It was dark in the Abyss, well, it was always dark in the abyss, but lively. The many shades were dancing around, playing with each other, talking with each other, and in many cases talking a nap wherever they could get comfortable.

In the center of the controlled chaos was the Lord of Shades himself, the coming darkness, the god of gods, and he was currently telling children's stories to the various shades that cared to listen, allowing many of them to sit and/or sleep on his horns. The Lord of Shades was more of an overprotective teddy bear of a parental figure than an actual lord... if you were of void.

The Lord of Shades would forever hold the Pale King in contempt for what he did to the void, only agreeing to destroy the Old Light if he turned over every vessel, void construct, and shade over to him. He would never forgive or forget, but he would allow peace, granted the King doesn't try that again.

Location: An Unknown Bunker Beyond Kingdom's Edge

Capsule Seals Unlocked

Beginning Defrost

Alex groaned, and stretched, he was sore all over. Well, being in stasis for long periods would do that, according to the egg heads at least.

He straitened, checked his pods calendar and froze. "200 years" Alex whispered to himself, there wasn't really a set date for when the pods would be open, only that it would happen when radiation levels had returned to safe levels for a time. Granted cobalt bombs were being dropped every which way, but still, the time frame was sobering.

A few moments later he noticed the others in their pods start waking up, he knew none of them personally, but Alex assumed that would change rather quickly. The intercom system blared, Alex covered his ears in pain, as did many other of his bunker mates.

"All bunker residents, report to designated area assigned to you in your personal tablets "

Alex grabbed his tablet from the side of his pod and opened the assignments section

"alright lets see... Scouts ... oh boy" Alex was nervous, while he trained for this for over 2 years before entering stasis, the idea of finally going out into the blasted wasteland put a pit in his stomach.

2 hours later

Snug in their environmental suits, a team of 5 including Alex made their way out of the bunker.

"Ok, so far so... why is it snowing?" Alex looked around confused, they were underground, how was snow getting in here? It wasn't even the right time of year for this.

"Maybe some of the mountain collapsed and left an opening?" one of Alex's Squamates named Lucas offered.

Alex's Squad was made up of 5 people, The lead Scout Emily, and her subordinates, Lucas, Joshua, Julia, and Alex himself.

Emily herself was leading the group forward through the cave system, "The area appears safe enough, several possible outpost locations have been spotted" Emily said in a professional tone of voice

Emily stopped the group at a ledge, she and the rest of the party gawked "What the hell is that thing?" Julia asked to no one in particular

Before them was a massive corpse of a giant white... worm?

Emily broke the silence that set in "Shit, radiation must have mutated the wildlife to be more dangerous, this makes things... difficult to say the least" Her professional demeanor shaken somewhat.

"Fucking hell look at the teeth on that thing, it looks like it could chew through a tank" Lucas remarked.

Julia just looked more intently at the work, "Hey Emily, could you take a scan of the snow"

"Very well" Emily's gloved hand scooped up a bit, put it front of her scanner, the results were... startling, the snow was actually shedded skin.

"So" Alex chimed in, looking over Emily's shoulder, "That would explain the snowing, looking at the corpse it looks recent though, no signs of battle damage, so that reassuring"

"We should flag this location for future study, get your climbing gear, we are going down farther" Ordered Emily

As the group went on, they noticed various strange organisms, giant leaping bug things that tried to attack, nothing a 10mm bullet couldn't handle, as well as docile giant flying... flies, though what really took the cake were the Suicide bombing bird things.

"Damn it not another one" Alex said angrily as one of said birds was flying at him fast, before he could shoot it, it collided with him exploding, and knocking him and his ass. "I swear if I never see one of those things again it would be too soon."

Emily stopped, and told everyone to shush, "You hear that?" She whispered, muffled cheering and then suddenly a body dropped on one of the many platforms.

Julia jumped over to it with the help of her suits grapple "I think this is a bug, and it is wearing armor and has weapons on it, code green, another species inherited the earth while we were away"

Emily Straitened, "Lucas open comms back to the Bunker, we need to inform them, Alex and I will climb up ahead, go with Julia to the other opening on the other side of this cave once you have finished informing the bunker"

"Understood Ma'am" Lucas dutifully responded

"Alex, get your weapons ready, these things are armed"

"Got it" Alex took out his 10mm pistol, making sure the safety was on, mentally preparing himself to meet another intelligent species.

Back in the Abyss

"And then the three fri-"

The Lord of Shades paused, he sensed something. Near where the old Colosseum of Fools was, It was void, it was living, it was far away, and it was most certainly not part of the Abyss.

The Shade Lord struggled to contain his rage

The shades and vessels in the Abyss sensed them too, and soon murmuring filled the void

"Siblings in danger?"

"Pale One lie?!"

"New playmates!"

"More siblings!"

The Lord of Shades called out, silencing the crowd.

"Ghost, Hollow, please come over, I need you now!"

The two vessels ran over, wondering what was needed from them

The Lord of Shades chuckled at this and patted them both on the head affectionately

"Ghost, being the most well traveled of the vessels, could you lead your siblings back here safely?"

Ghost jumped up and down excitedly and declared "I save siblings" and promptly scaled his way to the top of the Abyss, and out the door.

The Shade Lord turned to Hollow next "Hollow, I need you to go to the Pale King an-" Hollow withdrew a nail from his cloak "No not that... yet, I just need to know what his involvement with this was" Hollow nodded, sheathing the nail, and exiting the Abyss.

Soon after, the shades returned to their playing, though many of them were now gossiping about the revelation about these siblings outside the Abyss.