nexus_crossings | Into a Rising Wind

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event

Into a Rising Wind

Winter holds the Nexus in its jaws, and its teeth sink ever deeper.

A month into the storm, the snow has yet to stop falling. The number of mouths to be fed has stopped dwindling, almost. Occasionally people go missing, and those who notice hope they’ve found a way back through their portals. It’s not enough to change the maths on their food supplies - all their supplies. Nobody is getting a full meal at a time, not any more. Isidor and Lyall have begun to enforce the rationing with iron hands. Both ignore the look that crosses Captain Kirk’s face when they upbraid a volunteer cook for being too generous – the look that lingers on Runa’s face if she’s close enough to hear. They’re doing what they must. They need a tight hold on their supplies if they want to get people through this. They need supplies even to send expeditions after more.

And expeditions are a difficult prospect now. Those who ventured into the storm and returned have brought stories that spread faster than Isidor hoped. The Crossroads Cafe has become a semi-official hub for those travelling outside or keeping watch on the bounds, a safe resting place kept warm by the combined power of Pokemon and Persona. In the long dark nights, people sit around the tables and share what they've seen, what they've heard from this scout or that refugee. Whispered tales of the creatures out there hunting in packs, hounding people from rooftops, even tearing open walls to reach them…

No-one goes out alone, now. Those brave enough to take the risk go in groups and arm themselves with the best weapons they can find. Sometimes they’re a risk to themselves. Not everyone knows how to handle that black market plasma pistol they picked up two days past. Not all of their team-mates keep their nerve when a figure looms out of the snows beside them. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s run afoul of monsters, and who of their own folly. Safer, but little less brave, are the people recruited to keep watch on that shifting line of torches. Just a precaution. The creatures don’t come past it, everyone says. But quietly, everyone doubts.

There've been bright moments, too. A strange alchemist comforting a lost child. An expedition team fighting their way home, back to back. Families brought safely through the snow by soldiers and wizards, by heroes young and old and sometimes surprising. A volunteer cook stepping up to prepare, if not quite a hundred thousand meals, then something that feels close. A young man saving the life of a stranger who'd threatened him. The past weeks have seen people who may never have known one another before come together to offer a blanket, or guiding words, or a helping hand in a search. Small moments, glowing reminders of how much good the people of the Nexus have on their side. But the Winter goes on, and the winds never get less bitter, and the smiles get more strained with every day.

Slowly the line of torches close on the Plaza, a noose no-one can afford to flee. Sheltered space is at a premium. Most of those who remain are settled as close to the centre as they can be. Whether in the big public bunker or the Cafe, people find themselves crammed all together, and tempers regularly fray among residents not too cold and exhausted for fighting. The more responsible Nexus-goers find themselves trying to duck out of (or break up) fights, or spending hours stuffing drafty accommodation with any insulation they can find. There’s snow to be shoveled from doors, pipes to be defrosted, bandages to be changed. Anything’s better than dealing with the problem of working bathrooms.

At one end of the Plaza headquarters, a makeshift screen has been dragged into place to give a semblance of privacy to Isidor’s desk. It’s painfully early in the morning, though the nights are so long and the days so dim beneath the storm clouds there’s little sense of time any more. There’s no-one around yet to wonder about the meeting going on. The only people present are Isidor, Lyall and a handful of senior volunteers – those who remain. Blaze-37 crouches by a makeshift fireplace, stacking the salvaged wood just right before she punches it lightly, setting it alight with the flames that ripple over her fist. The other robot, Ghost, is hovering over the desk playing flashlight for them, shining a pale beam over the maps and reports laid out there. Light, too, is a precious resource, as batteries die and outlets are lost to encroaching Winter. It’s the only reason those here have gotten sleep. They work until they have no light to work by.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Suou?” the Guardian asks when Isidor says they can begin.

“Officer Suou won’t be coming.”

That’s part of why they’re here, Isidor explains. The torches’ march has taken them past the Grand Library. The Crossroads Café is now on the very edge of the safe zone, along with all the people sheltering there. Katsuya’s magic is the only thing that will protect it. He can’t leave. It’s a turning point that only drives home the larger problem: they’re running out of time. They’re running out of everything. Most refugees are in some kind of shelter by now; what they lack is food to keep them alive and fuel to keep them warm. Isidor’s volunteers have counted heads and counted tins and counted everything backwards and forwards and the numbers never get better. Either they do something now, while they have the strength, or the meals will run dry in two weeks. Less, if anything goes wrong.

