Liam McIntyre ☄️ (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} kilt) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} playout,@ 2020-03-25 12:04:00 |
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| Entry tags: | ! log/narrative, aegis, bonfire , cat mcintyre, crystalline, double-edged, taiyang, temp: rift, the iron maiden, thermia |
WHO: Liam McIntyre, Charley Adams, Avalon Fox, Bellamy Johansson, Evan Kang, Alex Lim, Iain McIntyre, Cat McIntyre, Ginger Rogers, and Luke Wright
WHEN: Midday, Wednesday March 25
WHERE: The Dome
SUMMARY: Just some casual disarming of a nuclear reactor over lunch. No big deal. Carry on.
WARNINGS: This gets a little violent and mentions pain, but not too graphic!
STATUS: Complete!
Liam stood in the middle of the Dome, hands clasped together as he tilted his head back to survey the arena above him. It had been almost fourteen years since his senior exam, the first time the public had been introduced to Bonfire. Blazing, confident, and arrogant, fire fueled from the kindle the crowd’s applause provided him. They one said that if you caught on fire, people would come for miles to see you burn. He had a lucrative, rewarding career at PI with Crystalline before he had traded it for a solo career overseas at Valor. The fans had supported the human torch over the years, voting him higher in the ranks with each save or charming interview. Now, only a handful of people came to see him smolder. However, it was that group of people that meant the most to the redhead as they stood on the precipice of ending this one way or the other. The glimmer from the forcefields erected to protect the public was fainter now, stronger and more advanced than the ones that had kept his fire from reaching innocent bystanders. He hadn’t given any thought to the forcefields back then, but he sent a quick prayer up to whoever was listening that they’d be enough today to contain things in case things went suddenly sideways. “Right, then,” he said after a moment, squeezing his hands together to bring himself back to the moment. There was no sense in worrying about the past and future; the present demanded enough of his attention. “Sorry for keepin’ ye from yer lunch,” he cracked in an attempt to bring some levity to the situation, lips tilting up in a small smile for the group of people assembled in front of him. “Feel free tae leave comments in the survey that’ll be sent out later.” “Oh, believe me, some of us will have many notes,” Bellamy Johansson joked, hands tight on her hips. They’d pushed their luck so far already, been held in a period of suspension long enough. It was that knowledge that had led her here with a set jaw. She caught the redhead’s eye and nodded— there was no real other option, the length of the countdown to him detonating was unknown. Going along with this felt like she was signing his death sentence, but it had to be done. You’ve come this far, she thought. Time to finish what’s been started. Behind Bellamy, Charley reached down and snapped her gloves in place, eyes rolling at the attempted joke. “I’m surprised you’d voluntarily miss a meal,” she grumbled under her breath as she glanced around at who was assembled around her. She was going to need a copious amount of coffee after this. Bell dug an elbow into Charley’s front, clearing her throat. “Let’s go over the plan one more time,” she suggested. She knew that they all understood what the end goal was and their respective roles in it, but this particular science experiment wasn’t something they had the luxury of repeating. They had to get it right on the first go. “Right,” Liam nodded, using the gesture to hide his nerves as he forcefully swallowed them down. They had gone over the plan what felt like a thousand times, but a final time wouldn’t hurt. “Ah’ll be here,” he swept a hand around the floor, “an’ Ah’ll act as the vessel wi’ Luke’s help tae keep me still. Alex and Ginger will use their powers tae heat me up, while Charley an’ Bellamy will counter that tae keep the plasma inside as it heats up. We’ll have tae reopen the initial entry point,” he briefly touched his side, indicating the hole in his side left behind by Onyx Lightning’s blast. He wasn’t looking forward to that part, but it had to happen to prevent the plasma from finding another potentially more fatal way out. Off to his left, Ginger exchanged a look with Avalon. There had been a heated discussion on the drive over regarding the sheer stupidity and recklessness of this idea on Ginger’s part, Avalon taking the cooler approach. There was no changing her boss’s mind once it was made. Just a little further down, Alex shifted uncomfortably, his hands stuffed in his pockets and his face placidly optimistic — or at least, that was what he was going for. Inside, his insides churned, but he wanted to help, and he was here because Liam thought he could. Liam took a breath, taking a moment to let his gaze sweep the faces of those assembled in front of him and his family up in the stands, and slowed his speech so his words were crystal clear. Iain nodded to him from his spot in the bleachers. While he couldn’t contribute to Liam’s safety, he could at least be here for moral support. “Avalon will help direct the plasma once it starts moving, an’ if all goes accordin’ tae plan it will flow out an’ into the ether tae knock out a few hundred aliens.” “Ah’ll probably pass out at one point, sae feel free to give me shit about that later,” he confessed with a weak laugh. From