Players: Chloe, Cloud, Connor, Troy
Summary: Four individuals wake up toa brand new day in a bad new world, and for once, genre rules really DO apply.
Date: October 3, 2010
Log Title: Cold Comfort
Rating: PG
Salem Town Square
The very epicenter of Salem Town Square is wooden structure called, The Gallows. A noose swings in the breeze casting shadows along the wooded structure and town center. Gas lamps line the streets in between the buildings that serve as shops and homes. There is a well off to the side, which serves as the town's main source of water. Four streets meet in the center of Salem Town Square, one road leads to The Moors, another up a dark hill, the third to the lake and the last onto farms that have long been over grown. During the day the town seems fairly quiet, shop signs blowing in the breeze, the smell of the water sweeping across the moors and the deserted buildings dark and desolate. At night the lamps come to life and flicker giving shadows a sense of life. Occasionally voices and lights can be heard coming from one of the buildings but once inspected it's always vacant.
As his eyes open, Troy finds himself in his normal powersuit. Along with… other people around. Slowly, he rises, tapping his visor. He taps it again. And again. "Shit." He mutters as he looks down at his wrist. Tapping a few sensor pads, he waits. Nothing. He taps again. Nothing again. "Wonderful." That about sums it up to him. The joys of being reliant on certain things is that it puts you at a major disadvantage when you don't have access to it.
Connor groans softly, and pushes up off the hard packed ground to standing as he looks around for a long moment. Immediately, he seems to go for a physical inspection, touching and checking his legs, arms, chest, and where he can reach on his back… all before checking his face, "Nothing broken…" The young man mumbles to himself as he then reaches into his pocket and pulls out his Xavier's cellular and sees that it doesn't even turn on, "Great…" Putting it away, out comes a handkerchief from his pocket that he tries to use to scrub the phantom sensation of dirt… real or assumed… from the side of his face that was kissing the ground.
( One of the perks of superspeed is you bounce back from disasters faster than normal people. Of course when everyone else is unconcious and you have very little medical knowledge that can leave you sitting around bored. "/Finally/. I've been sitting here waiting for someone else to come around for… minutes. God what took you so long? We're…. uhm… not in Kansas and I can't see any Ruby slippers," Chloe declares, perched on the edge of the well. "This place /sucks/. Guess we got overdue on our school related disasters or something." )
Cloud rolls over and opens his eyes, "What happe…", then the memory of last night hits him, "ZOMBIES!", he quickly pushes himself into standing position while absorbing from the diamond in his pocket, he's dressed in blue jeans, red sneakers, a red and white checkered shirt and his dark roots are beginning to show though his spikey bleached blond hair, his body, clothes and hair take on a diamond-like quality, wait, "where am i?"
Ignoring the outburst from Cloud, Troy simply sighs. "Wonderful. Surrounded by Xavier's kids." He would roll his eyes, but the effect would be lost behind the visor. "Alright, kids. Anyone have any idea what's going on. Last I remember, SHIELD had sent me to extend an invitation to your school from mine. Next thing I know, my guidance systems go haywire, I lost my sense of direction, and I fall, waking up here. Ideas?" He asks, the suit arching slightly above the visor, as if where the eyebrow would be.
Connor continues to try and get the dregs of the dirt off his cheek and his arm as he looks around for a long moment, "Hard to say, Sir…" The tone of respect somewhat automatic from the young man's voice as then checks his clothing as well for scuffing, "I felt sick… really sick all last night. I thought it was just something I'd eaten, but then I blacked out. Where ever we are… I don't think it's Earth. It doesn't feel right to me…"
"You got any ID to prove that story?" Chloe asks curiously, swinging her legs idly back and forth. "After all if Shield was going to send someone to make an invitation you'd think they'd show a little more tact." She glances at Cloud and scowls. "I swear /every/ time I see you Cloud something bad happens. And what was that about zombies? Bad dream or astonishing insight?"
Cloud exhales loudly when he ses Connor and Chloe, "Errm neither, last night there was mist, a mage, zombies and holy shit! the fucking Reaper!, he waved his blade thingy at Lucas, next thing i'm waking up here, did you not see any of that?", he falls back to sit on the ground again.
