Everyone put on as many layers as they could; sweatshirts, fleeces, turtlenecks, and of course their jackets - This procedure was a challenge for Chris, of course, even with him trying his best not to flinch and squirm; it took the efforts of all the others to get him completely bundled up. It was not pleasant for any of them, having to hold down and wrap up an unintentionally uncooperative but also very injured friend, but the rest of it wasn't totally dour, though: at one point Martin made a frosty the magic snowman joke - something about how "there must be some magic in this old snow coat we've found" - because when they began to dress Jimmy, he woke up.
"Wha- what happened?" He said groggily, his head swiveling around on his neck as he slowly came to.
"We crashed." Said Aviva.
"Oh." His face was gradually gripped by horror, as his memory returned to him. "Oh. Oh my God, that's right, we... I...I'm so sor-"
"Jimmy, it wasn't your fault." Aviva said.
"But I should've-"
"Don't."
"But I-"
"Don't do that to yourself, Jimmy. It was not your fault."
"We think we got attacked." Martin said.
"Yeah." Said Chris. "They came out of nowhere, there's nothing any of us could've done."
"Yeah, I- wait, they?" Aviva turned to Chris. "I'm pretty sure Zach did this."
"Um, so, the thing is -" Chris quickly explained how he might have seen two people outside during the crash, but "it passed by so fast, so I don't know for sure." No one quite knew what to make of this information.
"So, is... everyone okay?" Jimmy asked sheepishly.
"We're all fine." Said Chris.
"Chris has a broken rib or two, but other than that, we'll survive." Said Martin.
"Chris, I-" Jimmy looked like he was going to start another fruitless apology.
"Jimmy, I didn't buckle up. That's on me, I should've payed more attention to the PSAs." Chris said, attempting some kind of light-heartedness. Jimmy just looked down at his feet.
"I still feel bad." Jimmy said.
"That's ok." Said Aviva. "We all do, Jimmy. But now, let's focus on getting out of here. We need to find what if anything is operational, we need to find a suitable exit point, and most of all, we need to make sure whoever did this isn't still out there." Everyone nodded. "Martin, you catch Jimmy up on what we know so far. Koki, come down with me to the hangar, let's test out the vehicles, to see for sure whether they're all broken." She paused and thought for a minute. "Actually, let's all head to the hangar for now. We can at least get away from the direct path of the cold."
Martin helped Jimmy up to his feet, but Jimmy was able to stand fine after that. He helped Martin carry Chris shoulder-to-shoulder, as the two girls ran ahead to pry the hangar door open.
The hangar wasn't as cold as the main floor, though it was still could enough to warrant the continued wearing of the extra clothes. It was, however, much darker. They turned on what portable lights they could: glow sticks, lanterns, flashlights, they even lit a few candles, which made for weak sources of heat, but that didn't deter hopeful hands from hovering over each tiny, shivering flame. The light still wasn't enough, however; the crew struggled to navigate the massive clutter and find a safe place to set Chris down.
Sadly, what Koki had guessed based off of her glances in the dark was proven true. All the Buzz Bikes' wings had been shattered. The Hover Cycle was split in half. The Butterflier was all ripped up, and the Cheetah Racer was completely mashed. The Createrra was the closest to being intact, though one of its doors had come off, the rest of the doors could neither be opened nor closed, and the car itself wouldn't start. With what they had and where they were, they could not figure out why.
"So the question is," Koki said, after they examined all of them, "which of these is going to be easiest to fix?"
"Well, we can't fix any of them in here." Aviva sighed. "It's too dark, and well, we're slanted."
"So you think we should take something outside? It's way too cold out there! Those freezing temperatures are going to mess with the mechanisms, if they don't kill us."
"I know! I know, but doing it down here would just be a safety hazard. Even though - ugh, I know how we might get out, but how could we get a vehicle out?"
"Wait! How can we get out?" Martin said.
"Through the vents, probably." Koki said, pointing to a grate on the wall. "But without an operational vehicle, or a creature power, we couldn't get far out there."
"And I haven't made any power discs for Antarctic creatures!" Aviva said. "I certainly couldn't make a new one. The MIK's busted."
