Lightning Strikes Twice

[etcircenses]

Who| District 13 Mission-goers
What| Time to rescue what District kids have survived
Where| Near some edge of the arena
When| During Week 4
Warnings/Notes| Please put any necessary warnings in your thread headers.


There were no sign ups involved this time, this was an off-worlder idea which means the off-worlders clearly have every desire to see this through; you signed up with your consent. The mission is to be held in the evening, so the morning is spent preparing, stocking up the hovercraft with medical supplies, arming everyone, donning the now familiar all black attire. When the alert is sent out, it's simply to gather in the hanger and begin loading.

As promised, there's no sign of a 13-issued leader involved, it's on the mission team and it's assigned tactical head to lead themselves; all Webb gives the group is a chipper smile and 'Good Luck.'

The sun is just beginning it's descent when the hovercraft leaves the hanger. The flight isn't nearly as long as the one to District 3, but it's long enough that the sun has dipped below the horizon when the hovercraft stops. Stopping doesn't mean landing, however. The team's resident off-worlder pilot comes on over the speaker with given instructions: time to strap up and get ready to do a little sky-diving.

The plan is simple really. Should the hackers do their job, the storms will do as they're told and strike the dome below the hovercraft all at the same time, breaking the barrier and making a hole big enough for the strike team to carry out the rescue. Hackers strapped in and strike team ready to zipline down, the hovercraft's door opens to the windy outside, allowing a wonderful view of the bright flash and deafening crash a minute later as the weather codes carry out their destruction.

Time to move.

Comments

[rotor]

Rotor was lucky enough to find an ally in James, someone stronger with more experience who wasn't going to stab a gentle lamb like him in the back to pay him back for his desperate trust. So far, he's survived, into week 4, far longer than he thought he would, and every second he's panicking and close to tears. He almost wants it to be over faster just so he'll not have to feel this terror and panic anymore.

Then something went terribly wrong, and the tightly wound fear set Rotor off sprinting, completely heedless of his protector, aware only that adrenaline is prioritizing getting away. He pays no attention to the direction he's going, blindly running forward, and is that a parachute with a person on it coming into the Arena...?

He knows that if he stops for any amount of time his legs will be shaking too much to support him, and his hyperventilation might even make him pass out. He looks behind him, to the side, then trips and falls on an exposed root. He throws his clasped hands instinctively over the back of his neck and squeezes his eyes closed. Playing dead won't work here, not without a cannon, but he's utterly paralyzed. It's all he can do.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

When Sam hears something crashing down off to the side, he pauses in his tracks. There's a moment where he waits, listening, just in case someone was using that as a distraction for an attack - but when there's nothing, he heads cautiously in its direction.

Only to find one of the District kids huddled on the ground next too an exposed tree root, and Sam winces. He can't quite tell which one this is with the kid's hands over the back of his neck like that, but Sam approaches anyway.

"Hey, brother, you're okay. I'm not here to hurt you."

[rotor]

Rotor glances up furtively, carefully pulling himself to his knees. "What..." he stares at the unfamiliar Tribute.

...no, he can't be a Tribute. Rotor would have seen him before the Arena if that was the case. He's from outside, he has to be. And if he's telling the truth... he might survive this after all.

"You're not?" he asks. "What's going on?"

[sizeofyourbaggage]

When the kid carefully sits up, Sam can't help but smile a little. He recognizes him now - Rotor, from District Five. And maybe Sam getting placed in five was arbitrary, maybe he didn't have any real connection to it - but it brought him Kurloz and Venus, and he can't help but feel a little bit of loyalty to it.

"You're Rotor, right? I'm Sam Wilson, I was one of District Five's Tributes. We're getting you out of here."

[rotor]

Rotor seems surprised that the strange man recognizes him, even though his name and his low score have been broadcast on television for weeks and he has no reason to be.

"No... no way," he breathes as he starts to stand on legs that are just a touch too shaky to do so steadily. "Can you do that? That's... that's treason... they'll kill you..."

[sizeofyourbaggage]

Sam reaches down automatically, offering his hand to help the kid up.

"Hell yeah, we can do it. We broke in here, didn't we? Besides, I'm pretty sure they're already looking to kill me for deciding I didn't fell like going along with being a Tribute anymore." Among other things. "Might as well add one more reason to the list."

[rotor]

The man's confidence is charismatic and immediately heartening. He takes the man's hand and looks into his kind, dark face with the kind of clinging hope that only a child who's convinced of his own impending death can truly affect.

"We... we gotta hurry then? If we don't have to die, I uh, I don't want to..." he stammers, swallowing as his heart starts pounding with a different kind of fear.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

His heart breaks a little at the way the kid's looking at him, not in the least because this isn't the first time he's had a kid gazing up at him like this. He knows the kind of desperation that inspires something like that, and it only makes him want to protect the kid more.

"You're not gonna die, Rotor, all right? I won't let that happen. Come on, I'll take you somewhere safe - but yeah, we gotta hurry."

Assuming the kid doesn't protest, Sam'll tug him back the way he came, towards the waiting hovercraft.

/end thread?

[rotor]

Rotor is quick to nod his head, violently and repetitively. He needs this strength and reassurance, being a gentle and kind and weak soul who was not made for the cruel world he was born into.

"OK. Th-thank you..."

He scrambles to follow in a timely manner, hope swelling in him and lending his exhausted limbs some motivation to keep moving and trying.