She lets that sink in. Nobody looks surprised: she’s confirming their worst suspicions and that gets a few flinches, but they understand. They talk, instead. By the time there’s a hint of daylight outside and someone knocks on the door for the first shot at rations, they have a plan. They need an expedition, bigger than any before. They need enough arms to discourage attack, the skills to get them to any buried supplies and the numbers to haul them back in quantity. Each of them walks away from the table with a mission in mind and an air of grim determination.

They have a job to do, and they’re going to need help.

((As before, so below: the main missions/subquests for the expedition prep are listed below. Tag any of them, threadhop, or post with your own character. I suggest putting your character’s name in the subject to help keep things clear. The OOC Post can be found here! If you have any questions, feel free to message me or one of the mods!))

Threads of Note

Scouting the Expedition | A Fistful of Torches | Scrapyard Sweep | The Home Front | Medical Attention | Isidor's Expedition Call | Main Expedition: The Raid

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Part of the Nexus charm has always been the eccentric mix of architecture that flows from a multiversal crossroads. Be they squat or stately, rugged or sleek, all of them serve the same basics purpose: offering shelter to those who call the Nexus home… and never has that shelter been more sorely needed. With so many places to hole up, not everyone has chosen to take shelter in the main bunker, nor use the café as their home base. A few knots of refugees have hunkered down in other buildings around the Plaza, padding the walls with insulation and refusing to budge. They’re content enough where they are, thank you, away from the crowding and the arguing and the risk of sickness in the public shelter.

By itself, it’s not a bad plan. But most of that strange mix of buildings were never designed for this kind of winter. Nor do many of those hidden away possess the experience to consider what happens when the layer of snow atop their roof keeps building, day by day, deeper and heavier…

It’s grown dark when the last straw finally comes tumbling gently out of the sky. From outside in the plaza, there’s little warning. A faint creak of timber when the wind drops, perhaps. Then, suddenly, a crunch and crash from a small apartment building as the roof caves in. The lights peeking around the blinds go out. Glass shatters. Chunks of ice and dislodged snow come sliding down to bury lower doors and windows. From within come shouts, screams of panic.

And already the snow is falling again, to bury them all.

Day and night are nearly indistinguishable in this kind of weather, anyway, so Horvath’s schedule may not be in synch with the clock anymore. Living underground in his own world, his internal clock is unreliable under the best of conditions, which these are not. The important part is that while it may be night, he is there in the Plaza, available for healing, when the rumbling collapse of a nearby building happens.

For just a moment, it sounds a little bit like an avalanche, and he freezes in alarm. The sound is brief though, and by the time things are settling it’s clear from both the later noises and the shouts of people that a building has collapsed, rather than some nonexistent mountainside. He hobbles out of the tent where he was sipping hot tea between patients, and joins the handful of onlookers.

There are noises, from inside the huge mound of snow and shattered timbers. There are people still in there, and still alive. And the snow is still falling. Even collapsed, a building is still roughly the size of a building, and the snow adds mass. It’s an imposing hill, and no amount of shovels and weary hands are going to be enough. Horvath swears under his breath, and limps closer. “There are people alive inside. We need some strong arms and fast legs to get them out.” He can do the rest, but he’ll only be able to hold it for so long.

There’s a moment of drawing breath, and he sticks his cane in the snow and plants his feet. Then both hands rise, and with a few gestures that vaguely look like he’s miming washing a window in slow motion, masses of timber and snow begin to shift and rise, slowly, moving like invisible giant hands are holding them up. It’s going to take some careful work to clear safe paths, and he’s praying he doesn’t hurt anyone inside by accident, but this is the best chance they’re going to get.

Inside the tents, Hermione heard the rumbling collapse of the building. And the noises and shouts of people in alarm definitely get her moving outside, to see where she can help.

She can sense the magic being woven by Horvath as she gets close to him. Without her wand... she can not cast her own spells to assist the other magician.

But she can move into action quickly. "Quick!" She yells at someone else, who is nearby. Leaving Horvath to maintain his spell that are causing the snow to shift and rise.

"Help me get them out, while we have this opportunity." She looks for other materials that could be used to get the trapped people out.

Even when he's not at Hermione's side trying to learn, Danny doesn't slink too far away. He has a couple people around he knows are magical, and he's got his eyes on them all, but she's the one who's been most actively welcoming and accepting. He's going to follow her lead.

