Participants:
| Scene Title | Sunken Treasures |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Melissa organizes some of Messiah to go diving, to investigate some wreckage found previously during an impromptu beach party. What they find is not what they expect, nor is it pleasant. |
| Date | July 13, 2010 |
Staten Island Beach
A quick couple of phone calls led to several members of Messiah meeting at a beach on Staten Island, not too very far from Melissa's house. It's a small, but nice beach, not one of the ones that's normally occupied by beachgoers, which means that there aren't many people here, not this late in the afternoon. There's a few people further down the beach, little more than moving specks, and there are a couple of seals sunning themselves on some rocks closer to where everyone has gathered.
Down by the water is enough scuba equipment for everyone. Tanks, masks, flippers and suits. Along with a cooler full of water and sandwiches, towels, bags, tools, flashlights. Someone has come prepared.
Melissa was waiting down by the water when people started arriving, wearing a black bikini herself, one with a skull on one half of her top, though she's got her suit pulled on over her legs, and has left it hanging around her waist. Her rainbow hair is pulled up so it'll be out of the way, and she's staring out over the waves.
Once enough people arrived, Mel gave a quick lesson on how to use the scuba equipment, having taken a crash course herself, just enough so they can use it all safely. It was important enough to come before the full explanation of why they're here. Short versions were given on the phone, but now Mel is sharing all the information she has. Which, truthfully, isn't much.
"So, some of you were here with me last time, so you know all this. Just bear with me. Last time we were here, Perry found some interesting stuff underwater here. A cage, which led to a few other things. A useless gun, a leg bone, and…wreckage. Some sort of ship. Now, I dunno about all of you, but it got me pretty damn curious. So we're gonna go down there, bring up what we can, and see if we can figure out what the hell happened." Mel's lips curve into a smile. "Because I've done some checking, and the only thing that's happened in this area that I can find in the news, is an 'off-shore oil tanker explosion'," she says, making air quotes with her fingers. "From what I saw when we were down there, it doesn't look like an oil tanker."
Hands settle on her hips and she grins and looks around at everyone. "So. Any questions?"
As he arrives, Harrison is shirtless wearing a pair of simple swimming trunks. He looks a bit better then the last time he was seen by the group and all his bruises are gone. He looks down at the stuff and then at the sandwiches. He sighs when Melissa gets right to business but listens as he looks over the equipment doing his best to learn.
As he nods at the instruction, he asks, "What do you think it is Melissa?"
Ling wasn't terribly sure how she'd been talked into this whole thing. It certainly wasn't something that sounded like a good time to her, and she was standing there looking subconscious as she ever had in the black one piece swimsuit that had been provided for her. She'd not been averse to showing off herself in the past, but that had always been with some goal or manipulation in mind. This… was something quite different. And scuba suits? Well, at least she wasn't entirely out to dry there, she'd been scubaing on a business retreat once.
Her arms are crossed as she watches Melissa, eyes drifting to other present every moment or two. She doesn't really say much, she just listens. Whatever power Melissa held over her the last few days that actually made her pay the woman heed continued to be at work, strong as ever.
"It could be any number of things," she states very matter of factly to Harrison. "A gun and a leg don't mean much. The cage is a curious thing, however."
Magnes is in a pair of bright green trunks, having stripped down to just those and a white t-shirt with the Sub Mariner's head on it. He's floating in the air with both his legs and arms crossed, staring at the equipment, then the water. "So… we have to actually go down there? Like, inside of the water? Our whole bodies?" He does not sound confident in this at all.
Harrison gets a shrug. "I don't know. That's partly why I wanna go down there and figure it out," Melissa admits. She nods at Ling, smiling. "Could be. And no, the gun and leg by themselves don't mean much. Add the cage though…" Her shoulders shift in a shrug. "I mean, yes, for all I know, it's nothing. The gun, leg and cage could be the most interesting things down there. But that's just it. I don't know, and the only way to find out is to go down there."
