"SHEESH that was close," Jessica thought, sparing a glance back at the situation she had managed to egress. She was relieved to get away from that sword, which went from REALLY COOL to REALLY SCARY in as long as it took Eyebrows to tower over her. More than that, she was glad to see that the little girl managed to avoid harm when Eyebrows toppled. It's one thing to make a kid cry, but quite another to hurt them.

...Thought the girl that had kicked sand at a child.

She took a deep breath when she had reached her CONSPIRATORIAL destination, and took a seat nearby the boy.

Haywood probably identified Jessica as a Blaster due to how COOL she was and also how EVIL, because she didn't have a brother. He was probably AWESOME though. Jessica shook Haywood's hand EVILLY.

"I know, right? Some Inscribed are freakin' crazy. I'm Jessica Jameson, a BANZAI CAPTAIN, but feel free to call me MAD DOG," Jessica smugged, "I don't have a brother. Just a sister who SUCKS and HELPS BRING PEACE AND AID to WAR-TORN THIRD-WORLD COUNTRIES like a NERD. You'll have to introduce me to this guy some time, 'cause he sounds like a riot."

Jessica looked into the tide pool and watched as a small fish got muscled out of her dinner by a much larger fish. Poor thing was gonna starve. But that's just how things went.

"Ah... yeah, I got 'Mad Dog' because when I was robbing this convenience store, the manager was SUPER HIGH and thought I was some mutt off the street. He chased me around with a broom, but I made off with most of the stuff in the register and like SIX BAGS of pork rinds."

Of course, she DIDN'T tell Haywood that she also started barking her head off when the manager ran after her. That would just sound WEIRD.

It was very difficult, Penny thought, to become this intimately familiar with sand. The course texture, the sea breeze/earthy scent, the salty taste you didn't get in your typical playground sandbox. It wasn't until every orifice in your face got stuffed with it that you could appreciate the subtle differences between normal sand and beach sand.

She could hear people talking, either gloating or asking questions she had no way to answer until she felt a great weight being lifted off her neck. She lifted herself up, hacking and coughing in between deep breaths. She rose to her knees, blocking each nostril in turn with her finger turn and blowing out what she thought must be a disgusting globule of sand snot onto the beach. She couldn't really see it, the world was too blurry. She felt around in front of her to try and find where her glasses had fallen off, let out a disgusted "Gylaaa" when she put her hand in the snot sand before finally finding something hard and bringing them up to her face.

The first thing she noticed when she put them back on was that they were crooked. She'd landed more on the right side of her face, and that that side was bent pretty thoroughly out of place to the point where it only covered half her eye. It was like those camera shots in the ocean where half the lens was submerged, but in reverse. Clear crisp picture below, murky water above. The second thing was the big tough security man glaring down at her.

This is what she got for engaging.

"Vigilante epithet use?" She said, having gotten her breath back. "The only thing I did with my epithet was that." She pointed at the sand castle and inadvertently the Peasant Serfs around it. They had flopped over like puppets with their strings cut the second the swords was no longer in contact with Penny's neck. She could also see the sword, but she refrained from going to pick it up while this security guy was around. That would probably get her shot and then thrown out of the resort.

She rose to her feet, brushing the sand from her stupid outfit. She pointed between at the guy that did, in fact, look exactly like the star of TVs Supernatural and the skinny guy she had just gotten a look at. "Then these knights in shining armor got the wrong idea and charged to the rescue. Like, seriously, am I wearing a gaudy yellow outfit? Do I look like Negative Plan Johnny? No, because I'm not some wannabe supervillain as-" She suddenly remembered there was a child present and clamped down on the string of foulness that was boiling up from her throat. "As heck jacknape jerkbag who flexes on little kids."

Wait, that was it. The child! She found her, kneeled down, and started brushing the sand out of her hair from the sand cloud that had been thrown up when Penny had left that perfect imprint of herself in the beach. "Sorry." she said. She needed this child. This child was the key to her salvation and not getting thrown out of the resort. "You saw everything that happened, though, right? You tell these nice men what really happened and I'll...hmmmm...I will help you build an entire sand kingdom, how'sabout that?"

Aurora let out a "tch" as the man left her. What an irritating interaction, now she knew how to write the sort of interaction that would make an audience hate a character for wasting their time. Who did he think he was, suggesting an epithet was like a weapon. It was just a part of you. You can put a gun away, you can't put away an epithet. What a wackjob, and not even the fun kind that you could make a story around, just a boring weirdo who thinks he knows best.

Well now that he was gone, she could finally go put some real clothes on. She looked back at the beach one last time, noticing something peculiar. A girl with a real-ass goddamn sword. That was odd, but definitely interest-piquing, noting her speaking to a small child. She tightened the towel around her shoulders once more, and approached quietly, noting the appearence, her slightly broken glasses. What an interesting character she could make.

Aurora stood within sight of her, writing down her appearance at speed. Heh, this was rad, what made her glasses look like that? Oh she had so many ideas.

Anyone nearby would totally see this random girl staring and writing intensely, it would look rather like insanity to anyone who simply saw it at a glance.

The intervention of the security guard, and resulting moment of clarity, changed at least one guy's tune. He went from strident wannabe day-saver to downcast, self-depreciating mumbler in two seconds flat, and immediately started making reparations by jumping down to help shovel the sword girl out. Noting the little gnome workers, the guard stood by with his arms crossed, allowing Jude his attempt to make things easier on himself. While that wouldn't have flown for a real crime, this scuffle didn't feature any obvious injuries or illegalities, so things were dicey to call—especially from where the guard originally stood. One thing was for sure, though: a grown man didn't need to involve himself with a couple of teens. “You hear me?” he asked Mark, pointedly. “Beat it!”

