xp_logs | No way back: the rescue (backdated)

Amy, Hope and her father join the rescue party to look for the missing girl.

My group with me," The small slightly balding man called as he waved a clipboard in the air to attract their attention.

"Good Morning and thanks for coming out guys, I'm Ed, on of the park rangers out here and I'll be your group leader." He began as the group of volunteers gathered around him, "We've been assigned the north-east quadrant so we'll be heading out there in a little while. Before we go I just wanted to emphasis how important it is for you all to keep an eye on one another. We already have one missing person and I'd hate to make that two on my watch." The ranger smiled as he looked around the group. "Unless anyone has any questions we can head out now."

Hope had listened attentively to what the earlier explanation had entailed with how the search was going to go. Most of it was sounded familiar from when they had covered some basic Search and Rescue with the New Mutants this year with the zombie theme. As she started to follow the park ranger, Ed, she threw a quick glance at her father, who was pacing besides her with a nondescript look on his face and then looked back at Amy, who still had her eyes hidden behind dark glasses. "Are you doing alright?"

"Yeah," Amy muttered, fiddling with her glasses as she looked around. She was trying to focus on what Ed was saying, but it was hard. She was nervous about being out like this. Not to mention she'd never been part of a search party before. She didn't know what to do. She looked back at Hope and Mr. Abbott, pressing her lips together. "We going, then?"

Jason looked like he wanted to ask a question but instead swallowed his words and shook his head to Ed. "Yes, I suppose we are." They'd come that far after all and he was starting to realize that he wasn't as able to sway his daughter's opinion as he'd once been able to do.

"Ok so no questions then," Ed noted with a nod, "Remember guys the girl was wearing a red overcoat and a yellow backpack, so keep your eyes peeled for any colors that don't fit in. If you see anything, and I mean anything, stop where you are and call for me. We'll stop the group and I'll come back to check it out. But don't go hunting for it yourself, there are a multitude of crags and crevices out here and if you don't know what you're doing it would be really easy to get into trouble yourself."

The searchers spread out in a line, each about ten feet apart as they started their survey. Hope scanned the tree line, scanning for anything that appeared out of place, like spots of bright colors or strange shapes that didn't fit in. To step around a tree, she moved closer to Amy and leaned over, whispering: "Can you see everything properly with those dark glasses? Like the colors?"

"Yeah," Amy muttered back without thinking, although the truth was...no. Everything was made a bit dimmer by glasses, and even her eyes couldn't compensate for that. "Sort of...a little..." She sighed. She was going to have to take the glasses off and she knew it. But that made her nervous.

"Wait, I have an idea." Hope quickly reached in her backpack, pulling out the small case in which she kept her own sunglasses. "Here, mine are made of a far lighter glass. It won't hide your eyes as well though." She removed her own sunglasses and handed them to her friend. "I don't need mine, since we'll be under the trees mostly."

Amy made a face as she closed her eyes and took off her glasses - she couldn't hide the shape, but she could hide the color, at least. Still, she felt entirely uncomfortable even with Hope's sunglasses back on her eyes. "Yeah, alright," she muttered, rubbing the back of her head. "That's better." Aside from feeling completely exposed. "Let's get going."

Jason nodded in agreement, seeing as they'd already come that far. He doubted he'd be able to change their minds at that point.

"So... where do we go?"

"We just follow the pattern as explained, father. I believe it is the best way not to miss anything." Hope turned her own gaze to her surroundings and started scanning them again.

***

"Oh."

Amy had been scanning the landscape as they walked along, and suddenly her eyes zeroed in on something far away - too far for Hope or Mr. Abbott to see -- something that definitely didn't belong.

Something bright yellow, to be precise.

She stopped to look, to make sure, even lifting the glasses to clear her view completely, before saying, "Over there!" and hurrying in that direction.

