The Bunker of "Safety"

[othellovonryan]

[You find yourself in a large stone room. It has enough room to stand up, even for the tallest, and plenty of space to walk around. Likely Donnie absolutely exploded the insides of this rocky area to make this much space. The walls and corners are cut cleanly thanks to his mystic tools.]

[In the ceiling, recessed with some metal holders are crystals that shine with a warm light. A magic sunlamp.]

[There are a few inches of water on the floor, and probably most impressively is he's managed to make it so the water cycles through to the ceiling to make a light waterfall across all the walls. There are some polished boulders that provide some dry spots in the room.]

[But do make it very hard to try and write or carve things onto any surface in the room.]

[There is also a door with no handle on this side. It's half slid into the stone and has a metal cover, though any investigation will reveal the door is very thick, so probably stone makes up its center.]

[When people being dropped off]

[They can tell Donnie is coming back because the wall with the door is suddenly covered in a purple pink wall that will be shoving them across the room to push them away from the door. Then he'll open the door and drop off the person he's caught, or the food for people.]

[Each time the wall comes up, almost everytime, the walls seem to be getting...pinker.]

[Just for you guys: The Things Donnie is collecting from his connections for all this nonsense]
-Space Titanium to make Fabrications stronger from Korone
-His strength Plus Korone's strength when she's nearby until she bites someone else.
-Glyphs from Hunter
-Ninpo is always a thing
-Kraang things from Danger Memories
-Sedatives, so many sedatives
-Randy's orbment which comes with tech magic like FIRE, strength buffs under conditions, up his crit range for harder hits, makes him faster.
-Crow's guns

Comments

[bluediligence]

[ +1 bird in this bunker!

Korone is SUPER SEDATED when she's first brought in, but she'll start coming around eventually! After Several Hours of being a total useless deadweight. Thanks Donabama. ]

[pyrighteous]

[ Long enough that Hunter has given up on calling for her, anyway. By the time she wakes up he’ll be snoozing in the cage himself - though he startles when he hears her start to shift. ]

—- Korone?

[bluediligence]

[ It comes back to her in bits and pieces.

Leo's panic.

Leaving him in her room to look for Hunter.

Donnie.

Kraang.

She sits up sharply, automatically going for a knife — a knife that very much isn't there. Of fucking course. She grabs a featherblade instead, grip tight, hand steady, even as her head spins. ]

Hunter — Hunter-kun? Is that you? [ She sounds woozy. Looks woozy. Feels woozy. ]

[pyrighteous]

Y-yes! Yes, it’s me, I -

[ He’s babbling as he flutters loudly in the cage, trying fruitlessly to knock it over. ]

I’m so glad you’re okay! You didn’t move for so long that I gave up calling—-!

[bluediligence]

[ Presses the heel of her palm to her forehead for a minute. Or maybe two. Oof. ]

Sorry about that ... [ Okay. Okay, get it together, Korone. Shimmies carefully down from the … stone? Whatever it is she was laying on, only to suck in a sharp breath when her booted feet find water instead of a dry floor. ]

Are you in a cage?

[pyrighteous]

Y. Yeah. That’s how he caught me. I thought I’d be safer small and agile like this, but …

[ here he is, stuck in a cage. ]

What happened to you?

[bluediligence]

Jesus.

[ Pinches the bridge of her nose. Augh. ]

When you didn't come back, I tried to get to Mouse. [ Swallows tightly. Her voice flattens, turning bland. ] Missed. He spotted me, and he was persistent. Ended up catching me like he tried to catch Leo-kun, and then he sedated me.

Listen, Hunter-kun, can you do me a favor and describe the room? The more details, the better.

[pyrighteous]

Oh. So … I’m the reason why you’re in here.

[ Guilty, as if his friends WOULDN’T go searching for him after he went missing. He still huddles down unhappily. ]

It’s … a little bit underwater? There’s about an inch or two of water on the floor, and waterfalls on the walls. Lots of light glyphs. And there’s crystal sunlamps in the ceiling - I can tell because I haven’t gotten hungry yet, and I know it’s been at least a couple hours. There’s boulders set up too, but they’re super polished. That’s where you’re sitting.