At that point Jude asked about the others, who hadn't escaped the guard's notice. “They left,” he replied, not indicating where they left to. “Didn't see either of them using epithets or getting hands-on. How about that story, now?”

Penny, freshly extricated from a mightily unpleasant rendezvous with the sand, obliged. What she said lined up with what the guard observed, but he gave no sign whatsoever of what he thought about her explanation. His thoughts lay hidden as his eyes behind those darkened aviators. Her swing toward odd verbiage at the end prompted a raised eyebrow, but after she finished he glanced down at the kid Penny pleaded with for an eyewitness report. However he felt about the testimony of the child, the guard watched her expectantly, willing to entertain what she said.

“Um...” Maggy looked pretty afraid and overwhelmed by everything going on. The guard knew to keep her at a distance so that he didn't scare her, but he couldn't just turn off his imposing appearance. Maggy clammed up, and a few moments passed without anyone saying much of anything. Then the guard sighed, removed hit hat, and knelt. Off came the aviators, revealing a pair of big, watery brown eyes.

“Hey there. I'd be happy if you could tell us what happened. If nothing's wrong I'll be on my way, and you and your friends can keep playing.”

Another quiet second went by before Maggy pointed up at Penny. “Her dwarves built me a new sandcastle! Then...those guys came. A-and then she fell over.”

“Hmm.” Blinking to get a few errant grains of sand from his eyes, the guard glanced at the sword. “What was that for?”

Little Maggy bit her fingernails. “Um...she pulled it out of the ground. Then her dwarves came.”

The guard rose to his feet, glancing between the assembled guests. “So, some sort of command-type epithet. Probably something medieval.” He looked at Penny for confirmation. “Well, it looks like nobody's hurt. I'm going to have to note this incident, so please give me your names and epithets. Once that's done, you can go your separate ways.”

Down by the rocks, Haywood gazed at Jessica with newfound admiration. “Whoa, cool. And you're a captain? Guess that makes you my boss. Or one of 'em. Seems like there's no end to the people who can tell me what to do.” He leaned back on the rock, looking out across the beach to where security was resolving the scene they just left, and farther still to where the volleyball game neared its conclusion and the first few children were starting to finish the kids club race, and the bubble pit getting filled up. “So, what brings you here, Mad Dog? Some kind of mission? Where are your Blasters? I'm here with Milo and Liv just to hang out, but a captain like you's gotta be up to something, right?”

His eyes drifted back to the kid club race, landing on the auburn-haired, glasses-wearing woman standing by the water's edge. While everyone else looked happy or bored, the way she moved suggested some kind of distress. Haywood wondered what she could be thinking.

As it happened, 'distress' was something of an understatement. Noelle paced back and forth in the sand, watching the surf with worried eyes. “He should be back by now,” she murmured, putting voice to what both she and Heath knew. “We haven't even seen him. Heath-”

“I'll take a look.” The vacationing salesman was already on the move. He jogged into the water, more urgently than someone eager for a swim, and pushed through the tide in the direction of Lydia. The actress saw him coming in and waved, blissfully ignorant. “Where's Tucker?” Heath shouted. “Have you seen him?!”

Lydia heard him, but her friend had to repeat himself before she understood him. At that point she started looking around too, scanning the waves from atop her board. “I just saw him,” she yelled. “Just a moment ago!”

Noelle didn't hear her. Kicking up sand behind her as she ran, she made it to the lifeguard's elevated chair. “'Scuse me?” she called to get the long-haired man's attention. “I can't find my son. He swam out on the water for the...for the kids' race. He could have gotten swept out!” She almost choked saying it. Her heart pounded in her chest. “Can you see him?”

“Ma'am, calm down,” the lifeguard said, stony-faced. “You lost your child? That's incredibly irresponsible, ma'am.”

“Excuse me?” Noelle's voice was hard, flat, and incredulous. “I didn't...”

The lifeguard cut her off. “Where'd you lose him?”

“I didn't lose him!” Noelle insisted, pointing out toward Lydia. “He was swimming around that buoy.”

Following her direction, the lifeguard's eyes hit the actress and the nearby buoy, then slid right on toward one of the orange safe zone buoys farther out. “How could you let your child swim that far out?”

Noelle sputtered something, close to a panic, but the lifeguard cut her off again. “Don't worry ma'am, I'll save him for you.” He slid from his chair, hit the sand, and took off toward the water. A moment later he swimming steadily, headed toward where Lydia and Heath searched. Noelle watched for a moment, on the verge of tears, before running in herself.

What a bunch of bullshit. Stupid asshole.

Jude reprimanded himself for thinking such harsh things about a man he didn't know, but the point still stood that even if the security guard didn't see the others use their epithets, they totally could have considering some random teen hit the scene faster that he did. Jude crossed his arms, dejected, and tried to avoid looking directly at the people embroiled in the situation that was mostly his fault. As such, his eyes landed on another young woman, using a towel as a cloak. She was staring at the fluffy-haired girl and scribbling into a notepad aggressively. Great, more people taking notice. Jude just stared at the ground, arms crossed then. No reason to look at all the gawkers, make the situation worse. Once the little kid explained her side of the story, confirming Jude was just a prick blindly throwing his epithet around, Jude finally peeked up a little bit at the guard.

"My name is Jude Styles, J-U-D-E S-T-Y-L-E-S. My epithet is Remix, object manipulation and duplication type." Jude mumbled, before letting Penny give her name and epithet. No stupid good deed goes unpunished. Idiot.

Jessica's grin noticeably widened the more her fragile little ego was stroked. In fact, it may have been the first time anyone has ever given her praise, and it was due entirely to the fact that she paid her way directly up to Banzai Captain. Truly her only source of self-worth, the Banzai Blasters were the best! She let out a CONTENTED DOG NOISE and pat Haywood on the back.

