14260/Young, Just Us! Part 2

Young, Just Us! Part 2
Date of Scene:	11 March 2023
Location:	National Parks near San Francisco, CA
Synopsis:	The Outsiders go camping, take some pics at the giant sequoias, and go on a hike in the forest. Then something weird happens. To Be Continued!
Cast of Characters:	Tim Drake, Phoebe Beacon, Hope Summers, Harper Row, Conner Kent, Laura Kinney, Carin Taylor, Gabby Kinney

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Tim Drake has posed:
    The penultimate day of what is destined to be a very eventful vacation dawns... frankly too early, but there are those amongst the team that wanted to go whale watching, and the boat leaves from Pier 39 not long after the sun's up. For whoever's aboard, they have a relaxing morning with a fancy brunch and the occasional whale sighting, while everyone else gets to do whatever they want to do, so long as they show up at noon for the drive out. No limo this time; a couple of Jeeps are waiting for them in the parking garage beneath the building they've been staying in, already packed with all the camping gear necessary for one night out in the California wilderness.

    Though Tim highly recommended everyone stock up on their favorite camping snacks beforehand, given the general high levels of metabolism to be found on the team.

    It's late afternoon by the time they arrive. 2.5 hours down to Fresno, a stop for some west coast fastfood, you all know the one (no Batburgers in sight out here, that's for sure), and then another hour and a half drive east, into the heart of Sequoia National Park.

    And then that's it. They're here. They park the Jeeps (they being Tim and whoever won in the fight to drive the second) and get out right at the campsite. The giant trees themselves are a 45 minute hike away, but first things first: gotta set up camp. Usually Tim's gonna Tim, but today he just takes a few bags from the back of the Jeep and stakes his claim on a piece of ground, not a single order given. Looks like it's up to everyone to individually figure out what they're doing, at least until a point where Tim can't help himself and starts up the whole leader thing again. But right now he's just unpacking his tent.

    "Okay, which one of you broke into the marshmallows already?" he asks, holding up a half-empty plastic bag of them. His eyes narrow as he looks around at the assembled group, and then sighs. "You're lucky I bought extra for just this eventuality. Make sure you put all of your food and scented items in the food locker!"

    Well, he lasted a whole, what... minute? Good for him. That's some real characater development there.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe absolutely did not drive. She rode in the back of a jeep with the window open, eyes closed, wind on her face and bag of marshmallows in her lap.

    She sheepishly shrugs her shoulders as Tim holds up the half-eaten marshmallow bag (because he of course would have gotten the vegetarian-safe marshmallows for the trip.

    She's familiar with camping. She's already getting her tent set up. Her food items are in the locker. She has her thick leggings tucked into her socks to prevent ticks from crawling up, and she's gotten things settled to the point where she's laying out her sleeping bag inside the predictably orange-and-pink tent jokingly marked 'MEDIC'.

    "In my defense, I was hungry after my breakfast going overboard."

Hope Summers has posed:
Hope slips from the back of the Jeep and furrows her brow a bit as she takes in the campsite. She shoulders her very loaded looking backpack.

"Mmn. I'm gonna check the perimeter..."

The girl begins to make her way around the camp, primarily moving around the perimeter to check for anything that might mark possible threats. It's a freaking camping trip, but post-apocalyptic survivor's gonna post-apoca...lyp? Jeans, hiking boots and a faded Nirvana shirt snagged from some thrif store make up her outfit today, and her thick red hair is pulled back into a no-nonesense ponytail.

Harper Row has posed:
Harper half-turns, keeping the one cheek that's bulging like a squirrel out of sight. Twirling a partially assembled tent-pole in one hand. "Mmm-nnnnh?" The girl shrugs her shoulders at Tim, swallows the marshmellow mass, and then gives her opposite shoulder a smack from the attentions of some miniature blood sucker.

    The outdoors, oh gawd, how to prepare and what to bring. Harper has emptied the pegs, poles and weather-wicking fabric thing that might eventually be a tent on the uneven ground. The time out in the sun has given her some nice tan lines, and inverted raccoon paleness around her eyes. Sporting a little touristy button ~Thar be whales here!~ on her Trucker-worthy big hat, and noting why pants are preferable over shorts when in the wilds. The mirror shades stay on.

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner is a real expert in whales. Well... no really, but he has seen them a few times. So, semi-expert in spotting whales? You decide. He was there mostly for the breakfast and chatting.

Definitely not there for two hours and a half in a Jeep. He will be waiting at the parking lot. Which means he wasn't the one that ate the marshmallows, right? Was it Phoebe? Unexpected! "Well, I can get more..." but of course Tim already planned for the contingency. That is why he is the leader. Meanwhile, Conner takes a while to set his tent right. About three attempts.

Laura Kinney has posed:
For some reason. People tend to unite under the banner of 'Please don't let Laura drive' whenever the topic comes up. Maybe it's because she is either driving like she's tailing someone and obeying every rule of the road to avoid attention one moment. And then driving like she's in a high speed police chase the next. Or it could perhaps be that everyone knows how many motorcycles she has charged to her Outsiders credit card. And that frequent cab trips back from the junk yard take place right before said purchases....

