[Isabel] The Great Pirate Hunt

[nohatmatt]

Who: Isabel
Where: Outside the prison
When: Day 24, early evening
Invited: Anybody who's coming Jack Sparrow hunting
Status: Winding down

Comments

[Jon]

[sophiedb]

"A few years ago I'd've said he was packing another library with his gear. Now he's probably checking that everyone left in the bunker can do without the rest of us."

Jon approached the gathering hunters from further up the trail: tracking during twilight wasn't ideal, so he'd taken a quick look before the rest of the crowd joined in. His head felt clearer in the open air in any case, and the pirate was no master of disguise when it came to hiding his tracks. They shouldn't have too much trouble finding wherever it was that Wilson had led him. Nor would anyone else trying to find them all, judging by the number of feet about to trample through.

He whistled for the group's attention.

"Who's got weapons and is willing to use them?" Jon patted his Wraith stunner with no little glee. "Or special voodoo: it's all one and the same in this place. Anyone without either might want to reconsider the trip. Otherwise form up, check whose back you're watching and who's watching yours. The pirate might be a nutjob, but his choice of friends is a crazy nutjob with back-up."

[Jack]

[purplerhino]

Jack patted his blaster. "Got about fifty stun blasts here, but I liberated this from the armory." He held up a well tended revolver. A Welby Mk4, .38. That limited it to the rounds in the barrel.

“Had one of these in the second world war. Sturdy and reliable. Saw it in there and it just sang.” In fact, he had every intention of keeping this beauty. Not as versatile as a blaster, but it didn’t require batteries, just bullets. “And as I have been in battle before, yeah, more than willing to use it.”

Jack looked at Isabel. “You have a weapon you’re comfortable with?“

(*OOC: yeah, that's Jack's weapon of choice on Torchwood.)

[Isabel]

[nohatmatt]

"I'll be fine," Isabel said, although she was privately wishing she had Max's ability to project a shield. She'd just have to take a more offensive approach - preferably from cover. She had no desire to get shot again, and she knew she wasn't fast enough to stop a bullet, so the plan would have to involve taking action before the bullet could be fired.

Her memory intruded, a brief flash, standing motionless amidst the falling ashes she had made from Whitaker's body. Her first kill. A fight to the death, that had been. She wasn't going to kill anybody this evening though.

[Dean/Sam]

[aliencrabcakes]

Dean and Sam walked up behind Isabel. "Great, she's going?" Dean whispered to Sam. "Give it a rest." Sam replied and continued, "And I don't want to hear it about Jon either."

"Fine." Dean said.
"Fine." Sam replied.

Dean walked up to the group, pointedly ignoring Isabel. "Sammy and I've got our guns. We're ready."

Sam fingered the piece of amber in his pocket that appeared in his hand after the fight in Tara's kitchen. Dean and Sam had talked at great length about what happened, not really coming to any good conclusions. Sam felt that when the time came to understand about the amber, he would. In the meantime, he kept it with him at all times.

Tara had still not appeared after several hours, but Sam had a strange feeling that everything was ok. He got this feeling especially when he looked at the amber. Dean wanted to go to the tree and not bother with the pirate, but Sam told him it wasn't time yet. A 'delightful' conversation ensued as Dean tried to understand how Sam knew this...a conversation that had both brothers end with the usual "Fine".

[Daniel, Damon]

[fikgirl]

After making certain that those staying behind to guard the bunker had things well in hand - and understood that in Daniel's absence, Blaise was in charge - Daniel set out to meet the pirate hunting/first strike team.

Damon met up with him halfway to the meeting point.

"Damon," Daniel greeted him, "You know you don't have to -"

"Yeah, Daniel, I do. Chris has done enough and now that Claire is safe - relatively speaking, I have to help. I can't just sit by and not help. Besides, I really want to fucking get out of here as bad as the next person."

"How are Claire and Aaron?" Daniel felt a bit guilty because he hadn't had time to really check in on them. The most he'd done was stick his head in the door and say hello and congratulate the new mother.

From the smile that broke out on Damon's face and the way he beamed, anyone who didn't know better would have thought that he was the father. "They're both doing great. Claire's a great mother and Aaron - he's a really special kid."