"This day is just going great, isn't it?" Groaned Jimmy.
"Still, it could be worth it just to look around." Said Martin. "You know, maybe see what even happened?"
"Wait, Martin, are you sure that's a good idea?" Aviva asked. "What if whoever did this is still out there?"
"I feel like... if they were," Chris pointed out, "wouldn't they have tried to break in here by now?"
There was silence.
"I mean, that's a good point." Aviva said. "But I'm still not letting you go out there alone. I'm going with you."
"Fine by me." Martin shrugged.
"I'll come too." Koki said. "It's not like I can make much progress in here."
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind someone watching Chris, though." Martin said, quietly.
"What about me?" asked Jimmy. "I'll be in here."
"I think he means someone who didn't violently hit their head." Aviva said. "No offense."
"That's fair." Jimmy said. He didn't mind Koki's company, of course, he just didn't want her to have to feel as helpless as he did.
"I guess I can sort through this rubble, see if I can find any small parts that flew off the vehicles that we need to fix them." She said.
"Thanks, Koki." Aviva said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Sorry for keeping you in here, it's just -" she shot a worried look at Martin.
"Yeah, I get it." Said Koki. "Stay safe, girl." She hugged Aviva. "Keep him out of trouble."
Martin kneeled next to Chris.
"Hey, bud. You gonna be okay while I'm out?"
"Yeah, yeah." Chris said, sitting up straight, to try and not look so pathetic.
"Sit tight. Don't push yourself." Martin said.
"Aw man," Chris jested, "I was gonna challenge Jimmy to a boxing match."
Martin chuckled and shook his head.
"What? You think you're the only one who can be funny?" Chris continued cheekily, despite the anguish it caused him just to speak.
"Nah, you're alright, man. I'd hug you, but... well, you know."
"Yeah, no thanks." Chris sighed. "Hurts enough as is."
"Okay." Martin said, sadly.
"You have to come back, Martin, okay?" Chris said, quietly. "You really have to, I mean it."
"Don't worry." Martin got up. "I'll see you in a bit."
.
.
.
Aviva led the charge through the crawlspace - she was, after all, the person who knew the schematics and how to navigate them, though at every intersection she stopped, and Martin could hear her whispering under her breath, as she checked in with herself to make absolutely sure she knew they were headed in the right direction.
The journey was not fun. Despite taking on no serious injuries, they were both sore and worn from the thrashing they got in their seats as the Tortuga plummeted, and all that limp-body-hauling, steep-slope-climbing and heavy-door-prying the two had to do afterwards added to that wear. Martin could feel a lot of muscles cramping up. Aviva had the advantage of being smaller, but it was no picnic for her, either. They weren't wearing their gloves at the time, so they could more easily open the vents, and to try and reduce slipping and getting their hands snagged on all the metal seams, but that now meant having to walk their bare hands across arctic-chilled metal. Of course, they still did occasionally get caught on things, jacket sleeves got grabbed by screws, boots had to be yanked out of awkward corners, so it just felt pointless to leave their palms exposed. Only problem was, the tunnel was too narrow for them to reach into the backpack Aviva had brought. Their power suits too proved uncomfortable to crawl around in - now, obviously there were no animals they could activate the suits with, but they figured that if whoever caused the crash had hung around, and got the impression that these two might be capable of defending themselves, they'd be less likely to approach and attack. But the suits were now pinching and limiting movement in this narrow scramble - crawling forwards, scaling upwards, edging downwards, all with little to no wiggle room.
After what felt like an eternity of this drudging, they came at an end. Aviva opened a panel, and the two were hit with a beam of blinding light and a blast of biting wind. Aviva gulped. She knew where they'd come out, but still was not prepared for the ghastly and dizzying height they'd come upon outside the base of that leg - which was suspended farthest from the ground - all only accessed by that tiny porthole.
Martin could only watch from behind as Aviva, after great effort and wriggling, managed to pull her backpack off. She first slid Martin's gloves back to him, then put on her own. She then removed from the pack a grappling hook, and fastened it to the edge of their window. She quickly engineered a rudimentary pulley out of the conjoined rope and strung the backpack onto it, slowly lowering it to the seemingly unreachable ground below.
