Atlantis Lives

[Malverne]

Clarence pushed his way out onto the wing of the plane, and was immediately struck by the landscape. The plane had punched a hole in the canopy of a large forest, and the nose seemed to be buried in the roots of a tree that was easily twenty feet wide. Due to the tilt of the plane, the edge of the wing was probably fifteen, twenty feet from the ground, but the boy had dropped one of the inflatable slides that almost reached the ground.

Without looking back, hearing the creaking coming from the nose of the plane and taking into account the wobbling of the plane, Clarence tossed himself down the slide. He hit the root-covered ground with more force than he expected and stumbled, swearing. He could see that the wood of the tree around the nose was splintering, meaning that the plane would drop to the ground soon. The ground that was actually a steep hill. Clarence could visualize the plane popping loose and sliding down the hill, ripping itself to pieces on the solid trees that were as far as the eye could see.

"Get yer butts outta there!" Clarence shouted, his voice raspy from the smoke, "Plane's gonna drop soon and you don't wanna be inside when it does!"

Harlan was in the middle of inserting her contact when another guard greeted her. She blinked away the tear as the HUD flickered on, and mumbled out a "hello." Blinking, adjusting to the display only being present in one eye, Harlan pushed her earpiece into place and linked the pair. Her display scanned her new conversation partner and popped up a name. Nyx Metalshade. Harlan recognized the surname, but not the personal one: another one in the family, then. Made sense for a Metalshade to be in charge of the squad.

Harlan was contemplating saying something more (talking to superior officers wasn't something that happened too often so she wasn't entirely sure what to say) when one of the engineers approached them. Instead of answering in actual words, Harlan snagged an earpiece and a pair of goggles like Metalshade had and tossed them to the engineer.

"I'll meet you by the transport," Harlan said to Metalshade, then slunk out of the armory, which was starting to fill up with other people. On the way to the garage, Harlan stripped off her coat and shoes, changing into her mission gear. She found the hoverbikes assigned to their little squad and started reading through the details of their mission, specifically which sector they were assigned to search. A piece of dense forestry, so the bikes would only get them there, not be useful during the actual search. Of course. With a light touch, Harlan's bike hummed to life, and she leaned on it, waiting, her tattooed arms folded tightly across her chest.

[Sly]

Caleb had given a nod of thanks to the young man who had helped open the door and then stepped back to let the older man out before himself. He looked out the door and gave an appreciative whistle at the long drop under the plane and turned to the girl still in the plane behind him.

"Old man's right, we gotta get this show on the road. After you..."

He stepped back and gestured to the door waiting for the woman. He would be damned if he was going to leave this plane before every other survivor was safely on the ground.

[ravebloodnymph]

Daniela gave a quick glance around the plane. No other people stirring, just the haunting image of a slow trickle of blood beginning down the aisle. Her eyes locked on Luca's body and she gave a hard swallow. Now or never, she thought.

She shoved the bags through first and then followed after, wasting no time to go down the slide. She landed badly, twisting her ankle and then falling gracelessly onto her face, one of the bags swinging and hitting her knee. Rubbing her cheek as she stood, she turned and looked back up at the open emergency door, shielding her eyes from the morning sun. Three down, one to go...

---------

Once outside in the sunshine, Wayke paused, not fully knowing where to go first. He stood in the side alley of his house and looked up at the street ahead. Giving himself a firm nod, he grabbed the hoverboard locked into place against the door frame, hopped on, and headed up towards the street.

A walk into the woods would be great today. He loved to read and he would never tell his father but he'd bought some medical books months ago that were still stored in his e-library. It would be great to just relax in the woods for a bit and read.

First stop though, he thought. He stopped at a drink station on the corner of the street and scanned his card. Inputting his choice on the display, a large canteen popped out of the deposit box. Slinging the strap over his shoulder, he slid his earpiece over the side of his head and with a small click, unfolded his helmet across his head.

The screen lit up in front of his eyes, once again displaying the temperature and the time. There was a small notice across the top of the screen, notifying citizens to remain within city limits due to high amounts of outsider activity. Probably just some of the rebels, he mused. He wasn't worried. Dismissing it, he headed off towards the woods, not even noticing the small plume of smoke in the distance.

