Team Kraken: Introductions, Part Five

Maria -- Cloudburst -- gasped, "Ben?"

He smiled at her as he strode forward. "You could just do this the easy way and hand it over," he said. 

Armor lifted an arm, but Ben swelled up as a layer of shifting stones surrounded his body and the twin needles from Armor's wrist-gun glanced off them and fell to the dirt. 

Gaunt? Cloudburst asked again, hoping that he was still paying attention. 

Yes? Oh. Yeah. More are coming. 

"Come on,"  she said, and pushed Nightfall back towards Gaunt. "Let Armor and Tempest hold them off. We need to get that box to its destination." Raising her voice she added, "Knock him down and let's go!"

One of them must have done something because she felt the impact through her feet as Ben hit the ground. Then they were all running, Gaunt in the lead and Armor and Tempest slogging along at the back. 

They broke into a clearing, and there was Goblin: short, wiry, with teeth like a shark exposed in a very wide grin. It was the combination of that mouth and the notably green tinge to their skin that gave them their name; their actual name was Vic. "Here," he said. "Give me my box."

"Spread out," said Nightfall, and the world went black. 

Cloudbust had never been blind, and for a moment she was simply too disoriented to react. Then Gaunt's voice spoke into her head: It's just dark. Move slowly and spread out. Nightfall's handing the box off to Goblin. That was... okay, she'd known this could happen. But knowing it and being in the middle of it were two very different things. 

Cloudburst took one careful step, trying to move slowly and stay quiet, and then another. She wavered; she'd never realized how much she relied on visual cues to keep her balance. I'll have to work on that as well. She'd managed four full paces and stopped again before the darkness brightened and she could begin to see again. A moment later the woods were back to their usual moderate shade, and Goblin was gone. 

Mr. Craven stepped out from behind a tree. "Well done," he said.