The Maw

[echidna]

Ratatat's back muscles tensed just slightly as his brothers saw Hei following him. His ears perked and flicked back at Hei, then one pivoted forward again, flicking slightly. His brisk pace picked up slightly, feeling his brother's pain, his weakness. He took to the wall, instinct holding his hand a little as he slid fluidly from the floor of the tunnel to the wall to avoid the hot water pipe, only a misting managing to touch him. It wasn't quite like climbing - his claws gripped but did not damage the stone, his limbs spread his weight evenly, and he just... fluidly sped along the wall, like he was born to the surface, then to the ground again. The others had moved like that, as well - definitely not natural children of Gaia then! Of course, Ratatat wasn't trying to impress anyone. He had other things on his mind.

The bandanna-clad Ravener paused a moment as he passed Terra, clicking his claw politely along the wall as he moved, murmuring a soft "Excuse me." as he passed her, the large shape moving otherwise silently by instinct in the dark. He laid eyes on his brother, and immediately knew how serious it was. He barely had to look to know that Damascus was in a bad way. He'd taken a lot of boiling-hot water full-on in the chest. He moved close and knealt beside him. Ratatat could barely feel him... he was delirious and pain-addled, but he had his hat back - for some reason, that gave him more comfort than anything else in this place. It was difficult to explain how important a Ravener's personal items were.

Ratatat moved forward a little and gingerly scooped up his brother's form, despite his protests and growls of warning, but he calmed a bit once he scented his brother. Relief radiated off Damascus like a mist - anything familiar was worthwhile to hold onto. The Ravener moved a ways down the tunnel, GENTLY set his brother down with his bag, and set to work.

"You will be fine, Damascus." he reassured his brother, gazing with concern over the injuries. The key here was to remember not to put him into shock, his training warned. Something suddenly cold might set it off and then his chances... well they weren't pretty. He reached for the infusion his mother had made, and felt the tinkle of glass on claws, and the cool, fresh contents within, and cursed softly - a soft, bitter little hiss. It was too cold - it was risky to give this to his brother, even if it would help - it would take time to do so, and in that time, his body might freak out and he wouldn't be able to swallow it. For now, he held it under one arm and set to caring for the worse parts of the damage.

Eyes dancing over the blisters, his hands moved fast, laying his brother backward. Bandages, a tube of something, and gause were produced quickly. "Stay with me, Damascus, You have to listen to my voice, mother says so." he murmured softly, dropping the mom-bomb on his older brother. It had a result - all of them would have listened to THAT in Damascus's situation. Damascus's lidding eyes slid open and he looked up into his brother's face, his breathing ragged and painful, coming in and out in soft hisses.

Ratatat... looked at his claws, and unwrapped the handwraps in circular practiced motions, revealing MUCH cleaner appendages, then washed his hands with a bit of water from his bag bottled up, and applied some antibiotic, all quite quickly, and set to work, rubbing some of the tube's contents between his hands briskly to warm it, and applying it to his hissing, squirming brother. Warm or not, it was cooler than the burns and it definitely hurt, but it felt good too. Taking care around the blisters - which were exceptionally sensitive - and finishing up with his application, Ratatat set to the gauze, pressing some of the fluffy white, sterile stuff against his brother's chest, and sternly instructing him to hold it there. He obeyed.

"Mask - is the water still running? I need you to warm this." Ratatat called back to the human he knew was watching. "Not to hotness, but it cannot be cold." he instructed with a 'this is important' harmonic, and proffered the jar. It... seemed like clean tapwater was inside the jar... but it glowed - glowed with a faint bluish light that gave enough of a glow for Hei to see that it WAS clean - even if it probably wasn't just water.

"Please hurry." came that soft voice again, his many eyes illuminated and glinting in the cool light the mason jar cast.