Eyes flick over to Magnes. "Unless you can somehow move all the water between us and that wreck, then yes, our whole bodies. It's called swimming. Or, I guess scuba diving is more accurate in this case." There's a pause. "You can swim, right?"
Harrison looks at Magnes and cocks his head at the floating figure and then could not help himself. He is young after all and teases the hero, "Scared of getting wet? Ahhhhh I have to ask myself WWTWKD." What would the White Knight Do? Harrison begins to get his gear on and says, "This is gonna be fun…and cool as hell. Never been diving before."
Ling scoffs audibly at Magnes' question, shaking her head. "Are you an idiot?" she asks flatly and bluntly, "Or do you just not listen?" It seems whatever lessons Melissa has instilled in her aren't really carrying over to others yet. Slowly she makes her way over to the scuba gear, eyeing it pensively before rooting around, gathering what will be hers.
"I can swim, it's just…" Magnes steps down and walks over to the water, staring just at the edge of it. "I hate the way it feels, how it sticks to your skin. It's my ability, I'm always weird with water, it gets stuck and wobbles around. But I guess I can't drown if I have gear on, I just wanted to point out that I haven't been completely submerged in water since I was a child. I don't even take baths, I shower."
The noise of an engine coming up the road adjacent to the beach isn't entirely out of the ordinary, this eastern coastal section of the Rookery has moderate traffic during the day, but the distinctive rumble of a large truck's engine and the familiar mottled patterning of faded blue paint and rust that belongs to Knox's pickup truck is less expected. He'd never gotten back to Melissa about this particular underwater foray, and when the truck comes rolling to a stop and pulls to the side of the road, it begins to become clear as to why.
Hopping out of the open bed of the truck, Peter Petrelli shouldn't be the last person to be seen in a place like this, but his fraternization with members of Messiah has been minimalist as of late. Conversation with Knox as the driver gets out of his truck, is too distant to hear, but Peter's point down to the crew on the beach below the rocky slope leading to the shorelike seems indicative of his intentions.
When the passenger side door of the truck opens, Harrison and Melissa recognize Larson Riggs' tall and lanky form, tucking a cigarette between his lips and looking down the shoreline.
Heading away from the truck, Peter climbs down the loose rock and chunks of scrap concrete designed to be wave breakers, carefully scraping boots over stone on his way down to the sandy shoreline and through the windblown saltgrass.
"Hey!" Peter calls out across the sand, lifting up one hand and waving it in the air, his loose black button-down shirt rustling in the seabreeze, dress shoes getting caked with sand as he walks and black slacks not entirely beach appropriate attire.
Up on the road away from the beach, Larson seems content to watch from afar, leaning up against the truck and sucking on his cigarette while Knox circles around the back of the truck and pulls open the tailgate.
WWTWKD? Melissa gives Harrison a confused look, then just shrugs and tries to hide a smile at Ling's comments towards Magnes. And fails. But she tried! "Well here you go, Magnes. A chance to try something new after so long," she says, shrugging to him. Then she's glancing over, and frowning as she looks at Peter's choice of clothes. "Uh…hon? Hate to break it to you, but that is so not the right sort of clothing for this." There's a look up to Larson and Knox, then back to Peter. "What's going on? You guys joining us, or…?"
As Harrison chuckles, he begins to walk towards the water and turns to look at Peter, Knox, and Larson as the arrive. He gives the men a slight nod of respect but falls silent. He runs a hand through his hair as he turns his body towards them to listen to what they had to say.
Magnes looks back, offering a 'meh Peter' look, then turns back to the water and crouches down slightly, moving his hand through it. "Guess I don't have a choice, I have to get over this eventually." he decides, and lets out a long sigh at the whole situation.
"That would be most wise," Ling remarks to Magnes, having to fight back the urge to follow with because I didn't come here to listen to people complain. Her eyes divert upwards at Peter, watching for another moment before lifting to Knox and… someone else she doesn't recognise. She mutters something to herself in Chinese, standing straight as the man approaches.
