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

[justabignobody]

[No, thank you - Riku has no desire to stay in that corridor. He enters when he is motioned to, eyebrow staying raised when the room is revealed to be not quite as empty as previously thought.

He steps closer to one of the screens as well, Keyblade still in his grip as he stares at the foreign words... This must be one of the few times where his weapon's translation magic doesn't work for him. Still, he keeps staring for another minute in hope that its effects kick in after all, before taking a step to the keyboard.

There has to be something that's readable between all those files, right?]

[animusnpcs]

[The keyboard floats in midair. Careful examination will reveal it occasionally flickers in and out of understandability.]

[bow_of_the_galadhrim]

[Legolas lowers his weapon, only slightly, and looks around at the screens. Walking further into the room, he looks for one that might be understandable. One in elvish or Westron, perhaps.]

[neverbeamemory]

[A quick glance around certifies that the other two have the same idea. Indeed finding anything legible, anything that may give any hint of new information in this room would be enough of a goal for this little field trip. Though attracting their attention with promises like that as some sort of bait seems an equal risk as well.

For this reason, between glancing around on screens and at various other bits of hardware in this room, Sephiroth takes great care to keep his awareness expanded as far out from himself as possible. It would be foolish to think they'll just be allowed to poke around in here forever.]

[animusnpcs]

[There are a few legible screens, though they're hidden in the back and must be pushed out. Occasionally they flicker into illegibility--it's probably some sort of glitch that's allowing them to be understood to begin with.

There are three understandable screens, but all three are locked.]

[bow_of_the_galadhrim]

[Legolas pushes his way to those screens, putting his bow and arrow away in his quiver and reaching to touch them, draw them closer to him. Glitches or not, he's going to see what he can find out while he can understand what's on those screens.

Except locks. How do?]

[neverbeamemory]

[It doesn't take Sephiroth long to also push on in the direction of the more legible screens. Though that's not before shaking a few of the ones that flicker into nonsense in the hope that it might clear up the language.

Needless to say by the time he's gotten his hands on one of the understandable screens, the fact it's a locked one just drags nails across the chalkboard of his patience.]

Typical.

[He inspects the tablet like device a little closer, trying a few random pass code combinations just in case he could get lucky with it. If that fails, Sephiroth will look around again, still holding that screen. To try and figure somewhere, where it would be logical for a code to be logged or hidden.]

[animusnpcs]

[The random combinations don't get anywhere, and the room is empty aside from the screens and the devices floating about to input data into them.]

[justabignobody]

[Locks, huh...?

Riku frowns at the screen and the input box for just a moment, then speculatively glances down at the weapon he's still holding onto.

Well, it is called Keyblade for a reason.]

Might as well try, huh?

[He doesn't really expect this to work, but it is just as good as typing in random combinations (or possibly actually better) and so he just brings up Way to the Dawn and gently taps the input box twice, tense to see whether its magic would have any effects.]

/quietly slides in

[hearthemcalling]

[They aren't alone for long though, as a small girl with pale blond hair and pale skin seems to twirl into the room. At first, she says nothing--in fact she's partly transparent as she smiles faintly and points at them.]

Not having much luck?

[Riku, at least, will recognize the voice as one of Yu's Personas. She giggles, holding up a piece of paper.]

Mister Narukami asked me to pass this along. They're taking a break from playing their games with the bloody walls and heart-shaped button.

[Funny, she almost sounded disappointed until amusement crept into her tone at the last word. Guess what the hint is. Though she's kind of curious. What was Mister Riku doing with the wing-shaped key-thing?

Feel free to take it from her while she's distracted and maybe wanting to play with it oh gooooood.]

Re: /quietly slides in

[bow_of_the_galadhrim]

[Legolas turned quickly, reaching to grab his bow out of instinct. Except that the voice was not that of one of the administrators. Not any that he was familiar with in any case. And since he was unfamiliar with how to operate the screens (really it was a miracle that he learned to work the terminals upstairs), he reached to take the note from Alice and read it over.]