Either way she's more than happy to sit quietly in a jeep as a passenger. Zoning out with meditation and taking occasional sips from a flask that, rather than water, contains her home made hot sauce.

She's not even bothered to pack camping supplies. Because when she heads into the woods she can make pretty much everything she needs from the wilds. All she needs is a good knife. And she's got two of them in each arm...

"I still do not understand why we bothered with tents. I've seen footage of a man who was able to create a two bedroom dwelling in the jungle using nothing but sticks and rocks. It even had indoor plumbing."

Carin Taylor has posed:
    Carin is totally up for whale watching. Up for it as in up early, and up for it as in wanting to do it. She's never been on a boat. Even out in the east, she's spent more time on dry land than anywhere else! After all, her speed is great but running across choppy water? No bueno. She isn't one of the Flash-fam or Flash-kids, after all. She generally contents herself in dashing across the rivers around Manhattan when it's not too windy. Her augments and inertial compensators seem to work well enough on the boat, too, so getting sick isn't a thing!

    Then she seems entirely okay with helping with the drive. As in, she offers (timidly to Tim) to drive the second Jeep. Does she have a driver's license? Prooooooobably. SHIELD seems to have a nice suite of identification needs handled for their employees, and Carin's internal software not only sorts out the nuances of the vehicle's electronics and handling characteristics, it also helps her set the optimal elevation for the steering wheel *and* the position of the seat! Fancy! Oh and her hyper-tuned reflexes make driving safe a breeze, and the internal GPS means that even if there's a shift in traffic, she can get there if she loses sight of Tim.

    How fancy.

    It's also mind-numbingly dull. The ride to Fresno isn't exactly the most exciting trip in California. But hey, marshmallows are marshmallows, and so is that one burger place with the double-doubles.

    Then they're there! The scenery totally picks up on the way to the national park and Carin finds herself in awe of the trees. Good thing she can focus on the driving at hand and the scenery at the same time, even if it looks like she's giving herself whiplash now and again. "...wow..." she says under her breath. "...the forests around NYC aren't this awesome... not... that I've seen too many..." she laughs. But before long, they're there!

    Carin's opted for some comfy clothes. Those cutoff jeans from the trip to the PIer but some leggings underneath. A 'My Girlfriend has a PH.D' teeshirt and that nucleic science symbol on it, and a hoodie that's tied around her waist. When everything is in unpack mode, though, she waves at TIm. "Um... I had a marshmallow... also... I... don't know how to raise a tent..." she says quietly, very sheepish about it.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Wait you guys had marshmallows? Hax." This is the sort of lingo you get after Gabby spent a good portion of one of the last few nights up gaming on Zombie Slaughter 4D with some of her online friends. It was hard to catch Valeria free to do some dungeon crawling so she made use of the vacation while she could. And getting awesome supplies to ONE group while the other had none? Hax.

The ride had at least allowed her time to catch up on some other things. Podcasts. Reading some of that massive list of 'required reading materials' that Tim had insisted she cover to work on becoming a team leader for the Outsiders. All on a tablet, of course, which by now was almost drained of battery.

Because she sure as heck was flipping back and forth between 'required reading' and Bejeweled or some other puzzle game.

"Actually I heard they fake that and scoop out most of the dirt with a backhoe." Rolling from her spot in the Jeep out to her feet she gives a good, long arms-over-head stretch. "I think it's probably due to the time crunch Laura. He's got plans for us to do stuff and just 'basic housing' isn't on the list. And," she adds reaching back into the Jeep to grab her own pack full of snacks and goodies, she digs inside to fish out a candy bar. One of those super bad for you ones. "I'm okay with that."

Hope Summers has posed:
"I bet I could do that," Hope calls out to Laura as she makes her way back into the camp prior. She ends up choosing a tactically sound and defensible position for her tent, and drops her pack to the ground. "Y'know, I saw a truck parked down the way, back up the path. I bet I could salage some parts and rig up a turret or two to defend the campsite..." Freaking what?

She drops to her butt on the ground and unzips her pack, beginning to pull out things to assemble her own tent.

Harper Row has posed:
    Harper makes sure to thousand-yard stare at Laura. The last of her pilfered 'mallow lurching down her throat, shoulders hung forward, neck somewhat bent. Like a winded marathon runner. "..." Another dull smack as she ends the brief existence of something sampling her thigh.

    Harper tips her hat back and feels lunch making a cauldron of her tummy. She sneakily checks her phone for some whoTube vids but the 15 minute commentary and ads have her wanting to swing her peg mallet into the screen. Frowning, she pops a tent peg between her teeth like a cigar and tilts her sunglasses down to peer over the rims at Hope. Her expression is: Not sure if serious. "Interesting. Did it...have windows and things? Fully enclosed space? A nice long flat cab to stretch out in?" And then she's crab-scuttling around the edges her her tent and hammering home the spikes to keep things nice and taut. She's gonna get this shelter up damn it. The smell of so much fresh outdoor air is making her a bit flustered. So many damn trees! Where are the rows of apartment blocks?!

