Sterling quickly shoved the pocketwatch into his carrier bag. It probably wouldn't do to have it clutched in his fist; there were too many things that could go wrong. Boy did he know. He'd been down that road before. Besides, it's not as though anyone else would be able to find it so long as it was in his pack. He patted the bag reassuringly.

As he heard footsteps approaching, he shifted his stance and tried to look as innocent as humanly possible. He didn't particularly want to make enemies with this group of people, considering they were on the same side and all. Not that they knew that. Er, yet. They piled into the room but seemed to not notice him until the blonde girl called out to him.

"Hi there!" he said in response. "The name is Sterling Winter. Feel free to call me either 'Stirling', or 'Winter'; I'll probably respond to either." He paused with a frown and tapped his chin as he stared off in thought. "Then again I might not. Just shout at me until I respond, I guess!

"Oh!" he said, interrupting his own thoughts. "But I don't think now is the time for introductions. We should probably get ourselves out of this place." He gestured at the cloaked figure absently. "Hey. Hoodie guy. Show us the way out, yeah?"

Noah had been waiting a little further down the path to intercept Shianna, the others had gone on without him but weren't too far away at this point. Just as he heard footsteps approaching a figure whipped by him, but it wasn't one of Shianna's people, what's' more, he saw a faint glint of gold in the person's hand and he had a feeling that it was his article. How this person had gotten it and where they had come from he had no idea, but he knew he needed to follow him.

He ran after the man through the dark hallways, he could hear footsteps behind him now and knew that it had to be Shianna's group.

"Get back here!" Noah yelled after the newcomer, but suddenly he stopped, Noah almost barreled into him but skidded to a halt beside him instead, teetering on the edge of the opening to the water below.

"Whoa!" He said as he quickly regained his balance. He looked around and saw that he had inadvertently joined up with the others again. He looked to the man that he had just followed.

"Hey you! Give it back!" Noah said angrily. The man didn't seem to have it in his hand anymore, but Noah had known what he had seen, and besides that, some sort of instinct was telling him that this man had it.

"I-if you take the knife away I... I may... be able to..." D started in answer to Sterling's question. He attempted to look at Wil, but then felt a little to nervous to do so. He had no idea what this man was capable of.

"I said give it back!" Noah repeated as he grabbed Sterling's collar threateningly. In the distance the approaching footsteps could be heard drawing nearer. They didn't have time for this, Noah knew that too but he was being stubborn.

D knew that his comrades were close now, if he was to break free it would have to be now, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the rushing of the water below them. A faint wind swirled around him, but before anyone could react, long hands of water sprung up from the depths below up to the cliff side that they were standing on, they reached until they found each member of the group and encircled them, binding them so that they couldn't move, this caused Wil to drop his dagger, and even Echo couldn't move.

"Damnit what th-" Noah started, but suddenly his vision moved, he wasn't on the cliff anymore, he was being lifted off of the cliff side with the others until they were all suspended by columns of water above the raging segmented river below.

"Kid, I swear-!" Noah started but was interrupted.

"I... I could let... I could just let you all stay there until..." D said as he trailed off, looking down at the stone under his feet, "but I have to find... I have to find out some things so..." he looked up at the group now, he seemed a little more sure of himself this time, "so I'll give you a chance to get away..." he said as he made a motion in front of himself across the strands of water holding up each person, and they were severed, the water was no longer enchanted.

Noah was free falling, as were they all now, he hit the water hard on his back and was plunged beneath the surface, he found himself struggling for control to fight back the current and get to the surface of the raging water. He opened his eyes under the water to try and get his bearing as he was being tossed around but found that it was too dark to see much of anything beneath the surface. Somehow though he made it to the top, gasping for air. He looked around for the others.

"Hey! Are any of you still alive!?" Noah called out over the raging current.

"Hey, it's the orange-hair kid!" Sterling said mostly to himself, though his loud voice carried in the cavernous room. To no real surprise, the kid strode across the floor and grabbed him by the collar. Before Sterling had a chance to respond to his admittedly justified question, the cloaked boy was stuttering nervously and a long wave of water swept him into the air. Sterling grabbed onto his pack reflexively as he was wrapped in water.

"Oh god," he cursed, squeezing his eyes closed as he looked down from the height he was at. "Don't you dare drop me kid or I swear--!" As he began his threat he heard the kid murmur something about letting them get away, and his heart jumped into his throat as the kid raised his hand and sliced it across his chest. As he expected, the water returned to it's normal state and he plummeted to the ground with a yelp.

