"If the mold on the wall should prove dangerous, I will summon winds to keep it away from us, but I would caution against standing in front of me should I need to."
Vick nods absent-mindedly "Uh-huh. Am I done now or should I keep this up?" he asks.
Bran pushes the door open, and the group is immediately hit by a terrible waft of gutwrenching, putrid odor. Between coughing fits and stumbling back in disgust, it seems you've stumbled on the kitchen. The source of the smell is immediately apparent. There are two large refrigerators, one gently swinging back and forth on its rusty hinge. It seems the light is working, most likely the emergency generators (put together by a few mad scientists trying to one-up each other) and you can see a horrible growth or fungus, rot, and ooze dripping gently onto a puddle of the floor.
There seems to be a walk-in freezer here as well, the room is cold, and the normal kitchen appliances and tools can be seen either in place or on the table in disarray with years of no use.
"Gross," she observes.
Shayera stays alert, watching for signs of anything unusual about the puddles of putrid ooze. Similarly, her keen nose begins analyzing the myriad and layered scents in the rank air.
Bran lets out a stifled groan at the awfulness that washes over the group, Gngh. It is hard to imagine filth such as this being the source of Haxor's Bane. He pauses, clearly hoping someone will talk him out of this, I suppose we should still see if this putrescence masks true malevolence...
To Hashtag's question, Skuld will say "Drop your veil for now, but be prepared to cast it anew should we need to mask our presence."
Looking at the mold, Skuld tries to see if she recognizes any of it from her studies.
Eli gives his system a little shock, overriding certain unpleasant olfactory inputs. "I don't know, penicillin was first synthesized using a strain of blue bread mold. But it doesn't look like anybody was trying to cultivate this stuff."
As gross as the kitchen is, there isn't much to find here until they can get to the administrative offices.
Penicillin's all well and good, but a stink this bad is gonna stick with me even if I transform. Ugh! And my outfit is cute today!
There are doors that lead to probably another hallway, deeper into the complex, but you would have to go through the kitchen to get there. Might step on something. And hold your breath or take the brunt of the odor. Hope it washes out.
*CLANG!*
The sudden spike of sound most likely gives your heart a jolt as a metal bowl clatters to the floor, flecks of mold flying through the air and landing on the floor. It wavers, making more noise, until it finally settles.
Hashtag glares at the kitchen and looks around for a perpetrator... Perhaps an invisible one.
As an afterthought, he drops the veil and instead hides the smell of the funky mold.
Shayera shrugs, thinking that some of the various scents are actually quite interesting. With Hashtag lowering the intensity of the stench, she strides through the kitchen, avoiding the large puddle of ooze and pushes her way through the next set of double doors.
As Wingblade moves towards the other doors, Skuld will move and open a window.
Bran eyes the wobbling bowl warily, We may have a shadow. But not, I think, a sentinel, or some alarm would surely have been raised.
If it is not our enemy, though, all it would need to do is announce itself and it would be treated with all hospitality.
He pauses a moment to see if his offer is accepted before continuing on.
Ah well, at least the smell has lessened.
The knight winces as he squeezes his bulk through the ruins of the kitchen after Shayera, trying not to think about what he's scraping against as he goes.
It seems you weren't hearing things after all.
Eli jumps as the bowl clatters. "Jeez, this place is the worst!"
Under normal circumstances, he might brush the sudden sounds off, but in this place, with everything (and everyone) he expects to have been involved with it over the years, he doesn't want to take any chances. "I don't like this. You saw that broken emergency box, there could be something else in here with us!"
Sighing, he holds up a hand to stop the group. "Hold up. I have... an idea." These days, Eli wasn't too keen on using his powers, but the risks outweighed the costs in a place like this.
Ever since he'd discovered his powers,Eli had done a lot of research on topics related to electromagnetism. The currents and voltages he naturally produced were too small to do much on their own, but with some sort of amplification, the possibilities multiplied. The techniques behind using electromagnetic radiation to detect nearby objects is well-established - we call it radar - but when Eli had tried generating radar fields around himself before, it barely extended past the boundary of his skin. What he needed was something like an antenna, some piece of metal that could offer better range and resolution.
"Wingblade, I need to borrow your wings for a second. This won't hurt."
I hope.
Thor Girl moves to open a window, but finds, no visible latch or swiveling device. It seems these were never meant to be open, except perhaps to a powerful blow.
Wingblade strides forward moving through the kitchen. Pushing aside the double doors at the end, you find yourself into what appears to be a ward of patient rooms. You can see the tile floors stained with blood and the dust of years of no use. Some rooms are shut, scratches apparent on one side, others are ajar.
