raisetheearth | Echo Incursion 01 - Jurassic Gateway (August 10th, 2016)

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Echo Incursion 01 - Jurassic Gateway (August 10th, 2016)

It's a particularly hot day in the Gateway City zoo. What else could you expect? It's not like it's not to be expected, it is the middle of August, after all. But there's plenty of things to see here at the zoo, and the visitors' center is air conditioned well enough.

Just a normal summer day in a typical summer vacation spot. Right?

Well, that's when things change. Those in the visitor's center would find the building changing around them. There's suddenly a dinosaur skeleton in the middle of the place, with the banner "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" hanging from the ceiling.

That's not all. The animal enclosures are now different. What used to be a pen for the african elephants now has very large, very long necked reptiles in it. A gigantic, meat-eating dinosaur just tromped its way out of the lion habitat it's too much too large for, and unfortunately for the people around it, its vision is based on movement. The monkey house? Well, those are velociraptors breaking out of it. The aviary? Now filled with particular aggressive flying pterosaurs.

These are just some of the creatures making their sudden emergence, and it's not long until they spill out of the zoo and into the city proper. Dinosaurs are now walking the streets of Gateway City.

Yes, indeed. Just a normal summer day.

[OOC: The new event is live! Please see this post for npc information and just what characters will have to deal with.]

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At some point, while she's chasing down dinosaurs and worrying after everyone she can set her eyes on, Winter realizes she's got a certain loose end she didn't really clean up. A certain person she was going to keep an eye on. After all, she gave him her number, and also her Number, and even told him to call in an emergency. But...

...she doesn't have his number. Oops.

It's at about this time, as she jumps off an electrical box, springs from an awning, and lands on a very low roof to escape a pursuing beast, that her phone rings. For a moment, she doesn't move; it just shocks her. Here she's running for her life, and she has a phone call? But when she pulls out her earpiece, she shakes her head, before clicking the button and starting to walk away from the roof's edge. "Yes, this is Winter," she says by way of greeting; it comes out a little tense, given the flying things she can see not terribly far from here, but it's serviceable.

"Winter! Thank God I got through! I tried that emergency number and it didn't work! I..." He cuts himself off with a yelp as he dodges a small ankle-biter. "What the Hell are these things? I mean, what are they doing here? Winter, there are dinosaurs! And then.... Something... A bracelet? ... Appeared on my wrist out of nowhere! And I'm just.... I don't know what else to do!"

His panic doesn't really allow him to notice how tense Winter sounds. He pants as he bolts down another street. He's not the most out of shape person, but he's not the most in shape, either. His wear is beginning to become evident in his voice.

"Winter, I don't want to drag you into anything... But... I need help right now. I don't want to die today! Tell me what to do! Tell me there's something that will make these monsters go away!"

For the longest moment, she's silent. What is there to say? He's in trouble, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. She'd given him her network number, but hadn't said anything about how to use it - which was intentional, mind, but still a pain. And then he says he got a bracelet, and he's panicking, and something clicks. After another second, she laughs over the line. "That's exactly what I needed to hear. Blaise, welcome aboard. We'll get you through this."

Walking back toward the roof's edge, she catches a glimpse of him rounding the corner, and adds a brief, "one second" over the line. With some care, she drops out of the sky to land right in front of him, wincing at the mildly hard landing, but straightening out quickly. "I don't have to talk in circles anymore. When this is over, we're going to have a long talk about our world. Until then..." She takes a firm step forward, and confidence pours from her. Everything's going to be okay.

"I'll get you out of here. Aliens, dinosaurs, monsters - the villains of this world know better than to face me. And if they've forgotten..." Her face splits into something akin to the grin you see on a hoodlum before they beat on someone. "I'll remind them why the light of wisdom isn't just for show."

Blaise can't help but feel a little confusion as Winter laughs. Her words didn't make a whole lot of sense to him either. She was waiting to hear something from him? And then he felt the reassurance when she said she'd get him through.For a brief moment, he feels sweet relief. And then something falls out of the sky and lands in front of him. He falls backward from surprise and lets out a yelp as he hits the ground. He looks up before him and his look of terror changes to relief as he sees it's only Winter. For another moment, he's speechless.

