Breaking Down the Barrier

[nevermindtherunning]

Who: Everyone
Where: outside, the western embankments
When: Day 75
What: Please review this OOC post. How the Doctor loses friends and alienate people. Or he learns he isn't a god and nearly causes everything to explode.

The meeting hadn't quite gone exactly as the Doctor had planned, the comments from Donna especially disheartened him. However, none of that stopped his drive to get everyone out of Kore. Sharon was back, but he hadn't even said more than a couple sentences to her, as he fixed the last adjustments to his generator.

He and Jubilee had been working tirelessly the day after the meeting and she finally had to excuse herself from him for sleep. Right, humans needed sleep, didn't they? The Doctor couldn't remember the last time he had, which probably wasn't a good thing. But it didn't matter, given in an hour or two he'll be back in that sexy blue box of a TARDIS far, far away from here.

The last hour had been spent with him at the kitchen table staring at the generator, trying to possibly think if there were any last few adjustments. Finally jumping up to his feet, he hugged the generator close to him, hoisting it up and leaving the house. Managing to activate his wristwatch, opening the comm, he spoke up, "Hello! Doctor here... It's time to go home!"

Just west of house 19, there was a small open area, perfect for this. He glanced back towards the woods, briefly wondering how Dilandau was doing with the distraction plan before crouching down and setting up the generator. It was time.

Comments

Pre-generator activation//setting up

[nevermindtherunning]

[thelittlestbub]

She'd needed sleep and food. Using her powers meant that her metabolism went haywire and here, if she started dropping weight, she might not be able to put it back on. Not like she could run to McDonald's and just scarf the menu.

One of the direwolves had followed her out, back to the generator. Jubilee settles onto the grass, taking a deep breath. Her powers spark along her nerve endings making everything far more vibrant, far more alive than it had been.

Her fingers tingle, waiting for that moment when she can release her powers, and get them all the hell home. She's counting on the Doctor to drag her with, since she's pretty sure she's going to be unconscious at the end of it.

She's wearing her bright yellow coat, her pack on her lap. Jubilee looks down at her hands and peels off the fingerless gloves she always wears. Her fingers flex, staring down at the circular scars on her palms. Jubilee tucks the gloves into her coat pocket.

This had better work.

[nevermindtherunning]

"Hey there." He greeted as he was bent down making the final adjustments to the generator, trying to make the base more even on the ground.

Finally he glances upwards, "Sleep OK?" And with a clap of his hands, he stands up and takes a step or two back, admiring his work.

[thelittlestbub]

"Yeah. As much as I slept." She never sleeps heavily before something big. She's learned not to. It makes her sluggish, slow to respond. She doesn't want that today. Today she's going to need every centimeter of control she's spent countless hours in the Danger Room gaining.

Jubilee knows how sensitive these things can be.

"Did you sleep at all?"

penetrating the barrier

[nevermindtherunning]

((ooc: This is where the TARDIS will be seen and where most of the OOC post will apply to.))

With Jubilee as the power source, the generator began buzzing and making a strange whirling noise as the inner workings spun. The Doctor stood back, feeling fully confident that everything would run smoothly, but knew to give a distance. "Steady now, Jubilee... Not too much." The acceleration was starting up and he didn't need too much too fast.

After about a good two minutes, "Increase it a bit," He began to give her a ballpark estimate of the joules he was looking for but realized she wasn't really able to calculate that out. "There you go... Brilliant."

The legs of the generator began to shake and wobble slightly as the energy increased. In the Doctor's head, he counted down 45 seconds and pressed a button, releasing the energy, "Keep feeding into it; don't stop!"

Everything was going according to plan thus far.

[greenisnteasy]

Does Bruce feel great about standing around near something that he's pretty sure is going to be one of the worst ideas anyone's ever had here? No, not entirely. So why is he here? Partly because he believes he could Hulk out in time to help if things get really bad, like he did in the last escape attempt, but also partly because... well, just look. It seems like it's working. He's too intellectually curious, and he's put his desire to escape on the backburner for too long, not to want to be here to see if this crazy guy might actually do it.

He inches closer to the Doctor, and he wishes he had his reading glasses, but he left them at home -- and he's wearing his stretchiest pants -- in the event that he needs to change.