"No, I wouldn't go down there if you paid me," Peter notes with a crooked smile as he comes out onto the sand, offering an askance look to Magnes. For a man who said he quit not that long ago, Peter seems refreshed to see him still socializing with the organization. "I would've come sooner but I had something that needed looking into… ah," Peter's brows furrow slightly as he crosses the sand, offering a subtle wave to Harrison in return to the young man's greeting, catching up to Melissa.
"I thought you might want to know what it is you're diving for…" Brown eyes stare past Melissa, out to the lapping surf, then back to the blonde. "I had Rebel go over some satellite images from a year back, I had a pretty good idea what it might be when you mentioned the oil tanker explosion, but I wanted to be sure." Brows creased, Peter shakes his head and tucks his hands into the pockets of his slacks.
"That ship out there, is the wreckage of the Invierno." It's a name that will likely go lost on most people here, save that it means Winter in Spanish, and that to Magnes Varlane… it means Vanguard.
He'd heard the term during the mission briefing for Operation Apollo, the Vanguard freighter ship that carried the Shanti Virus, destroyed off the coast of New York City in the winter of 2009. It was the sister ship to the Verano, the cargo ship that he battled the Vanguard on at the Marion Island engagement.
Hands settle on Melissa's hips and her head tilts, a frown remaining on her face. "Okay? What's so special about the Invierno?" Because she has no idea. A pause, another glance to the truck and the two men up there, then she's giving Peter a curious look. For some reason though, she's keeping her mouth shut beyond the question already asked.
Harrison returns the wave to Peter as he looks over at Knox. He is a face he has not seen before. He gives him a curious look before returning his eyes back to the conversion at hand. He swings his goggles around on his index finger.
"Wait, are you saying there could be samples of that virus down there?" Magnes asks with a jerking of his head back at Peter from his hunched position. "Why is the wreckage even down there? Don't they clean this stuff up?"
"Virus?" Ling intones darkly and suspiciously, looking first to Melissa, and then over to Peter. Her brow furrows, and she ceases making any more preparations for diving, crossing her arms as she waits for further explanation from Peter. Finding viruses was not how she planned on spending her day. Much less going through the effort of diving for one.
Dark eyes drift attention to Magnes, one brow raising before Peter offers a slow shake of his head. "No, I don't think the Virus is still down there. It was destroyed over a year ago, and as far as I'm aware the government rooted through the wreckage. But there's not much you can do with several thousand tons of steel on the bottom of the ocean. I'm not sure how thouroughly they went through the wreckage, but it was probably in deeper waters when they were diving, which likely made it harder to look through…"
Taking a few meandering steps closer to the shore, Peter's shoes sink down into the darker, more damp water near the lapping surf. "There could be anything down there, especially if any of the shipping crates were still sealed. Guns, ammunition, whole automobiles. The Vanguard had all of their supplies for their projected takeover of New York City on that ship…" Turning to look over his shoulder to Ling, Peter offers a faint smile. "I don't think anything we wouldn't want to find, though."
Looking back out to the water, there's a distant, wistful expression on Peter's face. "Rebel thinks that the winter weather we just had probably disturbed the tides. That storm kicked up some severe winds for a while, likely shifted the bottom of the sea floor, pushed the wreckage inland. There's actually a good chance we might find something salvageable there."
Virus? Oh hell no. Melissa looks like she's about to call the whole thing off, until Peter continues. It takes a minute, but slowly she relaxes and nods, studying that expression on Peter's face. There's a long moment where she says nothing, then she looks back to the trio going down with her. "Suit up."
Looking back to Peter, Mel points out, "Good information to have, but why did all three of you show up if you're not going down with us?"
Harrison looks at Melissa and then down at himself. He shrugs, "I think I am good. I just need the tank. If I need to shift while under water I just need to make sure I breath. All that extra stuff will weigh me down more. I am going like this." He motions to his naked torso and just his swim trunks.
