ic Back In The Day

[KnightDisciple]

Will had taken a few moments to get the terror of Tyrannosaurus Rexes that had been chasing him moving off in a different direction, and then kicked his speed up to full gear to leave them behind completely, appearing next to his father around the bit about "dragon lines of Earthly magic". He waited until his father had finished giving the low-down on this Ghorummaz person to talk.

 

"So Puff the Magic Dragon on all the steroids?"

 

There was a bit of sarcasm in his voice with that comparison. Probably because his parents had made him watch that very movie when he was younger.

 

"He doesn't sound nice necessarily, but if this Ghorummaz is actually worried about the dino-folks, isn't that a good thing? I mean, heck, if the G-man can think and do magic and stuff, maybe we can just hop forward a bit and talk to him once he's out or something? There's like millions of years before he's a worry for us. For all we know he's part of what's supposed to happen to the Earth after the big rock hits it!"

 

This was said as he and his father started their run back toward the island, even when Richard put one hand on Will's shoulder to lend him some extra speed.

[Blue Rose]

"He'd escape either way..." Sam half-mutters offhand while examining the shaman, clearly disturbed.

She swallows, hard, then finally finds the words to explain what she's feeling. "Whatever that thing is, we don't want to make it mad," she eventually begins, trying to fathom the scale of its power. "My ability to sense magic... I guess you could compare it to smell. I could smell this shaman's power all the way from up there, and my sense for these things isn't all that sharp. That takes some pretty serious power. But now that we're up close... it's like what he's got is just a drop, from a source so big it doesn't compare. This Ghorummaz thing is definitely in the right league if he wants to call himself a god."

[Avenger Assembled]

Back at Isla del Supercrime!, the film crew let the heroes confer while they went around getting more footage of the island, its dinosaur and dinosaurid population, and editing what they had already found. Having so many civilians around was a little unusual for the people who weren't regulars on the show, but at least they knew to stay out of the way of serious crisis situations. Overhead, the Space People were still invisible to human (and dinosaur eyes), though evidently not the eyes of the great magma dragon that still lurked beneath the planet's surface. Now that he knew to look for it, Gaian Knight could _feel_ the massive granite plug that was all that was left of some ancient volcano that had died before the dinosaurs themselves had evolved - a plug that would surely be destroyed entirely when the asteroid obliterated everything beneath their feet, and a chunk of the whole hemisphere besides. 

 

Though he and Will were still a few minutes out even at his top speed, Richard kept up with the discussion telepathically through Paige - and so it was that when he and Will burst into the open area where the heroes were conferring, he declared, "We've got to at least get out there and see what's going on with that guy, girl, lava dragon thing - whatever!" He looked at the others and said, "Even if this thing isn't hostile, we've got to see if we can meet it, maybe take some pictures. We've met gods before," he added with a nod to Paige, "and they're usually all right if you feed their ego. He's already watching. Might as well turn things around, get him on camera while we're at it." 

[Electra]

"We can't exactly meet it in person if it's buried under the earth," Paige pointed out from her seat in the makeshift editing bay. "Same problem with getting it on camera. But I do agree that we should probably try and make contact, just to be sure it's going to stay quiet until the asteroid comes. After that, well, there's really not going to be too much more damage even a giant magma dragon can do to this area." She shrugged one shoulder, tapped a few buttons on her laptop. "I could try and reach out to it, and I think Tiamat has some kind of connection as well. Getting closer probably wouldn't hurt." 

[Fox]

"Who says we can't meet it in person?" Gaian Knight countered, sightlessly glancing around with gently-glowing eyes as he got a better feel for the area. He hadn't thought much of that granite plug earlier, but knowing what he knew now.... "Getting down there is a piece of cake; heck, it won't even take very long. I don't claim the kind of speed the father and son duo here boast, but I've never been out-raced underground."