His inclination when he hears the building collapse is, frankly, to hide. He's not really hero material. But while he freezes to the spot for a long moment, once shes headed outside, he follows, and--

He knows that man. The one standing there pouring out magic to lift the fallen material of the building. That's Maxim Horvath and the sight of him is enough to make Danny want to pivot and run for the goddamn hills. How has the Eldest Morganian been in the Nexus all this time and no one's even noticed?!

He'd probably either stand rooted where he is, or turn tail, except Hermione calls for help. He looks at her for a moment, gaping, then at Horvath, and then--well, shit. Okay, this is what they're doing today, clearly.

He casts a bright little magelight in the palm of his hand and races toward the building. "MARCO!?"

There's a pause before a panicked, crackling voice yells back, "POLO!"

What's left of the building is a mess of debris. It's difficult to distinguish where one room or floor ends, and another begins, though Horvath's powerful display makes things considerably easier as he works. Pipes, boards and swathes of fabric that were once curtains or blankets are found scattered everywhere. Some of the remains are bound of to be of help, if put to good use.

It's only once the initial shock has passed, and everyone becomes accustomed to the strange sounds of the Morganian's work, that others begin to move and cry out in earnest. A slender arm reaches up through a gap in the rubble and grabs onto Danny's trousers. A bright pink face of decorative spines looks up at him desperately. "Children! My children!"

Lifting and holding all of it up would get risky, so instead he very gently moves piles of rubble and snow aside into what clear and empty space he can find and sets them aside, before going in to lift aside more. It truly looks as if an invisible giant is carefully picking apart the debris and sorting through it one massive handful at a time. The truth is not so far from that, and where Horvath is standing in the snow his own hands move in gestures that make it look as if he's doing the same careful sorting yet only cupping handfuls of air.

It would surprise him if the rubble doesn't get picked over and reduced to next to nothing in a matter of days. Ruined fabric is still fabric and can be turned to something warm, and broken timber is ready firewood. Something useful will come out of this, at least.

He has to go slow, painfully slow, for fear of lifting up somebody and hurting them in the process, or shifting some beam that dislodges more rubble and further buries survivors. Even in the cold, he's sweating a little, intently focused on the work. If Hermione or Danny seem to be trying to get at one specific area or another, he can help some, but that means pausing in moving larger masses to focus in one more delicate work where they're digging.

Hermione, he recognizes- they had a pleasant chat in pleasanter times, and he can hardly forget her pet. Danny is a stranger. Who will likely be very surprised to learn this Maxim Horvath is not the Morganian he expects, but a devout Merlinian instead. Whether that will make him less terrifying or even scarier to Danny remains to be seen.

Edited 2019-02-17 00:02 (UTC)

Hermione immediately knows how to use the available boards and fabric to the best use. And quickly gathers as much as she can... securing fabric to pipes and boards to create make-shift stretchers. If there are people who they can carry out of this...

She glances up when that slender arm grabs Danny's trousers.

"Go find them... I will help her onto one of these..." Hermione carefully moves the woman onto the stretcher. And calls out to two others who are helping search the rubble. "Quickly, each of you grab an end, and carry her to the hospital area."

How many people are trapped? Hermione listens for other voices. Others who need help.

Oh, a Merlinian Horvath is definitely scarier. Luckily, Danny's far too absorbed in what he's doing right now to worry about sorcerous politics. The way he stares down at the desperate mother in wide-eyed confusion probably calls into question his ability to do anything useful for her or her family, but Hermione's voice snaps him out of the reverie.

"Where?" He crouches down a little. "How many? It's all right; I'll get 'em, I promise."

Reckless promise, really, but he'll sure try. Even as he asks her his question, he's listening for the sounds of other voices nearby.

Slowly, carefully, with Horvath's help, rubble is moved off of the alien beneath. Some of her slender fins are snapped and hang pitifully from her face, trickling thin, pale blood into her fur. Even as Hermione tries to move her onto a stretcher, she clings tightly onto Danny. "Three! Three! Down the stairs! You must help them!"

Somewhere to the opposite side a loud, gruff voice bellows in panic and pain. It almost drowns out the sobbing coming from deeper in the ruins. They, at least, are easy to pinpoint. Those silent from a concussion, however, are going to be harder to find.

Edited 2019-02-17 15:33 (UTC)

In the end, they may or may not be able to save everyone, and that's just the way of it. In the moment, Horvath is just glad of any help he can get, and watching Hermione and Danny at work is admirable even if the latter seems briefly paralyzed by fear. Maybe especially because Danny seems paralyzed by fear. In light of that, whatever he does manage to do is all the more meaningful.

