Harvey (Team Crafted)

The Entity

Bright orange eyes blinked open as an entity awoke; the bright eyes seemed to partially illuminate the room which their resident body resided in; could it be called a body? The philosophy could be regarded either way, whether the transparent form of a man neither dead nor living could be seen as a "body". Some argued that it was so, as it was capable of containing an intelligent being in control of their own movements; some, however, could argue that it was not, as the form had no solid consistency regardless of soul.
    This, of course, is completely irrelevant.
    The eyes, whether contained in a "real" body or not, were open and shining. Their dim orange glow was filled with something like suspicion and mild concern. The entity to which the eyes belonged wondered what had changed to wake them, and considering themselves a scientist of sorts, they elected to find out. A floor seemed to appear below them in the otherwise dark room, a stone jagged and littered with assorted rocks as though it was the bottom of a cave - which was entirely possible, and more than likely. Another dimension appeared: walls. Those too were made of stone and accompanied by a ceiling which was covered in dripping stalactites. The noise of the dew drops falling to the ground was quiet, but deafening to the entity, who was all too sensitive to any sound even so quiet as that. With a wince and a wave of his hand, the drops suddenly disappeared, and the echoing drips silenced. He was left alone, with not even the sound of his own breathing to disturb him.
    But still, what had woken him? Not the ambient sounds of the cave, surely, for those had not been there while he was asleep (if his stasis could be called sleep). The most likely scenario was that his test subjects - the three stubborn, oddly cooperative yet tough adventurers, one of which was oddly familiar - had completed a checkpoint, and his subconscious had alerted him that it was time to award them again.
    To find out if he was right, he outstretched his hand to the rather dull, ordinary cave wall in front of him, casually, he waved his hand once to the side as if shaking away a bad smell, and an image rippled into view on the rock face, as if a film were projected onto it for him - but there was nothing to project it. It was as if the image had been conjured by magic; this was not altogether too far from the truth.
    The scene portrayed one of the many courses he had built in his fortress away from the rest of the world, and he saw his three subjects still going through at their usual speed; two of them were helping to pull the still recovering one up a difficult slope. They had not reached any checkpoint; so why was he woken? It had nothing to do with any of his subjects... who else could it be? The man's brow furrowed, orange eyes narrowed as the glow emitting from them shone a little, almost imperceptibly brighter. Again, he waved his hand to the side, and this time, let his mind rush in a sweep of his whole domain in an attempt to find the problem - and then, there it was, clear as day. The orange glow was brighter than ever as he realized with some anger and rare confusion what had happened.
     Intruders, two of them, had somehow found their way into the cave system on their own, and were wandering around one of the cavernous tunnels, searching for... whatever. He didn't care enough to find out. For once, the entity was lost. He didn't know what to do, and as long as he could remember, that had never happen before. But then, the momentary panic vanished as he remembered himself.
    This was his domain; they had trespassed, and had now become trapped. They weren't intruders. They were simply some extra lab rats. An emotionless smirk, a memory of the feelings from a life he no longer had, appeared subconsciously on his face. He had just gained some expendable test subjects.
    Let's see how you react to this... The entity thought (or said - no one was there to wonder), and then he raised his hand once more to use his powers again.