Troy flips over the SHIELD logo on his shoulder, opening it up with his ID inside. "Troy Bay. Agent Slide. Agent of SHIELD. Happy?" He asks, before turning back to the polite one, Connor. He knows of this one. "Makes sense. I have no telemetry, I have no sense of where I am and what's going on. My link to the SHIELD database isn't working." He pauses, he raises off the ground a bit. "Fortunately, I still have my suit working for the most part. Though… If I don't find a power-source soon, I won't have power for long. I'll be stuck and… not the nicest person." He sighs. "Lovely. Attack on Xavier's and I get involved somehow. That's why I don't care for the school itself. I don't mind some of the people though, mind you."
"No Offense, Sir… but we don't know if it was -just- Xavier's, or if something more is going on, to be honest. Until we get the lay of the land, anyways. Do you need your suit to survive?", Connor asks as he looks around at the others, and then exhales hard, "Right now priorities are shelter, food, and then intelligence." Eyes flick to Chloe, "Chloe… wanna take a scout run around town and find out how many of us are here?" Then he looks over to Cloud, "Cloud… you've got a weird shimmer going on… can you tell what you're synching with right now?"
"Did it already. Couple of teachers, bunch of students and I think some people might have already gone. Some of the local buildings seem sound and we have water in the well," Chloe replies with a yawn, springing off her perch and moving over to check out Troys badge. Not that she knows what a real SHIELD ID looks like. "I don't fancy checking any futher than I have done because I'm kinda hungry and without knowing when I'll next eat…. Well lets just say I'm not too keen on finding out how quickly I can starve to death."
Cloud rolls his eyes, "I know i'm a little slow sometimes but i'm not stupid, i'm diamond right now, most usefull thing I had on me", he jumps to his feet, "If you two are here and the SHIELD guy is too, then my sister could be lost here somewhere, i have to go find her, I need electricity".
"I don't need it to survive. But without it, I'm powerless and my hormones are out of control. It helps me regulate my sense of self. Ever since…." Troy shakes his head. "Nevermind. Need to know basis. Right now, don't need to know. Top Secret anyway." He shrugs a bit. "I can't sense anything with my comp-link, though, so except for being able to fly and to adjust frictive co-efficients, not much I can do." He smirks a bit. "And yes, we were sending to get our schools a meet and greet dance. SHIELD's school and Xavier's. Since… well… some of the former Xavier's students are now our students." He looks at Cloud. "Then you need to stay in a group. Do NOT go charging off on your own. That… could be suicide when you're in an area you don't know. And you're not the only one that needs electricity."
All it takes is one look around before Connor shakes his head, "Only electricity we're going to find here looks like the kind that nature provides…" Pointing up to the gas lamps, then towards the wooden signs and other items to indicate the level of tech, "Cloud… if Star's here, we'll find her… but the Agent is right… you haring off the group will just put you in potential danger. I know you're tough, and you're okay in a fight… but you're right that you're not stupid. And Star would want you to stick with the team until she could be found… right?"
Chloe frowns. "I think I might have seen her with some of the others. But I can't be sure and yeah Connor's right about the no-electric thing," she offers with a shrug. "I haven't even see a horse and cart on my wanderings. Well, couple of carts maybe but a complete lack of horses. This place seems… dead. More like a ghost town movie set than a real place or something out of an especially high budget Scooby Doo episode."
Cloud sighs, "But shes out there on her own, i can't let her get hurt", still he does as he's told and stays with the group, he's learnt that things always go wrong when he goes off without thinking, "Are we sure this place isn't death, i mean i saw the reaper before i came here…"
"I'm sure it's not death. I wouldn't have my suit in death." Troy says with a sure nod. "And, it doesn't feel like death. I can still feel myself and my emotions." He explains. "So, we start exploring just a little at a time to discover what's going on. But always as a group, or at speeds where others can't match for those of us who can." He explains. "And like he said, Food, Shelter, and then finding others are key."