[Sly]

Caleb watched the girl slide to safety, not ignorant of her last backward glance before she leaped out of the plane. He wondered who she had lost here today, and was silently grateful that he had been traveling alone. He thought of the little dead girl and couldn't help but see Meghan's face where her's had been. He gave a shudder, shouldered the bag he had picked up full of survival goodies, and began his decent down the slide just as the plane gave an imperceptible little twitch further downward. He stared at the tangled forest beneath him. Well, this is probably gonna be a rough landing....

[KoyiTar]

Nyx watched as Harlan handed the things the other girl which a quick scan reveled her name to be Tamsin Haley. She didn't always rely on the scan though because sometimes people preferred to go by a nickname. She nodded at Harlan when she said she would meet them at the transport.

"Well Harlan gave you pretty much all you might need. Seeing as you have hover boots already. I don't think you will need a weapon but probably should get something small just to be on the safe." Nyx said not knowing if Tamsin was even trained to use weapons since she mostly did repairs and translated when needed.

"I will see you at the transport when you're ready Tasmin." Nyx said a small smile on her face that it was just her and two others. She would have liked it better if she had been allowed to go it alone. But the higher ups decided that wouldn't be a good idea.

[Malverne]

As soon as Caleb's feet touched the ground, a loud creaking came from the plane. Metal bent and screeched, and the plane fell from its angle with a massive crash. As Clarence predicted, the slope of the terrain made the plane start sliding along the ground at a surprising rate. Ripping up vines as it went, the plane careened down the slope. Wingtips caught on leviathan trees and tore apart; by the time the plane was out of sight, it was little more than a long metal tube.

There was another crash, then a moment of silence, which Clarence broke by saying;

"Damn, it's humid." He started looking through his pockets, his decades-old army-training coming back to him. A couple of gum wrappers, a set of keys, a swiss army knife, a wallet with a folded-up postcard from 1963. With some work, it might make a fire. Almost as an afterthought, Clarence asked, "Hey, anyone got any phone service?"


Harlan didn't have to wait long. She delivered the bad news first.

"They only gave us two bikes," she said, gesturing to the two she'd powered up, "so translator will have to ride double with one of us. Luckily, though, it's pretty much a straight shot to the zone we need to search." With that, Harlan swung her leg over the hoverbike and expanded the gravity cushion, floating eighteen inches above the ground. Her right thumb rested against the throttle control, and the bike's engine rumbled as if anticipating Harlan's need to blast out of the garage.

[ravebloodnymph]

Daniela stared down the ragged tree-littered slope the plane had gone down, her heart in her throat. Luca's gone, she thought, her eyes filling anew with tears. She shook her head hard. Now's not the time, she reminded herself.

She was glad she'd grabbed her own bag and the other that she'd found in the aisle. Hopefully what she had in them would be useful, since the plane was totally gone. Opening the front pouch of her duffel, she found a hairtie and quickly tied her hair up. The old man was right; it was humid.

"I think I left my phone on the plane," she murmured, patting her pockets. She opened the other bag she'd found, dimly noticing some travel-sized toiletries and a magazine before she found an iPhone, the screen badly cracked. Pressing the home button did light up the screen though, showing..."No service," she announced sadly, sighing. Typical.

-----

Wayke came to a stop on the edge of the woods. He could technically take the hoverboard through the woods, but at times it got pretty narrow and eventually the path disappeared altogether. He didn't like to rough up his board.

He pressed the bottom of the board up against the nearest tree, scanning his card to activate the hypergravity and locking the board in place against the tree. Until he scanned his card again, it would stay there, immovable.

Pressing the button on the side of his helmet, it flattened and shrank until it was little more than an earpiece. Sighing happily, Wayke sauntered off into the woods.

He and his friends all called them woods, but he remembered when, as kids, they would call it a jungle. Particularly when they would all camp out in the woods and tell scary stories. It usually started with some foolish kids wandering deep into the woods and coming across rebel tribes, hungry animals, and sometimes, the most terrifying monsters you'd ever seen.

The memory of these stories sent a brief chill down Wayke's spine, but he chuckled at his own childishness. They're just stories, he told himself.

He found his way to the old river where he and his childhood friends used to dare each other to jump across on their hoverboards. It was never a good idea, hoverboards didn't do so well over water because of the changing currents, and someone always wound up drenched and cold. Smiling at the memory, he settled down against the base of a large tree and opened up the screen of his helmet, selecting one of his medical books and beginning to read.

[Sly]

Caleb had slid off the slide and landed rather gracelessly in a tangle of weeds and rocks. He was fine, save for some small scrapes and wounded pride though. He stood up and dusted himself off, watching as the plane tumbled below.

