"Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating..." (Part 4: The Best-Laid Plans)

[cityship]

At some time during the night, while some were still sleeping, and some were awake and wandering around the hotel common rooms--a massive explosion rocked the hotel the group was staying in.

Simultaneously, perhaps by lucky chance, or perhaps on purpose, a number of the group was mysteriously teleported away. Specifically, the ones missing were: Fate, Jr., Kang, Superboy, Zouichi, Howard, The Doctor, Lash, Nightwing, Zetta, Dr. Henderson, Rory, Ruffnut, and Sakura.

The problem was that the group likely wouldn't be able to tell from the vaporized common rooms and bedrooms that those particular individuals hadn't been in them when the explosion hit.

[ooc: All subthreads are open.]

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[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel, in the end, had gone to the Doctor's room to discuss the briefing further. He didn't see how anyone could sleep in a time like this, but you never knew: some people could sleep right in the middle of a war waging over head, the whole 'sleeping like the dead' thing, so this was probably a cakewalk for some. Luckily for him, the Doctor was awake. Daniel's hours were weird, always had been, and if the Doctor hadn't been awake, he'd have found something to do. He was, after all, a man who made insomnia an occasional hobby. If not an occupation.

They'd gotten deep into a discussion about Davin when Daniel left to get his notes from his room. The archaeologist only got halfway there when the explosions hit. The blast that rocked the building was sudden and deafening, knocking him to the ground. The breath whooshed out of him. Daniel curled up, covering his head as several chunks of rock came flying past. Several pieces scraped past his head, scoring the side of his temple before he could fully cover. The building shuddered but thankfully, didn't collapse around him. Daniel looked up.

He'd been in enough fire fights to no longer lose his bearings, which was enough to get over the initial shock of an explosion going off nearby. One of the perks of being part of the SGC's first contact team. See the universe, meet great people, get your ass shot off or caught in an explosion, sign me up! Ears ringing, Daniel lurched to his feet, and without thinking, ran back the way he came. Dread settled in his stomach as he booked it. The explosion felt like it had come from where the Doctor had been. Daniel ran even faster, scrambling over debris.

The room was blown out when he got there. Daniel arrived just in time to see part of the wall fall away. Wind whipped in through the exposed permanents of walls, fires crackling, a few things sparking here and there. God. It looked like someone had thrown together as much C4 as they could and set it off, which is probably exactly what happened. Daniel skidded to a halt. Everything was telling him that if anyone was in here, they were dead. Nothing could survive the blast. Nothing.

Carefully, Daniel stepped into the room, boots crunching on the debris and ash. "Doctor! Are you there?!" he called out. The chances of him answering weren't that good, but he had to try. If the man hadn't been burned to a crisp, he could be seriously injured, if not already unconscious. These seconds could make the difference between life and death. He began to search around, picking through the rubble.

There was a subdued crunching sound underfoot when he stepped around a chair. Daniel looked down. He lifted a boot. It was that device the Doctor always had on him, the one he insisted was some sort of "screwdriver". It looked like it'd seen better days. It was heavily scorched, the metal twisted and warped, and the crystal exposed, as if it had gone through a fire and a blender. Daniel didn't have a clue what it did. All he knew was that it made whirring noises and could serve as a flashlight, and that it didn't actually seem to screw anything. The one thing he did know for sure was that the Doctor never left home without it. And even if it was fried, Daniel didn't think he'd want it left behind.

Daniel bent, and pocketing it, resumed his search.