strangetrip | Rocks Fall Everyone... (Closed to Quill, Peter, and Alec)

Peter shoots Alec a look. "I'm going to go check it out," he says. He's sure Mr. Star-Lord can handle anything, but if they don't know about the bear-creatures, it was probably a good idea to warn them.

Peter leaves the room and heads out to that spot where mountain meets forest.

Liz was trying - she really was - but there was also a part of her that was holding back. Shooting at a rock was one thing. Shooting at a moving rock was another. But shooting at a person felt... wrong. So even though Quill was already hard to hit, anytime she got remotely close to hitting him, she'd pull to the side a little. Liz was pretty sure Quill was getting frustrated with her.

"I'm sorry." She frowned. Another one missed him by a long shot.

"Don't be sorry, you almost hit me that time." Quill said. She hasn't even come close to hitting me.... "And you took out that small stalagmite over there. That was impressive. And some of the stalactites got hit too."

Quill wished Gamora was around to hear he knew the difference between the two. He always felt proud of that.

"You're thinking too much." He said as he landed on the ground. "You're worrying about nothing. Like I said a billion times before, you can't hurt me."

He was pretty far away from Liz, further into the cave than she was. He heard the strange growling noise from behind Liz before he saw it.

A big bird? No.. bear? bird...bear?... this is not good.

"Uh, Liz..." He whispered with his hands coming up. "Now might be a good time to maybe use that gun."

She was always being told she was thinking too much. Was she? Shooting someone still just felt wrong. But she didn't exactly have a lot of time to think about it now as she heard the growl too and tensed.

Her grip on the gun tightened. Did she have to? Could she? Liz realized she was holding her breath and she forced herself to breathe and slowly - ever so slowly - did she turn around. The Owl Bear, though Liz had no idea that was what it was, did not look happy. It made another sound at her and it wasn't a nice sound. When Liz took a step back, the owl bear took a step forward.

"Liz. Liz," Quill said sternly, but tried to remain calm. "Pull. The. Trigger."

He was worried moving over to her would prompt an attack from the animal thing.

She was having trouble breathing for another moment until she, again, forced herself to focus. With Quill's words, Liz lifted up the gun. It was at that moment that the owl bear screeched and made another swift movement towards her. She panicked and took a step back as her finger slipped on the trigger. Her arms came back and the shot flew up and into one of the pillars in the cave, causing a currently unseen crack in its structure.

Liz fell on her bum, hard, and realized as there was an aggressive move made, the creature didn't actually attack yet. It screeched at her again. It sounded... not angry, but something else. The gun itself had flown from her hands and skidded away into the cave somewhere.

Edited 2018-07-21 04:59 (UTC)

Quill had to duck. It figured the closest Liz would get to shooting him was when she was trying to shoot something else.

He did not pick up on anything as subtle as Liz was picking up. Quill saw Liz fall. He heard the screech. Quill went into superhero mode.

He pulled out his more lethal gun and fired a warning shot. It hit somewhere close to where Liz's stray shot had hit. The bear-thing didn't run away, but it did move its attention to Quill.

"Yeah!" He shouted. "How about picking on someone your own size?"

The owl bear did not move closer to Quill. Quill moved to the side. He would circle around and pick up Liz. When he moved to the left, the owl bear moved to the right. It screeched again and Quill pointed the gun at it.

"Ah, ah, ah," He scolded it. "How about you don't move any closer to her and you don't die?"

Liz slowly climbed to her feet while keeping her eyes on the owwl bear, much like when she had the encounter with the wolves. Unlike the wolves, though, this animal didn't seem to want to eat her. At least, she didn't think so.

She took a few tentative steps backwards and then tried one step in the same direction back as the animal was moving - only then did she see its eyes briefly move to hers. Liz paused. Something about the back of the cave...

Then she heard a louder and high-pitched screech in the back of the cave, somewhere near the side of Quill, and it hit her like a bus.

"Wait!" She turned her head quickly to look in Quill's direction, hoping he wouldn't shoot at he new sound.

