revivalproject | Warren Exploration

"Something like that..." Keith frowned. "I was hoping we could find more out down here about some stuff that's been going on." Storms for one... how to get home, maybe, for another... Though, that was still something he was torn on. Sure, he had stuff to do at home, yes, but going home meant losing what he had built with Lance since arriving in Drift Fleet. But he was getting kind of annoyed at being stuck on this planet and only going places at someone else's whim.

That said, maybe a compromise? Maybe just back to the Drift Fleet reality as an in-between for a bit? It could work that way, right?

Either way, the rooms with the lava were kind of interesting. It was like staring into a molten aquarium with no fish. That material holding it back was really something else.

"Like about the storms? Maybe whatever we find down here will be the key to stopping them." Make things better for the people that had powers and shit. Like Tommy. He remembers how frail his boyfriend had been during the memory storm. How scared he was that his powers would come back so violently that he'd hurt Billy.

As they pause at some of the rooms showing off the lava, the blond swallows thickly. Hopefully the glass, or whatever it was, would hold out longer than they were down here. His hand goes up as if to touch, only hovering before he pulls it back and keeps on down the hall until they approach another door. "I wonder how deep we're going. Or how deep we have to go to get where we need to be."

And if they'd get back as easily as they got down here.

"Makes me what a cigarette," but he was all out, and it wouldn't be a good idea to smoke down here anyways.

"Yeah," Keith responded. "There's a theory that whatever controls them is here." There were also enough connections to Drift Fleet that Keith was pretty convinced that the Atroma were still at least peripherally involved in part of this situation.

He also couldn't help but wonder if they were being watched on TV this whole time, too...

"It certainly doesn't hurt to look." Honestly, he'd be happy to get rid of them... and the damn screaming moon. It messed with the special abilities of anyone who had them, and Keith had been through his share of rough moments with his quintessence sensitivities. Thankfully, Kosmo hadn't had his teleporting go out of control from the moon, though. That would have been very concerning.

He paused at what seemed like another dead end... with a chasm.

"Oh..." He clicked on the light in the gauntlet of his armor and shone it across to illuminate the other side. There was a hole... like the tunnel continued, but had been cracked through by something. Judging by the smell and heat, plus the glow, from the bottom of the chasm... it was likely lava.

He sighed.

A theory that the storm controls were down here. That was promising. "I hope that theory turns true. Help a few people I think. Tommy for certain."

They wouldn't have to worry at night anymore, even though Billy knew Tommy would come back to bed when his powers returned. Tommy wouldn't have to worry anymore about hurting people by accident with them.

He pauses beside Keith and blanches at the dark chasm before them. Luckily he could focus on the light on Keith's arm, the glow he was noticing, before he could dissolve into panic. He does reach out quick to grab the guy by the shoulder a little too hard and too rough than he's giving thought to.

Billy swallows hard, already sweating.

Focus, Hargrove. You're not alone this time and the Upside Down wasn't here to pull you back.

"Got any ideas on getting across?"

"Afraid of heights?" he asked Billy when he felt that grip on his shoulder. Keith tried his best not to sound snarky about it, and it was a good thing he was solid on his feet that he didn't stumble. They were pretty close to the edge.

"A few," he then continued at the other's question. "I doubt you'll like any of them." He took a breath. "I've got a grappling hook to swing across, jetpacks to jump and sort of-ish fly across, and a teleporting wolf who can take up to two of us with him at a time."

After a beat, he added, "I'd avoid using the jetpacks." It sounded like he'd tried that with something once before.

"No," Billy snaps back and glares at Keith. "Don’t use that fucking tone with me." He’d probably push the guy in if his buttons were pushed enough. That hand squeezes hard and then lets go. Takes one step, two, three, backwards and braces his arm against the wall. For now he can focus on the guy, his wolf, the glow of lava.

He was fine. Nothing bad down here (except the lava). Breathe in, back out.

Options. They had options to get across. A scowl. "A jetpack? Those things are real?" Apparently the teleporting wolf wasn’t the weird thing. Billy was just to stunned to focus on Kosmo.

Another breathe in and out. "What’s easier?"

Not that Keith was afraid of falling. All the methods for crossing he mentioned? Yeah. He'd be able to recover. And squeezing armor didn't do much. So, he finally did let the tiny smirk escape for a split second before looking back at the hole again.

At the question about the jetpack, though? The red v-shaped pack on the back of his armor popped out and shifted form slightly. It wasn't a huge thing like from some B-grade 1950's sci-fi. It was sleek and low profile.

"Yeah... jetpacks." Keith looked back at Billy over his shoulder. "We mostly use them in zero to low gravity. Down here, might not be as effective." He'd used them in gravity before, it was mostly to increase a jump or slow a descent, the latter being kind of like a replacement for a parachute.