    The tip of Harvey's wand illuminated the dark path ahead; he had no idea how to do this until Ross told him to. He had said it would be the best idea for Harvey to light the way, so Ross could save his magic in case they were attacked, since they had no real idea where they were. It was definitely possible that this place had nothing to do with their missing friends, and it was heavy on both their minds, so neither bothered to bring it up for discussion. All they could do was wander, and hope for the best.
    And they had been wandering for what felt like hours, but in reality had probably been only an hour or two. For the most part, they traveled in silence, aside from the occasional debate on whether or not to go left or right at a turn or to point out little things they noticed on the cave walls that always turned out to be nothing (so far). Despite the lack of conversation, both of their minds were wandering a mile a minute, with endless questions. Harvey didn't know about Ross, but his heart was racing just as fast as his brain.
    He couldn't get the idea out of his mind that Sky and Deadlox and now True weren't being held prisoner at all; that they were dead and thrown in a river. He kept telling himself that they, at least the first two, were too well trained to allow themselves to be killed by... who had done this in the first place? That intriguing thought only set him off on a whole lot more questions.
    Whoever they were, they had to be powerful if they could overtake Sky and Deadlox while they were together. Maybe a man bigger than Sky, or a woman faster than Deadlox, or the other way around, but those would be skills hard to master better than Harvey's friends. The young Mage was just about to ask Ross what he thought the kidnapper would look like, when suddenly, both became aware of a sudden change in atmosphere.
    By atmosphere, I don't mean that the moods of the protagonists dropped. I mean that literally, the temperature dropped and the humidity rose too fast for normality. It was so cold in fact, that when Harvey let out his gasp of surprise, he saw a sudden cloud of fog erupt from his mouth, like he was in the middle of a snowstorm. Even his winter coat didn't feel like it was enough, though it was when they were trudging through the snow on the surface.
    When he looked around, Harvey saw icicles, frozen solid, attached to the ceiling instead of the stalactites that had been there just moments before. He looked around him, and the whole cavern seemed to glisten with pure ice in the light of his wand. "Wh-What's with the c-cold...?!" He asked uncertainly, looking at Ross. His soft voice echoed down the corridor, bouncing off the frozen walls.
    Ross seemed just as confused and alarmed a he did, his eyes narrowed, shivering some. "I d-don't know, but it's nothing I c-can't handle." He held out his hands, and a moment later, his familiar fire magic lit them ablaze. Harvey had to stand back for a bit, the flames were so hot. Within seconds, the icicles and the ice on the walls began to melt away. Harvey instantly felt a warm relief wash over him, and he was grateful to have a fire Sorcerer for a traveling companion and not an ice Sorcecer. He shuffled closer as the magical fire died down to a soft glow, now shoulder-to-shoulder with Ross, who himself was no longer shivering.
    "Wh-What is this place...?" Harvey murmured, rubbing his arms to help himself heat up. Ross said nothing, as he looked around, as both were aware that he had no authority to answer the question. Harvey continued a few seconds later, hesitant. "...It feels like a prison..."
    It was true. The cold, stony place reminded him of the cells of earth. The lack of sunlight didn't help; all it was really missing were the prisoners.
    Ross was quiet for a few more seconds as he took in Harvey's comment. Then he started forwards again, his stride a little faster than before, fire still glowing brightly in one of his fists. Harvey let his own light die out as he followed. "It's only a matter life time before we find the others." Ross said. Harvey noticed that he seemed a little more determined - a little more certain that their friends were held captive here and not somewhere else - but he didn't say anything.

    The ghost of surprise was on the entity's "face" now. His eyes glittered at the screen-like view he had of his new test subjects' reactions. The tall one had magic to defend himself... An endless array of ideas occurred to the owner of the fortress, and slowly, another emotionless smile crept onto his face.
    These next few experiments would be unendingly fun.

Sky sat beside the campfire True had made hours earlier. The scientist himself had long since fallen asleep on the ground by the warm fire, and Deadlox was close, very close nearby. There was no shortage of warmth between them. Sky could help but smile, nevertheless, at the affection they shared. If anything, this whole adventure would only strengthen their bond. He felt closer to them both himself as well; he felt more protective, like the big brother he was.
    Sky's smile faded. Seto had always called him that; Deadlox and True's big brother. He would laugh as he said so, "You're so bossy. You're just like their brother." and his eyes would shine and his face seem to glow. Sky shut his eyes, and tried to push out the old memories. It had been too long, he needed to move on, Deadlox kept reminding him. But he couldn't. He could never forget him.
    The memory of Seto reminded him of Harvey. The dumbass was still out there somewhere, lost. He could easily be dead, or worse. He want sure how many days it had been since he last saw him. He might not ever again; if Harvey wasn't dead, then surely, he would end up dying here. He knew in his heart Bodil wouldn't forgive him if he remembered. He didn't wasn't him to.
    But still, he didn't want him to hurt his friends either. They had done nothing wrong. Even if he himself was gone, he couldn't imagine anything happen to them. His gaze wavered over Deadlox's healing wound in his side. True's hand was over it at the moment, in his sleep.
    A few moments passed thoughtlessly, before Sky leaned to one side, and out of his back pocket, he pulled out the pearly stone he had used to summon his friend a few days ago. He stared at it for a couple seconds, running his thumb over the smooth surface as if memorizing the texture, before he sighed softly and closed his fist around it, looking up at the dull ceiling of the underground room they were trapped in.
    You better hurry up, Ross... If you're even on your way...