middleofsomewhere | Day 11 Catfish

When they came to the cave exit, Curufin could see how very right his father was. The red and black sky, the cracking mountains, the air full of smoke and ash, the scorching wind blowing straight at them. Seeing that Fëanor was carrying Joss and Tony had picked up the crying child, he looked around to see if he could help the citizens in any way that he wasn't already. He used his shield more than once to deflect flying volcanic rocks from hitting anyone.

Raven was aloft already, and suddenly Danny vanished form the group and emerged in the sky in ghostly form. This did not actually surprise Curufin much, who had more than once existed in ghost form. He couldn't fly, so it wouldn't have been any advantage in this situation.

He placed himself between the wind and the others whenever he could. His was a spirit of fire, and that spirit charged up his body with protection. He would be less harmed by the heat than some of the others would.

Edited 2019-11-25 19:25 (UTC)

Romeo held on tightly to the child behind him's hand and focused on walking towards the pod. He could still see it. He wants to run. To go really fast and get everyone out of here but the littlest ones wouldn't be able to keep up and they can't leave anyone behind. The smoke stung his eyes and the heat hurt. He kept walking though, pulling his hoodie up to cover his face.

"Cover your mouths!" He called back to the children. "It will help!"

Rath has given up being surprised about these void warriors abilities so when Danny turns into some kind of spirit and flies into the air beside Raven he prides himself on not batting an eyelid.

The villagers are mostly too struck by the state of the world but some of the children look up at Raven and Danny with wide eyes and they pulled their clothes up to their mouths when Romeo shouted.

The little boy in Tony's arms looked at him with wide eyes. "Eli." He whispered before burying his face in Tony's shoulder as more rocks rained down upon them.

The pod was close now, the wind howled towards them as they began crossing to it and the ground lurched. Up and down, like walking on a wave. Some of the villagers stumbled, unable to keep their footing. Rath had stumbled himself but he recovered quickly and reached down to help one of the villagers up.

Those in the sky would see that the whole land was like this, up and down. More cracks were appearing, in the far distance a whole forest disappeared, swallowed by the land.

The pod was close.

"Take the high ground, I've got the earthshakes." Raven called to Danny, trusting him and those below with shields to worry about the rocks. Instead, Raven's eyes glowed white, hands in front of her and a silhouette formed around her of that same dark energy in the form of outstretched wings and a giant bird. Underneath the group's feet, and in a clear path to the pod, dark-energy coated the ground and provided what stability Raven could grant them and safe travel.

Once this was all over, and they were back on the train--she was absolutely going to go kidnap a quiet-room on the quiet car and hermit. Too many people, too many emotions, and while this wasn't different from what she'd done with the Titans in some ways... It was harder since she wasn't with the titans and this wasn't the same old familiar missions.

Edited 2019-11-26 14:27 (UTC)

Danny catches another large piece of debris, his hands shielded with ice, and tosses it away from the group.

"Got it!" he calls down. He flies up, and a moment of thought shifts his energy from the cold blue of his ice to a bright luminous of green. He stretches it out into a large energy shield and sets himself to blocking debris away from the group below.

Curufin gazes upwards for a moment to appreciate what Raven and Danny are doing, high in the sky. And then he minds what is happening on the ground. Raven has stabilized the roiling earth in a pathway to the pod, and Curufin just hopes the landscape on either side doesn't throw anything at them that can't be shielded against. It certainly looks like it's intending to do so. He keeps moving, and he keeps others moving.

He holds the vision in all the susceptible minds, and now he has altered it, taken out all the dire elements and replaced them with a picture of an inviting, welcoming shelter that is well-stocked with food and water and that can easily support all these people. A place where the children can learn and play and the adults can find useful lives for the duration. He adds a suggestion of a green planet located somewhere, sometime, that will more than support all of those who have fled from this place. He lets this part of the vision flicker as though it were a dream, in order to entice but not promise, since he doesn't know what the scientists are going to do about the rescuees, or if they actually have another planet to go to. The flickering dream is meant to oppose the horrible fiery ruin that surrounds them, to make it easier to cross the remaining ground and get safely to the pod.

The stabilising path definitely helped and the whole group sped up, able to tackle the ground and get closer to the pod. The vision helped too, the children calmed and the adults, though they didn't relax, became more focused.

Rath sped up as they arrived at the pod, getting ahead of the children but only so he could get the doors open, allowing the group to board immediately.

"Tony, Feanor are you alright to fly?" He gestured at the fighter craft that they had with them. They had both been in the group destroying debris in the week and so were the two best to protect the pod.

"Everyone else in the pod, that includes you two." He called up to Raven and Danny. "Let's get back to the hub, Quinn is waiting for us."

The ground shakes almost constantly now spitting poisonous fumes as it opens. Fëanor reviews his options for reacting if one would open under them and finds them sorely limited.
Then he has to worry no more as Raven casts her magic and a clear path unfolds under their feet. A stretch of ground solid enough to lead them to the pod.
Curufin's vision calms the children and lets the adults concentrate on something else than the inferno around them. It helps him to ignore the eerie similarity of this landscape with its fiery chasms, the foul air, ground cracking, and the deafening roar of the planet's core collapse from below, to that one scene from his past he'd rather not be reminded of.

