There Are Storms We Cannot Weather | MAFIA/RAS
tw: major character death, mentions of blood, violence, bomb, explosion
@gem-morey @into-the-voyd @miss-holleyshiftwell
In which there is a faulty bomb, a fight to control it, and an explosion that ends in tragedy...
TINK:
Something was wrong. Shit. One of the bombs hadn’t detonated. One of the tasks Tink was set with had gone wrong. And there was NO way it was her fault, because Tink was sure she had inspected them both and made sure they worked the way they were supposed to. Unless she’d missed something! Tink…refused to believe she had missed something. That would be a terrible mistake and another embarrassing moment on her part. Tink would just have to go fix it. She took off up the stairs, losing patience and shrinking to fairy size to fly and be faster about it. It got her up to the right floor a lot easier. She went back to human size as she hurried toward the room where the bomb had been set. She rounded the corner and spotted the bomb just where it had been left…perfectly intact. Shit. Double shit. Bloody well triple shit. If this thing didn’t go off….no. It was going to go off. Tink scowled and rushed over to the bomb, carefully picking it up and studying the mechanics of it and… “what the hell?” She blurted. The damn wires were tampered with! She scowled and pulled out the little tools she’d brought with her just in case, glowering at the device. “Now I know it wasn’t me, and when this shit ends the right person better be roasted for this one,” she grumbled to herself as she started carefully trying to reset the wires. This sort of thing required more precision than speed, lest she blow herself up with this instead.
HOLLEY:
“Step away from the bomb.” Holley raised her gun, aiming it right at Tink. She’d really really hoped it wouldn’t be Tink. But since she’d spotted Tink on the CCTV footage outside Thomas Harrington’s house, Holley had a sinking suspicion that one way or another she’d encounter Tink. She just hoped it wouldn’t be like this. Holley had found the bomb and disarmed it, and she waited. She could fix this. She just had to convince Tink that there was another way. “You don’t have to do this,” she said. “Step away and we can talk and find another solution.”
TINK:
And suddenly there was a gun pointed right at Tink. Great. Because it wasn’t stressful enough to tinker with a bomb. But she had to tinker with the bomb. She had a job to do. And she wasn’t going to fail. Not now at the last minute because of one person. She scoffed, drawing the bomb closer to her so she could adjust another wire. “Yeah right mate. There is no other solution here. I’ve got a job to do here, and really you should get the hell outta here before it fucks you up.” Tink added. “Or you know, it’s your funeral I guess.” She had never had a problem with Holley personally. Not until now. She managed to reconnect a wire where it needed to be. “Quit pointing that thing at me and go.”
HOLLEY:
“What are you all hoping to accomplish with this?” Holley tried to keep her voice steady. Slowly, she lowered the gun, tucking it into her holster, and raised both hands in a surrender. “Just more death and destruction? It doesn’t have to be like this. Whatever you’re trying to do for Magicks, we can work together — and no one has to get hurt in the process.” She understood what MAFIA wanted. The world had been unfair to Magicks for far too long. But this wasn’t the answer. This was spreading fear without any direct action. She took a step forward. “I know you’re better than this, Tink. You’re a pillar of the community. Swynlake loves you.”
TINK:
“Someone like you would never understand,” Tink remarked coolly, because when would a mundus like her ever understand what things felt like? Or the complex situation for a fairy and the way that fairies were used for tourism by this town so easily. It was revolting. It struck her a little harder than she liked, the implication that she was better. That she was loved and all that. That she was above her basic selfish interests. Ha. It was laughable. And honestly Swynlake didn’t love her enough if she always had to feel like there was something not quite right about herself. She grimaced and drew back a little, adjusting another wire on the bomb. “You don’t know me at all. And you don’t know what this could do for other people. Interpride’s a corrupt shit show as it is. This town is owned by one family and wants to act like things will ever benefit magicks in truth. But I know better. It’s all a damn show.” Tink fidgeted with the wire for a moment and sighed. “Get out of here Holley,” Tink said after a moment. She might have her mission but… that didn’t mean she necessarily wanted Holley to blow up in front of her eyes. If she were truly honest she didn’t really personally want to witness people getting blown up. Kind of grotesque. “If you leave now you’ll still have time to get somewhere safe or something.”