Tim Drake has posed:
    Both Phoebe and Harper, whose attempt at pretending she doesn't have a mouthful of marshmallows *at this very moment* doesn't get past Tim, are favored with a frowny face. The disappointment! Truly it is deep and soul-sucking.

    And then Tim pulls out two more bags of vegan marshmallows (made with agar-agar) and all is forgiven.

    "I got it, Conner, no worries," he says, and then his tent is set up, and Tim rolls his sleeping bag out into it, just like that. It's almost obnoxious.

    He takes his own perimeter stroll of the area but it's less focused than Hope's; he's just walking, taking in the scenery, and eventually making his way over to where Carin's standing with her tent, still in its bag.

    So it goes. Tim helps where he can, because somewhere in the Bat-training there was a whole unit on survival skills, and this is easy mode stuff in the face of what Laura's suggesting: no supplies, just roughing it. But Tim could probably do that too, he's just not as enthusiastic about it as Laura is. He, like Harper, is totally a city kid.

    "You're right, Gabby," he says, and then waggles a map in the air towards her in offering. "We're running low on time, so let's wrap up camp-making and head out on our hike. I figure we have enough skills between all of us to navigate there and back even without the sun, but I'd like to make it to the sequoias with some daylight left still."

    Apparently he's intending for Gabby to lead the way, as the map he gives her has their ultimate hiking destination already circled.

Conner Kent has posed:
"I am up to try to build a cabin," offers Conner. Even if his tent doesn't look very solid, even after tree attempts (maybe he is going too fast). "If we are even allowed to cut trees in a national park," he ponders.

Probably not. Maybe next time they can go to the jungle. Or northern Canada? Savage Land? Surely they would never get into trouble there.

Eyeing enviously at the oh-so-perfect thing that is Tim's tent, Conner grumbles something and starts over again, this time being a little more careful. "Yeah, give me five more minutes..."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe in spite of Tim's SOUL SUCKING DISAPPOINTMENT, doesn't seem too bothered. She probably helped pack the marshmallows.

    Veteran camper she is, she begins to wander around the camp herself, having been old-hand at LARPing camps and hikes in the Catskills, she helps with handy advice, or offering to handily help folks get their tents up, or offering very strong scented lavender-lemonbalm bug repellent.

    Just don't spread it too thick or you'll taste it in fifteen minutes.

    "It's not so bad once you get used to things, Harper, I've been camping since I was like, seven." Phoebe offers, and then looks a little alarmed.

    "Con, do not cut into the trees here. Some of these trees are older than the US!"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney slings her pack around to take out a small tarp. It's this she lays out over the area she chooses for her own tent. It's quickly unfurled out, stepped down on so it's level, and then she goes for the actual tent.

And it's now that it's revealed Gabby totally cheated buying a pop up variety. As soon as it's out of the bag it unwinds itself from some origami-like folds to pop up in a decent shape that she just... lays down over that tarp. Securing the ends to the ground so it doesn't blow away was a peice of cake after that.

Which is great because she's handed a map which causes her to give Tim a *look* before she sighs softly. "I'm way better at navigating cities than wayfaring in the woods," she mutters, though she does turn her attention down to the map seriously. Only to shift her stance a bit to orient in the right direction with a quick glance down to her watch complete with compass built in.

"Normally I'd be totally up for seeing a makeshift turret, Hope, but I'd rather we don't accidentally risk shooting some Bigfoot or whatever their varient is in this area of the continent. Okay. So..." She pauses to glance around the group. "Grab water bottles, some snacks if needed." A pause at Harper's fidgeting with the bugs. "Bug spray."

Laura Kinney has posed:
"It's not even cold enough to need a house," Laura points out. Then again she /did/ dress as if she was off hunting in the deep woods. A cameo pattern jacket and pants. Some small containers that don't contain make-up unless you count military face paint as make-up. She probably has a foil blanket in her pocket she can fill with leaves and create an instant bed.

Besides. Everyone knows she'd totally just sleep on a pile of jagged rocks if it was 'tactically' sound.

There's a reason why her sister rarely introduces her to her dates. And it's not just that she scares the crap out of them.

On the plus side. She might not be the ideal designated driver. But helping to get a group of people through the wilderness at night? Pretty much her A game. Enhanced senses letting her pick out the trails and know when people have gone astray. Plus she's short enough she isn't going to snag any branches and thwack them into the person behind her. And she knows all the signs and signals Gabby might use. Helpful for if they do run into problems!

"We shouldn't need any turrets. They'd probably just be set off by wildlife. Better to rig up snares and other low tech traps. Then, even if we catch a deer, we can just cook it."

Hope Summers has posed:
Hope's tent is setup with a swiftness. She stuffs her backpack into her tent, and then pauses to openly withdraw a handgun, and holster it at the small of her back, under her hoody. The redhead then begins to trundle along with the others, joining the hike. She ends up reaching out to slap a mosquito off of Harper's back.

