Juniper closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, this high up she could just barely smell the ocean even from the campus. Of course, according to the student handbook, the dormitory rooftop was off limits to students. She wagered it was because they'd had a problem with depressed and desperate women taking a header just to end the torment, back when the school had first opened. Fortunately for Juniper, she had a distinct lack of respect for authority, and a talent for finessing locks. Where there were no students, there'd be no monsters looking for students, so this was her sanctuary for the time being.

Opening her eyes, she looked through the lens of her camera again, adjusting the zoom as she focused on the far-off beach. She'd come up here just before sunrise, wanting to snap a few pictures of the sun coming up over the horizon, and now that it had climbed up into the sky she found she simply didn't want to come down again. So, she took shots of the bay that the students used as their recreational beach, musing that despite the dock she didn't see any boats out on the water, which was a shame. The white sails would've made a nice aesthetic. It wasn't always about muck-racking with Juniper, photography gave her a creative outlet as well, a chance to take hold of a moment of beauty and bring it with her forever. Whatever darkness lurked under the surface, it helped to remind herself that this was a tropical island, with all that that entailed.

So it was, looking through the camera lens, Juniper had completely missed the descending arch of a new woe crashing into the island. The dull >WHUMP< of distant impact and the rustling of trees, however, did cause her to miss the shot she'd been setting up of a brilliantly colored tropical bird. The sound had startled her subject and it took wing, taking it out of the frame of the shot as Juni grit her teeth. She tried to snap a shot of it in flight, but she was too far off to get any detail, and it flew away from her ruining the chance for any shot worth keeping.

"Dammit..." she groused, rolling her eyes as she turned around to see what had vexed her so. She wasn't disappointed, a great white plume of steam rose up above the treeline. Zooming out to get the long shot from the roof, she snapped the shot so she'd have a reference for the distance from the school, then she zoomed in closer to try and pick out some details.

"So, what've we got here? Megafauna with indigestion? Maybe one of NICE's little caches blew it's top? Could be volcanic activity, a geyser or something. . ." she mused aloud. Either way, at this hour, she was probably one of only a handful of students who might've noticed it. The sound-proofing that helped conceal the depredations of the island's true masters would have concealed the racket from anyone inside, and the windows wouldn't let anyone see far passed the treeline. She supposed maybe some of the girls on the sports field might notice, but it was a little early for those classes, and that was assuming they'd look up from what was already demanding their attention. "Only one way to find out, right?"

-- -- --

That had been, what, an hour ago? Two? It was a little difficult to track the passage of time under the canopy of the trees. Juni looked at the compass in her hand, forgoing the use of trails had slowed her down, but she was at least certain that she was moving in the right direction. She was dressed for the hike, deep treaded hiking boots allowing her to keep her footing in the soft earth, canvas shorts rolled high on the thigh to help keep her temperature down. She wore a photographer's vest over a white t-shirt that was clinging to her body in the humidity, and a pair of sunglasses perched on her nose. Over her shoulder, she wore the satchel she usually used to carry her books in, though now it was pressed into service as a survival kit. A day's worth of dried food and bottled water, a beaten-up field guide she'd checked out of the library, a change of clothes just in case, bug spray, a first-aid kit, a flashlight, and one of the official maps of the island's interior. It never hurt to be prepared.

Of course, as she pushed her way through another dense curtain of vines, what she really wanted was a machete. That would've gone against the school's policy against arming students though, so she'd just have to make do. As she came out the other end of the vines, she blinked. A tree-branch was hanging down in front of her face, barely hanging on to it's parent tree by the bark as if waiting for a stiff breeze to knock it down. The pulp was still yellow and green, it wasn't dead wood, something heavy had broken it. Half expecting a fanged and hairy monster to be drooling overhead, she looked up. Instead, she was treated to rays of sunlight peeking through a trail of broken and mangled boughs all moving in a straight line.

"So," she mused to herself, "Something didn't blow up . . . something crashed." This was getting interesting. Maybe a private airplane from the airport that the seaplane dropped the students off at? She supposed the pilot could be hurt, but she also supposed that any plane should have a map of the larger geographic region. Knowing how far out the other islands were, or heck, even the mainland would be a huge step forward in getting off this rock. She picked up the pace a bit, pulling the dangling branch free to use as a walking stick.