The second higher screeching was too close for Quill's liking. He turned and fired, but pull his aim at the last minute when he heard Liz shouting. The two shots of energy went wide and into another stone pillar. It severed it in half.

Why am I suddenly listening to a teenage girl right now?!

Quill did not have time to dwell on the answer as the big owl bear that had started this whole fiasco did not react well to shots fired. It let out a cry and charged at Quill. He hadn't expected something so big to be so fast and they impacted. Quill was tossed to one side of the cave, landing near the stun gun on the ground.

Liz had seen the smaller, but equally as loud animal and realized, belatedly, it was probably a baby. This was probably a mother worried about her child thing and she and Quill were seen as threats. So when Quill's shot went wide, Liz was relieved. She was only relieved for a moment, though, as the cave near the baby owl bear was starting to collapse. They had, apparently, hit too many pillars and the structural damage was too much.

She could have ran out of the cave. She could have run over to Quill and helped him up. Liz ran forward instead. She ran to where the baby animal was screeching. She waved her arms and shouted at it to try and scare it away and she got close enough to push it out toward the exit. It finally seemed to take the cue from her and ran out toward the mouth of the cave. Only Liz wasn't fast enough and the rocks in the ceiling were coming down around her now. She looked up in time to be hit over the head and she fell on her back, unconscious.

Peter hadn't expected there to be anything wrong.

He trusted Quill to be able to take care of Liz. He didn't have any reason to believe that Quill wouldn't.

But when he arrives, Liz isn't anywhere to be found. The only thing that sends his eyes towards the sound of the creature as it left the cave. It's only when his eyes hit the cave's mouth that he's able to make Liz out -- and in that moment, the cave begins to crumble audibly.

"Liz!"

He's already reacting when Liz is hit in the head, but he's not fast enough to stop it. All he can manage is to throw himself over her, just in time for the rest of the cave to crumble on top of him...

There's a trickle of blood streaming down her face - evidence of the hit from the rock. Liz's breathing was shallow, but she was unresponsive. At least for a moment.

Peter finds it difficult to bite back the panic inside of him. Between Liz's breathing and the rocks crushing down on top of him, everything about this makes him want to.

"Liz," he says to her, urgently. "Liz, Liz."

She doesn't respond.

He breathes in then breathes out, one after another, slowly -- and as he does so, he starts listing out random atomic elements and their symbols, one after another.

Peter knows he can't help her without helping himself first.

Peter presses his back up, trying to push the rocks up off of him without the use of his hands; he needs them on either side of Liz to be sure he's framed well enough that nothing else falls on her.

He doesn't get much traction.

Peter tries again, but his second attempt doesn't go much better than his first.

Edited 2018-07-22 06:20 (UTC)

Liz stirred. Subtly at first, and then a little more obvious. Eyes closed, she grimaced at the headache she had and then the surge of pain rushed into her body and her eyes shot open as she let out a throaty cry. Some part of her leg was in incredible pain and she moved her head to look down, but then she saw Peter and her eyes widened. All thoughts of her foot left her.

"Peter?"

And then her eyes took in their surroundings. Her gaze went passed his head to the rocks on his back and on either side of them and she looked back at Peter who was obviously doing a lot of work keeping everything from closing in on them. But Liz wasn't thinking about their current predicament. Her mind was going back to a memory of Peter's and she suddenly felt panic again.

"Peter..." Her eyes moved around their small space and she reached out tentatively with a hand and pushed at a rock. It didn't budge. Of course it didn't - she didn't exactly have a lot of upper body strength. Liz looked back at him, her eyes welling up a little. "...Are you okay?"

Relief washes over Peter when she finally opens her eyes; even the sound of her cry brings him some relief. If she's cognizant enough to feel pain, she's more fine than if she's unconscious and not feeling anything.

"Yeah, yeah," he reassures her. "I'm fine. I just... need a moment."

He's got to try again. He knows it. But right now, it's taking all of his focus not to freak out.