"We didn't really have normal mosquito's back home. One of the good parts, I guess."

Harper Row has posed:
    Harper stands back and makes a show of picture-frameing her shelter with upraised fingers and one eye squinted closed. She steps back, adjusts the angle of her imaginary camera. "Erected...biiiitch!" Tongue stuck out for good measure, her piercing catches the light. A spark to perk up her attitude after accomplishing ~thing~. She squawks when Hope has her back, literally. "Niiiice. I think I heard the shriek on that one. Thanks Hope."

    With a swagger, she about-faces on her heel, looking cock of the walk and saunters over to her pack to pull out her bug spray to give herself a dousing. Thankfully, Phoebe has ~much~ better smelling stuff and she gratefully accepts if it's offered. "Phoebe, it just ain't natural. I can't hear a single car horn or siren. So quiet out here I think I could hear my own conscience for a second."

    Harper sprays a cloud of bug repellent and steps into the misting like she was at a perfume counter at the Mall. "Wuh? We're gonna have Bambi for dinner?"

Carin Taylor has posed:
    "Thanks Tim..." Carin says sheepishly after she's gotten some help. "...lots of running... not a lot of camping..." she says quietly, putting the finishing touches on the tent. Checking the ropes and poles and stakes, pushing her things inside. She didn't bring too much. Change of clothes or two in case of accidental river. Some cleaning stuff. And a few water bottles and nutrition bars. There's the talk of turrets and traps and hunting and cabin building and she just... looks bewildered.

    "I didn't bring my speed-proof bag, so if anyone wants me to dash off to grab a burger I'm afraid I really can't help with that..." she quips to the group as a whole. "Though... hey... if we get enough river stones we could.. make a.. brick oven for pizza... that would be amazing... camp pizza?" she considers the option, then shakes her head. "...no, no... the heat would... escape probably... mmm..." she sighs, her plans for pizza utterly popped.

    She glances up at Harper, nodding slowly, "...yeah I... it's bad enough being with my own thoughts sometimes but out here... it's... too loud? In my head? Like I can hear the wetware humming. It's. Weird." She pauses, moving a hand up to her ear to check for a bug. "...nope, not a mosquito. Definitely the Brain Box. Or something. And it's harder to zip around out here. I can't get my zoomy on as well as I could on a straight road. I guess that's what lightning reflexes are good for?" She stows her stuff in her tent, and her tasty bars are all individually wrapped. She offers them up to the food locker just in case, though.

    "Oh! If. Anyone needs..." she looks around the entire group as much as she can, trying to address all of them. "Picture or video taken... just let me know? I can record stuff and... upload it later..." she taps her temple.

Laura Kinney has posed:
"You can't hear them?" Laura says with a raise of her eyebrow. "I can still hear cars in the distance. Sometimes I wonder how people without enhanced senses get things done." She takes a long sniff of the air and shrugs. She still hasn't set up a tent. Presumably she really does intend on sleeping under the stars.

Don't worry if she gets frostbite it'll heal.

"We can make an Earth oven. Conner can fire it with his eye beams. And then we can bake bread or cook a pizza. Assuming we have cheese, dough and sauce?"

She's got energy bars hidden away for her own needs. The super high calorie kind. Plus hot sauce to make them exciting. What more does a girl need?

"You'll probably find it's extremely loud at night when you actually try sleep. Birds, small mammals and other wildlife. All sorts of things you don't hear in a city."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney continues to read over the map noting certain features to look out for and essentially memorizing it. It was habit at this point. You never knew when you wouldn't have a map at all. She's going over her third or fourth run of it when the discussion of pizza and other things comes up.

"Don't use river stones for a fire pit or anything like that. They're filled with water and can explode once they get too hot. Or... so I read somewhere. I think." Her voice gets quieter, mumbling, "Maybe it was a movie. Youtube?" The thought is shrugged off as she finishes her study of the map. Finally. It's refolded and tucked into her pack. A nice little flashlight comes out instead even though it wasn't that dark yet. Better to have it before it was dark--Even if she could see pretty well herself in the low light. Not everyone could.

"Okay so we have to go to the proper hike area..." A glance is cast toward Tim with eyebrow raising questioningly. "And away we go I guess!"

She waits a few moments more before starting off down a path that didn't seem to be a path until they were on it. Maybe it had been awhile since others had come this way.

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner shrugs. "Well... it was just an idea," and not his idea, mind you. Laura was talking about building stuff. Then again, it is probably not very impressive when they have superpowers. But still fun.

He nods when Laura mentions all the noise. "Cities are worse. It took me a while to get used to it when my senses began develop. Earplugs do nothing! That is why I got a cottage near the beach away from... ah, never mind. It was ages ago." Yeah, four years, which account for half his life.

