#// also she means ski/rk

[theladymuses]

Ah, and they'd made such an effort for that one, too... The thought comes and goes, as inconsequential as the breeze blowing through her mussed hair. Truly, the artifact is of little consequence to her superior, she knows, lest it present him with a challenge. The poor thing can barely stop itself tumbling down the uneven terrain.

❝ That depends. ❞ If it were the usual trail of breadcrumbs she follows in her investigations, then perhaps it would be worth something. ❝ If it was a clue, I might've thrown a tantrum. But because it is not, you've been spared the trouble, lord harbinger. ❞ She shrugs, reaching behind her to let her braid fall free from its bun. Her scalp cools, the wind pleasant against damp locks. ❝ And, if I were poor, I might've thought it worth good Mora. So. It depends. ❞

She won't ask his opinion of the artifact's worth; his treatment of it has made it sufficiently clear, though she figures the treaure hoarders in the pile behind them might have much different an opion. There is another matter that may be worth satisfying her curiosity...

❝ Why'd you ask for me? Treasure hoarders are easy prey for you, and I don't see any toy stores in the vicinity at which you might need a second opinion. ❞ She'd rather be indoors where it's cooler... unless this has to do with that ghost-pale woman he hadn't explain his relation to. How she had known of her, Esmé could only guess.

@theladymuses ( Esmé ) ♡’d this for a starter.

Though his hand's gone empty upon releasing what weighed in his grip, it's not the artifact clinking and shattering down the slope that has his full attention — objects have little value against what people can provide, their knowledge and abilities are far more precious than any relic. In his trade, disposing of it and whose story it tells is inconsequential, then.

His smile turns small, of someone who challenges, and his gaze is sharp on his company when it's time to move. Hopefully, Esmé is someone who can agree with his previous assessment. ❛ How much do you think that was worth? ❜

[lastfrontierh]

What Is Heli-skiing? And Different Regularly Asked Questions

Inside, had been a telescoping shovel, a walkie-talkie and a three.2-metre probe. These objects had been for use in the unlikely occasion of an avalanche. These kinds of pre-heli-ski jitters are normal Heliski, Laura Hall of RK Heliski advised me the evening earlier than as we dropped off our boots to be fitted with our rented massive, fats powder skis and signal the waiver forms.

First of all, it may be easy to get misplaced if you do not know the place you're going. If you head in the mistaken direction the forest might turn into thicker and there could also be no likelihood of the helicopter accessing you in thick bushes. Here it is doubly essential to remain close to the tracks of your guide. Ski with a companion or in teams of three as directed by your guide.

It’s nearly secure to say if you’ve ever thought about snowboarding anything you'll find a way to see from Highway 99 to the Powder Mountain base lodge on your method up to Whistler, you can ski it with Powder Mountain Heliskiing. Epic bowls, lengthy glacier runs that have essentially Heliski the most perfect pitch, peaks that look so sweet you need to drop in and do a thousand turns, or just three from top to nospace. And after all mind blowing tree runs that depart your jaw on the ground. "The demand is big. These [heli-ski operations] are massive contributors to rural communities in B.C., like Nakusp and New Denver," Cloutier said.

Not solely will you've the ski of your life, it’s something that anyone with a passion for skiing should be crossing off life’s bucket record. Revelstoke Mountain Resort boasts North America’s biggest vertical at 1,713 metres together Heliski with a mean snowfall of 10.5 metres (34.four ft). The resort additionally presents three,121 acres of fall line snowboarding, high alpine bowls, renowned gladed terrain and infinite groomers.

From intermediate to advanced, this unforgettable expertise would be the highlight of any skier or boarder's Whistler trip. At Northern Escape, there are over 250 established skiing and boarding runs in 12 totally different heli-ski zones. Some common unmarked hazards embody buried rocks and tree stumps. An area of darker snow might signal a rock, boulder or tree stump slightly below the surface.

Besides selecting a carbon-neutral operator there are different considerations like lodge entry, group measurement and floor operations that have a considerable impact on carbon footprints. The Ministry of Health declined to comment on the challenges the B.C.'s heli-ski business is going through in the course of the pandemic. She stated that resorts must be doing extra to protect workers and visitors now that case quantity are rising. Cloutier stated companies have adapted to the uncertain occasions with COVID-19 safety measures similar to keeping guests masked and separated. All transport vehicles are nicely ventilated by preserving windows open or utilizing on-board ventilation systems.