"Is everything stable?" he asks, trying to be as unobtrusive with his question as possible, so as not to disrupt anything going on; it's like safety glasses for his vocal chords.

[agentx13]

How can they even tell? The monstrosity looks like it's meant to blow up Hot Pockets, not barriers.

"They'll never give us microwaves again," she murmurs under her breath.

She stands to the side, arms crossed as she watches. Her cabinmate might be crazy, but until now it's been a smart crazy. She's willing to go with it. Especially if it means finding Steve and Natasha. As the machine starts shaking more violently, though, one hand trails toward her knife. Not that it will do much good. She looks toward the woods, faintly nervous about what lies ahead. The last escape attempt had been dismal, which had mostly been her fault.

She'd feel better about it if Steve were here.

[nevermindtherunning]

"Of course everything is stable... And I heard that." He comments on Sharon's remark. Superior hearing, remember?

He takes a step back, watching as the generator processed the energy and feeding it upwards, releasing it. With a lick of his lips, he grins. This plan was brilliant and should've been attempted far sooner, if he did say so himself. Soon, very soon the barrier will be breached. There just needed a little more energy feeded through it.

barrier reclosure // everything is on fire // the Doctor's disappearance

[nevermindtherunning]

The moment the barrier was being breached, something felt quite off, and the Doctor felt rather nauseated and distorted, being the best description. Forcing himself to push down those feelings, he persevered, and like a ripple in a calm water, the barrier had broken and began receeding.

One would think they'd be confident and exalted at that, only, oddly, the Doctor didn't. Not one bit. There was a moment where it seemed everything froze, time literally froze for a second and it came back in waves sucking away everything from the Doctor except fear and anxiety.

The TARDIS was there, right bloody there, but he looked back at everything, seeing large dark plumes of smoke rising above the rooftops of the town as the barrier continued rippling and nearly adding to the reaction that must've been caused by Dilandau and his team. The generator itself had fizzled out, perhaps reaching Jubilee's peak and he quickly wrapped an arm around her middle as it looked she were to pass out.

This wasn't suppose to happen, and he glanced back to the TARDIS, feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness. His beautiful blue box, and he couldn't get to her.

[greenisnteasy]

The Hulk shakes his head again; he feels like something's been knocked out of place in his mind -- in his and Banner's mind -- and maybe if he can knock it back into place? But once his vision un-wobbles again, he squints out at everything, and that sense of loss slides away again. Maybe it's not important. Maybe it's more important that he feels sick and dizzy, and there's a loud noise and a sizzle to the air that doesn't feel normal to him, that makes his hair stand on end.

Where he might've shouted in anger before, now he shrinks in on himself, hunching his shoulders and wringing his hands in front of him in a gesture not too unlike one of Banner's. This incarnation is decidedly the Hulk -- but lacking in anger. And without the anger and resentment that drives him to lash out, what takes over instead is fear.

"Make the noise stop," he whines, though his whine is loud, and then he covers his ears with his hands.

[charring]

Charlie's not feeling too well, either. There is so much wrong with this. What did she come back to? There's a moment from her where she moans, holding her head in her hands as the dizzy feeling becomes overwhelming and then she just feels cold.

It's gone again. But at least it didn't leave vampirism in it's place. And she's angry it's gone because part of her knows it's not permanent. Why is it never permanent?

The big guy with his hands over his ears is definitely a sight and a half but instead of staring, Charlie heads over. She's concerned for him, even if at present she can't protect herself should he lash out. So she keeps her posture relaxed, non-threatening.

"Hey," she says, waving a bit to get his attention. "What happened?"

She wasn't here when the Doctor unveiled his plan and didn't see the thing they were using so she's just clueless.

"Are you okay? Can I help you at all?"

[greenisnteasy]

It's hard for him to concentrate through the sickness and the headache, and he jerks when someone talks to him, fear rippling through him. Wide-eyed, he looks quickly around him again as he tries to put the pieces together about what's going on.

"Stripey Suit," he says finally, information filtering back in, and he turns his panic back toward her. "Tried to punch a hole in the wall. Didn't work."

Barrier reclosure- for Castiel initially.

