THIS IS GROUND 0!

He'd leave, thank god! But. Only if she gave up a cup of her own blood. She cringed a little. It was no big deal. Caleb had lost at least that much blood when he had lost his arm. She stole a glance at him. Just as she'd expected he was still there, doing nothing. It had only been moments since he'd cut his own arm off to save himself, but she still needed to help him somehow. The bleeding had stopped, although she wasn't sure how. Why did she keep thinking about his arm? Maybe she was paranoid. She should be. Dying here was almost certain without Caleb. Wait, not really. She could take care of herself. Just... the whole trip would be much scarier without him. Eyes glinting like chips of ruby, she held out her arm over the newly made cup. Using her powers, she made a cut. Not a deep one or a shallow one. She shuddered a little as blood fell into the cup. Somehow the sight of her own blood falling into that cursed chalice was fascinating. As soon as it was full, she used her powers to stop the bleeding. "Okay. I've filled my end of the bargain." Please, please go.

ooc: Rushed, sorry. DX

Thomas strained to look over the controls and out the window. Geez, gawrsh. This was hard to do. Man, he wished he could see them. The thought made the ship react instantly, and it popped up a screen, a close up view, of the things going on below. Well... they didn't seem to notice him, even with the darker shadow the ship would cast in the black night and the bright slight shining on them, but... well, maybe they were distracted. He looked around on the screen, the camera miraculously moving with his eyes. Where was...? Cody! There she was, crouching behind a rock.

Geez, he hoped she wasn't worried about him. He snapped his eyes back over to the other guys. Well, at least Tornado Kid was too busy having a cool time with his buds, eh supposed. But... wasn't that Tornado Kid? The camera instantly zoomed on the figure on the ground sleeping--as it looked--with well... less than two arms. In fact, he only had one. Now, last time he checked, that guy had two nice arms, but now... now he had one. Thomas's eyes widen, what happened to that guy? But that didn't shock him to a full extent. He'd seen armless guys, fresh and old, a couple times in his lifetime. Looking at the girl and that one guy who had thrown the spear at him, he felt that Tornado Kid was probably the victim of their tyrannical rampage. It seemed obvious since they were having blood cults. Ugh. That made him want to barf.

Despite the queasy feeling in his stomach, it growled from the slightest thought about it. Man... he was hungry. He frowned. Hopefully he could go get something with Cody... whatever or wherever that something was. In her thought he swiveled the view back over to her with the simple movement of his eyes. How was he supposed to get her up here?

"Can you get her up here?" Thomas asked the ship, knowing it had some form of consciousness now. Without a word to him--it couldn't speak anyways--the ship used it's selective boarding and, with a quick beam of light it shot out at her, hopefully catching her so she'd be transferred into the room with him. "Well... if we can get Cody..." His attention turned back to The No Arm Kid and figured that he could come aboard too. With precision the ship aimed to beam him aboard as well.

Now what would the reactions be? Pretty happy, he thought.

Caedas had been on the orbit of the planet all this time, generating a slow yet very powerful electromagnetic pulse that should shut down any computer. But the carrier had not for the whole time. It was probably because of the shield. His invisible drones were on the surface of the planet already. Then it saw Katesen’s organic ship. “There you are!” he shouted as he beamed Katesen onboard, causing the organic ship that was in midair to shut down. Katesen was beamed right next to him.
“Expected you to do that,” Katesen said as he pulled out his little sphere. “Self-Destruct Protocol Number 15. Activate the nuclear bomb,” he ordered the remote nuclear bomb. The bomb, then began to count down from 20 seconds, and the ship's systems began to shut down and gave off a red alarm. “Now beam the other guys up!”
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t… I’ll fry this ship with my power.”
“Fine,” he muttered as he activated he sent his drones to target the others on the planet. Then he beamed them up.

Zealot chuckled as she actually cut her arm. Usually any sentient being without a hive mind wouldn’t do something like. Maybe the girl liked the boy. Well, it wasn’t his business anymore because he did promise to leave. He looked into the cup as he pulled it closer to his face. Then he thrusted the cup at his face and stopped right before it hit his face, just an inch from his nose. The blood, however, did go on and hit his face. The blood made a really sick sound as it splattered over his face. Then his power went to work. The young girl’s blood began to move around as if it had a life of its own. He chuckled as the blood began to form into some sort of a helmet, just when a great blue beam began to transport them. “Ah crud,” he muttered.

