In the Eye of the Storm

With his family's fortunes staked on its generosity, Agnolo tended to be sharply familiar with the sea's mercurial nature. It offered bounties and cruelties in unguessable measures, each swell and current extending a gift-bearing palm or raising a savage and clenched fist.

Tonight seemed an exceptionally poor night to take a chance on that particular gamble; sixteen years he'd been a stone's throw from the sea, and never before had it seemed to thrash so alarmingly. Agnolo watched each towering wave claw its way impossibly high towards the black sky, peering down from the sill of his ocean view dorm. The student found himself suspended in wakefulness by the wind battering on his window pane, captivated by the magnitude of the growing storm below.

Then, in an instant, he shot shock-straight up to his feet. Whatever the cause, he was distinctly certain that the ocean was not supposed to boil like that. And a second later, he was even more sure that it was also not supposed to part like a supernatural fissure.

He inhaled sharply - and the air seemed to hang oppressively, around him, like a low pressure front. The subsequent explosive shockwave struck him as though it were some malevolent frequency, a forceful pressure on the back of his neck that pressed in his ears as though he was far underwater and being blown deeper.

What in the name of the five was that!?

Nothing about that signaled any kind of coming of good things; the critical and urgent need to get out of here went unsaid. He snatched his messenger bag from the coatrack and flung the hallway door wide. Other dorm residents, too, were emerging after him - some sluggish, some miffed at the unknown disturbance, many confused. Too many.

Agnolo dashed for the bannister, one foot down the stairs as he hollered and waved them towards it with one arm. "It's not safe, c'mon, move! Go!" He motioned, galvanizing his fellows, and one by one they seemed to reunite with their much-delayed survival instinct and scurry down the stairs to (hopefully) greater safety.

Quickly Agnolo spared a further glance down his floor's hallway, where a distressingly high number of doors remained closed. He bolted back down the hall, banging harshly on the doors of the still-occupied rooms and ushering their residents out and down the hall as fast as he could - quick to shut down the occasional bewildered dissident with a bark of "Sorry! We've got to get out of here! Go, go! Now!"

It was by lucky chance that Huayan had been feeling somewhat restless that evening, and so he had not even started getting ready for bed yet despite it being too late to be able to really do anything else. He had been sitting by his desk near the windows, working on jotting something down in a notebook when he was suddenly distracted by the unusual splash of purple dancing across the windowpanes, followed by a very strange feeling of something akin to a wave of invisible force passing by not that long after.

With no ready answer for what was happening, the first reaction was one of confusion as he got up to look more closely out of the windows, his attention soon caught by what he could see of the harbor and its waters from his point of view. Which was a limited amount, yet enough to notice the rather aggressively behaving water and change of atmosphere. It was clearly...not right, but as far as what to do about that...

The young man would remain frozen for a couple moments, unsure on how to respond. There was no real answer, but he nevertheless had a decision to make. Staying put would be the most effortless choice and yet...if this turned out to be a massive flood or any equally dangerous disaster, staying inside and especially alone was a far faster death sentence than any other, wasn't it? He didn't like this, it made him feel unnecessarily anxious. Still, the most logical move would be to at least peek out and see if there was anyone else nearby he could inquire more from about. An unpleasant choice, but one he would have to deal with, shifting to at least grab a hoodie to put on for the nighttime weather, a couple basic things in his messenger bag in case he couldn't come back inside, and after a brief deliberation a pair of earplugs to dampen the sound in case this was serious and he had to deal with people yelling or being loud in general in his vicinity.

At first upon stepping foot outside, it was hard to tell whether anything was off beyond the strange oppressive feel in the air, but that would soon change upon him spotting a clearly not human, and not friendly looking creature in the further distance in the corner of his vision, causing him to draw back near the walls of the apartment complex to avoid standing out. That was...very peculiar, not in a good way, and while it did not explain anything, it certainly did not signify anything positive either.