Hope Summers has posed:
"Oooh, venison. That sounds amazing." She glances over at Harper and grins a bit. "Bambi?" She furrows her brow a bit. "Deer. Venison. That another name for it or something? Well, I'm looking forward to some roasted Bambi, then!" She trots along with the others.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Setting up camp takes a while. Maybe longer than Tim had budgeted for, which is his own fault, given the ratio of survivalist versus city folk to be found on the team. The pop-up tent is a great idea but not one he himself took advantage of when buying group supplies, so there's some time lost. Not a big deal, though! Once that's all handled, the group sets out for the hike behind Gabby.

    Not that it's a particularly difficult hike: the trail Gabby finds ends up taking them straight there... well, after about 45 minutes and THEN they're right in the middle of the giant sequoias.

    The trees tower overhead, which is impressive in and of itself; most are only a few feet shy of technically being considered skyscrapers. But what's really astounding is how wide they are at the bottom, some as wide as buses. At normal speeds it's a long walk just to circumnavigate a single tree. Fading sunlight filters in through the branches above. They've arrived with daylight to spare for pictures.

    Which Tim insists on taking himself rather than letting Carin do so. This way she's able to be in the pictures themselves. And it's not like Tim isn't in them either, because of course he has a mini tripod that he whips out of his backpack and sets up. If you think about it, the Bats are just like Scouts, but taken to the nth extreme.

    There are other people milling about from other campsites, but within minutes they've all left, which allows for some pretty nice nature pics clear of background crowds. As well as allowing for some quiet enjoyment of the area without strangers giving them side-eyes for any number of reasons. The thing is, though? They probably should have left when everyone else did, because nighttime is upon them within minutes. Don't worry, though! For those without enhanced senses, Tim produces several headlamps to pass around.

    "Try not to trip over anything on the way back," he announces, and this time Tim takes the lead with a quick thumbs-up to Gabby for her previous navigation.

    It's dark, though. Real dark. For those who can't see at night, at least, there's only the sweep of their headlamps to illuminate the path. Thankfully with this group there's no chance of getting lost. But it's a long walk to make with nothing but weak moonlight and a few shining beacons that swing back and forth as people look around.

    Something goes SNAP out in the darkness off to the left of the trail, and Tim comes to an immediate halt, holding his hand up to signal those behind him to do the same.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe is more relaxed out here in the woods than she was in the city, more casual, shoulders looser. She poses for pictures with people, hair in braids and then wrapped to make sure nothing gets in them, and she speaks at length about the different plant life and ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTS finding some edible plants on the walk, bringing back a small sampling of edible young shoots and mushrooms because, yes, she studied up before they made their way out here, and she's a plant nerd, far more 'gatherer' than 'hunter'.

    In the dark, she accepts a headlamp, and she pulls a red hoodie out of her daypack as the night descends, and augments with a clip-on light for her sweatshirt from her pack.

    She was in fact humming a bit when she sees the hand signal, and she halts, silencing herself, and she braces.

    HEr fingers curl up lightly against her palms.

Harper Row has posed:
    Will there be some photos with bunny ears occurring? Possibly, if there are extra takes where someone has their eyes shut and Harper's friends and allies are within range.

    Those trees, holy frig on a frog, tall and immense. The Bluebird feels pretty dwarfed going to have a sore neck from all the city-slicker rubbernecking. It's like being on another darn planet. The hike has been a great thing to get her to move her limbs after the long ride and campsite prep.

    And when it gets so dark, wilderness dark, the cocky street rat has eyes that are owlish and spooked. "Wuzzat!" Harper blurts, and pigeon-toes.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
There's going to be at least ONE photo with Gabby trying to hug-climb her way up the side of the tree. Sure she could legitimately climb with her claws but that might hurt the tree -- And that would tick off Phoebe as well as a witch back home she dealt with. Better to just do the amusing photo of koala hugging up the side of the tree so she can at least be mostly the same height as everyone else. If not a bit taller! HAH!

It's the walk back that she isn't in charge of that allows her to relax a bit more. Trusting in Tim's own sense of direction as well as recalling how they came down, she allows herself the time to actually glance around enjoying the scenery.

Up until the snap of the twig which causes her to breathe in a deep breath scenting the air. "Don't know yet," comes her quiet response to Harper while she moves to widen her own stance. "Stay close."

Conner Kent has posed:
Giant trees are impressive, and Conner tries not too look too impressed, but actually he really is. He has seen some crazy things in his short life, but those trees are awesome. Pictures are taken, on ground and on the air. And of course he has to 'climb' one or two of the tallest. Anyone wants to see the views; he offers free trips on Air-Con.

And it might be his fault night catches them far from the tents. Not that there is anything to worry. If any bear tries to eat them, poor critter is up for a bad evening. Truly, mosquitoes are going to be the largest threat, and not for him.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura is... not really a being in pictures sort of girl. But if there was any group of people in the world she'd risk a tactical error like being in a picture for? It'd be the Outsiders. Although given Carin works with SHIELD X-23 maybe tries to avoid being in any pictures Carin might take back with her. For the mutually beneficial reason fact that SHIELD agents get into trouble if they're taking group vacation photographs with someone wanted by SHIELD for a whole bunch of murders.