Vitalius had a lot on his mind, regardless of the short span of time he had spent on the island so far. He had not had any time to explore the area around him and was pondering things. At the forefront of his mind was Aegir. He had been here for years, and yet in their short battle, it seemed Vitalius had the upper hand. Was Vitalius stronger than he thought? Or was Aegir just out of practice, from years of preying on young human women. No matter which it was, he was going to explore in his vapor form, the campus loomed not too far away, he followed the path about ten feet off the ground.

Moving very quickly, he reached the sports court first. There were no girls present, as it was a tad bit early for those classes, he looked at the sun, it had not even been an hour since it rose. He reached the campus, and roamed into a building, there were several classes full of girls around. And one door that was locked mysteriously, with some muffled sounds coming from one of them. It didn't take much of his imaginative power to guess what was going on in there.

He went outside to give that particular situation some space. He remembered from his copy of the rulebook that students weren't allowed on the roof. Wondering if the crash site was visible, he decided to check and see, he drifted upwards towards the roof and transformed to aqua form, his vision was better that way, after a second, he saw what was left of the mist, right over the top of the trees, almost like a low lying cloud. Not far away, a very colorful bird was perched, but there weren't supposed to be any animals, he reached out towards it with water, and when he touched it he realized it was animatronic.

He decided to walk around a bit, but after her rounded the corner he realized that the door was open, and the lock was picked. He could clearly see the crash site from here, and walked towards it, dropping off the roof and transforming to vapor halfway down, ina minute he reached the forest he could see evidence of someone who was not using the trail. He slowed and began to take in the path, which followed the broken branches from the crash, about one hundred yards in, he found a small piece of white cloth, he reached out to it and was rewarded with some information. It was wet with sweat. And not too old.

My my, let the games begin, he said to himself and opened his glowing green eyes, ready to stalk.

Oblivious to the sinister presence dogging her steps, Juniper pressed on into the wilderness. The further she followed the trail of destruction, the more obvious it became, the unknown vessel dropping altitude but apparently not losing very much speed. She hustled along at a pretty good clip, scrambling over the loose carpet of felled boughs, even crossing a broad but shallow stream which was rapidly stagnating from the vegetation clogging it's bed. Finally, she could see the light of a clearing up ahead, but rather that speeding up she stopped and crouched low to the ground.

She couldn't assume she was the only person to notice the disturbance. After running into the school's nurse, she'd had a little caution hammered into her, ending up on NICE's list of test subjects was close to the last thing she wanted. So, she crept, and she skulked, and she hugged the underbrush as she tried to avoid slipping in the wet ground from where the stream had diverted into the bank. Taking a few breaths, she poked her head out, half expecting to see a dozen men in silver hazmat suits sweeping the area with radiology and metal detectors.

Instead, she found an idyllic little piece of wilderness. The treeline receded naturally as the soil became too loose to support it, the land giving way to tall grass first, and then a rocky shoreline. The entire region was still as death, neither cricket nor bird chirped, anything that had lived here had beat a hasty retreat when . . . whatever had happened. At first, she thought maybe she had to go even further, but then she noticed the lakeside. The lake had dropped nearly a foot at some point, and in the process the sides were baked into a kind of crumbly clay, giving the impression of extreme heat.

"So, it landed in the lake?" she muttered to herself, crouching at the lakeside and looking into the still water, "What the heck retains heat well enough to boil off this much steam when completely submerged?" she asked, knocking a piece of the riverbank into her hand and crumbling it between her fingers to check the texture. Of course, the question wasn't really heat retention so much as it was simple size, but she had no way of knowing that. Unshouldering her satchel, she leaned forward a bit, hovering her hand right above the water's surface, trying to determine how hot it was without actually touching it.

He was going at leisurely pace, using the slight imprints the light girl had left in the goind as markers, and even though he was taking his time, he was catching up. The destruction became much more obvious, and i was gettin wasier for the girl, even without any tools to help her. He tried to imagine what was going through her mind. Did she hope to get off the island? Was she suicidal, trying to burn among the possible wreckage? Or maybe she was a good citizen, trying to help a crashed pilot, though her edforts would undoubtably be futile.

He saw her up ahead for the first time, crouched low on the ground, peering at the lake. So she was cautious. Definitely not suicidal, and she might know some things about what is going on here on the island, but most likely not the entire story of course. Apparently there was nothing to scare her away, as she tenatively walked out of the brush towards the picturesque lake. True, the water was a foot or so low, havin been refilled by the brook nearby, and the banks were baked clay, the far side was actually hard to the touch like pottery.

