally counted everyone in her head, reaching five, but her brain was saying six. She felt like she knew why she was thinking of six, but whatever she knew was behind some sort of mental brick wall.
Maybe I'm just remembering six because that's what it is when I count myself, she thought, though it wasn't comforting, and she felt uneasy, like there was some unseen layer of complexity behind their transformations, and Jax just warned them about it despite none of them knowing it. I REALLY hope we didn't just start an apocalypse...

 

[Swift_Phoenix]

As Tyra’s hearing came back, she could hear Jax just starting to freak out, which was slightly amusing, given that he looked like a lion Beebo.
"Argh! I can't believe you guys! We might've started the god-freaking apocalypse and all you care about is some stupid game!"

Game? I’m pretty sure this isn’t a game to find out what we can do before setting out like frakking superheroes. She didn’t quite agree with what he was saying and was about to open her mouth for a scalding retort when he picked up the branch and threw it over the trees. ”What the hell?!” She stared at him, having missed his earlier feat of picking Greg up like he was a feather.

Okay, that is definitely not something you see everyday. She realised then that, unless they all suddenly had superstrength, one of Jax’s own abilities had been discovered.

Greg then spoke up, summoning the group to a path in the woods.
"Alright, it’s settled! Let's go Spice Girls! Time to find out what the hell is going on."

Heather protested briefly — "Wait, what if it's not safe?!" — but soon followed and after some hesitation, so did Tyra, trying to reassure her.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. After all, we do have our wits, abilities and each other,” she said firmly, to settle her own worries as much as the sniper’s. ”And I’m sure we haven’t started the apocalypse.” She gave Jax a hard look.

As long as we stick together, we’ll be able to handle anything that comes along...
Right?

 

[ArcaneDreamer]

If Kendrick still had regular eyes, he would've just blinked in confusion at the glowing feather in Heather's hand-- er, claw. Instead, he went weirdly quiet for a moment, his flames doing an odd sputtering motion, before shifting his gaze to his wings, which had returned back to their natural state. Right as he was about to reply that he felt perfectly fine, a sudden wave of exhaustion swept through his form. The seraphim paused as a result, which fortunately happened right as Mike began talking and drawing Heather's attention away from him.

'H-Huh? Why am I feeling tired all of the sudden...?'

He looked down at the still-glowing feathers that were now littering the ground, before having minor epiphany.

'This is a new ability I got from the transformation! My energy gets drained, and in exchange, I... do something involving magic feathers.'

Before he could puzzle out what that something was, Kendrick was snapped back to reality by Jax freaking out. He looked over just in time to see the plush blue lion throw the branch that Heather shot down off into the distance - almost like it weighed nothing.

'Well. I guess that confirms one of Jax's abilities, then!'

His cheery mood at the thought quickly vanished, though, after hearing Jax's next words.

"I... highly doubt we actually caused an apocalypse. I mean, I've never heard of world-ending scenarios that involve the sudden transformation of people into other beings."

As the seraphim finished speaking, he quickly came to a decision about his earlier discovery.

'Once I figure out exactly what I did earlier...... I should keep the 'drained energy' bit to myself. I don't want to stress out everyone even further...'

His decision made, Kendrick was almost glad that any chance for him to reconsider was interrupted by Greg deciding to take the initiative and lead everyone off into the forest. However, there was one tiny thing that - for whatever reason - the seraphim ended up fixating on:

'S-Spice girls? Why did he call us that??? Is there a reference I'm not getting that connects them with this situation, or--- Actually, wait, nevermind, there are more important things to focus on. Greg has a point - we should see how widespread this whole situation really is.'

With that in mind, he began to float after his crystal-backed friend. As he did, he glanced over towards everyone and spoke in a cheerful tone.

"Well, you heard the man! Let's go see what's going on before we jump to conclusions!"

 

[SP3CT3R]

Jax felt a little better after the outburst, but he was still stressed as hell about the whole situation. He had no idea how much had happened as a result of... Wait, what was it that got us sent here? Jax remembered the shimmering blue portal, and being mad at somebody for something, but he couldn't connect the dots. And it didn't help that he was mad at everybody at the time. Something didn't sit right with him, but no point in dwelling on that. The others had acknowledged Jax's concerns, at the very least, and had started to head out. He caught up to them after taking a few unnaturally large jumps, as if in a low-gravity area in a video game. Okay, maybe this is sort of cool.

"Well, there's no way to be sure about the exact situation," Jax said matter-of-factly in response to Tyra and Kendrick's comments, not the type to let things go. "We don't even know how much there is that we don't know. Maybe the mirror turned the trees nearby into metal, or it sent us to somewhere where all of the trees are metal. That's why I wanted to get a move-on, you see."