"And lucky," Daniel commented meaningfully.

Damon's smile vanished nearly as quickly as it appeared. He shrugged, shifting the backpack that he carried. "Not so sure that Claire would be in agreement right now."

Daniel considered the younger man marching beside him, "Didn't want you to go chasing pirates and breaking into DHARMA?"

"Didn't want to learn about me being a teleporting freak."

They'd reached the assembled masses just in time for Damon's last words to carry over the crowd. The red head didn't seem to care much, although there was a pause while everyone seemed to consider - then reconsider - yet another person with special abilities in their midst.

"Is this everyone?" Daniel asked.

[Isabel]

[nohatmatt]

Isabel regarded Damon thoughtfully as he and Daniel approached.

So he's a teleporting freak, is he? Another reason to feel less unique, I suppose. She was still smarting from what she thought she'd overheard Dean and Sam muttering about as they approached, but she knew some people didn't like her.

'Some people' included Damon, she remembered as she caught his eye briefly. He wasn't likely to have forgiven her for attacking Claire, and she wasn't sure she blamed him for it. Unfortunately she couldn't go back and undo it, so she just had to explain as best she could and try to be useful.

"I think it's everyone," Isabel said to Daniel. "Nobody's turned up for a while, and it's getting darker. I don't think we should wait around."

She sensed a couple of glares aimed at her, but ignored them. She wasn't going to sit around being useless when there were things to be done. Even if those things did involve hunting a drunken and rather sunstruck pirate through a rapidly darkening jungle full of things which had no business being there.

[Locke] Moving out

[starborn_scribe]

Locke jogged up to the group with knives and a pistol on his belt and a full pack on his back. "Thanks for waiting," he said. "I stopped by the armory for extra ammunition. Hopefully we won't need it." A few in the group requested a box or two of bullets, which Locke handed out. "Is this everyone?"

"Looks like," Dean drawled.

"Let's go, then." Locke led the way into the jungle, following the less-than-stealthy trail.

[Isabel] Do I look like a bloodhound?

[nohatmatt]

Isabel followed Locke into the trees, stepping carefully to avoid the numerous roots and other bits of plant which threatened to trip the unwary foot in the half-light under the canopy. She refrained from lighting a torch yet, hoping to save them until the light was really needed. They weren't going to provide all that much in the way of illumination, so best to use what night vision they had while they still good.

To her surprise, the trail remained easy to follow for a long way. It set a nagging in the back of her mind, and she moved closer behind Locke to speak to him.

"Even I can follow this trail," she said. "What was Sparrow thinking? He's supposed to be a pirate. I thought pirates were fairly intelligent. Even with Wilson at the end of his sword he didn't have to stagger into quite so many pieces of undergrowth."

Of course, Isabel hadn't yet observed Sparrow travelling in an entirely straight line, so perhaps this was just an effect of his normal state of semi-intoxication.

[Jack]

[purplerhino]

"If I were crediting the guy with any actual intelligence, then I'd say he made a deliberately easy to follow trail. Most likely so we could get his ass out of trouble if things went inevitably wrong. But that may be over-estimating him." Jack added from behind them.

"I'm pretty sure we locked up anything alcoholic in the armory. But you never know."

[Jon]

[sophiedb]

"Chances are he didn't think about hiding his trail at all," Jon grouched. That headache had come back, a little lighter than before but still irritating as hell. "All he wanted to do was 'arrange for his departure, savvy?' Probably wowed enough by all this technology to think it's as easy as clicking his heels together."

Then he remembered who he was talking to: a time-travelling human and an alien princess (or something like that). The resulting smile was forced.

"A guy like him's got to be disturbed enough by being on land, let alone a couple centuries in the future. Even worse if he's sober."

Jon nudged Damon, just ahead of him. It was annoying not to be in the lead, though Isabel was right: anyone could follow this track and it was straight as an arrow. Maybe Wilson wanted this over with as quickly as the rest of them did, whatever "this" was.

"Are we nearly there yet?"

