Rubble and Debris(OPEN)

[Maxwell Tendas]

Max walked down Market Street, his demeanor quiet and sullen as he moved uncharacteristically slowly down the street. His usually brisk walk was replaced with a significantly slower pace as he ruminated over his latest batch of returned memories.

In these returned memories, he had finally reached the location of Dryden’s training academy and begun learning more effective ways to use his powers over water: compressing the water, different methods of attack and defense, and even small tricks better suited to entertainment than combat were all beginning to come back to him. That, though, wasn’t why he was so troubled by these memories. It wasn’t in what he was suddenly remembering, but rather who he was remembering.

Of course, his best friend Donovan had also accompanied him to the Drydenian Academy, but that wasn’t it either. It was a girl they had met there. She had been the same age as the two of them who was from a small eastern village near the borders with Fefrium and Xuthal. Her name was Wren, and she was rather short, even compared to Max’s less-than-impressive height, and had medium length blonde hair that was so light it even seemed white in the right light. She also happened to be the most gentle person he had ever met, a true rarity among Grendamites. Max and Donovan had both very clearly been smitten with her at first sight, though neither would admit it aloud to the other, and they both quickly befriended her to the point that the three of them were soon rarely seen apart, given the chance. These memories were, uncharacteristically of what he’d seen so far, something to cherish and think back on fondly, and that is exactly what troubled Max about them. After he had regained these memories, instead of a fondness he felt only a nauseatingly strong pain and sadness that genuinely threatened to make him vomit.

The worst part was that he didn’t know why.

There was nothing in the memories themselves to indicate why he would feel this way about them, other than it had to do with not just Wren, but also Donovan. Ever since this most recent set of memories had returned, he couldn’t think about either of them without a pit settling into his stomach. After just a few hours of this he decided to go for a walk around Twilight Town, hoping the cool, fresh air would help clear his head. It had done little good, however, and now he was on his way back to the small room he had made his bed in, his thoughts to intrusive to get rid of for now.

He was mid-stride when he heard a loud crashing sound accompanied by cries of fear nearby. He looked up in the direction it had come from to see a large cloud of dust and debris rising above the nearby rooftops as numerous shouts and cries and screams began to float through the air. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he knew what the sound of some of those screams were: fear and pain. Whatever it was, people were hurt, and he couldn’t leave them to fend for themselves.

Almost on instinct, he began to run towards the sounds, turning down alleyways and side streets, trying to find the fastest path to them...

[Era]

It was hard to keep track of which day it was. Today though, it was cloudier than normal. Several dark plumes rolled through the dark purple sky. Carried with them was a cool wind. It was a refreshing sort of wind: more like an occasional rough breeze, and pleasant to cool off with: especially if you’d busied yourself working all day. The world needed help getting back up on its feet, after all. The denizens of light had much to do.

Tonight seemed like as good a night as any for a pleasant stroll, and this area had been considerably safer in regard to the heartless lately.

A particular noise caught her ears, causing the spirian to perk up and look around. It was an eerie sound: a deep, unnerving groan carried on the wings of the wind. Whatever was there - she had to investigate!

Her feet hastened to the origin of the noise, slowing as she came closer. Another deep groan, like the hull of a ship under pressure. Her attention honed in on the building causing the noise. Its structure was terrible. It swayed with the slightest breeze.

Analytical oceanfrost eyes took in the situation, darting from several points along the structure, to the children running by below it. A few frightened teenagers - likely optimistic urban explorers - were shuffling out of the broken door on the first floor, fright having taken hold of them as they scrambled for safety. The girl in the small group of young teens called back to someone who was still inside, obviously worried, but also torn because the building was going to crash any minute now.

It was time to act!

Era rushed on scene as the faulty structure began to crumble, summoning up her powers. It only took a moment to get in contact with her magic, and to bring up the power within her to cast something as strong as possible: holding up a wall would not be easy!