Connor works on another dirty spot on his overshirt, and then pulls it off for a moment, making a rather annoyed face at the spot, then pulls it back on. Looking to the others, he nods once, "I'm Connor Blake, this is Chloe, and of course this is Cloud… Agent. If you prefer codenames, our assigned names are Chase, Etoile, and Rush respectively." Looking around again, he takes another breath and exhales hard, "Chloe's going to need to eat soon… but it sounds like there's no animal life… but there's farms, so we can get vegetables. We're also going to want to pick a building, probably, and make it our defacto base… right, Agent?"
"I'd say we go rural. Find a sturdy looking farm building," Chloe ventures, pacing around the square and scowling at the buildings. "This place is too… obvious I guess. And the gallows doesn't exactly send out the kinda positive vibes that'll keep everyone in high spirits. I was tempted to head out and look at the school but… well it's a fairly long run and I have no clue how quick things in this place might move. Could be that I'll be far slower than whatever bug eyed monsters are lurking out there." She suddenly stops and giggles. "I wish more people knew how to dance properly. 'Coz then we could all do the Thriller dance."
Cloud sighs and looks around, "I don't care what we do, as long as we do it fast, everythingabout this place feels wrong, we NEED to find the others", he stays in diamond form for now, if something does happen, at least he will be able to take a hit.
"Troy, please. Or Slide. I answer to a lot of things. Agent makes me feel old. I'm… only 18." He says with a bit of a cough. A very, VERY young Agent of SHIELD. "Good call on the rural. Less likely to be checked out. And if you're fast, Chloe, and so am I, we can be scouts for things. Though, I don't know how long my powers will hold out…" He explains. "But I'm more than willing to use it up to help us." He says, glancing about. "And we'll need to arrange watchers when we sleep. We don't want people to sneak up on us." He adds in. "But yeah, Connor has the right of it for the most part. And Cloud, sometimes, Patience is necessary. Sometimes, we can't rush whatever's going to happen."
Nodding to Chloe, Connor seems to fidget in his spot before walking over and looking up at the gallows for a moment, "Hey Chloe… was there a blacksmith's shop, or anything like that? We could use the tools… or if there's weapons. Anything we can scavenge might help us out." Then once more he rubs the back of his neck, not commenting on the admission of the Agent, "Okay, Troy… Chloe needs to least amount of sleep from the rest of us, but she eats more… and I've got a higher food intake if I have to start using my powers too. So we're gonna need a place where we have some ready access. Also… fire. Fire's gonna be important too." Walking over to Cloud, he puts a hand on his shoulder and murmurs, "I know we need to find them, Cloud… and we will."
Chloe blinks, slowly enough that it's probably for show. "Actually I sleep as much as a normal person," she corrects. "I can push one hundred and eighty miles an hour for sprinting. But I tend to stick closer to a hundred for generally dashing about. I'm just glad I had my shoes on for a change, the ground isn't exactly amazing to run on." She stops and drums her fingers against one of the buildings. "I might have seen one? I can't honestly say. It wasn't on my list of things to search for when I went looking for people."
Cloud grins at Connor, "Got it, and Troy, noted, i'll work on being patient", yeah, fire…, "If none of the cell phones are working, why don't we try smoke signal when we've found somewhere, the others might start heading our way"
"That might also draw the natives to our location. Not necessarily a good thing." Troy considers for a moment. "I can fly up to one half mach." He adds on. "That'll at least give a little speed with us, between myself and Chloe. Ok." He says, rising up to take a look around.
Connor whistles to get Troy's attention, "Hey… if your suit and abilities are power dependant… use minimal levels, Troy… the longer we can stretch your suit, the better you'll be… I can lift you up if we need." But then he nods once more to the idea, "No smoke signals… but we can leave some sign of our passing. Once we get a place picked out, we'll mark it with the school symbol. No one here should be familiar with it, and it'll be obvious for the others." That being said, he finds a loose rock, and as to demonstrate he puts an X-in-Circle on the ground, "See?" Back to Chloe, he adds, "First stop is the blacksmith for all of us… which direction?"