"Look, I'm cool. I don't like to use words like 'boss' or 'superior' or 'head honcho' or 'big cheese' or 'leader,'" Jessica explained, becoming happier with every descriptor she listed, "let's not LABEL it, you know? We're all Banzais here. That said..."

Jessica followed Haywood's gaze to the teacher-like lady who had scolded her earlier. She seemed terrified as she babbled something to the life guard. Like a BUTT.

"Oh, don't worry about her. She's one of those LAME ADULTS that think they know you because you destroy a sand castle or two. Probably a teacher. DEFINITELY a NERD. Anyways, see..."

Shit.

SHIT.

She'd look like a total LAME-O if she told this dude that she didn't have any Blasters because she's unlikable and friendless! She'd seem like a SAD LOSER-PANTS if she further revealed that she was alone on a birthday no one remembered! She had to come up with something QUICK!

"See... uh... uuuhhh..."

Jessica took a second or two to prepare her LIE.

"I'm actually here... yeah, to scout the place out! Because... uh... for a BIG HEIST. See... you need to CASE THE JOINT before you do any damage. A genius captain like me knows how important preparation is. Which is why I don't have my Blasters with me. FOUR OF THEM. And, uh, they're called the FOUR HEAVENLY KINGS. It's PRETTY BADASS. The beach is perfect because, uh, there's a LOT OF STALLS lined up in a row and not much security. So I figure... yeah, if we blitzkrieg it, we can get away with a LOT OF STUFF scot-free!"

Actually, this plan wasn't sounding half bad. A few many CRAZY EPITHET-USERS on the beach today, but aside from that...

"...Out of curiosity, did you and your buddies pack your uniforms?"

Mark frowned at the sword girl before noticing some movement behind her. And she fell face-first into the sand. And there was security. "Hey, glad you're-" He was told to leave. He didn't.

He stayed and watched, listening as the little girl told her story, but also keeping an eye on the girl who had run away from him calling him Jensen Ackles. When it got to the point that the security man was asking for names and epithets, Mark gladly gave his up. "Mark O'Dess. Stride is a movement-based epithet. Since sword-girl is innocent, I'm gonna go talk to the other girl and get her deal." With that, he used his stride, not giving anyone a chance to respond in any way, to get on the rock behind the teenager.

"I'm actually here... yeah, to scout the place out! Because... uh... for a BIG HEIST. See... you need to CASE THE JOINT before you do any damage. A genius captain like me knows how important preparation is. Which is why I don't have my Blasters with me. FOUR OF THEM. And, uh, they're called the FOUR HEAVENLY KINGS. It's PRETTY BADASS. The beach is perfect because, uh, there's a LOT OF STALLS lined up in a row and not much security. So I figure... yeah, if we blitzkrieg it, we can get away with a LOT OF STUFF scot-free!

...Out of curiosity, did you and your buddies pack your uniforms?"

"How did I not realize you were the bad guy?" he asked, ready to stride in front of her if she tried to run. "Let's make this easy. Tell me who you are and what you can do and I won't drag you to security. Got it?"

He hoped she ran.

Penny just nodded along as the girl gave her side of the story. If was simple, just like a kid, but it was the simple truth. It was hard to argue with a little kid, out of the mouths of babes and all that. Penny winced as the guard noted that he'd have to note this. That was great, now she'd have to be extra careful. She wondered if her parents were going to get notified about this, but then shook that dumb idea off. Why would they? It wasn't like this was school. And she certainty wasn't going to be using her epithet any more after this anyway. Actually, this wasn't that big of a problem at all.

That being the case, it was a little weird that hero boy looked so crestfallen over the whole thing. Geez, boy looked like he'd accidentally killed her dog or something. At least the explanation of his Epithet gave her some idea of what had put her on the ground. He'd probably done something to her sword. That Jude was able sort of thing would probably make her wary of him if she was the protagonist of some novel, but seeing as she was just a normal person it shouldn't matter. Only superheros and people really into fighting got bent out of shape over that sort of hard counter.

The other guy, who turned out to not be the star of hit television show Supernatural, also confirmed he had an epithet. She felt a little disappointed at that, but the dude managed to disappear again before she could think to much about that.

Finally it was her turn. She stood up straight. "My name is Penny Draconis, D-R-A-C-O-N-I-S. I'm in room 52." She got kind of a sour look on her face, and continued. She didn't like talking about her word, it always seemed to make peoples expectations go up. "My Epithet is Royal. It summons things." She walked over to where the sword lay on the ground and stepped on it. All of a sudden the Serfs all hopped back up. "If I'm not touching the sword these guys can't do anything. That's the only I was holding it."

She looked down at them, then back at the little girl. Well, she'd promised. She reached up to her head, pulled off her tiara, then knelt and slipped it onto the girls head. "Boys." She said, and the serfs immediately stood at attention. "You build whatever sand thing the Beach Duchess here tells you to build." That at least meant all she had to do was hang around while the Serfs did all the work. Her eyes flipped up to Jude. No, she didn't want to let him get away like the other two had. "Hey, Jude?" She asked, "Why don't you hang around and help out?"

Wearing a gleeful look, Haywood listened intently to Jessica's explanation. Of course, it made perfect sense! Nothing ever went down at tourist spots or resorts. When someone thought crimes, they thought of banks, offices, pawn shops, and convenience stores, as Jessica so helpfully proved. That bearded guard, standing there and scratching off the personal information of that goody two-shoes and the white knights, probably constituted half of the security force here. Once someone scouted it out, it'd make for the perfect hit! “Smart move!” he remarked before snickering. “And sending the captain out too, instead of someone a little...more discreet.” The sandcastle incident came to mind. “Interesting. Wish my captain took the initiative. She's too busy getting her hair done off our fees to actually take charge.”