As he hit the water, he clutched to his pack with a tight fist. He landed on his shoulders and the pressure nearly knocked the wind out of him. He opened his eyes under the water and was distraught to see murky blackness. With a slight panic he released his death grip on his pack to swim to the surface, only to be knocked into something; presumably another member of the party. He couldn't see who it was in the rushing white of the rapids.

"Sorry!" he shouted to whoever it was he had hit, trying to reach an arm up to rub at his now sore head. He heard the orange-haired kid shout over the current somewhere behind him.

"I'm here!" he replied in a shout before he was pulled back under by the current. He forced himself back to the surface and looked around for a shore or something to hold onto. He could see something static moving past them quickly which he assumed was solid ground, but it was surprisingly far away from him on either side. He was momentarily taken aback. How the hell wide was this river?! Panic began to set in.

"There's a shore to the side, try to swim to it!" he shouted blindly. He paused as he looked around, seeing only the orange-haired kid above water. A new sort of panic set into his system. "Where is everyone else?!" he shouted back to the kid.

Noah looked around and saw the man who had stolen his item was still alive, but no one else appeared to be above the surface yet, he looked towards the shore that the man had been referring to, but the current was carrying him far too fast to even try and reach it, and it looked like the main body of water was going to split into a lot of smaller rivers, if they didn't find everyone now they'd be separated.

"Elise! ELISE! WIL! Violent girl and that robot thing! HEEY!" Noah called out as he looked around him for any sign. There was nothing. He felt his pulse quicken. Had they drowned? Noah took a deep breath and dove under the water trying to feel around for anything or anyone. And then he felt it, an arm, they seemed to be flailing around a little, trying to make it to the surface, but with how dark it was, maybe they couldn't see which way was up. Noah quickly reached out and grabbed the arm and pulled them to the surface, it was Elise.

Wil had managed to pull himself onto a rock protruding from the surface of the river. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his elbow as the newest member of their party popped up under him, knocking him backward into the current.
"Gah!"
"Sorry!" he heard him shout over the roar of the crashing waves. As luck would have it, Wil was a better than average swimmer and he was physically fit enough to steady himself against the current, at least for awhile. After he gave himself a moment to clear his head, he remembered the others. He heard Noah shouting in the distance, but he couldn't make out what he was saying. As long as he was conscious and getting air, that was enough for now.
William feared whatever was coming their way next. In a way he felt somewhat responsible for the group, being the oldest; it was like he was babysitting a bunch of kids only under bizarre and extreme circumstances.
He swam over toward Sterling and managed to grab the back of his shirt, pulling both of them against the current towards another large boulder. It was even large and flat enough for both of them to crawl up on top of. William helped Sterling up and then scanned the black water for any others while keeping a firm grip on the rock.

Echo quickly popped up from under the water. The fact that he decided to fall with the rest of them was a mystery, considering he could fly. Wil vowed that one day he would program some common sense into that droid...
"iS eVErYoNe alRiGhT? i aM fULLy caPabLe 0f pErforMinG CPR iF anYoNe nEEds iT!"
He turned toward Noah and Elise, the two that were closest to him.
"oH, g0od, yOu aRE aLivE! bUt... wHErE is mY MaSTeR?"

"WHY!? SO MUCH WATER!"
Gate had managed to drag herself onto a rock. She could hear everyone yelling, but it was too dark to actually see any of them and her systems were far too wet to try and use in her condition.
"HEY! Can anyone hear me?"
Jumping back into the water, she immediately sank to the bottom...which was about a foot above her head. Walking in the direction of shallower water, she managed to find the shore.
"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!? COME THIS WAY!!"
Why does there have to be so much water... I can't even float...

"Hey! It's that robot thing!" Noah said with a big goofy smile, "I don't know about Elise... she seems okay... but..." He looked down at her and slapped her face lightly a few times, "Hey! Hey! Wake up!" then realized that Echo had asked a him several questions, including asking about Wil's whereabouts. "shouldn't you know where he is!?" This wasn't good, they were all separated now, and the current had taken them into an off shoot river, he wasn't sure if the others had been dragged in different directions or if they were back in the main body. But it was getting darker as they traveled through the current. And then Noah thought he heard something.

"Turn on your light, you have one, right?" Noah said quietly to Echo, he wasn't quite sure why he was being quiet... but that noise that he had heard didn't sound like one of his comrades... but something else entirely.


((Pass to Alicia or Francesca! ))

After squinting, thrashing, and finally swimming, to be "rescued"–or grabbed–by Noah, Elise made it to solid ground with a few others. The few others, she concluded, once she regained proper vision, were Noah and Echo.

