Patching the Wall

The clicking growl subsided after a moment, and those nearest the wall- Jay, Wesley and Sasha, glanced at one another in fear and confusion both. They hadn't expected to be running across something already- not so soon.

"Wesley, we are not staying here," Sasha hissed as she looked back at the wall for a moment, and then to him. "You told us that if there was danger that we were going to bail. We were just here to check on the stupid wall. We did that," she continued, gesturing back at it.

Wesley exhaled slowly as he lifted a hand to his face. Sasha was right- that is what they agreed on. But now the hole in the wall was larger than it had been before, and whatever was on the other side was quite aware of that.

"We need to fix the wall, dude. Or at least do something with it," Jay interjected, and Sasha turned a glare onto him, leading Wesley to grunt slightly in response. Of course they'd have different ways of looking at this. He had been appointed as leader if only because he was the only one looking to get things done.

And with leadership, that brought responsibility. He frowned, as there was another low, deep growl. It was enough to resonate with the wall, earning a bout of confusion and concern for the group once more. "Okay. We'll do this quick. We don't have time to put the metal plates back up and weld them back on. Ted," he called over his shoulder.

The lanky fellow frowned slightly but adjusted his glasses as he began to move forward, following Wesley's lead. "Earthshaping..?" the man asked in his slow way of speech and Wesley nodded. Ted began to move immediately, his hands lifting as he pulled up several large piece of earth to at least patch the hole that had been being made.

Wesley took a few seconds to steady his mind as he looked on at the ground and then began to follow Theodore's movements. He hadn't done much with earthshaping before, and due to that, he wasn't nearly as practiced. Still, with the both of them working on it, the wall began to be covered in rock and dirt, hiding the hole from view.

Looking up at the top of the wall, from what little he could see, there weren't anyone patrolling on this side... which was a little strange as well, but he didn't have time to really think on it. As his gaze came back down, he looked through the remaining hole that was still visible, and he swallowed as a brilliant orange eye stared back at him. "Ted..."

"Yes... it sees us," Ted responded, his tone just as quiet and lackluster as ever, but there was a slight note of fear in his voice. "But we cannot stop now." Ted punctuated that point with another rush of rocks and earth rising up from the ground, breaking apart the ground beneath them as more and more were added to cover it up.

Wesley nodded, and he continued as well, bringing more up, even as that singular orange eye watched them from the other side, unblinking at their actions, until the wall itself was completely covered. He took a step backward then, heaving a small breath. Using his Skills that long, especially after everything they'd done up until this point, was starting to wear him out a bit. "Are we good?"

"I don't think we should stay, regardless," John spoke, the man's tone quiet as he looked on at Wesley, able to now see some of what he could really do. "We need to go." Wes glanced back at him, and there was a long moment of hesitation before Wesley nodded in response. "We've been here too long. Come on."

"Who the hell died and made you the leader?" Sasha commented as she moved away from Wes and Jay, moving over toward Evie, who greeted the other girl with an enthusiastic wave. "I'm pissed off and want to get back to our little mud huts," she muttered, her tone quiet.

Wesley knew that she was upset. Likely due in part to the fact that she hadn't been particularly helpful in the fight against the Traitors, but also the fact that they'd nearly been attacked again by a Beast. There was a genuine fear there, and Wes understood that. They'd just started their (forced) training at the hands of the Government to be Soldiers and Guardsmen against the Beasts.

She had been devastated when her family had been attacked, and that was part of the reason why she had bonded so well with Wes and Jay. But where her emotions were rooted in fear (which was Wesley's guess as far as why she lashed out as much as she did), his were rooted in anger. He couldn't ever get a read on his brother, who just seemed to be along for the ride.

But even now as they retreated away from the Wall, and the Beast that lay just on the other side, Wesley wanted to turn around and engage it in combat. Whether or not he could win, or even do anything to the Beast, didn't weight at all on his mine. He just felt the need to destroy it.

"Hey." The word came from John, and Wesley pulled out of his own thoughts as he glanced over at him. John had come to walk up beside him, and Wes had been too focused on his own thoughts to really notice. "So that guy you... used your power on. You said that it allows you to take the Framework of the people that you use it on. So is it... gone, for him? Can it ever recover?"

Wesley's gaze lingered on John for a moment before he forced it back forward, trying not to pay much attention to the wall behind him. "I don't know. I've only had this for a couple of days. But I would be willing to say that based on my experience... it doesn't come back. It doesn't recover, not even with a Life Framework Skill. Or a Time Framework Skill, for that matter," the young man spoke.

"So his Framework is just part of you now, right?" John continued, pressuring the responses from the other. "That seems..."

"It doesn't matter how it seems!" Evie called from ahead of them, the girl having turned around while riding on Mr. Woodhead's shoulder. "Wesley's on our side, so if he can get more power then that's good, right?" the girl called, grinning.

John balked a bit at that, before looking from the grinning girl back over to Wesley, a frown on his face. "Yeah..."