Harvey (Team Crafted)

Fury

Sky woke with a start. He was quiet, listening, making sure he was alone and not in any immediate danger before allowing himself to make any noise. He very quickly noticed a splitting headache probably caused by the blunt object he had been struck with before losing consciousness, but he tried his best to ignore that. Soon, when he had focused enough and his head wasn't buzzing as much, he heard a distant, quiet, echoing dripping. He opened his eyes, but couldn't see. There was a damp draft all around, though the air was stale and smelled of moss and a hint of gunpowder coming from... Sky wasn't sure. It was pitch black all around, and he had a feeling it was because they were in a cave, judging by the other clues.
     Suddenly, there was a very quiet, but very familiar sound of pain close by. Sky felt his blood run cold as he remembered what had happened before he woke up. Ty was shot.
     "Deadlox!" He called out. "Ty, where are you, are you okay? Can you hear me?!"
     He stayed quiet then, ignoring the echoing of his own voice through the caves and the fast beating of his heart, listening. Finally, there was another quiet sound nearby, coming from the cave floor. Sky dropped to his knees and felt around him for his friend. "Keep making sound, I'm here - say something." He tried to keep calm for his sake, as a leader always should, but Deadlox had always been an exception to his rules in almost every case. Several moments of searching resulted in no success until finally, he reached out and touched something fabric - Deadlox's shirt. He quickly drew closer, noticing with relief that the shirt had a torso in it as well as the rest of the body. Well, mostly.
     "S... Sky...?"
     "I'm here." Sky said quickly, almost cutting him off as he pulled him close to keep him warm.
     Ty made another small sound. "I... I can't s-see..."
     "It's okay, I can't either, it's not you." Sky assured him, tearing off a bit of the end of his blue cloak. "It's not you, it's this cave. It's just the cave. Don't panic."
     "I'm not panicking... unlike you..."
     "I'm not panicking!"
     "You're not breathing, Sky..."
     Sky stopped, and realized with a huff that Deadlox was right. He had forgotten in his nerves. Though it was pitch black all around, he knew Deadlox was smiling. Sky took a deep breath to calm himself. "You're weak as hell, and yet you're still putting all your strength into watching out for me."
     "I ain't weak, I'm fine..."
     Sky stared at him worriedly. "Where does it hurt?"
     "Um... Here..." Deadlox took Sky's wrist and guided his hand to his side. Sky winced as he felt the bloodstain there. He drew closer as Ty let go and wrapped the bit of fabric he tore off his cloak around his side to try and minimize the bleeding. He tied it tight, trying to ignore Deadlox's hiss of pain. "Sorry." He muttered.
     "It's f-fine..." Deadlox was quiet a moment as he waited for the pain to go down. "...I-Is it bad, Sky...?"
     Sky didn't want to lie to his friend. There was a lot of blood on his shirt and now on Sky's hands, it was scary... but he didn't want to scare him either. "...I can't really tell... It's too dark." He said, which wasn't quite a lie. He couldn't really tell how much blood there really was. As he spoke, he reached into his back pocket and gripped a round, smooth stone he had there. He squeezed it in his hand, it shimmered once, and then he let go.
    Deadlox didn't say anything in answer. In the silence, he noticed again the dripping nearby. Steady, quiet, almost calming. But there was also something else; echoing footsteps somewhere in the dark, far away but haunting, reminding them that they were not safe.
    "...Where are we...?" Deadlox asked finally.
    Sky stayed quiet as he looked around, before he realized he had to answer. "...I don't know."

Harvey and True set out at dawn. Or, that's what Harvey wanted to say just like in all the fantasy books he used to read. In reality, they slept in quite a bit, despite their original decision to set up watches for the night. It was almost noon when they finally were on the way again, following the footprints that led from the clearing where they found Deadlox's headphones. This time, Harvey travelled with his wand out, just in case he would need to use it.
     True seemed as nervous now as he was during the latter half of the previous day. Deadlox's headphones were stashed away in his bag, but he kept reaching in and touching them, like he was scared they wouldn't be there anymore. He would also look around a lot, afraid someone would jump out at them at any moment. It was making Harvey nervous too.
     "...Do you have any book series you like?"
     True blinked in surprise after the initial alarm of the sudden voice. "What?"
     "Do you like any books?"
     True thought a moment. "Well, I... there is Edgar Marcel's Cartography of Our Solar System and Beyond. I love all four of those books."
     "No, no, I mean like fantasy books. Like... stories about characters doing cool things and fighting monsters and going on adventures. Don't you like any of those?"
