Out of Sight, Out of Mind.

[mitochondriaaya]

Like police work, warehouse work was full of long, boring car rides followed by stretches of intense adrenaline and terror. For example, the ride up here had taken hours. She didn't care for the sheer isolation, it was a bad place for a bad artifact to end up but at least she could trust her partners?

After a year now at the Warehouse, well, she damn well better be able to trust her partners. Granted it had been a year of ups and downs, it had taken her a while to settle in an accept her new job by now? She loved it, honestly. It was challenging, unique, and the people were amazing. It made trundling up toward a spot even Elcy had considered a missile strike for a bit less unnerving?

And hell Dilan thrived on forests as far as she could tell.

They didn't have any prep work for this, no real clue what could be up here except that people had been disappearing, even a full rescue team. Current theory was a serial killer in the area so the call to the FBI for help had redirected to them naturally. Calls did that when the Warehouse was curious, she couldn't really trace how but better some things came to them, right?

Still, something that could take out trained tactical units? That was bad.

"The Ghost Call Radio is still in deep storage," Aya noted, sitting sideways in her seat so she could talk to both men. "We're pretty sure the Carnivale Masks are still at the bottom of the ocean...so what can a little mountain resort get their hands on that disappears people?" she mused.

And what kind of disappearing was it? She was starting to get a feel for how to suss out artifacts, there was that at least? "Old, probably. Probably older than someone can associate a name with else it'd have flagged in our system sooner?" she hazarded.

So how did a place get their hands on a nameless antique? Or better how had said antique not triggered in other locations?

"...two piece?" Perhaps? Something that needed both to activate?

This was going to be fun.

"Why did Elcy call a missile strike? Does she have a limited number of those per year or something?" she chuckled, tucking her knees up to her chin in the seat as she watched the woods roll by. Yeah, she'd bet Elcy had missile tickets, it seemed like she would.

Comments

[sliceitwithwind]

Braig was sleeping, and Dilan was paging through his PDA trying to find the answers to Aya's questions, "Elements I hope it's not a two piece. I hate two piece artifacts. As for the missile strike? Mom's got it on standby because sorting through things we're up to eighty six missing people."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Eighty-six in a three week period," she pointed out grimly. And they might not have pinged it for another few weeks if a whole recovery crew hadn't disappeared. A few tourists didn't quite cause the same ripples. "That's a hell of an acceleration and there'd be something about odd disappearances through the years if it was a one piece artifact that was only occasionally active." But to suddenly appear and take so many? That felt like overlap.

Didn't mean she didn't hate the idea too.

"The only words called in about that survivor the team found before they were gone was 'don't blink'. We're certain?" Seemed an odd thing to tell a rescue team so her brain was poking at it.

[sliceitwithwind]

"It was very clear." Dilan said, "The only reason you weren't dragged in to hear as well is because you were on that snag and bag out in Kent. So my primary job is apparently going to be staring at everyone. Luckily I'm good at that."

[mitochondriaaya]

"For the record, one of you guys get to fetch the Kewpie doll next time, it keeps skipping dolls and the fishnets are annoying." she chuckled, though it was a bit strained. That...wasn't good. What if one of them not blinking wasn't enough?

Crud

"Coffee is our friend. Is that what was in the extra bag Yinsi stuffed in the trunk?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Probably. Might be some other stimulants as well." Dilan said, nodding, "You and I are going to be in charge of looking, since Braig is Olia."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Oooo, suitcase full of mixed stimulants," she chuckled wryly, "my favorite thing." Mystery stimulants at that!

Still, it was always worrisome when Elcy was sending drugs, even mild ones. "Yeah, Anyway we can talk him into establishing base camp...here? He hates tents but..."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Do we want a tent, or to sleep in the car?" Dilan asked, "This thing has every modification we can possibly have to help keep us safe. Not the most comfortable thing, but..."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Well, we get him out here with a tent this is what, an hour under the target elevation?" Roughly? "I want someone capable of calling the cavalry if we get swallowed, because sooner is..." better. The sooner they could get help in the more likely one or more of them might still be alive.

Sue her, she liked the idea of the boys being alive.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Ahhhh, I didn't realise you meant leaving him here. Want to stop and wait for him to wake up? You're the one who has to argue him into it."

[mitochondriaaya]

She glanced at the dashboard clock, then the sky before sighing and shaking her head, "No, not enough time to get him coherent," damn. "Not and have daylight left anyway. I just don't like this setup."