It's not good for Laura to be chased. It's not good for Carin to be debriefed after hanging out with a person of interest in countless assassinations.

"Try to avoid looking at any bright lights," she idly notes on the way back. "It'll just ruin your night vision." She sniffs the air as she walks. Probably able to point in any given direction and name that mysterious animal making noises.

When Tim signals for a halt she ducks low. Slipping off the trail and into the dark. Practically vanishing to anyone without a way to locate her with super senses. And even then it's tricky.

Carin Taylor has posed:
    These trees. Are HUGE. Like. Ginormous. The redhead seems to be in awe, reaching out and touching the bark in passing. "..wow.. I've only seen these in pictures... and they just... even with, like, Carlos for scale, don't do them justice. At all..." There's even a pause to stare up at one from the base, craning her neck way back to peer up at the canopy. She shakes off the odd sensation of vertigo and laughs. "Wow..." she repeats and makes careful sure to not get lost! Not that the rest of the group is hard to catch up to.

    Carin does, of course, do some recording but she does feel grateful--and included--when Tim insists on snapping pictures himself via what's likely a remote-controlled shutter. When the crowds do depart, though, Carin gives a smile. "...I mean... it's loud in its own way, yeah but different?" she offers to Laura, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her shorts. The hoodie is still wrapped around her waist via the tied sleeves. She may or may not need it when it starts to get dark, after all.

    And dark it does get. Super dark. No light pollution out here. Nothing. So when torches are passed out, Carin accepts one handily. "...thanks... maybe I should've brought some night vision goggles... from.." she pauses, frowning. "...'work'." Where does Carin work again? Nobody knows. But everybody in the group knows. And she just doesn't talk about it. Which is probably for the best, given Laura's particularly 'interesting' status. So she dons a head lamp and moves with the group, not exactly feeling the most comfortable out here in the darkness, with the shadows encroaching from alll around. Then the noise. She hears it. Everyone probably does. And she goes mum and stops, clicking off her light so she can look one way, then the other--for all the good it does her.

Tim Drake has posed:
    There's nothing that either Laura or Gabby (or anyone else on the team with a prodigious nose) can scent on the wind. The wind that now carries a chill breeze, as night has officially fallen and no lingering glimpses of the sun remain on the horizon. It is well and truly dark out, the trees blocking most of the stars overhead. Even what little moonlight that manages to filter down to ground level through the canopy only casts a grey haze over the already monochromatic surroundings.

    Most of the Outsiders remain on the trail in a winding line, from Tim at the front to Gabby at the back. The forest around them is silent, no traces of scampering prey animals or lurking predators. It's only after Tim has turned off his headlamp and slowly spun around to take an accounting of the team that he realizes his count is off. They're missing one. In the dark, it takes him much longer than he'd like to figure out it's Laura that's gone missing, and at least that gives him some measure of relief. Knowing her, she's just slipped low to the ground in cover to take up a more strategic position.

    Well, that's what Tim's hoping is the case, at least.

    Another CRACK of a limb snapping underfoot sounds, this time now much further back and coming from the right side of the trail. Is it closer, too?

    The rustle of leaves that follows? Yeah, that's definitely closer. Much closer, just off the trailhead, no more than ten or fifteen feet into the brush.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Given that Laura is the only one currently off the trail, she is close enough to feel the movement of air as something moves past her, from behind. But if she turns to look behind her, there's nothing there. Something tickles at her nose but only for a second or two before disappearing so completely that it might not have even been there in the first place, certainly not long enough to get a proper read of it.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe breathes out, turning her head and chest lights off and waiting in the darkness, her hands having a dull, rosy glow to them as she sets her jaw, her head tilting as she listens. She doesn't have the fine tuned senses that the Kinneys do, but she does have magical senses, and she forces herself to relax, trying to get a sense if there was mystical powers fooling around with the team.

    She'd definitely take exception to dangerous magical creatures.

Harper Row has posed:
    Harper grits her teeth together very, very tightly. She feels exposed and in unfamiliar territory. Her friends are turning their lights off, where she'd like to pop a flare or set off a small forest fire for illumination. She hisses out a breath and flips those mental toggles to deal with the growing anxiety. Her fists ball up and she prepares for fight or flight, whichever way this thing is going to go. It's a balm that she's accompanied by individuals she'd trust her life with. But damn ddi that twig or branch sounds overly ~loud~ and piercing in so much darkness.

    She turns in place slowly, tilting her head and turning her hat around as if this would somehow help with echo-location.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
When Tim starts looking around for the missing number, Gabby's quick to raise her hand to point two fingers off to the side and back to her eyes. She saw where she went. After that, who knew, but it was at least Laura and not.. uh. Any of them not familiar with being in the woods.

Her head tilts though, still sniffing at the air uncertainly and without any real revelation. Surely it wasn't bigfoot. They'd met the female one in New Hampshire and that was a long way from here. Still...

"Waaargh?" A small grumbly wookie noise as she shrugs with a sigh. Nettie was the one who cast the translation spell last time. "Really hope it's not a cougar."