He closed his eyes, and passed through her, his vapor form surely giving her a chill. He settled in the water and found something he could use for his purposes, a piece of the metal plating from the ship, engraved with markings from the native planet and half melted, but just barely solodifying now, still hot to the touch even though the water was cool.

He had to thank the makers of the ship for their design. It was a striker class ship, meant for war, and designed to crash into the softer areas of a target planet, and survive the landing, but look like a wreck. It was designed to stay hot to the touch for days, lettin all assume that those inside had cooked long ago, but it was the best insulated ship out there. Even now, in the underwater grotto, it was steaming against the hydrogen in the air bubble in which it had been laid to rest. He sent a thought into Tullius's mind for him to lower the gangplank.

He gently caused the clouds to pass over the sun, and opened his eyes for a moment, causing a clearly unnatural glint to catch her attention.

"Mmn. . ." she murmured a bit, concentrating. It didn't feel like the water was radiating heat, at least. She swallowed slightly and flicked it with her finger tips. Mmn, warm, but not scalding. She splashed the water again, cupping her hand and sending up a sluice as she chopped at the surface of the water. She wouldn't die from that kind of heat, but it wasn't at all what she'd call comfortable. She looked around, a frown creasing her face as she checked the riverbanks again.

"If this water was boiling hot . . . what happened to the fish?" she thought aloud. By all rights, anything that had been living in the lake should be floating belly-up on the surface. . . she supposed it might've washed downstream, but that much flotsam should have choked the mouth of the stream. An errant wind blew a thin mist of air over her from behind, causing her to shiver uncomfortably at the sudden drop in temperature.

Still unaware that she was being watched, she turned away from the lake and pulled her camera from around her neck. She didn't know when something else might come around, so she had to document as much of this as should could. Besides, it would give the water time to cool off. She turned around and snapped pictures of the trail of broken branches overhead, and a few of the lake before focusing on the lakeside itself. She could add notes to point out what was significant about a given shot later.

She looked up with a sigh as a bank of clouds blocked out the sun. It had seemed like it was going to be such a nice, clear day earlier, but it seemed like she still wasn't used to judging the weather this far out at sea. Idly, she wondered if it'd rain before she could get back to campus, but as she looked back towards the lake she paused in her ruminations. With the ambient light brought down, she could make out a faint green glimmer under the surface of the water. She squinted for a moment, as if uncertain she was actually seeing it, and then snapped a shot from where she was standing.

"Now, what have we here?" she murmured, picking her way across the rocky shore towards the glint, "A souvenir, maybe? Or perhaps a clue. . ."

He was pleased the water had cooled down just enough for her to touch it, because if all went well, she would be taking a swim. He laughed inwardly at the look on her face as she realized that the water was uncomfortably hot. He listened to her muse to herself about the fish that never even existed. She was curious, and on a normal occasion she might have been smart enough to be this curious and get out unscathed, but not today, not at his lake. She shivered at his slight touch, causing him to chuckle a bif.

He watched as she snapped pictures, of the lake, the shore, she was gathering evidence, but did she know what the evidence was of? Of course not, she coudln't, if all went to plan, she would learn much today. And it would not make one bit of difference. He noted the sigh as the clouds passed in front of the sun, so she likes the tropical weather, he mused, as he was fond of the humidity as well.

She took a picture just after he closed his eyes, and he almost wished he had waited, to see her reaction whenever she looked at her photos. But no, he needed to be invisible, for now. She trekked the shoreline, and eventually made it to where the piece of metal was, little did she know she was opposite the grotto where the ship was being stored, but she would know very soon. As she rEached out for the metal, he sent a concentrated blast of hyrdogen vapor at her back, tipping her in.

In the water, she was his, he held her there, to make sure she saw the thin trail of melted metal leading towards the large black hole that was the grotto, as he held her there, he subtly sent two small currents swirling around her nipples, and to justify this he created two small fish out of water for her to see. He let go, as she was struggling for breath, and pulled back, satisfied.

Juniper's eyes snapped open wide when she felt herself tip forward. She barely had a moment to grab a breath of air before hot surface of the water caught her full in the face. She reached for the bank, but her hand punched clean through the brittle shell to reveal that most of the soil under it had drifted away with the rapid depth change of the lake. The current was pulling her, whenever she tried to make for the surface it was like clawing at tar, the undertow gripping her tightly as it dragged her deeper down.