Now that some of the larger masses of debris have been set aside, Horvath takes a brief break to pick up his cane again and wade closer in. It's too hard to sort through the smaller areas if he can't see what he's doing properly, so this necessitates being closer. If Danny has to go down stairs, that's going to be risky, but there just might be some lower portions of the building that are less collapsed. They can only hope.

He looks for a stairwell and keeps an eye on the rescuers, but then his attention is diverted to carefully shift rubble in the direction of the deep voice that bellowed. Whoever is there sounds like they stand a good chance, if they can be gotten to in time.

"Danny. There is a charm you could cast to find them. Revelio..." Hermione pronounces it carefully, as reh-VEL-ee-oh. "Concentrate your magic on separating the signs of life... even if they are faint... from everything else."

She nods at Horvath in recognition as he approaches. And grabs another one of her stretchers to get closer to where he is shifting rubble from the deep voice. "We are coming. Hold on..."

Sobbing. He can hear kids crying. The louder voice is distracting, but Danny has no trouble prioritizing children before what sounds like a grown-up. He gulps a little at 'downstairs', because going further under this mess is the last thing he wants to do, but he only nods at the pink lady.

"S'all right. I'll do it. Stay still, now." He gives her a tentative pat on the shoulder and disengages her hand from his clothes, hasty and shaking. Then, as a second thought, he catches a droplet of her blood on the edge of his ring. He doesn't have time for a real ritual, and he's hardly an expert at blood magic anyway, but it might help.

Hermione's advice is very welcome. He glances back at her, mouths the word and circles around one of the piles of debris, looking for a way to get deeper underneath. When he whispers "r-revelio?" his ring glimmers fitfully, a little confused by what he's asking, but he can feel a pull at the corner of the ring where the Space-Time sigil sits. It's not quite how the spell is meant to work, maybe, but it's something.

Another step brings him to an aperture in the rubble. What's below isn't so much a staircase as a shaft of rickety debris, but there's enough space for him to crawl though, and both the pull and the sound lead him into it.

So, okay. Here goes nothing. He shimmies through the opening and slides carefully down splintered wood slick with ice. "Lookin' for kids, any kids down here? Pink spiky kids. Any kids at all, actually. Grown-ups are all right, too, let's all get out of here in one piece..."

He's babbling, nervous to the point of nausea, but the glow from his ring helps light the way for him a bit.

A collapsed building is dangerous at the best of times. Let alone now, with people struggling, clawing their way out to freedom, or into survivors, and large clusters being magically moved around. Above ground it might look like slow but certain progress, but below the surface every motion threatens the integrity of the small spaces survivors huddle in. All of this makes it equally dangerous for those walking on top.

When Danny begins to crawl further down, he will be aware of every creak of wood, every sudden shower of snow and dust onto his head. The sobbing gets louder the further in he goes, to a point which narrows almost impossibly. Through a tiny gap, however, he can see a flash of dusty pink. There's just several layers of heavy brick and wood between him and the children.

It doesn't help, then, that on the surface Hermione's encouragement and Horvath's magic fuels the hope of another humanoid desperate to escape. The closer to freedom it gets, the louder it bellows, and the harder it struggles. Even without seeing it, they can tell this one is large. Big and powerful enough to shift the rubble around them in dangerously frantic motions.

"Hold still, you'll hurt yourself worse! We're coming!" Horvath can bellow pretty well himself, with his barrel chest and deep rolling voice, but there's no guarantee that the stranger is in any mood to listen. That he might be threatening the integrity of the whole building isn't truly at the top of Horvath's mind, but it's somewhere on a list of worries. Right now, he's focused on keeping the above-ground parts of the structure stable, and he sort of hopes that will keep the parts below ground safe enough, but he's not an architect.

He's focused on gently parting the rubble, trying to unbury the stranger from the top down, because that's a lot safer than tunneling. Unfortunately it also takes longer, too. He's also too busy working at it to spare more than those few words for comfort, and the way the person's struggles are shifting things just makes his job harder.

Poor Danny is just going to have to look out for himself.

"I can't focus my magic right now... do you know any shield spells that could provide a little more stability to the rubble underneath him?" Hermione asks Horvath. She really must depend on the abilities and magic of others right now. Give them ideas. Give them suggestions. And hopefully they can all help those trapped.

She helps Horvath part the rubble with her hands. "Don't struggle sir! Stay as still as you can so we can help you."