     "Oh. You mean fiction."
     "Yeah!"
     "I'm not very interested in fiction." True shrugged and looked ahead as he said it. Harvey noticed that since he was distracted, he seemed much less nervous than just before. "I'm much more intrigued by the real world, and the science in it."
     "Yeah, but don't you like a little sci-fi at least?"
     "...Sci-fi?" True repeated him, slower.
     "Yeah, science fiction." Harvey explained.
     "I still don't like fiction, Harv." True said, and Harvey huffed. True looked at him interestedly. "Why do you ask?"
     Harvey blinked. "Oh... Well... I was just curious about... if you have... Harry Potter here."
     True stared at him. He blinked once or twice before saying anything. "What?"
     "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Chamber of Secrets. Prisoner of Azkaban." He noticed True's blank expression. "No?"
     "I have no idea what you're saying anymore."
     Harvey nodded. "Fair enough." The pair fell into a comfortable silence as they walked along in the snow, under the evergreen trees of the forest. True looked ahead, and after awhile, Harvey found himself looking at his wand. Then, a thought struck him. "Hey... I wonder if any spells-..." He never got to finish.
     At that very moment, Harvey sensed something. It was a sensation he had never felt before. It was a warm vibration in his chest; and somehow, because of that, he could feel the presence of another, hotter vibration behind him - and it was growing.
     His eyes widened in alarm, and he tensed. It felt like time was frozen as his mind raced with ideas on what to do. Run? Fight? Run? True was still oblivious. Harvey felt something new. It was involuntary; his mind or his core or whatever it was seemed to have done it all on its own. He felt a fire in the pit of his gut, and a need to move and react. He thought it might be his magic controlling him - but then he realized it wasn't that at all. It was pure, human, adrenaline.
     Time sped up. In a fumbled but singular motion, Harvey spun around, held up his wand, and aimed at the person who was suddenly behind him and True. "Expelliarmus!"
     To his surprise, a real spell occurred. In truth, the speaking of the word he knew from the beloved book series had nothing to do with the light that shot from the tip of his wand. All that mattered was his intention, and how determined his soul was to create the spell. It didn't matter, however, because the approaching male swiped his hand in the air in front of him. A red, transparent forcefield of magic appeared in front of him behind his moving hand, and when the spell struck it, it dissipated with a shimmering sound. The man instantly took an offensive position, ready to cast more magic. Harvey gripped his wand tighter, eyes still wide with alarm, heart racing with fear and uncertainty. True, by that point, had scrambled back out of the way at the loud sounds the two caused and was now watching, also uncertain of what to do but having no magic to act on.
     "Harvey-!"
     "I-I'll handle it!" Harvey cut him off, though he didn't sound very sure of himself. He looked his opponent quickly up and down, sizing him up, not that it would help. He was taller and bigger than Harvey, though most men were. He had relatively pale skin and dark brown, curly hair. He wore a brown jerkin, one shoulder armored with a thin belt stretching across his chest, clasped there. There were a few small phials attached to the leather strap. Another belt, in almost a downwards arrow, was around his waist, holding up the tunic part of his jerkin. He had grey sleeves, brown leather guards on his forearms. But the most interesting thing was the mask - it didn't cover his whole face, only from his forehead to the tip of his nose, like a masquerade cover. It was grey and red, but still, the thing that really caught Harvey's attention were his eyes. They were bright, blood red.
     At that moment, the man - the Sorcerer - threw another spell at Harvey. His magic was much more powerful than Harvey's and he didn't even need a wand. Harvey didn't know how to block the spell like the Sorcerer had, so he dived away. He had to scramble up immediately after to avoid yet another spell.
     "Do something!" True shouted to Harvey from behind a tree.
     "I don't know how!" Harvey yelped and ducked under another spell. "I've never been in any situation like this before, I've never been in a regular f-fist fight!"
     "I can sense their aura on you." Harvey blinked and looked up in surprise as the other Sorcerer finally spoke. He was glaring at Harvey with narrowed, furious red eyes that made the hair on the back of Harvey's neck stand up. "What did you do with him?!"
     Harvey cried out in alarm and held out his hand, trying to make a force field like his opponent had done - but he didn't know how, and no sudden guesswork could turn up success. His yelped as the spell shot by his hand, stinging the skin, burning it.
     "Harvey!" True cried.