[ He droops. ]

Even if I could get out, I couldn’t cast any magic. There’s nothing to write on or with.

[bluediligence]

[ She listens to his full report before she doubles back to the most important thing of all — ]

If you're blaming yourself right now, please try not to. Me being here is no more your fault than Raph-kun being here is mine, or you being here is Raph-kun's. We're friends. Of course we'd try to find each other.

[ Standing feels like it might still be a bad idea, so she busies herself taking stock instead. No weapons except for blades. He even took her pendant, which — she shudders almost convulsively. Could be worse. It could be worse. ]

I might be able to get you out of the cage. Might even be able to get you out of here entirely. It's not a guarantee, but I'm game to try it if you are.

[pyrighteous]

How? These bars are super solid. They haven’t budged at all.

[ he flops down dejectedly. ]

[bluediligence]

He doesn't know all my tricks.

[ She pulls up a smile, sharp with determination. ]

He took my pendant. I have a way to get it back. My abilities are ... they're not working great right now, but I managed to port twice earlier. I can try to get you to Leo-kun.

[pyrighteous]

W-wait, really? Even though I’m in this cage?

[ he perks up. ]

[bluediligence]

I can move anyone anywhere as long as I can "see" the target and have the destination clear in my mind. You're close enough. The cage won't make a difference.

[ She closes her eyes. Inhales. Concentrates, and finds that thin thread of red magic binding the pendant to her. Exhales. Yanks that thread just like Akako-chan taught her -

And the pendant settles back around her neck, safe and sound. ]

[supersmashbro]

[ Some Time Later idk we can say a little ways in, time is fake

Plops down nearby. Raph doesn't bother with ninja stealth beforehand, this is gonna be a stealth-free zone unless it helps get them all jailbroken. ]

He builds a secret base and it's under evil influence. This place seriously never lets up.

[bluediligence]

[ She appreciates the lack of stealth very, very much. No stealth is good stealth, especially when she has one of her featherswords in hand and is jumpy enough to use it.

... Shuffles closer. Attempts to lean against an arm. Hello. ]

Secret evil base for his secret evil Gotta Catch 'em All protection scheme. With Kraang tentacles for flavor.

[supersmashbro]

[ He appreciates not being stabbed on all occasions. Let the record show that if he'd jumpscared her he would've had it coming.

Korone is welcome to have a lean. Raph loves physical affection, so he leans back against her a bit. Enough to make it clear that he's fine with it. Even if he does tense up at the Kraang namedrop. ]

Yeah.

[ That's the flavor that makes it especially evil in here.

Because Donnie would never. In his right mind, Donnie would never.

GRUMBLY HRRRRRRG SOUNDS. ]

Dang it, he's gonna feel so bad about this!

[ IF RAPH HAD ONLY TRAPPED DONNIE IN A ZOO ENCLOSURE TO PROTECT HIM FROM CONSEQUENCES oh wait right that's the opposite lesson ]

[bluediligence]

[ Lean intensifies when she feels him return the gesture. Just outright FLOPS on him, though there's still, as always, that undercurrent of Readiness.

She can and will do a stab the moment she has to.

But not on Raph. Raph is good and fine and safe. ]

[ commiseratery GRUMBLES ]

He's gonna feel like an absolute heel. And I get it, this is absolute heel behaviour, but it's not his fault. He wouldn't do this, not of his own free will. Not ever.

[supersmashbro]

[ Korone gets it. Because she is very cool and wise.

They are both definitely sitting here saying all this but secretly they feel very guilty about things they once did while under the controlling influence of outside forces, right. ]

Right? He's always had some edge, but this ain't the real him by a long shot. I should know!