Chloe frowns, then points. "If I saw one it'll be in that direction. But like I said I'm not really sure if I even spotted one," she replies with a sigh. "I mean it's not like I actually know what a real blacksmiths shop looks like. As for them not knowing the symbol… They /did/ attack the school yah know. So I'm pretty sure they'll have seen the logo somewhere or other."
Cloud sighs, of course it might attract danger, why didn't he think of that, idiot!, Star is lost out there somewhere and he can't come up with even one useful thought, get it together Cloud!
"Maybe so, but maybe not. And the symbol is innocent enough. It could also be represented as poison as it was in many societies. We don't know what it is, but it may be close enough to work." Troy says with a nod as he lowers himself back to the ground. "It won't last either way." He says with a sigh. "My suit is designed to be recharged at regular intervals regardless of use. It's a dependency thing. Even without power, it would stop with my hormonal adjustment system after two days." He states.
Connor grits his teeth a moment as he looks at the handkerchief, and sighs… the blot of dirt on it somehow offensive as he stuffs it into a jeans pocket to ignore it for the time being, "Allright… then shelter it is. Chloe… sounds like you've seen more than the rest of us… and I suppose Troy would be a good backup to you to scout one the locales… I can stick with Cloud and we'll hoof it there, until or unless we find anything here."
"Say… Connor can you teleport here?" Chloe ponders, doing a few warm up stretches. "Only if you can't it might be better to find out sooner rather than later… Because if this place isn't hooked up to your spartial whatyamacallit and you find out when trying to escape from a giant tentacle monster things could turn out poorly." She begins sauntering towards one of the roads leading out of town, gradually getting faster with each step. "I'll try run a half circle scouting pattern ahead of you, that way if there's anything suitable off the road we might miss I can maybe spot it."
Troy ponders a moment before nodding. "Probably a good idea to check. Just to see." He agrees with Chloe on that one. "And everyone should keep their eyes open for ANYTHING strange. If you were attacked by zombies before waking up here, who knows what this place has. I hate magic." He says with a minor growl. "One good thing about Xavier's, though. They do teach you some basic survival tactics. And even if they didn't, you'd learn them anyway."
Connor holds one hand out, and after a moment a blue-green sphere of energy appears in his hand… he then turns and launches it towards a wooden barrel off to one side, capturing it in a field and lifting it up into the air. After several moments of just shifting it around, guiding it with his hand he settles it back down once more, "Feels different here… I'll get used to it." Then he closes his eyes, and for a moment he flickers, and his image resettles, a slightly ill look on his face, "Still adjusting…" But then he vanishes and reappears behind Chloe, exhaling in relief, "There. Whew… feels like trying to push through jello."
"So where-ever we are it's still linked to our reality although maybe a bit distantly," Chloe ventures, dashing backwards for a few paces. "Hey Cloud, one thing you could do which'd be a big help would be filling that barrel with water and carrying it. We might need the water, although I'm not sure how safe to drink it is. Troy I'm guessing your suit won't have a water testing kit?"
Troy shakes his head. "Unfortunately, no. None of my sensory things work here, other than my infravision. And that's really odd, because the only things with any heat signatures right now are the people lying around here." He explains with a shrug. "I can't even get distance reads on anything. Totally dead telemetry." Not a happy agent, is he. But he'll deal with it. "At least we know it works. For emergency situations. Since, in about 47 hours, I'll be fairly worthless."
Turning and looks around, "Allright… there's a lake that direction, what might be a swamp another direction that way… or we could follow that road, or that path…" Almost talking to himself, as Connor then crosses his arms under his chest, "Once we figure out where to go, we can come back as teams for people as they come to, or we find them… at least… that'd be what I'd do." Exhaling again, he rubs a hand through his hair, "I hope it doesn't get too cold tonight, you're the only one of us dressed for the weather. Maybe we can find some clothes too."
"I should be fine in the clothing I've got on," Chloe says cheerfully. "I was out for a run and thus shoes, pants and sensible jacket. Just as well really because I don't fancy fighting evil in a skirt. Even with shorts underneath it seems kinda embarrasing."
