T
Tyrannosaurus Rekt
Guest
Original poster
★ DELILAH, DARREN, CHARLIE, MAXWELL, AND DASH ★
Dash sighed, loudly, letting it pass across his lips in staccato beats. "Thanks, Charlie, but I got it," he responded to her request to help him up. He propped himself on his elbows. It was then a massive shock wave passed through the heliplane, and he fell backwards. His eyes caught a gaping hole in the side, and Collins and them getting sucked out. He went to yell, but then there was an explosion and the heliplane went careening.
Dash lost sight every as he smashed into something--someone-- and then into the side of the plane. He caught out of his peripheral of the massive structure they were about to mash into. He squeezed his eyes shut and activated his powers, as he was at the point of impact, to provide a fleshy airbag. A nasty shock passed through his back, and he felt the others possibly fall into him. Something hit him, anyway. As soon as the plane ground to halt, he considered shrinking back down, but who knew what would imbed in his back if he did. He inhaled to ask if everyone was okay, but only pulled in noxious smoke.
They say when you're facing certain death that your life flashes before your eyes and you're met with a sense of both accomplishment and regret. That images pass through your mind of all the things you could have or should have done... They say the whole experience takes mere seconds, but survivors never forget.
The only thing that passed through Delilah's head as the ship dove into a wild spin was how she should've just smoked that damn cigarette...
Crashing wasn't experienced without fear, however, even in someone with little care for much at all. As she fell forward, smacking the side of her head on the ship's inner paneling, she blacked out for a few seconds, and coming to, she was met with a foggy, gnawing weight in her stomach, an irritating concern for not just her own life, but those around her. Peeking one eye open, the other glued shut by blood seeping down from a small gash at her hairline, she squinted through the black haze of smoke... Her element, but not so much the others. Shutting her eyes, she focused through the dull throbbing in her head and opened a palm to direct the smoke upwards, into the domed roof of the ship.
"Everyone okay?" She groaned, when she had cleared the air, pressing her free hand to her forehead with a grimace.
"They're gone..." Came Charlie's whimper of a response. During the crash, she had careened into Dash, and eyes closed, clamped shut against impending doom, she had clung to him as tightly as she dared. Now, the ship wedged dangerously against the side of the new construct, wavering back and forth perilously, she clung still, her diminutive form quivering as tears burned at her vision worse than the smoke had, "Everyone is gone..."
A harsh cough sounded in response, tinged with Maxwell's callous timber. He felt at the front of the ribs, gingerly noting how tender they were to the touch. He had instinctively reinforced his spinal section and the back of his skull upon impact to minimise injury, although Dash's new and rotund form had served to catch him. The rest of his frame ached, however, having had mounds of calcified material shunted from them and relocated. "Not everyone. We're still here, and others could have survived this. Dash, please don't move."
It occurred to Maxwell, that Dash's weight as a ballast may have been the only thing keeping the wreckage from falling off the edge.
The groan of metal against metal was enough to spring Darren into action. He wasn't about to let himself die by standing around in a teetering mangled heap of a former heliplane. With a quick assessment he maneuvered himself into the front of the plane, or rather what was left of it. Metal had twisted and crunched from the impact where the pilot once presided as if encased in something as malleable as aluminum. The glass of the windshield had broken away to reveal the interior of the building.
"Are you idiots going to just sit there with your thumbs up your asses or are you going to get out of this death trap?" he called back.
Dash paused. He was about to shrink down when Max spoke. There he was, in front of Charlie, looking like-- nope now was not the time. He wanted to argue that anything could be holding them into the side of the building, but if Dash had to give Max credit for something it was that Max knew his shit.
Ugh. There he was, too much of him, and all contained within a form fitting white body suit, and this wasn't even half the size he could achieve. It would be a humiliating moment if it wasn't so terrifying. "Then everyone get off the plane," he yelled, louder than he could usually do. As he had a lot more lung capacity now.