[ Because he lovingly half-raised three heroes. They're not always nice! Or polite! Or morally straight and narrow! They're chaotic and noisy and gremlin-like! Menaces, even. Pains in the butt. Too smart for their own good. But they are his. And they're good where it counts.

Manifesting Kraang stuff... Donnie's probably not gonna feel clean for a month. ]

We just- we just gotta figure out what happened and how to help. And then stop him long enough to do it. And then let him have some space but not too much space.

[bluediligence]

[ Not for the first time, it strikes Korone how very extremely glad she is that Raph is here. She adores Donnie, she's all in, ride or die, with zero regret or hesitation — but this is Donnie's big brother.

He and Leo know Donnie better than anyone. Love him more fiercely than anyone. As long as they're here, she has faith that Donnie will be okay. ]

We can do it. We will do it. [ And there's that bite of stubborn determination. ] He'll be back with us in no time. And then …

And then we find that fine line between being present and not being smothering. [ aughhhhhh. ] And we make sure he knows that we don't love him any less for this.

[ completely unconscious use of an L word on her part ]

[supersmashbro]

Exactly. Exactly. We love him. He'll be fine.

[ Just handle one thing at a time and channel the power of being unnaturally hard-headed. Donnie won't stand a chance. Because they love him.

He might let Leo or Hunter make the "this is about the line where it's good to step in there with him" call. They're better at those kinds of reads than he is. ]

We're all gonna be fine. Get outta this fancy fishbowl in no time.

[bluediligence]

[ Briefly upgrades this Lean to an ACTIVE ACTUAL HUG. Still just the arm tho. Because -

They've got this. It'll be a bumpy ride, she knows it will, but they're getting their Donnie back no matter what. ]

Speaking of, I'm gonna try to port Hunter-kun to Leo-kun soon. I know where he is; he's shaken up, but he's safe. If we can get the two of them together on the outside, we'll stand a better chance of busting out of here.

[supersmashbro]

[ Free hug added to emotional inventory.

Huge relief also added to emotional inventory. ]

Good. Leo's a strategy guy, they can get their plan on. [ Always good to up the number of people out of here and somewhere actually safe, anyway. ] I can tell he's still alive with the ninpo, but. Not much else.

[ It doesn't say much about physical condition apart from alive or not. Unless they wanna make a whole mind meld out of it.

Maybe he can do something with that. Make himself an opening.

The part of Donnie that cares about them being alive and safe is clearly way in overdrive, after all. ]

The less he's gotta deal with any creepy Kraang stuff before this is over, the better.

[bluediligence]

The ninpo ...

[ Hums softly, thoughtful. ]

Is there any chance you guys could use that to get through to him? Or even just to — to crack the door open a little. Make an opening.

… Without risking whatever this is spreading to you, preferably. I dunno how inter-related the whole "protective dialled up to 9000" and the "surprise! it's Kraang time!" are, or if they'd somehow be infectious.

[supersmashbro]

[ He hesitates. ]

Kraang stuff is all infectious. That's what they do, they, uh. Spread. But it's a physical thing. [ Lots of growing and spreading and pushing tentacles into your brain and absolutely thrashing your little brother in a prison dimension.

So a lot about this isn't adding up. He doesn't know enough. Hasn't seen these constructs for himself yet.

If it was gonna spread through the ninpo, Donnie probably would've done it already just to get the rest of the family on board. Right? ]

So I dunno. I'm gonna try. See what happens. Worst case, maybe I try to cut myself off for a minute? If he's all worked up about protection, it might get him down here off his guard. [ It would sure as heck work on Raph, if he's honest. Not immune to his own tactics. ]

[bluediligence]

Ugh. Hate that.

[ aaauuuuughhhhh augh augh okay. frowns, rubbing her forehead, but in the end she lets out a breath and nods. ]

It's not a bad idea. If I had that kind of connection with someone, it'd bring me running ... I guess he'd probably know better than to think any of us hurt you. [ They're only here because they're people he wants to protect, after all. ]

Just be careful.