In her last glance, Jessica mostly sees water and rock. As she descends, it's more than a little more awkward than she remembers - but she keeps the rope very steady. The area looks like a cavern, a foot or so below the rope is what looks like deep moving water. There is an odd herbal almost medicinal taste to the air...
How could this place have been underwater? Jessica thinks as she slides down the rope. The water being deep would help matters if someone fell off the rope, but the fact that it's moving would make getting back up really hard.
Pausing a moment to call forth her sword, she uses its flames to get a better look, hoping to see a shore to this underwater river that she could maybe swing out to.
Jessica can see that in this cavern that there are several rocky sections above the water, some likely the remains of almost column-looking stone natural structures that seem to be pretty common down here. She can also see that, other than the gap above her which looks from down to have been carved out some time ago, the rest of the ceiling of the cavern is pretty thick looking rock.
There are a few raised surfaces she can reach though she will have to act well under the pressure as something that was difficult for anyone to see hits the flashlight at the bottom of the rope, sending to swinging around erratically.
If this goes bad, I'll just pop back up. I'll be wet, but not monster chow. Right?
She didn't like what might be kicking the light at the end of the rope, but she could do it. She could swing to one of those surfaces. If it was solid, then it would be a place she could return to. If this cavern turns out to be safe, she could return whenever she wanted. Like a lair. Yeah, right.
Screwing up her courage, she starts to swing on the rope, aiming at the best, driest-looking platform.
Jessica lands in a crouch after letting go of the rope. Her sword is instantly in her hand and blazing.
Trusting that Jessica could deal with whatever threat it was below and escape as she had claimed she could do, Amelia turned to face whatever was happening above.
The refrain of an old song pops into Jessica's head. Should I stay or should I go?
She holds her breath while looking around, noticing the marks on the platform and the flashlight go spinning again. She wanted to shout to the others, but didn't want to make a loud noise and catch anything's attention down here. Probably no cell service down here. Wish we had something, though. Like, walkie-talkies? Are they still a thing?
Resolving to familiarize herself with the place as much as possible before returning to the group, she steps down to the next platform.
"If you're going down, then go," Jerry says to Zeke while holding the rope steady for him. He tries to keep his voice calm, but Zeke has worked with Jerry long enough to detect both wariness and urgency in his voice.
Jerry turns his headlamp in any direction Amelia seems to be looking in as they try to identify the source of the movement from above.
Zeke watches as Jessica descends, keeping his shotgun ready, but not aiming until he has a clear line of fire down the hole. When the flashlight gets hit, he squats and tries to make out anything to shoot. But the shapes are indistinct and underwater, and Jerry's voice interrupts him. The man nods at his friend, trusting Jerry and Amelia to handle themselves with whatever's on its way, and swings his shotgun over his shoulder as he grabs the rope to join Jessica.
Up Above
The keen senses of Amelia and Jerry notice the soft sounds were like footsteps, definitely more than one set and coming closer, and an herbal smell was growing stronger. Between her experience and Jerry's extra light, Amelia gets the strong impression that it was certainly more of a threat than curious teenagers. Whether the bigger threat was above or below was in question...
Down below
Zeke is not quite as graceful as Jessica. He ends up grabbing onto the rocky surface, but slipping on the side. The few moments his legs are in the water, he definitely feels something purposefully poking at him before he gets up. He can see on the ground marks of both footprints and drag marks.
Jessica's further exploration and dazzling sword showed the marks continued on, though she could find no obvious patter yet. She could also see movement in the water, especially after Zeke makes his splashing entrance...
Once Zeke is down, Jerry glances at Amelia and then the rope.
"Go," he whispers.
Once she's heading down the rope, he turns off his headlamp.
Jessica hisses in hushed tones at Zeke who slips and slides down the rope. "What are you doing? It's too risky! I might not be able to take you back up! I could lose you!"
Amelia started when the light vanished, but assumed Jerry knew what he was doing. Still, she pulled her sword and shield out an clicked the weapons into position, and tried to temporarily enchant the blade.