As the first and largest heli-ski operator in on the planet, CMH Heli-Skiing & Summer Adventures has staked out an unique 3 million acre tenure in the snow-drenched Columbia Mountains of Western Canada. Rented their board and glad I did since I was in 1 -2 toes of contemporary powder each day, of varying floor high quality, as we dropped elevation or went in and out of woods. Quality lodge within the coronary heart of the mountains with an outside pool fed by volcanic sizzling springs.

[disrepairhouse]

Chapter 30 - Chaos

A base threatening to explode.

Two robots locked in battle.

A Doctor scrambling to recover.

A third robot escaping with a broken time traveler.

 Several miles away, near a bustling city alight with rumors of a recent crash, an ancient, furious entity collected and absorbed the powers within seven emeralds.  The island it slept on shook violently, the echidna tasked with watching over it jumped to action to find the source of the problem, though could only be grateful it wasn’t plummeting to the sea like it had before.  However, as the fury of the Water God reached its peak, it wasn’t the floating island above that felt its rage, but the city below.  Tides drifted far back, giving only a small warning of the destruction coming, as sewer grates rattled and plumbing shook.  As the residents of Station Square watched the rolling clouds in confusion, waters rushed forth in violent waves and the familiar roar echoed throughout the city.

Waves crashed, pipes burst, the city flooded through in a horrific repeat of the past, the great monstrosity at the center rose from the rushing waters.  Perfect Chaos had appeared once more and his floods rained from above and below. Amongst those scrambling to higher grounds to avoid getting washed away as the ocean spread further inward than it ever had before, was a tiny blue hedgehog, who looked on in baffled confusion. He’d been there before, he recognized the great monster, the situation, but just like before, he was lost on how to deal with it.  Chaos hadn’t just emptied the negative energy from the emeralds this time, he’d absorbed them completely, Super Sonic wasn’t going to be an option this time around. And admittedly, even the blue blur was growing exhausted from all the activity as of late.  Not that he’d let that show in front of anyone.

Several miles outside the city, the robotic counterpart to the hero hedgehog was rushing away from a rumbling base, a barely conscious time traveler wrapped in his arms, only hoping to escape the mad doctor and his latest lackey.  However, as the roar of the creature reached even them, which startled the small child awake again, he realized that there were greater dangers headed their way than a sword-wielding robot.  A series of warnings popped up on his internal screen, but he didn’t need the environmental radar to know what was coming.

Luckily, they were in open air again, and not even a flood could catch Metal Sonic.

Metal gripped the tiny time traveler tighter and kickstarted his boosters as the water roared behind them.  He only waited long enough for them to whir to life before he took off at a speed only his mobian rival could compete with.  The world zipped by and the tide crashed behind him and to his right; if the tiny hedgehog had any response, he never saw nor heard it as he raced for their own aircraft.  They’d parked it some distance away, on the further edge of the city, but Metal had no doubt he could reach it before the tides did and as the relatively small, yet streamlined plane came into view, his theory was proven correct. He slowed enough to get inside without crashing clean through the machine and shifted the hedgehog in his arms as he darted for the controls.  He beat the flood, but he still needed to act quick if he wanted to get off the ground before it caught up. The plane was considerably slower than him, after all.

The machine beeped to life and the engines purred as the water crashed ever-closer.  It was slower than he would have liked, but just as the water sloshed against the back wheels, the plane roared to life and they were off.  He had to make corrections for the jostling, but the plane was airborne and far above the waves before long.  Only after they were safely above the flood’s reach did he finally sit back and sigh in relief, though a look of concern touched his face again as soon as he did.

What about RK?

He studied the time traveler they came to rescue, since he had the time to, and gave her a small shake to drag her out of whatever shock she was apparently in.  It took several moments, but eventually she blinked and looked up at him in confusion.  Her eyes were still glazed over and there was exhaustion in her features, but she otherwise seemed coherent enough.

“M-Metal?  Was that… was Chaos…?”