[burnburnburn]

For a moment Dilandau believed it had worked. Through the hole in the sky he'd seen a Floating Fortress drift in front of the moon, the real White Moon, not this blank-faced fake that usually hung in the sky. There was no way they'd spot him, he knew, but he still whooped and yelled and waved his hands as they drifted high above him.

And then the tear closed and everything he'd been hoping for was snatched away. His knees gave out under him as the cheer on his lips morphed into a wail of horror. They were gone, his home was gone and he was abandoned once again.

What got him to his feet was anger. That Time Lord had been certain his plan would work and Dilandau, like a fool, had gone along with him. He'd tricked him, used him, and now he was going to pay.

He ripped out his sword and ran towards the town, howling for the Doctor's blood.

[happytobleed]

Once he's finished putting out the fires, it doesn't take long to notice that something is wrong. He stops to lean on an ash-covered tree, shaking for a moment, and then it's gone.

His anger comes back along with his composure and he seeks out one of the men he knows is at fault. He's not sure where the Doctor is, but Dilandau is easy enough to locate.

He appears out of nowhere right next to where Dilandau is running by and grabs him by the back of his clothes, jerking him sharply and directing a scowl at him.

[burnburnburn]

Dilandau's raging so hard he's acting entirely on instinct. As soon as he catches a foot under himself after Castiel makes him stumble he swings his sword at the angel, shrieking and aiming to cut the head off of whoever is getting between him and his goal.

[tryingitall]

Once the fire begins in earnest, Balthazar abandons the bear-chasing without a second thought. Something must have gone wrong, terribly wrong. Unaware that Castiel is working on the fires, his first thought is of the humans in the Cape, particularly of the Prophet Chuck, who might just be innocently writing away in their attic with no clear idea of the danger.

And what would Raphael say if he let the Prophet asphyxiate in a fire? Nothing good, that's for damn sure.

He's actually in the middle of a split-second flash of flight when the barrier rips. For a moment, he can feel his trueform blazing right through the flesh of his poor vessel, all flames and eyes. And those eyes see both Heaven and Earth: storms on the sea, men getting mowed down by gunfire on a beach, a ship called Titanic and the passengers on it he grew to know, people he had to save and then kill again.

Ouch is an understatement. Knocked clear out of the sub-space flight, he hits the ground hard enough to send up a fountain of dust, like a meteor making impact. The crater is shallow, but the angel within lies still for a moment, alive but dazed and in pain.

[servingmichael]

He'd been hanging back a bit - but ready as soon as he saw the barrier open to snatch his siblings and make a run for it, at least until he saw Balthazar.

For an instant he flat out can't move, can't react, and that's panic educing enough. But as soon as he can move, he is. Straight to his brother's side, kneeling over him and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Balthazar?"

[blackmagus]

Lighting the fires is deceptively easy. Everyone else has a bottle and a match, and Fortescue has her magic. Had things gone to plan, the fires wouldn't have been a big deal for them and would have been an interesting way of flipping the bird to their captors. But things don't go to plan. Of course. Why run into good luck now? The barrier rips and, for a second, she thinks she hears the blast of an airship siren and sees smoking curling through trees —

And then she feels a vague tug somewhere around her middle, a sensation she's used to. The sign of Jazz moving too far away, of their little connection straining and then snapping. Longer missions meant that it was sometime safer to leave him behind. She was more effective that way. Brutal. No guilt. But now, he's sitting on her shoulders and, from the look on her face, she can tell he's just as unsettled.

Immediately afterward, Fortescue feels queasy. Like she's on a boat in the middle of a storm, and she's never had good sea legs. But she swallows a harsh gulp of air and focuses, everything crystal-clear in front of her. People need to be moved from the path of the flames, if they get close to town, because more heads are better in the interest of figuring this thing out in the future. The damage needs to be assessed.

Jazz wails quietly on her shoulders. She never believed Darby before, when he said that the cat never shut up when their connection was gone. Maybe it feels worse for him. Maybe the weight of a human soul is painful for him alone. She tunes him out easily and heads toward town.

[nevermindtherunning]

[ooc: I'm going to go ahead and reply to this. I was hoping to get more interactions going, but meh. Oh well.]