"On that note, I think now is as good a time as any." Magnes stands up straight, walking back to his clothes to start slipping his blue jeans on. "I can't help you get guns, if that is actually what's down there. After my mission the other day, I saw the news, what we're doing, and, well, I can't keep helping you do it. I'm not saying I'm going against you, I know I am on the other side too, but I'm not taking a side. I'm going neutral, I'll do my own thing my way. If you have something you think I might wanna do, give me a call, but after what I saw in my 'vision', this isn't the path I should be going down."
Fuckfuckfuckfuck. Faron's mantra as he, breathlessly, charges towards the beach resounds in his head. He said he would be here. He promised. Unfortunately, the AC unit he had been working on all day was only just repaired. Without taking a second to get himself cleaned up, he runs to the meeting spot, hoping to at least not miss something. The group could probably see him making his way towards them against the light. Melissa probably knew it was him. Probably.
Supplies. Guns. Perhaps that shouldn't sit well with Ling, but after the last year, few things seemed rub her quite as wrong as they used to. Still, it was much better than rooting around for a virus. At Melissa's comment to finish suiting up, she lingers for a moment, and any firhter movement ceases, when she actually laughs at Magnes. "If you don't pick a side, a side will pick you," she retorts with a malicious smile on her face. "You don't need to live in the business world to know that true neutrality doesn't exist."
Harrison looks over at Magnes and cocks an eyebrow. His eyes narrow at the man and his words and says, "Doesn't he know too much? Is he allowed to do that? I mean…leave or whatever?" He looks at Peter curiously.
"We're not…" there's a narrow-eyed look to Magnes, and Peter's head craaaaaanes to the side slowly as if to wonder just how jokingly Magnes is offering that explanation, "…staying," Peter finally finishes his sentence with a dip of his head down into a nod, looking back to Melissa. "Me, Knox and Riggs are checking out something in the Rookery, nothing you need to worry about. I just thought I'd stop by in person instead of sending a voicemail or something so you all knew what to expect. We'll probably be gone the rest of the day," he says quietly, looking back over his shoulder to the truck, watching Knox sitting on the truck's tailgate and Riggs continuing to leisurely smoke a cigarette and watch the group on the beach.
Peter's attention is drawn down to a dragonfly that buzzes past, offering out a hand for it as it lands down on his wrist, then crawls up his sleeve to perch on his shoulder. "I think you can handle this," Peter offers as some measure of a compliment to Melissa in his own roundabout way. "Or, I hope you can. Consider this a dry run for having some more responsibilities, and we'll take it from there."
The dragonfly on Peter's shoulder buzzes away, tracing a meandering path through the air back up towards the truck where Riggs had one hand waiting out to receive his tiny friend.
Brows furrowed, Peter offers an askance look to Magnes and crooks his jaw to the side. Tongue rolling across the inside of his cheek, there's a look over to Melissa, then Harrison, then over to Ling and then up to the truck to Knox and Riggs, then back to Magnes. "Seriously?" A quick dark-eyed stare darts around to everyone on the beach again and then back to Magnes. "You thought now would be a good time to tell… us… that you didn't want to play ball anymore?"
Snorting out a laugh, Peter shakes his head and spreds his hands out and offers a lopsided smile. "Sure, no, he can leave if he wants… why shouldn't he? Best luck on your next time investment then, Magnes. Go on," Peter motions down the beach vaguely with one hand, "run along."
A hand is lifted to Faron, before Melissa looks to Magnes, all emotion gone from her face. "You know what doing? But you didn't until you saw the news?" She shakes her head. "Go on, then," she says, echoing Peter's words. "If you won't help, then we can handle it ourselves and you don't have to get wet."
She nods to Peter, head tilting at the dragonfly, then watching it fly off. "Huh." She blinks and shakes her head, before smiling a bit. "Thanks. And I'm sure I can handle it. But try to stop by sometime soon, will ya? I do need to talk to you. Business," she assures him, before she starts tugging her suit up so she's wearing it properly. "Hey Faron! Get your butt down here and suit up! We're gettin' ready to dive!" she calls out to the latecomer.
