The Superhuman Gambit

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Sooner or later, someone will clean up the dead ants in the street where the Mechanist and the AntAgonizer fought. It's not a big priority right now, though. Not with Dominic and Machete getting ready to go out for the day's hunting, and Joe opening up the diner and counting over his available bottles of water, and Derek looking for something to do or someone to talk to. For the moment, at least, it's pretty placid in Canterbury Commons.

We'll just have to see how long that lasts.

Comments

[basic_powers]

Tyler says nothing, merely peering around Ellen to look about inside. And wishing he'd brought his little handheld scanner.

"If he'dve put them anywhere, they would've been on the first floor... I kinda doubt Ant-lady can fly, so he probably planned for that."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Dogmeat is moving quietly, apparently sensing what's got the humans on edge. He is, however, bristling and looking intently in the direction of the open doorway to the left. Unfortunately, there's also an open doorway straight ahead; this was a reception area once.

"Blast. I don't like this," murmurs Ellen. "Tyler, do you mind if I go invisible for a bit and leave Dogmeat with you?"

[basic_powers]

"...Sure...but I don't know if Dogmeat will stay..." There's one glance down to the canine, then to where he's bristling.

"Dogmeat, what do you hear down the left corridor?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Metal. Moving metal," Dogmeat answers. "And something smells very wrong. Like people, but not."

[basic_powers]

...At those words, Tyler's recalling that brain-in-a-jar robot that got blown up earlier. Then he looks up for Ellen.

"I'll stay here."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods silently, and activates the stealth field on her suit. It's not full invisibility, but the air suddenly warps and she's not there any more- just a distortion indicating the outline of where something human-shaped probably is. The warp fades from sight as Ellen steps back into the shadows, and then creeps away with agonizing slowness.

"There's nothing the other way," Dogmeat notes, turning briefly to look towards the other exit from the room. "I hope she comes back okay."

[basic_powers]

"Let's check that out quick, see what's in there." Tyler whispers, reaching to touch Dogmeat's head.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Dogmeat lolls his tongue out in agreement and pads forward.

The corridor ahead is empty, with sagging ceiling tiles and walls discolored by centuries of neglect. It shortly takes a sharp turn to the left. There's not much hallway after that, just a pair of huge metal closed doors- and a wide elevator door, the sort that usually leads to freight elevators, off to the left.

"I can smell grease," Dogmeat notes. "And other things, on the other side of that door."

[basic_powers]

Tyler is for the moment staring at the elevator door, it's pretty clear nothing in this area has been used in a long time. "What kind of other things?"

He kind of doubts he'd be able to open the heavy metal doors, but the elevator looks fairly safe.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Dogmeat lets out a frustrated little whimper. "I don't know. Metal. Things... like blood to people? But for metal."

Canine vocabulary doesn't quite include phrases like 'industrial lubricant' or 'fission batteries', really.

[basic_powers]

"Ooh...that stuff." Tyler doesn't know what a fission battery is, and if he knew those were there, he would be looking for somewhere ELSE to be. Thus the elevator is getting a good looking over, he'll ask Ray for the canine translation for those things later.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The elevator doors are securely locked by a complicated magnetic locking system that would be beyond the ability of anybody with a pick to get open. It would easily stand up to any foolish ant, no matter how determined its mandibles were. However, the button panel was adjusted recently, and isn't as tightly fastened to the wall as it ought to be. With the right tools, this thing could probably be persuaded to open.

[basic_powers]

...Tyler looks down the corridor outside of the elevator bothways before digging out the second gauntlet attachment from his backpack, and switching it out with the triple-use grappler. It's a toolkit attachment, much like the one he made for Ellen, since not long after he realized it might be handy to make such an attachment for himself. Such a handy little flathead screwdriver is produced.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The panel comes away quite easily, to reveal an arrangement of wires and connectors beyond what really ought to be there. The magnetic locking system, obviously, requires some more control than just the standard up/down button on the elevator. There's not a transistor to be seen, mind, but if Tyler knows much about electronics otherwise, he can probably navigate his way through this without too much trouble.

[basic_powers]

Actually, from the look of things, it doesn't look that much harder than having to wire in the electromagnetic magnet in the triple-use grappler. ...Granted wiring that wasn't any sort of picnic, but Tyler was able to do it on his own! Thus, the gadget hero gets into the wires with a pair of pliers, some tweezers and the cool-touch soldering iron. Getting the doors to demagnetize is a piece of cake...getting them to open now...

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

BANG.

The sound came from the other side of the wall, not from anything Tyler did, but it was a sharp, thundering report followed by a clatter of metal. Kind of hard to miss.

[basic_powers]

It's enough for the high-strung boy to jump while holding those wires, making the elevator doors snap open. And enough that the boy trips in before the doors slam shut again..and the entire elevator starts shuddering upwards.

AAAUGH.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Oh, man, Dogmeat's so not gonna like that...

Well, at least the elevator ride is uneventful. And the room that it opens onto is empty. It's lit, though, by a lone, flickering electrical lamp, and it's got the earmarks of a lived-in space- an old, sagging bed, a RobCo computer terminal with its green display, a coffee maker, paper scattered on the floor... and no apparent way out, only discolored sheet metal walls.

[basic_powers]

...What the fresh and merry heck is THIS?

Seriously. 200 or umpteen years ago before the war, did these people just stick their heads into the fourth-dimension cause they liked the breeze?

With no other options available, Tyler's going to look at the computer terminal first, then start investigating other possible mechanisms in the room.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The computer, alas, does not give the appearance of being active. As a matter of fact, examination will reveal that while it looks as if it's turned on, it's serving more as a lamp than anything else- it's a hollowed-out terminal with a bulb inside. The bed is, well, pretty much a no-tech item- a mattress on a bunch of old springs, with nothing connected to the wall or any kind of transmitter in any way. The lamp not located in the terminal has a switch attached, but that just turns out the lights.

There really isn't much of anything here.

[basic_powers]

Except for the coffeemaker...which appears to be hooked into the wall, oddly enough. Somehow...Tyle- ...Moonshadow doubts this is a coincidence.

-Click-

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It's not. At all.

The multiple doors opening might take a bit of a while.

[basic_powers]

...Tyler's trying to think of words that would describe those doors. His vocabulary is not very broad yet, but he thinks that 'redundant' or 'silly' might be a good word for all of those doors. Honestly, the Red Panda's lair might've had more tunnels, but at least they were sleek, efficient and fairly simple!

While they're opening, Tyler is going to be switching back his gauntlet attachment to the triple-use grappler.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

When he steps through, the room beyond is a far better-maintained version of the room outside- a cleaner bed, a pair of working computers, several robot docking stations, a work bench, an irate superhero...

"What are you doing in here?" demands the Mechanist, bucket-helmet still on his head. Apparently 'who are you' is irrelevant. "How did you get past my defenses? Did the AntAgonizer send you? Speak now, citizen, or I'll be forced to detain you until I can ascertain your true motives!"

[basic_powers]

.

.

.

Moon Shadow is making his saving throw against falling down laughing. For now, because who talks like tha- oh right the crazy people.

"Your elevator wasn't that hard to fix," Bluff, "No, I am not with that crazy ant-lady," Truth. ...Pause. "My name is Moon Shadow, and I'm here cause between you and the crazy ant lady, no caravans have been coming into Canterbury Commons."