xp_daytripper: (magical macguffin)
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After being sucked up by the vacuum cleaner, Our Heroes find themselves in the garbage. Literally.




"You know, I've always loved roller-coasters, but I think that this might be taking it a little bit too far," Stephen pointed out staring thoughtfully at the side of the vacuum bag. The group had been sucked up and tossed around by the cleaning lady and then had to suffer a moment of near free-fall as the bag they were stored in was thrown into the trash, mixing the contents of the bag, both human and trash, together. Now, while they weren't being thrown about any longer they were still faced with a tricky problem, how to get out of the bag before the were crushed under the weight of the trash which would inevitably pile up on top of them. Not particularly a result which anyone wanted to see happen.

If they even lasted that long, Amanda had managed to keep a shield up around the group, but unfortunately their magic was still...spotty, and the cleaner had failed to have the good thought to vacuum up a knife or circular saw, instead they had some lumps of old food and a few paperclips and pins. So unless they could think a way out of here, then there wouldn't be a happy ending to this story. Stephen stared at the paperclip he held in his hands and gave the group a wry smile, "You know, if I had a whetstone and a few hours we could turn this into a knife and get out of here." The teen swished it through the air like a sword as he stared at the side of the wall. It didn't actually need an edge, just..."A paperclip! does anyone see one or a piece of wire?"

Topaz muttered something in Hindi that would have roughly translated to fucking fuck but that was hardly appropriate to say in English in front of kids. She rubbed her head, squinting through the darkness. "Hard to see anything, really," she said as she held out her hand, and a ball of light shimmered to life, floating to the top of Amanda's bubble and illuminating as much of the area as it could manage considering it was smaller than they were - and that was saying something. She looked over at Amanda, who didn't...particularly look well. "You alright?"

"Running on fumes," was Amanda's short reply. "We need to get out of here soon before I run out of juice. I dunno about you, but choking to death on dust bunnies isn't my idea of a fun time." She looked around the group. "Try and do things manually, if you can. We need to save the magic for bigger things." She smirked through the mask of effort. "Pun intended."

"Right," Megan said cheerfully, at last summoning her were-light. Will O' Wisp didn't illuminate much at this size, but at least it was something. She cast it about slowly, searching for a piece of wire or something else useful.

"Outta the way." Clea ran past the group with a large push pin in her hand. The force she was running with was just enough to get it to create a little tear. She pulled the pin away and dropped it before she started to pull at the paper bag. "Help." Her voice was filled with panic even if she was trying her hardest not to think about being inside a trash bag.

Billy clambered his way over to Clea. "Nice work." He waited for her to tear enough to allow a second set of hands, then joined her in the tedious task. "I never thought ripping paper could be so hard," he said after a few minutes' work. As the gap got bigger, he reached one arm through. "Ugh," he grimaced, "Careful, there's something wet on the other side." He worked his arm further out until the bag reached his shoulder, then he leaned hard against the tear. The added body weight helped, and the bag began to give a satisfying tearing noise as the gap grew larger.

"Here," Stephen held up his contraption, really just a pair of pins connected by a wire. "This ought to get it open," he noted slipping them into the gap the others had opened and channeling energy into it. Immediately a ghostly blue haze washed over the pins as they started to slip through the material of the bags like a hot knife through butter. "I figured they didn't actually need to be sharp, just think they were," he tried to explain as the tear expanded out into a portal large enough for them to clamber out of as Stephen stepped back to admire his handiwork.

"Clever, Steve, now shift your arse." Amanda's voice was strained, the bubble surrounding them shrinking and cracking. The blonde witch was looking exhausted and dust was seeping into the space with them.

Stephen dived through the hole he'd made gesturing the others through as they emerged from the whole dust covered and coughing as Amanda's shield started to fail. With a desperate lunge Stephen lunged back into the whole, grabbing Amanda by the back of the clothes and throwing himself backwards dragging the older witch with him as they landed with a thud, a fine cloud of dust floating in the air around them.

Topaz was the last one out, right on Amanda's tail, coughing and barely missing being crushed. "Great," she coughed, looking around and trying to figure out where they were. They'd ended up on top of the trash pile, at least. They were at the top of the pile at least, so they wouldn't have to climb through garbage. Small miracles. "I think we're in the garage?"

"It smells like the garage," said Megan, noticing the odor of motor oil and gasoline over the stink of garbage. She flew to the edge of the rubbish bin and looked around. She picked out the form of one of Wade's classic cars in the gloom. "Oh, I'd love to see it up close, from this size."