"I'm not running, I'm just not being childish. The fact that Claire hasn't put a bullet in your head by now is a small miracle. She said herself that she'd kill anyone who just made Evolved look worse, and make things even harder on us." Magnes bends down to tie his shoes, though he's keeping his gravitational field extended, feelers out, just in case. "But that's right, you've got her out suicide bombing. Tell me, again, how this is supposedly helping? I'm sure the government's kicking themselves in the ass for not closing the secret prisons and kidnapping people after everything you have people doing."
He finally stands up straight, giving Peter a very hateful crease of his brows. "If Kazimir were in that body, maybe you'd have the sense to see how fucking backward your logic is, and he hated Evolved. So, yeah, good fucking job making everything a lot harder for everyone because you just wanna blow shit up."
After a time of running, or more correctly trying to run, across the beach, Faron meets with the group panting and putting his hands on his knees, obviously breathless from the run. He peers around, letting his breath calm itself, noting the very apparent intensity of what was going on around the area before he even got there. Okay, he thought to himself, best not to aggravate the situation any further. Say nothing.
As he moves up put the suit over his now-exposed chest, he takes note of the people there. Ling and Melissa were their, good news for that. Harrison was here as well, but he didn't think that would be so much a blessing as someone who could end him if he stepped out of line. And the others…who were they? He recognized Knox but knew better than to try to piss him off. The other three were complete strangers, and the way the one young man seemed very confrontational made him realize just how deep in shit he would be in if he tried to say anything. His mouth remained shut as he quietly listened, trying to shuffle his gear on just as silently.
Ling's gaze looks over to Peter, then drifts to Melissa. "It sounds like he's picked a side just fine," she mutters as she finishes putting on her suit. She regards the young man with an odd sense of malice for a moment before she shakes her head, returning to the task at hand.
The young man shows a little fire under his collar for the first time in a long time. Harrison begins to take a few steps towards Magnes, "Dude what the fuck is your deal? You came to me and I thought you were so cool. I thought here is someone I could believe in and stand behind because he believed in himself." He points at Magnes and says, "You're a coward. I am not gonna let anyone fucking put me in a cage, stick me with needles or hurt anyone I care about for being different." He is young it is expected, "I don't agree with the killing. I FUCKING HAVE NIGHTMARES EVERY NIGHT!" He continues to take step after step towards Magnes, "But I believe in this." Harrison is angry and his body is beginning to shift without his control. "How could you leave your friends…I CONSIDER you my friend." He stops and looks down at his now silver hands and growls, "See what you did."
"Easy," Peter offers with a crease of his brows, reaching out to lay a hand on Harrison's shoulder, carefully. Dark eyes search for the younger man's, then turn back to Magnes as his head shakes slowly. Attention settles back on Harrison, and Peter pats his shifting shoulder gently, trying to ease this tension. "S'olright… don't let him get you down. He's a disappointment to everyone, not just us. Just… let it go, Harrison. He's made his choice."
Only after addressing Harrison and doing his best to try and ease his tensions does Peter looks back up to Magnes. "I didn't ask for an explanation." Peter says to Magnes with a furrow of his brows and, "I said go." Brown eyes flick around from Melissa to the others and then settles on Ling, slowly nodding as he does before looking back to Magnes again. "You want out, you have your out. You want to make it an issue of how you're against us after saying you aren't? Don't. Just take your things, and leave, and we'll pretend this never happened."
Then, tilting his chin down slowly, Peter's brows furrow, brown eyes trace across the sand and then slowly lift back up to the younger man. "Don't let that halt your plans," Peter notes to Melissa, looking back up to Knox and Riggs up on the hill by the road before turning his attention back to the blonde. "Go on and get everyone in the water."
Melissa nods to Ling. "Yeah, it certainly seems like it," she murmurs. Peter gets a nod as well. "If we find anything interesting or useful, I'll let you know." She grins. "Just gives me more reason to nag you into visiting. And you still owe me a movie, babe." She moves over to Ling, checking her equipment, then Faron, then offers a tank to Harrison. "C'mon, Harry. We've got a ship to explore and we're burnin' daylight. Don't let him get you down," she says gently.