Conner Kent has posed:
"Too noisy to be a cougar," points out Conner, "can't you smell what it is Lau...?" Oh, she did a Batman! Totally not cool. "Alright, let me check," he turns around and hovers a few feet up, trying to find the source of the noise. Contrarily to more prudent (and less invulnerable) team mates, he is not sneaking at all.

If it is some clumsy tourist that got lost, this is going to be a bit awkward. But well, Conner is terrible at keeping a secret identity.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura Kinney ducks low into the darkness. Moving like oil on water. If she hasn't been talking to people up until a few moments ago it'd be easy to doubt she'd ever even been with the group. That sensation. Of something getting close enough to rustle the air beside her without her noticing. Causes her to pause. Inhaling deeply.

She smelt /something/. And if she can smell it. It can be killed.

Well probably anyway. Maybe it's actually something which isn't hostile? Still. Violence is her first port of call. Whatever is out there really picked the wrong group to stalk in the darkness!

She makes a few hooting noises. Owl sounds in a pattern Gabby and probably at least Tim. Will know are signals. Code for something in the woods. Something odd.

Carin Taylor has posed:
    Carin's used to being stalked. But she's also used to being able to run away. Stuck standing still like this? She's focusing her senses as best she can. The slowness of time, the feeling of her heart in her chest. The beat that comes as she makes time stand still. It's no substitute for superhuman senses, but the sounds she catches can at least be focused on, albeit as they come. And if they come, she can focus on the location. And if something comes out at them? She trusts that she can move. React.

    Heartbeat by heartbeat. Breath held. Little rustles of clothing. A wookiee. An owl. A crack and a rustle. All things combined.

    She turns her head, looking to the side, those scant handful of meters off of the trailhead. For someone who can practically stop time for herself alone, the tension of eternity is... almost painful. If she's close enough, she'll reach out, to rest a hand on the shoulder in front of her, and behind her, to secure spatial awareness in the darkness. Maybe as much for her as the others.

Tim Drake has posed:
    It seems as if their senses, enhanced or no, aren't much use out here in the darkness tonight. Nothing should escape a Kinney nose, but even that brief scenting Laura had managed is long gone by now, no traces of it remaining. But Phoebe's mystical senses flare wide and open, and for a moment she gets a disorienting wave of... something. Something weird. Not magical, just... not right.

    And then one by one, everyone else gets to feel it too. The prickle on the back of your neck, goosebumps on your skin, the shiver that runs down your spine. Something is off.

    Conner's vantage point up above the rest of the group will help him notice it. Something has changed. The trees are different, thicker now, clustered together more tightly. And then Carin with her perception moving at superspeed, down on the ground, will notice too.

    They're not on the trail any more.

    How long have they been lost? No, they weren't lost before, only seconds ago they were certainly on the trailhead, halfway through their trip back to camp. Somehow now the darkness seems so much more impermeable than it did before.

    The scents around them are all wrong, now. Laura and Gabby will definitely be able to pick that up. Thicker vegetation smells, for sure, but there's also a faint mechanical smell, not unlike the smell of cars on a road but without the usual road smells. No asphalt, no cement. Conner can probably see a distant pin-prick of light off in the distance.

    Tim is too night-blind to realize the change, given he's a bog-standard human. But he knows those sounds, the signal they represent, and he lets out a slow breath. He backtracks until he finds Phoebe and Harper, his hands reaching out in the darkness to do similar to what Carin is, grabbing hold of each of them by the shoulder to establish physical awareness.

    Several minutes of silence ensue before he exhales again, this time a bit louder. "Sound off, everyone. We all still in one piece?" he asks.

    Nothing answers from the darkness, at least, and Tim flips his headlamp back on soon after, starting a slow survey of the now-unfamiliar forest around them with a puzzled frown.

    Somewhere in Carin's circuits, a connection is re-established with the satellite network overhead, and her clock jumps forward three hours.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe had sucked in a breath as something akin to nausea and vertigo hit her, it wasn't mystical, but it was Wrong. And she could feel something shift around. She reaches out ahead of her for her brother first, and she bites back a yelp as she feels a hand on her shoulder, and realizes it's Tim. Her hand clasps over his, and she reaches back behind her for the shoulder of the next one down.

    "Phoebe." she states out loud, her hands no longer warmed by a waiting fireball. SHe's disorientated.

    It doesn't feel right. The forest around them's all wrong.

Harper Row has posed:
    Harper feels the hands on her shoulders and to her credit she doesn't jump-scare, remaining still and reaching out herself to make physical contact. "Harp." she murmers in as steady a voice as she trusts. A small groan issues out of her, unable to pinpoint the obvious source of discomfort, which is frustrating as heck. Perhaps her lack of enhanced senses are a blessing in disguise at the moment, not able to magnify just how off things have been made. Ignorance isn't bliss at the moment though.