Rising to her feet, Delilah staggered for a moment, before steadying herself. Dash... the human pivot point in a see-saw of doom. It didn't take a genius, though Max would probably claim he was one for figuring it out, to gather what needed to happen and she wasn't going to waste time thinking it through, "As soon as I move, the smoke is gonna spread again..." Delilah noted, "So take a deep breath, Buttercup."
Finally unleashing her claws from his arm, Charlie stepped back, looking up at Dash with a small frown, pointing a gloved finger at him, "You better get off this plane, safe and sound, Dash..."
"Gotta move, Princess..." Delilah muttered, and Charlie gave Dash's hand a quick squeeze, before she turned, heading towards Darren and the cockpit.
"Ready?" Delilah asked, and without waiting for an answer, she moved, rushing for the front of the plane as well, the smoke cascading down in slow, dark spirals as she slipped from the fuselage.
Maxwell followed suit, marveling to himself as the smoke began blossoming outwards from behind them, whirlwinds of grey gradually converging. It would have been lovely if it wasn't so acrid to the senses. His pace quickened as he began to feel the smoke's caress upon his lungs again, fumes tearing at his eyes.
He stopped.
I guess I should probably…
And then he sighed, before momentarily grunting in pain. There was the sound of flesh and leather alike being torn through as a calcified protrusion of ivory white emerged from Maxwell's tailbone. A few more strands emerged from his sleeves, creaking as they folded and bent around the nearest building supports Max could find. The macabre rope of tailbone laid within the wreckage, halfway between Dash and Maxwell.
"That is about as far as I can go without literally making myself quadriplegic. Please… please only use that if you really, really need it. And try not to tug too hard."
Darren was safely out of the heliplane lending a hand to whomever made it out. Which…. was just Delilah and... "You," he called out to Charlie. "What's your name again?"
He turned back to the mangled heliplane and called out to the others. "Fucking come on!"
Dash considered flipping Delilah off, but he was distracted when Charlie squeezed his hand. He blushed, and immediately regretted it. Everyone that looked at him would be able to tell, considering how much face he had to blush on. He inhaled air as the smoke cascaded down, searing his eyes and clouding his vision. There were various voices, but Darren's yell was what alerted him that he needed to move out.
He shrunk back down, which usually knocked the wind out of him, but he couldn't take a chance with exhaling. So, he fought against that as he felt his body become more compact and weaker. As soon as he could, he bolted towards the exit of the heliplane. His lungs hurt and his eyes burned as he dodged the pieces of metal he could see.
The heliplane began to shudder and tilt, and Dash was running against an incline. It screeched and ground as it began to fall back. He increased his pace, but he was having a hard time staying alert. Pain seared through his leg as he cut himself on a piece of metal. Just a little further, he thought. The light was getting pretty damn brilliant.
There was one more metallic yawn and the heliplane dropped from the side of the building. At that moment Dash lept off the edge, but he didn't get much air with it. He reached forward, latching onto something white and rope like. He grabbed it tightly, exhaling and inhaling. That was when his sight returned, and he saw what he was holding.
"Ew," he said, repeating the word as he quickly scampered up the side of the building. Once he was over the ledge he released it and backed away from Max's bone rope. "Ew," he continued to repeat, flapping his hands in the air as if he'd just held the most disgusting thing possible.
It was unnerving, how fast her heart was pounding. Delilah wanted to chalk it up to the adrenaline of the situation, to her head wound, hell... to having hot sauce on her grits that morning, but the simple fact of the matter was, whether she wanted to or not, she couldn't ignore the concern building for the other members of the team. Dash was risking a lot to get them all off safely, and even the walking Jackass managed to toss a little heroism out there without being a raging douche about it.
It was with a surge of uncomfortable anxiety that she stood beside Darren, watching Charlie scramble through, watching Max pause... watching...
The ship lurched and Charlie screamed as it bucked away from the building, leaving a gaping hole. Through the fog of smoke pouring from the threshold, she could only just see Dash as he lept... Lept and grappled for Max's makeshift rope.
Oh my God. Oh my God...