Clea sneezed several times, "Ugh, my head is spinning. Okay. How are we going to get down?" She tried to climb over to the edge. "And how are we going to get big again?"

Billy looked around their surroundings for ideas. "We could make a paper airplane and sail down," he suggested, then paused before kneeling and starting to tug at some plastic at his feet. "Or parachute with a ziplock bag?"

"Before we worry about that how about we focus on getting out of here first?" Stephen pointed out, "I don't know about you guys, but standing in garbage smelling like this doesn't do great things for my ability to plan well anything."

Topaz wrinkled her nose as she stepped further out into the garbage can, looking around. "Worse comes to worse we could probably pile up garbage and make it a ladder." Hopefully they could up with a better plan though. She looked up at Megan, calling, "Do you think you could carry us? One by one, obviously." All at once would've been too much to ask.

"I can fly down, and I could probably carry someone light. Well, we're all pretty light right now," said Megan. "Steve?"

The black haired teen looked up at the edge and grinned, "I've never actually flown before, you know without a plan," he allowed, holding a hand out to Megan, "This is going to be so cool!"

"As much as I trust you Megan, that is a terrifying thought. And I don't know if I can do that." Clea backed up a little bit before starting to look for other options to get down from the pile. "Maybe someone threw out some string and we can use that as rope."

Amanda stirred from where she'd landed in something of a limp heap. "Ow," she muttered, rubbing her aching forehead. Then, as she realised where they were: "Ew." She looked around the small group, making sure everyone was there. "Everyone all right?" At their nods, she rubbed her head again and tried to focus. "Right. Out of the rubbish bin." She nodded at Megan and Stephen. "Flying down's good. Maybe see if there's anything on the shelves we can use as a ladder?" The shelves she meant were over by the mechanic's area, metal shelving packed with supplies and tools. "And in the meantime, we'll see what we've got." Like Billy's ziploc bag parachute, as terrifying as that might be.

"I'd kill to have the box of paperclips in my desk right now." Billy began prodding the nearby garbage with his foot, looking for anything of use. "Maybe there's some electrical wiring with the parts over there," he suggested before Megan left. "Let me know if you find anything. That's close enough I might be able to Summon, if it's too big to carry."

"It's a garage, there's probably some wire around here somewhere," Stephen pointed out, we could use it as a rope and let people climb up and over?" Personally he loved the idea of flying out, but not everyone seemed to share his enthusiasm. "If we can get a screwdriver or something I might be able to set it up so it can cut through the side of the trashcan." He allowed cautiously, "the last doohickey worked pretty well."

"Okay, ready?" Megan asked Stephen. With a clattering of her dragonfly-like wings, they were then hovering above the bin. So far so good. She steered them over the edge, towards the garage door. It felt to Megan that they were several storeys above the ground, though it was probably only around a meter. Everything looked gray and indistinct below in the dimly-lit garage, and she felt a wave of vertigo. They spiraled down for a second before she adjusted and evened out her flight path. It took a little getting used to, but flying was wonderful as a tiny thing. "There's so little air resistance at this size," she remarked as she set down Steve by the door and headed back for Topaz.

Clea may have had the right idea, Topaz realized too late as Megan returned for her. But she was one of the adults and she had to be brave. So she took a deep breath and said, "Alright. Let's go."

The color in her face drained away as she watched Megan take Steve down. "That doesn't make me feel any better." Trying not her best not to start freaking out. It was probably the last thing anyone wanted. Clea moved away from the edge and over to Amanda, "I don't think I can do that. I already have a hard time flying a couple of feet off the ground and that is with me doing it. Is it possible at this stage of my life I am coming to the realization I am terrified of heights?"

"They're not my favourite thing either," Amanda replied, putting her hand on Clea's shoulder. "But if they don't find a handy ball of string or something, you might not have a choice. But in the meantime, let's poke around and see if there's something we can use."

Billy continued to rummage around him, forming a small pile of things that might come in handy. A push pin, broken screwdriver, and a greasy old rag were the current front runners. "I suppose my ecofriendly side should be happy no one around here is throwing away much that's useful."

"We're so good we suck," Stephen agreed with a wry smile, "But we can work with these I guess. It all depends on what we need to do with them. Get me a pice of wood and something for wheels and we could turn them into a skate car thing."

"Maybe I should fly up and try to flip on more lights, so it would be easier to find things," Megan suggested. "After I put you down first," she added hurriedly to Topaz.