a distance, Cat smiled back with no mirth behind it. Liam’s gaze shifted to Luke, blue eyes hardening as his tone shifted to leave no room for argument, making Luke's eyebrows shoot up to his forehead. They all knew what they were doing was dangerous to everyone involved, so Liam had to make sure he conveyed that. “When Ah do that, Ah’ll need ye to help Evan. Ah don’ know how nicely the plasma will play at that point, an’ yer the best hope for keepin’ it from escapin’ since Caleb couldn’t make it back in time tae absorb it.” He waited a beat before turning to Evan. “An’ if all goes tae shit an’ Ah look like Ah’ll blow, ye need tae toss me. Ah promise Ah’ll give ye all glowin’ recommendations on the other side.” To signal that he understood, Underdog's #2 gave a single nod, eyes darting back and forth between Liam and Evan as the PI hero spoke. Although the room crackled under the weight of distinct uneasiness, his face was set in deep concentration. Luke had absolutely no intentions of letting anyone get hurt. Not after the 29th. And Evan, boss and friend to several of those gathered here now, gave Liam a grim smile. Despite the joke and Liam clearly doing his best to soothe everyone’s anxiety, he couldn’t do anything but take this seriously when a friend’s life was on the line. “Let’s hope it won’t get to that point,” he offered in turn. “Ah know Ah’m askin’ a lot, an’ understand if ye want to back out,” he told them, tucking his hands behind his back as they curled into fists to hide the way they shook, “but it means a lot that yer here.” “Alright, then,” Bellamy said, tearing her eyes from Liam to glance at the group. “Anyone have questions before we start? Or want to call dibs on cutting Liam open?” “I’ll do it,” Charley volunteered, shrugging as eyes swung in her direction. She didn’t know the next chance she’d get to have a sanctioned excuse to cause the redhead a bit of bodily harm for the way he had idiotically strung Bellamy along for years. The look from Evan in particular was especially concerned. “Jesus Christ, of course ye will,” Liam swore under his breath as Charley made her way over to the table laden with various medical supplies. He had no choice but to nod in agreement, turning away so he didn’t see the way she methodically chose a scalpel, and removed his shirt in preparation for the cut. It was hard to miss the scar that twisted across his chest as he turned back, angry red welts originating from the crater below his ribcage and splintering upward to clearly mark the path the energy had taken on its way across his body. At the sight of it, Luke's lips slightly parted when a breath escaped him. The wounds that caused the scars looked just as painful as Luke's skin necrosis, and even though he hated that Liam went through such a thing, he couldn't help but take comfort in the proof that he was not alone in dealing with this trauma. The knowledge that he could share this with his Scottish friend made a bubble of relief rise to the surface. Liam subconsciously raised his hand to cover it as Charley made her way over, the blade glowing a vibrant red as she heated the metal to sterilize it. No wonder they called her the scary blonde at WonderCorp. “I’m sure Bell will hold your hand if you want,” the thermokinetic quipped, unphased by the sight of the wound as she studied it, eyes narrowing as she determined how big of an opening she’d have to make for the plasma to escape through. “Not so big that he bleeds out,” Bellamy cautioned her best friend, attention turned to Liam in a silent question of whether he wanted her to hold his hand or not. Charley rolled her eyes in response as his hand raised, crouching down next to him. Bell wasn’t far behind, interlocking their fingers as she nodded, the thin band of the ring, a new addition, on her finger pressing into his hand. Charley’s own hand was surprisingly gentle as she cooled the area around the scar, numbing it before getting to work at the task assigned. Liam hissed slightly; despite being an accomplished fencer, Liam had never been keen on the idea of a blade slicing in to him. “You’re fine,” Bellamy hummed, with a squeeze of reassurance, his thumb brushing over her ring finger in response. She couldn’t exactly claim that it was fun to watch, but it was necessary. Apparently that was going to be the theme of the day. Charley stood up after a moment, making quick work of freezing the skin and veins around the wound to prevent him from bleeding out before they even got started. She knew it would only be temporary - it would quickly reopen once everything started happening - but it was enough for now. “Alright, y’all,” she brusquely instructed, catching Bellamy’s eye. The older of the two nodded, signalling that she was alright. They had talked about Charley stepping in when Bellamy couldn’t, a backup in more ways than just lending her power to the equation. The younger blonde never had a problem voicing things that everyone was thinking, so she figured it was now or never. She turned around with a clap of her hands and headed over to dispose of the blade. She gestured to the arena, shepherding everyone into place. “Let’s get this show on the road.” “Right. No time but the present.” Liam gave a curt nod of agreement, eyes lifting towards where his family sat behind the forcefields. Despite his previous ironclad mandate that they wouldn’t be in the room when this happened, he was glad that he had relented and they were there. He squeezed Bellamy’s hand