“Unmistakably,” he confirmed, “I suppose out of the three, Chaos is usually the most direct in his aggression.  Though, so far as my intel goes, he only awakens when the Chao are in danger.  Robotnik wasn’t messing with them, in addition to all this other nonsense, was he? Did he happen to mention his plans to you?”

She shook her head, both to clear it and in response.  “I tried getting them from him, but…”  She looked around, as far as she could see, though her brows furrowed as she looked up at him again, “Where’s RK?”

“I don’t know for sure.  We separated in the base, he kept Zero busy while I went to retrieve you.  I can’t say whether he made it out or not.”  The concern doubled on her face as she attempted to sit up, though didn’t get far before falling right back, wincing.  “I believe this craft has scanners-- if I connect to it, I should be able to locate him easily enough.  But first,” he flipped the autopilot on and moved towards the back to search the cabinets lined along the walls.  It wasn’t a passenger plane by any means, built for speed rather than carry weight, but the space not occupied by the two seats in the back had a number of shelving units.  He searched through them, unsure if he’d even find anything of use, but eventually came across a first aid kit and pulled it out.  “I don’t know what you did, but we need to at least get those arms taken care of. Not only do I not want you burning through the plane, or me, but you mentioned one was broken, correct?”

Itara nodded, half awake, but kept her arms as tightly against herself as she could once he set her down on a seat.  “I think it would be beneficial if you rested, but let’s take care of your arms first,” Metal continued as he dug around in the white box.  He had been hoping for some kind of ice pack, but found everything short of one.  There were burn compresses, at least, though he doubted those would last long against something hot enough to melt metal.  “I’m going to assume you still can’t control your powers, as well.”

“I… n-no,” she stammered and looked away, “I didn’t even…”  She trailed off and Metal glanced up from the compresses, watching the tiny hedgehog doze off.  It would have to do for now.  He unwrapped the compresses and bandages and did his best to wrap her arms without getting himself melted in the process then moved the hedgehog to a position most likely to keep her arms in her lap. She burned through the compress and bandages quickly enough, leaving nothing but charcoal, but at least it didn’t seem to burn through her fur.  Her school uniform was a different story.

He closed the first aid kit with a light huff and returned to the pilot’s seat to plug in and search for RK, hoping he could still get some sort of reading on him.  Chaos was still raging through the city and he saw no sign of the infuriating hedgehog that always swooped in to save the day, leaving Metal to think back on the fight at the university.  He’d noticed a particular slowness in the cocksure speedster, but had assumed it was his own upgrades finally beating his nemesis.  But perhaps that wasn’t the case.  The Gods and their monsters must have kept even Sonic on his toes, especially if the attacks were stretching so far across the globe.  No doubt he was unable to ignore any of it and was likely running himself ragged trying to deal with it all at once.

The idea amused Metal, to a degree.  It was entertaining that he was finally facing a situation not so easily dealt with, but the fact that he, himself, wasn’t responsible for running the hedgehog to his edge was frustrating.  Twice now these Gods were about to steal his defeat of Sonic from him and he wasn’t going to sit quietly and let that happen.  He could always hunt the hedgehog down now, kill him while he’s weak, before anyone else has the opportunity… but first he needed to find RK.  That was priority one.  He could decide what to do about Sonic afterwards.

Metal flew over the area to survey the damage and keep an eye on Chaos’ movements.  He was hooked up to the plane so he could focus the scanner in on RK’s distinct readings while he circled the flooded-out base, but saw no sign of movement from either Robotnik nor RK.  Kipper had also vanished again.  He was sure, with Itara being away from Robotnik, the doll would return to her side where he always remained.  It threw suspicion on the doll’s movements as of late.  There was something going on there, but he didn’t have time to worry about it.

The time traveler woke up after a while, still groggy but recovered enough to remain lucid for longer than a few seconds. She studied the crinkly, black wraps around her arms before she joined Metal at the front, though struggled to get there without touching anything.  She was still weak and her head felt light, but she knew there were bigger concerns and wanted to see how Metal was doing.  He glanced towards her when she joined him, though she sat on the floor between the chairs instead of trying to pull herself up into one.

“Any sign of RK?”

“Not yet.”

“Chaos?”

“Still rampaging.  Though his actions seem strange to me, if I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s searching for something.”