He can't possibly fit through there. Looking at the gap, he doubts if he can get his arm through up to the shoulder. It's a good thing Danny's not claustrophobic, although after this experience he might get that way. He fancies he can feel the press of walls of debris against his ribs every time he breathes in.

He can see pink, though, and even if he can't quite reach the children just yet, he can talk to them. Squirming as close as he can, he makes a tiny magelight right in the gap in the wall and gives a low whistle. "Hey, can anyone hear me? Your mum asked me to look for you. I'm gonna get you out, okay? Might take a little while, but..."

The debris creaks overhead, and his heart rate ramps up exponentially. He can put up a small shield if things really start to crumble, but it won't hold but so long.

On top of everything else, that means he's in a time crunch.

"If you can hear me, I need you to tell me if you can see anything around you."

With a slam a beam is knocked into the air... only to fall back down again. The roaring becomes desperate and despondent before Horvath's own command seems to have the desired effect. There's still rumbling and deep, urgent noises, but there's less movement among the debris. Until, finally, a thick grey arm reaches out through a newly made hole and the being calls out again.

The strained creaking makes the children cry out in fear, but as they quieten down, one of them hears Danny. A small two thumbed hand grips one of the broken beams, and big, weeping eyes peer out through the gap at him.

"Mama? Where is mama? It's so dark here! " Just as the child tries to move, there's a judder and dust falls around them. With a squeal, the alien pulls back again. From behind the wreckage come big, gulping sobs and a small wail: "I'm scared!"

Since magic requires focus, Horvath can’t really cast two spell simultaneously. Fortunately he long ago figured out a workaround for the most important of spells he relies on. As a sorcerer who’s spent far too much time in battle, shield spells are the kind of thing he needs to have ready on a hair trigger. “Pearl ring on my pinkie. There’s a shield spell.” Whether or not she’s able to trigger it, he’s not sure, since their magic works differently. If she can’t, he can probably spare a brief moment for that at least.

“It’ll form a sphere approximately seven feet across.” He adds. That’s a globe large enough to protect himself, with the ring roughly in the center. She’ll have to take the ring off his finger though, since his hands are currently busy still holding up and moving the rubble magically.

Hermione reaches out to carefully take the pearl ring off Horvath's pinkie. She concentrates her own knowledge of shield spells with the ring, to concentrate on creating a shield spell in the rubble. Something that will be a solid force between the person they are trying to rescue... and the children underneath who Danny is trying to rescue.

"Seven feet across." Hermione concentrates. Hopefully this focus will give her magic the boost it needs.

Danny makes a noise that is probably nothing like soothing to the children, when the debris around them slams and shudders. It's not quite a scream, but calling it a yell would be too charitable. He, uh, might be crying too, but after a moment of panting and assessing the situation--he's alive, he's not being crushed, and he hasn't pissed himself--he clears his throat and tries again:

"Iit's all right--I--" Okay, wait. "No, actually it's not all right but we're working on that, okay? Your mama is safe. She told me to come get you. Are all three of you there? Can you see each other? My name's Danny. I'm not leaving until we can all get out safe, okay?"

Quite frankly, he's not sure he can leave just yet. He shimmied down some slippery debris to get here, and crawling back up them backward is just not going to work. Levitation might, but it won't be pretty.

If the kids can crawl out to him, he'll make it work. If not, it might be all he can do to gather them together and shield the lot of them until they can be unburied.

When the shield spell activates above him, he can feel it, like a sudden warmth against the backs of his legs. He could probably make it into the radius of it, if it's porous enough to allow him entry, but at the moment what it does is pinch off the avenue behind him, shifting things non-fatally but noticeably.

"Revelio," he murmurs again, and the magelight he's casting has to be dispelled to cast another spell, but the red eyes on the skull charm glow almost as brightly in the gap of the beam. "Revelio?"

But instead of revealing information to him, he wants to send it outward, to Hermione. Here's where they test the fusion of magics from different worlds. For a brief moment, there's a projection on the surface of the debris, glowing red. Just a star in a circle, lined with alchemical symbols. It's probably not something Horvath is thrilled to see, the Morganian pentacle just appearing on the surface of the snow and flotsam, but it pinpoints roughly where Danny and the kids are, under it all.

Debris presses against an invisible barrier as it's conjured , and a large grey humanoid pulls itself from its prison. The earlier frantic motions reappear as it clambers out of the ruins and hauls itself to one side. Whether it's hurt or not, it manages to get out of the way relatively easily.