Zeke curses under his breath as his legs splash into the water, and he rolls onto the rocky shore, coming up with his knife in hand. There's no immediate threat, though, so he stands, keeping the huge blade ready. He glances at Jessica and frowns. "Anyone gets lost down here, it isn't gonna be me. And if I didn't want to take risks, I picked the wrong line of work."
The big man squats and runs his free hand across the drag marks, fingers tracing the route. "You want to keep moving? You've got the light."
Jessica shakes her head in frustration. "No, that's not what I mean. If I have to carry you up. We might get separated."
She makes a back-of-the-throat groan. "Whatever."
She starts moving, doing her best to follow the strange marks on the ground.
Up Above
A bit of rotten wood falls from above between Jerry and Amelia, bringing along with it some unpleasant smelling remains of a ball of cloth and herbs. The number of footsteps seems to be growing and the wood sounds like many of the roof beams won't last much longer.
Down Below
Moving back in the direction she was before, Jessica just sees too many odd footprints and drag mark like marks and the ground too slippery to find any particular path to follow. With the light, it is possible to see that this rocky section leads further away from the hole and that there is another rocky section a bit of a jump to the left that leads that way.
Staring at the bag, Amelia mutters, "A poultice?" Why on Earth would one of those be sitting, rotting away at the timbers above?
Still, it was rather secondary to the creaking beams. She looked over to Jerry. [smaller]"I fear this room will be burried soon. Do we flee down the well and pray to find another exit, or attempt to leave via the passage so we can help retrieve Zeke anon?" Jennifer seemed likely to be able to escape regardless of such blockages, but she might be able to bring Zeke too.
Jerry is busy scanning his light back and forth trying to identify the threat, but he pauses to address Amelia.
"You go in, You take care of the source of the threat, and then you worry about getting out. If you try and do it any different, the threat doesn't get taken care of."
He indicates that she needs to go down the rope.
Amelia nodded and head down.
"Looks like we can go that way," Jessica whispers, pointing to the spot to the left that requires a jump. "I should be able to make--" She trails off when she sees movement back up at the hole. "Oh, no! They're coming down, too!"
She turns to Zeke, looking helpless. "Look, I can only carry two people with me. That's all I've ever been able to take. If you all come down here and something happens and we gotta all get out, that means someone gets left behind."
"A risk we must take," Amelia announced as she slid down. "The roof is coming down. Staying up there would be unwise."
Amelia...did not make it to the rock.
"Oh, no!" Jessica shouts as she sees Amelia slip and start to fall from the rope. She feels a desperate urge to help, to somehow close the distance and save her from falling into that black water. Without thinking, something carries her aloft and sends her out to reach Amelia.
Behind her, ash-gray wings suddenly appear on her back and take several hard, powerful beats that bears her across the water and under the falling hunter.
Above, Jerry saw Amelia slide down into the shadows and end with a splash. While not the ideal situation, it meant that the rope was free for him to descend.
As Amelia moves further down the rope and prepared to make the jump, something comes out of the water and hits at the rope, sending it moving wildly and Amelia falls into the water. It's cold, moving quickly, and Amelia feels something on her - it's hard to tell, hands, nails, push, sharp, down, then up.
And more up as Jessica pulls Amelia out of the water. Jessica feels a sharp raking against one of her hands as she brings Amelia up. It's hard for either to see what is in the water, but it's definitely more than the rocks.
As Jerry starts to climb down the rope, he hears some wood above him breaking and two loud thuds onto the ground where he and Amelia once were. Much like Zeke, Jerry mostly makes the jump, but slips on the edge of the slippery rocky surface and feels purposeful pokes at his now soaked legs as he pulls himself out.
Zeke is mostly just confused by Jessica's comments; all this talk of "carrying someone with her" and "leaving someone behind" doesn't make a lot of sense, even if she's an angel or what=have-you. When she suddenly sprouts wings and moves in to grab Amelia, though, things start to add up.