The Doctor sees her in his peripheral vision, just off to the side. Fortescue... And the guilt rises, joining the anxiety and ever increasing sadness.

I've gone too far. So many people tried to warn him, questioned him, and yet in the end they trusted and relied upon them for this to work. The Doctor failed them. He wasn't 'Time Lord Victorious'; he was 'Time Lord I'm-Just-Lucky-Sometimes', which was more 'On-Occasion'. The wind was blowing fiercely as the barrier continued to ripple, bubble, and ebb around the edging, exposing more and more things he couldn't possibly begin to explain.

He should say something, but what could he possible say?

[noblexcompanion]

What the hell just happened? Seriously? Can someone explain to Donna why there is fire and lots of it and why her head hurts and why they are not all in the beautiful blue box on their way home?! These all seem like pretty important questions... So why aren't they being answered? Maybe if she asked them out loud it might be more successful...

It would definitely be better than panicking right? Oh well. Too late. Panicking a-go!

[nevermindtherunning]

Donna wasn't the only one panicking. The Doctor was too, and perhaps it was the worst he could ever recall beyond the Time War.

His failure was obvious, as he continued to glance around himself seeing everyone reacting so differently and yet all the same. The fire was increasing, growing, becoming more violent. Perhaps it wasn't entirely visible to see it, but he knew.

Hearts pounding, he stood his ground, mouth agape, as he looked back to his TARDIS. I wish I knew what to do...

Around town reactions/interactions

[nevermindtherunning]

[nedofpies]

Even setting aside the fact that he's been having increasing reservations about the idea of going home (if he can really call it that: perhaps he should think of it as going back where he came from) for the past few days, Ned is really, really not liking this.

As the agreed-upon time approaches he gets more and more tense. There are too many variables, too many things that might go wrong. Ned's a control freak, doesn't like the fact that he's involved in something that he doesn't understand. The science of all of it is beyond him. He hates being here, in this place where he is watched and experimented on, where so many terrible things have happened to him. But at the same time this is a change, and in his experience, change means change for the worse.

He's decided not to be involved, but he's still half-certain the Doctor's fit of ego-mania will end up getting all of them killed.

Ned doesn't stray far from his house that day, but he can't just stay put inside, either. So he is out and about when it happens; a sort of shock that sends him to his knees, hand pressed to his temples. For a few seconds (or it might have been longer - he doesn't know) he can't see anything, hear anything. All there is is that pain in his head, as if his skull were about to split open. The ache recedes but it leaves a pervasive feeling of wrongness that Ned can't quite identify. He doesn't understand it, and that alone is terrifying.

[foundacause]

Meg has had not part in the planning or the execution of the Doctor's grand escape plan. She's in no hurry to get back to her page on the calendar - from what's she's heard from the boys ahead of her, it's not going to be pretty. And she's more than happy to hang out in happy Kore town with her angel. Oh, and she's still recovering from her injuries.

Besides, she's really not all that much of a team player. She'd much rather hang out near the park than get mixed up in team plans.

The pain that shoots through her head is enough to stop her in her tracks. The pain goes beyond her meatsuit, piercing right through her trueform like the worst kind of brain freeze - and she didn't even get to enjoy a giant slushie first!

[bluesrat]

Rescued from the fiery woods by Balthazar, and set down who-knew where, Rat barely kept his feet and focused on breathing. The world felt as if it were tearing apart around him, but all he could focus on was trying to catch his breath. He might not be in danger of asphyxiation- the angel had made sure of that before he left to see to others worse off, but the smoke inhalation still wasn't doing Rat any favors. He coughed, then his breath caught again as everything around him seemed to hold its breath. Once, when he was younger, Rat had touched a live wire when he and a friend were messing around taking apart a radio. The sudden burst of electricity through his body had been like a strangely inaudible thump, every cell given a startling jolt. The feeling now was close enough, and it dropped him to his knees.

Then the world was solid again, and he gave a few more coughs. To say things had returned to normal would be an overstatement. Smoke still drifted on the air from the forest fire, there were a few distant cries of people in a panic, and of course he was still in the strange little town he'd arrived in roughly a week ago. Still, after a moment Rat got to his feet again, took a tentative breath, and began to trudge toward the center of town to find out what happened.