In what seems like a century, they finally reach the pod and its accompanying fighter. Fëanor leaves Joss to get inside on his own. Somebody needs to pilot the fighter. So when Rath asks him and Tony to do it, he just smiles.

"Yes," he says "Perfectly alright."

Tony was really impressed with the magic Raven possessed. He had no idea she was so powerful. It was handy for this mission, certainly, but he wondered what other useful aid she could provide in other situations. They'd have to have another frank talk about her abilities when they got home.

As he was in the front of the crowd, he had missed when Danny had abruptly become a ghost and started flying. Once they're at the pod and he's helped Eli in, he looked back. He frowned in confusion at the white haired boy flying around using some kind of magic to fight debris. Was that.. Danny? He checked the group for trekkers and yes, Danny was missing.

Any further thought he had on the subject was interrupted by Rath asking Feanor and him to fly the craft. "Certainly." He followed the elf to the craft and boarded. "I'm surprised Joss didn't bite you," he remarked, jokingly.

Curufin unseals the door of the pod and then steps aside, allowing everyone else to get in before he does. He watches a little wistfully as his father and Tony board the fighter craft. He'd have liked to have flown one of those things, and he did have a little experience with flying an airship in a world called Arda Marred. Maybe another time. He certainly wasn't going to fly a fighter craft today.

He overhears Tony's joking remark to Fëanor, and wonders why Joss would bite anybody. But he doesn't have much attention for that thought. Right now, he continues to project the vision as strongly as he can, keeping everybody calm and oriented towards boarding the pod.

Romeo stood by the door and helped the kids scramble aboard, picking up the little ones so everyone got on safely! He rushed over to Fëanor and Joss and reached out for Joss' hand.

"Come on Joss, we are almost there!"

He helped his friend onto the pod, making sure Elfnein got on safely too!

Rath jumped into the front car of the pod, turning the engines on whilst the void treckers got everybody on board. So they were ready to go the moment everyone was inside.

He flicked on the radio link to the fighter craft, it was crackly but functional. "Stay close, let's get them back as quickly as wel can."

Once the last villagers were boarded and all the void warriors were safely inside the hatches snapped shut and the pod rose into the air.

Outside the glass pods it looked like fire was raining from the sky as distant volcanoes shot sparks and fume into the air. The visibility was terrible and he could only hope that Feanor and Tony had a little bit better vision higher up.

In the pods the children stared out the window in horror and fear. Vinyali sat as far away from any adults as she could, her knees pressed up against her chin as she stared fearfully out into the hellscape around them.

The adults were silent for the most part. Sullen and angry but also driven by the vision in their minds.

Joscelin is in a foul mood by the time he gets into the pod. His ego is still smarting from having been princess carried—while still in possession of a loaded gun nearly as long as he is tall, mind you—by an impossibly tall elf who had taken his angry protests completely in stride.

The small vampire accepts Romeo’s hand up into the pod with a noncommittal grunt and immediately tries to position himself as far away from the others as possible.

This puts him right next to the girl who had called him in the first place.

His expression softens. After few moments, he asks: “Are you going to be all right?”

Danny was doing a great job, and Raven was glad he'd picked up on the tactic so quickly with her. Once everyone was in a vehicle of some kind, Raven let her magic fade from stabilizing the ground.

That Corvid-shadow that enveloped her though remained, drawing the wings close around her and then the dark-energy was turning into a smaller ball rapidly. To disappear, and reappear by Danny in his ghost-form. "Let's go, Phantom."

Right at his side as the pair of them dove for the pod, and both phasing through the walls of it easily.

Curufin gets into the pod last of all, and goes to pick a seat. He sees that Vinyali has chosen to sit far from her own people, and he is smitten by worry for her again. But her people are calm even if not happy, and they are apparently pacified and maybe even hopeful because of the vision. Still, he moves to sit close enough to Vinyali that if there is any trouble, he can intervene.

The view out of the ports is hellish indeed. He wonders if they are in fact going to make it off this planet alive.

But he smiles a little as Raven and Danny alter their energies and come right through the walls of the pod.

Fëanor doesn't even start the engine before he's absolutely sure his son is in the pod. Once he does, it's time for lift-off. So far, so good. He keeps the fighter at a safe distance over the pod. Weapons ready in case they need to blast some stray rock that might endanger the pod.

Last resort, he'd let the fighter take the hit. Those machines are sturdier than the pod with its glass windows and construction built more for the comfort of passengers than combat resilience. After hours in the air and hours on the ground, Fëanor can easily say he knows everything about those machines. He could rebuild one from rubble if only he had a working engine. Everything else is replaceable.

"Well, he didn't. He did, however, complain a lot. It was most annoying."

It was not, he barely noticed. Joss could have cursed him in a hundred languages and Fëanor would not care because he didn't listen. The destruction all around was rather engaging. Yet of all the horror, it was the stench of sulfur that got to him the most. It brought the worst memories. So did the gorges filled with fire but the foul air was the worst. He could swear it seeped into his very bones.

