While the dog and the snake went quiet and began to touch the generator, Kera decided to keep trying to make the lightning hit the generator. Focusing, she neared in very close to the generator, body right up against it, and began to will spores to sprout against the generator.

But nothing happened. Kera did not know if it was the generator itself, the storm, or perhaps there were just no spores lingering around near the water. Regardless, Kera was frustrated.

She began to look between the dog and the snake. "I can't cast anything," she announced. "What are we supposed to do?"

Black watched. He observed--the thing he was best at--and then he stepped back. He spared the flashing lightning a brief glance; he had no way to avoid it, and so he did not concern himself with it, for now.

"The betrayer is at fault for this," he rumbled simply. He then began to pace around the Generator.

"I can see what she has done. There is a gem. It is as flame. It is within the thing, and it stops it from living." Black had no idea how mechanical things worked--clearly, the generator was dead, at least to him.

"Find the stone. Remove it."

After a long moment of circling he paused, peering with heavily-furrowed wrinkled brow at one point along the structure's length. "There, perhaps. Search there. Try to remove it."

The snake and the wolf pup were both smaller than him--perhaps, if that was a gem he'd seen, they could snatch it out? The generator itself did not matter so much to him, nor the lights, and he was uncertain if this would aid with the storm--but things that Nemean did, should most certainly be undone.

________________

@Winter @Kera

((ooc I don't know exactly where it is or even if it's reachable so Black might TOTALLY be seeing the wrong thing here))

Winter blinked as the visions flashed before her eyes. She guessed that the dog had seen something similar to her, but from the way he was talking, he had seen more. She had seen a gem, and that betrayer must have been the figure she had seen. But he had apparently found where the crystal might have been stuck. Winter looked down into the water in the direction that he was pointing. If there was something down there that was fixing the generator in place, then she was determined to try and remove it. I'll go down there and see what I can do." She had never tried to swim before and she wondered if she could. She supposed it would be like moving on land but...more. She didn't know how to describe the way she would have to move.

She drew with her eyes the path she would take into the water. She would give herself a small 'warm-up' to get used to the feeling of swimming before she dived to get out the gem. But how would she get the gem? She had not hands or legs. Maybe if she used the wheel, where the topaz was apparently jamming, to give herself some leverage. Yes, that might just work.

Once she had figured this out, she slipped into the water. Immediately, she found that she was good at this. Her body moved almost effortlessly in the water and she slid through faster then over any stone. After a few moments of enjoying herself, she dipped her head and began to head down.

It was a longer way down then she thought. She would only have one chance to pull out the gem. If she failed, then she would either run out of breath or have to retreat to the surface. Hopefully she wouldn't be dying here.

She headed towards where the dog had pointed and, after a moment, began to recognize the area of the generator. She had seen it in her vision. The great wheel jammed by...that! There! The gem was there!

She swam faster as she pinpointed on her goal. The instant she got to the small stone, she wrapped her small body around it and around the wheel, for leverage, and pulled with all of her might.

When I speak.

When I think.

With Winter's body wrapped around the stone and a part of the wheel, her fight was now against the current; but the crystal river was no pushover. Her young body was light in the water, and the current won easily as it did with the stone, jamming her body into the crevice just as it had before with the topaz. A snug fit, she would not last long without air.

Save Winter before she drowns! You must roll a Barely Successful or higher attempt to retrieve Winter and the topaz. Fail and Winter will fall unconscious, but may still be retrieved and resuscitated on land; unfortunately, the topaz will be lost with the current.

When Black mentioned what was jamming the generator, Kera almost lurched to go down immediately-- but Winter was quicker. She supposed, in an attempt to soothe her own ego, that the snake would be a better swimmer than she, at least.

She moved closer to Black, closer to where Winter had gone in, and watched with wide eyes. She could see the faint noodly-figure of the snake going straight for the topaz in the generator. "Is it a person?" She asked abruptly, as Winter started to swim faster. "We all have gems-- so, is it another person or is it just a stone?"

With one ear flicked towards Black, expectantly, she waited for an answer. Right up until Winter herself became lodged in the generator.

Knowing this was truly her time to shine, the puppy barged forward, charging for the cobra. She had saved someone from drowning before-- she was sure she could do it again. Diving into the water, she made a beeline for the snake and the topaz, attempting to grab them to pull them out and away from the generator.

Black watched the snake slither forth, and turned to Kera at her question, considering. He went over every single gembound he knew who'd died. Every one that had been in Polaris. And-... He remembered one.

"I do not know," he rumbled at last. "I remember a moth, vast-winged, which fought the black dragon by our sides, here, and fell. It held such a stone, I think, but I know not what became of it. I--"

There was a splash, and before he could really register what had happened, Kera was already racing to Winter's rescue.

