creator_raven | (no subject)

It actually took Ace quite a few tries (she lost count after her first hundred) to find the right Earth. There's still many gaps and chasms between versions of universes in her range of time, and she's making full use of that.

She figured she was on the right track when her TARDIS suddenly lost power halfway through landing, resulting in a somewhat disastrous crash. Once she limped away from that, glad her ship had kept its structural integrity, she had picked a direction at random.

Three days later, after having found a cute gameskeeper, being adopted by a local tribe, and finding a herd of particularly stupid dik-dik, she decided she was going in the wrong direction, and hitched a ride north (truck, jeep, paddle-boat, camel, and bus) to Cairo, where she flew to London.

Three days after that, after somehow gaining an audience with the Queen, riding the Tube for all those three days without missing a single train or ending up on a stalled train, and having brilliantly sunny warm weather the entire time, she decided that once again, she's not in the right spot.

So she went back to Heathrow, and went after studying the board for a while, booked another flight, this one to Santa Fe.

After the entirety of the First Class cabin got raging drunk off of tiny wine and attempted a riot, she decided that was a good choice. If anything, it gave her an excuse to hit people a lot.

It is probably fortunate that the plane does not crash.

But every vehicle approaching the terminal begins to emit smoke from under the hood.

Only half of them burst into flame.

It only gets worse on the highway.

Ace grumbles after the third exploded jeep that she's expecting Bruce Willis to land on the hood of her rented car any moment now.

Then the pavement buckles, causing the gasoline tanker traveling just ahead of her to jack-knife and crash, spilling slick fuel all over the interstate.

And then of her engine's alerts go off at once.

Ace sighs, and closes her eyes against the bright glare of the explosion.

It's not that Raven is silhouetted amongst the flames.

Not really.

But he's standing out on the hard-baked ground, heat haze rising from his shoulders like a second skin.

Or wings.

"Possibly it is better to leave the road, yes?"

Ace peels her face off the the asphalt, and glares at him.

She then climbs to her feet, and, stiffly, painfully, walks over to him.

Cautiously balls her hand into a fist.

And throws a roundhouse punch Wells would be proud of.

Raven catches her fist.

Carefully.

Then lets it go and steps back.

The fire on the road goes out. It does not quite feel like an implosion.

But it is close.

"You have been looking, I think."

"Bastard." She huffs, then hikes back to the road. After a few minutes of searching through the wreakage of her ex-rental car, she pulls out a black fireproof, waterproof, crushproof box and carries it back.

"Annie's cookies. Y'don't deserve them, runnin' off on me like that."

He takes the box, opening it and tucking a few cookies into his mouth.

The rest go into his pockets.

Except one.

Ace can have that one.

"I am, I think, not so fond of watching people die."

Well. Not when he cannot eat their eyeballs, at least.

"Then let's get further away from the interstate." Ace replies. If he's hoping she's about to wander away, he's very confused.

Raven does not so much bother to hope.

Or run.

(Also Ace is not very good at wandering. Sad but true.)

"That, I think, is not so difficult. Even if you are not for running this time."

Edited 2009-06-25 02:57 (UTC)

"Hell no. You cheat, an' get away before I can recover." She huffs, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "So, where are we goin'?"

"That way, perhaps."

It seems as if he picks a direction at random and starts walking.

This may be more or less true.

And if there is any significance to the heat haze rising up from the ground itself --

Raven does not appear to pay attention.

"It has, I think, not been so long for you?"

"Not terribly. Couple of days." Mostly, as soon as she was back up to full steam. Ace trails alongside her brother, her boots raising faint puffs of dust in the sandy soil.
"You been out here long?"

There's a stillness to his face when he looks at her.

It is an old thing. Familiar, though. Perhaps.

"I am, I think, always moving. It is easier, so."

"Meanin' I've got t'do this all over again next time I come? Lovely." She grouses mildly. "But y'didn't answer the question, Adobebutt."

"I have been flying, perhaps, for a very long time."

There are a string of unfortunate accidents stretching from Vegas to DC to Nova Scotia and across the ocean.

And back again.

Bird has not been idle.

"It is a thing that happens."

Earthquakes, however, are not things that should be happening right now.

No, they really shouldn't. They're not on any bloody faults.

That doesn't stop the ground underneath Ace from opening up and dropping her twenty-five feet down.

Geologists will be shocked, we're sure.

Raven breathes.

Carefully.

Fortunately the earth does not close up immediately behind her.

He drops down a moment later, hefting her broken and battered body back to the surface.

Sometimes it is easier not to climb, perhaps.

Ace moves, eventually, starting with her fingers and moving inward.

"And, once again, I'm going to hit that damn mutt so hard her teeth will be in Toledo." She mutters at the far-away sky.

"Likely she will only find them again."

He snorts, falling back two steps and sinking down into a crouch.

"It is troublesome. On occasion."

She huffs, rolling up into something approximating sitting.

"Ow." She notes, eying the chasm not too far away. "So? What's the plan? Have y'managed t'get healed yet?"

"No."

It's a quick answer, and stark.

"But this time it did not get so bad so quickly, I do not think."

Three minutes is good.

It is a start.

"I meant," She retorts, rolling her eyes at him, "Did y'heal your side, dingbat. I kinda figured the bad luck thing was in force when the TARDIS crashed."

"That, I think, does not so much heal."

Speaking of --

drip

drip

"Raven." She cries, sounding pained. "Shouldn't y'at least put a bandage on like a somewhat normal person?"

Never mind getting it fixed.

She might try to hit him again, once she gets to her feet.