Onward: Orange

[voidtreckermods]

A Stormy Night

The night of day six of Grasshopper begins to get blustery, and rain begins to fall shortly after the sun sets. Just after midnight they are facing a full-on storm. It’s quite interesting to watch, for those who need a break from investigating. Especially up on the top floor, where the glass roof gives a good view; all the instruments are set up to monitor weather patterns and are operating perfectly, a fascinating watch for those interested in such things.

It’s a little noisy, but not too bad for those that want to sleep; it’s just another distraction along with the perpetual light. Still it is, for the most part, a peaceful night.

Lights OUT

Peaceful, that is, until about an hour before dawn on day seven, their third day on-world. A large clap of thunder booms overhead, a massive flash of light brightens even the sky around the station… and something hits the facility so hard that it seems to rock. The lights go out.

Every single light and screen in the building go dark at once. 

It’s only a few moments before the machines whir back to life. Monitors and equipment rebooting, a cascade of beeps and whirrs and start-up tones. The lights, however, do not come back on. Clearly emergency lighting has never been a concern for a people that can see in the dark.

It’s a concern now. From across the facility, everywhere there was an orb, there are now monsters. A lot of monsters. Grey, long limbed and ready to attack.

Luckily for the Voidtreckers, the monsters on the very bottom floor have found something more interesting than hunting them. Within moments, they smash through the grates along the floor, and begin clambering downwards.

Downwards seems to be through some kind of service shaft, though easily big enough to fit a person in. They skitter down into the darkness, if any of Orange try and follow they can. It will be a steep, treacherous descent; they may need to break out that climbing gear to descend safely. 

Something Approaches

Back in the facility, the monsters that didn’t descend are instead attacking anyone they find with mindless savagery. A little while after the attack starts those near the top floor will hear a siren, ringing out into the darkness. It is not constant, rather it peaks and fades. Anyone who goes to investigate will find it comes from a black metal machine on the top floor, its screen showing a now constantly flashing, wavy green line and the words SIGNAL FOUND. As time passes, the green wave on-screen grows taller.
Luckily, they only have to last the remaining hour until dawn and when the sunlight shines through the glass of the facility the monsters shatter. In their place rise familiar orbs. Any monsters on the sub-levels remain active whilst the facility is in darkness.

The alarm subsides during the day. The machine’s wave remains the same size, pulsing only occasionally. Once night falls on the third day (Grasshopper 7), it shrills, and the wave continues to grow.

Comments

[blue_ice]

"The first floor might be our best bet for a safe base. It's all offices, and all of them have computers inside. The power to everything except the lights is working, so if we turn on all the screens..."

Kaiba hears another loud noise and swings the briefcase to shield himself from that direction. "But we can search other rooms while we're up here. We know they knew it was critical to keep the lights on, why didn't they leave more backups..."

He approaches the nearest lab and jumps back when a monster rushes to the door. "===damnit!"

[so_dark_a_road]

"Sounds good to me," Curufin says. "Those computer screens can be quite bright, especially if there's a whole bank of them."

He swivels his head at the loud noise, which is of course a monster. Luckily Kaiba has that briefcase for a shield, and it seems to work quite well. Curufin slashes the creature's head off.

As they approach the door to the next lab room, they are immediately attacked again. Curufin jumps forward and then has to dodge the thing's claws and teeth. As he does so, he swings his foot around in a roundhouse kick and strikes it in the chest, knocking it on the floor. Then he leaps after it and plants his sword in its chest.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba can't do much more than play support here, so he focuses on swiveling the light and preventing ambushes.

"Yes, you're an incredible fighter. We've established that." He's joking, but as light-heartedly as he can in the tense situation. He doesn't find much of use, maybe a glass shard to use for an additional reflection of light, but they have to continue down and search for their teammates.

"It didn't get you, did it?"

[so_dark_a_road]

Thank goodness for that swiveling light!

Curufin grins up at Kaiba and then stands up, pulling his blade out of the thing's chest.

"Nope, it didn't get me. But did that other one succeed in clawing you?"

[blue_ice]

"Not deeply."

Kaiba is pushing himself on through the pain, shining the light and targeting as efficiently as he can. They need to clear a safe zone for the others and fast.

"Only one more floor to go. Think I'll make it."

His teeth are clenched, but he's making it.

[so_dark_a_road]

"Not deeply, huh? You sound like me trying to mislead my brother Maglor as to how badly I was hurt, to keep him from pulling me out of a battle and stashing me safely in the healers' tent." He smiles, but he is clearly concerned. It's clear that Kaiba is in pain.

"Only one more floor, yes, let's go. You can lean on my if you like." Kaiba may not take him up on the offer, but at least the offer is on the table. Curufin can see those clenched teeth, and he isn't going to risk his friend stumbling or falling. Luckily the stairs are broad enough for two people to descend side by side.