"Amy, wait up!" Hope reached out to grab her arm. "Remember, Mr. Canon told us to stay together because of the crevices. Let's call him over here." She quickly caught the group leader's eye and managed to convey they'd like to speak to him.

"Everyone hold up," Ed called as he made his way over to the girls. "What's up? Did you see something?" he asked distractedly as he scanned the area around them. Try as he might Ed just couldn't see anything in the area, "Do you need to take a break?" he asked kindly. "We really need to push on, there's nothing in this area."

Amy hurriedly slipped the glasses back on and threw a glare at Hope. How was she supposed to explain that she could see what the human eye couldn't? "Yes, there is - over there," she tried to tell Mr. Canon as she pointed in the right direction. "My friend can see it too, right?" She added pointedly to Hope. Maybe she could convince Mr. Canon that there was just something wrong with his eyes.

"I thought I saw something in the distance." Hope quickly joined in, throwing him a pleading glance. "Can we even ignore the possibility of it being something?"

Ed stared into the distance screwing his eyes up to try and spot anything. "I don't know," he said hesitantly, "I really can't make out anything at all over there and the longer we wait here there more danger the girl's going to be in if she's further down the line." The ranger pulled out a pair of binoculars and scanned the forest Amy had indicated. "Are you completely sure you saw it?"

"Yes," Amy replied as patiently as possible, resisting the urge to grab the man's wrist and point him in the right direction. Even with the sunglasses on, she could still see the blotch of color that didn't belong on the landscape. "Very, very sure."

She pressed her lips together tight for a moment, frustrated, slipping her fingers under her glasses to rub her eyes -- and freezing. They didn't have much time, and arguing was just wasting even more. If she could prove that she could see what he couldn't...

"Mr. Canon?" She waited for him to look before pushing her glasses up to give him a good long look at her eyes, then letting them fall back over her eyes. "Believe me now?"

"I, ah, umm. I see, that is to say," Ed stammered as he stared at Amy his gaze flicking over to Hope before focusing once again on he other girl "Don't say anything," he cautioned quietly before raising his voice, "Ok guys, this way we think we say something in the bushes. So form a line and be very careful of where you put your feet."

Jason was staring at Amy as well, even as she put her glasses back down. He nodded in agreement to the advice of not saying anything and stood behind Hope, resting his hands on her shoulders, unsure of what to say and staying quiet instead.

She only blinked once, before briefly touching her father’s hand and following Mr. Canon and Amy. The rest of the group followed them, confused mumblings among them.

Those were quieted though when ten minutes later they were standing around a brightly colored overcoat. "Does that one belong to Krissy?" Hope asked.

"I think so," Ed confirmed, "OK people lets spread out, we know she came this way so lets find this little girl, But be careful there are a lot of crevices in the area and we don't wanna have to end up rescuing two people," he cautioned as he reached up to his radio to report in to the base. Ed stayed near Amy as the group spread out, hoping that her eyes could spot another clue that would lead them to the missing girl. But alas that was not to be and a cry from the far left of the line of searchers sent Ed scurrying to a faint sobbing which echoed forth from the mouth of a crevice. "Krissy? Are you down there? My name's Ed Canon, I'm a ranger with the park service, we're here to get you out."

Amy looked back at Hope, pressing her lips together thin. There wasn't much more she could do in this situation.

"You helped to find her! That is wonderful!!!" Hope complimented her. "I am guessing they will have to radio the base and get the equipment brought here to get her out?" She turned a questioning look to her father.

"I suppose so, sweetheart, we have to leave that up to the professionals to do what they have to do to help her." Jason nodded and in turn looked back at Ed for confirmation that they'd be getting her out as soon as possible.