     "No, stay there!" Harvey held his uninjured hand up to stop True from moving, even though he didn't know why he did it given how scared he was. After, he instantly held hurt hand with the other in pain as he redirected his attention back to the enemy. He wanted to say something - either to somehow get him to run and leave them alone, or to reason with him to let them live - but he couldn't think of what to say. No ideas came to his mind aside from the fear.
     The man's hands glowed red. Harvey didn't know how he did that - he could never generate any magic in his hand. Harvey took a half step back merely by instinct, and as his heart raced, the tip of his wand faintly glowed with his gold magic. The man made the slightest move to attack and Harvey held out his wand. A weak blast was sent in the man's direction. This time, he just sighed, deflected it with a red glow again, and glared at Harvey again. "You gotta be kidding me, kid."
     Harvey offered a small, nervous shrug.
     The man sighed, looking up to the sky in sheer frustration, before he held out his hand to Harvey and looked at him, glaring fiercely with those bright red eyes in his mask. Harvey gasped as he felt an invisible force shove him back hard, like a violent gust of burning hot wind. He was thrown clean off his feet and back a meter or so before he fell hard to the ground on his back, tumbling. He landed on his back, winded, wheezing a little in pain and slightly dazed.
     "Harvey, get up!" He heard True shout to him in alarm.
     But before he could make any move to stand, a foot was placed on his chest, holding him firmly down. Harvey looked up as his vision cleared, and saw those red eyes gleaming down at him again with some sort of unexplained hatred that made Harvey's blood turn cold despite the heat of his magic. For a moment, there was silence, and all Harvey could do was sit there, frozen stiff, waiting for his death. The man leaned over him, eyes narrowed, but a look of confidence about him, like he had known he would win this fight all along and was happy about it. "What did your friends do?"
     Harvey stared at him in confusion. He swallowed shakily. "I... I-I don't understand...!" He tried to motion for True to run, but the man saw and kicked his hand away before placing his foot back on Harvey's chest. Harvey cursed himself inwardly for not taking the opportunity to scramble away, but the moment was long gone now.
     "Don't play dumb! You have thief's aura all over you!"
     Harvey's cheeks turned as red as his opponent's magic. True looked at him funny as he stammered out something he wasn't even sure was English.
     The man sighed heavily and pressed his foot down harder of Harvey's chest, returning him to the fight. "What did you do with him?!" He shouted. Behind the tree, True's brows furrowed in thought.
     "D-Do with who?! I-I don't know who you're talking about!"
     "Listen, kid, I don't like fighting that much, but I'll kick your ass into the next century if you don't start talking!"
     Harvey made a frightened sound.
     "What did you do with my friend?!"
     "I-I don't know who you are and I don't k-know who your friend is!"
     True's eyes suddenly widened in realization. The man's hands started to glow in anger at Harvey's inability to answer his questions.
     True ran out from behind the tree. "You're looking for Sky too, aren't you?!"
     Everything stopped. Harvey looked at True in wide-eyed confusion, then up at the man standing over him again. The glow had faded from the red Sorcerer's hands and he was staring over at True. "You do know where he is!"
     "No, we don't." True said, holding up his hands to show he had no weapon. "We're looking for him too." The Sorcerer's eyes narrowed in suspicion, so a True quickly elaborated. "We're his teammates, his friends. We lost touch with him and another member of our team, Deadlox, a few days ago so Harvey and I went out to try and find him. All we found were Deadlox's headphones in a clearing with some blood, last night... We think something happened to them."
     "Something did happen to them." The man said. "I don't know where Sky is, or who you are, but he is definitely in danger."
     "H-How do you know?" Harvey asked him, his voice still a little shaky with nerves.
     The Sorcerer reached into one of the pockets on his belt and pulled out a little, smooth, pearly stone. It was faintly glowing. "He contacted me."
     Harvey stared at him in confusion.
     "You know him?" True asked.
     "I knew him." The man confirmed, removing his foot from Harvey's chest finally. He seemed a lot less scary now that they were communicating calmly. Even his blood red eyes seemed less intimidating. "Some time ago, he came to my dimension and we traveled on the seas together. We were good friends. When he left our crew, we gave him a pearl. If he touched it with blood on his fingers, our pearl would be signaled."
     Harvey's face paled. "S-So he's injured?"
     "It might not be his blood." True said, and then redirected his attention to the stranger. "Why don't you help us find Sky? Then you don't have to kill Harvey."
     The man looked at True, then at Harvey. He snorted. "I was never gonna kill him. He's too scrawny." He held out a hand to Harvey to help him up.
     Harvey scowled. "I'm not scrawny..." He said, but accepted the extension of peace.