She went on to ask if he and his friends brought their uniforms, which he brushed off. “Pssh! Please, what are we, amateurs? Course we did! Never know when you gotta blast!”

His show of confidence came to an abrupt end as Mark spoke up behind the two, causing Haywood to leap in the air in fright. “Gah!” he cried, before blushing with embarrassment as he hurried to compose himself. “I mean, gaah...gah ha! I thought I heard someone minding other peoples' business!” Motioning for Jessica to keep it cool, he crossed his arms and treated Mark to a derisive smirk. “Who're you calling bad? You seen too many superhero movies?” A brief moment of silence struck as he seemed to come to a revelation, after which he burst out in a fit of giggles. “Bahahaha! What, you thought we were serious? Just kiddin' around, dooood.” He really enunciated the word, trying to make the intruding adult feel and look the fool. “You've got nothing on us, mister superhero. Just a couple kids goofing off on vacation.” Haywood glanced at his new friend for confirmation. “Isn't that right?”

"GAH IT'S JENSEN ACKLES, STAR OF HIT TELEVISION DRAMA SUPERNATURAL, AIRING ON CW EVERY MONDAY AT 8:00/7:00 CENTRAL," Jessica exclaimed, jumping in surprise. This was the second time Jensen Ackles just seemed to appear behind her. It was just her and Haywood only a few seconds before. Jessica backed up as her new Blaster friend handled the situation calmly.

Calm. Right. That's what this situation required. Jessica looked behind the man surreptitiously.

"How did he manage to sneak up on me twice in a row... inscribed? One... two... two sets of footprints in the sand. Mine and Haywood's. Rules out silence and invisibility. A teleportation epithet?"

There were too many words that could lend themselves to such a power. All she could guess at this point was that running was not wise. This situation was to be defused with words, as Haywood suggested. It was sheer luck that the man followed them to an unoccupied area, or else there would have been too many footprints to count. Every bone in her body wanted to brag about figuring it out, but knowing at least one thing he could do without him being aware could be useful later. Instead, she concentrated on defusing the situation.

"Y-yeah... yeah! You know, kids talk a lot of crap all the time without meaning any of it. If it'll make you feel safer, though, I'm just a mundie," Jessica said, putting her hands up in faux surrender, "my SPECIAL ABILITY is being a plain Jane. That's why I PEACED OUT so quick when that epithet-user menaced me with a sword. I don't have any ability to defend myself from stuff like that."

It was then that Jessica discovered that she had one worthwhile skill after all: lying her ass off.

"But, hey, drag me to security if you want. I'm SURE beach security will react positively to a grown-ass ADULT manhandling a VERY TALL FOR HER HEIGHT girl, especially with all the HARD EVIDENCE you have of my nonexistant wrongdoing. How about you leave us be to enjoy the beach, huh?"

The other adult in the situation-- Mark, was also an Inscribed, and seemed to realize there may have been something going on with the two kids who got away. It didn't particularly matter to Jude anymore-- no justice needed to be meted out or anything, and participating any more would just ruin things further, so he let the familiar looking man teleport away. Right in front of the guard too, though the man was too busy taking down Penny's name to notice that. Speaking of, he spared a glance at her, trying not to look creepy or aggressive or stupid or the like. Apparently, she could sort of transfer command of her peasants to someone else through her tiara. That was pretty cool actually. His eyes slowly flickered between the little girl and Penny, before his name was called and he snapped back into reality.

It took him a second to realize what she had said. At first he threw his hands up and meant to apologize for looking at her weird or whatever it was she was surely scolding him for-- but she wasn't. She actually wanted him to stay around. Sure it was probably just to make some little girl happy by playing sand castle with her but... that was something, wasn't it? He could reasonably say to his mother he met some people and made a sand castle with them. Even if it was going to awkward as hell (and it assuredly was) he'd be making his mother happy.

"Sure." Jude finally responded with a nod. "I turned your sword back to normal by the way. You should be able to lift it again. Sorry. About, almost killing you. Sorry."

"First of all, children, I was not here about your current conversation. Being a bully to a child is still wrong. I need your name for security over there because you were part of the incident.

"Secondly, Just because I look like Jensen Ackles doesn't mean I am him. My name is Mark. I doubt Jensen has such a cool epithet anyways.

"Thirdly, with what I did hear of your conversation, you would be followed, possibly interrogated, and most definitely detained when you're caught breaking the law. Be smart, kids. Get out of the Blasters before it's too late."

He looked at them, frowning softly. The look on his face was full of sadness, hope, and smug satisfaction. He wanted the kids to do the right thing.

"So, what's it gonna be? This poor excuse of acting like nothing's wrong or the truth and the right thing? Your choice, kids."

This was one insistent dude. He just wouldn't stop standing there, listing out his points nice and neat and one by one, wearing a bizarrely conflicting expression the whole time. Haywood and Jessica weren't buying what Mark was selling. He existed as another in a long line of adults thinking he knew what was best for them, but he thought wrong, and without their respect nor the teeth to back his argument up his words were worthless. Just as Jessica did when confronted with that auburn-haired teacher, Haywood knew that adults had to follow the rules, so Mark couldn't do anything to make his words stick. And Haywood was only too happy to let him know.

“My choice, huh?” He swelled up, poised to say something amazingly cool. “Alright, here it is. You can suck a fart outta my ass, how 'bout that?” Haywood laughed, pushing off the rock. “But seriously, keep botherin' us and you'll get nice and acquainted with that officer over there, just like my pal says. Inscribed on mundie harassment, never looks good.”

