Who: Scott and Malia What: Malia saves Scott in the Upside Down When: Oct 18 Where: Upside Down Rating: low
Scott was so damn hungry he was considering trying to catch one of those bat things flying around and eating it. It must have been at least a day since he was ‘taken’ or whatever the hell had happened and he was worried his Pack was looking for him. The weird smells in this place were often too overwhelming to pick up anything human or werewolf and since Scott had no memory of getting here, he didn’t even have an idea of how to get out.
He’d been roaming and fighting - something hiding - for a long time now. Thanks to his fast healing he wasn’t dying, but his clothes told the story of more wounds than his body did. A human, perhaps, would not have been as lucky.
Tired, Scott found where he thought might be a safe place to rest for a moment. He hadn’t noticed a vine hidden just under the bush and no sooner had he started to catch his breath than he had a vine wrapped around his torso. He let out a growl that was more werewolf than human. His eyes turned red and he used his Alpha strength to rip the vine in two and set himself free. Whatever it was didn’t seem to like that and suddenly there were more vines.
Scott managed to break free a few times, but even Alpha werewolves tire and soon he couldn’t put up a fight anymore. He found himself bound by the legs, wrist, torso, and neck as he was pulled to the side of a house. The vines were slowly squeezing him.
–
There was no way Malia was going to leave her loved ones to the mercy of whatever the hell was going on. She’d been smart enough to join up with other people that were going through, but that only lasted until people started finding loved ones and other people that needed saving. She’d helped out where she could, but now she was trying to find her people.
She’d been walking with someone, helping them search, when she caught a scene she recognized. Or at least she thought she did – scents in this place were screwed all to hell and she’d been picking up on this one off and on for the better part of half an hour before she was certain she wasn’t just imagining things or picking up on a day-old scent or something.
Attention focused more on what she was smelling than on anything else, Malia followed her nose – pretty much literally – to the side of a house. “Oh, hell no,” she snarled. “This is not happening.”
And that would be Malia sizing the situation up for a quick second, trying to figure out how to wade in without getting herself caught as well.
***
This was extremely unpleasant and not the way Scott thought he was going to die (again). The sound of Malia’s voice, though, had him opening his eyes and when he saw her, he felt a surge both of protectiveness and relief. He was able to raspily force out some of Malia’s name which seemed to make the vine around his neck…. Angry? He was really getting the sense this place was somehow alive.
With some renewed adrenaline, he freed his hands and then he reached for his neck to prevent total suffocation. His fingers turned to claws and dug into the vine for purchase, making slow headway at pulling the ‘neck vine’ away from his throat.
–
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Malia snarled at the vine, moving in and reaching out to help Scott pull at it. “Anyone’s gonna strangle him, it’s gonna be me.”
Not that she was planning on it, but still. Some stupid plant was not going to be the thing that took Scott out, thank you very much. Not if she had any say in the matter.
But the vine was giving both of them a good fight. They were both stubborn, however, and if Malia was curling her claws into it a little? Well, so be it.
***
With Malia’s help, they managed to pry him off the wall. He coughed and stumbled a bit away from the vines that seemed to momentarily ‘search’ for him, then give up… at least for now. Recovering enough, he straightened and went right to Malia, pulling her into him tightly. He was tired and sore, but it was so good to see her even if a part of him didn’t want her to come into this place to look for him. “I’m so glad to see you.” He said hoarsely, his vocal chords would need a moment or two to heal.
–
Malia clung to him for a second before pulling back. “You do not get to die in this place,” she said. “None of us does. Have you seen any of the others?” Because at this point, she wasn’t sure who all was actually there and who wasn’t.
She was worried about her family, for one thing. She was pretty sure that Peter and Kitty weren’t there, and she hadn’t seen Rusty, but that meant nothing with the way things were going.
It was no wonder she was twitchy and trying to keep from indulging the still feral side of herself a little, really.
***
He shook his head. “No. I haven’t seen anyone else except some monsters… we can look around to see if we can find anyone.” Yes, he was pretty messed up, but he was healing now that he wasn’t actively having to keep himself from dying. Scott wasn’t above pushing himself to help others and he was worried about his Pack. He knew Malia would be worried about her family too. “From what I can tell this place is like Madison, so it shouldn’t be too hard to keep from getting lost.”
–
Malia wasn’t surprised in the least that Scott was willing to look for people. He wouldn’t know how to worry about himself first if his life depended on it – and that was one of the things she loved about him.
“Those creatures seem to be…” Malia wasn’t quite sure how to put it. “There’s something wrong here.”
Not the most eloquent way of explaining it, but she wasn’t a words person – and she wasn’t wrong. Those creatures seemed like more than your garden variety nightmare fuel.
***
He nodded though because he got what Malia was saying. “They’re like all instinct without reasoning. If we’re quiet and actively try to avoid them, I think it’ll be easier to not get attacked. I noticed touching the vine things are a good way of getting something attacking you too.” Which was not fun at all. “But it’s hard to smell them in here, which is putting me more on edge than I realize.” Probably more of his werewolf instincts than anything Scott related. “Do you notice that too?”
–
“Yeah,” Malia said, relieved that she wasn’t the only one. “Like… I’m already on edge a lot of the time, we know this, but that’s normal. This? Is totally different because it’s like I’m only half functioning. I’m not smelling anything here the way I’m supposed to.”
Which would probably have been a liability if she was alone, but now that she’d found Scott, maybe it’d be okay. Two were better than one, after all.
“I will be so glad when this is over and we’re all back home,” she said, looking around.
***
It was also a relief for Scott to know it wasn’t just him. Maybe it was because you could still see a lot of the Madison amongst the vines and weird dust stuff, but it felt like it should smell like something. Or maybe this was a good thing if the smell would be peutrid.
“We will. Soon.” He took Malia’s hand and squeeze it. “But first let’s see if we can’t find anyone else who might need help.”