Xti technology was much more advance and on another level compared to that of the Vendi-Ulis. So the drone were able to think for themselves. They sensed that the ship was targetting the targets that it was ordered to target. Feeling the need to secure its master's order, two out of five drones fired a target jammer at the carrier, successfully disengaging its targetting system that was directed at Caleb, Dostria, and Zealot. Then the drones fired their own targets and beamed them up.

Zealot sat upright immediately after he was teleported. He looked around. He saw that Katesen, Dostria, and other guy who he did not know. “Ah crud,” he muttered before he fell asleep.

"Get the hell out of here!" Katesen shouted. "My carrier's strong enough to puncture a hole in a tiny ship like this!"

"I know that," Caedas said as he ordered the ship to activate its warp drive. "Don't talk as if I don't know anything, k?" he hissed.

(OOC: The nuke affects the ship entirely but not the cruisers and frigates within it. But they blow up anyway if they stay WITHIN the ship."

OOC: ...

Caleb's sense of consciousness came back, when he saw a spaceship falling towards him. He didn't have time to calculate how it was happening, or even that he was about to be teleported. All he had time to do, was make more time. The spaceship halted in it's powerless free fall, and Caleb got up, stumbling at speeds that an Olympic runner would be jealous of. Unwittingly, he had lost his chance of ever returning to a save haven, the moment he got away from the spaceship, was the moment that the beam would have brought him onto Caedus's ship, but with his superspeed, that chance was gone. Dostaria, Katesen, Thomas even the cavewoman were all gone. Crushed by the gigantic spaceship that had fallen from the sky when it had lost power.

Caleb paused, looking at the gigantic hulk of metal that used to be alive. It now, just stood there, lifeless. Turning all of the people he actually cared about, into a pancake. His eyes grew watery, as he stared at the being. Wondering what had gone wrong. Now, his missing arm didn't seem to worry him that much anymore. What was important was the fact that he was all alone on this barren landscape. Left to fend for himself. That spaceship was a lost cause, besides, even if it did work he couldn't pile it. A wave of lava burst from the underside of the spaceship, it must have pierced right through the cooled surface exposing the molten flames beneath. He watched as the behemoth of the spacecraft sank into the flames. All the Vendi-Ulis that had been on it would be dead now. Caleb couldn't say that he was thinking much about them though.

His mind was filled with the image of Dostaria. She had saved his life. His life. It actually seemed to pay him back for all the times he had saved her life. But not this last time. She was gone forever now. A single tear slid down his cheek, as he turned his back on the bubbling remnants of his long lost friend. He didn't know where to go now. There was no one that would conviently save him now, would he just wander on this flaming planet until he died? Most likely. But... Kenji. Yes, there was hope. He had to complete his mission, he had to find Kenji no matter what the cost. Then... Just maybe together they might find a way off of this planet. The frown that stained his face did not evaporate though. He wasn't exactly happy too see Kenji again, but it was his only hope. He wiped the tear from his face.

"Goodbye, Dostaria. Forever."

EXIT!

Wait... Caleb... I'm not dead... Tears filled Dostaria's eyes as he said his final goodbye to her. She tried to cry out as he walked off, but she couldn't be heard over the hiss of metal melting at the heat of lava. She couldn't move at all, even her thoughts here murky. The only thing she could feel was an overwhelming sense of dread and pain. She was trapped between the lowermost hull of Kat's ship and the ground. One moment she had been negotiating with the man who had nearly killed Caleb, then she was in the air, and now she lay between a misshapen hunk of burning metal and the hot soil of Weavon. She closed her eyes and slid into a deep unconsciousness from which she quickly awoke.

Her survival instinct kicked in. Eyes opening wide, she used her power to strengthen herself and somehow wiggle out of the ship's deadly vice-grip. As soon as she was out from under it hot, sticky blood poured to the ground. Dizzily, she stumbled to a boulder to lean on while she tried her best to help herself. She was cut up, but not too badly. Or at least that's what she told herself as she took a small laser to herself, mending any deep cuts as quickly as she could. The process was not painless, but in this live-or-die state of mind the pain wasn't that bad. After she had finished cauterizing her wounds she looked up and down herself. Fresh burns covered nearly every inch of her body. Tearing her eyes away from her future scars, she looked at the horizon. The sun, the same sun that had once took up almost every inch of the sky in this god-forsaken place was finally setting. And in a moment it would dip below the horizon, but even then it wouldn't be dark. The lave would keep this place lit day or night. It would also keep it blazingly hot.