She let out a gasp of surprise as something riding the current slipped under her shirt. She might not have noticed, except for the part where it grabbed hold of one end of her piercing and gave it a firm tug. Her eyes snapped open, and she saw the cloud of bubbles escaping her lips before she slapped a hand over her mouth to save what she could. She caught a glimpse of flickering metal, like a length of wire running from the floor of the lake back up to the bank, and her eyes naturally followed it until she saw the dark shadow of an underwater cave.

Just then, her body kicked free of the undercurrent, sending her tumbling through the calmer waters until she could right herself and desperately swim for the surface. Her speed brought her head and shoulders clear out of the water, taking a deep lung full of fresh air before she fell back, floating on the surface as she coughed and sputtered.

"Какого черта!?!" she shouted at the sky, "Who's out there!?" she shifted her position, treading water as she traced her eyes over the bank again. The bank hadn't given away under her weight, she was sure of that, she'd been pushed, and that meant that she wasn't nearly as alone as she'd thought. Quickly, she snapped around to look and make sure her bag was still where she'd left it, she didn't want to be this far from civilization without the benefit of food or a compass. She grimaced as small fish swam out of her shirt sleeve and bumped his nose against her breast before swimming off to meet up with his friend. Cheeky bastard.

Her expression when she fell had been priceless. He chuckled, letting a thin stream of bubbles loose. He watched her coughing, glad he had let go before she passed out, her piercing had been a very pleasant surprise, he would abuse that later. Her shouting i. Two different languages intrigued him, was it intentional? Or did she do it in times of frustration or stress? If so, she would be speaking all kinds of languages by the time he was through with her. She seemed sure that she hadn't fell of her own violition, but she couldn't know he was here.. Not yet at least.

He had not touched her things, but maybe he should have, just to clue her in more. He intelligence and curiosity really intrigued him, he wondered if she would fight.. Dark thoughts overtook his mind as he thiught about what would happen after he was done. But he would tour with her much longer before making his move. He was glad nothing had been damaged in her things, she would probably be disoriented after his violation, and the food would keep her until she regained her full awareness.

His "fish" had gotten her flustered, and they would have been considered very lucky, had they been real, now soaked, her white shirt was completely see through, and he liked what he saw. He had spent too much time alone, and her body was purely astounding to his lonely psyche. He flashed his eyes The entrace to the cave, which was about 20 feet down, an easy swim, and the air bubble in the cave that held the massive Infinify could keep her breathing heavily for days. He waited for her to inspect the piece of metal at her feet, to discover that it was much hotter than the water

"еби меня. . ." she muttered darkly, sinking down to her nose in the water and blowing air bubbles out of her mouth. Her body was getting flushed and red from being submerged in the hot water, but like a jacuzzi she found that she was acclimating to the temperature now that she'd spent some time in it. Something was out there, and it was playing with her, poking and prodding her just to get a reaction. But where was it? Stalking the beach invisibly? Somewhere in the treeline, toying with her using telekinesis or something?

Well, whatever it was, it had gotten her into the water. If it was really interesting in causing her harm, it'd just push her under and be done with it, so the theory went anyway. She supposed any island that supported demons and telepathic octopi could have trickster spirits like fae just as easily. . .and, either way, her boots were weighing her down. Taking a deep breath, she curled up and worked the wet laces, pulling the knot free on first one shoe and then the other, then she tucked her socks inside and lobbed them for the shore. Being submerged in water wasn't the best position to throw from, but she managed a pair of squelching hits near her bag.

Finally convinced that whatever was behind her little bath was content to sit back and let things play out for a bit, she returned to the piece of metal. Well, she could definitely say that it was wreckage. Smooth, metallic plating, the edges bubbled and ran as if it had begun to melt. Strange . . . she didn't think gasoline burned hot enough to cause steel to melt, scorch marks she'd have expected, but actual melting? There were some engravings on the plate, though she didn't recognize the language. She knelt down carefully this time, glancing around to make sure something wasn't going to push her over again, and she reached down to pick it up.