HOLLEY:
Holley couldn’t do that. Holley wasn’t going to walk away while Tink blew up InterPride. Not when she could help. Not when she could stop this. But for a moment, she made it look like that’s what she was going to do. She made her eyes widen and she almost took a step back, waiting for Tink to turn her attention back to the bomb. Then she lunged forward and tackled Tink. “It’ll be easier if you surrender!” Holley repeated, straining to pin Tink’s hands above her head.
TINK:
Two things happened all at once: Tink tried to tweak another wire, and that bitch Holley tackled her and knocked the thing out of her hands. Shit! There was a very good chance the damn thing would have been jostled in the wrong way. Bloody fool! In any other moment, in any other situation Tink would probably find it hot to be tackled and pinned by someone as good looking as Holley. Admittedly even now she had to take a moment to appreciate how hot it was. That said, Tink couldn’t let this bitch get away with it. She bucked her hips up to try and dislodge her that way first. After all, if she didn’t have to smack their heads together somehow then she wouldn’t. After all, she rather liked how she looked. There was no reason to fuck her face up for this. “Fat chance,” Tink snarked, bucking her hips again and this time twisting and lunging forward to try to bite one of Holley’s arms. She’d absolutely have to let go then now wouldn’t she? “Back the hell off!”
HOLLEY:
Holley was able to pin Tink down with the sheer force of her own hips. But Tink wasn’t playing nice. Not that Holley had expected her to. RAS combat training focused on apprehending even the most unpredictable offenders, with an emphasis on disarming and subduing. Still, Holley was taken off guard when Tink lunged forward and bit her on the arm. She shouted, instinctively jerking away, which caused her grip on Tink’s hands to slip slightly. She tried to make up for it by pressing her other forearm to Tink’s hands, but she knew it was an awkward position that wouldn’t hold. “I’m not going to!” Holley said. “You can still come back from this, Tink!” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the bomb. She swallowed. Even if Tink wasn’t playing nice, Holley could still fix this. She leapt off Tink and dove towards the bomb.
TINK:
“You’re a bloody fool! That thing is faulty!” And she hadn’t had a chance to fix it yet. It could go off at any second now because this idiot had pinned her. Thankfully the bite had done what it needed to so she could also lunge toward the bomb, reaching out to try and yank Holley’s hair or shirt or whatever the fuck she could grab to pull her back from the damn thing so she could get it. It was…so…close. Tink knocked her hip against Holley’s and tried to use her wings to propel her a little faster toward the bomb. The sooner she got it together the better. This could only go south if she didn’t get back to it.
GEM:
Gem’s heart was in his throat. All he could think about was how stupid this was. With every step that he ran further into the building set to be condemned by MAFIA, he could only think of all the steps that had led him here. Sleeping on a slide. Hiding from the cops. All the detentions. Burning down the school. The prison cell he’d called home for five years. Feeling his brothers’ judgement, even when they said they loved him anyway. The crushing weight of knowing he wasn’t good enough. That no one would understand. Fight club. Getting beat to shit by the cops. Snow’s gentle touch. How he craved more of it. Penny’s laugh and how fast she was growing. He wanted to control his powers and MAFIA had given him that. They’d unlocked the world. They’d also unlocked his fury. They’d turned him into a gun—load, aim, fire. And now, his whole life was about to be blown to fucking pieces. Unless he could find the bomb. Do—something with it. (He was really counting on his magic to come in clutch.) And, if not, yeah–sure. He’d die. If it meant everyone else lived. It was a crapshoot if he’d even find it. Gem didn’t know where they’d hidden the bombs. There was still a ringing in his ears from the first one going off. His post was abandoned. Everything was shit. He had one chance. His knowledge of InterPride’s schematics were fuzzy—he’d been called in to fix things here or there over the years, but that was it. So, he went to where he figured the building was weakest. He’d advised on it anyway, though, at the time, it had long been before bombs and kidnappings. He heard scuffling up ahead. Not part of the plan. “What the fuck?” Gem said, panting as he skid into the room, taking in the sight of Holley and Tink clawing at each other.
HOLLEY:
Was Gem part of this? How deep did MAFIA’s roots spread? Holley looked at Gem, eyes wide, her mouth falling open slightly. Him, too? She prayed that he was just a civilian, caught up in this whirlwind, looking for an escape, for people to help. But she didn’t know for sure. She couldn’t know. Maybe she didn’t want to. Her grip slipped. Maybe it was her fault, in the end. She hesitated. An agent should never hesitate.