No matter the atmosphere, she had to find Caleb. He couldn't have gone far, but she dare not go after him now. But was anyone else even still alive? She let her eyes rest on the ship, sinking into the earth like the Titanic did so many years ago. "Hello?" She shouted to perhaps no one, "Is anyone still ... alive?" Maybe their predicament had been like hers, their screams for help silenced by the noises of the catastrophe. She ran around the ship, looking for anyone.

Cody groaned. What on Weavon happened...? Her thougts were blurry. She moaned weakly as she heard a voice, and pulled herself out from behind the rock. It'd blocked most of the impact, but she felt blood trickle down her arms. Some shrapnel must have flown by, and cut her. She looked, her eyes glimmering in the fire.

"Dang," she rasped. Then she suddenly froze. Her shoulders looked like hamburger meat, sure. But she'd remembered something. She'd seen a small, familiar face on the spaceship, just barely. "Thomas," she whispered, horrified. If she was hurt, and she'd been safely on the ground... Then what would happen...?

A strangled cry of dismay tore from her throat and she stumbled away from the rock, blue eyes darting everywhere. "Thomas!" she shrieked, letting out a cough as sulfuric smoke poured into her parched lungs.

A shriek escaped Thomas when the ship suddenly began to plummet, that odd feeling in his stomach going off on him. What was going on? What happened? The event when faster than bullets. Suddenly the loud sound of crashing metal invaded his ears and he fell back, his head hitting the edge of the chair inside roughly as the window's glass broke and shattered. The pain made him feel sick and his back felt like it were pelted by steel rocks on a Sunday evening.

He coughed, expelling the debris that invaded his throat and burned him. This time he couldn't controls the tears that came to his face and began to flow forward. It was the worst he felt in his life. He felt like he would barf and that his bones ripped themselves into new places and his head hurt like he's been stabbed through it. Cody's shriek made him wince, but he knew he had to get her attention and whoever else was out there yelling. He opened his mouth to speak, but was greeted by more coughing fits.

Katesen groaned as he pushed Caedas aside, gently and politely though, and he pulled out a plug from the control console of the ship. He was still suffering from the effects of a imperfect beam technology. Zealot was knocked out by it. Hoepefully, it will remain that way. ‘I don’t know what the hell I’m doing this for,’ he thought as he plugged the cord into his implant. He groaned as the ship’s massive database flooded his brain. But despite against the waves of information, he began to order the drones of the planet’s surface to move the metals away to rescue the life signs he saw on the ship’s sensors. ‘Damn, I didn’t think about hurting Dostria and Caleb!’ he thought as he also teleported himself down. After Katesen was gone, Caedas jumped back on the console. “What the fuck are you doing you idiot!” he shouted.
On the surface of the planet, Katesen groaned with frustration: he had beamed himself into one of the bigger spaces formed in the ship’s hull when the ship crashed. He looked around. He searched desperately. He wasn’t thinking much about his plans right now. Hegroaned as he pulled out a piece of metal plate, it was damn heavy. Then he was outside, right next to Dostria. She was bleeding badly. “Dostria!” he shouted as he went to her aid. He inspected her wounds. She was really hurt, but her powers had helped with the healing process. “Thank god,” he muttered. “Where’s Caleb?” he asked.

"I don't know. He was here about...," she thought for a moment, "...Five minutes ago. Then he ran off." She bit her lip. "He thought we were all dead." She remembered his goodbye to her. It sounded so heartfelt, and it was. Tears welled at her eyes. Perhaps it really was goodbye forever. How could she and Katesan find him with no ship? He could be miles away now, or even farther. She wanted to be at his side, although it was probably safer with Katesan she didn't acknowledge it. He was shipless, stranded here just like here. Embers floated down like the closest thing to snow Weavon ever got. Her red eyes stared listlessly at the carnage around her. "We have to find him." She looked at Katesan, her stare pleading. He was her best, if not only friend. She had come here for him. Just then a scream sounded, it was a familiar voice. The cave woman. Dostaria's fist clenched.

ooc: MEH

Katesen nodded. Yes they needed to find him if he was going to help him. When he activated that nuclear detonator, he had given up setting up a government here for his parents. Ah well, that might as well as be better. This part of the universe was so uncivilized that they attack each other randomly. When Dostria looked at him with her pleading eyes, he froze a bit. Yeah, he should help. "Yes, we should find him. Or he'll probably die here from dehydration," he said as he heard the scream. It was that little girl who had been surviving here with her little brother. Perhaps she could help them find Caleb since they know the area around here. "Let's go find our guide," he said as he walked.