He started stalking down the beach at a steady pace with his hands in the pockets of his swimming trunks, trusting Jessica to follow him. This time he made sure via visual confirmation that Mark wasn't on their tail. “Jeez,” he said once in the clear. “What a riot. I tell ya, some inscribed are so pushy. Like havin' some tacky trick makes you important.” Haywood ended up looking at a commotion in the surf on the other side of the glorified bouncy castle called the Floating City. “Some kid drownin'...?” he asked.

The salt water stung, but Noelle kept her eyes wide open as she plunged underneath. Her heart beat like a prizefighter, filling her veins with adrenaline. Between her, Heath, and Lydia, no sign of Tucker could be found above the surface. Her realization of the only alternative filled her with terrible dread. Her son was already beneath the water.

She tore through the shallows as fast as her muscled could take her, struggling against the resisting water. Without firm footing she couldn't effectively use her own epithet to move faster, and with nothing on hand to build up heat with she couldn't amass enough strength to compensate. The coolness of the ocean would have doused her fire, anyway. After almost blacking out from holding her breath Noelle broke the surface, gasping for air. She looked left and right, her soaked hair whipping around, but saw nothing, not even the cloud rolling in. Where was the lifeguard!? her mind screamed. She spotted Heath instead, and shrieked at him, “Where is he!?”

At that moment, there came a tremendous cracking sound, like a fracture in the earth. A wave of current hit Noelle, washing her back, but it didn't come from the sea. It radiated out from a source beneath the surface fifty feet away, and as the cloud cover began to darken the sky she could see something glowing under there. “Tucker?!” Noelle rushed in its directing, thinking of nothing but her boy. The water around the light started to boil, and she watched it grow frothier and angrier as something rose to the surface. The wind whipped across the top of the water, slinging stinging spray, and lightning flashed overhead. A voice, deep and unfamiliar, bellowed above the wind.

“He's gonna blow!”

Then came the thunder.

Noelle didn't know what happened. One moment she was in the water, swimming with exhausted muscles toward where her son was about to die, and the next a wall of wind slammed her in the face. The cyclone expanded as a sphere from the epicenter, sweeping up sea, sand, towel, chair, shop, and stone, and dozens of people with them. Everything was chaos, bodily punches of water and debris, calamitous wind and terrific cacophony. The gale devoured everything, and shortly after, everything went black.

---

The sun crept into the darkness, like early morning rays filtering through blinds to intrude upon the eyelids of someone trying to sleep in. Oblivion felt nice and comfortable, and Noelle didn't want to wake up and face another day. Hard to believe her vacation was over already...could days really pass that quickly? For a brief time, she'd enjoyed peace and relaxation. Her, Heath, Lucy, and...and...

Noelle's eyes shot open. Tucker.

She sat up with a gasp. Everything came flooding back. She had to find Tucker. He was...drowning. About to be lost at sea. Then...it all got dark...a sudden storm...

Noelle blinked, looking around. Where was she?

She sat on a beach, but not the beach she knew. Yellow sand stretched out on either side of her, and gentle waves lapped at her legs. The beach sloped downward, and there was no end in sight in either direction. From her position the coast curved in a rough crescent shape, totally unlike the one she knew. When Noelle turned to look behind her, she found lush green vegetation, shrubs and palm trees. Large rock formations started to pile up, the land trending steadily upward. She could see enormous pillars of stone towering above the jungle. Getting shakily to her feet, she took in her surroundings. She stood in totally unfamiliar land.

Well, not totally unfamiliar. She saw one of the resort's beach huts lying on its side, carelessly thrown there. Now that she got another look, a number of items that might have been at Otterholt lay strewn on the beach. And some people, too. Her eyes landed on one, and she sprinted over. “Heath!” She knelt by his side, trying to shove him awake. “Heath, get up!”

After a few moments he started to stir, and a couple seconds after that he opened his eyes. “Ohhh...Noelle? What happened?”

His wife looked around again. Nearby, some of the others were getting up too. “I don't know,” she said, tormented. “We were looking for Tucker, and then this storm hit out of nowhere.”

“Tucker...” Heath sat up, groaning. “Oh God. Is he here?”

Noelle had been looking. She shook her head. “Not here...but he has to be somewhere. But I have no idea where we are.” An unknown island, a spotless horizon. No civilization in sight, just a portion of what must be the wreckage of Otterholt Point. Baffled and anxious, Noelle breathed anything but easy. “And where...where's Lucy? Oh...oh no...”

“Calm down,” urged Heath, as he hugged her tight. “We're okay. We can figure this out and find our kids.” But he was worried too. For all he knew, whatever happened had stranded his family on an uncharted island.

For the second time today Penny got to enjoy the exquisite taste of sand.

For the second time she pushed herself up from her position face first on the beach, shaking herself like a wet dog to try and get the sand off of her and spitting to get it out of her mouth. At least this time it hadn't got into her nose, and the face plant at least meant that her glasses hadn't gone flying off her face during the...

What was that? Some kind of sudden storm? She hadn't been paying much attention to the water. All she knew was that it had sudden't gotten dark and windy, the voice of god had shouted something soul rattling, then she'd been swept up in something. She'd read about rogue waves, sudden unexpected tsunamis that turned over whole ships but aside from the seas spray she didn't feel wet so that was out? Maybe a sudden tornado? Dust devils got that powerful, rarely.

But no, those hypothesis went right out the window the moment she looked up and saw jungle where their should be resort. Penny climbed to her feet and just stared out into the bush, her eyes trailing all the way up to the mountainous twin peaks she was sure hadn't been on the brochure. For a second she frantically turned her head left and right trying to spot the resort. To be fair to her she did spot the resort. Parts of it anyway. A few of those shops had been overturned in that sudden whirlwind. No, no, that wasn't right. That didn't make sense. If was more likely to think that they were dropped there by whatever had swept them here.

