Welcome to Gaia! ::

Without warning, they vomited forth in retaliation. First from the stairs Stormy had taken, whose darkness was now joined with the main cavern's with the artifact no longer in power, and then quickly by those that had pursued the four. "Port--" Stormy tried to shout, dazed immediately and too slow to react.

They were all caught in the wave of insects. Buried, swallowed, overrun. Mandibles and legs, horns and stingers, all manner of the unnatural piercing from their carapaces as they sought to devour them all in the dark. Not even fire kept them at bay; the torches were running low on power, shrinking from flames into mere tongues desperate to get out.

This was no test from the cavern. This was simply the unfortunate luck of their circumstances.

"Port out!" she managed again, flailing in the mass, panicking over the mask halves in her grasp, wondering why the pendant was so hard to grab now of all times when they were crushing her, eating them.

Even as each member finally grasped their pendant and activated it, the shadows closed in, their shields were battered, and something amidst the horde cracked.

-----------

When they came to, they would find themselves in the infirmary being treated. Several Life hunters could be heard mentioning something along the lines of weirdest head lice ever and weren't cockroaches already mutants?, while a Moon dropped by to make sure they weren't bleeding out on the cot. Some might find themselves only mildly affected by the endeavor and covered in just a few bandages, their shields managing to hold out to the end. Others might have found that they had come through with a few scrapes and bites, as well as on the rough end of a full body examination to check for any other signs of bug infestation.

Stormy was not with them: she was in another part of the infirmary, hidden behind a curtain divider, sounding like she was screaming through a towel. There had been bugs digging into her long enough to warrant serious intervention.

Off on a table sat both halves of the mask, forgotten as if driftwood. The white half looked pristine, if now aged in daylight. The black half had a thick crack cutting it almost in half and appeared almost forlorn, normal next to its sibling.

It was the pulsating light from ahead that seemed to give them the last bit of strength they needed to make it across the bridge. Having never seen an artifact before, Abbi was intensely curious over it, reveling in the way it was placed on a dias, just like she thought it might be. Items of power were always placed in fancy places in games, so it had to echo real life somehow, right?
But as she continued running toward the pedestal, she didn't stop. Something had caught her gaze and Abbi sought to meet it halfway.
She called out to Stormy with an odd noise close to a sob, practically throwing down the torch she held so she could lay hands on her friend. But it was never that easy and when Stormy touched the mask they were swarmed, the young girl tossed backed into a pit of squealing, stinging chaos. There wasn't time to port out before she was covered, but she managed quick enough, all things considered.

---------------------------------

Waking in the Infirmary felt normal, if sudden, but Abbi still gasped when she woke up. Her body automatically sat her up even at the cost of aching all over so that she gasped again, only in pain this time, and flopped back down. Her limbs felt stiff with bandages and one curious hand felt along her back to find another set of gauze taped to her skin. That tackle from the bug earlier must have done her a number, but it could have been much worse.
Blue eyes scanned the nearby cots, counted one grumpy looking blonde, one kind looking blonde still sleeping and one teal haired dude she'd not formed an opinion on. But a reddish-brunette was missing, though not missing for long as Abbi sat back up and saw the curtain and heard the strange noise. Her hands grabbed at the sheets to pull back, got them off her legs before she stopped.
Bandages covered her from the thigh down, these a bit thicker and still red at places. The bugs had chewed through her stockings as they'd run, she hadn't had time to get rid of them and it had been worse when she'd fallen that one last time.

Her gaze turned around the room once more, saw the masks and prepared to take solace in that, at least.
Bitterness shot through her instead as one mask looked terribly normal.
Seeing Stormy was a bad idea, getting up was a bad idea, letting anyone know she was even in the infirmary was a terrible idea, everything was awful except lying back down and sleeping again.

Abbi threw the blanket over her head as she curled up on the cot, trying not to cry. Was it worth it in the end?
She didn't know...

There was no immediate return text to Otto. The person in question had thrown his phone across the room and then overturned his entire desk in a fit of grief and rage that could not quite be explained in simple terms. After what seemed like ages, however, Otto's phone would beep.