Zealot groaned. "Ah! You're awake!" Caedas said as he helped Zealot up. "It's been a long time since I saw you," he muttered.

Codyscreamed out Thomas' name again. She was just rounding a corner in the destruction when she stopped cold. It was that other human girl and her alien. Fury consumed her features. They were the ones that did this! If they hadn't come, made so much racket, Zealot would still be underground. And this ship wouldn't have crushed Thomas.

Blue eyes turned electrical, her fingers curling into sharp, smoke-colored claws as she glared at them with all the hatred in the world. This stand-off lasted as close to twenty seconds as she could allow it, because then she heard a raspy cough. It was a bit away. But still a cough. "Thomas?"

She shot off towards it. There, in the main pilot-control room! The glass was shattered, blood steadily oozing between the cracks. The insanity in her mind wanted to examine this, fascinated by the red liquid dripping like salty rubies to the ground from the windscreen. But her mind was somewhere else, somewhere much more rationalized.

Thomas was trapped inside that thing. The crash was enough to shatter the windscreen into cracking, but not enough that a human body could fit through without being shredded into beef jerky. "Thomas?" she cried, looking desperately through the cracked glass-like material to see if she could find him. Her eyes went huge. There he was! He was alive, she could see the lift of his chest. But he was crushed underneath several obviously heavy slabs and jagged edges of metal, plus a huge chair. He'd suffocate if his chest was under the pile, his lungs not able to expand enough to catch the painfully dry air here. Even then, he might be paralyzed if the metal cut through his spinal cord or even lay on it for too long, causing it to fracture. Even worse. He might die.

But how could she get in to him? Cody's fingers found the cracks on the shield, and they came away with thick spider-webs of blood dripping down her arms. "Thomas! Thomas can you hear me?" she shrieked, putting her hand back to the glass. Then she heard another sound. A dry, pathetically raspy, weak cough. From Thomas.

Without thinking, she drew her curled fist back. The initial hit didn't hurt. She heard the glass splintering. But it didn't break. She drew back again and slammed all her strength into the punch. The crackling sound of ice breaking was louder this time! Now her knuckles were starting to hurt. Actually her whole hand did. Did she care? Nope. Na-da. Insane people can't afford the luxury of noticing their own pain in crisis situations.

The next punch did it. Glass rained down into the ship like red crystals. Cody felt the heat that had been trapped inside the ship nearly knock her off her feet. She kicked at the jagged and shard edges around the entrance, making them lower.Then she jumped in, hearing the glass break under her feet. She crouched next to Thomas. "I'm here," she said softly, noticing that her hand had gone numb. The skin had split back from her knuckles, and shallow but very nasty scratches covered her fingers as blood poured out. She could see the bones in her knuckles. She shook her hand out, ignoring the twinge of agony, and placed her good hand on Thomas' head. "Are you okay?" she demanded.

Thomas' eyes burned from the dust and stung from his tears. It hurt to cry. Every sob and raged breath stung his throat and hurt his chest. Just sitting still made the worst of pain. Every light scrape of moving air felt like cheese graters raking off his skin and all the pain made him feel like he'd throw up everything he had. Cooking in the heat of the ship as everything lost its coherence scared the boy even worse. If Cody had said something now he probably wouldn't have hear past his swim in varied consciousness, the pain in his head, the buzzing in his ears, and the even louder sound of his injuries, whatever they may be.

He coughed again, whole body shaking from the force. Ugh. More pain. It would be so happily welcomed to lay under the covers of a warm bed with thermometers and medicine to the side to help him recover and to always be advised to rest and eat and use the restroom. A healthy cup of Capsipron would be nice right now. He'd welcome it's numbing and sleep welcoming qualities. It would save him from sitting here in the night.

Weavon, such a an odd place. Which was once scorching heat was becoming freezing temperatures rapidly. The heat from burning fuses and overload in the ship was keeping the air hot in here, and... whatever was happening to the ground. But how long would that last? Thomas closed his eyes, trying to block out his impending doom, but the purer blackness behind his eyelids made the sound of his cries louder in his head. He opened them again to stop the torment, but his lids barely widened past a squint.

Are you okay? What? No, no he wasn't. He chose not to answer whatever that was. If it heart to breathe, it must be worse to talk. Another raw cough attack him and a pained moan followed. How he hated this.