Bioshock halts the groups progress to try a hand at detecting something unseen.
Its an odd process for sure, and Wingblade as Bioshock does this you get a terrible sensation between an itch and tickle. However, Bioshock is able to create some kind of radar like effect. He pings off everyone else in the group, and expands his search to find....
Nothing...
The east ward you're currently in leads to two others, the north ward and west ward. Going south leads back to the lobby.
No sorcery hides them or I would smell it. Perhaps something haunts us from afar? It makes no matter; thus far their actions effect nought but annoyance.
Bran examines the scratches, Something trying to get in or out? Human or otherwise?
Wingblade acquiesces to Bioshock's experiment and quietly endures the odd sensation. "I taste copper," she says, shaking her head and blinking away the twitching sensation.
Shayera forces away her annoyance at being unable to detect whatever it was that continues to elude detection -- if anything truly is there. She stays silent and continues to extend her senses out, this time taking interest in the blood stains on the floor. She sniffs, trying to gather clues as to what could have happened in this place.
As Bioshock and Wingblade link up and send out a wave, Skuld will try to open the window, and then, not realizing that it was not made to deal with someone who has superstrength, will pop the window and frame around it out of the wall.
For all the damage, it doesn't make much more noise than someone slamming a door, and Skuld is left holding the window frame in her hands, which are currently sticking out of the hole in the wall.
"Umm...Is this whole world made of paper?" she says as she daintily lowers the unbroken window to the ground outside.
Hashtag watches Skuld pop the window out and stares, impressed. "Well, some of it is paint. And glue. Maybe a little bit of tinfoil." he quips.
"What is tinfoil?" Skuld asked, honestly curious.
Its properties are not fully known to me. But it is not to be "micro-waved."
Despite the situation, Eli can't suppress the reflex to answer any question asked in his vicinity. "It's a very thin sheet of metal that bends and tears easily," he rattles off. "It's used a lot in kitchens."
As he looks back at Skuld and begins to fully appreciate the situation, he sighs exasperatedly. "Remind me why we didn't just fly through the open window to the part of the building we actually want to be in?"
Wind strong enough to carry us all aloft can carry with it an awful din.
He shrugs, But while there seem to be no sentinels with ears pricked for our approach, neither were we harmed by a more terrestrial entrance.
"And we get more of the plot this way." Hashtag says plainly. "C'mon Bioshock, haven't you watched any horror movies? We can't be reasonable in these kinds of situations. Next someone's going to get left behind or separated from the group."
"Let's cut the chatter, people," Wingblade says sharply while still investigating the blood stains and scratches. "We've got unknown hostiles and any number of hazards potentially in the area."
She could hear Whippoorwill's voice in her own, but truth be told she was still upset over being grounded. Bioshock's question about flying to the upper floors stung more than she cared to admit.
Bran smirks to himself at the idea of getting Hashtag to explain horror movies, but chastened by Wingblade's rebuke, returns to silence as he examines the scene.
Skuld was unsure what to do in this situation. She was her father's daughter and not used to being ordered around, but she had agreed to follow the lead of the others, and so she said nothing but followed along behind.
Wingblade takes a deep waft, picking up senses and scents. You can smell blood, medical equipment, sterilization, fire, smoke, mold, rot, rust, stale water, among other things that represent decay and un use.
But nothing that you haven't really seen. Even more odd, you don't pick up anything that would indicate anyone else living or entering the area. As far as your power of smell and hearing are concerned, your group is alone here.
Skuld rips off a window constructed to hold titanic powerhouses thrashing around in pain. It comes as a whole, the window section still intact.
Unknown hostiles, right. First it's a horror movie, now it's some kind of spy thriller. I wonder what's next? Docu-drama? Chick flick? If everybody starts bursting into song, I'm out.
It seems likely that this place was indeed a nest of horrors, I only hope that if this is the origin of Haxor's borrowed might, that we can still discover the secrets of its making amidst this detritus.
Gae-Dearg at the ready, Bran will head west.
Wingblade unfolds her wings and slides a pinfeather between the door and the jamb. Popping the lock, she methodically begins checking out each patient room.
"We should go upstairs next. Unless we find signs of a basement. There was a sewer pipe back where we came in, so there might be a lower level." She has become very no nonsense, senses stretched to their limit, as she moves down the hallway checking each patient room.
"Would these healers have done their healing in the rooms for the patients? among my people, we normally have a part of the medical longhouse set aside specifically for the treatment and diagnosis of patient wounds."
"There's nothing 'normal' about the people who worked here, Thor Girl," Wingblade says while continuing her investigation.