An old spell from her arsenal burst to life with crackles and pops. Shadows mixed with water solidified in thick swathes, catching the queasy wall as it descended forward toward the street. Thick clouds of dust rolled into the air as parts of the wall cracked and split, continuing toward the ground. Most of it remained intact, suspended on the slanted supports Era had tossed up in a hurry… her magic was weak though. If she let go, the weight of the wall would crush the ice beneath it, and anyone who stood beneath.

The teens were still tossed in frantic confusion between saving their friend, and saving their own lives. They were beneath the wall Era’s magic was supporting. And Era was busy focussing on feeding magic into the side of the building just to keep it up. Her gaze darted about, sweat beginning to dapple her brow, her arms out and up as she held the magic steady. She had to find out what puzzle pieces there were to move. Surely there was something that could be done to save these kids… and the one inside.

[Maxwell Tendas]

Max ran pell-mell through the streets and alleyways towards the commotion, passing into a large, choking cloud of dust as he rounded a corner and came upon the scene of the calamity: a building, no doubt having suffered from damage in the recent battle against the massive Heartless (it’s name escaped his memory), had begun to collapse. The Grendamite stood frozen for several long minutes, frozen in place as he took in the scene before him. The front wall of the building was half crumbled into pieces and what was left in one piece was being held up by small pillars of ice. His gaze quickly swept over the rest of the building, taking in the sight of half-collapsed floors and crumbling walls. It was going to come down, and soon, that much was certain, and it was going to come down on top of a small group of kids standing underneath the front wall in abject terror.

He glanced at a young girl nearby. Her arms outstretched towards the ice columns and sweat beading on her brow told him she was the one keeping the front wall from falling on the group of teens huddled beneath it. Without any more consideration he bolted forward, ducking underneath the front wall and approaching the scared teenagers.

“Listen, I know you guys are scared,” he said in as calming a voice as he could muster, “But this thing will come down. I need you to get out from under there so we can get you safe. All right?”

The only response he got from any of them was a nod of the head with wide eyes, and he nodded back.

“All right you guys, stay close and you’ll get out of here,” he said, turning around and motioning for them to follow, “stay low and don’t touch the wall.”

For what was doubtlessly just a minute or two, but felt like an eternity, he led the frightened kids out from under the wall. After they all emerged from under the crumbling structure, he stopped and turned to give them each a hand up and told them to run to the far side of the street, near the girl holding the wall up. The last one, a young girl who couldn’t have been older than fourteen, stopped as she stood up and pointed back inside the building.

“Inside! My brother is still inside,” she said, eyes still wide in fear as her words and hand both trembled. Max’s jaw clenched as he looked back at the crumbling structure. He had no way to even begin guessing how much time before the structure came down. For all he knew, it could come down on his head the moment he went back in, and almost to punctuate the thought a loud groan emanated from the building, prompting himself and the young girl to both back away several feet in fear of the entire structure collapsing.

“I’ll go back in and get your brother. Just get back to safety all right?” He told the girl as reassuringly as he could before looking at the girl holding the wall up and shouting, “I’m going in! Hold it for as long as you can!”

He turned without waiting for a response to dive back inside...

...and stopped short as the building began creaking and moaning angrily. The wall the girl was holding up with pillars of ice began to crumble and fall apart, forcing the Grendamite to back away as another large cloud of dust rose up from the now completely failed wall. It’s collapse seemed to have a chain reaction sort of effect on the rest of the building, which began to rapidly come apart and crumble into pieces, adding to the already dust-filled air. Max was forced to retreat even further away from the building, debris falling around him as dust choked him and clouded his vision and the sound of the collapse filled his ears. He ran to where the rescued teens and the girl were and grabbed ahold of all the water he could sense nearby and brought it up around them to shield from any stray debris that might come flying out of the wreckage. They stayed there for several long moments that seemed to stretch into eternity before the dust began to settle.

As the air cleared they could see through the water shield max had brought up that what had been a building just moments before was now a pile of rubble. Max brought down the bubble of water and formed it into a ball at his hand as they all stared at the pile of rubble and debris that now stood before them. All of a sudden, the girl who had mention d her brother was inside let out a scream and ran forward, throwing herself onto the rubble, frantically grabbing at the debris and throwing it to the side...