"So that's it, huh?" She said breathlessly. "We aren't in Kansas anymore?" She turned around and looked down the crescent curve of this new beach. That was the only explanation, wasn't it? Something had happened and now they were somewhere else. Somewhere that looked, from this side at least, deserted save for the people that had been flung here. As the magnitude of that started to set in she suddenly felt very naked.

Her bag? It was gone, or at least not around here. He new book, her stupid game, all her day supplies, it was all blown who knows where. That was fine, that was fine, she could probably find it if she had a few more pairs of eyes. That wouldn't be hard. At least it wouldn't be if she had her epithet.

Looking at the area around her feet, though, she was out of luck in that department too.

Her breath caught in her throat. She hit the dirt, frantically clawing up handfuls of sand and throwing it every which way but it just wasn't there. She stood back up again, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth and try and hide the worry her body language was broadcasting to anyone around.

"Hey!" She called out, turning in little circles. "Kid? Hey kid, where'ed you go? Jude? Mr. Aviators?"

It'd almost be funny if it weren't so sad.

Jude refused to open his eyes. He had woken up, of course. He felt sun beaming on his face from somewhere in a way that made him positive he wasn't in a dream. But what had happened before-- with Penny and the storm and everything-- he wasn't sure. Maybe it was a dream, his brain playing a cruel joke of an emotional rollercoaster where-in finally, he begins to make a friend, and god himself rips it all away and kills everyone. Or maybe it was real, and he'd wake up and he wouldn't be living his life anymore. That was, depressingly, less sad than the alternative. But Jude didn't want to find out. Maybe he could just sit here, eyes closed, basking in the warm sun and sand forever.

Wait, sand?

Without opening his eyes, Jude moved his hand from his side and reached out, scraping the ground. He was still on a beach. Had he passed out here or something? Maybe everyone was looking at him like he was an idiot for falling asleep on the beach, surely drooling everywhere, without a towel. The anxiety was enough for Jude to finally sit up and open his eyes and confirm no one was eye-balling him. Indeed, no one was. In fact there were a lot less people here than before. And a lot less resort, too. The young man whipped his head around all over to confirm it. He wasn't even AT Otterholt anymore. Stumbling up to his feet, Jude's heart began to race. What was going on? That tornado... there was no way it managed to whip him and a bunch of crap from the resort all the way to a seemingly deserted island. He wasn't even that close to the water.

Oh god, mom!

Jude started to spiral into an anxious wreck. What day was it? How long had he been out? Was the sun that high before? How worried must his mother have been-- how'd he let her convince him to even come?! A hundred thoughts swished and dashed through Jude's skull as he began to break down and hyperventilate. Luckily, there was something able to bring him back to reality. He was ignoring the first few people to get up, but his own name being called, especially in distress, was enough for him to swallow his fears. He turned, almost recognizing the voice. It was Penny.

Jude wanted to run over and hug the young woman. Their encounter had been real-- her reaching out to him, asking him to stay-- but so were his mistakes, and the cruel reality that they were both in now. He stomped down the urge for human contact and lightly jogged over to her.

"Penny. I'm... glad to see you I guess. At least I know the name of someone here, right? U-uh, are you okay you seem rattled? Not that I wouldn't be I mean I think we almost died! I-- oh jesus. Where's the kid? The-the little girl?"

Yet another clueless adult. Nothing that Jessica hadn't heard before. It lacked the SICK PERSONALS that the teacher brought to the table as well. Empty words, devoid of meaning. The last line, especially, was laughable to Jessica. Acting like nothing was wrong was her BAG, and infinitely preferable to the truth.

Because the 'truth' was that Jessica was friendless, unlikable, and that her own family forgot her birthday. For three years straight.

SCREW the truth, the truth sucked and Haywood knew it.

"OOOHHH SICK BUUURN," Jessica called out after Haywood delivered a piece of verbal ART. She flipped 'Mark' off as she backed away.

"LATER, LOSER!"

She was feeling pretty good about her verbal victory. Maybe with the help of Haywood and his crew, she might actually be able to get something done today. Maybe they could have fun knocking over a store or two. At least it would beat last year, when she stayed at home alone and ate a dozen cupcakes while watching anime and crying.

But she was blindsided by an unexpected source.

Like havin' some tacky trick makes you important.

Jessica stopped in her tracks, and looked at the ground, chuckling nervously.

"Y-yeah... assholes."

Because Jessica knew that, even though her epithet wasn't that great, it was also the only thing that made her special. Nobody liked her, and she wasn't good at anything, but Mongrel was HERS. No one else could do what she could, even if that something wasn't incredibly cool. It hurt, but it would be best to come clean about her status as an Inscribed before things got too weird.

"A-actually, you know, I was lying to that guy. I'm really-"

Thunderbolts and lightning. Very, very frightening. Jessica's eyes widened as she looked out at the ocean.

"...Shit."

---

"Ugh... what happened...? My birthday... w-was it a 'rager'? Did I party HARD?"

Jessica stumbled to her feet, brushing the sand off her face.

"The beach still? How did I... huh? Wait... this isn't..."

Second after second, more information came in. The wreckage, the groaning people, the new scenery, and then memory of the storm.

"Wait, what?"

Jessica continued looking around in disbelief. It was all coming together, but none of it made sense.

All she wanted was a happy birthday.

Of course something like this would happen.

Of course.

And now she was gonna die on a desert island because her parents didn't know or care where she went. All because she wanted to get out of her room and try something different. Whatever she tried, it seemed failure followed her. It was too much to take in all at once. Jessica was still a kid, after all.