Itara looked towards the windshield, though could only see the dark skies above them from her spot.  She didn’t want to get up, either.  Instead, she sighed and leaned back against the side of the chair, closing her eyes.  After several minutes of silence, she added, “Robotnik knew…”

“What?”

“He knew, I don’t know how, but he knew you were with me after you went rogue.”

Metal remained silent and stared out through the glass, debating before shaking his head.  “How could he possibly have known?  I didn’t even join you by choice.  If anything, he should have known about RK, but… he was too ready for our attack, like he expected us to come.”

“According to Zero, he knew as soon as you went rogue that you came to me.  It doesn’t make sense, though.  Like you said, you didn’t even come by choice, RK just brought you home after the reset.  You were nearly destroyed; you didn’t just go rogue like before.  Certain things can be explained by the reset, of course, explanations for things that didn’t technically happen, but Robotnik knowing specifically you were with me makes no sense.  He didn’t even know who I was.”

Metal eyed her suspiciously before a beep from the plane’s scanner brought his attention back to the ongoing search.  It was only one beep, but it drew both their attention as Metal turned the plane back around to return to the area it originated from.  Once they drew near, and Metal lowered the plane, the beep sounded again, then again. It had picked something up.  Itara pushed herself to her feet to see out the window but was still too short.  Metal’s brow furrowed as he looked out over the water.  He had hoped to get a visual confirmation, but so far it was all water and floating parts.

“…If he’s underwater, and shorted, how are we getting him out?” Itara questioned, getting a side-eyed glare from Metal.  He had been hoping that wasn’t the case, if he tried to retrieve RK, himself, he would only face the same fate.  He could stand certain amounts of water, but not being completely submerged.  But not only was RK a robot, he was one of the heaviest aside from the bulky defense bots.  If RK had been swept up in the flood, he was more than likely deep underwater.

As Metal debated how to deal with it, Itara stood back and went into her own thoughts, his lack of answer was response enough.  She looked between the window and her arms, namely the broken arm, and scrunched up her face.  “Has Kipper not come back?”

“No, I’ve seen no sign of the doll since he appeared on the Doctor’s video feed.”  Metal glanced back towards the little girl when she sighed dejectedly, unsure what was going through her head and about to question her when she looked up.

“I’ll go find RK.”

“What?  You can barely walk straight, what makes you think you can do anything?”

“Nothing, but you can’t, Kipper’s vanished again, and this plane doesn’t look equipped to go diving for robots.  So give me a location, lower me to the water, and I’ll go find him.”

Metal stared at her bewildered, but turned to look out the window again to think it over.  She was right, to a degree, but what good would it even do, sending an injured child to fetch a heavy robot like RK?  Then again, if he recalled properly, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d recovered the red robot from some form of wreckage on her own.  Though, she had full control of her powers the first time. Now she was battered and broken and barely functional, not to mention her arms.  The chance of success was… low.

He shook his head and looked at the scanner again when it got another reading.  They needed to get closer.  They were still well out of the reach of the water, but the closer he got, the stronger the reading.  RK was definitely down there somewhere, and someone had to get him.  Even if he went, himself, and somehow recovered the other bot before shorting, there’d be no one to pull them back up since Itara couldn’t touch anything without melting it.  With a quick glance around, he spotted the top of the base, still somehow above water -though just barely- and maneuvered over to it.  Itara watched him strangely, but he ignored her questions when she asked.

The landing was precarious enough, and anything less than perfection would have toppled the plane into the roaring water with everything else, but luckily he was a perfect being.  Once the plane was safely landed, he got up and faced the confused little time traveler.

“What are you-?”

“You want to jump out of a moving plane?”

“Well… no, I-.”

“I can be more useful on solid ground than in the air, as solid as it gets at the moment.  As you guessed, this plane has nothing to pick him up, should you manage to bring him to the surface, so you’ll have to bring him within my reach.”

Itara stared up at him, confused, before she realized what he was saying and nodded.  “Right. Got it.”

“Good.  Then let’s get moving.”

Itara climbed out of the plane as carefully as possible while Metal searched for anything else that could possibly be of use. The tiny hedgehog needed a way to actually pull the potentially buried, heavy robot out with her flaming arms – one of which was broken – and while there was a chance the water could cool her arms enough to not melt RK immediately, it still left the problem of the incapacitated one.  He’d seen, time and again, the complete and utter lack of physical strength in the time traveler and there was no possible way she was fighting against the current and dragging a several-hundred-pound robot to the surface on her own.