     "You might be the worst Sorcerer I've ever met." The man laughed a little as he brushed Harvey off.
     Harvey simply scowled again.
     True joined the two at the center of the clearing. "Are you alright?" True asked Harvey.
     The shorter male nodded. "I-I'm fine..."
     True looked to the stranger. "What's your name? We should know if we're gonna be on this mission together. I'm True, this is Harvey."
     "It's nice to meet you after I kicked both your asses." The man smiled confidently. "I'm Ross."

Sky looked at Deadlox cautiously, though he couldn't see him at all in the dark. He could hear his labored breathing, and feel how much he was leaning on Sky for support. It had been the smaller male's idea to start walking to try and find an exit to the cave, and he had insisted that he was strong enough to do so. Sky still wasn't so sure, however, because of how weak he seemed.
     "Tell me about that time when we had to go into the underwater temple. Remember that?"
     "Oh course I r-remember, moron, I was there..." Deadlox said, his voice slightly pained.
     "Tell me about it. Just keep talking, Ty, you gotta keep talking to me."
     "I'm not dying, Sky..."
     "You could be!"
     "Sky, calm down." Deadlox shifted his grip over his shoulders and made a small sound of pain. "It'll be fine, we always end up fine."
     Sky was quiet for a few paces. "...Not always..."
     Deadlox flinched not at the pain, but at Sky's reaction. They were quiet again for a moment as they walked along. Only their footsteps echoes through the cavern for over a minute, slow and dragging but at least moving. "...It was in March, and the water was f-freezing..." Sky looked at him in surprise as he continued. "S-Seto was with us... He wasn't great at potions, but he worked really hard and made us some underwater breathing brews anyway. He s-stayed on the beach, but you and I w-went down under and we f-found Husky there... I r-remember..."
     Sky smiled a little at the memory. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it? Do you remember when we built the Guild?"
     Deadlox was smiling now too, despite the pain he was in. "We all worked together... Jerome and Sky and Husky carried lots of stones and True and Seto and I would lay them. It t-took so long... We would work a-all day for that wh-whole summer, and sometimes, you would go out s-saving towns all night. You were s-so tired all the time..."
     Sky shrugged a little. "It's just how it was. It's not much better now." He changed the subject. "What about how we met? Do you remember that?"
     Deadlox's immediate reaction was to laugh, and then wince a little because of it. "Y-Yeah...! Seto almost got hit by that horse... and you stopped it and the... the look you... you..." Deadlox was quiet for several seconds. Sky was about to ask what was wrong, but then he spoke again, much quieter than before.
     "...I-I don't remember..."
     Sky's heart dropped into his stomach. "Don't remember? How can you not remember? You were there, it was only a few years ago."
     "I-I remember that it happened... but I don't... I-I can't remember...! I-I..."
     Sky winced. "Just - don't panic, Ty, don't - here, remember how you met Harvey? You never told me about that, I'm curious, can you tell me how you met him? You were with Husky, right?"
     Deadlox didn't speak for a moment.
     "...Ty...?"
     "Th-There's a light...!"
     Sky's heart stopped.
     "Look, S-Sky, look!"
     Sky looked ahead, and to his relief, there was indeed a literal light at the end of the tunnel. "Oh thank god..." He picked up the pace, half carrying his wounded friend along at this point. They didn't say anything else on the way, but thankfully, it didn't take long to get there. Once they reached the wide mouth of the cave, they both stopped in shock. This wasn't what either of them expected to see once they stepped out of the cave, blinking in the light.
     They seemed to be in a big room, but filled with real trees and grass as though it were outside. A glass ceiling showing the cloudy sky through the canopy of green trees, which were full and leafy despite how bare the trees of the forest usually were during this time of year. It was also a mild climate, unlike it had been outside when they were last there in the snow. A stream ran through the trees just ahead, with some slippery-looking rocks in a sketchy line across. The stream was deep and fast-moving, and a very long waterfall not far down. They could hear the water cascading powerfully into the lake below, and see the mist it created rising just over the edge. If one were to fall into the stream, there would be little hope in staying afloat before falling over the watery cliff to their deaths - especially for Sky.
     "Wh... What...?"
     At Deadlox's bewildered statement, Sky's attention was drawn back to him. He glanced immediately at his friend's hip and winced at what he saw. The whole side of his white shirt was stained red, and so was the dark blue cloth Sky had used to try and stop the bleeding. It wasn't proving very effective.
     Sky breathed a nervous sigh and looked around the unknown terrain again. "What the hell is going on..."
     He had a nasty feeling he knew.