The Envoy of the Beginning, Water and Maelstrom

Shadow noticed the look that JaK gave her, and the new kimono-clad arrival to the little group, and realised she was a stranger to them. Only Jay and Zack knew her, and that was by pure coincidence. She'd met them before she'd joined the Slivers.

Disregarding the two unknown metahumans for the moment, Shadow listened to the conversation and started to look around for something large enough to plug the hole. As far as she could see, the only thing that would come remotely close to big enough would be a chunk of rock from the waterfall, and she didn't think they could gouge one out in time.

Mentally scrapping the idea of plugging the hole, Shadow tried to use her shadow sense to search inside it, but she was too far away. The only other thing she could think of, that might possibly help, was to take a closer look. Action before thought was not really her usual style, but they had to do something about this catastrophe before it got serious.

'I'm going to fly over and take a closer look,' Shadow said, not waiting for any response. She spread her wings and flew over to the hole, swooping lower and trying to see if there was something in the middle. However, even using her shadow sense she couldn't see anything at all. Discarding that hope as well, she hovered higher, casting around for any signs of someone causing this anomaly.

Apache leaped down from a nearby branch. He cursed himself for being late. He couldn't fly and the weather had taken a turn for the worse. What he saw now was even less to his liking. And it weren't the Titans he had read about in the Sliver files. The Maelstrom, and Shadow being so close without close support.

The winds were sharp as hell, thunder was clapping everywhere and while the Maelstorm didn't seem to do any harm next to looking extremely ominous and only the beginning of something more. With a wave of his hand, Hawk materialized and soared out after Shadow, wanting to give her at least some support in these hazardous, and dare he say it, magically infused, environment. Apache himself looked around, scouting the environment. The weather seemed to get worse. He closed his eys and felt the spiritual energies.

It had a trace of Emblem...yet not. Yet so. Very confusing.

Apache looked through his Hawk's eyes, but the hole the Maelstorm made was so deep and pitch black...

As Hawk flew up to her, Shadow glanced back and, seeing Apache, waved in gratitude, flying back to the banks of the lake. As she landed, she heard JaK's outburst and was slightly offended by it. They were definitely not Titans. She looked at him and opened her mouth to say so.

'We're not Titans. We're the Slivers. I'm terribly sorry we didn't make informing your team about our existence our first priority.' The cuttingly sarcastic comment was the first she had made in a long while. Without waiting for an answer, Shadow walked over to where Apache was standing and nodded to him as a way of greeting.

'Do you think this storm was magically induced? I kind of get that feeling, but I'm no expert. And if it is, is Emblem behind it?' Apache knew much more than Shadow did on the subjects of magic and such. She was definitely not going to make any assumptions without discussing it with him, and preferably Simca and Krious too.

Zack saw Shadow after a long pause as he had been focused on the problem at hand. But once he saw her, his attention span kicked in. Waving both arms above his head to get her attention, he yelled in exhausted gasps "Oi, howya been, girly? Long time no see! You avoid becoming your name?"

Apache grinned at Shadow's comment. He wouldn't care much for the other people if they weren't informed. This Zack and this Jay knew him from their meeting in the TT common room, Shadow knew him as member of the Slivers team. That was enough for him. As logn as this JaK wasn't gonna be all hostile, he wasn't going to point arrows his way.

''Does it really matter who we are? Be glad we're friendly enough to confront this. I don't know if you have anything in your pocket that can solve this problem. It seems you're all alone as well. Or that is, alone enough. Comparing me to a Titan is assuming too much. I'm no Titan. Nor should you believe you know everything. I'm a Sliver, that's all you get to know now. Focus on the main priority will you?''

Apache then turned to see Zack talk to Shadow, and he smiled a bit. It was a more friendly gesture, and he was glad someone was kind to Shadow in a unformal way. But he had to focus now.. He heard her ask some things, and over the raking winds, he answered.

''Your feeling is right. There's no way this can't be magically induced. Nature's force is to be reckoned with, but a retaliation to it's normal boundaries is not in it's book. A tree does not stretch to the ground normally..Weird thing is, the magic conduit, the one doing this, is somewhere near here, but while it feels like Emblem...it also feels unlike him. We need to fix this fast or we will have some serious problems.''