Bran nods, Wholeness and health were clearly not their concern. The longer he sees the scratch-marks and smells the old blood the more horribly real it all becomes. Damn them for doing this, he murmurs with quiet intensity.
"If healing was not what they intended here, would not your bursers...I believe you call them mayors...would they not have stopped this place from happening in the first place? Who would give over those they are bonded with to such a place, if not to help them heal? I know I am asking a lot of questions, but I want to understand the way that the people of Midgard think."
Wingblade pauses in her search of the patient rooms. She flexes her metallic wings once, extending their deadly blades out and then folding them back up. "They hide places like these, or pay off the cops to look the other way so they can do their experiments. Some people are desperate to get powers so they take stupid risks. Other times, they find someone with powers and experiment on them. They don't get a choice." Her voice is bitter and haunted.
Treachery may lurk even in the brightest citadels. It is the task of true heroes to stand against it, to see that ill-works come to naught, and raise up those that have been laid low.
Bran places a weighty gauntlet on Wingblade's shoulder. We can help them, the ones mistreated by these false-healers. Any of them we can find will not have to face their struggles alone. I swear it.
Wingblade shakes her head and gestures to the old blood stains. "Look, they're all long gone. And don't expect to find much upstairs in the offices about their experiments and who they worked on. In places like this, it's not just records. It's evidence. And the people who run these places don't like to keep evidence just lying around for heroes to find."
When her own words catch up to her, she sighs dejectedly. "This is stupid. There's no point to all this. Nick sent us on a wild goose chase."
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Men such as this do their work because they believe themselves above all others.
Though they hide away in warrens such as this, they believe themselves above all, and see the horrors they create as proof that they deserve to stand in the heavens.
Their arrogance may cause great harm to others, but it also serves to blind them. You are right that it would be a grievous mistake for evidence to have been left here. But if they were not capable of such mistakes, they would never have begun undertakings such as these.
Have faith. This day may yet bring light out of this darkness.
As Wingblade explains graft to her, Skuld's eyes narrow and she punches her hand through a wall. "Guards are meant to protect people from such harm. To think they would sell their honor is despicable. Were it not for the guards on the walls of my city, our people would long ago ceased to exist."
As she speaks, the air in the hallway begins to swirl, nothing too fast, but it noticeably picks up.
Eli shudders as he feels the breeze ruffle his hair. Though obviously originating from Thor Girl, it's still unsettling. "Watch it with the the wind. This place is creepy enough already."
At Wingblade's suggestion to head upstairs, Eli happily moves toward the elevator. "Well Dorothy, you're not in Asgard anymore."
At Eli's remark, Skuld notices the stirring air and it immediately stops. "Yes, it seems that there are a great many things that the people of Midgard could stand to learn from my people."
"All I'm gonna say, is that I liked the new Oz movie. With James Franco? Got all kinds of neat fireworks ideas from that." Hashtag replies to Eli's reference.
"But when it comes to people doing terrible stuff, they're usually meaning well. People have good intentions, have a reason. Most everyone does things because they feel they are in the 'right'." he thinks back about his mother. "Not everyone does evil things because they desire to be evil for the sake of it. Some of u-I mean some people feel they have no other choice."
The blood and smoke residue is from long ago, most likely a couple years at least.
You look around at the available patient rooms. You can seem some lined with what appears to be the guiding poles for an energy field, long ago depowered. One is surrounded by a complete iron door, a rusted metal slot on the bottom for food. Yet another is completely white, almost porcelain looking, a shocking contrast to the rest of the facility. The next looks almost normal, except the chains that had been busted open from a patient bed.
A piercing scream of sheer panic and terror catches you all by surprise, followed by gunfire which echoes as each bullet elicts a punctuated snap of noise.
And it stops.
By the sounds of it, it came from above...
At the sound of the gunshot, Bran has to stop himself from running towards the elevator. Stop. Think.
Hashtag. Can you transport us there safely?
"Haven't seen what's upstairs, even if the halls are the same shape I can't account for what's IN them." He says quickly. "Faster to just bust through the ceiling if you're in a hurry."
Shayera stares expressionless at the patient rooms with the various signs of old experiments, the blood stains, scratches and manacles reminding her of her own experience in a place like this.
She misses the rest of the conversation in her reverie, until the scream echoes from upstairs.
"Come on!" She dashes off, running down the hallway to the bank of elevators. She pries one open and starts climbing up the interior shaft.
Taking Hashtag's suggestion as permission, Skuld grabs Hashtag and flies up through the ceiling to the next level.
Wow.
Bran stretches himself to his full height and simply pulls himself up through the hole, extending Gae-Dearg beneath him once he finishes his climb to offer Bioshock a lift up.