For a moment, a horrifying moment, there was nothing but the hole, the sky beyond a manic, ironically bright blue. Then, like something out of an action movie, Dash appeared over the ledge and flopped back, releasing Max... and in the span of about three and a half seconds, ruining the Bruce Willis image that Charlie would have preferred to maintain, by squealing and flapping like a four year old with boogers on his hands.
Making a face, Charlie moved to his side and crouching down. Her eyes flickered to his leg and the idiotic display was forgotten as she zeroed in on the gash, "Oh, sweetie..." There wasn't much on her person, not much that would help, so with a frown she pried free both of the gloves, tying them together, then carefully... very carefully, she tied those around his thigh, securing it tightly over his injury.
With an eyeroll, Delilah called to the others, "Can we go, now... Before the whole damn building collapses?"
Thankful everyone made it out, Darren released a heavy sigh and shrugged. "Let them have their moment I guess," he said, and then muttered through the side of his mouth to Delilah. "Do you remember her name?"
With a snort, Delilah shook her head, "Names ain't my strong suit, but I'm pretty sure it's not Princess."
Maxwell was distant, but he wasn't heartless. He had allowed himself a brief smile of relief as he felt the tug upon his tail-bone, and then abject agony - like a dozen hernias suffered all at once. Suffice it to say: he was never going to try this maneuver again. The sounds of O-o-h Child by the Five Stairsteps pervaded his adrenaline-ridden mind as he retracted his bones, calcified materials crudely patching up the open gaps on his body. A freebie for Darren if there ever was one.
"That was pleasurable for me." Maxwell stated as he gingerly joined Delilah and Darren, sarcasm perhaps far too hidden by his even-keeled tone.
Dash's attention drifted far from the fact that he'd just grasped Max's bone innards with an intimate tug to Charlie. She hovered over him and seemed worried about his current state. He went to say something but paused as she slid off her gloves and made a makeshift bandage. "But your gloves," was all Dash got out as she tightened it around his wound. The adrenaline in his body was still pumping, and he hadn't really felt the wound. Yet, that was not where his mind was. He was blushing, again. He willed it down. No one had to see him like this, especially after they already saw him all massive and… unattractive. Ahem, he thought. Back to square one. He weaseled himself upwards from his sitting position. He'd be limping until he used his power again. "Thank you," he said to Charlie.
That soft and sweet moment was interrupted by Max stating how he enjoyed the entire thing. Dash was immediately back to "Ew."
"Right. Is there any simple way down here, or are we going to have to scramble?"
Fighting the urge to roll her eyes once again, Delilah looked around instead, gesturing to what looked to be a crane and a few other ricketty bits of construction equipment, "Unless any of you can learn to fly, real fast… that looks to be our exit."
Frowning, Charlie followed Delilah's gaze, rubbing her arm, anxiously, "...Not exactly the most sturdy looking thing."
"Well," Darren said as he pat down his body. He wondered if he packed another cigarette all the while attempting to think of anything but the now tainted song Max was thinking of.
"While you guys focus on all the death traps close by made stupidly unusable by recent events, I'm going to take the stairs."
He gave a casual wave to the group as he turned on his heels and walked away.
Dash slowly pulled himself up. As soon as he put pressure on his foot, it stung--a lot. Shit. He'd be hobbling the rest of the way down. Well, if they could find a way down. There was a moment of confusion and then Darren stated that he knew the way down. Dash cut him a look.
"Didn't think they'd put ladders here. Especially with the sheer amount of super villains lurking around, threatening to throw attractive reporters off of things. But lead the way Darren the Builder." Honestly, Dash was ready to be through with this entire debacle and they hadn't even gotten to the reason they'd been called, yet. Today was one for the history books in the level of shit he didn't want to deal with.
He glanced over at Charlie. "So, you, uh. Didn't stare too hard right when I--uh--was, you know." He cleared his throat. "Because that's not me."
While Delilah followed after Darren, she tugged a pack of cigarettes from a small pocket in the side of her pants. It was a touch crumpled, but upon open it, she was only too glad to discovered that most of the sticks in side were unharmed. Tugging one out, she tucked it behind her ear - She could have used one, pretty desperately, really, but they needed to stay alert, and she needed to be ready, in case they ran into trouble at the bottom of the stairs.