Romeo helps Joss onto the pod but sits with the other children, doing his best to keep their spirits up. Eli has started crying again and Romeo picks him up and puts him on his knee.

"It will be okay! We are going somewhere safe and then we are going far away where the volcanoes can't hurt us!"

He looked out of the window, it was very scary out there and he just hoped they got back in time!

Edited 2019-12-01 21:06 (UTC)

Vilyani nodded at Joss, her eyes wide like she couldn't quite believe what had just happened. "Yes... I'm alright." Her voice was quiet but she was clearly making an effort to stay upbeat for a smaller child.

It was a worrying journey back to the hub but soon they were there. Rath managed to get a message through to Quin and so when they arrived she was there, the shuttle ready to go. He landed the pod and the hatches opened.

"As quick as you can, into the shuttle."

The ground lurched again and cracks spread like broken glass. They had to hurry, the air was thick with smoke and ash and the sky nothing but a deep orange colour.

Joss, who normally does not seek out physical contact, carefully puts his confiscated rifle aside and raps his small hand's around the girls'.

"No, you're not," he says simply. "You're not all right. You've just risked everything to save them, and you've been ostracized for it."

Yeah, Joscelin Fitzthomas is not exactly one to mince words.

"But because of you, they will live. Their children will live. And I think they're finally realizing it.

"You're not all right at the moment, but you will be soon."

The engine barely stops and Fëanor is already out of the fighter. More cracks appear on the floor as the foundations shake and walls around them threaten to give in any minute now.
He leaves herding the mortified villagers to rest of the team and goes straight to the pilot.

“Did everyone else leave? Have you seen them leaving? Can you contact the station and confirm that my son Maglor is already there?”

A barrage of questions it is but he must know. He must be sure Maglor is not wandering around the hub waiting for them. He shouldn’t. That was the whole point. But Fëanor knows his son and his tendency to blatantly disregard his own well-being. He could have stayed if only they had let him.

Vilyani blinked at the younger boy reaching out to comfort her and closed her eyes for a moment, fighting tears. Because he was right. She's not alright but they will live and for now that will have to be enough.

Looking out at the dying planet it is enough, they will be safe soon. "You're right. I'm not. But I'm not dead. Thanks to you lot." He's a child, though right now he is sounding wiser than his years. But many of the group are children, come to save them.

She keeps her hand in his, holding it tight even as they leave the pod to move over to the shuttle.

Quin didn't stop ushering people even as Fëanor spoke to her. "Yes they are all gone. Your son was reluctant but left with the tall man. Igni I believe and the teenager Kaito. Is that everyone?"

The last was to Rath who nodded with a terse smile.

"Let's get going."

The ground is shaking and the planet is clearly disintegrating. Curufn takes on the duty of ushering the passengers from the pod to the shuttle, and when they are all in and his trainmates are in as well, he climbs aboard too. When he is free to do so, he listens to the exchange between Fëanor and Quin and is relieved to hear that both Maglor and Kaito have left the Hub already, and that everyone else has left as well. He helps the villagers strap into their seats and then he gets into his.

"Like Quinn says, let's get the hell out of here!"

Edited 2019-12-06 08:11 (UTC)

All gone.

Fëanor drops on the seat next to Curufin. He wouldn't be able to hide his relief at the confirmation he hears from Quin, even if he tried. He doesn't. There's no need. Now it's their turn to get out.

Once they're back on the station, the grumpy villagers would stop being their problem. Let them sort themselves and their currently updated worldview on their own. He'd just like to see one thing happen. That this one brave girl that called for help gets praised and not punished. Otherwise, he will be very much displeased... and he can do some pretty rash things when he's irritated.
Looking over at Joss, he suspects that he's not the only one with such a predicament.

Joscelin lets her hold his hand. It's what Romeo would do. Romeo would say something ridiculous to 'keep her spirits up,' but Romeo is on the other side of the escape pod and it falls to Joss to be a poor substitute. He tries for a bracing sort of smile.

"And think about the leverage you'll have over them now. Mum and dad tell you to do the laundry or tidy your room? You can just remind them who it was that saved the lives of everyone in your, er, village. Bunker? Cave?"

Okay, he's really not great at this whole cheering people up thing.

"I don't think I want to remind them of this. Ever." She said quietly but she seemed to appreciate the attempt. She had no idea who this child was but she was thankful that he was here and helping. She kept hold of his hand like an anchor until they arrived back at the station.

The shuttle took them up and off the world, anyone brave enough to look out of the window would see spots of the planet crumble or explode upwards as if the entire surface was a volcano. Ripples of fire, rivers of lava. The surface warped and shifted as they flew upwards towards safety.

They were ready for them on the other side, the villagers taken to a medical bay to be checked before joining the others from the planet. Any void treckers who seemed injured were also seen to but after that were not prevented from joining their peers and eventually rejoining the train.

Day 11 Catfish

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With permission from Danny's-mun too.

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