TINK:
Oh thank fuck. Gem popped up. Tink didn’t have to work past Holley on her own. And she paused. Just enough. Just barely enough, but it allowed for Tink to lunge again, getting a hold of the bomb and drawing away from the woman. For a moment, Tink grinned in triumph, glancing down at the bomb that she would adjust…. That she’d make sure would go off once she and Gem got bloody well out of there. But as she got a better look at it, she noticed the damage to the device. It didn’t look mendable. Tink looked up in panic, trying to catch Gem’s eye. She started to reach for her dust, to push Gem back, to maybe send the bomb further from them…to do something. But time had run out. And then she lost sense of everything as the whole room shook with a loud BANG! The bomb went off in her hands.
GEM:
There was only a split second. Gem heard a soft click. Like a belt buckle sliding into place. Like a penny dropped in a well. Like the sound of Snow’s jewelry when she took it off at night and laid it on the armoire. It was gentle. Nonthreatening. But Gem’s instincts told him otherwise. Holley and Tink stood just a foot or so apart. The bomb between them. Gem between them. Holley, whom Gem had had a school boy’s crush on several years ago. It had been silly and sweet. He still remembered dancing with her at prom. She had always been so kind to him. What was she doing here? Wrestling for a bomb? He couldn’t make it make sense. Tink, whom Gem had gone on countless missions with. Who he partied with. Who kept him in and out of trouble in equal measure. Who always matched his energy. His partner in crime. The Beatrice to his Benedick. His Lady Disdain. Click. Gem didn’t even think. Or maybe he did. He would spend the rest of his life wondering how he’d made his choice. Or if he even had. And if it was the right one. His boot squeaked across the linoleum office floor as he launched himself at Holley.
HOLLEY:
Holley barely had a chance to react before Gem threw himself on her and the two of them rolled out of the way. Her shoulder slammed into the ground and her head hit the wall and she yelped in pain — That was all lost in a big noise, though. It was loud. Holley’s ears rang. She could feel her heart beating in her throat. She could feel Gem’s body on top of her, heavy and warm and strong. There was so much smoke, thick and choking her lungs. She did her best to remember what the RAS training manual said to do in the event of a bomb. She couldn’t see. She reached her hands out on the cold hard floor, stretching her fingers, trying to cling to something, anything — She could move her body. Her ears rang, but she could move her hands and her legs. Her body was banged and bruised and she would have to get her head checked for a concussion. But she could move and if she could move, she could stand, and if she could stand, she could walk, and if she could walk, she could help. “I’m fine,” she quickly told Gem once she got up. She checked her holster to make sure her gun was still on her, and then glanced back at Gem. Somewhere from down below, there was screaming. Who knew how many more bombs there were? What else had MAFIA planned? “I have to go help,” she said, but Gem had already bolted away. Probably searching for Tink. Holley felt a lump in her throat. She swallowed it. Her head throbbed. If Tink was in that smoke, if she’d been holding that bomb — There was not much she could do. Not much Gem could do. The screaming continued. The panic. Holley charged towards the chaos to help.
GEM:
The blast knocked Gem clear off his feet. It didn’t matter that he was fireproof, because that wasn’t all an explosion was. His own flames explode across his shoulders and back. All he could do was tuck Holley close and try to not crush her as they fell to the ground. He didn’t know how well he succeeded in that, because for a moment, everything went dark. When his eyes blinked open, it was to chaos–the windows to the conference room had been blown out. Dust was swirling through the air, mingling with the smoke from a few fires burning over the rubble of destroyed desks. There was a gaping hole in the wall, wires hanging from the ceiling like viscera. His ears were ringing. One of them was bleeding. He felt dizzy and nauseous. Did he have another concussion? Had his eardrum been blown out? Had he broken his wrist in the fall? It didn’t matter. He shook his head, his feet scrambling under him–trying to get feeling back so he could roll off of Holley. “Are you okay?” he asked her. She was covered in soot, but on first glance, he didn’t see any burns and blood–which was what he was most worried about. She was fine. And he was fine. But Tink— Gem scrambled onto his knees, twisting around. He couldn’t see her anywhere. “Tink! TT!” he shouted, then coughed as his damaged lungs, tightened with dread, protested. “Tink?” He pushed himself up, using his good hand. His boots kicked over a piece of the ceiling panels. He stood unevenly, the toe of his other boot pressing on the mangled wire frame of—something unrecognizable. He heard something scuffle and he stumbled over the debris towards the sound, pushing what he could out of the way, until he caught a flash of blonde hair. “Tink!” Gem grabbed the overturned desk and hauled it off of his friend, ignoring the screaming protest of his injured wrist. “Shit, Tink—” he fell to his knees next to her.