Topaz was muttering rapidly under her breath in Hindi, focusing on the wall as she tried to distract herself with reciting Shakespeare (the first thing she'd thought off the top of her head) and not look at the floor.

"Wait, hang on!" She called suddenly -- thankfully remembering to switch to English -- when her super focused zeroed in on a nearby shelf. "I see something -- might be a rope. Head straight."

"Where? Oh, oh!" said Megan, picking out the thick yellow rope as they approached the shelf before them. "Can you reach it?"

Considering both of her hands were currently clinging to Megan, trying to reach it was not going to happen. "Put me down on the shelf. I'll hold it up to you and you can bring it over to the others and come back for me when they're free."

Megan hovered over the shelf and carefully set down Topaz, flakes of dust puffing up into the air. When she grabbed the rope - well, giant cotton string, really - from the other girl, she promised "I'll be right back!"

Clea watched as the scene unfolded itself, this was something that was suppose to only happen in stories and movies right? "So we will use the rope to climb down." She just repeated the plan, mostly to calm her own nerves. Yes, she could do that. It would just be like at camp when they would robe climb.

"Or," Amanda clarified. "We'll tie you to one end, and then Billy and I will lower you down. Less chance of slipping and falling, yeah?" She watched as Megan reached the trashcan and handed over the end of the string. At their size, it was as thick as Amanda's wrist.

"That'll work," Billy agreed, reaching for one end of the string. "Try tying a foothold at that end, and I'll see if I can secure this to something?" He looked around for something heavy enough to be stable. but most of the rubbish was enough to hold them if it slipped. Then he spotted a large stapler, likely broken. "This'll do," he called out, unwinding his end over to it then reaching through to loop the rope around. He paused, staring at the ends and trying to remember which knot would be best, then starting to tie. "I can't say I ever thought that merit badge would come in handy like this," he said, standing giving the rope a few tugs, "But I think it'll hold."

Clea made a foothold but decided she was going to use it as a seat. "You think?" Clea looked down as she held onto the rope string tightly. "Okay. Lower me before I regret everything about this."

"You'll be fine. Just like a swing in a playground," reassured Amanda and she and Billy - well, mostly Billy, since she felt like a wet rag still - lowered the girl down on the string. "Just don't look down. Stephen will be there when you reach the bottom."

"I got you," Stephen called up to Clea holding his hands up to reassure her as he watched her inch slowly further and further down on the string. Stephen would never admit it but his heart was in his mouth as he watched the girl sway precariously on her way down.

Stretching up onto his tiptoes her grabbed her as she came into range pulling her down to him as he called up to Amanda, "Got her!" In a quieter voice he continued, "for a moment there I was worried," he admitted, "but that did look kinda fun," a smile pulled at his lips as he rested his head against Clea's, "I'm glad you're ok."

Solid ground! Oh how marvelous! Clea wiggled out of the rope-death-trap-waiting-to-happen and she hugged Steve back. "Ha. Fun. Yea. We can do it again next year." She said, her voice betraying her as it was shaking as badly as her hands. She looked up and gave the group high above the thumbs up. "I am okay!"

Holding a rope steady when you're a fraction of your normal height and strength is a challenge. Add in the slicker quality of string and the shifting garbage underfoot, and Billy had his hands full. It seemed ages before he felt the rope go slack, and he wiped the sweat off his brow with a relieved sigh. "Think you can climb down?" he asked Amanda as he began to pull the line tight.

Amanda grimaced. "I'll have to," she replied with a shrug. "Megan's going to have her hands full carrying you down as well, so it's best we cut down the trips she has to make." And without really giving herself time to think about the drop, she climbed over the edge of the trashcan and began climbing down the rope.

Topaz was still sitting on the shelf, waiting to be retrieved and watching her small companions propel themselves down the side of the can. Focusing on that was easier than looking down at how high up she still was. "Nope." Flying was probably easier than the rope option.

Megan returned for Topaz, her eyes momentarily flickering to a spider that was on the wall behind her. Nope. Not going to acknowledge it, she decided. "And I'm back. Let's go," she said, smiling and forcing her eyes on Topaz, not the spider.

Topaz made a split-second decision that she didn't want to know what Megan was looking at. Ignorance was bliss. "Brilliant, let's go." She held out her hands so Megan could grab her.

With Billy finishing his own climb down from the garbage can, and Megan and Topaz landing on the ground beside them, Amanda looked around the little group. "Right, next step - inside. I don't know about you lot, but I don't want to be in here when someone starts up a car and gasses us all to death."

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