She crouched and buried her face in her hands, because she didn't want anyone to see. She whimpered, sobbed, and began to cry, trying her best to do so softly and muffle the sounds. No one could see her like this. Crying was lame. Banzai Blasters didn't cry.

Banzai Blasters didn't cry.

Aurora continued watching the other beachgoers, pen and pad in hand. She was so enthralled that when the storm began she was taken by surprise. She quickly tried to write down what was happening, she just needed to get it down, then she could cut it away, right? She might pass out, but she wouldn't get wet. Wait... that's a little more than a storm.

Uh oh.

---

Aurora groaned and pushed herself to her knees, her mind taking a moment to scan her surroundings. She could tell from a glance that this wasn't the beach that she'd just been on... yesterday? Whatever, it was different, she was observant enough to notice. How totally bogus. How'd she even get here? Was it that storm?

Woah, she wasn't alone, a bunch of the people she'd seen on the beach before were waking up too. They were reacting in their very human ways, and Aurora made a mental note of all of their reactions, as she didn't have her notebook on her anymore. Oh, there it was, how lucky. Aurora was mildly annoyed with being tossed onto a deserted island, but with her notebook she had perfect recall of her plot, she'd write it on bark and leaves if needbe, but she had all she needed. Rescue would be nice, but so long as she left her work behind and someone found it? She could sit here and die for all it mattered to her.

She noticed a girl near her in the sand, looking around in disbelief, before burying her face in her hands. Well, that meant not good things. Aurora stood, gathering her notebook, which, thank god, still had a pen with it, and making her way over. She cursed at the fact that she was still clad in only a swimsuit, but that was fine, it didn't matter. She approached the girl and crouched next to her.

"Hey. You okay and stuff?" she asked, trying to sound interested despite that being the antithesis of her normal behavior.

Penny tuned to the source of Jude's voice like a prairie dog scanning zeroing in on a hawk screech. God she was happy to see him. She was almost disgusted by how happy she was to see him. In fact, it was that disorienting happy disgust mixture that made her realize just how close she was to tripping over the cliff right into freakoutsville. She had just met that guy after all, under some extremely annoying circumstances, she shouldn't feel like she'd just spotted her pet dog back from the dead and fit as a fiddle bounding up the beach to her.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then another, one after the other, trying to breath the anxiety out. Being a terrified kid wasn't going to get her anywhere. She felt the shakes and quakes of her body settle down into tremors.

She looked back up to answer Jude, a little more composed. "I..uh...I think I'm okay. Yeah, just a little shaken up. Those castaway jitters, you know? You okay?" Was that a joke she'd said just now? Well, Jude was right about one thing; knowing someone else's name around here actually was helping her keep calm. "I don't know where the girl is. If...if you're here, and I'm here, she was so close she'd have to be around here right?" Think this through. Think logically. Penny's mind latched onto the girl, not so much as a person but as a problem that could be solved. A goal to keep her anchored. It didn't help that she felt responsible for drawing the kid back to the sandcastle when she'd been on the way to her parents, presumably. "Unless she got blown up into the treeline." Penny said, staring again into the green jungle just beyond the beach. She cupped her hands and called out, "KIIIIIID?"

Penny didn't even know her name. She kicked herself for not asking her name. Why hadn't the security asked her name and saved Penny the trouble?

She cupped her ears, listening for any kind of response. She did hear something, though. Soft sobbing, quiet, like a scared kid. Bingo! But it wasn't coming from the trees. She turned her head down the beach, her interest drawn to a pair of girls crouched a ways down the beach. Wait, was that...?

Oh no, it was Godzuki. The local bully wasn't so tough after god kicked sand in her face, huh? Seeing her like that was actually making her feel kind of bad about earlier. Only a little. Just a little bit. You couldn't even call this karma. Even if it had just been her this happened to getting dumped on an island for knocking over a kids sandcastle would be completely disproportionate.

Suddenly, Penny had an idea. "Look over there." she said to Jude, pointing out the pair. "We might need another pair of eyes and she knows what the girl looks like. C'mon." She started jogging up the beach towards the pair, feeling the sand shift uncomfortable under her not very beach shoes.

Jessica was having an utterly FANTASTIC cry sesh. She was really letting it out, and perhaps got a little loud for her own good. Her therapist would probably be proud, if she had a therapist. But she didn't. Because seeking help was for LOSERS. Best to deal with these things STUBBORNLY and ALONE.

Hey. You okay and stuff?

SHIT. She was DEFINITELY NOT okay and stuff! One of those NOSY NANCYS was sniffin' into her biz, and they were about to find out that she had FEELINGS and FEELINGS WERE LAME.

She had to lie! Lie like she'd never lied before!

"BwaaaaHAHAHA!"

Jessica's crying quickly turned to laughter as she rose from her crouching position in one swift move, with all the deftness of someone who spent HOURS of the day loitering outside of convenience stores EVILLY.

"You FOOLS," Jessica called out, her nose still snotty from all the CRYING she definitely DID, "I have been LAUGHING MYSELF TO TEARS watching you all CRY LIKE BABIES!"

Jessica looked up at the girl who had come to see if she was alright, and smirked.

"H-HAHAHA you totally thought I was CRYING but really I WASN'T CRYING so I'm FINE AND STUFF."

"HNNN! Gotta suck it back in! Eat that despair! Let it fester and FUEL my BLACK SOUL like a healthy ADULT!"

A quiet moment of reassurance passed between Noelle and Heath. They could hear other resort-goers collecting themselves nearby, and once a few more seconds passed they withdrew from their embrace. “Okay,” Heath said, breaking the silence with rationale. “Let's try to figure out what happened. Once we know what's going on, we can try to figure it out.”