"The grappling hook would work, but you'd have to hang on to me," he continued, which he figured Billy wouldn't like at all. He shifted his gaze upward as he spoke, almost like he was still teasing a little. "So, Kosmo teleporting us across would probably be the easiest." He shrugged, looking back across the way again. "It can feel weird the first few times, but you get used to it."

Keith looked down at Kosmo, who had lifted his head up to look at Keith when he heard his name. The wolf gave a small tail wag, ready to go.

Billy isn't afraid of falling either. He's done it a lot, though the landing is softer when it's the surf you're falling into off of your board. He glares a tiny bit at Keith's matching tiny smirk, but holds his tongue. Getting out of here depended on him working together with Keith and his dog after all.

Though his features soften into something like awe seeing the pack pop out. Nothing big, like he'd seen on TV, but still cool. He wonders, for a moment, if he could get one himself (in blue of course). For now, he just rolls his shoulders. "Yeah, I'm not holding onto you like that."

While Billy is pretty sure Tommy would understand, he doesn't like the idea of it, even in a situation like this. Especially with other options! "If you think he can handle it, that's fine. I can hang onto him or whatever."

He doesn't mind dogs. Wolves are cool. Honestly Kosmo was pretty cool because of his coloring, too.

Keith quietly snorted to himself about the holding comment.

"Fair," he responded. Honestly, after having spent quite a few hours holding on to the other Paladins to keep them all from drifting off into space separately and getting lost, Keith had lost the ability to be ashamed of holding on to someone.

"Yeah, he can handle it," he said. "He's brought two people before, but, even if he can't do that, one at a time won't take all that much longer." Keith put his hand on Kosmo's back between the wolf's shoulderblades. He nodded for Billy to do the same.

Kosmo just wagged his tail slightly, and then looked up at Keith to wait for the signal.

Keith may have lost the ability of shame, but it was a prominent thing in Billy's mind and era still. He's broken a lot of his upbringing, but there was still a long way to go.

"Probably safer than risking a jetpack," he grumbles out loud. Billy gives a scrutinizing look to Kosmo, and also to Keith, then finally puts his hand out to grip the wolf as firmly yet carefully as he could. After all, wolves still had teeth no matter how tame they were.

Once Kosmo felt Billy's hand in his fur, he went for it.

There was a bit of a warm up as the wolf started to glow, but that was all the warning Billy would get before there was a bright flash of white light. As it faded away almost as quickly as it came, they were on the other side, surrounded by a whole bunch of tiny specks of light that were quickly fading along with the wolf's glow.

Keith gave Kosmo a quick rub on his head, affectionately pushing down the large ears for a second before turning to move on.

There wasn't much time to react. Just a jerk like he's going to pull away, but then they're gone and not gone again on the other side of the room. It's only then that he actually lets go and falls backwards onto his ass. The specks of light glimmer and fade around Kosmo and Billy just feels dizzy.

That wasn't the same as Tommy's speeding through town or anything. "Damn, that really fucking happened," he grumbles while turning over and pushing back up to his feet.

Keith smirked a little.

"It takes a bit to get used to."

He waited as Billy got back up.

"You okay?"

"I just got...teleported by a fucking wolf." This kind of tech wasn't anywhere near possible in his era. His boots scrape against the ground but he's back up. Pale, a little sweaty, but up. "I'll be fine. There's no way to brace yourself for teleporting when it's not a thing in your world."

He rolls his shoulders and moves on, clearing his throat and all that. Manly, unbothered (he is though). "We should keep moving though. The others are gonna be waiting and all that shit and I don't want spend the rest of my already fucking short life down here."

Keith had seen that kind of bravado before, and he left it alone, not commenting. He just nodded.

"Yeah. It took a bit of getting used to for me, too," he said, turning and continuing along the corridor. "I'd never teleported, either, until Kosmo showed me he could take me with him. It was a bit of a shock." Putting it lightly.

Yeah, that summed up Billy really well. A lot of bravado, with a short fuse behind it. Hearing that it took Keith time to adjust to it as well does help at least. It wasn't just him.

"Yeah, no teleporting wolves in 1985. No teleporting at all." Just huge creatures and possession and lots of rats and a world that was an upside down mirror of his own. He continues on after the guy, stumbling a few steps before he gets his feet back under him. "But it seems like it's a staple for wherever you're from."

"We don't exactly have teleporting in my version of home, either," Keith said. "At least, not with technology, and not with humans." He shrugged. "I found Kosmo in outerspace, and I'm not exactly sure how he does it. But, I know that Altean and Galran druids can do it by manipulating a life force called quintessence through something like alchemy. And they have to be really strong with the ability in order to make it work. It's not something everyone can do.