But then Zeke hears the wood breaking and sees Jerry not quite making the jump, he lunges back for his partner, extending both hands and trying to haul the other man onto the rocks.
"Thanks. Looks like the thing that followed you back from the truck followed us to the hole."
Quickly assessing that Amelia and Jessica are not in immediate danger, Jerry turns his head lamp back on and looks up to see if anything is following them down the hole.
"I hope the truck is okay."
Then he'll see if he can figure out a way for the group to move forward.
Sitting of the rock, Amelia winced as she pulled the linen aside to look at the gouge running down her lower leg. "Be careful with the water. Somethings resides within it. Things with claws." Or maybe teeth. Either way it was less than friendly.
Standing up, Amelia looked around to get a better idea of the environment. Looking to the path,for lack of a better term, that Jessica had been following, she added, "Since above sounds...less than stable, shall we follow for now?" She'd rather not fight in the water, although with some work she might be able to conjure some lightning...
Slightly out of breath, Jessica tries to make sense of what she just did and comes up empty. Even the burning pain in her hand where she put it in the water doesn't register much.
"How did-- How did I do that?" she stammers, until something big and feathered enters her peripheral vision. She flinches with a shriek.
"What is it?!? Get it off!!" she screams, spinning this way and that to get away from the wildly flapping feathered assailants behind her. Meanwhile, her wings beat the air in a wild panic.
She slips and falls, part of her wanting to pull into a fetal position. Strange and alien sensations send nerve impulses to her brain of limbs that shouldn't be there. Her mind rebels. Stop it go away what is happening please stop just go away quit it Go AWAY!
Suddenly, her wings fade just like the objects that she can send elsewhere. She stays on the ground, frozen, while her mind tries to process. She sees her sword laying just a few feet away, flames flickering along its blade.
--I am Vengeance, the Sword--
No, I'm just Jessica. I'm not--
--I am sent to bring retribution to those fallen from Grace--
I can't believe this. Do I have wings? Am I really a--
--All the Unrighteous fear me, for I am their punishment.
I don't care. I'm still me. I'm. Still. Me.
She stands up, her hair having fallen out of its high pony tail and now it was all over her face. She blows a strand out of her eye, walks over and picks up her sword.
She looks at all the faces staring at her. She can feel the wings, just out of sight, weightless but there. All it would take would be a thought... and she could feel their weight, their strength, on her back.
"So, these are new..." she says as she slowly turns her head to look over her shoulder. "Huh."
Amelia blinked in surprise. "I suppose it makes some small sense. Angels are commonly portrayed as winged, after all." Hopefully they could be hidden when they left.
"Your people upstairs are giving you a lot more tools to be a Hunter than I ever got."
During Jessica's short freak-out, Zeke tries to grab her shoulders to hold her steady, but the beating wings make that a difficult prospect, and he ends up stepping back while she calms down. Once the excitement is dying down, he turns away and eyes the water, still distrustful of whatever's in there. Wish the damn thing'd just show itself already.
"I dunno, Jerry. She gets the wings, you get the charming personality. Seems like a fair deal to me." Zeke glances over at Jessica, more specifically at her new tools. "Hell of a party trick, though. And it's a good thing you're on our side."
I don't think 'my people' are upstairs anymore, she thinks, but doesn't say anything out loud.
The initial shock wearing off, Jessica tests her wings a few times, calling them forth, flapping them a bit, sending them away, and bringing them back. "Okay, behave, and you can stay," she whispers. It made sense to keep them out if she was going to be hopping from platform to platform.
She gives Zeke an uneasy smile at his encouragement.
During the conversation, Jerry used the limited light to see multiple routes across various rocky paths, but the one that seemed the best at the moment was continuing left across a few rocky platforms into what seemed to be a cave path leading up and possibly out.
Also during the conversation, two splashes are heard as somethings from above falls through from where the group is standing a tiny hole in the ceiling above that they had all come through.
Looking at the hole, Amelia said slowly, "As pretty as Jennifer and her wings may be, I fear we should leave. I am uncertain the floor above is able to stand up to the cave in that is above." She began hopping along the path, wincing as he wounded leg complained.