    "If this is some sort of bonding exercise, can we do trust-falls instead? Seriously, I'm close to freaking out." It's hard to even try and jest, and only a greasy queazy feeling results. Her throat feels try, cloying with some unidentifiable sensation which could totally just be anxiety-fueled. "What's going on?" she whispers.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
That... was odd. Odder than odd. Gabby had been portaled a lot of places in her time. The Astral Plane. Limbo. Ireland. Never had any of them felt quite like this queasy *shift* of time and awareness.

Tim's voice is what snaps her out of it focusing on all the sounds, smells, sights that left her eyes wide and unblinking. "Gabbinator Prime," she blurts out without thinking of it. "And that is not magical I don't think my magic-dar isn't going off." What else would be sneaking in the woods and porting people places? "Aliens? Like for real ones and not the friendlies."

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner has an excellent night vision, maybe even better than Laura's, so for him that weird, weird displacement thing is very obvious, he almost falls down from his perch in the air. "Woah... something hit us. You guys okay? I think we got moved by something." He does a quick head count. And where is Laura? This is why no one should play 'Batman'.

He glances at a side, seeing the pin-prick of light, and tries to focus on it, struggling to discern the details. "What this magic, Pheebs? Please, tell me Gabby is right."

Laura Kinney has posed:
The first and only indication, for those with less common senses, that Laura is still with the group is also the sound people hear every time X-23 is expecting trouble.

SNIKT

Claws popping out with a flash of razor edged adamantium that glimmers in any torchlight that might catch her. Before she plunges them into the ground. Not to attack it, but to darken the blades with soil and make herself harder to spot. The former assassin holds still, not even breathing, as she listens to those far off noises.

After that she inhales deeply. Letting whatever this new place is wash over her. Trying to place the smells with an environment she's been in before. Jungles? Swamps? Each location tends to have it's own distinct plants and animals. Assuming they're still anywhere on Earth. Or their Earth. Or time period. She scowls and mutters. "Should have packed the RPG after all."

Carin Taylor has posed:
    It's. Very. Very strange. Very disorienting. And it happens enough in an instant that even Carin can't quite... catch it. She shakes her head, taking a breath. A long, slow breath. Then there's the sound-off. "Zoomy," she says, reflexive, feeling her cheeks burn with a blush. That's Toni's nickname for her, largely. But she's there. And she's hearing voices. Her friends are okay. And. Oh. There's Laura. And Conner is still heard up above.

    Then there's something wrong. Two things wrong. "...guys...?" she speaks up, voice soft and sounding legitimately afraid. "W..we're not in the sequoias anymore..." she states, focusing on the GPS when it re-establishes and finds a new connection. She cycles it once. Twice. Three times. But the data is the same every time. The same connection, the same location.

    "...we just lost... three hours..." she states with disbelief, "..and... and we're... about a hundred miles north of where we started..?" there's a lingering hint of questioning doubt to mix with the fear when she states that fact. "..what... happened?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    The pinprick of light in the distance is hard to get a read on because there's so much forest between here and there. Trees and brush and boulders obstruct the full picture, but Conner will be able to pick up on movement, of humans and of vehicles, and a great deal of illumination guiding their way. The movement isn't frenzied, just the sedate human pace of people going to-and-fro. Entirely normal.

    Unlike what's just happened to them, of course.

    "Spatial disturbance of some sort?" he asks no one in particular, because who's going to have the answer to that? Only for him to correct, after Carin speaks up, to "Spatio-temporal anomaly of some kind?" But he has nothing else to say. He's just as perturbed as everyone else, but he's silent. Thinking, no doubt.

    He squints up into the darkness, trying to find where Conner is hovering to no avail. But at least he knows Conner is there, and soon enough where the rest of the team is. Even Laura, because there's no mistaking that particular sound for anything else.

    The far-off noises are similarly normal, like what Conner is able to see. People having distant conversations, too muddled to hear clearly. Feet on dirt, and metal on dirt, and something brushing dirt. Lots of dirt-based sounds, in fact. The clammy feeling has started to abate, leaving only a lingering chill in the air. Tim's grip on both Harper and Phoebe loosens, and he opens his mouth--only to be interrupted by a distant BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.

    Anyone who's been around construction sites will recognize that sounds. It's some kind of heavy machinery, backing up.

    "Well that's the most relaxing beep I've ever heard in my life," Tim says, and then he starts marching in that direction. Towards those distant sights and sounds that some of the others have already been able to notice.

    As they get closer, the noise occurs again. And someone shouting. "Keep going, keep going, WHOA STOP STOP STOP okay great!" Directions, shouting directions, to whoever's driving the thing that's beeping. Of course it's not beeping any more, but now the group is close enough that it's not necessary. What was once a tiny pinprick of light is a huge expanse of it bleeding through the trees, blinding in the darkness of the forest. Until one step follows the next and suddenly they're not in the forest any more, but on a dig-site of some sort, people moving to and from tents where various artifacts have been retrieved from the dirt.

    Slowly, awareness of the group standing at the edge of the camp filters through some nearby workers. "Professor," one of them calls out. "Professor Dowd! I think we've got a few tourists who lost their way!"