"I'm not a coward, this isn't running. If you're disappointed, Peter, fine, be disappointed that I might not think plan 'blow shit up and shoot people' won't work. I'm not going against you, but the second innocent people start dying, we're enemies." Magnes offers Harrison a sympathetic look, shaking his head. "Don't let fear make your decisions for you, that's the last piece of advice I can give. At the very least, maybe Kazimir will decide to take his body back and fix this." Oops, he slipped up a bit, but he didn't even seem to notice in his particularly poor mood, beginning to ascend into the air so he can fly off.
Faron, now fully geared in his scuba suit, looks back at Magnes with a bit of pity. Magnes only wanted out, and he was being ostracized. Granted, Faron didn't know of the circumstances, but in all honesty, Faron was in the same boat; this was all brought about because some lunatic decided to come into his life and turn everything upside down. He didn't dare say anything to add confrontation, merely watching with pitiful eyes. Would this happen to him if he decided to leave, or would something worse happen…?
"Children," Ling intones to herself, shaking her head. "That boy is an idiot," she continues as he flies off, watching him closely. "I wonder if he considers that such brazen use of his ability will have the same result." There's a reason she's made such an effort to keep hers to herself, after all. Looking over to Melissa again, and then to Peter. "What must be done, must be done. I admit to being wary of blowing things up. But I hope whatever who have planned is not so simple minded."
Harrison turns away from Magnes and says, "I'm a New Yorker…Fear's my life." He closes his eyes as he takes a few deep breaths and begins to make an attempt to shift back. He opens his eyes as his feet touch the water and looks down to see flesh again. He looks out over the water, and shrugs his shoulder to hide a tear rolling down his face as he wipes his cheek with his shoulder. "Your an ass Magnes." The young man clearly liked the guy and is upset at his choice.
Shaking his head, Peter covers his face with one hand, letting Magnes slowly begin to ascend into the air. Rolling his tongue inside of his cheek, he picks up his cell phone, noticing a text message already delivered to the LCD screen. Dark eyes settle on Melissa only briefly, and as Peter lifts up his phone and rests it against his ear he starts to make his way from the group on the beach.
"Yeah, I got your message. This confirms what you said you heard at Building 26," and Peter's dark eyes settle on Magnes' receding form in the skies above the beach. "Yeah, I know. I know… I don't want to send Ash on this, I've got something else in mind." As Peter starts treading away from the group, the last thing the prospective divers can hear over his phone sounds like parts of an instruction.
"Get Rupert to talk to Elaine, I think it's…" and then the noise of the surf drowns out the rest of his words, only the crashing waves and the sound of Peter's shoes squeaking in the sand left behind in his wake as he leaves in the direction of the truck.
Melissa sighs softly and shakes her head when Peter heads off without another word to her. "Why the hell do I put up with that guy?" she mutters. "Anyway. Everyone ready? Any last minute questions, or should we get right to diving in?"
Faron looks at Melissa, pondering whether or not to ask that dreaded question. "What exactly are we looking for down there?" He knew he was going to get a lot of angry looks as he face turned red, but he couldn't help it, he was fixing an AC unit! Cool air comes first!
"I would like to be through with this," Ling states somewhat vehemently. Anything resembling a mood she had has been spoiled by Magnes' arguing and by the thoroughly childish antics that have just been put on display. She falls silent again afterwards, just staring out at the water.
Harrison nods and says, "As would I." Harrison puts on his mask and allows Melissa to enter to follow her lead. He adjusts his tubing to be comfortable for him as he cracks his neck a few times.
By the time focus has been turned back to the diving expedition, Peter has made his way back up the craggy rock face towards the road where the truck is. All the humor has been drained out of him by Magnes' departure, however, and while the gravitokinetic is still visible in the air as a small dark speck on his aerial departure from Staten Island, Peter's focus in on getting driving again. Judging form the ways both Riggs and Knox rather hastily break away from their relaxation, they've probably noticed Peter's waning mood.
