leona turner's love life is up in flames (tigers_andbears) wrote in invol_rpg, @ 2013-01-05 10:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! log, ! plot: kidnapping, caleb tate, leona turner |
WHO: Caleb Tate and Leona Turner.
WHAT: Recon! And turning into birds.
WHEN: January 4, just prior to the rescue ops.
WHERE: Slovakia, near the holding building.
WARNINGS: None.
STATUS: Complete!
Through the ride she had sat silently, bowed over and fists pressed against her temples. She had an academic awareness of it before - something more than that, perhaps, with her own imprisonment and seeing what had befallen Daisy, Pad, Mette - there but for the grace of God go I. But now it slammed into her with the weight of a freight train. She really could die. She might never see her brothers again. Or - and this seemed a thousand times more horrific, a bullet in comparison sweet relief - she could be taken herself. Kept. Experimented on. Her own powers snuffed out of her. They had never seemed more precious to Leona as they did at that moment. Don’t throw up. Don’t cry. Don’t scream. The three commands became a litany to her throughout the ride. Then she and Caleb were given their cue, and there was no more time for panic, only time for doing. Her emotions became compressed, more manageable in a smaller form, and together with Caleb, she swept above the trees. As in that cell in Sumatra, she looked after herself by looking after others, and Caleb’s presence gave her that much needed responsibility of something other than her own life. She doubted that she would have been able to do this without him. Caleb had spent most of the trip trying not to think. Not to think about the video of Mette. Not to think about Erik and Alyosha. Not to think about Mal and Marine and Myra and Pad and Mette, who were hopefully all still together, waiting for them. Not to think about saying goodbye to Allegra this morning. Not to think about anything but being successful. He was failing miserably. But the traveling was the harder part. Once they got there, and there was a specific task to do, it was a little easier. Following Leona’s lead, transforming into a bird - easier than it had been when they’d first tried, but still more of a challenge than the primates had been, sticking close by so as to not turn human again midair. He didn’t even spend more than a fleeting moment really considering how insane his life had become in the past few months. “I think that’s it, up ahead,” Caleb said as the building that they’d been shown pictures of came into view. It seemed unassuming, but he assumed that was part of the point. You didn’t exactly put a flashing sign that said Kidnapped Vols Being Kept Here above it. You wanted to blend in. “Circle around once, and see if we can spot anything worth noting before we start peering into windows?” “Right,” Leona chirped back. Or whatever constituted in birdspeak for an expression of assent. She didn’t spend too much time examining how animalia notions translated into human languages. “We can each count the sentries and confirm the number with each other?” “Sounds good,” Caleb agreed, impressed at how much better his vision was as a bird than as a human. They slowed down a bit comparing the numbers on each side of the building and making sure they agreed, and then coming up with the final count. Caleb thought it seemed manageable, but was glad they’d take the information back and have someone with real experience make the final decisions. Once they were done they settled on a window sill to see if they could spot anything inside, testing out his bird-ears as well, finding them more attuned than his human ones. “Anything?” he asked Leona. “There’s more guards inside,” Leona observed. The human part of her felt conspicuous perched on the window ledge - it’s too dangerous, it’s too dangerous - but then the instincts of the bird whose form they had borrowed kicked in, reassuring her that she was small, too small to be shot at for a meal, and beneath notice. “They all have those big, long range guns - it looks like they would hold several rounds of ammunition.” She peered deeper inside. There was a hall which had only minimal lighting, and at its end she could make out the beginnings of a heavy set door in its shadows. It wasn’t so much its features, but the sense of foreboding to it, and with it a deja vu - it felt very like the place in Sumatra, Indonesia. “I think they might be down there,” she added. She very much wanted to be gone from this place. Caleb saw the guns she was talking about and recognized them from the list of pictures he’d been shown earlier to look for, but didn’t remember their name. Nonetheless, he tried to commit them to memory so that he could point them out for identification when they got back. “Yeah?” Caleb asked, willing to trust her judgement. After all, she’d been kidnapped, he hadn’t. “We’ll let them know, then. It’ll be easier if they have idea of where. Well, if we do,” he added, since this was only the first part of his role in the rescue. But so far, so good. They had a good idea of how many people they were up against - as sentries, of course, of the weapons they were using, and even a hint as to where the students might be. Hopefully, that would be enough to give them an edge. That was all they needed - an edge. “Head back, then?” “Yes,” agreed Leona with no small sense of relief. But with that came a feeling of accomplishment - she had done her part. Moments later they were back at the stakeout, blankets clutched around them and filling in their superiors on what they had seen. It said a lot for what she had been through how calmly she stood, one hand holding the blankets in place and another with a Styrofoam cup of something which blew hot air gently into her face. It was time for the rescue group to move in. |