Below, all the shifting and crunching of rubble provokes a few squeaks.

"We're all here." The child seems almost reluctant to say anything that's not insisting on their mother's presence, but the appearance of a light is reassuring. It helps them struggle on with more description. "My brother's leg is stuck!"

"It hurts!" a more muffled voice cries out.

Edited 2019-02-24 12:03 (UTC)

Horvath is, by and large, a fairly stoic figure. He's weathered the closing of the portals, the winter storm, and numerous injured people with nothing more than possibly a raised eyebrow and a few weary sighs. There is a strong impression that he has been around and suffered through some terrible dark times before, and while he's not enjoying any of this, it's not really new and he intends to simply put his head down and work to get people through this as well as they can manage.

The Morganian pentacle appearing nearby gives him a start though, and for the first time since returning to the Nexus he looks genuinely alarmed. It does not quite break his concentration, but the rubble that he's currently holding up falters and shifts a little, which is not helpful, but not bad enough yet to be disastrous.
After a quick glance around for attacking sorcerers, he steadies, and eyes the grey figure for injuries because if they're okay they might be able to help rescue others.

"Perhaps we'd best make sure the boy who went downstairs is all right..." Even as he's suggesting this to Hermione, the penny drops. The boy did have a ring, didn't he.

Hermione helps the large grey humanoid onto a stretcher, and calls over two nearby people to carry the person to the infirmary. "Stay still, they will get you to safety." She tells the humanoid.

When the pentacle appears, Hermione does the calculations in her head on where Danny is located, and where the children are located.

She really wishes she had her wand... she could transfigure the rubble into air, until they reach those who are trapped underneath them. Maybe levitation? Horvath is already using his magic to hold up rubble, so she can not ask him for another magical object to allow her to focus her own magic.

But she can do the math for him... and ensure the stones and rubble he removes are not a danger to collapsing everything on top of Danny or the children. "If I support your magic with my own, would you be able to start slowly levitating the stones in these spots..." she draws Xs on the pentacle where the best positions would be. "To provide Danny extra escape paths, once he reaches the children?"

Okay, then. Nothing for it. If the one kid's leg is stuck, they can't crawl out to him. He can't fit through the space in front of him, and he's not good enough with magic to transfigure his own body into a rat or a rabbit or something else that could squeeze through. He can do some limited telekinesis, bu he's worried about moving the debris, himself. He's nowhere near as strong as Horvath, but if they somehow both pull on the same chunk of debris at the same time, they could send it flying.

"...okay," he says. "Guys, I'm gonna try something crazy here, all right? Light's gonna go out for a minute, but I want you to make some noise for me 'cause I'm gonna try and ride the soundwaves."

He knows this can be done, riding soundwaves through solid matter. He's seen it done, he understands the theory 100%; it's like a guided, short-distance teleport, really. Doing it himself will be a new experience.

He has to let the revelio spell lapse to do this, as well, but the shape of the pentacle has been scorched--or melted, really--into the ground. Hermione should still be able to see it.

The light from his ring goes out, and he forces himself to stop breathing for a second, focusing on the sound of the children's frightened voices, pulling on the thread of sound. For a moment the noise seems to fill his head completely, drowning out anything resembling thought--

and then with a thump, he's on the other side of the debris and in whatever excuse for a chamber the children are trapped in.

The large grey figure apparently isn't as hurt as Hermione feared, at least not in any obvious way: confused and belligerent, it practically pushes the stretcher aside in order to get away from the place that had been its temporary prison. Around them a couple of other figures are already getting pulled from the rubble, which leaves the sorcerer and witch free to focus on helping Danny and the children.

Danny won't have any difficulty in following the sound to the children. Even with his warning and explanation, as soon as the light goes out one of the children screeches in surprise. The other two, however, are more focused. After all, they have been given an important job.

"How do you ride soundwaves?" one whispers to the other.

"I don't know," is the impatient reply from the main voice Danny has been hearing. "Here! We're over here! We-!"

And then Danny appears, prompting startled yells from all three children. It's a small space. There's just enough room in this tiny, dusty cavity for Danny to fit in with the three children with their wide eyes and bright pink quills. The largest of them is still pressed against the gap that Danny had been talking to them through, while the other has an arm around the smallest, pinned with one leg under a large beam of wood, little face crumpled with pain.

When Something's Gotta Give: Emergency thread for Horvath and nearby volunteers

nearby volunteers welcome!

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