Something Unexpected

[animusmods]

Characters: characters selected to go into the elevator
Setting: the admin levels
Format: any
Summary: The admin elevator has been left open, its destination preprogrammed. Where is it going to take you?
Warnings: general horror warnings for now

The elevator doesn't announce itself when its doors slide open. There's no alarm, no message to be found about it. It sits open and waits for anyone curious enough to enter. There's a barrier on it that locks out anyone without a collar, and it isn't going to stay long, but aside from that there appears to be no security. There's nothing stopping someone--or multiple someones--from climbing into the elevator and going down.

Where's it going? Who knows.

Hub Area
A lounge area with sofas and chairs. It's large enough to hold the entire group, constructed similarly to the dorm rooms, and is connected to five doors.

Door One
???

Door Two
???

Door Three
???

Door Four
???

Door Five
???

Comments

[animusnpcs]

[Heading right will take them down a short staircase and to another hallway rowed with sleeping retrieval units in their tubes. Eventually it opens up into another operating room, though this one has cells surrounding it. Anyone in the cells could easily watch the operations.

The cells, incidentally, are not empty. Various monsters fill them; even beyond their usual hideous experiments, they've clearly been surgically modified. Luckily the cells are locked.]

[lighthousediving]

[Felix instinctively puts his hand on the hilt of his sword at the sight. He looks and sounds completely disgusted.]

What...? Do they...make these things in here?

[seekinganswers]

This is awful...

[Sheba scowls, tightening her grip on her staff and examining the monsters in the cells with narrowed eyes. She does approach the cells to get a closer look, though - the more she can understand about these things, the better.

...which makes her wonder if maybe she should try reading their minds, and once the idea occurs to her, she can't quite shake it. She has no idea what she'll find - and last time she read a monster's mind, it... didn't end well, though that was in a dream - but she closes her eyes and tries to probe at the monsters' minds anyway.]

[animusnpcs]

[Sheba will receive nothing but the mindless fury of violent beasts. They lack complex thoughts.

There is a button inside one of the cells.]

[warriorscribe]

No, these...aren't like the monsters we see. Jason has been experimenting on these. They're drawn from our worlds when Zo pulls one of them in instead...

*A button? Inside a cell? With what monster?

While he's on his way to look at that rather oddly-placed button, he looks to see if there's a phantom in one of these cells too.*

[uzuki]

[Shion joined him outside the cell, to consider what the button might do.]

Hm...

[It was probably really important, and she really wanted to push it.]

[lighthousediving]

[Felix is quite aware of what Sheba is doing so he keeps an eye on her for a bit to see if her reactions tell him anything. Upon not garnering much from her face, he also turns toward the button.]

I would assume it's important if they're keeping it locked up, but I wouldn't put it past them to set a trap, either.

[animusnpcs]

[There are no phantoms in the cells.

The cell in question is covered with a force field--it would have to be turned off in order for anything to go through at all. There is a Deathclaw in the cell, but it seems to be missing its hind legs.]

[seekinganswers]

[Sheba opens her eyes and hesitantly rests a hand on the force field. There's nothing she's getting from the monsters - nothing that will be useful, anyway. To press that button they'll have to bring down the force field, but that would mean releasing the monster... possibly more than one monster if they end up opening other cells by mistake.

When she turns back to the others, she doesn't look happy.]

What should we do? It'll be hard - not to mention dangerous - to get to that button. We could go check out the other hallway, but... [She frowns deeply.] What if while we're down it, Jason or someone lets out these monsters and they come after us?

[warriorscribe]

Let's find some way to open this. Ah...

*He looks at Shion. He...doesn't think he knows her name, though he might have seen her face at least in passing.*

...If we do release it, could you put it to sleep as you did the drone?

*In the meantime, he will see if this cage is identified - the cells in their own prison floor are identified, and if there's one pattern he's seen here, it's that everything has order and organization beyond things he's ever seen at home. If there's something that looks like a nameplate, he'll try to commit what it looks like to memory. That way they can find anything else having to do with it.*

[uzuki]

Yes. That wouldn't be a problem.