A button?

[He looked around the room, frowning at how many screens they would have to bypass to find any type of button.]

Be careful with what we do. One group is trapped already. Let's not follow their example.

[neverbeamemory]

[Sephiroth too, snaps his gaze automatically in the direction of the giggly voice bearing - hologram? Because what else could be partly transparent like that. Sheer force of will holds him back from an instant attack. The chances of him damaging something in here with his weapon once summoned were obvious and he's not that stupid. If he were about to destroy everything in here he'd have tried it already - so instead Sephiroth grips the screen he's holding in one hand harder, to hold his nerve.

He watches Legolas as he approaches the girl and takes the note to read it. A button right? Like a needle in a haystack in here given all the hardware floating around in the way! That could be rectified, he fancies, but the risk involved-

He can be careful, as long as they find this button within a reasonable amount of time! Though it's all a little too convenient, having to find a button to push. He's a screen in his hands that, while locked, is readable - surely this is more worthwhile.]

Who's to say this button doesn't spring the trap?

[animusnpcs]

[Riku's keyblade seems to at least make an attempt at hacking--code spirals across one of the screens faster than can be read before it stops abruptly:

Attack detected. Deploying security measures.

Then it continues attempting to crack into Riki's security systems, but it's much slower than it was.

The door seals shut and vanishes.]

[justabignobody]

[He turns his head just slightly when Alice arrives - a message from Yu, huh? - before turning his head back to the keyboard... if they are looking for a button, then well... best to start looking at the most obvious place.

Realizing that his attempt to unlock the password lock via Keyblade had actually some kind of affect has him blink at the screen for a second - funny, he really hadn't actually expected this to work - and pale the second that message flashes across the screen.

He backs away towards the center of the room with a jump and instinctively shifts into fighting stance, lips pressing together when he sees the door disappear from the corner of his eyes - 'I have a bad feeling about this' does not even begin to describe the amount of dread that has washed over him in the past thirty seconds as he turns his left palm forward and calls onto the Darkness, to change it into a portal of dark flames that would lead the out of here.

...Except that the dark flames don't come, no matter how much of his unease and fear he pushes into it.

...

He just barely swallows the curse on his lips.]

...We are stuck.

[Really, really stuck. ...This is so not going to end well, is it?]

[bow_of_the_galadhrim]

We cannot know and it's the best chance that we have. If they succeeded in safely pressing one, we'll have to hope that we can do that same.

[It was the best chance that they had. He certainly had no skill with these devices, he'd be no help on that front. He started to walk past a couple more screens and then stopped at the sound of the door closing. A feeling of horror washed over the elf and he turned to stare as it vanished.

Really Riku? What gave you that idea?

The elf does not like being confined. Not since Infighting. Where Riku swallows his cursing, Legolas does not. He at least censors it to his own languages though and draws his twin knives.]

[neverbeamemory]

[Sephiroth looks over at Riku as he stepped into the middle of the room, arming up for something and then going considerably paler (if that were even possible!). His gaze then flicked to the door as it sealed shut and vanished. Immediately Sephiroth abandoned the screen he was holding and headed over to where Riku had been; to see the screen for himself.

What was irritation at being forced into a team regardless of what he wanted now teetered on the edge of pure, hot anger. Outraged Sephiroth threw a punch at the screen with those words on it; destroying them might help calm him and what did it matter now if they had to deal with the consequences he'd wanted to be SO careful to avoid!]

Stupid kid. [He growled at Riku, flicking his wrist out to summon his sword back to his hand. Any other day he might have gone straight for Riku to settle this displeasure but clearly they'd now have more to deal with.]

[animusnpcs]

[Riku's actions continued slowly cracking into Riki's security--unfortunately, Sephiroth striking the monitor causes it to pause and the security to amplify its response.

