Starring:
Summary: Charlotte teleports Michael out of Pinehearst, and to some place very, very stupid.
Date It Happened: February 11th, 2008
Swim with the Fishes
Southern Coast of Cuba
Michael will feel a hand on his shoulder. From his toes to his nose, he'll feel tingly, almsot as if his skin were falling asleep. "Can you swim….?" A voice, almost disembodied at this point, asks him. His vision becomes blotty, and then Pinehearst is gone, and so is his team.
This took all of two seconds.
When his vision and feeling return a brief millisecond later, it's warm, and there's air rushing over him. Like a breeze. What Michael will see is blue and bright light. And then? SPLASH! Charlotte and Michael hit water.
From Pinehearst to open air, Michael Vessley isn't quite sure what just happened. The last thing he saw in Pinehearst was Agent Quinn yelling at him, and now he has no idea where he is. All he knows is that suddenly he's enveloped in water, and once he's done sinking, he begins to push himself towards the surface, finally breaking it and gasping for air. "What the HELL WAS THAT?" he calls out, looking around him as he treads water.
He'll see around him an ocean, though to the north he'll see, about a football feild's length away, a beach. It's warm, wherever he is. The water is nice, even in the dark, and lights pepper the beach. There are even a few boats around. Charlotte is still touching his arm, holding onto it really with both hands. "You can swim, right? Just say yes!" Because he looks like he can swim. So she shoves him, starting to detach herself.
A beach! Michael looks at it, knowing that he's about to begin swimming towards it, but hey, there's someone with him. "Hey! YOU!" he says, turning his head towards Charlotte. When she starts to detach herself, he does his best to try and grab her again. She's not going anywhere, as far as Michael is concerned.
Charlotte yelps, but if he's holding on to her, she's holding on to him. He can feel her shaking. "Please let me go, I can't swim!" She urges, doe-brown eyes meeting the man's face for the first time in a pleading look. Still, if he's holding her, she's clinging to him. For life, quite literally.
If Michael were in his right mind, he would probably see the failing logic in letting go of Charlotte. If she can't swim, the last thing he needs to do is let go of her. But the events, confusion, and sheer craziness of what's happening makes him listen to her. He lets go, and absurdly enough, begins to coach her on how to swim. "Just move your legs like this, okay? It's not that hard."
As soon as he lets her go, she starts to sink like a rock. "Blugh…" she says, before the water hits her mouth and salt floods her senses. She begins to kick, like he shows, but she doesn't do very well, except managing to bob her head up once or twice. "I'm not going to swim…." Bob down. Bob up. "I'm going to leave." Bob down. Bob up. "Will you be…" Bob down. Down. Dooowwnnnn…….
…
What's wrong with this girl? "Hey, no- you can't-" He stops kicking his legs when she begins to sink, allowing himself to sink down into the water with her so he can try and swim over and grab her. "Keep kicking! How are you even going to leave if you don't swim?" It's at this point he begins to realize what's going on- she must be a teleporter or something. How else would she have gotten him to this location? He isn't about to let her leave without him, either. "Hey! No, come back here!"
Charlotte can tell he can swim. She manages to get up for air one last time, letting out a yelp as she manages to exhale the bad air and inhale a fresh new gulp. "Just swim for shore! I'm so sorry!" She starts to sink again, but bobs back up, gasping for air. She's really struggling. She wants to leave, but Peter said that people swimming in oceans was dangerous, even if you knew how to do it. "Can you….gurph…can you stand? You're kind of tall!" She can't in good faith just leave him until he can stand.
"Just grab onto me!" And with that, Michael begins to swim towards the shore, and fortunately, the beach has a low slope. He manages to touch bottom only a few yards away, and he turns back to Charlotte. "It's only a bit further. You can make it!"
Charlotte clings to him, coughing and sputtering. She's soaked like a wet rat, she lost her shoes awhile ago. The pants and button down are clinging to her, as is her hair. She has her arms around the man. "You can stand? So I can go?" She asks, starting to push away from him and try to touch herself - she probably can't, but knowing he can would be enough.
"Yes, I can stand— go where?" He eyes her, reaching down to grab the tranq gun that came with him when they teleported— only a second later, he realizes it won't work while wet. So weapons are out of the question. He has nothing on him except his own ability, but that will do no good when he's standing in water, much less soaked in it.
Charlotte pushes her hands away from him, moving back. She dunks down, coming back up. "Back to Pinehearst, I'm sorry about dropping you in the water. I just wanted to make sure nobody got hurt." She steps back more. "You'll be fine, right? Just head to the American Embassy and…your…your people, they can help, right? Whoever they are?"
"No, you take me back with you, right now! You can't just /leave/ me here!" Michael tries to get close to Charlotte, but wading through the water is making it difficult. He reaches out for her, hoping his arm length is enough to cover the distance and get ahold of her so that either she can't leave, or if she does, take him with her.
Charlotte falls backwards in the water trying to dodge him. She's completely underneath the surface, and he'll see her shimmer. Almost as if she's getting fuzzy. Within a second or two, she and every bit of water a few inches around every inch of her skin will dissapear. There will be a rush of water to fill the suddenly empty space, but then Michael will be standing there as if nothing ever happened.
Still trying to get close, when Charlotte begins to shimmer, Michael can put two and two together. She's leaving. He makes one final futile attempt to grab her, but he misses. When she's gone, he pauses, taking a look around, and shakes his head. "Son of a bitch."
To Be Continued…