Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was very quiet.

This was the first clue. It helped her to realize, even before those golden eyes flickered open behind those black shades, that she was no longer where she had been. Her memory was a little hazy. Super Van thought she recalled cruising around downtown Destiny City on her trusty skateboard- thought she remembered the distinctly ominous blare of several car horns, and then there had been nothing. Until now.

It was good to be conscious.

She sat up, expecting, for a foolish moment, the precious familiarity of flowered wallpaper and the sound of John Jr banging on her bedroom door. Being a super hero was hard work, and it drained a lot of her energy. She'd been sleeping in more often lately, and her little brother had taken it upon himself to make sure she woke up. Vanessa appreciated this.

No clock counted the seconds as time ticked by, but it didn't take very long for Vanessa to realize that she was not, in fact, in bed at home. This was slightly hair-raising, and her heart sped up a little as she took in her surroundings. The round walls and their round doors reminded her vaguely of the hobbit movies her father liked to watch, and she couldn't help but wonder where they led to. Everything else begged to either be touched or examined, and the amateur heroine wasn't exactly sure where to start. There was so much stuff. It looked almost as though somebody had thrown a very strange, clearly wild party and then forgotten to clean up the mess- that, or been forced to leave in a hurry.

It occurred to her that she might have been kidnapped, and she wasn't sure how to feel about that. Being kidnapped certainly would have been an experience- something (awesome) to brag about, surely, if she outsmarted her captors and managed to escape. It would be another matter entirely if she ended up trapped here for the rest of eternity. Totally uncool.

"Might as well try a door," she talked to herself, unaware that there was any company in the room to be had, and hopped to her feet. Her cape got caught on a broken chair, and it rattled along behind her rather loudly until Super Van, back arched awkwardly, attempted to shake it free. "Dumb chair."

The chair had rattled when Polaris sat up. The sounds of her flesh smacking against the table leg and her hiss of pain were drowned out by the roar of the broken chair as it was pulled along; over glass and vegetables and the rotting carcasses of birds. Super Van was surprised when a voice that was not her own sliced through the air. It sounded fearful, and made the hairs on her arms stand on end.

Vanessa's heart beat furiously, a little alarmed to discover that she wasn't as alone as she'd assumed. Having relinquished her cape of its hold on the remains of the chair, Super Van started in the direction of the voice. She was careless of where she stepped. Animal bones crunched audibly under her feet. A rubber ducky squeaked. She kicked it for fun, and it bounced -almost violently- off of the nearest wall.

"I'm- uh," Vanessa double-checked with her hands to make sure, "My friends call me Super Van. Actually, my enemies probably call me that too, now that I think of it."

Good super heroes only needed one name.

"I think I've been kidnapped. Or something- I dunno, I woke up two seconds ago." She spotted the end of one of Polaris's boots and peeked around the table with a friendly smile on her face. Her teeth were very white. "Who are you?"

In danger or not, Super Van was pretty certain that this sort of predicament could only lead to adventure. Adrenaline leaked into her veins. Vanessa buzzed with energy that she had no intentions of suppressing, bizarrely exited about the trouble they were probably in, and held her hand out to Polaris.

No youma had stirred at out of the rubble that encompassed them. Polaris, who'd sounded frightened and confused, was obviously not a bad guy. There was nothing to be afraid of. Yet.

Compliments were the fastest way to Vanessa's heart. Super Van approved very much of being called a champion of justice and she positively beamed at the other girl through her sunglasses. In Polaris she instantly saw a kindred spirit. Super heroes ought to stick together. It was probably a cardinal rule or something. Vanessa wasn't sure. She was a newcomer to this world of monsters and the Negaverse and being kidnapped, but being recognized as a comrade-in-arms meant everything to her. Super Van was not just a girl in spandex. It was good that other people were beginning to realize it too.

Man, this was getting better and better by the minute.

Super Van had only just met Polaris, but she was sure they could conquer whatever it was that had trapped them here together. Never mind that it seemed to have had no problems doing that.

The other girl's fingers were warm in her own. Vanessa cocked an eyebrow at her, a little surprised that she had not let go. She gave the fingers a gentle squeeze, as if to say; 'It will be okay.' And then released her hand.

"You're right," she nodded in agreement, determined to succeed in the task that lay before them, "We could split it up. I'll take the doors on this side of the wall, and you can take the doors on that one?"

Super Van had her back to the elevated door, and would probably not have noticed it anyways. Doors were usually on the ground. There was no reason to look up.