"I don't know if this suit will offer any protection at all when it dies." Troy does say, with a little bit of worry in his voice. "It's got environmental protection built in, as well as defense systems, but…" He shrugs. "We'll make do as we can. We should probably find clothing somewhere, though. Definitely a good idea for all of us."
Connor continues to turn and look over the main square and such, but then stops as he spots the hammer and anvil that usually and universally denotes a blacksmith's shack. Pointing towards it, he looks to the others, "See… all those hours of Oblivion and Dungeons and Dragons pays off finally." And focusing in on something positive, he starts at a slow jog to the empty shop.
"Awh Connor you were coming across all cool and leader-ish until the sudden outbreak of geek," Chloe teases, changing direction to sprint towards the blacksmiths shop. "I'm guessing we're going for the whole grab whatever we can and scram approach? Oh! Maybe we could find a small cart, load it and somehow drag it with us…"
"Well, I do have a lot of strength to couple with my flight. I could easily carry it…" Troy says with a nod. "Until it runs out, anyway…" He follows Connor, moving along to get something to hold in his hands. Maybe a staff.
Connor makes his way along into and under the blacksmithy, and begins to look around, "If anyone sees a pile of nails or spikes… let me know? I can use those if I have to." But he immediately goes towards where the tools and other items are. Loud enough to be heard he says, "You were looking for a staff, right Troy? Know anything about woods? Because I think there's a few over here supposed to be used for farm tools."
"So we load a cart, hitch it to Troy and then drag it to the most farm-y looking farm we can find?" Chloe ponders, cranking her speed up a gear or two so she can ransack the blacksmith in ultra fast time. Especially if there is food hidden here. "I'm totally taking some kind of weapon. Uhm… Why can't this be the /cool/ kind of blacksmith with swords and stuff in it?" She scowls and eventually tracks down a reasonably sharp knife.
"Staves? Yes. I can use it even without my powersuit." Troy nods. "Even if not as a weapon, then as a tool." He goes from outside, sliding across the ground. His SHIELD logo on his arms is obvious to anyone that's within distance that knows what SHIELD is. He slides in and picks up a few, feeling their weight and nodding lightly.
Connor ends up cherrypicking out a woodsman's hatchet and the inward-curving blade of an old-school threshing tool. After that is a pair of knives of decent length, a length of rope… and finally a bag of about thirty carpenter's spikes. Using a leather satchel purloined from inside, and a couple more loops to set himself up with a place to put the two hefty tools… he winds it off with some leather strapping from inside, "I saw some bags and other things inside… aha!" And he comes up with a flint and steel from close by the forge, "Just what I was looking for!"
"It's a shame we can't take the forge with us really," Chloe laments, hunting around for something which she can keep the knife in. "Well, I better make a start on scouting ahead. I'll do a quick circuit of the town to give you chance to finish up here, maybe send a few more people this way." She eventually settles on belting it to the back of her cybernetic arm with a piece of leather. "If you find time Connor it could be worth 'porting onto a rooftop and surveying the area. The better you know the place the more place you can 'port back to later on. Anyway I'll hopefully see you laters, fingers crossed the bug eyed monsters leave me alone!"
"Go ahead and head on. We'll follow." Troy says with a quick nod as he looks about. He's chosen his staff. One is enough for him right now. He steps outside the blacksmith's shop and takes a run before planting it in the dirt and doing a spin-kick around it, keeping himself perfectly balanced. "Still got it." he says with a firm nod.
Connor checks the curving device, and then shakes his head and discards it politely back to it's place for a slightly less curved but still useful scythe blade, with room to put a proper grip to it. That and another leather bag-turn-sheathe for it ends up slinging it over his back as he finds a small pouch to stash the flint and steel, "Interesting technique Troy… allright, I think I'm set here… and I know this spot well enough that I can port back if I have to." Turning to get ready to move, he cuts quite the sight of a bad mishmash of old-school woodsman and modern student, "I wish we could see the stars…"
As the rest of the group seem to be choosing weapon, Cloud chooses a sythe, while wondering if it's worth exstending the diamond to the sythe, or weither he should save his energy, "Reckon this'll work?"
