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Tempest was already at the lighthouse - or rather, just outside it.

She'd tied her hair back as best she could, but it was already beginning to frizz, to her chagrin as she examined the braid over her shoulder. She didn't know when she would ever quite build up the tolerance some people seemed to have to the oppressive humidity here, but she was trying. When she could, she made rounds along the perimeter of the island, both to stay sharp and stay fit.

There was enough of a clamor here - people rushing in and out of the lighthouse, accompanied by frantic yelling - that her presence leaning on the wall beside the door went relatively unnoticed. She couldn't help but be a little curious. Plus, it was a better place to stop and catch her breath than some isolated shadow's nest in the middle of the jungle.

All she wanted right now was a shower, though. She was about ready to just keep on walking. Snooping wasn't worth sweating this much.

Gale's phone buzzed with a series of replies one after the other.







Meanwhile, Tempest was twisting her totem ring with a couple well-manicured fingers.

"Walking. Because that's a thing people do, Gale. They walk. For exercise." She stood up from the lighthouse wall as he got closer and sidled sideways into the doorway, which didn't really have the intended effect of blocking his view considering she was terribly short. "Am I going to need a runic hall pass for you everywhere I go?"

Someone else cleared their throat just behind Gale.

"Uh," Lucky glanced between Tempest and Gale. He took a half-step back from the two blondes, looking nervous as ever. He wasn't a big fan of surprises, and this whole mystery mission summons felt like one big awful surprise so far. Unless Gale really called him over here at the crack of dawn to reveal he had a clone, or something. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Yes," Tempest replied icily before Gale even had a chance to.

Gale chose to disregard the blatant offensive text about him sounding like their boss and gave Tempest a pointed look as he stuffed his phone back into the pocket of his slacks. The scowl had intensified.

"No, you don't need a pass," he said irritably, putting a hand to her shoulder to try and nudge her out of the way, though for once he could see over her - mostly. "I just got called here for a mission, I didn't know if that was why you were here for as well."

Lucky was given a Look.

"Don't - " said Gale, which was the start of don't ask except he didn't actually get that far, because something propelled into his stomach. He let out a gasping wheeze, an arm flailing to keep his balance as he staggered back, other hand grabbing onto the blob that had run into him.

"What the - Skylar?!"

Gale shot a sideways look at Mark and Samuel with an accusing expression that clearly indicated what the hell.

"Me too me too, I'm going as well!" Sky practically jumped up and down while still managing to cling to Gale's arm like this was the most important thing in the world. He rolled his eyes at Tempest. "Sam told me Gale was way super important and your senior so you should respect that. He says that you guys go on adventures and kill monsters and sometimes dragons and I get to learn archery."

Samuel just shrugged helplessly at Gale, and there was this feeling that he hadn't really said much at all during their trip here. "Well actually I-"

"Okay so, five people," interrupted Mark, doing his best now not to make eye contact or even look at Gale's general direction. "So this is just like, a search and rescue sort of thing, we're looking for survivors or like, any sign of survivors. You guys ummmm got everything?"

Sky put up a hand. "Do I have time to charge my phone before we leave my phone battery's pretty low."

"Okay any other questio-"

"When do say survivors do they have to be alive because what if theoretically let's say, I found a dead body?"

"That's no-"

"Great, just asking, thanks dad."

"I'm not old," Mark spluttered, then looked at Lucky, affronted. "I'm not old, am I?"

"Did he now," she responded to Skylar a little less enthusiastically. She gave Samuel a look of sorts before finally letting go of his wrist. She definitely hadn't missed the glare Gale shot her from around Sky - and returned it in kind. "Well, in that case, Gale must be very excited to show us all how it's done."

"Fine by me," Lucky chimed in from the other side of the room, not even bothering to look up this time.

"Search and rescue, got it." Tempest took a few more steps into the lighthouse, shrugging to smooth her coat out behind her. This time she'd show everyone how capable she was. "Yes, I'm ready. Let's go."

"What?" Lucky was definitely caught off-guard by the question - he dropped the map he'd been looking at and gave Mark a sort of owlish stare. Finally, he shook his head a couple of times to make up for the lack of response. "No. No no no. Of course not. I mean, if you were old, that would make me old too, right? And I'm not old."

"I'm just saying, the beard doesn't help your case," Tempest explained bluntly to Mark from somewhere on his other side.

"I have a question," Lucky quickly interjected once Gale had taken care of Skylar. "Survivors of what?" He folded his arms to his chest somewhat defensively. "I just - I don't want signs of us to be what some other group has to look for."

Gale would have given Tempest a see? sort of look, except he was still trying to make sure that Skylar didn't ask any more ridiculous questions - and also that Lucky not run away, because he had to at least try and have some semblance of sanity here.

Try being the first operative word, sanity being the second. Especially since Gale sometimes forgot that Lucky and Mark were two people who actually aged and were probably several years older than he was. He just sort of assumed they'd been born strange adults.

(Adults being the third operative word.)

"Whose underlings?" Gale got out just before they were all being shunted into the portal. He staggered out on the other side before he could also ask about what Lucky had asked, stumbling into Skylar and Tempest as he did so. Gale straightened, took a breath, and felt his stomach drop several degrees.

"Bloody hell," he muttered, and then glanced over at Samuel. "I'd prefer to stick together, if possible - is that okay, Lucky?"

Like hell he was letting Tempest and Sky out of his sights - and Lucky on his own could result in another Creation incident.

"You should have seen the size of the last thing we had to take down here," Samuel joked though the headset, even as the wind began to pick up. He covered his face with a scarf, "a hundred feet, firing lasers all directions. You can thank your boss for that one."

"Has anyone died here before?" Sky mimicked Sam's actions, probably to show how forward-thinking he was. "If people died here, why do they keep on sending more people here?"

"To get rid of the extras, smartass," Sam muttered back, scooting on top of a sandy hill to get a better look. It did reveal an extremely interesting sight, about two hundred yards in front of them of sand that had been fused into black glass, long spiky formations of the same substance rising from the ground. He gave the group a reproachful look before sliding down the hill. "Remember what I said about not touching anything. Just look for survivors."