[Isabel] Yes

[nohatmatt]

"I think we are," Isabel said as they emerged into a clearing. "Either that or this is the point where they got clever."

The sun was well and truly gone now. Isabel pulled the torches from her backpack and handed three of them round, keeping one for herself.

"Hold them up," she instructed, and waved her hand over the ends of the torches, which ignited, casting a warm orangey light. She smiled. "Just like heating burgers at the Crashdown."

[Locke] Yes

[starborn_scribe]

Locke blinked at his newly lit torch, then grinned at Isabel. "Thanks." He'd had his doubts about her joining the search party, but they were disappearing rapidly.

With the light of the torch following a less obvious path out of the clearing was easy. It lead to one of the larger trees. "I think there's a panel here. Would you...?" The question was directed at Jon.

[Jon]

[sophiedb]

"Uh, yeh. Sure." Jon pulled out a mini-maglite and moved forward. "I hope there's no spiders in there."

Once revealed the panel opened easily - a good sign that someone had used it recently - but Jon had no idea what to do with the annoyingly familiar buttons inside.

"Ok, everyone take a step back towards the trees. It looks like Wilson found another ring transport, so anyone with a torch might want to look for metal on the ground, dust off the leaves so we know where we stand.. Daniel? Damon even - either of you want to work some magic?"

[Damon]

[fikgirl]

Damon spent a good portion of the hike watching Isabel and Jon, but both for different reasons. The former, he didn't like due to her treatment of Claire. He didn't care what her excuse was - there was no excuse for striking a pregnant woman even if their had been provocation: an unborn baby was an innocent bystander. Convictions aside, he also didn't like that she'd hurt Claire - one of the few people on this island who probably wouldn't hurt a fly unless she was left with no other choice.

He questioned Daniel's logic, if there was such a thing, in allowing the woman to come along. He didn't complain because he knew that if Isabel was here, she couldn't be back at the bunker traumatizing Claire.

His reasons for watching Jon were entirely different. When he was younger, he'd been drawn to some people - Kevin and Ami for example, and it hadn't made sense. As he grew older, it started to make more and more sense. Though he wasn't a powerful telepath, he could sense other telepaths, or at least the ones who were more like him, who operated on a similar wavelength.

At first, he thought he was imagining it, but there was definitely something there when he focused on Jon. The odd part was that it hadn't been there before, or at least he hadn't sensed it before. What he really wanted was Ami's help; she'd be able to zero in with more certainity than he could, but Ami was safely at the bunker and he trudged through the undergrowth with Jon.

He skirted around the edges of Jon's awarness. Not reading his mind or even trying to, but simply sensing him. A few times, Jon had actually reacted, but probably hadn't realized what he was reacting to. With this being the island of so few coincidences, Damon wondered if maybe it wasn't possible that Jon was on the edge of becoming the third stranded Tomorrow Person.

When Jon made the announcement, Damon looked to Daniel, who nodded. "I'd rather not waste time. If you think you can. . ." he let the words trail off.

"I'll give it a shot," Damon walked over the panel, touching it with one hand and concentrating on the configuration and technology inside. With Jon close by, Damon couldn't resist an experiment, /And what magic are you going to work while I'm doing this?/

[Isabel]

[nohatmatt]

"A ring transport?" Isabel had no idea what one of those might be, but she stepped back with the others and lifted her torch, studying the clearing in the flickering light the four torches cast. Something didn't quite look right...

She reached a toe forward and poked at the ground a bit, then bent down and extended her free hand, concentrating her power through it. A small burst of telekinetic force struck the ground, tearing up a chunk of turf and revealing the curved edge of a metallic ring buried in the ground.

"Well," she said, "looks like there's a ring of something buried under here. Is that what you're looking for?"

[Jack]

[purplerhino]

"That would be exactly what we're looking for." Jack commented. "Can we set this to the last site dialed, or is it more like a keypad thing?" He looked over to Jon.

There was a problem with using this, however. The moment it was activated the people on the other side would know, and be able to wait to shoot them as they came through. The four second pause was ample time for a nice ambush.

"I hope you have a better plan than just jumping in. Because we'll be expected and practically fish in a barral."