"G...God, I thought you were another dinosaur." Another moment before the reality hits; he stands himself back up. "W-Wait a second! You fell out of the sky! How are you okay!?" And landed like a cat on her feet, no less. Blaise's two-and-two was already broken from the Jurassic outburst and now he was completely lost. And her smile is even more perplexing to him. As his brain slowly catches up, something sticks out to him.

"Your world? I - wait, are we talking another planet or a different plane? Did these things follow you here? Or, maybe we're talking time travel..." For once, his shower of questions is hardly intense. It's something he can't wrap his brain around, not yet. And, right now, he can tell he doesn't need to understand. Winter's confidence seems to be infectious and he feels himself stand a little taller. He looks her in the eyes and nods his head.

"Tell me what I can do to help."

Edited 2015-08-13 16:52 (UTC)

She's trying not to laugh at him any further, but his reaction is still kind of funny... "Heroes can't get hurt when they fall from the sky, right?" Which remains a cryptic answer, though now it's in the other direction. "I should explain some things about myself, later, but... now isn't the time." Not when she can still hear the crisis all around them.

"For now, we need to get out of here," she insists. "If we can get other people out of here, that'd be great, but I don't like leaving noncombatants standing around where something untoward can happen to them." She slowly starts to walk away, toward the city outskirts, before she looks back at her friend. "Come on, let's get moving! I can talk while we walk." There's some urgency in her tone, but she's trying to be patient. How well that's working... remains to be seen.

Heroes? Blaise feels a little like Alice in Wonderland, where the rabbit hole only goes deeper. But, there was a promise for answers later; another assurance he's grateful to hear. Then he was being told to get moving and it catches him off guard.

"R-right!" Her urgency concerns him and he nods his head to her.

Blaise fumbles over himself a slight before keeping pace with Winter. 'Noncombatants' kind of stings his ego and he feels momentarily useless. But, he also knows it does no one any good if he tries to help someone only to get stuck in a worse situation himself, much less drag someone down with him. The only difference between now and just moments ago is the bracelet and Winter. While Winter might be able to do something, he has no special abilities, such as falling from the sky without getting hurt, that will be able to make a difference. He follows Winter diligently.

"Uhm... So, where are we going?" he asks like a lost child. It's the only thing he can think to ask amongst all of the chaos and bizarre circumstances.

Edited 2015-08-16 04:41 (UTC)

For the moment, Winter's just glad Blaise is following and making at least a token effort to keep himself together. While this isn't anything like the invasion, it doesn't help anyone if he's babbling and asking questions and not moving. "We're heading... somewhere safe, I'm not quite sure. But next to ground zero isn't the best place to hang out right now." She doesn't know Gateway as well as she'd like, but it's enough of a big city that she can get the gist of where she's going.

As she runs, she starts to talk, unhindered by the physical activity. "That bracelet means you're one of us. One of the Numbered," she starts, in a tone that suggests she's about as serious as she gets. "It's a relic from someone, somewhere, somewhen. That person and you are linked together, across space and time, and this won't be the first thing you get." She pauses for a moment, unsure of what to say next. She settles on, "We saved the Earth already, but there's work to be done. We're not safe yet... and I think you might be able to help us."

It's somehow more clear than it would have been two years ago, or even one. But it's still not exactly... easy to digest.

As Blaise runs to keep up with her, he can feel his ribs ache, his mouth dry, and his lungs desperate to catch their breath again. He tries to conceal these to not worry Winter or slow her down. Admittedly, what she was saying sounded like a fantasy. But then, looking around at what was occurring now, if this was the most surprising thing, then he needed to rethink his priorities. Still, it was the only thing he could think to bring up.

"A relic from another time? Am I in a video game or am I Indiana Jones?"

The Numbered. It was something that had been brought up nonstop since he came to this town, and he still didn't have a clue as to what it all meant. Panting roughly, he musters up his breath to ask:

"What are the Numbered?"