The floor drops out from under them and they're falling into nothingness, the screens falling with them.]

[justabignobody]

[Riku is holding Sephiroth's glance evenly - this could have happened to any of them and striking the monitor is really not going to help - and he is just about to retort when the ground gives away beneath him, eyes widening when he finds himself falling.

A second later, instinct kicks in and he flips in the air so that he is falling feet first, bracing himself for the impact.]

[bow_of_the_galadhrim]

[And again, Legolas curses and tries to direct his fall towards the wall, trying to jam his knife into it to stop himself. Now, more than ever, he wished that he had his Rohirrim sword. It would be able to hold him better than the white knives might.]

[neverbeamemory]

[And he falls-

And a second later stops. Black feathered wing spread out wide as if it on it's own was stopping the descent. Hovering where his descent was willed to a stop Sephiroth even watched the other two fall away into the blackness between his feet before turning his attention back to the room they've fell out of. Scouring the walls left behind for any sign of that button.]

[animusnpcs]

[They don't fall into the blackness--instead all three of them are spun and hurled forcefully toward the ceiling. It's going to be a painful collision unless they can stop themselves.

There is nothing on the remaining walls. Slowly, the code continues working its way toward completion, little by little.]

[justabignobody]

[Riku yelps when the gravity shifts and he crashes towards he ceiling - this time there is no time to do anything, but curl up, his Keyblade disappearing as he wraps both hands around his head to protect it.

He screams upon impact, blazing pain shooting through his spine, black spots dancing before his eyes from the pain. He lies there for just a moment, catching his breath, trying to focus past his injuries as he forces his left arm up and twists his wrist as he calls upon magic - the first thing Terra had done when they had started training was to break him off his habit to cast barehanded, but in the end that's still how he's first learned to use magic and old habits die hard (Not to mention that Cure Potion has currently several advantages over Cura, even if it isn't quite as efficient as it's true counterpart Group Curaga - first of all being that it won't just effect him... but also any of his 'allies' in close enough proximity).

He sighs in relieve as the magic takes off the worst edge of the pain, it's not ideal, but it's enough to clear his head some so that he can roll onto his stomach and push himself up onto his knees. One step at a time.

Next to see what happened to the other two.]

[bow_of_the_galadhrim]

[Legolas sheathed his blades, not wanting to stab himself or lose them. His first instinct is to tense up, protect his head and body but he'd been taught when he was an elfling that a fall could be less painful if one was relaxed. This was kind of the same. Right?

Except it didn't help. His head cracked against the ceiling hardest and his vision spun as a result, the wind was knocked from his lungs and he was left gasping for breath.]

Nîdh!

[neverbeamemory]

[In the seconds he had before being smashed into the ceiling-that-was now acting as floor Sephiroth had only two thoughts; dismiss Masamune and curl hard. If there had been more time he may have been able to force some sort of telekinetic wave to cushion the blow but there wasn't time and his bearings had been flipped too quickly.]

ARGH!

[At the same time as the wing dismissed on impact, in a plume of smoke-like feathers, pain erupted like colorful fire, shattering shoulder blade and reverberating in a vicious shock wave through the armor on that side. Delivering numbness all the way to his fingertips. Thankfully he'd managed to tuck his head far enough into the curl, but as the first movement he tried to make was to raise his head and look around there was the whiplash from the shock to his back that had been taken. His vision swam violently to that side as he tried to make sense that they had landed on the ceiling and how logically this couldn't be the end of it.

Sephiroth soon had that familiar sensation though, as the cells at the core of his DNA started to wake up to regeneration. Needing to kill pain as quickly as they could they would work with the adrenaline to start with - provided Sephiroth could get to safety soon and take five, the healing would come quickly.]

[animusnpcs]

[One of the three monitors reads "access successful". Two more to go.

Gravity hurls itself abruptly against one of the other walls, taking those in the room along with it.]