[She hoped, anyway! And hey, if not, she had plenty of other long range attacks. But she began to look around for a console... Or whatever might control the force field, so at least maybe they could try opening just that cell.]

[animusnpcs]

[There is a small security box on the wall not far from the cell. Examination will reveal all of the cells are listed as locked for now. It's also thankfully being translated, though occasionally it flickers into incomprehensibility.]

[lighthousediving]

[Being from a world without technology, Felix doesn't notice this as something possibly helpful. Instead he's trying to judge the horrific monster near the button.]

I can hold it off from attacking at least once if it comes to that. If it's fast, that may not help very much.

[He fought with a guy with no head once, he knows the legs thing may mean nothing.]

[seekinganswers]

[Ditto with Sheba - she doesn't realize what the flickering means, or even what the security box will do, really. She's keeping an eye on the monster, though.]

I could try stunning it, maybe... depending on how strong it is, it might be good to summon something, too. I'll get my Djinn ready.

[The Jupiter Djinni Ether is standing by for summoning!

...if she can just get enough for Procne or Thor, or even Atalanta, that might be more helpful...]

[warriorscribe]

*It may not have meant much to Enoch, but Enoch had seen his fair share of switches that affected things nearby when triggered in the Tower back on Earth. On top of that, it wasn't much of a stretch to connect the numbered cells with the numbers on the box, and the display that said they were locked.*

These are translated into our language, when nothing else is. Is someone helping us? *Dax had been the one with that portable translation device, wasn't he? Enoch smiles a little at the thought of having inside help, and goes to find that cell's number on the box.*

...Get ready. I believe this will lower the...gate.

*Once he sees everyone's ready, he flips the switch or presses the button or whatever on the interface seems linked to that cell.*

[uzuki]

[Shion was ready with an ether, and assuming the force field was lifted she shot it into the cell, right for the deathclaw.]

[animusnpcs]

[The Deathclaw falls over, asleep.

On the box, the cell of course reads as unlocked. There is something else, though:

Force fields unlocked in 10 seconds. Please stand by.

There are six cells. The remaining five contain a Darknut, missing armor but with unnaturally bulging muscles, a Centaur with six clawed arms instead of four human ones, an Uruk-hai, three yellow ChuChus twice the size of a normal one, and two half-mutilated Ramps that seem to be quite a bit faster than their standard counterparts.]

[warriorscribe]

*What....*

Hurry! All of them will be freed in ten seconds!

[lighthousediving]

[...He really hopes Retreat works in this place. He's not familiar with the other monsters in this room, but they look nasty.]

Gather around me as soon as you can! I'll try to get us all out of here!

[animusnpcs]

[Force fields unlocked in 05 seconds. Please stand by.]

[seekinganswers]

[Oh crap--

That's what's basically running through Sheba's mind as she breaks away from the rest of the group to run for that button. As soon as she can, she slaps her hand down on it before immediately turning back to run for Felix and the others.

Please don't let her get ditched, please don't let her get her face eaten off by monsters, please let her make it out safely-!

This actually frightens her a lot more than it should, all things considered. But these creatures just look unnatural.]

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch runs to where Felix is and calls to Shion as Sheba runs to the button.*

Five seconds!

*He'll hold his hand out to Sheba to pull her in when she draws near so she can join them as soon as possible, if she needs the help.*

[uzuki]

[Shion hurried to Felix, though she was ready with more sleep ethers, just in case.]

[seekinganswers]

[Sheba reaches for Enoch's hand when he holds it out - she doesn't know if the monsters are on her heels or what, but she'd rather not look back and check. If she doesn't see them, maybe she can pretend they're not there.]

Go, go, go..!

[lighthousediving]

[Felix reaches for Enoch and Shion's hands before taking a deep breath as he shuts his eyes. Less than a second later, the spot they're standing on becomes surrounded in colorful orbs of light. As long as it actually gets them out of here...]