"This way." Nightstick in hand, Jerry heads left across a few rocky platforms into what seemed to be a cave path leading up.
Zeke takes the rear, shotgun ready in hand, and continually looking behind the group to keep an eye out for trouble.
The cavern path has a trickle of water coming down into the torrest below and a narrow path - big enough that each of the Hunters could fit single file. From the entrance, it was possible to see a path that that goes up and around out of sight.
While at the entrance to this path, someone - like one the splashes heard moments ago - rises on a platform on the other side of the rope, barely visible in the remaining flashlight light. The water near where this person is standing seems extra turbulent, noticeable even from where the Hunters are standing.
Pausing as the...whatever it was rose from the water. It didn't seem to want to let them see it. Given the gashes on her leg, Amelia didn't especially feel like respecting their wishes, and focused her magic to create a ball of light next to the figure.
"Ulp," Jessica tightens her grip on her sword as the flame along its blade intensifies. Despite the worry in her heart, she cuts an imposing figure in her armor, wings and sword. A shame she didn't realize that; it might make her feel somewhat better.
Something in her new nature has her looking not just at the figure, but also the surroundings.
When strange figures rise out of the water, people have different reactions, even among Hunters. Some of them use weird magics to try and get a better look. Some of them put on a fearsome display of angelic wrath and glory, holding their flaming sword high to look for danger.
Zeke, on the other hand, simply racks the pump on his shotgun and lets loose a shell full of hot lead.
Jerry inhales to call out to the figure.
Zeke, on the other hand, simply racks the pump on his shotgun and lets loose a shell full of hot lead.
"Well, he probably wasn't going to tell us where the missing people were, anyway."
Jerry advances to see if the creature is still alive and deal with it, if necessary.
Amelia creates a lovely bright light near the figure who quickly turns towards the light. Clearly more than a little dazed, possible from the fall or the many, many blisters visible on the person's skin that obsured their age, the figure appears frightened by the sudden floating glowing ball and Jessica's brightly flaming sword, but equally afraid of the water - or more likely what it is in it.
The figure has just enough time to show fear before Zeke blasts whoever it was into the water which on contact with the person pretty much instantly starts to show signs of increased underwater movement. Jerry can not see any sign of the person who Zeke has just shot other than a few scraps of cloth floating on the water's surface and what appears to be shadows of another person or possibly two near the small hole entrance that the Hunters had come through.
Between the extra light and remembering enough relevant young adult-targeted media, Jessica deduces that beyond the threats in the water, there are likely more people like the blister covered person above - and both those people and their infection could be a threat. How much the those in the water and the infected people threats are related, it's hard to say at this point, though from what was just seen, whatever is beneath the water was far less forgiving of the infected person falling into the water than Amelia or the guy's previous stumbles.
"Mother of Saints!" Amelia cried as Zeke's shotgun rattled the walls of the cave. She stared at the figure being...mauled? Eaten? "Was...was that a person?" She stared at Zeke in horror.
Zeke hesitates for only a moment after pulling the trigger. The figure was human-ish, that much was true. But there was clearly something very wrong with them, and they had presented themselves as a threat. And between that and the sudden roiling of the water, he casts aside any doubts. Hunters can't afford to doubt, or second-guess, and certainly not hesitate. Hunters hunt, and that means acting.
"People talk. People don't splash out of water after dropping in behind a bunch of heavily armed folks with flaming swords. And people aren't covered in sh*t like that." He quickly racks the shotgun again and points it up toward the hole the group dropped through. "Unless you two want to say otherwise," he says, loud enough that he imagines the pair of figures would be able to hear.
If Jerry can get close enough to where the first humanoid landed in the water to inspect without being threatened by anything dropping from the hole (or any others that he can see), he'll do so.
If those above could hear Zeke, they don't respond in any way loud or visible enough for the Hunters to notice. They seem to be moving around very slowly and wobbly.