TINK:
It all happened in a flash. One minute Tink was frantically trying to fix the bomb, hoping and losing hope. Then she thought she might push Gem away. If she just threw her dust maybe- And then everything exploded and Tink was in the air. It wasn’t flying, it was nothing so steady. It was tumbling gracelessly and colliding with what must have been part of a wall. Or was it the ceiling? Everything was coming apart, pieces of the building falling everywhere. And then it was like a fire in her veins, in her whole body. Everything screaming out at once to tell her something was deeply wrong. Her ears were ringing, and it took her a minute to register that someone was yelling for her. That Gem was shouting her name. Was it Gem? Was Gem okay? “Gem!” She tried to shout, though her voice came out more hoarse than she expected. She doubted anyone would hear her in the chaos. A moment later one heavy weight that had been on her suddenly lifted, and she was able to look up at her close friend. “Gem,” she repeated, this time with a tinge of relief. He was okay. Was she okay? Tink tried to lift her arm, her hand. It felt like trying to fly when her wings were wet. Like everything was glued together. “I can’t….I can’t move,” Tink said after a moment. She couldn’t even tilt her head to look at the damage. Maybe that was for the best.
GEM:
The relief at having found Tink was quickly washed away as Gem took in the damage. The supersuit hid a lot of it, tightening around Tink’s broken body and holding everything in–but Gem could see the blood soak her chest, the way her breath was stuttering in her lungs. He could smell the burns, see them black and red and white, covering both of her arms. The way her blood matted her hair to her head. But worse than all of that were Tink’s words. He almost didn’t hear them. Everything still sounded like it was underwater. His own eardrums fucked by the blast. His hands reached out, hovering over her, unsure where to put them. Nowhere looked safe. All of them would probably hurt her. Eventually, he put his hands under her shoulders and slid her upper body onto his lap. “I don’t—it’s–you’re gonna be fine,” Gem told her, though the tears on his face and the tremble in his own voice probably gave away the lie. If Snow was here, she could fix her—but what could Gem’s fire do? It was fire that had done this in the first place. He couldn’t reverse it. If he tried, he’d only be able to make it worse. All he ever did was make things worse. “You’re gonna be fine,” he repeated, sounding very small and young and lost. “It’s–I’m gonna figure out a way to help. We’re gonna make it out of this.”
TINK:
Tink didn’t know much (or anything) about medicine but…she was pretty sure she was as far away from fine as could be. She’d been in messes before. She’d broken an arm once, she’d cut up her legs once because of some broken glass. She’d felt pain before. This was beyond anything she had ever felt before. “I’m gonna be…be fine,” Tink echoed, a weak raspy laugh escaping her as she did. She wanted to be fine. There were spots in her vision though, and she had to work really hard to focus her gaze on Gem, on one of her closest friends in the world. Gem had lifted her and she barely bit back the groan of pain she felt deep in her. But for once, she didn’t want to make things worse for someone else. For Gem. She was pretty sure she loved him more as a friend than she could ever love her husband, even though her husband appealed to every part of her vanity. It all didn’t really matter now…did it? Her breaths rattled in her chest, each one feeling more and more painful. She hissed and reached up, fighting through the agonizing pain to put her hand on Gem’s arm. “S okay Gem,” Tink managed weakly. “You should get outta here…” Tink added. He didn’t need to go down here. He had Snow and his whole family after all. “Just… do me a solid ‘n make sure my face doesn’t…doesn’t look like shit when I’m gone..” Even now, in this moment, Tink didn’t want to imagine her face hideous in death. Because surely, this was it. The strength was fading from her by the minute. “Gem, don’t-” Tink started to say but her breath finally failed her, the weak grip she had on Gem dropping even as her head fell against his chest. And then everything went still.