Someone else drew near, the portly, bearded fellow who'd been minding one of the beachfront stands. Noelle's first instinct, borne from stress, was to urge him to get away, but she got herself under control People got together in times of uncertainty, of course. Two became three, and then a moment later three became four. The fourth, a muscular man in nothing but swimming trunks, Noelle remembered as the guy who'd bumped into some girl by the stairs. The bearded man wasted no time in striking up conversation.

“So, uh, hey there. Interesting turn of events, huh? I mean, talk about crazy. What in the world was that? Where are we? No signs of civilization, but I can see bits and pieces of Otterholt Point scattered about. It's like that storm picked up the whole resort and scattered it around, maybe across this whole island. At least, I think it's an island. Like a deserted island, the type you'd see in a movie. Like that one with Tom Hanks? Anyway, it sounded like your kids are gone. I saw the whole thing go down on the beach. We should band together to make sure everyone's okay. We also have to make plans in case this place really is deserted. First things first, in a survival situation...”

Noelle wasn't facing him. She took a look around to see if anyone else was about, but saw nobody except another small cluster of people a couple hundred feet away and then two of the Texan frat boys down by the water, trying to wash the sand out of their faces, a man closer to the jungle, and an older woman sitting against some driftwood. In that first group Noelle recognized the sword girl, the bratty girl, and the very same notebook-bearing girl who accidentally ran afoul of Mr. Muscles. There were two boys too, but Noelle didn't recall seeing them before.

At the moment, one of the boys watched as Jessica tried to downplay her crying, unimpressed a little saddened. Haywood had been sitting and watching her the whole time, and if that wasn't full-blown, from-the-heart bawling, he didn't know what was. Maybe panic got to her or something. Come to think of it, why wasn't he panicking? Haywood thought about it. Remote island, opportunity for adventure, nobody that he was worried about getting hurt -if he was fine, surely his buds were too-, and no authority to get in his way. There didn't seem to be any way off this island, but he felt pretty sure that rescue would come eventually. It was a big place, probably full of resources that he could use to get by, and the coast guard or something could track the storm's path to find our where all the missing people were. But maybe Jessica hadn't reached the same conclusion he did.

“Easy, Mad Dog,” Haywood assured her, helping to get her to her feet. Given her size he didn't need to struggle to support her weight. He glanced between Aurora, Penny, and Jude. “She's fine, just a little excited. In no time at all we'll be running rampant over this paradise...” he suddenly pivoted, trying to turn off the 'blaster' persona. “Or something. Hey, any of you know what the hell happened?”

Noelle wondered that herself. She turned her attention back to the group as the beardman's own hypothesis got cut off by the strongman. “Yeah, it was an epithet for sure,” he confirmed. “I was in the water when the storm kicked off, and it came out from the spot where you saw the glow. Could've been an epitome.”

Heath frowned. “Epitome? Like...a super-epithet?”

“Kind of. In a life-or-death situation, someone can manifest an epitome, the absolute use of their epithet. Only something like that could dump a whole resort on an island somewhere.“ He glanced around to see if anyone else could offer a better idea. Nobody could. “Given the circumstances, if we're gonna work together, we should get on a first-name basis. I'll start.” Crossing his arms, he held his head up high. “Roscoe Lafayette. Former wrestler, current boxer. My epithet's Oceanic.”

Heath spoke up next, going into more detail to be of more help. “Heath Pieler. My epithet's Jingle. I can repeat sounds and keep things from being forgotten.”

“I'm Noelle. Noelle Pieler” Noelle said, adjusting her glasses. Honestly, it was a miracle she still had them, having found them lying just a little twisted under her when she awoke. “My epithet's Train. I'm able to boost forward, carry people, and heat up from eating fuel.”

The last man looked excited. “Well hey, aren't we a regular bunch of inscribed?” he remarked. “The name's Harry Hedlon, I work at Diversion. The epithet I've got is Sect. I can bring out these little clerics that can cast miracles, like in Dungeons and Dragons. Healing, banishing other inscribed's summons, de-eviling...you name it, we got it.”

“What about them?” Heath said, pointing down the beach.

The group of adults looked at the group kids. “Plan first,” Noelle said, thinking of the pigtailed blonde girl. “It's hard enough to get kids to listen anyways, especially teens. If we don't have a solid plan, they'll brush us off and do their own thing. Might anyway.”

Roscoe nodded, finding that sensible. As it happened, he'd already been thinking. “'Cause of my epithet, I've got a lot of experience with oceans, and I'm a real good swimmer. I could swim out to try and find help, but I need to know I'm going in the right direction. So if you see any seabirds, check which direction they come from. That'll be the direction of land, close enough for me to reach.”

Simultaneously Heath and Noelle objected, but Noelle let Heath go ahead. “We've gotta find Tuck and Lucy. That comes first for us,” he insisted.

“Oh, that's okay. Very understandable. I can keep watch for birds,” Harry offered. “We should find a spot to set up camp, like I was saying earlier. Try and make some tools from sticks and rocks, and set up something to catch rainwater or try to find a spring. That's the stuff they do on TV shows. If you don't get a supply of fresh water, you're first off the island, every time!”

One of the Texans walked up. His friend had gone to talk to the old lady. “Howdy folks,” he said. “Sounds like y'all're keepin' your heads and makin' plans over here. Name's Mike Carmichael. Anything I can do to help?”

Harry was only too happy to fill him in. Noelle, meanwhile, volunteered to go over to the teen cluster while Heath went over to check out the beach hut. She approached with a concerned look on her face and tread familiar ground conversation-wise. “Hi, kids. Are you all alright?”