Ed nodded at Jason slipping his Radio back into his pocket, "I've radioed back to base, they're sending a helicopter out here with the rescue crew. Should take about 15 minutes for them to get out her and get set up." The ranger peered down into the crevice, grimacing as some loose rocks bounced their way down the walls. "I'm just a little nervous about lowering someone down there." He admitted, "the walls seem to be just loose rocks, a bad hit on the sides on the way down and we're looking at rocks raining down all around Krissy. We just have to hope that Krissy is somewhere where she's protected from any falling rocks." Ed sighed, "Hopefully the rescue team's bringing a camera with them, otherwise we'll have to wait for one to get here from base, I should have thought to mention that when they set out." Ed gestured to the crevice sadly, "I just don't want to leave her down there any longer than we have to."

"A camera?" Hope inquired curiously, feeling her father's hands tighten on her shoulders. "You need to know how the situation looks down there for the most effective rescue?" She looked over to the crevice and winced as more rocks went over the edge.

"We just need to make sure she's alright," Ed began to answer. He was suddenly interrupted when the soft cries from below stalled for a moment... Suddenly there was a cry of pain before the sobs resumed. "Krissy?" Ed scrambled to the edge of the crevice careful to stay away from any loose rocks, "Are you ok? What happened?"

Hope winced at the cry of pain coming from below and she stared for a moment at the park ranger calling over the edge. She could help here... she could at least give an idea of what the situation was down there... but the promise to her parents...

Another soft cry settled things. She twisted her head back, saying: "I am sorry..." to her father softly. Then she stepped forward: "I can have a look down there, sir, to see what the situation is." And before anyone could protest Hope closed her eyes and let the sound of wind carry her outside her body.

She hovered over the crevice for a moment, watching the stunned gazes of everyone, watching her father catch her body before moving down.

"Hope!" Jason held onto her as she activated her powers, knowing as his daughter's limp form fell that it was too late for him to try and stop her. He clutched her to his chest, joining everyone else's staring while supporting Hope's body.

Amy's eyes widened behind the sunglasses, and she exhaled sharply as she watched the ghostly projection of her friend flutter down into the crevice.

All Ed could do was stare in surprise as the girl crumpled to the ground leaving behind a ghostly image. "Whaaaa? Whaaa." He stammered.

Hope ignored the gasps behind her as she dove down in the crevice. Things were shady, but there was enough light to see the various small loose rocks that were lying around and stuff moving. Dust was also still settling down. She moved closer and closer to the bottom and finally spotted a girl with bright red hair curled up in a corner, surrounded by more loose rocks.

Slowly, not wanting to startle her, Hope moved closer, taking in everything she could. While Krissy was dirty, tear tracks visible on her cheeks and covers in scraps, bruises and small cuts, there didn't seem to be any major bleeding going on and she was moving. The only thing that made her frown was the big bump on her forehead, which looked rather painful.

Shifting her attention from the girl to her surrounding, things seemed to have stabilized at least for the moments. There were no more rocks falling down and the dust was settling. Moving closer to the walls she could not spot anymore things that were at the risk of falling.

She looked back on more time to the girl before heading up and suddenly she was met by a big pair of hazel eyes. "Hello Krissy." Hope quickly projected. "I came to see if you were alright. I have to head back up, but we will have you out soon." When the girl kept staring at her, she gave an encouraging smile and headed back to the surface.

Easily slipping back in her body, she explained: "She did not seem seriously hurt, though she has a big bump on her forehead. All the rocks seemed to be settling down as well..."

"So what now?" Amy asked, her voice jumping a few octaves, as she turned to look at Ed, waiting for his response.

Ed sucked in a deep breath to try to steady himself. "Now we wait for the rescue team to arrive, unless anyone has any other surprises for us."

"I think this was it, sir." Hope was securely back on her feet by then, carefully avoiding looking at anyone but Ed and her father. As soon as Ed turned away to radio the helicopter, Hope turned back to her father. "I had to help..." She said softly.

"I..." Jason looked from Hope to the rest of the crowd before resting his eyes on his daughter once again. "I know, Hope. It's..." Instead of completing his sentence he instead reached out, placed his hand on his daughter's shoulder, and squeezed it lightly.