"It's from before the power-suit. Gymnastics." Troy says with a nod. "Good balance and agility. Nothing outstanding." He lies as he grins, shrugging a bit. "So, to the farm, then?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.
Connor nods once and looks over to Cloud, resettling some of his things, and then grabbing a second length of rope and tossing it to him, "Take this too. Never know when you need rope." And with that he starts out towards where Troy is, "Allright… you got point, then? Chloe should be easy to spot." And getting to the center where they were originally, he draws an arrow the direction they're going inside the Circle-in-X… giving it a slightly arcane bent, but otherwise still making the sign clear, "Best we can do. Oh… we might want some torches or a lamp or something… just in case…"
Cloud catches the rope thrown to him, now this could be very useful, "Got it", he heads forwards to follow Connor, grabbing a couple of the lamps as he goes.
"I'll take point. If anything goes wrong, well, just listen." Troy chuckles as he begins skating across the ground. There are no wheels under his feet, he's just sliding along the earth, picking up speed as he goes.
Salem (Old Farm House)
Over grown grass covers the landscape of the old farm. An old water pump stands in front of a stone trough with a metal pail hanging from the spout. The farmhouse is one story and in pretty good condition. Beds are made, the carpet is cleaned and there is surprisingly no dust in the house. There is a long porch with a rocking chair and a few other chairs and tables on it. The rocking chair never seems to stop rocking though. On one of the tables is a chess board where the pieces never seem to be in the same position the next time one looks at it. There is a root cellar off to the side of the house with large wooden doors that close shut. The barn off to the side is home to old horse pulled plows and tillers and many tools for farming. The stalls and pens for the animals lay empty.
Connor hikes up the way to the farm, and moving outside of the fence for a moment to use a knife to carve the symbol of Xaviers into it. Looking up towards Cloud, he nods once and starts to make his way onto the grounds, "I hope we can find some food here… At least there's water… such as it is. Might have to boil it to make it drinkable for the rest of us."
Following Connor, Cloud goes though his head all the ways he could have done better last night and stopped this, and curses himself for not absorbing a ton of electricity before they got stuck here, he nods back at Connor, "Yeah, hopefully, everyones gonna need some when we find them".
Connor looks back at Cloud, frowning a bit at his seeming depression, "Look… whatever this is… we'll get out of it. That's the way this all works. Eventually we'll figure it all out. Until then, you need to remember that you've got to keep hope alive." Nodding once more as he goes inside and sees that there's signs the others have been here, "It's a farm… there's bound to be roots and vegetables… it's not much, but better than nothing. I just wish I knew WHY there was no sign of life."
Cloud sighs, "Theres no signs cos we're probably dead, too much happens at Xaviers, we're all bound to die sooner or later, just so happens our numbers were up last night", after all didn't future Heather tell him he was gonna die, and he got that wierd flash before, but it's hard to remember.
Connor turns around and puts a hand up to stop Cloud, "Hold up right there. There's no proof we're dead, or that we're going to die… so you really need to holster that. You cannot allow despair to overcome you, regardless. As long as you've got hope, you've got a chance. Doesn't matter how small… got me?"
"Connor, the fucking Grim Reaper was at our school last night, with a bunch of zombies pulling people underground, and now we're in a place completely devoid of life, so sorry if i'm feeling a little hopeless right now!", Cloud walks past Connor and walks quickly ahead.
Connor throws his hands up, "Fine… but seriously… what about Star, huh? Is that kind of attitude going to help her?!" But then shaking his head he gets to a spot in the kitchen and sits down, tapping the table a few times as he closes his eyes and tries to clear his own sense of foreboding.
At the mention of Star's name, Cloud clenches his fists and his irises turn black as some old absorb traits float to the surface, "Don't push me by bringing my sister into this Connor, just back off".
"I…" Stopping and shaking his head, Connor just exhales once more, "Whatever… just… sleep on it, allright? I'll take watch and wake you in a couple hours. Some sack time and we'll go looking for food."
Continued in Farm House Comfort…