He frowned, trying to push his senses as far underground as he could, and once more regretting not practicing that particular power as much as he should have. "The hard part's the hazards. I can sense the normal ones, and I'd never take folks down near the mantle or leave us without air to breathe, but we still don't have a great idea of exactly what we're dealing with. I'd prefer we didn't take civilians, if it can be helped. They'd be great for camera crew but if things go south we might end up having to make a kinda rough retreat. Ah - no offense," he amended, glow fading from his eyes as he glanced toward the surrounding non-heroes. "I like you all too much to take you down there when we lack definite intel. You're...ah...."

"Squishy," Tiamat supplied, grinning toothily. It sounded suspiciously like the voice of experience.

"....right."

[Blue Rose]

Squishy?

Sam looks down at her lack of chest, knowing that wasn't what the dragoness was talking about.

"This sounds like such a horrible idea," she points out.

Of course, it seems reasonably thought out, and she can teleport back out if it comes to it.

"But how often do you get to talk to something like that?" Why would you want to? Though this one doesn't seem malevolent. "Probably a bit weird to just go chat, though. What's the etiquette for meeting with giant superdragons trapped under the earth? Think we should bring tea?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"You stay here on the island with your mother, boy," said Richard before Will could respond to the conversation, pointing a finger his son's way. "No buts. Somebody's got to shoot the rest of the footage up here, and we need more than one super-person around if the Preservers start any trouble." All his memories of roof collapses and crushing pain were thirdhand, passed from Paulette to Paige to him, but he knew damn well Paige had no interest in going under any mountain, terrakinetic or not. "If we make friends with the dragon-god, I'll make sure I get his autograph." 

 

The trip to Dragon Island, as the camera crew dubbed it, was short enough that Richard could have gotten them there within seconds. But on the other hand, standing on the surface of a large granite plug over a long-extinct volcano's chamber would hardy have accomplished anything. So with the crew on hand to at least film their departure, the heroes joined Gaian Knight and Tiamat on the beach for the trip across the island chain - or rather, underneath it! As the others lined up, Richard stopped to kiss Paige and give her a quick, tight hug. "We'll be back real soon, honey. I'll keep in touch." He tapped the side of his head for emphasis. 

[KnightDisciple]

Will bristled at being told to stay behind by his father. He'd outrun a pack of angry Tyrannosaurs, but he couldn't ride along underground. 

 

"But I-"

 

Then his father said "no buts", and he all but slammed his mouth shut, crossing his arms over his chest in an unmistakably teeanger-ish way. Then he caught his father's glance at his mother, and managed to hide his wince.

 

His mother didn't talk about why, not really, but he knew she didn't like underground, or tighter spaces. One nerve-wracking trip through a long tunnel on a highway taught him that much. 

 

"Yeah. Fine. Okay. I'll...keep watch. And you better bring back an autograph."

[Electra]

Paige let out a soft breath of relief at being given an out, sending Richard her gratitude along with the kiss she brushed over his lips. "We'll hold down the fort, make sure our friends upstairs don't see us gone and get antsy. Don't cause any trouble down there." Objectively, in her head, Paige knew that there was no safer way to travel underground than with a powerful and experienced terrakinetic at the helm. It was difficult to hear her head over the way her heart was thudding at even the idea of traveling once more into the darkness underneath a mountain, giant lava dragon or no. 

 

She took a few steps back to stand with Will and the camera crew to watch the final preparations for departure. Laying a hand on Will's shoulder, she let him feel her gratitude as well, careful to filter out her fear. "We can take the crew and get more footage of the dinosaurs," she suggested quietly to him. "And I still have one bag of Doritos hidden that I'm pretty sure your father hasn't dug out." 

[Fox]

"I'd suggest you stay if I thought you'd actually do it," Gaian Knight chuckled to Tiamat, quietly, as those who were going gathered and those who weren't dispersed. "I know you hate it when you don't have room to stretch."

Tiamat snorted, rolling a shoulder and eyeing the ground. "Yeah, well," she responded. "If you get me stuck down there you owe me a whole pile of hoard. Coins, this time."