"Wow..."

He shifted the bag on his shoulder and eyed the girl staring down at the wreckage. He thought he saw the glisten of tears, and a brief image of the man she had been with came to the front of his mind. He felt bad for her, but surely she wasn't the only one of the few survivors to have lost someone or something today. At the woman's mention of her phone, he felt in his own pocket for his. It was there, but as the woman said, there was no service; not that he had expected any out here.

"Well, glad we all got out when we did. We ought to take inventory of the supplies we've got and try to figure out where we are I guess..." He wasn't speaking to anyone in particular just thinking out loud, really.

[KoyiTar]

"That is rather unfortunate about the transport." Nyx muttered more to herself really than Harlan. thinking of what could be done to get moving along since it seemed their other team member was taking a bit longer than Nyx had figured she would. "Must have gotten held up having to fix something for someone." Nyx thought to herself watching as most of the other teams were leaving out.

"Ten more minutes then we are gone with or without her." Nyx said not liking all the other teams leaving ahead of them. It felt to her like she was slacking though she knew waiting on a team member wasn't exactly slacking but waiting on them too long could be. She started ta small timer in her goggles and began to wait.

[KaceyCat]

Zytavion stared in shock after the plane-turned-tube had disappeared down the hill. "Hope nobody wanted the rest of their luggage..." He murmured with a rather awkward nervous titter. Making stupid and rather insensitive commentary seemed to be a nervous habit, though at least it didn't happen often.

Pulling his backpack off his shoulder and rifling through it, he pulled out a rather large bag of snacks suck as granola bars, water bottles, and trail mix. "Huh, looks like Darryl hid his snack hoarde in my bag instead of his. Well, lucky us, we have some food and a bit of water." He'd mentioned one of his friends who'd still been on vacation with the rest of their group of friends, then hesitated. What would they think when they found out about his plane? Well, it'd probably be reported as no survivors or something. Wasn't that a lovely thought?

Going through the rest of his bag, Tavie found a binder full of handwritten sheet music (It'd burn well, but he'd just written it out recently and it was the only record of that music so hopefully it wouldn't get to that), a music player and headphones, a nearly-dead cell phone with no service, and a small baggie with his medications, plus some over the counter stuff like ibuprofen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tams came blustering over to Nyx and Harlan, apologizing profusely. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry I took so long! A couple of people were having issues with their kits, stuff some idiot had 'fixed'." It had been a mess. If somebody hadn't noticed, an entire team's gear would have given out on them about ten minutes into the forest, particularly their com systems, which would have left them isolated from everyone else.

As she already wore goggles-ish glasses that functioned rather the same as the standard goggles, Tamsin had just calibrated the earpiece she'd been given to them, allowing her to be linked into the communications system with everyone else. She'd also grabbed a small retractable energy blade and strapped it to her belt, so she'd at least have something to be used as a weapon.

Noticing that there were only two bikes for the three of them, Tams shrugged slightly. "I'll just ride with you then, if that's alright?" she asked, carefully slipping behind Harlan on her bike. Secretly, she was rather relieved at the lack of a third bike. She'd never actually learned how to ride a hoverbike, and now was not the time to make a fool of herself.

((So sorry this took me so long, I was having major brain farts. I'm still not satisfied with any of this, but it's really all I've got. Also, what is the point of this? Like, are they just supposed to integrate into Atlantean society? 'Cause Atlantis is supposed to be hidden from the rest of the world so they wouldn't really go contacting another country saying 'Hey we have some plane crash survivors, want them back?' or anything...Right?))

[Malverne]

Clarence surveyed the items, dusty gears creaking into motion in his mind.

"Well our first order of business is to relocate," he grumbled, "this won't do at all. Downhill. That's where water will be. We can make shelter. Reassess. See if there's anything salvagable from the crash. Like cushions. My back ain't like it used to be...". Without waiting for words from the young'uns, Clarence started shuffling down the hill, following the vine-less path made by the plane's descent, occasionally muttering something about the humidity being as bad as 'Nam, or to complain about his knees.


Harlan supressed a flinch as Tamsin settled in behind her. It was too much to expect that an engineer would be more comfortable riding behind a fully armed and kitted guard. Nyx cut an impressive (intimidating) figure, that much was undeniable. Harlan said nothing, though. With some soft touches, Harlan set a course for their sector and opened the throttle on her bike.