"OW! FUCK!" she exclaimed, snapping her hand back as if bitten. She stuck her finger in her mouth and sucked lightly on it, petulantly. That didn't make sense, as long as it had taken her to get here, the flowing water should've leached the heat out of the metal plate, leaving it, at best, the same temperature at the lake. But this thing was clinging jealously to it's heat, like some kind of energy sponge. Whatever it was, Juniper felt confident that she could say it didn't come off of some hobbyist's prop plane.

Her eyes drifted back out over the lake, thinking back to the trail of molten metal running along the floor of the lake, and the grotto at the other end. Well, she had to admit, she had a pretty good idea of where to look if she wanted to know what it had come off of. Pushing her way off the bank, she rolled over and started swimming over the top of the water. She hadn't brought a respirator with her, so she'd have to play conservatively with her oxygen. Straight down, take a look, and then straight back up again.

She was cursing in another language again, and it was funny. The water couldn't be too hot to her anymore, so she would be getting comfortable, he liked the red color of her skin, like she was perpetually blushing. She had to know that she wasn't alone here, she was to bright to not notice that. She knew she wasn't in danger, and that boots weren't the best for swimming, she three them rather weakly from her floating position, and he manipulated the water soaked boots to make sure they hit the bank close to her bag

He watched as she noticed the metal again, and reached for it, he held his breath for her reaction, expecting just what happened, her loud exclamation again made him laugh. Her mind had to be racing, and she had to know this was no crashed commercial jet, it could be military of course, and if she was abstract, she might even get it right and suppose that it was otherworldly. She seemed to be brainstorming, but came up with nothing. No matter, she would see the truth soon enough.

Again she was looking out at the lake, and she reached a decision concerning what she would do about the grotto. She seemed a decent enough swimmer, but she was still a bit heavy,he sent the under current to rip away that vest, she struggled for a moment, but the fabric gave way, and he swept it straight to the bottom. No need for excess clothing where she was going. He prepared to assist her swim with a current, and maybe an air bubble or two.

He flashed his eyes yet again, a brilliant glare on the line of melted metal, like a fuse lighting about to blow an explosive. He made sure Tullius was hidden away in the deepest nether regions of the ship, and the gangplank was lowered,he had created a mindless drone to turn on the lights when she reached the correct position on the ship to show her the way, of course she could take the tour, once in the ship there was no hurry at all

She touched the opposite bank, treading water directly over the grotto now. She took a deep breath and let it out, then once again, giving her lungs a chance to stretch to their full capacity and get used to the weight. Finally, she kicked a bit harder to raise herself up, taking a third deep breath, and tipped forward diving smoothly into the water. Swimming wasn't really her sport, but long years of track had given her strong legs and a healthy set of lungs that served her well now. Her finger tips lightly traced along the bank as she felt her way down.

Then that damned undertow got a grip on her again. She must have just brushed against it, as it only caught a good hold of her vest, but she wasn't about to let that go without a fight. She brought an arm over across her chest and grabbed hold of one edge, trying to zip it closed around her body before it could be dragged off of her. She got the distinct feeling of being pushed again, like someone was exerting leverage against her. She fought back hard, her camera was in there, among other things, and she did not want to spend half the afternoon checking the banks downstream and hoping it caught on something.

And then, the fabric gave away at the shoulder, and she banged against the slope of the bank loosening her grip on the interior. She almost wailed in protest as the garment was quickly swept down and away along the floor of the lake, but she couldn't spare the breath. She was just outside the cave now, and the exertion meant that the gentle burning in her chest was beginning to spread a little faster than usual. Of course, her light had been in the vest too, so she had to feel her way around as she drew herself deeper into the cave, her fingers trailing along the roof as she tried to make out the terrain ahead.

Her fingers broke the surface of the water first as the cieling raised deeper in. it seemed that air had worked it's way into the cave network somehow, for all of the trivia she'd accrued over the years Juniper honestly couldn't say whether such a phenomenon was natural or not. Either way, even a breath of stale air would be welcome over the discomfort of holding her breath, she let herself drift up, breaking the surface of the water and looking around.

It was like moving from the hot-tub to the sauna. A dense, heavy steam covered everything in the cave, obscuring the dimensions of the room as she swam deeper inside. The air wasn't nearly as stale as she'd feared, but it was humid and heavy. She found a lip and climbed her way out of the water, her bare feet slapping against the smooth stone as she took a few heavy plodding steps, water trickling down her body and leaving small puddles behind her with each step.