[Terra]

QUITE FRANKLY....as much of a novice as she is, this lovely Geomancer with a black hole tummy and a lanky build wasn't about to try moving a massive creature. Though he seemed to treasure the hat in his grasp as though it meant the world...well she assumed it was a male. If it wanted to bust out a tutu, lipstick, and feminine tone, Terra would stand corrected! A half smile crossed her lips at the fact that this fellow was reunited with his belonging and couldn't help but give herself a mental pat on the shoulder. One point on the good-doers score board! It was nice to be helpful, even if it seemed like such a little thing...there was an amazing warm, gooey feeling her heart twinged with when managing to do some sort of good. Almost like it made up for something horrible her memory was blocking out for the sake of having a fresh new slate.

Not paying much to that...the half smile faded as her request was left unanswered. There was no way, even in a frosty hell, that she'd be capable of moving him. Dropping her hand to her side, she was about to plead for him to try and move but then there were steps approaching at a rapid pace...and...claws....the conversation stopped and it was nothing more than what sounded like a small group moving in. Craaaaap! Okay okay! Not to panic....Terra had this whole thing under control! Or....so she hoped anyway....letting out a soft, yet heavy sigh, she contemplated what to do. Wait to see if whatever was coming would be hostile...or...not take any chances and get ready to attack?

Being in a place like this, she couldn't afford to have any slip ups, let alone do anything that could potentially destroy this place. On top of that dilemma, there was the fact that she had an injured person...er...creature, rather. Right now, she wasn't just watching out for herself, but instead someone else who couldn't defend themselves at this time. Without wasting time, she spun around leaving her back to the furry fellow riddled with burns and faced the sound. Nice thing about living in a cave for so long was it made honing in on where the source of an echo was MUCH easier. Adjusting her pattern of breathing to be much more subtle...concentrating on the noise and kept her gaze focused upon it. Closer and closer...then...what the...MORE of them?!

Blinking out of sheer confusion she saw the one with a bandana approach then politely request for her to move. Looking absolutely baffled, she blinked a couple of times. "Uh...sure...you know each other?" Taking a couple steps to the side while speaking up a little puzzled, noticed someone behind him and slightly leaned up to the side. Of course she pointed to the injured whatchamacallit and the not injured whatchamacallit. Letting her gaze follow the beastly animal...or...whatever it was, she got distracted and stopped focusing on the sounds all around the place. Wasn't there anything she could do to help out? Oh! That's right! Fix the pipe! Just about to blurt out her master plan to continue on her helpful streak, she was interrupted by the one wearing a bandana talking to the thing she was trying to help.

His name was apparently Damascus, it was better than thinking of him as `whatchamacallit`! What to do now though...there really wasn't much else she could do to help aside from fixing the pipe. Looking at the two who seemed they might as well be related, she couldn't help but wonder who this `mother` was. Intently, she got distracted by watching the injuries get tended to since it would do her good to learn more about first aid. Knowing extremely basic stuff was good, but it'd be better to further her knowledge so she wouldn't feel as useless as she did during this moment. So far, it seemed like they used about the same sort of medicines the did, or at least kind of. ...wait....Mask? Who? What? That attention of hers shifted toward....A GUY WHO WAS KINDA NORMAL....but...something about full faced masks freaked her out.

Feeling her eyes widen slightly, she felt her nerves practically turn to jello as a chill surged through her body and on top of that her mind flicked the image of a reddish orange and black mask with only one eye accented by a black trim for a split second. The flashlight fumbled out of her grasp as her body went numb for a second. Staggering a couple steps backward, it looked like she saw a ghost, a phantom of her past. A rock decided to say HELLO to the girl's heel which caused none other than a flop landing right on her butt. Tightly closing her eyes on impact and inhaling through her teeth, the pain snapping her a bit out of that little trance. "Thaaaat definitely hurt..." Muttering that out with the sudden urge to quietly announce the obvious for whatever reason that impulsed her to do so.

Slowly, she reopened her eyes and saw that masked fellow's mask as its white, hard to read expression with what appeared to be a blue lightning bolt through one of the pitch black eyes...what the hell was that all about? "Er...hi..I'm Terra, anything I can do to help?" ....that was stupid...she could have asked that earlier...! OH WELL....she kinda sorta freaked out not too long ago due to some image that haunted her nightmares decided to show up for some reason.

