Party Foul (G/t)

Part 2

"That's the biggest damn cup I've ever seen in my life," Domino barely breathed, finally acknowledging the truth and successfully staying composed despite the cacophony of sirens flaring in her head. "That, or we're small as all hell, but I'm going to go with the former for my own sanity's sake."

Turning back and forth from the cup itself to the brick wall on which it sat to the abyssal forest of a grassy yard way too far below and way too wide for her comfort brought about feelings within her she hadn't felt since she was a bad seed. A sour seed she was that flowered into a prickly plant she is, but she was once a sprout just as they all once were... to which they currently felt their psyches regressing out of sensible fear.

"Mm-hmm," Jigsaw hummed in agreement, halfway thankful she couldn't see the space at its full expanse and quality. "So, whatever put it out here is probably much, much larger than it... and us. We've come across some big adversaries over the years, but they were generally that way just in number or mentality."

Glyph checked in. "Speaking of number, don't you think it's a bit weird that we haven't seen anyone around, person or animal, other than Curio?"

As it was such a beautiful day - they, too, could see that despite the circumstances - it was unlikely that no soul wouldn't and/or couldn't embrace the incoming twilight and night for what fun they were sure to be. Plus, at this size, there wasn't much that could be missed, except for themselves.

Jigsaw reluctantly agreed, "Yes, but maybe the Gods are working in our favor for the moment. Heavens forbid that the training technicalities are true here, too: a possible enemy's quantity and mindset being off the charts knocked even more askew now with presumed size."

"The latter on its own is already statistically a suicide mission," Domino declared through a shameful sigh.

"But, is it not one worth taking?" Domino and Jigsaw almost considered that someone else had somehow snuck into the copter, but that wasn't the case. Glyph, out of nowhere, bubbled up some moxie. "Yes, I shouldn't have shown my tattoo, yes, she shouldn't have tried reading a rune, and, yes, we shouldn't have been inebriated doing both, but Curio is our clan mate, isn't she?"

"G, I know where you're going with this," Domino announced, sourness singeing her words once again, "and you are not going to pull me into a damn trolley problem."

"Why can't I?" Glyph questioned with an accusing, pointed hand toward Domino, pressing literally in her chest. "Why shouldn't I?" she then threw to Jigsaw. "Why are you two so set on letting her die so quickly!?"

"We're not!" both elder ladies barked, their directed force nearly sending Glyph out the side of the copter. They, noticing their own veins bulging and Glyph starting to breathe heavily, lowered their demeanors as rapid as possible. Jigsaw, with a sigh, spoke for herself and her slightly younger, saucy friend.

"Do you really think we would've done all of this and come so far if we didn't want to get Curio?" she commenced, using her commanding, commander's tone and her just-as-intimidating appearance to her advantage. "Would we still be on autopilot right now, taking the shortest and fastest path possible to her if we didn't care?"

All of the elder's inquiries got apprehensive nods out of Glyph, but the puzzled look on her face showed that she still didn't get the hesitation.

Domino spoke up, being rather calm for once. "It's not that we don't want to help her, G. We just want to make sure the three of us are alive to do so. You see this place. You can probably feel how off it is."

"Heh, yeah," Glyph managed to chuckle, composing herself. "The sensors sure do, too."

Along with the temperature and altitude faults (or lack thereof), the hub now appeared to detect another force almost magnetic in nature, perhaps being that which attracted Curio aside from her pronunciation problem. It, in every regard, seemed familiar or, at least, similar enough to be manipulated given time they didn't have, yet here it was flared as resistant and restricted.