"Okay . . . cool, but not really supplying answers. . ." she muttered, running her fingers through her short hair to get it out of her face. As if in response, a series of running lights clicked on, tiny yellow points of light glaring out at her from the fog. She took a step back and raised her hands defensively, but nothing came out of the fog for her. So, she pressed on, her clothes stuck tight to her skin, the white shirt particularly apparent as it turned nearly transparent against her skin. Deprived of her vest, she could no longer hide that she'd set out on the trail without a bra, an attempt to beat the heat, though now her pink nipples stood out prominently against the cloth, a barbell through each nub keeping them partly erect.

Through the fog, she could still scarcely claim to have seen the vessel, but the running lights lead her unerringly towards a broad metal ramp that she assumed would've been used for loading and unloading cargo. Remembering the metal from the beach, and not particularly wanting to try ambling around on burnt feet, she tugged her shirt off and held it over the ramp, a stream of hot water running off it to spatter off of the ramp as she wrung it out heedless of any wandering eyes. Simple test, if the ramp was too hot to walk on, the water should sizzle and pop on contact. if there was no hiss, it was safe for her to pull her drier shirt on and enter.

She had forgotten about the undertow by the time he took the vest, but she fought, and if she fought now, he couldn't wait to see how she fought later. He watched to make sure she made it into the cave which housed the Infinity, and dove back down, time to see what was in that vest. The real current had taken it, but he found one half of it right away. It had her light in it! If she had had it in her hand she would have been able to save it, nonetheless, he swam back to. The cave entrance, turned it on, and let the very slight current take it up.

Now to look for the other half, he calmly felt out through the hydrogen on the lake, and felt it, up on, or rather, in the bank, as the hard crust had broken and the other half was wedged in. He took up full aqua form for a moment and glided across the lake to search the vest. He was well rewarded, her camera was in it. Looking through her pictures, he saw just how long she had been in that restricted access area. And it had been a long time.

He delicately placed the camera next to her boots, it was still functioning, so he surmised it could survive a little dirt inside it. He glided back over to where the grotto was, and dissolved into the water, beginning the 30-second long journey into the great grotto. He passed the flashlight as he came, but it would arrive in a second. He surfaced in mist form, and just in time to see her take her shirt off. He had to admire those well shaped breasts, they were full and round, and the nipples were a brilliant shade of pink. Both of them were pierced through, and there were miniature barbells through them. So she was a tough girl huh? He would find out.

The flashlight finally made it and he made sure it landed on the bank just right so it pointed at her, and the gangplank. It took him a minute to figure out what she was doing, he wasn't one to question a good thing, but once he did he realized allowing the flashlight to land how it did had been brilliant, as she could see that the water boiled on the side of the gangplank, but the interior metal was perfectly, uncharacteristically cool.

Juniper turned on her heel when the light fell over her, shirt clutched in one hand and her breasts swaying with the sudden motion. She raised an eyebrow, seeing the source of light was right at the water's edge, but it wasn't following her. Walking back across the stone floor, she unrolled the shirt with a quick snap, the tattoo of a tightly bound angel on her arm becoming visible as she made her way closer to the light. She ducked her head and pulled the shirt back on, kneeling down to pick up the flashlight.

"Well, hello," she said, kneeling down to pick up the flashlight, supposing that she was fortunate she hadn't bought the rugged metal cased one so long ago, it looked like it had kept all the water out of it's working parts as advertised though, "How very convenient, and I don't suppose you brought any friends along with you?"

She sighed a bit. That was it, something definitely wanted her moving this way, which was a pretty good indicator that she wanted to be somewhere else. Unfortunately, if the way her vest had been stripped from her was any kind of indication, she was basically at it's mercy when submerged in the water and she'd have to swim out of here. She looked back at the series of winking lights. Well, she'd just have to play along for a while longer, see if she couldn't lure this thing out of hiding and maybe give it the slip. On it's own turf. She scrubbed her fingers through her hair and grimaced, how did she keep ending up in situations like this?

Well, it wasn't like she wasn't curious. Without he camera, she was going to have to take some kind of physical evidence with her for documentation, and she'd already proven that the hull plating wasn't going anywhere without some protective garments on her part. Even after her test, her first step onto the ramp was slow, tentative, and untrusting. As she set her weight down on the foot though, she gave a breath of relief, padding quietly up aboard the ship. Light in hand, she swept the beam back and forth as she moved, trying to get her bearings.