They reach the floor below. Curufin looks carefully around and shines his SCA light, not wanting to walk into an ambush.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba doesn't lower himself enough to verbally offer the help. But if he happens to slip a little and briefly leans on him, he's certainly going to pretend he didn't.

He mirrors Curufin's flashlight movements in the opposite direction, and catches sight of where a few are coming from. He pulls away from Curufin and advances from another side to keep the group from surrounding them.

"I see five!" And he'll keep watching, making sure none are left un-lit long enough to get the jump on Curufin. "Duck!"

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin lets him pretend. The least he can do for his friend is let him keep his dignity.

As they shine their flashlights on the approaching monsters, Curufin attempts a method he hasn't mentioned but has been working on, using his sorcerous vision-casting ability. He instantaneously creates a vision in his mind and then projects it outwards and into the minds of the creatures. He doesn't know if this will work, since these are not human beings of any sort, but it might be worth a try. The vision is one of a brilliant sun rising high in an imaginary sky, but instead of sending its rays in all directions, it beams a single dazzling, burning white beam straight into the monsters' eyes. Each monster experiences this as utterly real, and each one reacts psychologically and physically as though the light beam is real. The five creatures wince, shrink back, and suddenly disintegrate.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba watches cautiously, grateful for the man's discretion. His small light doesn't have much of an effect, but it's enough time for Curufin to act. The explosions go off and the way is clear, which leaves him time to start looking for ways to light the place.

There's a screen here, screen there...it's slow going, but they need to ensure safety first. He calls over his shoulder.

"What did you do? I didn't see anything..."

[so_dark_a_road]

Thank goodness for that small light!

Curufin follows Kaiba and explains. "I'm an Elvish sorcerer. I can craft a vision in my mind and then impose it on another mind. Apparently, it works for creatures as well as humans. The vision is so real that the receiver reacts mentally and physically as though it actually were real. The vision I made was of a brilliant sun climbing up into the sky, and it beamed its core light directly into the eyes of the monsters."

[blue_ice]

"That's...useful, if terrifying," he admits, finally stopping to lean on the wall when the hall is lit to his satisfaction. He's not that badly hurt, but a rest would still do him some good.

"It must have a number of uses...right?"

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin is more than willing to afford him that rest.

"Ah. . . yes. Vision-casting has various uses. On the space mission, I borrowed one of Eva's images of a pokemon called a Gyarados, and I crafted it into a vision of an immense dragon rolling through the air. Then I threw it at the Empire soldiers who were guarding that specialized weapon they had constructed in their ship-building base. It worked; most of them ran away, and we were able to capture the weapon. But I've put my ability to worse uses in the past."

He leans against the wall as well, folding his arms and looking distinctly not proud of himself. "I don't mind telling you, since you understand these things better than most. In my world, I wanted to take over my cousin Finrod's kingdom, on the flimsy excuse that I and my brother Celegorm could thereby become the most powerful of the Elven princes in the country of Beleriand, and then the rest of them would have to follow us to war against our great enemy, Morgoth. Celegorm and I prevented Finrod's people from going with him on a very dangerous expedition that he was bound and determined to attempt. We did it by speaking at an assembly of Finrod's people. I made a vision of war, destruction, and disaster, and cast it on all the people at the gathering, and they cringed and cowered and were afraid to leave Finrod's city of Nargothrond, and that vision was so powerful that they couldn't shake it off for months. Only ten of Finrod's men were able to resist the vision, and they were the only ones who went with him. They died with him. If the whole city had gone, they might have prevailed and kept their lord alive. So you see, I consider this a dark power, and the only reason I use it is to redeem it with positive ends."

[blue_ice]

Kaiba listens quietly, sinking to the floor as he does so. He's exhausted and injured still, but he can wait. It will heal. He's more interested in listening, as the story sounds far too familiar.

"I would've done the same, back then. You're not the only one."

He gives Curufin an appreciative look. "But if you need any more monsters for inspiration in the future, I have a deck full. Maybe a light dragon will do the trick this time."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin sits down beside Kaiba. He's a bit worried about him, but he'll let that go for a few moments. There's no Medical Coach for him to go to, though there are some people on Team Orange that have healing skills.

"You would have?" He smiles. "You and I are more alike even than I thought."

He returns the appreciative look. "I don't know anything about your magical skills. You have a deck full of monster images? Wonderful! Maybe I'll use this light dragon. What does it look like?"

[blue_ice]

"If I had the ability. I never have," he clarifies with a small shake of the head.

"And I can show you now."

He shuffles through his deck and draws Krystal Dragon, a magnificent beast of light. "I don't have the duel disk to summon the hologram of it, but you can imagine."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curuifn shakes his head as well. "Just as well that none of us have all the abilities we could imagine, or all the abilities anybody has. No telling how we'd use them."

His face lights up. He looks at the card image. "Thanks, I might use that! If not today, then someday. What an astonishing beast."