Sheva Alomar
I'm Alive and on Fire
- AKA
- Adri, Sir Integra, Fiona, Sango
Fiona, Nova, Jettison, Kerr, Emma, Terra and Telran - Lakeside, Avidez' Mansion
A haunting hymn whispered through Fiona's ears as she came to; she groaned, slowly opening her eyes. For a moment she forgot where she was, the evening dew of the ground beneath her giving her an almost immediate reminder. Her vision was a little blurry as she stumbled to her feet. A large boulder sat next to the fire Destrillian, conveniently giving her a surface to lean on as she nearly fell when standing fully upright.
No sooner than as she put her weight on it, it moved, almost throwing her off balance again. A moment of confusion was punctuated by a rough chuckle. "Hey babe. You takin' a time out, huh? Wouldn't wanna give these fuckers out here a powerplay for too long, but man, you look like shit." Nova turned away to face the direction of the noise, of the carnage in the distance, cracking a wide grin as if he had paid Fiona the biggest compliment.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, jackass!" Fiona exclaimed as she rubbed her eyes. "If I look like shit, then don't start coming at me, you freak."
Nova guffawed, seemingly oblivious to her seething. "Then again, you probably look a damn good sight better than that other chick you hang around with. Oooh, man was that a show! Highlight reel stuff, baby. Dunno if she got out of the wet, though. Can't see shit." He fell silent as a quiet mumbling noise caught his attention. He chuckled as he looked down at the body cradled in his arms. "Well, at least this girl ain't dead. Goan' be real sore about all this though." He flicked away a loose strand of hair from Jettison's eyes as she tried to shift position in his arms. She looked like nothing more than a child, mauled and bloody from some vicious animal attack.
"Talking about Thetis?" Fiona's voice was surprisingly soft as she uttered the blunette's name. It took her another moment to process the rest of what the dark shapeshifter had said. Her features tensed. "Where'd she go?"
A glaring void was all that Fiona felt at the base of her head as she came to the realisation that Thetis was gone. All of her senses sobered up and shot to high alert, stretching to their limits to get a fix on where the water Destrillian was. Was she dead? She had to be-- but Thetis wouldn't die so easily. Did their fight carry them even further away? How could she have covered so much distance? Fiona’s mind became congested with all manner of thoughts. The redhead felt dizzy. She gripped her stomach as a heavy wave of nausea washed over her.
The fire Destrillian violently shoved past her company, focusing solely on feeling out for Thetis. Her first few steps were slow, as if each enforced a sense of denial that the water Destrillian was truly gone. Fiona paused several feet away from the others. Her breathing grew heavier. Orange eyes darted in every direction and blood began to boil.
"THETISSSS!" The redhead broke out into a full-on sprint towards the lake. The calm, impressive expanse of water betrayed a typhoon of emotions. She skirted the shoreline of the whole waterfront, looking, feeling, listening for anything like Thetis. The fire user ran about halfway around the lake to see a very wet and still carcass poking out of the water. Without thinking, the fiery redhead dashed toward it, falling to her knees and skidding to a stop. She hastily pulled the body out of the drink a bit more and brought the face into view. The sick feeling in her gut churned and became unbearable. The body she was hovering over was Flutwelle's. "SON OF A BITCH!" Fiona shoved the corpse away and rose to her feet. She stared at the water and wished she had any sort of power to fizzle it all away. Instead, the fire prototype tore off her vest, took a deep breath and dove into the lake.
Frantically did she paddle the depths of the drink, covering as much space as she could before she ran out of strength and oxygen. Nothing. No sign of her. Fiona shouted incoherently, hushed by the large mass of water around her. She clumsily broke the surface, splashing and spluttering as she swam to the shore. Pebbles crunched under the redhead’s boots as she stumbled onto the bank. With a cry of frustration, Fiona punched the ground. In seconds, the fire Destrillian had leapt to her feet and shot straight back into her search.