[hei]

Following the creature that had spoken to him, it took Hei a moment to realize that they were not going deeper into the tunnels, towards where he'd originally been intending to go - having been so wrapped up in his thoughts he'd only been aware of his immediate surroundings and the actions of the other creatures, but as his guide moved up along the wall in an almost lizard like fashion to avoid the spray of water from the pipe his friend had broken earlier Hei suddenly found himself aware of where they were going. Not exactly where he'd wanted to go, and for all but a moment Hei was tempted to simply go his own way, continuing deeper into the tunnels along the path he'd been following earlier, but in following the creature, simply ignoring the spray of hot water as he stepped through it and over the rubble, the civilian's presence entered his mind again as they both passed her - they'd made a deal, and if he broke it Hei wasn't sure what would happen to her, once again slightly irritated by her presence, an unneeded complication to an already tangled situation.

Upon finally getting a relatively good look at the injured creature's form a few seconds later, though, Hei understood why the one who had spoken to him was taking a few moments here rather than leading him to wherever it had wanted him to go - clearly hurt rather badly by the scalding water, the thing wasn't going anywhere soon, at least not on its own, and clearly wasn't a threat. All in all, one less thing for him to worry about, although as his guide set about to working on his fallen comrade Hei made sure to stay plenty aware of the other three creatures' positions and overall dispositions - while they may have had an agreement, a cease fire of sorts, Hei did not trust them any further than he could see them, and had no intention of leaving himself open and vulnerable, at least not yet. As the guide began speaking again to the injured creature, though, a few words of his next statement caught Hei's notice, the last three in particular - "mother says so", and after that the reaction it got. Clearly an important figure to them - their creator? Most likely given how she or it had been referred to, but that brang up even more questions in addition to the ones from before, questions that Hei also forced to the back of his mind for later - he'd get his answers later, but for now simply listening to what was being said and done was proving valuable all on its own.

Stopping a meter or two behind his "guide", Hei simply waited in place, listening and watching all from behind the impassive wall of his mask, once again thankful that it hid his eyes from anyone watching him in turn - it probably didn't matter in this case, at least not yet, but it allowed him a certain measure of comfort to know that he was nearly as unreadable to these things as they were to him. Hei's focus of attention was brought back to the one caring for the fallen creature again as it held something out to him - a jar, from the looks of it, although Hei couldn't guess to the container's contents.... clearly a liquid, but definately not water if the glow was anything to go by. As the creature asked him to warm it, if only for a moment, Hei warily stared at the container as he tried to decide how safe it would be to take hold of it, his eyes shifting over to the injured creature for a moment behind the mask before Hei slowly reached out with a single hand, taking the jar and examining it for a second or two before turning and beginning to walk back towards the broken pipe and the hot water coming from it, passing the girl from before as she spoke up again, asking what she could do to help.

"You can leave." Hei replied as he passed her, voice calm but at the same time cold and emotionless. She asked, and he had answered - he wouldn't mince his words, he saw no reason to hold back here. The girl may have had good intentions by being here, but she was both unneeded and an unwanted obstacle, a variable that did little if anything beyond making things more complicated than they needed to be. Hei didn't have the time nor the patience to remove her by force at the moment, an action he would have been sorely tempted to take normally, but then again these circumstances were far from normal. If he could get her to leave this way, all the better - from what he'd seen so far she lacked the skills needed to be down there in the tunnels, and would be safest aboveground, and one less thing for Hei to be concerned with.

"You're only an obstacle here, and you'd be much safer up on the surface, not to mention out of our way." Hei finished as he reached the broken pipe and the warm water that was still flooding out of it. Glancing at the jar in his hand again for a moment with his hand softly illuminated by the almost nonexistant glow coming from it, Hei knelt down and placed the jar in the stream of water, keeping the top of the container in an iron grip as the water current tried and failed to pull it out of his grasp. After several more moments he pulled the container back out of the stream, remembering the words from before - warm, but not hot, merely not cold, and the jar was most certainly that. Standing up again, Hei began walking back to his guide, not even sparing Terra a second glance as he held the jar back out to the creature he'd recieved it from.