“You're awfully touchy,“ she said to Noah. “Where're Wil and Gate? And...and that man...“ People kept showing up. It was hardly an accident they were finding each other.
“Well, these clothes are pretty much ruined.“ She got up slowly, felt her ears pop and drain, and wrung her skirt out on the slippery rock.

The strip of "land" that she, Noah and Echo had stumbled across was a small segment pushed up against one of the cliff walls. There was really no other way to leave without swimming, but the treacherous current made that option less than desirable.

"I'd suggest looking around for Wil, erm, Echo, but...we're probably going to need your help to leave.“ She squinted before them, but the place, in the way of everything in the waterfall "room", faded into darkness. Although...
“What's that over there?“ She pointed. “I might be imagining things, but is there light coming from there? Beneath the water?”

They had found the strip of land pretty easily after being carried into the off shoot river, unluckily though it was not the shore line as Noah found out after he dragged himself onto it. He stood up, completely soaked. He looked down at his side packs, now just heavy waterlogged fabric encasing various objects, all of which were now soaked as well. He grumbled a little realizing that his archeological notebooks and other various things that shouldn't be in the water were now ruined.

"I could have left you underwater you know," Noah said to Elise's "touchy" comment, he didn't understand why this kid was saying that, she didn't have anything to grope anyway if that was what she was implying, and even if she did he wouldn't have been interested, he thought of her as a child... which was funny since he often acted like one himself. "Is "Gate" the name of that violent girl...?" Noah asked now realizing that Elise said a name he didn't know, and then the mention of "that guy", it must have been the man that he had been following through the tunnels.

"THAT GUY!" He exclaimed and then turned to Elise with outrage written all over his face, "He stole my article! I don't know how he got it from that Shena chick or whatever her name was, but he has it! Where is he!? I'll-" Elise was pointing at something under the water, he turned to watch where her finger was leading his sight. Sure enough, under the water there was a strange light, it was a greenish blue, colored by the water. Noah leaned over the edge of the rock that they were standing on to try and get a better look but it didn't make it clearer at all. Could the light be related to the noise that he had heard before they climbed out of the water? He turned to Echo.

"Hey, robot thing," Noah said choosing not to use Echo's name even though he knew it, "I asked you before if you've got a light, you do, right?" He said as he grabbed Echo out of midair flight and attempted to find the light himself, "It's gotta be here somewhere," He said as he turned Echo this way and that looking for it.

"Phew!" Sterling huffed as Wil hefted him onto the flat rock by the scruff of his shirt. "Thanks a bunch, man, I owe you." He sprawled out on the rock, effectively taking up the majority of the space. He laid there for a few moments, breathing in the clear air as he felt the water rush by his feet.

Suddenly, he sat up quickly and patted at his sides looking for his mail carrier's bag. It was still around his shoulder and he sighed in relief. He shoved an arm into it and ruffled around, sighing again when he realized the contents were bone dry. As though remembering something else, his hand raced to his forehead and he felt around, looking for the familiar reading glasses he had. They were still there, though he wasn't entirely sure how they'd managed to stay perched on his head through the whole experience.

"Oh, thank god. That could have been really bad, you know," Sterling said to Wil. "Hey guy, didn't you have a little robot thingy?" He looked around for the floating robot and saw it being snatched out of the air by the orange-haired kid standing on a land-platform with the rest of the little group. Sterling stood up and waved to the small group. They didn't seem to see him, but that didn't particularly deter him. They were all staring at something in the water and he stood on his tip toes trying to see what they were staring at.

Smack dab in the space between the two rocks was a small light glowing under the water. He stopped his arm-flailing to stare at the spot and tilted his head to the side.

"I... I think it's getting brighter.." Sterling murmured. He frowned, scratching at his cheek absently, thoughts racing. Suddenly he froze suddenly and turned to Wil.

"It's not getting brighter, it's getting closer. We.. we should probably run."

"Wonderful," Elise muttered. "It's moving." She glanced around again. "Hey! There they are! Wil and...and that guy! Sterling, I think it was," she added solemnly. "We're here!"

She looked down at the light. It was now growing in size, and though it it continued to glow blue-green, it was brighter and clearer. How deep was this "pool"? The light was still moving toward them, and it continued to grow. In fact, Elise realized, it wasn't a light at all. It was a multitude of lights, set together in sort of...rows?