Looking over to Darren, she quirked a brow, then held the pack out with a nod, "Might die out there…" Her eyes flickered briefly over to Max and once Darren had helped himself, she offered the pack to him, as well, "Damn the rules."
Charlie, meanwhile, looked to Dash with a small frown, taking in his question with a brow quirked upwards, "Dash… You probably saved our lives. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You know I don't care how you look. Listen.. if… If we don't make it, or well, if I don't make it through this, there's something I want you to know. You're a nice guy, Dash. Beneath that shell… and you really shouldn't try so hard to cover it up. I've spent a lot of time pushing people away, cause… well…" Looking at her hands, she shrugged, "You know. But I learned coming to Harkwell that you can't use your powers, no matter how rough they might be, as an excuse to hide from the rest of the world. Maybe you don't wanna show everyone who you really are, but… But I guess what I'm saying is, you should never be afraid to show me."
There was a stairwell located nearer the center of the building, crude, but sturdy. Darren slipped his fingers into Delilah's pack of cigarettes and pulled one out for himself before beginning his descent. "Thanks," he said as he stuck it between his lips. On the way down the stairs he pat over his uniform once again in search for his lighter.
Dash paused at Charlie's words. It was probably the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to him. Usually people were happy that he used his powers as he did. His parents were mortified about what he could do. As they said, it was quite ungainly. Yet, here was Charlie. She couldn't touch anyone for fear of killing them. His stigma shouldn't have been so great. Unfortunately, some part of him bucked against the notion of being himself all the time.
"Thank you," he said, smiling and he gave a wink. "And, look, maybe if we survive all of this and everything ends butter side up, I'll show you." Honestly, they were already injured, and he wouldn't be any good in his current form against a villain. She'd probably see a lot worse until she saw him. Yet, at the same time. His true form wasn't a super powered physique, but how he was supposed to look. Dash swallowed, hard, hoping that he didn't just dig his own grave. "You're a great person Charlie. And. I'd kiss yah if it wouldn't mean instant death."
It was then that he glanced to Darren, Lil, and Max, who were making their way down. "First things first, get on the ground. So, you know. We can fight people way stronger than we are.Yaaay~"
Blushing lightly, her smile a touch sad, Charlie shrugged, "If it wouldn't probably kill you, Dash… I might let you." Shaking her head, she gestured to the steps with a nod, before following after the others, "Come on…"
Darren was able to locate his lighter during their descent and lit the end of his cigarette almost as soon as the thing was in his hands. He offered the lighter over to Delilah. "Gonna need some junk food after this," he said with a huff of a laugh. "This shit is insane. Makes me wonder why I signed up for this."
Delilah's eyes flickered over to Darren, the edge of her mouth twitching at the suggestion with a small nod, and taking the lighter, she propped the cigarette between her lips and lit it, "Same reason I did, I guess. Hell if it makes sense, but it's better to have a purpose in this mess of a life."
Tucking the pack into her pouch, she glanced briefly to Max again, "So what's the plan when we hit ground, Great and Mighty Leader?"
"Maxwell works for me too, Delilah." Maxwell wasn't one for 'damning the rules', but he had accepted a cigarette nonetheless. "Need to look for the others - hero or villain - although we probably shouldn't split further. I'll keep a look-out from the air; maybe Darren can see if he picks up any residual thoughts from the survivors, if that's how that works. If we come across one of ours, bring them back into the fold. One of them? Regroup and we'll find something out."
"Sure thing, Sticks and Stones." Delilah answered with a smirk, "If anyone's hurt, send 'em my way. I can lay down some cover. Keep them out of trouble."
Dash exhaled. "And I can do some punching." It was the only thing he was really good at beyond flashing a smile to a camera and updating his Twitter.
Sometime later they were all on the ground, Dash took point as the "muscle," but he listened to the others as they made a formation that highlighted their talent. It was then a shadow blossomed above them. There were several scared, hiding civilians. They were going to have to fight...