Apache's Hawk landed on his shoulder and disappeared in a blue light, turning invisible again. He took an arrow from his quiver and launched it into the maelstrom's center, yet a bit higher. A piercing red light, not unlike a very strong flare, erupted from it's cilinder tip and lighted it all up, piercing any magical veil.

''Yup we found something. It's moving, it was in the eye of the maelstrom! It's in the water somewhere! ..Anyone got an idea to get this thing out?''

Jay patted Sage's back in a "you go for it" way, "yeah, sure, if you feel you want to go and get swallowed up by a lake, I'll gladly go toss you in." Jay smirked sarcastically,"but I have a very small, probably won't work but still, plan. What if we found a way to bring the water back up, I mean, when water falls it spins, what was it clockwise? What if Shadow and I got enough power going counter clockwise, or something like that and if only we had Rain here that would help... dang it..." Jay paused for a moment. "Ok, that idea officially got shot down."

Shadow had to agree with Jay, and to be honest, she had been about to say the same thing herself. With more sarcasm. As she listened to the blue-winged girl's plan, she had to admit it was smart, if they could pull it off. She thought about it.

I might be able to move some water with shadows... But that won't be enough. Would it even work against this much magic? And what about the thing in the middle? What will it do?

Shadow scowled. There were just too many variables. She had pretty minimal experience in crime-fighting, especially magic. They needed some veterans. Making a decision, she pulled out her Slivers communicator, preparing to call Simca and Krious.

(Hey, Simca, Krious, is it okay if your characters get involved? If they don't want to, Shadow can make some excuse.)

Zack refused to get discouraged and continued jumping up and down, trying to get Shadow's attention. "Oi! Girly! Shadow! Other person with wings! Person who doesn't like parties! Oi! Over here!"

Karrmy arrived and asked Sage: "What's going on over there?" She pointed and frowned suspiciously. She had heard of Emblem before, and so she knew his powers. Still, she decided it was best to ask before assuming. Karrmy ringed out her wet hair, but that didn't help. A lightning bolt flashed, and Karrmy jumped.

Shadow sighed. 'Hello, Zack. Good to see you again. I'd really love to stay and chat, but we may have a slight problem in the fact that the lake has a huge hole in the middle of it.' Her sarcastic and slightly irritated response would, she hoped, be enough to shut Zack up and get him thinking about how to work this catastrophe out.

Right, before Zack interrupted, she was going to call Simca and Krious. Shadow looked back at her communicator, then hesitated.

Why aren't they here yet? They might be stuck in something important. But what's more important than this?

Shadow calmed her confused thoughts and decided to call just Krious for now. If it got really bad, they could always call Simca later.

'Apache, I'm calling Krious,' The dark-winged girl said briskly, pressing a button on her communicator that instantly connected it to the Sliver's second-in-command.

Zack stuck out his tongue, making a face at Shadow. "Geez, girly. I was just being nice, unlike you. I don't know who shoved a stuck up your-" he paused, his attention span kicking in again. "Hey, violence solves stuff! What if we blew it up?"

"This is Krious."

The shadowmancer was right in the middle of some research, his communicator on full silence apart from team contact. He knew about the emergency, but lately the alarm went off more then he'd wanted for reasons it should not. Probably a bug that might sort itself out, but it was rather annoying nonetheless. Now that Shadow contacted him, he wasn't so sure he should have skipped this one. Then again, a full team presence wasn't always a prequiste for a good ending.

"Everything alright?"

He had made some discoveries that might aid them in their current struggle against the only person he could imagine responsible for a true emergency. If it was indeed him, then he had acted sooner then they had expected. He pictured the image of the scenery where the emergency originated in preparation for Shadow's words. He'd probably had to get over there as soon as possible.

Jay looked at Zack with a bit of a shocked look,"Uh, you don't have any thing explodable on you... do you?" Jay hoped he didn't. A gun was bad enough. Two was, well, it honestly made her nervous sometimes but if he now had explodables, she would be out of there faster then a humming bird on sugar water.