"I think we'd better get out of the way. It looks huge!" It was a redundant comment though, as everybody was already shifting around on their perches. The lights were a part of some larger thing that loomed beneath them. It was growing bigger and faster and the lights were growing brighter and clearer and just when Elise thought they may as well all jump and swim for it, a part of the thing, the size and shape of an outhouse, broke through the water. The rest of the metal monster–because Elise could now see from the surfaced part that it was, in fact, made of metal–rested just beneath the surface. It cast enough light to brighten the whole room, though with an eerie underlit blue-green light.

“There's a door,“ she said. It was a stupidly obvious observation, but somehow it made her next decision a little easier. “I'm going to see who's there.“ She stepped into the water–made still by the presence of the enormous metal mass below– and swam the few feet to the metal box. She could see her arms and legs in the glowing water, and the box had steps that were just under the surface that her feet touched when she neared.

"Hey! Wait up!" Noah called as he splashed back into the water and followed Elise. He looked down on the metal giant below him, bathed in the eerie light. the thing resembled an artifact that he had once excavated with a team on the Old Continent, they found it half buried in the dried up remains of a lagoon which lead to the ocean. They had found that people were able to control the contraption, but they couldn't tell how, and now Noah knew, it had been a water craft.

Noah followed Elise up the stairs, and before they could knock on the door in front of them, it swung open to reveal... nothing... there was no one there, just the darkened dimly lit entryway. Noah got to the top of the stairs and tilted his head a little in confusion, then leaned in slowly he looked around, there seemed to be an intricate brass stairway leading downward, and as he stepped inside and looked down further he could see a room beyond it filled with pipes, some emitting steam, and then through the steam he saw a figure dart past the opening and out of view, it made loud hurried steps as it went.

"Whoa! what the hell was that!?" Noah said as he began to go down the stairs to follow the thing even though it was a dumb idea, but what did Noah care? They needed to get out of the area and this metal underwater craft would be their best bet.

"We should probably run."
The words were barely out of Sterling's mouth before the thing emerged from the dark depths, illuminating area with an eerie glow. All Wil could do was watch in sheer awe. Right away he had recognized it as a machine of some sort, perhaps even a vehicle. He had read about these sorts of things in books about The Ancients, but he never dreamed that he would ever see something so spectacular. Almost all technology had been forbidden, at least in Or'ian. The most complicated machine that he owned was Echo who paled in comparison--
William decided to stop staring at it and close his mouth before he embarrassed himself. Then he heard the others shouting from the shore. He glanced in their direction.
"No..." he muttered, "please don't tell me that they are actually going INSIDE it--"
Wil felt around on his belt for his dagger and realized that it was lost. He had no way of defending himself from whoever was inside the vehicle. He sighed heavily. He had no other choice but to try to follow them. His conscience wouldn't let him do anything otherwise...

Sterling stared as the giant thing ascended from the depths. He reached into his pack and pulled out a small pad and pencil without looking away, breaking his gaze only to jot something down with a frown. "Interesting," he murmured. Turning to Wil, he shrugged.

"How do you suppose we get over there?" he asked. "I don't think your friends are going to listen to me if I so suggest they not walk into a moving doorway. They're lucky there was no one home. That could have been... unpleasant." He wrung his hands together, shifting his stance on the rock and looking down at the underwater metal hesitantly.

"Well, it looks like that thing pretty much killed the current. We can probably just swim over." He made another tentative glance between the solid rock and the metal box and sighed, turning to make a shallow dive. He was right - the current no longer pulled at him. By the time he got to the other side, he noticed that the rest of the group had gone inside. The door remained swung open and he pulled himself up into the doorway.

Peering down the stairs, he paused to listen, hearing only the faint conversation of their group. He sighed, and looked up to admire the door he stood in. "Fascinating!" he exclaimed, and made a mental note to write this down when he had better light. He looked down the spiraling staircase again and mentally shrugged off his hesitation.

"H-hey, guys, wait up!" he called down. As he descended the brass stairs his confidence grew, and he walked onwards while looking around. He began bounding down the stairs, trying to catch up, and was not especially surprised when he ran into the back of the orange-haired kid.

"Whoops!" he said loudly. "Sorry about that."

“Oh! There you are,“ Elise said, acknowledging Sterling. “You're with us, then? I don't think we've introduced ourselves. I'm Elise, this is Noah,“ she gestured at him, “And Wil is the man, and Echo, and Gate is...Gate. We really don't know each other or why we're here, so if you can do anything to enlighten us, we'd be grateful.“

They had accumulated in a metal tunnel and were tight for room, though fortunately the space was long enough that they could fit in two-person wide row.