Tossing his cigarette down to the pavement, Riggs hops back in the passenger side of the truck and Knox hops off of the tailgate, slamming it closed again before hustling into the driver's seat while Peter climbs into the back. While the rest of Messiah's beach combers are getting their gear on, that rattling old truck is taking off down the road, rumbling towards the more densely populated heart of the Rookery.
At least Peter's sour mood will make what they have to do next easier.
"We're going down to see if there's anything salvageable now," Melissa says, getting the rest of her equipment on. "Peter knows about the wreck. So most of the mystery is gone, but there may be something down there, I don't know." But it sounds as though her mood has been ruined as well. She pauses once more, then heads into the water, getting the mouthpiece settled so that when she dives, she can breathe.
Faron nods as he follows them into the water, setting his mouthpiece in place. He looks around, as the last one to enter the water, at the shoreline, making sure to look for anyone else who managed to be in the area. He slips his facemask on, slipping into the currents and waves and swimming his tired limbs behind the group.
Ling grumbles to herself, arms crossing as she listens for Melissa's instructions. She wasn't voicing it, but right now she was thinking about how willing she was going to be to be involved in this if more of this little… group proved as childish.
Harrison follows suit as he doesn't have much to say as he looks off in the direction Magnes flies before getting himself wet and in the water.
Once they're all in the water and Melissa is sure that no one is going to freak out and drown themselves, she starts leading the way, swimming down and out. After just a few minutes they start seeing more than just water and sand. There are fish first, of course, but that's nothing startling. Then, resting on the seabed, is the ship. The Invierno. It's a large cargo type ship, and it looks to be mostly intact.
Around the ship are bits of debris. Parts of the ship, waterlogged cargo boxes, some opened, some still sealed. But Melissa swims right past these and to the ship itself, to the deck. It looks as though an explosion of some sort occured here, with wood darkened, and bits looking…well…exploded. She pauses there and turns back to the others, waiting for them to reach her. Once they're all there, she heads below decks.
As bad as the exploded upper deck looked, the lower deck is worse in some ways. There are crates here too, some with weapons, some with ammunition, but it's the bodies that are the worst. The time in the sea has reduced them to little more than skeletons, fish and the sea water eating away at the meat of the people.
There's one though, not too far down, who is the odd man out, so to speak. This one still wears the remains of a yellow rain slicker, and to look at him, it doesn't look as though natural causes had anything to do with his death. Part of his skull is gone. The rest of the bodies are pretty much intact, and none show this kind of injury.
What a scene! Faron barely had time to look over the wreck in their previous excursion, so actually seeing the Invierno without the blurred vision of before is incredible to say the least. Though his legs are tired, they pump on, following the group into the hold. However, as he sees the bodies, he stiffles a very strong gag reflex, his discomfort becoming apparent to his company. Unable to say words, he points to the skeleton with some of its skull missing, while his eyes look a bit confused, if a bit aghast from the terrifying scene before him.
Swimming alongside the rest of the group, Ling tries to remains stoic, even though her gaze does linger on the many oddities - the ship itself, the bodies, and the general dismalness of the entire scene. A shake of her head is the only offer of opinion she gives, trying to keep pace with the rest of her group.
Harrison swims along side Ling for a moment as he looks around curiously. His body language is tense and uncomfortable by the linger touch of death by the skeleton. He does his best to ignore it as he swims around it and makes his way towards Melissa. He floats there in the growing darkness looking around at the ocean's floor.
Though Melissa did find and pick up a human bone last time she was down here, she seems as unhappy with what they're finding as the rest. She shakes her head, skirting well around the yellow-clad skeleton. Then she starts to point towards crates, making an opening gesture. They're here, they might as well see if they can find something besides death. So she moves to one, and pries it open. Ammo.
Faron's eyes stay on the odd skeleton for a while before moving to one of the crates. He grunts as he pries one open, only finding guns there. Most likely they would be useless, guns didn't work so well underwater. He looks at the other, still wearing his confused look. What exactly was being transported here?