[echidna]

Ratatat looked from Hei to Terra, then back to Hei, giving a slow blink. If anyone mouthed like that to his mother, he'd have a sudden problem with his face - it'd be pressed against the wall. He, and every one of his brothers, had a thing about women - they were to be treated with respect. But then again, he reminded himself, they weren't probably 'normal' by human standards, culturally - stack that with the facts that this wasn't his mother that Hei was speaking to, and compound it with the fact that Hei might get the wrong idea if he got jumped for that. Just the same, there was a perceptible drop in temperature as Ratatat accepted the jar, giving the masked man a glare that had ice tinkling on it.

He looked at the jar, then to his wheezing broother. He brushed a hand gently over the bandages, felt his body warmth and carefully compared it to the heat of the jar. It was... acceptable. He speared a claw into the aluminum lid to break the seal, and it made a sucking sound as air rushed in around his talon, then unscrewed the lid, freeing the faintly glowing liquid to exposure, casting its glow outward brightly as a torch in the gloom. It didn't have a scent - it was only water, after all... well, mostly water...

For some reason... the light was a real comfort. Something about it was pleasant, soothing. Ratatat again marveled at his mother's healing magics. He had felt her use them... but he could barely make a spark, yet she could create laceworks of elegant life energy and suffuse it into water. He wanted to be able to do this one day. Gently, the Ravener gripped his brother by the back of the head, lifting him up a bit, putting the jar to his lips.

The Ravener barely took any notice at first, disinterested as the warm liquid poured into his mouth, but the glow even as Ratatat held him began to spread through his face, then down over his body. Damascus choked a little and sputtered, but grabbed his brother's arm, leaning up into better position to drink from its depths. The glow focused itself upon his injured chest, making him squirm a little on the ground, descending into a fit of coughing, letting his brother take the jar away a little. The glow didn't subside - somehow as it sank into his chest and belly and face, it merely made his fur and skin glow beneath the bandages rather than fade to darkness. It'd take an hour or so, Ratatat wagered, and Damascus nodded as he caught his breath back, then drank the rest. Couldn't hurt.

Ratatat stood, and smiled at Fubar, reminding him to be careful.

For a huge Ravener that dwarfed his two immediate brothers, the cowboy-hat wearing Fubar moved like a cat - he was standing beside Terra right then, lighting what had to be a small cigar, the scent of it rising as he took a couple catalyst drags on it. He gripped it with his rubbery tongue, and it dissapeared into his mouth, but he was still appearantly smoking it, because smoke trailed along through his nose and around his concealed jaws. He was just suddenly there - as if he'd always been, standing beside Terra.

He smiled at the Terra. Truly, he was a huge Ravener - Ratatat and Damascus didn't have peas on this one, in terms of physical size or muscular definition and tone, a greek god of Raveners.

"Allo, miss." he said cheerfully, smoke billowing out around his jaws as bright green eyes focused on her. He gave an oddly polite bow, and got a good look at her face before continuing, taking another thoughtful puff of the cigarette. Like many big men, he spoke softly to women.

"M'names Fubar." he said "Wots yeh'r name, miss?" he asked.

[Terra]

Slowly getting up while grabbing onto her fallen flashlight, Terra had a bit of a nervous smile across her lips and...then it converted into a slight frown upon Mr. Mask's crappy attitude. What a jerk, telling her to leave! Just because she thought she wasn't able to do much didn't mean that's what she wanted to hear from ANYONE! Waiting for him to turn his back, the teen hero took a moment to stick her tongue out at the back of his head, raising her free hand up beneath her eye to tug down the lower lid. Being on the surface wasn't part of her plan at this time because she really wanted to help these creatures and make it so that they would be alright! Lowering her hand and ceasing the childish moment of face making goodness with a bit of an annoyed pout going on...it seemed like one of them didn't appreciate this guy's attitude either. In fact, at the moment, she was really glad this light was one of those heavy duty things otherwise it SO wouldn't be working right now!