"So, yeah... still kind of rare even where and when I'm from," he said.

He paused now as they had gone a bit down the corridor. They were in another room again. He glanced around it for a moment, and then at Billy.

"You said 1985?" The stuff in the room looked pretty old fashioned to Keith. Maybe whatever they needed to do here to get past was something Billy could do.

Definitely 1985. The room is one that Billy is familiar with - the living room of his home before it had been completely broken. Despite that, there's furniture piled everywhere in a manner where someone could hide, with the wooden boards in the floor both littered with holes and creaking dangerously under any footsteps. There's a complete lack of windows, and the only light source is a ceiling lamp with cracks stemming out from where it meets the plaster. On one side wall, there's a door with three different locks on it.

One is a lock with a three-number combination, another is one with a chain, and then the last is with a key slot, though it looks bigger than a normal house key.

Across from it is another door with two locks on it: a deadbolt already in place, and a sliding lock already slid into place and secured.

On the far wall, between them, is one last door, and has a bar down in front of it, locked in place.

"This is my living room, kinda. The doors are wrong but this is my home in San Diego, before-"

The door with two locks gives a very sudden and violent shake from someone unseen on the other side. Billy jumps and any bravado he had earlier is gone as he stares at it.

"Open this door!" shouts a familiar voice through it. The blond goes pale at the sound of it.

"No-," he nearly moans out in horror.

This honestly felt a lot like the moment in the Trials when Keith could have sworn for a moment that he was home with his Dad again... but this wasn't his hallucination. It was Billy's, and that person banging on the door sounded angry.

"Billy?" Keith frowned a bit in concern.

"Open this door right now!!" it’s a male voice, definitely older. Like a father. The doorknob rattles aggressively as the unseen man tries and pushes against the locked door.

Billy, however, doesn’t hear Keith. He puts his hands over his ears and shakes his head as if to shake out the voice. "No—!"

The doorknob with the bar locked against it turns. "Billy?" A female voice now, scared and tentative. "Billy, baby, the door is locked and I can’t get it open—"

One of the locks starts to shift on the door with the angry man, but Billy doesn’t notice. He’s staring at the one with the female voice. "…Mom?" His voice is quiet.

Keith shifted his gaze between the two doors for a moment. It wasn't hard to figure out the aggressor in this situation, unless it was deeper than that, but Keith wasn't going to take the time to overthink this. He moved towards the first door, turning the lock back into place, and then bracing himself against it.

"Can you open that door for your mom?" he asked, not sure he was going to even get through to the guy at this point.

He looked around for any additional doors, or even windows, just in case.

"I can't——" Billy says, looking white as a sheet and just staring at the angry man's door. The deadbolt snaps back into place to keep him there a little longer. The frightened woman's door is knocked on, the handle tried again.

"Billy?! Baby where are you?" she calls out, faint through the door.

Finally he gets up, dashing over to it. Unfortunately the bar he struggles against his still locked in place, and made of steel. He's not getting that open. That means it's either the angry man's door or the one with the three locks.

"Mom! Mom it's stuck! I can't——"

'——find you.'
'You left me with——'

Neil on the other side of the other locked door bangs against it, fists pounding hard against it. "You open this door right the hell now, William!"

Keith flinched as the door he was leaning against was banged on again.

"BILLY!" he yelled. "Come on! Focus!" It wasn't that he didn't know it was hard, but this was definitely a time when Billy was going to have to work for it.

"What's the third door?"

Focus. Focus is hard. His mother is seemingly on the other side of that door. Just out of reach, again, from him. Billy doesn't realize this is a test on him. He can hear his mother pounding on the door he can't open and wants to sag against it. Wants to rip it off of his hinges.

It's Keith yelling that gets through to him, with a wild look being sent to the guy that's bright and wild.

The other door?

Right. There was a third door. Whatever one they had come through is gone, leaving them trapped in this one until they figured it out. "I.. I don't know." He darts away from his mother's door and ignores the slamming of body and fists against Keith's. The chain lock is easy and slips out with minimial effort. "There's a key slot and a number combination. I don't know--"

"How many digits for the combo?" Keith asked quickly. "On the lock. How many numbers do you need?"

Honestly, he'd offer his sword, but the bayard might not work for Billy... or, at least, it might not create a sword.

But... they'd switched bayards before back home. Maybe...? Hadn't the clone let Lotor use the black one once? Keith summoned it into his hand. If he handed it over, it would turn into a weapon that was suited for Billy's skills...

Warren Exploration - Forward Team

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