once more before striding back to the center of the Dome. A muscle jumped in his jaw, the only outward sign that he was apprehensive of what was about to happen, but he turned towards Ginger. “Ladies first,” he said, feeling the temperature plunge behind him as Charley raised her hands and static in the air crackled, then flickered at Ginger’s fingertips in flashes of light. Luke’s force fields settled around him, the faint blue light emitting just enough heat to assure him that they were there, and then everything seemed to stand still for a heartbeat. “Uh, sorry,” was the strangely sincere apology out of Avalon’s assistant before flashes became cracks, and electricity leapt from her palm at his body. There would be enough power between her and Taiyang even if she split her attention between their nuclear reactor and Avalon, who was already forming the metals from the materials she’d brought. This was absolutely, incredibly, seriously stupid, and if it didn’t work, if the power of the electromagnatism between the two of them wasn’t enough to pull out that from Liam’s incision, they were fucked. Alex had made sure before arriving today to fill his solar energy to the brink of his capacity, enough that when he finally retreated back indoors his skin had started to hiss in warning of overexertion. The time inside had helped dispel the extraneous power, but at least he knew that at the very least, he would have given Liam his all. He only hoped his all wasn’t too much. That anxiety only spiked as he added to Ginger’s electricity, carefully maneuvering the heat that expelled from his hands so that the aim was as precise as he could tell, and that he did not unleash so much solar heat that he permanently damaged Bonfire. Liam bit down on the inside of his cheek when he felt the heat flood his body, setting his body on fire. The metalic taste of blood flooded his mouth, signaling that he had bitten through his cheek as he tried to keep the scream he could feel building in the back of his throat from escaping. Sweat pooled on his skin from the effort, only to evaporate as it made contact with the combined coolness from Bellamy and Charley’s powers swirling around him in an effort to keep the energy inside the flimsy barrier his skin provided. That’s good, he thought to himself, a loud grunt escaping his lips as he felt the heat exponentially intensify inside of him. His own fire suddenly blazed to life, feeding off the energy stored in his body and provided by the duo. It was hungry for more after being trapped for months, eagerly burning through any extra bit of energy it could find. Jesus Christ. The Scot sent a quick prayer up that this would work as he started to glow, the blaze starting in his hands and making its way up his arms at an alarming speed until his full body was encased in blinding white light. Was it supposed to happen this fast? He could feel something heavy in his veins start to shift, angrily searing a path through him in its attempt to overtake the fire and claw a way out through the first chink in his armor. Despite Luke’s forcefields holding his body in place, his eyes were still free to move and quickly sought out Bellamy. Bonfire and Crystalline had always been in sync when they partnered together, their actions so closely coordinated as if they could read each other’s mind. He hoped that was still true as the spots dancing in front of his eyes suddenly expanded, the blackness taking over before he could warn her that he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on to consciousness. She didn’t need him to look at her to know what was about to happen— they’d all known that in order for this to have any chance of succeeding, he had to get hot enough to make the plasma move in the attempt, and that putting his body through that amount of stress again meant he mercifully wouldn’t be conscious for most of it. She looked down to his chest, watching the wound reopen, her hands shaking for the slightest moment before she pulled herself back together. God, she hoped he wouldn’t remember most of this. As promised, Charley’s eyes slid over to her friend as Liam lit up, ensuring that she was still capable of proceeding. She flexed her fingers, doubling her output as she saw Bellamy momentarily falter. “He’s about to pass out,” Bellamy called out to the others around her, her gaze meeting Liam’s, giving him a nod that was backed up not by confidence, but hope that the friends gathered around him wouldn’t witness his death, an even stronger prayer that she and Liam had a future waiting for them on the other side of this. We’ll keep going, I promise. Sure enough, a moment later his blue eyes slid out of focus, the only reason he remained standing was the forcefield holding him upright. “We’ve got to get it out of him now, Avalon, please.” At that point, Iain got his phone out and put Jenny’s number into the dialpad, ready to hit send. Before all of this, he and Bellamy had made the decision that he’d be the one to make the call. His hands were sweaty, and if he could have made eye contact with Bell, he would have. But he wasn’t going to break their concentration. Not when they had a job to do. Not when he had a job to do, too. He tapped the screen, and held the phone up to his ear, expression grim. Come on, Liam. Come on, mo bhràthair. We need you. The look of concentration on the ferrokinetic’s face didn’t falter for a second as she said, primly, “Rift, if you would?” Ginger’s directed charge rattled