Letting out a huffed out sigh, feeling all the tension rolling around like a big bundle of metaphorical elephants in some kinda room, clearly she wasn't the only one bothered by Mr. Sunshine. In fact, while his back was still turned on her, she moved her fingers and thumb into doing a talky hand motion close to when he talked and rolled her eyes looking a bit annoyed. Trying not to let him get to her too much, but failing miserably she dubbed his words with a `BLUH BLUH BLUH HUGE JERK BLUH BLUH BLUH` in her head, silently mocking him before quickly lowering her hand to her side trying to have that `didn't do anything! NOPE!` look on her face of casual, cool, and mildly irritated by it all. Sliding her thumb into her pocket, that's when she started speaking up in her tomboyish tone with a hint of strength to it going to show she wasn't going to let him bully her with his words, "Yeah, not going to happen. I'm going to help whether you like it or not because that's what the kind of super heroes I'm trying to be more like do, they help people in need...and it wouldn't hurt to be less of a jerk." Muttering out the last part with a little bit of attitude, the wind following traveler looked off to the side and was glad to see that these guys weren't doing anything more than helping one another.

At least it looked like Damascus, the one the blonde managed to do a good deed for, was on the road to recovery. As bothered as she was, she managed to give a slight smile at the whole brotherly bond going on...but...frowned a tad bit at the realization she didn't really have anyone static in her life to be like family. There was the dragoness...but facing her after all that damage was done...she couldn't go back in fear of actually harming her anymore. Not until she did a few things to make up for what happened and get a better grip on her stupid powers. ...but wait...what was that stuff...it seemed to cause glowing or something...maybe a healing potion? Her eyes widened a bit in awe that they had something so cool, about to ask what that stuff was, the sound of the watery culprit reminded her there was work to be done. HELPFULLY HEROIC work to be done!

"In fact, watch this!" Turning her gaze back over to the pipe...she figured now was as good of a time as any to fix it up for them. "Er..." THERE WAS A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE ....wait a sec....was something next to her? Just to humor her suspicion, she looked over toward the other side and...saw a muscular bundle of fluff. Okay...where did this one come from?! It was a bit of a shock, almost made her wanna jump out of her skin at the fact that something so big could be so stealthy! Tilting her head upward, she smiled sheepishily while leaning a bit back to see what appeared to be the eldest from what she could see by the current whatchamacallit size chart who was wearing a cowboy hat....and....was he smoking?

Or....something...like...that...it was safe to assume he was considering the grey mist slithered about him close to his mouth and nose. Aiming the light toward him, she lowered it a bit as to not temporarily blind him by accident or piss him off. Last thing she needed was two things being all angry with her! Blinking a couple of times at how he was kinda cool but scary looking and was way nicer than `Mask` who wanted her to pretty much get lost. What she couldn't help but wonder what these guys were exactly...first things first though! As politely as her tomboyish charm let her be while being juuuust a pinch bit thrown off by the fact one of these creatures was actually next to her...scratch that...the tallest and possibly most intimidating one of the group was SUDDENLY next to her as if he'd been chilling in that spot the whole time like a giant fluffy ninja. "How did you-uh..heh...heh...heh...I mean...hiya Fubar...the name's Terra! I'mma super hero...or...y'know...trying to be one..."

Readjusting her posture a bit, she continued to speak but seemed a little more curious this time around while trying to play it cool...aaaas usual, "...uh...anyway...don't take this the wrong way but what are you guys? I've seen lots of monsters, no offense," Holding up her hand and slightly waving it with a slight shrug for a short moment before placing her hand at her side so that she could slide her thumb into the rim of her pocket. Slightly tilting her head to the side before continuing, "...but nothing that really looks like...well...you guys." Might as well ask, this one, as HUGE as he was, seemed nice enough to give a decent answer. For all she knew this happened to be a shiny new paranormal discovery!