He took three steps forward, brow wrinkling up, peering down. Concern registered over his face--but the white wolf pup seemed to be successful in her endeavors, and he looked up, instead.

The storm might hit them, again, and on some instinctual level he decided to try and guard them. He looked up, wrinkled brow still etched with worry--and drew his magic together even more determinedly than before. He was a protector; it was time to protect.

The magic swirled darkly just above his head, and an instant later it did spring open, only to begin dragging him toward it. With a sharp bark of alarm he scrambled down, trying to get out of its grasp before it consumed him entirely.

Whoops.

________________

The pup just barely saves Winter in time, and the young snake is able to keep a grip on the topaz and bring it to the surface. Free of its problem, the wheel groans under the force of the moving water until the resistance of the current gives way, and suddenly the wheel begins to churn. The sharp blades atop the machine creaked loudly but have gained speed as well, and if one looks hard enough they can see their points spinning just beneath the surface. Above the roar of the rushing water, a dull, electric hum begins to fill the room. One by one, the glass orbs decorating the walls begin to flicker to life. Light will slowly but surely begin to fill the tunnels, offering a warm yellow glow to each room radiating out from the core.

The storm is still raging strong above them, however...

With power restored to the generator, its electric stirrings have enticed the storm. With a large pulse, a huge shockwave expands from the storm and then sucks back into it, drawing up large amounts of magicka from surrounding energies—including Black's failed Event Horizon. Lightning can be seen crawling along the expanse of the clouds toward the center of the massive cell, before vanishing, and the entirety of the storm goes completely dark for a brief moment, a held breath; one's hair might suddenly stand up in this moment, the air around them so thick with static charge and eerie silence before—

CRRRAACK-BOOM! With an explosive crack of thunder and blinding flash of light, a large, thick bolt of lightning crashes down from the storm and into the generator, cutting right through the water! The sudden surge of power feeds into the lights, making them burn ten times as bright, blinding the caves from Polaris outward in a pulsating wave. While the clouds of the storm still circle above, all the energy now seems to have invaded the now-powered generator, making it unstable. It is uncertain how long the generator will be able to contain the storm's energy.

Kera ignored Black for a moment in favour of dragging both the snake and the topaz out of the generator, settling Winter gently on the ground, safely. She sniffed the snake briefly, inspecting her, though her attention was quickly taken by the sound of the generator groaning into action.

She stared for a moment, confused-- until the lights came on.

The lights were on.

The lights were on!

Kera's tail began wagging behind her, excitedly-- but there was very little time for actual celebration. She had been preparing to jump and bound in circles at the realisation that Giggle was right, that she had helped turn the lights on-- when lightning struck and the lights began to get overpoweringly bright.

That probably wasn't supposed to happen.

"Make it darker?!" She shouted alarmedly to no one in particular, eyes half-shut as she tried to squint through the light.

There was something wrong with the generator, at least. Kera had an idea but she knew she wouldn't like it. Lodging the topaz back into the generator and hoping for the best was a stupid idea that might not work-- especially when the snake had almost died trying to get it out.

Instead, she moved away from the generator, thoughtful. She tried to summon more mushrooms to the ground, pushing her face to the dirt, in an attempt to somehow draw the storm's energy out of the generator.

@Winter

As Winter pulled on the topaz, she suddenly began to feel her body lose control. The current was pulling and pushing at her, trying to toss her away. She held on tighter to the wheel and one more tug set the gem lose. Yes! I did it!

However, as her tail came away from the wheel, with the topaz wrapped inside, she suddenly felt herself lose her grip and she felt herself pushed into where the gem had once been. She gasped as the crushing weight of the generator fell on her body. She struggled and writhed, trying to escape, but she was stuck.

Fear and instinct drove her to lashing all around, and she didn't notice Kera coming to save her until her jaws grasped her softly. She froze as she was wrenched away, the topaz still clutched in her tail. She was beginning to run out of breath.

However, they breached the surface just in time and she took a huge gasp of air and let the topaz fall onto the ground. She took a few seconds to calm her racing heartbeat and breath again before turning to Kera. "Thanks, I owe you my life."

It took her a moment to realize that she could see the dog. She stared for a second and then looked up. The lights. They were on. She looked around with awe, staring at the lights and the glimmering of the gems all across Polaris. She had never realized how beautiful her chosen home was.

But then she jumped as the storm crashed down on the generator. As the lights blazed, she curled into herself with fear and pain as the lights stung into her eyelids. With no way of closing them, she stuffed her head into her coils.

She had no idea what to do, but her first instinct, as was Kera's was try to lure the energy out. Unfortunately, she didn't have a lot of magic that would be helpful, so she did whatever she could. She had never tried it before, but she tried to summon the blue, glowing wings given to her by the King of Orion. She couldn't see the beautiful blue wings that sprouted from her back, but they did, shimmering with magic.

When I speak.

When I think.

@Kera @Black