Ling wastes no times in getting to one of the crates - she lacks the raw strength that the men posses, and even seemingly less so than Melissa, as it takes a bit more strain for her to get one open than she sees from anyone else. Once she does manage to get it open, she wrinkles her nose beneath her mask. Empty. All that effort for nothing.
After looking to the others, Melissa grabs one box of ammo, then points upward before giving a questioning look to the others. The message is clear though. Let's get out of this huge coffin?
Faron nods in agreement. Nothing about this boat appealed to him. He looks at the crate of guns for a second, eventually concluding that a box of useless guns isn't worth the time to move the crate. He moves to Melissa, waiting for instructions and a person to follow.
Harrison swims over to some of the crates. His body begins to shift as he turns silver and slams on the deck. The boat creaking under his weight change. Harrison leans down and punches a fist through the first crate. He pulls it open as he moves towards the next and the next as he opens five crates before Melissa makes the up sign. He did not even look to see what was in them as he closes his eyes and his body shifts back to human form. He begins to float again with ease. He begins to swim over the crates to see if it is anything of use.
Ling would likly be cursing in Chinese if she could talk. She refuses to leave this effort behind empty handed, even despite Melissa's look indicating that it's time to go. Another container is found, Ling once again straining to get it open. But once she does, she discovers another crate full of weapons. Furrowing her brow, she looks back at the others, motioning someone over. Someone else can carry them. If she must get something, she'll carry what Melissa has.
Melissa swims over to Ling, looking down into the crate. She offers the ammo she has over to Ling, then picks up some of the guns herself. She gives Harrison a curious look and nods to his crates. Anything interesting?
Faron peers over to the whole group, noting how they were still quite interested in the crates. His mind ponders over what use he could do. Well, he thought to himself, guns are still machines. Machines I can fix. He smiles under his mouthpiece, moving to grab the gun crate he had opened earlier. Arms Messiah would need, no doubt, and getting these guns back to working order would be a full time job for him, right? He looks at Melissa, giving her a bit of a determined look, hauling the crate with him as he moved to the duo of Ling and Mel.
Harrison looks down at the crates. Three…empty. Two have guns. Harrison is a healthy boy and takes a crate on each shoulder. He is not floating to the top and will be walking out of the water like a swamp monster as he begins to journey towards the shore walking along the ocean floor.
The trade off with Melissa is taken readily, and now Ling s ready to get away from this place - it was finally beginning to get to her, a bit. Turned back away, she doesn't wait for an indication or motion from Melissa - she's making her way back now.
Melissa nods to Harrison, then, like Ling, starts to swim out as fast as she can while holding the guns. It takes longer to get back to the shore than it took to get into the ship, and by the time they make it there, at least one of the group is more than a little tired. Weapons are dropped in the sand by their things, and Mel sits down hard, taking the mask and mouthpiece off and dropping them as well. "That…was the creepiest thing I've ever seen," she says breathlessly.
Faron tries hard to drag his crate of guns, bubbles streaming like an underwater vent from his mouthpiece. Slowly, the box surfaces along the shore and a very weary Faron stumbles out and practically flops on the beach, breathless and face white from the scene below. "…Yeah, let' s not go back down there." He looks at Mel's own cargo. "…Add those to this box here. It'll give me a project to do." He is, of course, referring to being able to get these guns back in usable condition.
Harrison walks out of the water last with the crates on his shoulders and drops them in a loud crash. He falls to his knees pulling off his mask. The boy looks tired, "That was a work out."
Ling draws herself up out the water, pulling her mask with no slow movement, eyes narrowed as the contents of her arms shift again. "I've seen little like that in my life time. Even in Chinatown," Ling notes, looking for a spot to stow the ammo she carries. "I am glad I am past that." Referring to both this and Chinatown.
"I've never seen anything quite like that either." Melissa starts stripping off the diving suit, then simply lays back in the sand, her eyes closing. Right now the stuff they recovered doesn't seem all that important to her. Or even Magnes's little temper tantrum prior to the dive. She sighs and shakes her head. "And I hope to god that I never have to again."