Maybe people would look to her as a hero of finding a new and peaceful species...? Nah, long shot, it was enough of a pat on the back, metaphorically speaking, knowing that she was helpful...but it'd be good to know WHAT she helped. Hey, that's right...she was supposed to do more to help these folks! Grinning a bit, remembering what she was juuuuuuust about to do with a hint of triumphant goodness! FIX THE PIPE AND SHOVE MASK GUY'S JERKFACE WORDS RIGHT DOWN HIS THROAT! "Oh! And I'm going to fix that pipe for you guys, sound cool?" Bringing her hand up once more to thumb point at the busted pipe, the young manipulator of earth with sunny yellow hair and spunk had this sort of look that just seemed to blurt out in its own way `I'm a cool kid even though I'm spazzing just a little bit`. Especially with that somehow energetic `calm n' cool` she developed for her composure.

Of course, it was obvious she was looking for some sort of approval. Part of her wanted to point out how his smoking habit MIIIIIIGHT be bad for him...but she wasn't going to blurt out that slice of thought just yet! THERE WAS PIPE FIXIN' TO DO!

[hei]

As his de facto guide took the jar back from Hei the man easily picked up on the much more frosty demeanor of the creature, briefly wondering what he'd done to warrant a response. No so much that he particularly cared, but more for future reference. As far as Hei could tell he'd done exactly what was requested of him, no more, no less, with little if any room for error - all he'd done during that time was speak to the civilian, and they seemed to have no problems with her. Or was it how he had spoken to her? Ironic in a way - given what Hei suspected in regards to which manner the people aboveground had been disappearing and where they'd probably ended up, the pseudo Contractor couldn't help but find it to be slightly absurd, not to mention hypocritical, that they'd take issue with how he spoken to her, especially when there was no guarantee that they wouldn't have attacked her under different circumstances. Then again, it came back to the fact that Hei didn't particularly care what they thought of him - the girl would be much safer up on the surface aboveground rather than down there with him and the creatures, regardless of the fact that they'd guaranteed her safety in exchange for his cooperation for the time being, and he saw no reason to sugar coat the words. She didn't belong down there, and softening how he said it wouldn't change that fact, and as such he more or less ignored her rebuttal and subsequent refusal - as far as he was concerned she frankly didn't know what she was talking about, an opinion all the more enforced by her amatuerish behavior.

As he continued to watch his guide, though, his attention turned back to the jar and the substance in it, again wondering exactly what it was. If anything it reminded him of the glow typically associated with artifacts from Hell's Gate - a soft, blue glow without any definate center, but that was an impossibility, or at least he believed it to be. The Gates didn't exist in this reality, but then again Hei couldn't account for how he himself had ended up in it - it was hypothetically possible that some things had slipped through much as he had, but even still the liquid did not give off the same feeling as the few artifacts he'd encountered, there really wasn't a better way to describe it. Unlike those items, which generally tended to give Contractors a stirred up, uneasy feeling, he felt nothing from the container until it was opened, and even then it did not match with what he knew. It was only Hei's relatively extensive history and experience with items just as strange as this that kept him from being at all surprised as the injured creature ingested it, with Hei remaining exactly where he was, impassive and seemingly emotionless as he watched the burn victim squirm and struggle for several moments before finally calming down.

As it was Hei was so focused that he almost didn't notice the big one of the bunch beginning to move towards Terra, and it took a sheer act of will to stop himself from simply reacting and moving to fry the creature before it could reach her, forcefully reminding himself that they had a deal, and that from what little he'd seen he didn't think they would break it so quickly - nevertheless, though, Hei turned his head just barely enough so that he could see out of the corner of one of his mask's black eyes and over his shoulder, keeping the girl and the creature in his view at all times; whether or not it would be apparent to the others there was anyone's guess, though, thanks to the mask hiding his eyes.

It wasn't until the girl - Terra, she had called herself - announced her intention to fix the pipe a second time that Hei managed to actually hear and comprehend what she had said for what was intended, having more or less been ignoring everything she'd said up to that point. Normally Hei would have completely dismissed it out of hand much as he had her previous comments, but now that he was actually paying attention to her words, he noticed something he hadn't before, something that seemed completely out of place - while the confidence she had up to that point had seemed perfectly in keeping with the idea that she was a simple delinquint or a thrill seeker/adrenaline junkie before, the fact that she seemed so sure that she could fix such a problem when she couldn't possibly be capable of lifting the pipe alone more than a few inches off the ground (if that), made Hei stop for a moment.