Super Van had been on her way across the room, stomping unconcernedly and inconsiderately on the debris that was littered across the floor, when Polaris called out to her. She paused a couple of feet from the door that was directly opposite the window, and turned to consider the things that Polaris said. Vanessa had been in basements before, and figured that this was sort of what Polaris meant.

She could see no reason to disbelieve her newfound friend, and returned to Polaris's side without hesitation. It probably would have made more sense to at least try and open the other doors first, to make sure that Polaris's theory was, in fact, correct, but Super Van didn't think like that.

"It's pretty high up," she observed, obviously intelligently. "Here, come here. I'll give you a boost, and you can try and reach it?"

Vanessa, who'd had much practice with this sort of thing in her childhood, locked her fingers together and held them out to Polaris's knees. It was a makeshift platform. Her intentions were pretty clear.

"You'll probably have to hold onto my shoulders- and uh, hopefully I can push you up high enough."

Hopefully she wouldn't drop her. Super Van wasn't really worried- but, still. John Jr was the only other person she had ever attempted this maneuver with and, while Vanessa had become a practiced veteran, he was a lot smaller than Polaris.

Polaris was not terribly heavy, but Super Van was also not super strong. She squeaked under the other girl's weight, and immediately started lifting with her legs instead of her shoulders. She shifted her feet further apart instinctively, and braced her lower back against the wall. This made holding Polaris steady quite a bit easier, but Vanessa was finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the strain of her muscles. Scrawny arms and thighs flexed visibly, but were clearly lacking in any significant amounts of strength.

Super Van was feeling the burn.

Knees wobbled. Arms quaked. The fabric of Polaris's boots pressed against the side of her face- she felt it shake as Polaris's leg quivered. Vanessa could not see much passed the other girl's a**. She hoped that they were making some progress.

"Can you reach?" Her voice was taut with the effort of her control. Super Van was concentrating very hard on not dropping Polaris. She sighed and pushed her up a little higher- as far as those skinny arms could possibly lift without breaking. Fortunately for them both, Vanessa was also reasonably tall. At her tallest, she stood at just under 5'9".

Together she and Polaris could cover a lot of space.

But, even though she would never admit it, Super Van could not keep this up much longer.

-She was lifted higher and she could feel her balance failing even more as the other girl's arms began to quiver too. Her fingers slid over the bottom edge of the door, but that was it. A valiant effort, but it wasn't going to w...

Polaris attempted to pivot as the loud sound filled the small room, managing to wrench her foot out of the other girl's hand in the process. And down she went, a** first, the thud of her own fall seemed to echo after the one that had caught her attention in the first place. She didn't seem to act like or think it had been Super Van's fault, but at the same time she didn't bother to ask if the other girl was okay.

Groaning, she shifted, lifting her sore bottom off the mismatched pair of pink bunny covered and vomit apple colored baby shoes.- "What just happened?" -She supposed it was a silly question, it was just coincidence that it'd fallen right? Logic was a good thing.-

"I'd thought it was a door opening." -She grinned sheepishly, standing up the rest of the way. Her voice lifted, thinking outloud.- "Maybe I can stack that table on the piano under the door? It might take a little while though."

"It might be a good idea to split our efforts?"

"I've gotten pretty used to getting battered and bruised, no worries" -She nodded simply, attempting to brush away the other girl's concern as she continued on her way, shoving each piece of furniture off the other. Grasping the edge of the piano she gave it a tentative test tug for weight. Heavy.. but not TOO heavy.

Super Van's close inspection of 'something' caught Polaris eye momentarily, causing an almost comical expression when she saw exactly what it was, sticking the tip of her tongue out of her mouth in disgust. Ewwww! She really wasn't thinking about eating that was she? Forget the fact that it was on the floor.. underneath stuff. But it was on the floor with scattered dead animal bits and rotting produce. Her own stomach grumbled softly but she scolded it silently. There was NO way. She'd have to be two seconds away from dying.

Looking back to her task she crouched and pressed her shoulder into the piano, using her weight to verrrrry slowly propel it across the floor. It got stuck on shoes once, and made horrible little crunches as it dragged along bones connected by muscle, she even thought she heard a half-squeak as it finally pressed against the wall.

Sighing, she leaned against the piano tiredly, catching her breath for a long moment as she gazed at the door again and the roof that seemed to go on forever above it. Strange... but an optical illusion maybe? Stretching as she made her way back she glanced back and forth between the dresser and the table. Which would give her more height? More stability? Which was lighter? Grasping the table she dragged it over too, leveraging it to push it up on top of the piano.

Polaris pulled herself up onto the piano, readjusted the table, and then climbed up onto that too. It was taller, but was it tall enough? Stepping on her tippy toes she reached once more for the door knob.-