Okay, so, what've we got? she thought to herself, sweeping the light up along a seam in the wall and trying to guess at the construction of the vessel she was standing in, but she moved quietly. Ships had crews, she reminded herself. If the gangplank was down, at least one of them had survived the crash and was out reconnoitering the area. She supposed she was fortunate not to have blundered into him yet, she somehow doubted he'd be glad to find a college kid poking around in his top secret spy plane . . . or whatever this was.

Her quick turn was lovely, her astounding breasts swayed with the movement, her tattoo was now illuminated by the light of her flashlight. It was interesting, he wondered about the reasoning behind it, was it symbolism? Or maybe a drunken mistake? He could ask her that, though he doubted that it would come up in their natural line of conversation, in fact he doubted that she would be saying anything at all in their interactions, except some screaming, maybe some pleading. And hopefully some more cursing in what sounded like russian.

She came over and picked up the light willingly, but by the look on her face she knew she was being directed, but she also knew that in the water she was completely and totally helpless. She ran her hands through her delectably short hair. As if resigning herself to her fate. He certainly hoped not, he wanted more of a fight than that. But she pressed on, a look of thought on her face, as if trying to see how she could escape, little to her knowlege there was a small crevice in which she could escape.

Of course she couldn't prove this actually happened without her camera, he would give her a souvenir when he was done with her, a keepsake, to remind her he was always around, and could always visit again. He had just the thing too, something he could directly manipulate just to toy with her. She knew the outer plating was very hot, but she should have been able to tell that the inside was very cool. But caution was a necessity, she must have spent a while on the island already.

Her steps were tentative, which was to be expected, but they were also surprisingly quiet, if she had kept her boots she would have known how empty the ship was from the echoes. He heard her sigh, satisfied she was safe for the moment, but still moving quietly. She swept the light around inside, but at that rate she would never know how alien the ship was. He decided to help her out, and contacted tullius. Turn on the lights, but keep the ship quiet, we don't want to scare her.

Her quiet steps were due in part to the bare feet, but also in part due to a graceful and well practiced walk. Though she was moving at a normal pace, she swung her legs to the side as they moved forward and landed on the ball of the foot, keeping her heel elevated as she carefully controlled the distribution of her weight. It was a rolling gait that made her hips sway enticingly, though she was not consciously aware of it. She was, however, aware that the temperature controlled interior of the ship was significantly cooler than the water or the steamy cave that followed it, her nipples sticking out against the thin fabric of the shirt as she rubbed her arms to try and keep warm.

A soft "tick" sound made her halt her forward momentum, looking around cautiously with the flashlight. Then another "click-click" caught her attention, making her sweep the beam of light up towards the ceiling. And then >clak!< the lights snapped on overhead. She started, pressing herself hard against the smooth metal wall and looking down the hallway and crouching low. She took a few deep breaths, looking down the now illuminated hallway and not seeing anyone coming her way. She glanced back the way she'd come, wondering if the scout was back but she couldn't see anything moving in that direction either.

"Heh, automatic lights." she chuckled, showing a bit of relief, "Probably motion sensitive." she pushed off from the wall and took the opportunity to really examine the construction for herself. This thing was . . . big. She'd been thinking she had a crashed high-altitude flier on her hands, but now that she could see down the length of the hall it was looking to be more on scale with a submarine. How the heck had they even gotten the bloody thing into the air? She traced her fingers along the smooth metallic wall, but she couldn't detect a seam. She knocked her knuckles on the wall . . . no hollow ringing sound. She moved a foot over and knocked it again, no, she hadn't hit a wall stud, it was just too thick. Or, possibly not resonant enough.

She saw more strange writing on the wall, probably a directory of some sort, but a strange bubbly feeling was growing in her also. It didn't seem possible . . . but then, how many impossible things had she seen already?

"Are you serious!? Is this thing a freakin' UFO!?" she asked of herself, lightly running her fingers over the etched glyphs on the wall, "And the power still works, so, a functioning vessel? Ha!" either she'd finally taken complete leave of her senses, or she finally had a way off this rock of woe. She just had to figure out how to get it up and running again. Also, she had to remember not to get caught. A windfall like this came along once in a life time, she didn't need to blow it by letting her excitement make her reckless. She picked one of the guiding lines at random and began following it deeper into the vessel.