And unreachable it was. The backpack could not fully touch the bottom with the length of rope she had folded, but instead swung 20 feet above it. Reluctantly, she let the rope drop, hoping that the fall wasn't enough to break anything inside.
She turned to look at Martin over her shoulder. "Okay," she said, "here we go."
She spun around, and wormed her way out the opening, clutching the rope tightly as she hand-grip by hand-grip edged out of view. Martin crawled up to the exit point as quickly as he could. He pressed down onto the hook, trying to make sure it would stay in place for her, even though, of course, no one would be there to do it for him when it was his turn.
Eventually it was just too stressful to watch her harrowing descent, so he looked up at the landscape. Despite the circumstances, the view was phenomenal. They were about fifty feet above the ground, so Martin had a wide scope of surveillance. They were facing away from the mainland and out onto the Atlantic Ocean. The water was dark and churning smoothly, and seemed to go on for miles and miles, its breadth only interrupted by the sharp and blue-shaded icebergs that impaled up through it. The sky was a still and unanimous grey, but the air itself was subtly dynamic, thanks to the snow wafting down, which was so thin and light that it looked like glitter. Martin even held his breath for a brief time, not from the suspense of his friend taking on such a treacherous task, but because the landscape stole it away.
Martin felt the grappling hook jerk around a bit underneath his hand. For a quick moment he panicked, until he looked down and saw that Aviva had reached the bottom, and was pulling on the rope to signal to him.
Martin made his way down, facing the upheaved belly of the Tortuga. He tried not to think about it, about anything at all, as he lowered himself along the swaying chord.
Martin sighed with relief when he felt the snow crunch beneath his foot. It was so wonderful to finally stand on flat, even, open ground. He stretched his back and breathed deeply, then turned to smile at Aviva - but she wasn't even looking at him. Her hands were over her mouth, and she was turned at the Tortuga, towards the front right leg, or at least, where it should have been. It had been ripped off, and where it once was now was a tangle of twisted metal, broken pipes and the jagged remnants of its turquoise casing. Martin looked around, but he couldn't even see where the leg had gone.
"This...this is..." Aviva began to cry. Martin's big brother instincts kicked in, and he embraced her.
The Tortuga was her baby, her's and Koki's, but now it was just wreckage. It was really, truly disheartening for her, and she was stricken with a sudden and great grief. To see one of her greatest prides and joys mangled and battered, lying in the bleak and hopeless ice painfully broke the brave focus and determination she had maintained, but that was here and now so very much allowed. Martin had felt the same way a few hours earlier, when he woke in his chair just after the crash, and the first thing he saw was Chris far beneath him, unmoving, contorted, dashed into the corner of the fallen Tortuga, on a pile of glass.
He understood.
After a moment of quiet sobbing, she recovered and spoke. "I'm glad Koki didn't come out with us, she would've...we would've both cried."
"I would've hugged both of you." Martin said.
"Thank you, Martin."
Martin pulled away, feeling her own grip loosen.
"Okay." She continued, wiping her face. "Let's... look around."
"You want me to try and find the leg?" Martin asked.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea." She said. "I'll go get a closer look at the socket, you just shout if... you spot them."
"Okay." He said. "Are you gonna be alright?" She nodded, mouthing "yeah," and headed towards the amputation.
Martin made his way around the Tortuga, his arms swinging wildly and his feet marching awkwardly, as one is wont to do when traversing snow. The Tortuga was up against a pretty sizable ridge, which explained its diagonal position. Martin reached the summit of the hill, and realized that the drop from the sunroof to the top of the mound actually wasn't as impossible or dangerous as Koki had predicted - in fact, he could even get up there himself from where he stood.
And the opening in the sunroof is so big, we could even get a smaller vehicle out here to work on. Martin thought. Then, he remembered what Koki said, something about how the cold would mess with the equipment. So, this won't do us much good.