Cody looked afraid. Deathly afraid. Her face had gone pale. Thomas was the only person she'd interacted with for the best part of a year. Was he really going to be snatched away so easily? She quickly stood, grasping the edge of the top part of a heavy metal object that was pinning him to the dust. She yanked, her arms aching with the suddenness of the movement. But she continued pulling. The metal tipped to the side, then crashed down beside her. "I'll get you out," she said, her movements frantic as she started pulling away the less heavy materials.

OOC: Meh..

Dostaria glared at the girl. No matter. She had to get over her dislike of the cave-woman. She was their only chance of finding Caleb. She unclenched her fist and noticed that her knuckles had turned white. Something angered her about Cody, and she wasn't really sure what. Lack of manners? Bad attitude? There were so many choices. Dostaria sighed, and her anger diminished. Nodding to Kat, she ran off to find the girl. She finally found her heaving a hunk of metal off of her friend. What she wouldn't give for super strength in a time like this... She looked at the girl. "Let's lift. On three..." She hoped she would cooperate.

ooc: I HAD THREE MINUTES. DX

Cody tensed when she heard and saw the other girl. But the fear she might lose Thomas overrode that. She nodded, hefting her shoulders under the metal. "On three," she reminded, as if Dostaria might forget. How strange, allowing people who'd ruined your life to save the only one who has any meaning in it...How strange indeed.

OOC: Sorry I was absent for so long, I had a finals spree

IC:
Katesen raised an eyebrow as the girls prepared to lift a plate of heavy metal. "Screw lifting," he said as he reached his hand out and let his powers do the dirty work. The heavy plate began to wobble for a while before it, along with everything else on top of it, began to disintegrate into gaseous material. It took some time but when it was finished, Thomas was out in the open with nothing on top of him. He then forced the gaseous metals to dissipate into the atmosphere, so there was no reforming of metal that would come crashing down on some unfortunate ... boy or girl.

"I hate wasting time. Let's get going," he said a bit angrily. Time. Time. Time. His precious time was being used. Especially when this emergency clone could last only a week.

Cody crouched down beside Thomas, patting his head comfortingly. She looked up at Katesen, her eyes narrowing into a glare. She wasn't sure about him, but she'd much rather stay here. After all, these strange people and their alien came to do something. In the process, they disrupted her and Thomas' life. She let out a low growl, moving in front of the boy protectively. "Where do you need to go?" she asked. They had saved Thomas... She supposed she should help.

OOC: Museless

ooc: *stares at Katesan* *just stares* WELCOME BACK.

Dostaria watched as the metal disintegrated in the air. She and the girl could have lifted it, but oh well. Katesan was in a mood. "Yes," A little agitatedly Dostaria brushed a tear from her face with the back of her hand. Her voice trembled with a combination of frustration sadness and pain. "We have to get going." Time was wasting. On Weavon a human couldn't go for more than 24 hours without water before turning into dust- almost literally.

If only Caleb would have waited one more minute before running off. She could have squirmed out and stopped him, then he wouldn't be out there alone. They could have rescued Kenji together. 'If only' was like 'what if'. They were useless things to dwell on. "We have to find my friend. His name is Caleb and you've met him. White hair, red eyes..." Her hands clasped together and her eyes stared at the fire beyond Cody's face. She fought the urge to sob, or even cry. This girl would likely take advantage of any weakness. "Please, you have to help me. Us."

ooc: AND IF CODY SAYS YES AND ALL THAT JAZZ THEN- EXIT!

The blonde girl stared at them for a moment. Then she patted Thomas' head again and stood up, staring directly at Dos. She felt no pity for her. Or for the alien she'd seen get killed by that... Thing. Nevertheless. She shrugged, then looked out beyond. The cave was... Gone. Simply... Gone. The shock wave from the ship's crash, plus the debris... It was all gone. All that stock-piled food... She sighed. No home.Nothing better to do. "Fine," she growled. "Once you leave, we're coming too."

(( ...... u-u))

Katesen looked around for a bit before he walked off. "Let's start by going up that mountain," he said, pointing at the rather bit too far away mountain in the horizon across several rather bit too wide rivers. "I'm sure we'll be able to get a general idea of the area around here. And you know something, we might even find him there," he said as he sat off.

Time. Time. Time. One week. If he died here in a week, then he will back at his home several thousand light years away from here. Once that happens then that would just be hell lot of a mess. He would have to explain everything to his parents and that might lead to an invasion on the place. No. He had to somehow build a cloning machine here on this barren world and make a stable clone with reliable implants. That would be hard.

[Exit to whatever is next thread...]