As Fiona was frantically searching for her blue haired counterpart, Emma was slowly making her way around the edge of the lake. The nature Destrillian's head still throbbed, and her vision kept blurring in and out of focus, but each time it threatened to overtake her she would stop and try her best to shake it off.
"No, I gotta find the others. I need to make sure everyone is still okay."
She continued on in the direction in which she thought the others might be based on what her senses were telling her. Hopefully everyone would be there.
As Fiona rounded a small patch of lesser bodies of water adjoining the lake, she saw a figure slowly treading beside the shoreline. In her panicked search, the redhead had focused all of her energy on finding Thetis and no one else. So in her state, the fire Destrillian quickly knew it wasn't her water counterpart that was headed toward her and tensed up. The person coming toward her seemed to stop for a moment and then slightly picked up their pace. Fiona reasoned the only option now was to rush whoever it was and ask questions later. At full speed, the fire prototype ran toward the stranger and lashed out. Just as she came within reaching distance, Fiona used one hand to grab the person's leg and the other to press against their breastbone as she tripped them up and brought them both to the ground.
"Fiona! What are you doing? It's me!" a familiar voice cried out.
The Destrillian of flame released the flattest sound of disgust she could muster as she recognised Emma's voice. Not only was it Emma there on the ground, but her pesky little rodent was also there, resting on the nature Destrillian's shoulder. You gotta be fucking kidding me. "WHY are you out here and what the FUCK were YOU doing out here? If you don't give me a straight answer, Chubbs, I swear I won't make life pleasant for you," Fiona shouted right into Emma's face as she pressed on her sternum.
"I was busy almost getting killed. Don't you see that fire over there?"
"The only fire I give a shit about is the one I'm gonna put you in in a second if you don't tell me where Thetis is!"
"The last time I saw Thetis she was by the lake. Do you mean she's gone missing?"
"Obviously, dumbass! Now, you're gonna help me if you know what's good for you or your little rodent pal may be next to go missing!" Fiona had shoved a finger in Emma's face, going so far as to flick the nature Destrillian's head further into the muck to get her point across.
Emma swatted Fiona's hand out of the way before glowering up at her. "You don't have to threaten me! I care about Thetis, too. Of course I'll look for her. But I also need to check on Terra."
The fire Destrillian had already returned to her feet and was stomping away, effectively disregarding anything else her fellow Destrillian had to say. Fiona left the pair in the mud as she stormed into the surrounding forest, half-tripping on overgrown roots and shrubbery. She nearly ran into a tree or two, more concerned with scanning the area than paying attention to where exactly she was going. The redhead passed the slowly-forming group of comrades without a second look. The fire prototype blazed back up the incline that she, Thetis and the now very dead Flutwelle had fallen down from the mansion. She didn't get too far before her heart stopped cold. Hanging from a stray branch was Thetis' plaid shirt. Slowly, Fiona approached the article of clothing as if it would disappear if she made any sudden movements. Her fingers gently grazed the fabric before she plucked the shirt from the wiry branches. She brought it close to her face and studied the rips and blood stains. It smelt completely of Thetis. A quick glance to the others showed that they were squabbling amongst themselves. In this small, precious moment of isolation, Fiona wrapped her arms around the shirt. In the back of her mind she hoped her counterpart was alive. It was unlikely. With that thought, all of the anger, fury and frustration of before bubbled in the pit of her stomach.
Meanwhile, Emma slowly picked herself up from the mud, cursing under her breath at the, for lack of a better word, cold reception she had just received.
"Well that was completely unnecessary," she said, staring off in the direction the other young woman had gone. There would be no point in trying to follow her when she was like this. Emma turned once more toward the direction where she felt the majority of the group may be and headed off again. Perhaps they would know where Thetis went, and if not, they would need to be told she was missing. But more than that, and Emma did feel a tad bit guilty for the shift from one missing friend to another; she needed to find Terra and make sure she was all right.
It didn't take her long at all to find where her friends were all beginning to gather, though her estimates as to how large the group would be had been a little overzealous. Nova and Jettison, along with Stolz, now. Fiona was still storming around, but she still counted, Emma supposed.
