To Fear is to Die

They were, unfortunately, quite a bit far away from the front door, which meant that it was going to be quite a bit before they could actually get up to get their 'meal ticket' for food. Of course, that also meant that Wesley had more time to get their plan underway.

"Okay, so here's what I figure. Sasha and I can both Teleport ourselves. So we need to take full advantage of that to scout."

Evie hopped up slightly, clenching her hands into fists. "Oh! Because we don't know where the four checkpoints are," the girl spoke, and Wesley nodded. "That's tricky!"

"So then what's the plan? It's not like this is just a case of going fast or whatever," Sasha added in. "We're going to need to find out where the checkpoints are first, and then we go from there."

Wesley glanced around at some of the others as he moved closer to the door as the crowd began to thin out as people were able to get closer to the door and get their ticket, before the groups ran off in a random direction, each clearly looking to get as much as possible.

"Okay. So this plan has a few layers. Evie, you're going to be the one who's holding most of the plan together, so let me know if this is too much," Wes said, and the young girl nodding, pumping her fists.

The plan itself wasn't terribly complicated, but Evie was definitely the lynchpin here. Wes could have been as well, but he couldn't let too many people know what all he was capable of. If he started just popping off with random Skills, those who were paying attention would realize that he had way more than he probably should.

Evie would send out her smaller, weaker summons out in all directions to try and get as much information on the state of things as they could. If they saw large groups of people likely getting stamps or if it was something else entirely, they'd get all of that information and deliver it back to her.

The second part was to verify the information itself. What that involved would be Evie using her Teleport Skill which could only target others to send Sasha or Wesley toward the target area as far as she could. They would see exactly what was out there, and then they could simply Teleport back to the group and provide that report.

This would allow them to work quickly, as constant use of the Teleport Skill tended to make one a bit ill. So by having Evie do some of the heavy lifting, they'd only need to Teleport half as often which was incredibly helpful in working quickly.

That way they could determine just where they would need to go with as little effort as possible, and hopefully snag at least three of the four stamps for their meal tickets. The fact that they were a little bit behind played a bit better for them since they were able to follow in the footsteps of some of the others.

Ted and Jay were a little remiss that they didn't have much that they were actively doing in this plan of Wesley's, but their particular Skills and their Framework didn't really work for this. Theodore could cause the rest of them to be sped up with his Accelerate Skill, but beyond Accleerating himself, Jay didn't have much that he could really offer.

As they neared the front, the group could hear the group ahead of them being given their Meal Tickets, and the explanation from the one handing them out was very similar to what had come over the broadcast. There was no time wasted, however, as the group suddenly began to dash apart in various directions, each of them seeming to go in a different way.

That left the path open for Wesley's crew and the group began to make their way forward. A young woman that was probably only a year or two older than they were stood in the doorway, her arms folded over her chest. "All right, here's the deal. Here's your five tickets. There are the four checkpoints, and a clue to the location of each one is written on the back."

"Did they make you do things like this when you were in training?" Sasha asked, her gaze narrowed at the other woman as if this was somehow all her fault. "Or are we the lucky ones who have to deal with all of this shit?"

The woman snorted, a small smirk coming onto her face. "You guys are getting it easy, honestly. Whoever runs these camps has the sickest sense of humor. But it prepares you for your time outside the Wall, that's for damn sure. Going without food is the least of your problems."

"C'mon," Wes urged, not wanting to sit and talk with her and waste more of their time when they could potentially have something here. The longer they stood around and waited, the less time they'd have to actually go and gather the materials.

As soon as they were far enough away, Wes handed the tickets to Theodore. "See if you can't figure out where some of these are talking about," he spoke, before he nodded to Evie. "All right. Send out the squad and let's see what we can find. In the meantime, Sasha, if you would."

The girl glanced to Wes with a slight glare, as if she wasn't fond of being addressed in that way before she suddenly blinked, vanishing from sight.

"Where'd she go?" Jay asked, glancing around. "I don't see her out anywhere..."

Wesley merely pointed upward, and several gazes turned skyward as a small black dot was seen from the ground. Sasha had used the Teleport Skill like they'd seen John do before, the man able to go skyward and get a good view of the battlefield back when they'd had their little disagreement a few days ago.

Up in the sky, Sasha exhaled slowly, her heart pounding in her chest. She hated heights, but she wasn't going to let any of them know about that. Instead, she swallowed that fear to the best of her ability and began to scout around, hunting for where she saw any large groups of people.

She hadn't even bothered to check the meal ticket for the clues or riddles or whatever they were. Other people would figure them out and she could just use them to get what she wanted. And soon she was able to pick out a few areas that had a few more people than the others. "All right. Just need to remember where these are..." she murmured under her breath to herself, before she took a deep breath and looked back down.

Everyone looked like ants, but she couldn't let that freak her out. If she let it get to her, she wasn't going to be able to get back down. From where she was, however, gravity had begun to reach up and grasp at her, beginning to pull her down toward the ground with its steady grip.

She swallowed slightly, trying to calm her heartbeat down. The Space Framework was characterized by a lack of care on what others thought about them. But despite that, she couldn't help but to feel like they were going to be djudging her if she screwed this up... and with the fear that was thudding through her right now, that was only making it worse.

Sasha was having trouble concentrating, and the wind that was starting to pick up beneath her as she fell was only making things worse. The freefall had begun to grip her, and she couldn't help but to clutch her arms close to her chest. She turned, putting her back to the ground, giving her the slightest reprieve to be able to breathe... but she was plummeting downward.

Below, Jay had been watching her, and he looked back at his brother after a moment. "Dude. She's not coming back down." He turned his gaze back up to the sky, before he cupped his hands up over his mouth, about to shout up toward her, when he felt Wes' hand on his arm. "What, dude?"

"You don't want to draw attention to her. No one else has gone up in the air like she did. Besides, she'd be pissed as hell if you did," Wes spoke with a small smile before he looked up toward the girl who was continuing to descend, growing faster with each passing second.

"What are we going to do?" Evie asked, the girl frowning as she looked over toward Wes, tugging on his sleeve. "You said that you had a plan! This wasn't part of the plan! She can't just splat on the ground!" Evie continued, pulling on his arm.

Wes frowned as he saw her starting to draw closer... they didn't have much time. "I think she froze up. I didn't realize she was scared of heights. I didn't expect her to agree to do this if she's scared of them," he muttered. "All right. It can't be helped. I'm going up after her."