through her metal composites where they hovered, just as ready as she was. She didn’t need to tell her fellow Top Hero twice as the air shuddered and made a sound that could only be described as ripping: a tear in the fabric of space appeared behind them, leading to no particular destination, an empty rip into nothingness. This would have to work, because if it didn’t and there was some gross miscalculation, Liam would explode, or his blast would hit Avalon, or some other horrifying option that none of them wanted to entertain and certainly already had. But she had confidence in spades, and she seldom rushed into anything she wasn’t certain had a chance of success. The metal hummed. Now. Avalon yanked. As a calculated, scientific procedure in a contained lab, the tokamak was a viable thing. In the middle of a grassy field with their main source of a magnetic field limited to a ferrokinetic and an electrokinetic, and their plasma being heated by the power of the goddamn sun and needing to be drawn out by an incision in a delicate human body, it wasn’t as clean. And clean though it was not, it did happen as planned: as Avalon’s charged metal whipped into the open space that Evan had created, an incredible surge of plasma and energy ripped itself out of Liam’s body, drawn to the retreating magnetic field and following, in a blast of beautiful light and flame, directly into the tear. With nowhere for that energy to go, Evan sealed the tear with a wave of his hand. Gone. He strode over, all but ready to support the near unconscious Liam as all electricity and light crackled away. “Drop the heat,” Bellamy murmured as she squinted against the brightness of the plasma flowing away from Liam’s body, her own hands dropping as she stared, trying to determine if the Scot was breathing or if his body was just swaying that way because of Luke’s efforts. “Drop the heat,” she repeated, louder this time, too panicked to think straight though she knew that it had most likely already been done. “Charley.” “Already on it,” the thermokinetic was there, lip caught between her teeth as she pushed through the frostbite spreading up her fingers. They had to get his core temperature back down before any other damage could occur, and quickly. Charley knew it would hurt like a bitch when she went to pull her gloves off later, the pain paling in comparison to what the human torch would feel when he woke up, but Bellamy was worth the sacrifice. Her gaze was clinical, intent on the task at hand as she drew moisture from the air to cool him, but even she was slightly disturbed by the human science experiment they had just witnessed. The human body was designed to withstand a finite amount of trauma, and Charley didn’t want to be the one to point out that they had far surpassed that threshold. Seconds later Bellamy was beside Evan, her mouth dry, eyes more damp than she cared to admit, and hands shaking as though she’d been the one whose body had been put through hell. “Ease him down, Luke,” the blonde suggested, glancing over to ensure the other man hadn’t overexerted himself. The Underdog hero heeded Bellamy's words immediately, steady hands shifting slightly as Liam's encased body was gently placed on the ground. The shimmer of his forcefield began to fade, and in an effort to calm the last of his nerves, Luke heaved a heavy sigh. Through all the worries that each of them had, the worst of it was over. No nuclear explosion, no having to cast Liam into the abyss, no Evan caught in the middle of a rift and reactive plasma. Just a Scottish redhead with a cheeky attitude, and the still of breath while his friends waited for a sign that he was still alive. The shields dropped and as soon as Liam was lying prone on the grass his partner closed the remaining distance, dropping to her knees, hands hovering above his chest. Bellamy took a deep breath, steadfastly ignoring the taste of copper in her mouth that indicated she wanted to throw up, and steeled herself for the possibility that she might not feel a pulse before she touched her index and middle fingers to his carotid artery, her own body completely still before she felt it. A pulse. Rapid and thready, but it was still there. He had survived it. She looked for Iain and Cat, safe behind the forcefield of the Dome and nodded, her attention then turned to Evan. Iain’s entire body transformed into visible relief. Cat’s head hit the nearest flat, cold surface, as she dealt with the weight lifting as privately as she could. There was an after the extraction plan, Bell knew, but the adrenaline had wiped it from her head. “I don’t know what to do,” she admitted, her voice cracking. Evan’s hand was a solid, sturdy pressure on her arm. “I’ve got him, Bell.” In the blink of an eye, boss mode was on. “Charley, get someone to look at your hands.” The cold retreated, replaced by a muffled oath acknowledging the directive. His arms were sliding under his unconscious friend’s body to maneuver him into a position he could be heaved up from. “Avalon?” “Unsinged,” she chimed from over his shoulder. To Bellamy, he said, voice much softer now: “Jenny or I will keep you updated. Will you pass that on to Cat and Iain?” He didn’t expect more than the simple nod she gave, and hefted Liam up over his shoulder. Up came his hand — another tear, this time a true portal. His encouraging smile was for Bellamy, and his eyes caught three other pairs as he ensconced their no longer nuclear reactor through a portal to PI headquarters. |