"Hey! I am so glad that you guys are safe," said Emma, bent with her hands on her knees as she smiled through the dizziness she felt.
"Have you guys seen Terra or Thetis anywhere?"
Thetis was long gone, but as if a signal from above, at that very same moment a certain Destrillian heard her name spoken. Terra saw Emma ahead, and her only thought was to keep going until she got to everyone, ignoring how much her arm and leg was hurting. She made it to the group, positively beaming in delight with seeing everyone looking generally in one piece. "Hi ehvehrywon. I brohght Telrahn."
For a moment, there was nothing but the wind in the trees (or what was left of them) as the group stared in shocked silence. Then--
"TERRA!" Emma launched herself at her friend, the first to break from the grip of sudden change. She's alive! She's safe! The redhead wrapped her arms tight around Terra and held her there, shaking with relief. "You're okay! You can-- you just..." She pulled back and stared, wide-eyed, her hands on Terra's shoulders. "You can SPEAK!"
"Yeah," was pretty much all she could say to that. "I goht schocked and then I was ohkay."
"You sound all garbly and stuff!" came Stolz' enthusiastic - if slightly unsavoury - reponse. It was to be taken as a good thing, Terra thought.
"Yo, the doc' ain't lookin' too good," bellowed Nova, the sympathy in his voice not really shining through his large-in-charge demeanor. Jettison, still cradled in his arms, managed a look over at the unconscious Destrillian and grunted her agreement. Telran hung loosely in a rather similar position, though not quite as lively.
"He goht schocked too, I think, maybee," Terra said, not terribly sure of what happened during the fight near the end.
Emma pulled Terra back into a hug, though slightly less manic this time, and at the same time quietly felt about for Telran's lifeforce. It ebbed and flowed a bit more weakly than she would have liked to feel, but it was in no true danger of flickering out or fading away. "I'm pretty sure he'll be all right," she said, feeling a light flush steal across her face as she said it. Looking at Telran, no one on the face of the planet would assume "he'll be all right" to be the words of choice.
"Where are Eyedriss and Lohkka? Are they ohkay?" Terra inquired, still trying to settle back into her jaw muscles. As glad as she was to see Emma, she remembered what she had told Idris, that she wasn't alone. If someone else knew where she was, they could at least make sure they were okay.
"Nobody fucking CARES ABOUT THEM. Where's THETIS!?" Fiona bellowed from further down the small path. In the commotion caused by Terra and Telran's return, the group had seemed to forget about the group's other notable absence.
"She's been taken."
Kerr's voice sliced through the small group, ending any further celebratory gestures, or medical concerns, or anything. The three words replaced the worrying pit of fear they had all felt for one of their comrades with a new, fresh kind about another. The Destrillian of gravity had emerged from the woodlands to join the group, still soggy from his trip into the lake and dressed in the bloody remnants of his dress shirt and suit pants. His voice was strangely quiet.
"Taken?" asked Stolz before anyone else could. "Popsicle girl? But by who?"
"The other Destrillians." Kerr was forced to raise his monotone to shout over the sudden barrage of questions and cursewords from the group.
"And how do you know all this?" Emma's voice rose above the others.
Kerr shrugged his shoulders, as if how he came to know this information wasn't important.
The flame Destrillian stomped menacingly back over to the group, back slightly slumped, teeth bared and nose flared. A red tint encompassed her vision as she gripped Thetis' shirt firmly in one hand. None of her comrades acknowledged her until she burst through their tight-knit huddle.
"God-fucking-damn you all!"
"Would you give us a moment to think here, Fiona?" Emma asked pointedly, quickly becoming irritated with the fire-weilder's seemingly single-track mind. She had a few choice snide remarks floating around in her brain that she only kept to herself due to the fact that she was also worried about Thetis.
"Where the fuck is she?!"
"She ain't here, girl. She's gone," Nova spoke up, crossing his colossal arms gravely over his chest.