The acceleration was smooth but strong, and the bass rumble of the engine made Harlan's sternum tingle as she blasted out of the garage, sailing six feet over the ground. Within twenty seconds, she'd cleared the outer wall of the city, and was in the thick of the forest. Harlan accelerated as she snaked through the trees, effortlessly avoiding the leviathans.

Flight info started scrolling on her display; they'd finally figured out which flight it was that had crashed. Boeing 737, from San Juan to New York, with 142 passengers. Atlantean Control estimated that, due to the angle of descent, that there would be few survivors. Orders were to determine if there was anyone alive, track them down, and place them into custody before calling for transport.

Harlan slid to a stop as the trees grew too massive to skirt around; a sign they were where they were supposed to be. She killed the engine and removed the ignition key, letting the bike settle on the ground. Harlan immediately noticed the faint smell of smoke on the air, as well as the sound of a river a few hundred meters away. There were no birds in sight; spooked, she assumed. But instead of voicing her thoughts, Harlan turned, and waited for Nyx's orders, entirely unsure what to say to the engineer.

[ravebloodnymph]

Daniela quickly rifled through her bags; in her own bag, she had an mp3 player and headphones, three bridal magazines, two bottles of soda, a hoodie, some travel sized toiletries, chocolate covered peanuts, and, laughably, a mini Babybel cheese.

In the other bag there was another magazine, a massive bottle of water, the broken iPhone, a ziploc bag of different medicines, all labeled in smaller bags, and a bunch of clothes. To her delight, it appeared she'd grabbed another girl's bag. Score.

"I made out pretty good, I'd say, as far as supplies," she murmured, half to herself. She hiked both bags up onto her shoulders and nodded in response to Clarence's suggestion. The idea of facing the plane made her throat tighten, but she followed suit, ambling behind Clarence down the flattened path.

-----

Wayke paused in his reading, picking his head up from where he'd been leaning against the tree. He thought he heard something. A quiet rumbling sound almost...hoverbikes?

He got to his feet, shutting down his library screen and standing perfectly still. He definitely heard hoverbikes. Could it be all the guards he'd seen this morning? If it was, he was probably in big trouble being out here.

Wishing he'd kept his hoverboard with him, he grabbed up his canteen of water and started following the river. Normally that's how he usually got home, by following it upstream until he reached one of the paths into the city. But in his frazzled state, he didn't realize he was going the wrong way: downstream.

[KoyiTar]

"And I thought I was a speed demon on a hover bike." Nyx muttered setting down and tapping her goggles to give an updated spec on their area. She took a moment to noticed there surroundings and to simply listen.

"Well if there were survivors which the specs say there might be few if any. If they are smart they would probably head towards a source of water. So searching near the river first is probably our best bet." Nyx said after another few moments of thought. She started towards the river motioning for Harlan and Tamsin to follow.

[ravebloodnymph]

Their group was mostly silent as they headed downhill. What was there to say? They were strangers, had no ties to one another other than the horrible accident that had just occurred.

Daniela pulled out the Babybel cheese and started unwrapping the wax coating. It wouldn't last out here in the heat, even though the weather was actually pretty mild and pleasant. "We must be somewhere closer to the equator," she mused out loud, almost without noticing.

She started to hear the faint trickle of water close by and paused. "Hey, I think I hear water," she said, looking around.

--------

"I've usually hit a path by now," Wayke grumbled, anxiously looking over his shoulder. He really didn't wanna get caught by the guards; he hadn't ever had much interaction with them, but they never looked very friendly to him. He doubted they'd be very forgiving of an ignorant teen wandering the woods on a "school day."

"Hey I think I hear water." His eyes widened and he looked around frantically. There was a big bush to his right and he quickly dove behind it. Stupid hiding place, but where else was there to go? He'd never outrun the guard and they were so close, they'd surely hear him crashing through the underbrush.

[KoyiTar]

((revival time))

Nyx had kept walking forward only listening to the footsteps of her comrade behind her as she kept pushing forward looking for signs of debris or broken trees. Thus far she hadn't seen much it was the rustling of a bush ahead that truly caught her attention. "That was to large to be an animal" She thought to herself as she halted momentarily to judge the situation.

She looked back to see that Harlan and Tamsin needed to catch up a bit before she made any motion towards the bush. She felt no need to go over the coms for it they were close enough to hear her if she spoke loud enough. She just wasn't ready to spook what or who was behind the bush up ahead.