He couldn't see anyone nearby right then and there though, putting him in a tricky situation. Staying still was risky, but so could be trying to go somewhere...and where exactly would he go anyway? All this thinking was already starting to give him a headache, and he hadn't even gotten anywhere yet. Tch. Ultimately, it would come down to the only rational decision he could think of. The closest place from where he was which was guaranteed to not be empty right now was the school's dorm area. Even if the other students there also noticed this, there was no way a mass that big would have managed to organize and get anywhere this fast. The more people, the more chaos. Again, far from a pleasing place to be...but temporary suffering was better than a solo death adventure in every concievable way.

And so he would make his way to his destination, doing his best to both move fast but remain as quiet as possible. If there were more of those creatures around, the last thing he needed was to get their attention. He was decently agile but in a physical confrontation he likely stood no real chance, and especially so against anything that most likely had more strength than a regular person. Luckily he managed to avoid getting jumped by anything unsavory, and would come across quite the sight with the dorm's entrance already having been bashed in along with the muted sounds of a lot of people moving about inside the building, which did put him slightly on guard but upon drawing closer he would notice a surprisingly familiar face in the main hall, almost causing him to do a double take.

The blonde man was kind of hard to forget with he impression he had made after all, and this was quite the unexpected way of running into him again...but he truly couldn't complain right now, it was a far better outcome than anything else he could have imagined.

Things were about to be a mess as the students were slowly starting to pop out from the upper levels, but he'd pay that little mind right now as he approached closer to the man, trying to catch his breath in the meantime.

Howling winds and pounding rain. For some, a storm like this could be considered a relaxing way to fall asleep, but for Jace it was a source of annoyance as he stared up at his dorm room ceiling. This isn't going to work. It was the only thought that echoed through Jace's head before he rose from his bed, threw on a pair of joggers and his weatherproof windbreaker, and took off into the night towards the school's sports track. Now, there was technically a curfew, but Jace was well acquainted with sneaking out, and if the rain wasn't going to let him sleep he could at least use it for endurance training. After all, that practice the school team had, and the inter-school games they competed in, just weren't all that much of a challenge anymore. Jace could only hope the fierce winds and heavy rain could provide more of an obstacle for his running.

He'd made it to his third lap, and was finally hitting his stride though the sharp gale and the stinging rain that kept his eyes in a constant squint. But suddenly, as he hit the curve in the track, he'd feel something he couldn't acclimate to, as a rippling force struck at his back and sent him face first into the pavement. ”Oh, shit!” he'd growl as his hands instinctively flung out and scraped across the hard surface. At first, he'd roll over to see if said force had come from someone simply shoving him to the ground, but he'd instead witness the strange purple glow from the seabed, and the stranger globules of shadowy tar forming and falling from the sky. Jace would rise to his feet, his eyes transfixed on the sky, so much so his hand would rise to shield his eyes from the rain to better his view. ”What in the-”

Though his confusion over the situation would be sadly short-lived, as one of the shadowy blobs came crashing down further down the track behind him, causing him to spin in recoil, before bringing up his cellphone, fumbling before finally illuminating the area in front of him with the paltry flashlight. But as he brought the light towards the source of the crashing noise, the sheer concern over whatever the hell he could see had him recoiling back, and consequently dropping the phone to the pavement. And as the beam of light from the phone acted as a beacon between himself and the horrific beast he’d seen, Jace found his hands raising up in front of him defensively, fists clenching as he prepared to fight. ”Stay back, you here me!” He’d shout at the beast, as his teeth began to clench. Keep calm, stand strong. If it’s like any other beast, if you make yourself intimidating enough and loud enough, it might just back the fuck off. And for a second, he thought his plan may have just been working…up until the point that the beast let out a harrowing cry in his direction. A cry that was strong enough to have Jace immediately turning on his heels, and bolting back in the direction of the dorms he’d come from. I might be tough, but even I’m not dumb enough to try and tussle with a beast that hideous in the dark without any sort of weaponry. I’m not that suicidal.

