The Lost Children • Rainbow Quest AU

Chapter One - Arrival

"Come onnnnnnn slowpokes, hurry uppppp!"

An Orange Steve, nicknamed Crystal by the rest of his group, was in the midst of trying to get his fellow friends to follow with him.

Supposedly, whilst exploring in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep, he stumbled upon a portal that was a thing of legends, something passed down from generation to generation.

His group, a bunch of children ranging from the ages of 4 to 12, all were still waking up and thus not really in the mood for walking, except for one of them, besides Crystal himself.

This other one who was up for adventure this early was a Yellow Steve nicknamed Sunny, which was given to him because of how he was always ready to be up as soon as the sun rose.

"Yeah come on guys! We don't got all day, we have to go check this thing that Crystal found out!"

Sunny raced ahead, being a Yellow Steve meant he was quite a bit faster than Crystal, plus he was a year older, being 11, and thus had a slight better control over his powers compared to the rest of the group.

Eventually, after a painful amount of walking, mainly because of how long it took everyone else to be willing to actually reach their destination, they did reach it.

It was just how the legends described it to be; an obsidian archway with a vibrant purple glow coming from between it.

Sunny and a few of the others looked at the structure in amazement while the rest were a bit nervous, scared for what this portal could hold.

It was said to never open until a hero that would save the world was ready to come through it, and while some of the group didn't necessarily believe that, it was concerning to see a random portal just out in the middle of a forest clearing.

Speaking of the forest clearing, a few of the younger Steve's split off from the rest of the group, playing on the flowers that were scattered in patches around the portal.

"So do you think the hero is going to come through it?"

An Indigo Steve, who was nicknamed Lilac as they had previously said how that was their favourite flower, stepped forward, standing on Crystal's right as Sunny stood on his left.

"I don't know, but if they do, I hope they're super cool and awesome!" Crystal smiled brightly in Lilac's direction, who smiled back despite being a small bit fearful.

The last portal Indigo had seen was the portal to their home, the Middle World, before it got taken over by the evil of their world; the darkness. They had been forced to leave all their family behind as to be safe from it and have no idea to this day if they got out alive or not.

However, before they could get too lost in thought about their past, a voice came from the portal.

"ᖻᓍᑘᖇ Sᓍ ᑢᗩᒪᒪᘿᕲ 'ᕼᘿᖇᓍ' ᘺᓰᒪᒪ ᘉᓍᖶ Sᗩᐺᘿ ᖻᓍᑘ ᖴᖇᓍᘻ ᖶᕼᘿ ᘿᐺᓰᒪS ᓍᖴ ᖶᕼᓰS ᘺᓍᖇᒪᕲ ᘉᓍ ᘻᗩᖶᖶᘿᖇ ᕼᓍᘺ ᘻᑘᑢᕼ ᕼᘿ ᖶᖇᓰᘿS."

The whole group, including those not by the portal the time, looked towards it, some out of shock, some out of fear.

A few seconds of silence passed before someone emerged from the portal, curled up against themself and visibly shaking.

Crystal was the first one to act, immediately running to their side and placing one of his hands on one of their shoulders.

It was clear they were crying, it was audible to almost everyone. Crystal gave them a sad look, that no one could actually see, before moving them to leaning against his chest, trying to comfort them as best as possible.