GEM:
Gem didn’t need to be his golden star surgeon of a brother to know that Tink was dying. That whatever had happened to her was too fucked up to ever be reversed. And he didn’t need anyone to tell him that it was his fault. He had made a choice, in that last split second, to save someone else. Instead of one of the only people outside of his own family that he cared about. But one of them had been holding a bomb. He didn’t know how this had happened. None of it had been his intention. If there was one thing that Gem had learned in life, it was that it didn’t matter what your intentions were. There was no nuance for mistakes. And once you committed them, there was no reversing it. The consequences for a mistake were just as real as anything else. And Tink dying was very real. He could feel the heat radiating off her skin, which was clammy as he touched her face, moving her hair away. Warmth pooled in the spaces between them as she bled onto his own shirt. She was pale, her lips tinged gold. She was trembling. His hand hovered over her, trying to find a place to press, to stop the bleeding. His tears were making everything blurry again. “Maybe I–I can cauterize–I can stop–” Tink put her hand on his arm. “No,” Gem croaked, pulling her closer, like she was slipping away from him. Instead of getting heavier and heavier. Her eyes softened. “Don’t—don’t what? Tink?” Her name burst out of him but it was as quiet as the dropping of a pin. He felt the moment her body slackened. He must’ve heard her strong, brave, silly, reckless heart stop beating. Or maybe he felt it, as his own started beating ragged and out of time. “Tink, nonono–” He gathered her further in his arms, panicked and not ready to let go. He clutched her to him, like somehow he could bring her back with just a touch. Maybe, if he could just get her to Snow…
VOYD/KAREN:
Everything was fucked. The chaos was the point. The noise, the blood, the fear– that had been on expedited delivery and served up fresh. At first Voyd thrived, bouncing around the gala room and making horror wherever they landed, using their voids like trap doors to catch people from scrambling out the front door and dumping them straight back into the crossfire. But then the tides turned. Their allies started to fall. It wasn’t a game anymore, and Voyd needed to get their people and leave. Where were the rest of their squad? The bomb. The second bomb. It exploded with a roar, shaking InterPride and calling out to them. “BRB!” they shouted to Goanna and Lupe. But when they arrived on-scene, it wasn’t a victorious Think Tank they found– it was a broken one, crushed under furniture. Gem, a few feet away, asking a RAS agent if she was okay. He didn’t even notice Karen had portalled into the scene, especially as the smoke billowed around the wreckage. They watched Gem stumble to Tink. Watched him try to fix his mistake. Heard Tink’s last words– a plea: “Gem–don’t–” Behind the mask, Karen saw a very different explosion– one that ripped through her friend, Simon, years ago at the original Abracadabra bust-up. They felt its scorching heat, the pressure against their chest as the power of the blast forced Karen back. Their eyes stung– they tasted blood and sweat. They saw Simon’s beautiful feathers float through the air, like Japan’s cherry blossoms in spring, before settling in a pile around what was left of Karen’s friend. Karen relived that first death all over again. Their cheeks were wet, their whole body trembling. Then they fell to their knees and screamed. Around them, the air crackled with strange energy, teal-colored sparks jumping off their suit. When they looked up, they were faceless– the mask took care of that. But their fists clenched, and that was the only sign Gem had. “YOU KILLED HER–” Voyd bellowed and flung themselves at Gem.
GEM:
A scream rent the air, but it sounded very far away. Like the wail of a siren. It could’ve been downstairs. Outside the building…he wouldn’t have been able to tell. He didn’t sense the immediate danger of it. Not until the tint of the whole room changed and he felt the electrical energy crackling at his skin, like touching his tongue to a battery. That was the only warning he had. Gem only just managed to scramble back as Karen tried to tackle him backwards, tearing at his super suit. He threw an elbow towards their face and then a knee in the gut that he’d tucked up in the split second he’d had to prepare for their assault. There was no time to defend himself with his words. Gem didn’t want to anyway. There was nothing to say that would be the truth. He had killed Tink—by inaction, if not a direct action. Karen’s accusation had pierced him straight through the heart. He almost didn’t even fight back. It was all instinct. They clawed at each other. Both furious and full of grief, They bit at each other instead of the hand that had fed them both the bullshit that put them here and killed Tink. He managed to throw Karen off him and into one of the overturned tables. Scrambling up, he bolted for the door.