“Metal, what are the chances we can get a more exact location on his readings?”

Chaos’ rage hadn’t slowed in the slightest and, while the worst of the waves were closer to the city, they were still crashing violently around them.  There was only a small handful of feet between he base’s roof and water levels and every time it swelled up, the roof was briefly submerged in a couple inches of water. Metal wasn’t looking forward to standing in that, even if he had a protective layer on his feet nowadays, but it also meant the less time Itara spent in such erratic behavior, the better. “I’ll see what I can do to narrow it down further in a moment,” he responded once he found what he’d been searching for and took the rope out to her, “but first, come here so I can tie this around you.”

“What?  Why?”

“When… if… you find RK, wrap it around him as securely as possible and give it a tug, preferably without burning through it, and I’ll pull you both up.  Your tiny limbs will be lucky enough to just reach him without being swept off, pulling him up on your own will be impossible.”  Itara made a face, but remained silent as the bot wrapped the rope around her waist.  “There.  Now all you have to do is get around him a couple times and I can pull you both up without going near the water, myself.  It should hopefully be long enough.  Additionally, if you do get swept off, I can keep track of you.”

Itara studied the rope suspiciously.  It was a good idea, she was just mad she didn’t think of it.  Metal wrapped the back half of the rope around his hand and returned to the plane to fidget with the locator further.  Once he narrowed the reading down further, he relayed the information to the tiny hedgehog sat at the edge of the roof as she prepared to jump in.  There wasn’t much of a drop, but for someone not even three feet tall, it was a considerable drop into freezing cold water.  Though, the water the crashed up every so often had already introduced her to the temperature a number of times by that point. With a final confirmation from Metal, she took a deep breath, shimmied off the roof, and dropped down with a violent hiss as her arms steamed the water around them.  Metal watched the steam rise from a distance before he edged closer, unsure whether she would actually be able to manage.

As soon as he edged close enough to see the focal point of the steam the mass of wild spines popped up above the water again and looked up at him.  She looked oddly content, even as she struggled to keep her head above the water, as she floated in the evaporating water.  With a final nod, she dove back under and took off.  Well, at least it would be easy to keep track of her with all the steam and bubbles.  Even once she got deep enough that her figure was obscured, the bubbles gave him a consistent update on her progress.

He watched on in silence and kept track of her bubble movement, though grew concerned whenever they veered too far off to the side or remained in one place for too long.  His concerns were usually relieved when she resurfaced for air and gave him whatever updates she could manage, but more than once he’d had to pull her closer again when the water took her too far off-course.  The exhaustion wasn’t difficult to pick out, either, in both her voice and movements, but he figured if she lost consciousness at any point he could easily pull her back again and, quite frankly, they just didn’t have the time to worry about it.  The waves were growing in size as Chaos moved and the longer RK spent submerged, the more damaged he got.  They were not built to resist water like this, not to mention he didn’t know how much damage he took during the fight with Zero.  If there were any exposed wires…

Metal shook his head.  It could be repaired, whatever happened.  If the other two could repair him from the state Solaris left him in, he could easily repair RK after some water damage.  Though, admittedly, the longer the hedgehog took, the antsier he got. It wasn’t helping that he could still hear – and see – Chaos roaring in the distance with no clear sign of when he would stop.  Whatever had woken the Water God had certainly pissed him off.  Normally it would be of no concern to Metal, he had nothing to do with it, but the water levels were raising even this far out and if it kept up too long they’d be too submerged to take off again.  They would all drown.

He warned the tiny hedgehog of this the next time she surfaced, though she didn’t respond and he wasn’t sure if she had ignored him or just didn’t hear him before she went back under.  In either case, it only made him antsier and angrier. But finally, finally, after she failed to come up for some time, the rope wrapped around his hand stretched out and grew taut.  He watched the still bubbling water closely to be sure it meant to pull them out, but once he was certain he stepped back and planted himself as firmly on the flooded roof as possible.  He wasn’t quite as heavy as RK, but assumed he was plenty strong enough to pull the other bot from the water.