Meanwhile, Aviva examined the wound to the ship. It was dreadful, but also nonsensical. The metal mechanisms were all twisted one direction, but not a direction that was congruent with the way the ship had crash-landed. These big, dark, gash-like scuff marks on the snow indicated that the Tortuga hit the ground and slid for a bit, but the metal was all bent up towards the head, and not in the direction towards the skidding.
She then noticed something else peculiar. There was this liquid dripping along the curves and seams and scars. It didn't behave like anything she recognized, the closest thing it almost looked like was some weird cross between liquid mercury and slime, but only in movement, not so much in the way it was reflecting and refracting light. It was clearly metallic, but also very dark, almost black as night. She remembered she had put a few water bottles in her backpack, including one that was almost empty. She pulled it out, chugged the rest of it, and then scooped up some of the strange fluid. Well, we'll see what you are later.
Martin was not engaged in such delicate scientific work. He had climbed up on the sunroof, and was kicking at the big ring of remaining glass, breaking off big chunks of it, and tossing what he could catch off to the side. He had decided that the sunroof was going to be an easier and safer way in and out of the ship than the vents and perilous rope climb, so long as there weren't all these jagged edges. His attention was caught, however, when far below him, the hangar door was wrenched open. Jimmy emerged. He didn't see Martin, but began gingerly making his way towards the cluttered mess that was beneath him.
Martin hollered Jimmy's name, waving his hands in the air. Jimmy looked up and, from what Martin could tell at that distance, was quite surprised.
"Martin?" He shouted. "How'd you get up there?"
"There's a hill!" Martin shouted back.
"What?" Jimmy shouted.
"I SAID THERE'S A HILL!"
"OH! OKAY! THAT'S GREAT! WHAT'S IT LIKE OUT THERE?"
"WHAT?"
Wait a minute, Jimmy thought, I can get up to the loft, then we won't have to shout.
So Jimmy went over to the ladder and climbed it, and found himself only five feet beneath Martin.
"So what's the situation out there?" Jimmy asked.
"Well, whoever's responsible doesn't seem to he here anymore."
"If someone else is responsible, and it wasn't just my fault." He said, glumly.
"Jimmy we're missing a leg." Martin said. "I doubt you did that."
"What?" Jimmy exclaimed. "Which one?"
"Front right." Said Martin.
"But..." Jimmy said, "wait a minute, right before we started falling that's the engine that went offline! You don't think... was it ripped off midair?"
Before Martin could reply to this revelation, Koki burst through the hangar door, her brows distinctly knitted and her whole body tense. "Jimmy! Jimmy, we've got to get Aviva and... Martin?" She noticed Martin, he waved. "Huh, I guess we can use the sunroof then, well, that's besides the point!" She hurried over to them.
Martin would have given some gloating smile, but he was caught off guard by her agitated demeanor, and became worried that something had happened to Chris.
"What's happened?" Martin asked as she emerged from the ladder-hole.
"Martin, go grab Aviva and get in here, we found a feather!"
"A feather?" Jimmy said. "But that means-"
"Bird powers." Martin finished. "We can go get help!"
"Chris is trying to identify it right now," said Koki, "but whatever it is, it's our ticket out of here."
"Okay, give me a second." Martin turned and jumped off the roof and onto the snow. He started to race down the ridge, but he had to halt himself before crashing into Aviva, who was apparently climbing up to join him. She stepped back trying to avoid the big shower of dry snow stirred up by his sudden stop.
"Martin! Did you find the foot?" Aviva asked.
"What? No, well, I found out we can get to the sunroof, so, I was removing glass, and-"
"Oh, good thinking, Martin!" She said. "Maybe we can get a vehicle out h-"
"Koki found a feather!" Martin cut her off.
She took a moment, standing there, eyes wide, as she let this tiding turn in her mind like a sweet scent. It's hard to quite put into words the nature and magnitude of the relief that came over her. All the fear and despair that came before it was not forgotten, nor rectified. It was a wonderful hope that pulled her out from the pits of darkness, even if that darkness still remained. After all, there were so many bitter concerns, about where the foot was, and who would do such a thing, how they did it, and why, and she had no doubt the answers to these questions would be disturbing and the very least. But at least they now had a way to recover and fight back.
"Alright." She said finally, "Let's go."