[sliceitwithwind]

"You aren't the only one." Dilan agreed, "This...I don't like the feeling I get. I really don't. I can't put my finger on it, though." he looked back at Braig, "I am, however, going to start waking him up."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Glad to know it's not just me," she chuckled wryly. "But if you develop psychic powers before we get there let me know so we can turn around," she sighed, reaching over to poke Braig's cheek.

[sliceitwithwind]

"If I develop psychic powers before we get there, I will alert you with the screaming in horror." Dilan said, shaking Braig by the shoulder hard.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed easily. "As long as I don't reflexively crash us due the screaming." Eh, still might be safer. Felt like that kind of situation.

"Think he'd sleep through a crash?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Nope, he would not sleep through a crash." Dilan assured her, "Broken bones would wake him up, and he is Olia. Tough for Olia, but Olia none the less."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Good to know," she chuckled tiredly. "Hate to have to go through a crash with just us to juggle the paperwork later."

Speaking of crashes though...there was a car in the road on the next switchback. Just...sitting. "HOLD ON!"

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan grabbed for Braig, hoping to keep him from breaking anything if they hit the car in the road. "Got him!" he called, bracing for the possibility of a car engine to the butt.

[mitochondriaaya]

She snarled something unsavory about the idiocy of anti-lock breaks as she slammed the car into the lowest gear possible to dump speed. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't textbook, but the car didn't leave the road and she managed to slew them around so the rear taillights smashed into the stalled car instead of anything head on.

...

...

"Ow."

It wasn't enough to jar the airbags at least?

[sliceitwithwind]

"Ow." Braig echoed, waking up, "Wha' happ'?"

"Abandoned car in the road." Dilan said, "I'm going to see if we've got a new line of disappearance. Elements I hope not."

[mitochondriaaya]

"...Jacobs," she swore, peeling her hands off the wheel. "Hang on a second so I can keep Braig and the car you're headed to in view?" Just in case?

This involved getting out of the car, shaking the adrenaline out, and leaning on the hood so she had a clear line of sight. "Sorry for the rude awakening," she offered to Braig through the glass. "I owe you an apology drink later?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Sure. Let me know when it's clear." Dilan agreed. Braig huffed a laugh, "Taking you up on that."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Clear."

Aya snorted softly, amused despite herself at his statement, "wouldn't be much of an apology drink otherwise." Granted, the car could have been put there by an artifact in a roundabout way to get Braig, making it his fault, obscurely, but...she still felt bad for managing an accident before they were even up at the lodge.

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan poked his head into the car, examining it in detail as best he could. A few long strands of hair had him...slightly relieved. "Looks like it was abandoned on purpose." he called back, approaching with the hair.

[mitochondriaaya]

"That's both good and bad," Aya admitted, making sure to keep Dilan in sight despite wanting to look down at the hood to just think things through. "No obvious cause is bad in that 'no way to predict the future' way," ah but it also meant that maybe the fallout line for the artifact wasn't quite this low on the mountain yet.

"The car should still be drivable if we don't want to risk hiking up. Thoughts?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Drive." Dilan said, instantly, "If we have to leave ahead of a missile strike I do not want to be trusting my ability to carry one or both of you."

"...Agreed. Counter argument?" Braig asked.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Just the unknown," she admitted. "There could be more abandoned cars ahead that could come up on us around a hairpin without warning, as well as the 'taking out a car is easier than three people' aspect." In case this effect was somehow directed. No real evidence of that yet? But there wasn't any counter evidence either.

[sliceitwithwind]

"I'd rather risk the car." was Dilan's comment. "We have to accept the risk of the unknown enough as it is. We can always choose to abandon the car later."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Fair enough, we need the first aid kit from the back for you Braig?" Since Dilan would be heading up past the trunk anyway? And Elements she'd never realized just how much she tended to blink until she was afraid to do so.

[sliceitwithwind]

"I'm fine." Braig said, waving a hand, "Bring it anyway, though."

"On it." Dilan promised, grabbing the kit and heading getting between the others so that he could see them out of the corners of his eyes.

[mitochondriaaya]

"What, don't even need coffee now?" Aya teased a little tensely, turning the car back on the moment Dilan was in. "And do we call in the license plate, see if this person was one those we knew to be missing?" Or just get their asses up the mountain faster?

[sliceitwithwind]

"I thought the coffee went without saying." the short man said grimly, "Gimme."

Dilan said, "Call it in, then walk up. Just in case, you know. We want to make sure that as much information is sent back as possible."