M I K H A I L R U T H E R F O R D"CAN LOVE REMEMBER HOW TO GET ME HOME TO YOU, SOMEDAY"Everything had happened so quickly that it was hard to accept their current situation as it was. Most of the survivors were still in shock, some paralyzed by fear and others simply tormented by grief. The pyromancer couldn't blame them though; the psychological trauma caused by the Leviathan was too much for them to bear and he seriously wouldn't be surprised if a couple of his fellow crewmen decided to turn to suicide.
He himself had barely managed to escape the destruction of the motherships. Mikhail had decided to stay behind as long as possible in an attempt to rescue and lead more people to safety and, yes, while he managed to get around five people on his ship, his apprentice, his
friend, Jackson Styx, had been among the many lost in the confusion. The young boy had learned about the dangers of the journey when he had signed up back at Traverse Town, but for some reason Rutherford was unable to shake off that feeling known as "survivor's guilt".
Still, the man had to remain strong... or at least be able to fool the others into believing he had walked out unscathed. So far he was doing a pretty good job; Mikhail had managed to avoid contact with most, if not all of the surviving members of the Guardians by volunteering to salvage and gather everything he could from the standard ships and bringing it back to the camp. When he was done with that, the pyromancer had gone to pick up his own share of salvaged supplies before settling down as far as possible from the rest of the crew. Was he being grouchy and antisocial? Not really; the man just wanted to avoid snapping at someone and thus generate more drama at the already shaken camp.
Fortunately, the rest of the evening turned out to be enjoyable and, by the time night had fallen upon them, most of the crew was knocked out cold, trapped in a deep slumber. For some reason Mikhail found himself unable to join them. He seriously had no idea if he wasn't tired at all or if that headache was the one to blame. However, when that painful shout finally reached his ears, his concerns vanished completely.
Most of the camp was on fire by the time he had stepped out of his tent, both Flame's End and Path to Mana held tightly in his grip. For a moment, Mikhail was mesmerized by the fireflies: living creatures capable of bursting into flames at will. If he could harness such technique, maybe...
...But that wasn't the time to think about it. The man quickly glanced around, attempting to find a way to help Commander Rourke and the rest of the officers. He immediately realized that his pyrokinetic abilities wouldn't be of much use in that situation; while he could try to keep the fire controlled and perhaps push it back toward the water, the currently free fireflies would just keep creating more and more flames. Mikhail turned back to look at the dark passageway behind them and suddenly got an idea.
Sheathing his weapons and taking a last look at their burning camp, Rutherford quickly made his way toward the large opening at the wall. He stopped as soon as he was completely covered by the darkness and stretched his arm forward, opening his hand to reveal a bright flame of orange. It would at least give him and the surrounding people some light to proceed into the cave.
A U D R E Y R A M I R E Z"HACER LIMPIEZA AL ARMARIO, BORRAR RENCORES DE ANTAÑO"On the other hand, after practically being dumped by Nyra Rei Kaze and Ravian (hell, they had replaced her with
Jacob), Audrey Rocio Ramirez had been forced to find another ride off the Radiant Garden Mothership. She knew that the other girl's reasons for leaving her were valid, but at the time the decision had only pissed her off. Fortunately she managed to find room in one of those standard transport ships with some of the other mechanics and they all had managed to escape the giant lobster's attack.
Unfortunately, most of the Ulysses crew didn't manage to get out of the motherships in time and many lives were lost in the assault. However, like Commander Rourke had said, the survivors had to go on. Going back now would be foolish and an insult to the fallen. The latina sighed, jumping off the ship and immediately heading off to pick her supplies. She had luckily saved most of her tools plus her own weapon in case they found any more obstacles (
smaller obstacles, of course) in the way. However, that was highly unlikely; Atlantis was a dead civilization... at least according to most of the historians and archeologists back home.
It didn't take long for Audrey to set up her tent and store her belongings inside, giving her some free time to check and analyze what had been salvaged from the motherships. Fortunately they had managed to save a couple of their "land vehicles", which would help them remove obstructions on their path to the Lost City. Using them was Mole's job; she only had to make sure they were ready for action. As she observed one of the vehicles, the mechanic realized that it had suffered quite the big deal of damage; oh well, at least she had time to fix it after dinner.
But of course, Cookie did a fantastic job ruining their dinner
again and the latina simply had Mole eat her own share. The small group of people that included Sweet, Vinny and Packard sat around the fireplace for a few hours, chatting and discussing recent events. They were soon joined by others like Nyra, who had already been "forgiven" by the latina, but eventually all of them went to bed or to finish their duties. Audrey went back to work on fixing the damaged car... at least until the fireflies attacked.
"Out of the way!" Not even hesitating for a moment, the mechanic quickly jumped onto the car and began driving her way toward the dark opening at the wall. She turned on the front lights and kept pressing the horn to give people a chance to get out of her path; Ramirez wasn't intending to kill anyone that day but she sure wasn't thinking of stopping for anything. However, upon seeing a confused Milo Thatch in the middle of the fleeing mob, she decided to change her plans.
"Milo, get over here! You're our ticket to that city and I'm not losing it."