He just laughed, stepping up to the center of their little expedition group. "All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're off then." He gestured, hands glowing, and the ground in a circle around the lot of them pulled its way free of the surrounding earth - but while he normally repaired the holes he made, this one yawned for a moment and then pulled itself down into a platform-sized cavern. "Please keep all hands and feet inside the Gaian Knight Express Platform at all times," he instructed, only half-joking as he made sure his goggles were pulled down and his face-covering cloth was pulled up. "If you have a flashlight or the like you're welcome to use it; I'll be leaving the tunnel open behind us so you have an easy out if something happens to me - though if I stop breathing, don't worry, not using your air is only one of the many services I provide. Attendants will be by to provide peanuts at the first layover, which is unfortunate because this train makes no stops."

And with that the platform dropped into the earth, sliding down the tunnel like a bullet train on invisible tracks.

[KnightDisciple]

Paige let out a soft breath of relief at being given an out, sending Richard her gratitude along with the kiss she brushed over his lips. "We'll hold down the fort, make sure our friends upstairs don't see us gone and get antsy. Don't cause any trouble down there." Objectively, in her head, Paige knew that there was no safer way to travel underground than with a powerful and experienced terrakinetic at the helm. It was difficult to hear her head over the way her heart was thudding at even the idea of traveling once more into the darkness underneath a mountain, giant lava dragon or no. 

 

She took a few steps back to stand with Will and the camera crew to watch the final preparations for departure. Laying a hand on Will's shoulder, she let him feel her gratitude as well, careful to filter out her fear. "We can take the crew and get more footage of the dinosaurs," she suggested quietly to him. "And I still have one bag of Doritos hidden that I'm pretty sure your father hasn't dug out." 

Will gave a falsely cheery smile as Paige asked everyone not to make trouble.

 

"No more trouble than usual, anyways, Dad!"

 

As his mother spoke, and he felt how grateful he was, he gave a real smile. He spoke back in an equally quiet voice.

 

"Yeah, that sounds good. Dinosaur footage is never a bad thing. But those had better be the Spicy Sweet Chili ones and not the week-old Ranch ones. I've had a craving for like three days out here, and field rations are not helping at all."

 

Nor was the awesome (or terrifying, if you paid the grocery bill) metabolism of a speedster, really. The Cline boys always seemed to be at least a little hungry. One of them could still get away with "but I'm a growing boy!", though.

[Avenger Assembled]

The rocks down here were pretty typical for an ancient seabed - for the tens of millions of years that lay between this moment and when Tarrant had started this week, rocks hadn't changed that much in the interim. As they approached the volcano's basin, though, the surrounding sedimentary rocks seemed to stiffen up - as if some ancient power had hardened them long, long ago. It was nothing Gaian Knight couldn't handle, but it did mean more effort. In the rear, Fast-Forward kept up his camera work, filming with a highend smartphone and occasionally commenting on what they were seeing. Richard shifted in his leather jacket as they headed deeper underground, thinking about his wife's claustrophobia. He didn't share it - but the fact was they were very deep underground indeed! He kept his rebreather handy, acutely aware of the environmental hazards once they started to deplete oxygen. 

 

As they skirted the edge of the basin, looking for a way in that wouldn't compromise the surrounding rocks, he cracked open the Tome of Theurgy and found its pages glowing the way they had back when he and Paige had got Huehuecoyotl to make a cameo appearance on the show the year before. "Awesome..." he muttered under his breath. For her part, Tiamat could _feel_ the being that waited for them on the other side of the rocks - now that they were this close, she could feel the coiled power like her own magnificent draconic body curled over a horde, an ancient being of almighty power that had been young when the world was new. 

 

And then, as they penetrated the outer reaches of the basin beneath the volcano, an eye opened in the ultimate darkness of the cavity before them - one that glowed not red, not blue, but fiery white. It was impossible to see more of the great Ghorummaz at first, until the glow from that single opened eye began (as their eyes adjusted) to expose the outlines of a basalt-cut form of draconic might that seemed to glow, just slightly, with the red glow of inner flames. In the darkness of the cavern, which stretched high above their heads and down below further than they could see, there was no sound - there was Ghorummaz, the rocks around, the distant, glittering colors of raw minerals and gems beyond count, and the heroes themselves. 