As he sprinted through the shadows of the night, the only sounds he could hear were the pounding of his own heart in his eardrums, and the occasional cry from that thing behind him. He couldn’t even tell if it was getting closer to him or not, with how loud his own heartbeat was. And oddly enough, even with the risk of getting caught and ripped to shreds from whatever the hell was behind him, this was the greatest challenge he’d felt while running in a long time. He was so focused on the run that he’d almost forgotten his destination until he was right on top of it, finding himself having to suddenly stop himself as he made it to the doors of the dorms, his head finally craning behind him to see the darkness behind him, before he turned back to the two figures standing at the dormitory doors, and placed a hand on the shorter boy’s (Huayan) shoulder. And at the taller boy’s (Eloy) mention of being under attack, Jace would finally speak up. ”Yeah, what the fuck even are those things?” The question would come out a bit sharper than he’d intended, and he’d match it with a lopsided grin before turning his head back the way he came. ”And how good are they at tracking?”

Agnolo bounded swiftly down the staircase, only to be stopped dead at the base of the steps by a milling crowd of his peers. The boy could hardly hear the drowned-out bark of whoever had arrived to assume authority; he strained to peer out over the massed heads between he and Eloy, as the mutterings of peevish annoyance and confusion rose to a fever pitch. On some cue Nolo wasn't able to make out the less-than-orderly mass of students began to reluctantly shuffle off, and he made to anxiously trail them like a lagging duckling.

Finally Nolo was released from the grip of the throng when he filed through the doors, assaulted by the scent of ash that underscored a pervasive and distressing sense of wrongness. Unconsciously, Agnolo's gait accelerated until he was following the group at an disquieted little jog - though given the fact that there were dozens of students between him and wherever they were headed, the act hardly sped up the pace at which he moved along. He may as well have been running in place.

Without announcement they stopped again, with the howling sea beneath the bridge they stood on as their witness. Agnolo, still not privy to whatever developments had waylaid them, found himself pitching forward and lightly bumping the student ahead of him. "Sorry," He breathed earnestly as the kid shot him a pointedly unfriendly look, again frustrated as he struggled to catch a glimpse of who -- or what -- had delayed them so.

He needn't have struggled much longer. A mighty azure flash lit the air some several meters ahead like a beacon, and from nothingness sprung a markedly superhuman figure - trailing the same searing refulgence like a cloak, clutching a spear that seemed pierce holes clean through Agnolo sheltered reality.

Impossibly, the mirage tugged at something within Agnolo. A profound sense of kinship and duty gripped him, as though some unguessably familiar power danced just beyond his fingertips. He felt as though he grasping for that strength in the dark, just a step -- or maybe two -- away. He felt some phantom hand folding itself over his own, pushing him to seize that very same power. To wield it.

Agnolo didn't think. He scrambled up and onto the stones that made up the sides and limits of the bridge, bounded forward despite the protests and jeers of students below - swiftly and breathlessly dashing for the front of the group.

When the other teen approached close all of a sudden and tried touching him, Huayan nearly jumped at that, finding himself instinctively moving away a bit, putting some distance between them. Not a good kind of scare. He wasn't a big fan of people casually touching him without permission to begin with, and in a high strung situation like this, doing so without warning when a person wasn't even focused on you was even more alarming, to be honest. "...." No comment to that right now, really. There were more important issues to focus on anyway.

Like the fact that there wasn't much time for deliberation as they had to get in step to follow the blonde man so as to not get left behind, which frankly he was quick to do because staying near the front meant he could avoid getting squished within the mass of students that followed right after, and he would have been a very unhappy person were he to have to deal with that. Unfortunately, tonight simply wasn't destined to go according to his plans or wishes in the end it would appear, as the situation went from concerning to straight up near unbearable quite fast.

He only barely managed to process what was happening after they got suddenly blocked off by those creatures, only for his line of thinking to get very roughly shut down by the unwelcome sounds of screaming and sensations of pain. Perhaps for the average person it would be possible to somehow have a clear mind despite that, but he didn't quite fall into that category. The very reason behind his choice to bring earplugs along or his general dislike of crowds and the like was exactly to avoid situations of this kind. He didn't handle such onslaughts well at all, and it was making him nearly see double and feel rather nauseous right now. A rather terrible situation no matter how one looked at it.

Silver lining was, even if for some reason he had wanted to try to run, he probably wouldn't be able to as he was very much glued to the spot for now, at least until he managed to get a grip somehow.