It felt weird, asking what something he was supposed to be was. The sensation felt like the fantasy world around him started to crumble, choking on reality. Which was even more weird for the events happening being so similar to fantasy. Still, he knew that sitting in a fantasy world wishing to stay a kid forever was no longer an option. He shivered as a chill went up his spine at the realisation that the world he lived in would have to change.

She's starting to notice Blaise is struggling to keep up, and she eases up a little bit. In the meantime, she laughs lightly at the questions. "It's nothing so fantastic. How should I put this... ah. Remember Raquel? He's an important friend to me now, but... in some other place, he was the partner of a girl a little younger than me. Rikka was strong, and wise, and her heart was always in the right place." She's a little wistful as the memories come back to her, everything she knows about Rikka rising to the front. "And I'm her successor, if you will. I am myself, but... I am also the reincarnation of Rikka Hishikawa. And you should be the same way."

Not that any of this makes sense to explain out of the blue, but... it's what she's got. And it's Blaise's reality, now. "The Numbered are all of us that are linked like this, to other people in distant places. When we get our first pulse, our first thing back, we also get back a string of numbers - a network number. You already have my Number; it's in your phone. I'll explain the rest later, but - if you're in danger, dial your Number, then mine. It'll put you through to both me and Summer."

...And now to see if any of that made it through without confusing the poor boy too badly.

His head is swimming from the information a bit. Yes, he remembered Raquel. So, he was something from her past life, too. Then, this bracelet was significant to him and whoever he used to be. And as she went on, the way she described Numbers struck an old memory with him.

"Wait, are these numbers that never leave your head? I... I had one a long time ago, with a blond boy looking like.... something out of a magical girl anime. And that same boy tackled a wombat... Err, I saw that part when I tackled Raquel." He chuckles nervously as he admits that part. "Are... are you saying that boy is me? But why the bracelet?"

As they are jogging, he decides to poke at it in a few places, keeping tabs on Winter from the corner of his eye.

"And why can't I get it off? Its like it's locked there."

Edited 2015-08-20 05:22 (UTC)

They start to clear the alley they'd ducked into, emerging into a street full of people... and not full of dinosaurs, which is perhaps the important part. Still, there are questions she needs to answer, and a person in her care. "That's probably it, which means you probably had a memory first. And... it could mean that, yes." Hard to say, some days. Jasmine and Dark Precure, at least, are fairly far removed. Probably.

"The bracelet, I can't really explain. Not all of us get things that make a whole lot of sense. When I first got Raquel back, he was just a plushie - I didn't know what to do with him, except keep him close. That might be what this is - something else will change it again, into a new form." A bracelet... that could be any of a number of things, so it'd be hard to guess. Especially out of magical girl anime. That could be anything. Heaven forbid he's from something like Magical Remedy - he'd never stand out.

"Anyway," she continues, "we should be safe enough here. At least for a little while. So... is there anything else you want to know, right now?"

As they turn onto the street filled with people, Blaise is trying to listen intently. However, her words seem to give less answers and raise more questions. Oh, great, so the bracelet could probably change later. Obviously, there isn't enough confusion going on. Oh, well, maybe it means super powers later? He wondered what kind he could get.

Blaise sits for a second as he thinks of any additional questions.

"What are the Numbers for? Is it something really important?" He'll think up more as this goes on and the fact that he's not running for his life right now will allow him to function a bit more in a minute here.

"The numbers... well, we don't really know. There's a lot we don't know, even after all this time. It's not like any of this came with an instruction manual, you know? At the beginning, we had to learn all of this ourselves. We made mistakes." Winter frowns. "A lot of mistakes. I probably seem like I know what I'm doing, but I had to go through a lot to get to this point." It's... been a hard trip through three years. It wasn't all cheery and happy, even if a certain addition about two years ago has made a huge difference in her mood.

He thinks for a moment, and looks a little worried.

"Is being Numbered a good thing or a bad thing? I mean, obviously, you're good. But... is it something to be proud of? And what about the stuff you said, that you were also going to talk about you? What should I know about being Numbered. About what's going on right now?"

He nods his head back the way they came, indicating the dinosaur problem.

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Echo Incursion 01 - Jurassic Gateway (August 10th, 2016)

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