[Fox]

"...well, alright then. Tiamat, I don't suppose you'd care to do the honors?"

Tiamat grunted in reply; as distracting as just the feel of Ghorummaz happened to be, her attention - momentarily - was on the hoard. Her glowing red eyes shined with something akin to envy, though she was hardly so enraptured that she couldn't glance back up at her partner and shake her head. "Not if you want it polite," she admitted. "I'm not much of a politician. You may have noticed."

"....alright. Ah - pardon for the intrusion, oh great Ghorummaz" the geokinetic announced, offering a polite bow - and a tone of careful respect that spoke of some experience dealing with dragons of unknown temperament. "We only just found out you were even here; we came to learn from this area before the meteor arrives, and we've...ah, learned somewhat more than we were expecting. Finding out that you were here was an opportunity we simply couldn't pass up."

[Avenger Assembled]

When Ghorummaz spoke it was with a choking roar that seemed to fill the whole cavern, an avalanche of a voice that seemed to be a mountain's words, a volcano's comment - and yet for all that, the dragon-god seemed to be whispering. "I AM MORE." Silence fell, save for the distant sound of falling rocks, somewhere in that great darkened cavern. "SINCE THE SKY TURNED WHITE AND THE STARS BURNED, I HAVE WAITED HERE BELOW. SOON MY BINDING WILL END AND ALL ABOVE WILL DIE. FOR AN AGE, THE WORLD WILL AGAIN BE MINE." 

 

It would have been incredibly ominous - if the falling asteroid wasn't about to create the world of humanity and all the histories the heroes knew. "CHILD." That great eye was focused on Tiamat directly now. "YOU COME TO ME BEFORE YOUR BIRTH AT THE TIME OF MY LIBERATION. WHAT DO YOU SEEK?"

[Fox]

"I would have sought the safety of those living above, but such has already been arranged," Tiamat admitted. Her response drew a surprised look from her partner - not so much for the content, but the way it was delivered. There was no posturing to her, no attitude. Even her accent had changed, slipping into what could have been mistaken for a lightly refined British dialect. "Past that, I seek nothing - a dragon survives by her own might, and the might of carefully-chosen allies. The borrowed power of gods and boons of supposedly-greater powers is best left to the humans, in their frailty and need."

[Avenger Assembled]

"DRAGON: YOU WILL HAVE WHAT YOU SEEK." The great eye began to close. "BRIEF ONES: YOU HAVE SEEN THE GAZE OF GHORUMMAZ. YOU WILL SEE IT AGAIN. WHEN THE SKY FALLS." And then the eye closed, and they were back in the darkness of the vast cavern, with a dragon that might have been part of the living rock itself for all it was inclined to speak. 

 

In a low, slightly awed whisper from behind his camera, Fast-Forward commented, "He...he meant the asteroid, right?" He coughed. "I mean, I don't know a lot of magic stuff...but that had to have been it, right?" Unspoken was the unsettling idea, at least for Richard, that the dragon god had recognized them and knew it would encounter them again in the unimaginably distant future to which they would soon be returning!

[Blue Rose]

As the group nears the dragon's lair, Sam finds herself creeping towards the back of the platform, the presence down below growing more and more intense.

The air grows thick, heavy. Breathing becomes a chore. Her arms hang as if they weighed a thousand pounds.

And then, the creature comes into sight.

Its eye opens, and its gaze hits her like a hurricane wind, that would have blown her away had she not been been caught under Jupiter-like gravity.

She would fall to her knees, but she cannot move.

She would cry out, but she can't muster the breath.

In her time, she has stood before beings boasting incredible raw Power, but nothing like this. This thing is no creature; it's a force of nature. Not even the Empress herself could have held this much power.

It's all Sam can do to contain her own power, to keep her hellish magics from being drained down into the earth, to poison the lands millions of years before any creature she has ever seen before today comes to exist.