He wrapped the rope further around his hand, gripped it with the other, and gave an initial, hearty tug to verify it would, in fact move.  With the confirmation, he continued pulling at a steadier pace.  It was no easy task, even for him, it felt like he was pulling a log out of the sand, telling Metal that RK was at least somewhat buried under something, either rubble or dirt.  However, he progressed at a relatively steady pace, despite the resistance.  What concerned him wasn’t his own ability to pull the weight in, however, it was the rope’s ability to withstand the strain.  Thick of a rope as it was, he could still see the thinning just above the water.  He had to get them up as quickly as possible before it tore.

Unfortunately, that almost seemed inevitable when progress came to a short stop and nearly pulled the blue bot forward in the process. A string of curses echoed loudly from the bot as he readjusted and reconsidered his strategy to deal with the snag.  Though, without knowledge of the cause, he wasn’t sure how to shift.  Too hard of a pull would snap the rope, for sure, but he couldn’t waste time, either, especially with how long the hedgehog had spent under the water.  He was unaware of how long she could hold her breath, but didn’t want to accidentally drown her.

Just as suddenly as they snagged, though, the line loosened again as a great force of steam rushed from below the surface. Metal could only guess what it meant, but he at least knew whatever caused the snag was gone and he returned to pulling them in straightaway, watching the tear sharply the entire time. Luckily, the more he pulled, the closer the tear got to him and he was able to secure it before it snapped.

Finally, the shadow of a figure appeared below the surface and with a few more tugs, the inactive red robot surfaced along with the steam-clouded hedgehog wrapped up in him.  She gasped loudly as soon as she reached air, coughing and cringing, and as Metal pulled them both to the mostly dry ground, her cough turned to quiet whimpers. She looked noticeably worse for wear, but at least they were both back relatively safe and the three could leave. However, as Metal shifted his gaze from the whimpering hedgehog, who was now cradling her arm, to the red robot she went in to retrieve, he got an idea what may have happened with the snag.

RK was mostly intact, inactive and obviously shorted from the water, his hook had been seared off in the fight against Zero but that was easily replaced.  There were a couple dents in his arms and parts of the faux fur covering were singed off, likely from the secondary fight, all in all he could have been much worse off.  However, the worst of the damage, and the most recent by evidence of the molten red edges, was the partially severed leg.  Metal looked to the hedgehog with a sharp, accusatory gaze and she all but shriveled when she caught sight of it.

“I… He… there was…” she stammered through coughs, “He got… stuck under… th-there was rubble and I… I didn’t… I…”  The longer she attempted to explain herself, the less cohesive her explanation became until she burst into a fit of tears and hiccupped apologies.

Metal sighed in annoyance and motioned towards the plane, “Fine, fine, shut up.  We can fix it.  Get inside so we can leave already.”  They honestly were quite the group of broken misfits at this point.  A time traveler that couldn’t control her powers and two repeatedly broken, rogue robots.  He supposed it was his turn to repair RK now.  He watched the little hedgehog stumble her way into the plane and find a corner to curl up in before he picked the hefty red echidna up and found a place for him, as well.  Once they were set and the doors were closed, Metal wasted no further time getting airborne again and taking off for home.

As they got higher, and could see more of Chaos’ destruction, he became increasingly grateful that their own base was far across the ocean.  Initially the distance had been annoying, but seeing how far the ocean was reaching inland, with no Super Sonic around to stop it, Metal appreciated the distance.  They had just barely avoided the point of no return, themselves.  Hopefully the more nearby Gods continued their monster-based raging, rather than following suit.

Once they were on their way and Metal could comfortably leave the plane on autopilot, he turned back towards the others and studied the two at the back and had an idea.  “Hey, tiny child,” she barely glanced up, “why not make use of that damage and start drying RK’s systems.  Just don’t melt him further.”  She winced at the sharp tone, but nodded and moved towards the inactive robot.  If she held her arm near him, being careful of the distance, she could get a head start on drying him out so repairs would be quicker.  She would just need to be cautious about overheating him.  However, Metal didn’t seem interested in letting her work in silence, as he spoke up again, “So tell me what happened.  From the beginning.”  She winced again, but sighed and explained, in as much detail as possible, what happened after the university.