She pressed her lips together and gave the smallest of nods. Liz wanted to be supportive and she wanted to help, she just didn't know how to help. And as she lay there, feeling her whole body ache, she couldn't stop feeling guilty. She blinked and a silent tear escaped, leaving

"Peter, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have....You shouldn't have to..." Liz was suddenly aware of how stagnant the air was. She needed to stop talking and she needed to control her breathing. They didn't have unlimited air.

"It's okay," Peter says, and he's not sure if he's trying to convince Liz or convince himself.

One final time, he attempts to back and up, but doesn't get any more traction than before; increasingly, it's starting to feel more and more like the time he was trapped in the warehouse, and it takes all of his composure not to freak out the way he did back then.

"It's okay."

Alec had been shadowing Peter. After giving Peter a hard time about it, he had talked himself into worrying - not that he'd ever admit it. So he stayed back, in case it was nothing.

Of course it wasn't nothing.

He saw the chaos happen and he heard Peter shout Liz's name, but even with his speed, by the time Alec closed the gap, Peter had disappeared under a lot of rubble.

"Peter?!" He shouted loudly and tried to listen for a response, but there was too much rock in the way. He started to move the rocks.

He had gotten the wind knocked out of him and when he looked up, the smaller owl bear was running away and the bigger one turned and headed in the same direction. There was no time to save Peter.

When Quill got to his feet, the rubble was already in place. Alec appeared and started pulling rocks off the mound. Quill hurried over to help.

"Pete?" He yelled as he pulled at a boulder. "Pete, you okay? Liz?"

Normally Alec would have beat the crap out of Quill right then and there, but he had to stay focused on finding Peter and finding him alive. As he pulled a bigger rock away, his eyes darkened and he pointed at Quill.

"If Peter dies, I will make you beg me to kill you." Which was a promise, not a threat. Alec would solely place the responsibility of Peter's death on Quill's shoulders.

Sure, he was concerned about Liz, too, but not to the same degree. If it came down to a choice, Alec would pick Peter over the girl any time.

He went right back to pulling off pieces of cave.

Quill understood the threat. He believed the threat. He didn't blame Alec for the threat either.

He didn't quip back this time. Instead, Quill went to work helping with the rocks.

"Come on, Pete," He said. "Hold on."

Liz was trying to figure out a way to help. If they had been trapped in a way where it wasn't Peter keeping the entire thing from caving in on them, then maybe they could do something. Find some sort of lever to get the bigger rocks out of the way or something. As it was, they were stuck and she wasn't sure how much longer Peter could keep this up.

The amount of guilt that swelled up inside of her chest was immense and she heard Kitty's words at the beginning when she had first started to date Peter - she had promised Kitty not to put herself in a situation where Peter would do something rash and hurt himself. And yet, here they were.

"I love you." Which was said in a way that sounded like an apology, but maybe also a 'goodbye' in case they couldn't make it out alive. She was vaguely aware that her blinking was getting longer and there were longer pauses where her eyes closed before she managed to open them. "I just... I need to rest for a second." A nap sounded really good right now.

Panic shoots through Peter, even more pronounced than it was before.

"Liz?"

He swallows hard, working his way through the Table of Elements. He pushes back again with more success, but when he does, the rocks on top of him shift and a few of the smaller ones roll underneath him, landing at Liz's side.

Peter can't keep pushing up like this. Not unless he's absolutely sure he's going to be able to get them out. If the rocks keep shifting, he's going to end up with more than a few small rocks at Liz's side.

"Hey!" Peter shouts out, trying to sound less panicked than he sounds. "Hey! Can you guys hear me?"

At first Alec thought he was hearing something. Sometimes people heard things when they were hoping for something, but then he heard the second 'hey' and there a rush of relief, though minor, goes through him. At least Peter can talk under there.

"Peter?" He pulled back another big rock. "Peter, we're getting the rocks off." Slowly, but at least they were. "You okay?"

Quill couldn't hear anything. He didn't have super-human hearing like Alec, but he did see a shift in Alec's body language.

He has to be hearing Peter...

He renewed his efforts in pulling the rubble away from the big mass.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject