Room 528, Early Evening
Karla
Karla had been curled up with a book when she got Sookie's frantic call for help. Panic beat around her mental shields; for a moment, she wasn't certain if it was Sookie's or her own.
*Sookie?* she sent. *Sookie!*
Nothing. Not even an echo or a hint that Sookie had heard her. She'd tried once more for good measure. The same frustrating lack of reply as before.
If Sookie wasn't answering, Karla was going to check with someone who would, only half-aware she was already out of her room and racing up the stairs. *Emma!*
Emma
It was an open secret that Emma Frost kept psychic tabs on her friends. Not actively peeking, mind you, but she did keep an ear open to make sure no one was getting up to trouble without her.
Sookie crashed against her mind like ocean waves on rocks; retreating momentarily only to surge forth again, a jumble of words and images as Emma tried to grab for her mentally.
<< Sookie? >> she asked, hissing in frustration as she failed again to properly lock on to the other girl. << SOOKIE! >>
The mental images. Emma clutched tightly to that as she scrambled for a notebook, trying to hold everything in her head at once as she madly wrote down the fragments before she lost them, only to have Karla mentally scream into her brain as she tried to focus.
<< Here. Shush. Hurry. >> Emma's pencil didn't stop moving as she tried to draw the general shape of the car and wrote down the plates. << You heard her too? >>
Karla
*No, there's a sale going on that I just needed to take advantage of,* Karla sent, waspishly. She was still recovering from her own bout of idiocy and she didn't like the way that running up the stairs was reminding her of that. *Quick, before all the good miniskirts are gone!*
She caught a small thread of what Emma was doing, and opened her inner barriers a little wider for Emma to dig through for additional details. *Take what you need.*
Emma
<< You aren't allowed to wear a miniskirt until you own a decent pair of heels, >> Emma retorted silently -- absently -- even as she riffled through Karla's memories to fill in and confirm details. << They aren't human. Who do we want? >>
They didn't have time to raise quite as large an army as she had for Karla's 'bout of idiocy,' and they were constrained by needing to at least appear to be human. Regardless, they had to leave now.
Karla
"Bobby," Karla replied, sounding out of breath, from Emma's doorway. "Kennedy, too. They make a good offensive team. Raven, too. I...might need some help if there's a lot of Healing involved."
The admission pained her, but her pride had to take backseat to the reality of the situation.
Emma
"Fine." Emma was already reaching out telepathically with a summons, once again bypassing all niceties such as telephones or mental knocking to simply command everyone to meet up in her room, simply stating there was a problem.
"There's foodstuff in my mini-fridge. Let's make some sandwiches while we wait for people, and you can vanish them in case we get hungry and don't want grits. Or whatever passes for food down there." The reality was that they would probably need Karla's power, even with Raven, so emergency rations weren't a bad idea. But phrasing it this way would at least spare some of Karla's pride.
Karla
Had Karla realized what Emma was up to, she would have been very grateful. And, fortunately, sandwiches were within the realm of foods she could prepare with a minimal amount of failure.
"We should call Jessica, too," Karla said absently. "She knows Sookie's home and may be able to land us better allies than we can get on our own."
Karla
"For the record, I'm not the one in trouble this time," Karla said as everyone arrived. She was eating a sandwich as she waited; she wasn't sure how much Craft she'd need for this. Her Sapphire was back up to full capacity, right now her only limit for how much she could wield was how much her body could channel.
She just wished she didn't feel so damn frail, still.
Kennedy
"Well, that's good to know." After the last time Emma had sent out a telepathic APB, Kennedy was just a little wary, and could you blame her? "'cause I think it'd be hard to top the last thing you hauled us off to. What's going down this time?"
Karla
"What can I say," Karla deadpanned. "I do so love putting on a show."
She was still a little sensitive about what happened in Agio and how her friends thought of Jaenelle.
"As for what happened, let's wait till everyone else is here, okay? So we only have to go through this once."
Kennedy
Kennedy gave her a mildly frustrated look; what did she mean, they were gonna have to wait?
"In that case, is this gonna be one of those armed-to-the-non-fangy-teeth situations? 'cause I could kill some time heading back to the weapons locker."
Karla
Karla was not going to end up repeating all the pertinent information multiple times just because Kennedy was feeling impatient. Though her idea did have merit.
"Definitely," she said with a nod. "You might want to stock up on the wooden weapons and maybe some other special kinds of weapons."
Karla wasn't sure what the males who had grabbed Sookie were, but 'nonhuman' was really high up on the list.
Kennedy
Kennedy winced very slightly but without adding context to her statement replied, "If they're definitely bad of the stakeable variety? I'll go load up."
Karla
"I don't know for sure," Karla said, "but it's a fair enough guess."
She wasn't entirely pleased with the proprietary interest Eric and his Queen had taken with Sookie. For one? They were vampires. For two?
...It totally clashed with her proprietary interest.
Kennedy
"Good enough," Kennedy decided, and turned to head back to the dorms to arm up.
Before she did, though, she had to stop and turn around. "But y'know, since Sookie's got vampire friends and all that, if I dust the wrong one? I'm saying it's because you told me to."
Karla
Karla sighed. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind, Kennedy," she promised. "Just no staking without my say-so, okay?"
Kennedy
"You're no fun, Karla," Kennedy pretended to bitch. "Back in a few. Don't get started without me."
Kennedy
"It's so nice of everyone to take turns like this," Bobby snarked, arriving just in time to hear Kennedy's 'back in a few'. "Maybe we need to draw up a schedule."
Karla
"I'm about good up through 2012," Karla snarked right back. "When's your turn? I'm so looking forward to terrorizing some of your friends back home."
Emma
"Shut it, Drake." Emma was so not in the mood for this, and she was multitasking, still trying to reach Sookie.
"One, I already hauled your ass out of ice-land. Two, you put me in a coma, and three, this is your girlfriend that just got herself hauled off by Hell's Angel's rejects. So put on your big girl panties or go back to your room."
Bobby
"I'm here, aren't I?" Sarcasm was just how he dealt with things, Emma. You should know that by now, having spent time living rent-free in his head.
Raven
Raven, meanwhile, was keeping a close eye on Karla. "Are you certain you are well enough?" she asked quietly.
Karla
"Of course I am," Karla said, a trifle shortly.
The answer was 'not entirely,' but guess who was going to let that stop her.
"I'm going after Sookie, damn it. So I guess I'd better be well enough, because I'm not staying behind."
Raven
Raven knew it would be pointless to even suggest that Karla should remain in Fandom to continue recuperating. So instead she nodded. "Please, do not exert yourself overly much," she said.
Karla
"Well, it depends on the trouble Sookie finds herself in," Karla said with a sigh.
Of course, at least Sookie's troubles really did stem from her being kidnapped, as opposed to her own stubborn foolishness. That realization was not improving the mood already fouled by the fact someone had decided to snatch her friend, one of her Court off of the street.
If it was that bitch Sophie-Anne, Karla really would set her face on fire.
"Keep an eye on me?" she asked. "If I'm about to run myself into the ground, stop me. We won't have the time to indulge my love of theatrics."
Raven
"You do not even need to ask," Raven said. "I will do my best to make certain you come to no harm." And hopefully they would find Sookie uninjured as well, though she had a sinking feeling that since it was Sookie there were likely vampires involved. Or soon to be involved.
Karla
The males that had grabbed her hadn't been human, that was for damned sure.
Karla leaned over to give Raven a hug. "Thanks, sweetheart. I'm sorry to be so bitchy at you." Though if she was going to be watching over Raven, it would probably be best if she got used to it for awhile.
Raven
Raven gave her a comforting hug back. "You do not need to apologize," she said. "You are upset and worried. We all are."
Jessica
The voice in her head was weird, but Jessica used vampire speed to get to the meeting place. If Sookie was in trouble, she was going to do whatever she could to help. "What's goin' on?" she asked. "What happened to Sookie?
Where is she?"
Karla
"If we knew that, we would have told you to meet us en route," Karla said. "Short story, Sookie's in trouble. Long story is going to wait till everyone gets here. But we're probably going to need your help and your knowledge of Sookie's hometown."
Jessica
"Well sure," Jessica said. "Anything I can do to help. You think it's vampires?"
Karla
"The creatures that grabbed Sookie weren't vampires, we think," Karla said slowly. "But I wouldn't swear that there aren't vampires ultimately behind it. They want Sookie and there's not a lot I'd put past them."
Uhh, no offense, Jessica.
Karla
Once everyone arrived, Karla held up her hand for silence. "So, here's what we know," she said once everyone's eyes were on her. "Sookie was out shopping for presents off-island and got grabbed by several big, burly males. She sent out a telepathic cry for help to me and Emma and we were able to get a few details."
She outlined what she and Emma had been able to put together, including the license plate and the fact the males didn't seem to be human.
"That's all we know," she finished. "Not a whole lot, but more than they'd like us to have. So next question is: how are we going to get Sookie back?"
Bobby
"We could go to Eric," Bobby said. The guy was manipulative and self-serving, as all vampires seemed to be, but he was also likely more of a help than, say, Bill. "I think he's pretty well-connected. If he can't help us, he probably knows someone who can."
Karla
"Eric," Karla said flatly. She considered it for a moment. "I suppose that's a good idea. If nothing else, we can see if he knows anything when we confront."
Emma
"And if he plays hard-to-get, I will rip whatever we need from his pretty little head." Emma thought this was the Best Plan Ever, although someone might want to remind her that it's scary when she smiles like that.
Jessica
"You mean we're gonna go to Fangtasia?" Jessica said. "I love that place! And Eric and Pam will help us. Pam's always given me some real helpful advice."
Raven
Raven wasn't keen on going to vampires for help, but she'd do what she needed to to find Sookie. "He is not unfond of Sookie, so Eric may be our best source of help in Sookie's home," she said. "I agree, it will be wise to seek his aid."
Kennedy
Kennedy was giving Jessica the weirdest look by now, but she couldn't really come up with a better plan herself. Besides, they had some pretty good firepower on board with them here.
"I guess I can go with this," she decided. "Also, Emma? Might want to save some of that scary-face for when we gotta get information out of people."
Bobby
"Though you can use some of it up for getting us a portal that leaves in like, the next five minutes," Bobby suggested. "Sure, they can't actually see you on the phone but somehow... they'll know."
Emma
"My face is not scary!" Emma objected, but she was already taking out her phone to book the portal. "It's not my problem if you're easily intimidated."
[OOC: Second verse, same as the first, and pre-played for Great Justice! NFI, OOC=OK.]