"THEN FUCKING GET HER BACK!" the fire prototype bellowed, chest heaving in anger. She grit her teeth and watched as the group exchanged uncomfortable looks. After a moment's awkward silence, Jettison finally broke her silence, her voice weak and raspy but still clear enough to form her sentence.
"'Destrillians'? As in, plural?"
"Yes," Kerr replied bluntly.
"We know there are other Destrillians from the same facility Lokka and Telran come from," Emma said, frowning in concentration, "but what would they be gaining from taking another one of their kind? Mileina was working for Avidez-- who are these guys working for?"
The brief silence before Kerr's answer came was utterly deafening.
"Jason Spencer."
So much was rushing through the fire Destrillian's head that the name 'Jason Spencer' didn't ring a bell at first. "Who the fu-- No. You ARE NOT telling me that that FUCKING ASSWIPE TOOK THETIS FROM ME! How THE FUCK did he manage THAT?!" She paced around the group, ready to strike at anyone that hinted at conspiring with the loathesome man responsible for so many crimes against their kind.
“Are you sure you didn't have anything to do with this, Kerr?” Emma asked knowingly, crossing her arms as she shot Kerr a look of contempt. “You did try to kill her in Osea—”
“What?” It took Fiona a moment to process the information. Her eyes went wide and wild, zeroing in on the short Destrillian. "Is that true, you soulless piece of shit?"
"Yes," Kerr said with a scowl.
With all of the strength she presently had, the redhead stomped up to the gravity Destrillian, pulled him off his feet and slammed him against the boulder immediately behind him. "What the fuck is wrong with you? Why? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO FUCK EVERYTHING UP?!" Fiona's orange eyes glowed with fury, staring into Kerr's empty orbs.
Kerr had no answer. None that he could easily express in words. It had seemed like years ago since he had launched that attack on Thetis in the ratty Osean motel.
The silence was unbearable. So much so, that the lack of a reply triggered the flame Destrillian to brutally connect her forehead with Kerr's nose. "Answer me or I swear on my own miserable life that I will give you so much more hell than that next time!"
The blow had hurt, that much was immediately apparent. The Destrillian of gravity had been tired when he had rejoined the group, but the force of the headbutt had nearly knocked him from his feet. Kerr was momentarily grateful for the rocky edifice behind him stopping him from stumbling backwards into the lake. He felt the fresh, wet blood spill from his nose.
"What do you want me to say?" The words felt awkward coming out of Kerr's mouth.
"There's nothing for you to fucking say. What you're gonna do is FIX. THIS." With her last two words, she shoved the dark-eyed Destrillian into the large rock twice more and let him drop to the ground. She waited for Kerr to rise back to his feet before dealing him a swift uppercut which threw him back to the ground. Fiona knelt down beside Kerr. "Do whatever the hell it was that you did to track Thetis in the first place. GIVE HER BACK TO ME!"
Kerr's vision had disintegrated completely. His world was a confused sea of wavy black lines and a sickening milky red haze. It had been easy to forget over the past few days just what kind of raw physical power Fiona commanded. That last hit had caught him right in the temple and though he could tell that nothing was cracked, it took the Destrillian of gravity what seemed like an eternity to piece his thought process back together into something resembling coherency.
Very slowly, Kerr got to his feet again, barely aware of the complete and total silence that had fallen over the large group as they watched the two Destrillians.
"You'd be smart to come up with something, or I will rip those goddamn marbles you call eyes out of their GODDAMN SOCKETS!"
He rubbed the tender spot on the back of his head where it had connected repeatedly with the large rock, only opening his eyes once more to check his hand for blood. The Destrillian grimaced at the small red stain that sat neatly in the palm of his hand. With a look of disdain fired in the direction of Fiona, Kerr began to speak again.
"I have come up with something," he spat back at her as he wiped away the thick rivulet of blood that had poured from his nose.
Everyone was listening. All eyes were on him.
"I have a plan."