Atsuko eyed Masumi for a moment. Then she considered the other girl's (lack of) age, and her expression softened somewhat. "If you think you can get changed and still beat Batman, be my guest." she said. "Just so you know, though, I didn't try to figure out just how much faster we were going to be. That would have been bad." There were countless variables that could affect the future - every slightly different step, every small change in breathing, every word and every blink of the eyes could be an entirely separate reality... focus too much on just one of them, though, and things could get a little tense. That was why she'd kept her search to just the minimum plausible criteria and allowed for plenty of variation in events.
As she moved over to the well, her vision flickered into different spectrums to check for heat, bodily fluids, and other signs that someone had recently been there. She was pretty sure they'd arrived just after her vision, but she could check to be sure as she moved... and she planned to head right down after the target.
There's a small clack of plastic and cardstock paper boxes, as Felix tosses the empty takeout containers in the "now" trash pile.
"Hold on, just ate." Felix says, as he jogs after Atsuko. "And where we headed?"
"Down." she answered succinctly as she looked across the well. It was what her vision had shown her, after all, and that was the best she had to go on. "And don't fuss, I'm pretty sure my book has a cleaning spell in it somewhere." Ah, mundane utility. Such a delightful thing.
...
The fact that she was only mostly sure it did said a lot about how weird that tome was, though.
She nods nervously at Atsuko, and looks around for somewhere that seems relatively out of view from cameras and the others.
Once she's out of sight, the rest of the group can easily make out the gross, inhuman sounds as her body is transformed into the Ravager. It dosn't sound at all to be a pleasant experience, and shadows cast against a nearby building hint at how much her body twists to conform to the alien body shape.
After a minute of painful transformation, Masumi crawls over her cover, and leaps to the party's side.
The well, dark and deep enough not to be able to see the bottom, has only a bucket and an ancient-looking rope as a mode of travel, though the cobbly, stoney structure is such that there are a myriad of handholds to climb down.
In an effort to appear brave, and knowing that her legs would absorb the impact without damage, she's the first to descend. Her body flexes and twists in a way to avoid contact with the rope and whatever was on the end, and avoids touching the wall completely as well.
Need to rmemeber to fill the bag with a bunch of stuff next time.
Felix opens Saint Nick's bag, and pulls out a rubber band. He snaps it onto his wrist and grabs the edge of the well. He climbs down as his arms begins to stretch to inhuman levels.
The Doctor drops, knowing his body will adapt to absorb the impact of falling.
Atsuko didn't bother with climbing - she just looked for a clear spot at the bottom and teleported down there, already turning and looking for traps or other kinds of trouble. For the moment, at least, she was doing so with heat vision - traps were probably going to be easier to spot that way.
The innards of the bottom of the well are almost too dark to see in. The only noise you hear is the dripping of water, and the walls are made of dank, decaying gray bricks. A tunnel lies before you, long enough that it disappears into darkness before the end.
Trying to act more confident than she actually felt, Atsuko moved forward, occasionally switching her types of vision to try and spot other details of someone passing. There ought to have been something - a bit of lingering heat, some body oils where a wall was touched, that sort of thing. If there weren't, it might be better to set up an ambush, because she'd probably messed up the timing...
"Well this is f@+~ing creepy. Anyone got a light? Otherwise who wants to hold my hand?"
Felix made a note to find a light artifact after a travel artifact.
Masumi steak s her senses in the darkness, her impressive hearing well suited for such an environment. When Felix speaks up, she's quick to grasp it with her heavy, gnarly claws. His hand looks three sizes to small in comparison to her own.
The Doctor needs no light. He simply feels the environment telekinetically.
Ahead of you, you hear the faint sounds of a rowdy group, aggressive, but given how quiet it is, distance and a good deal of stone must be muffling it.
Masumi picks up a wide spread of footprints, hard to tell given how many, but close to a dozen. One set, however, is twice as big as the next biggest set of prints.
Atsuko raised a hand as she heard a group up ahead, then pointed forward before bringing her finger to her lips. It was definitely time to start moving quietly and stealthily, she thought... and she vanished from every sense. She did occasionally rustle things to let the others know where she was, though, as she continued moving forward.
Felix felt like a small mouse in a maze, holding hands with a large cat that could maul him if it so desired. With one hand in Ravager's grasp and his other feeling out the darkness in front of him, he felt very....human.
"Hey Ma- I mean Ravager, what's up ahead? I can't see a damn thing down here..."
Darkstorm sighs as he is plunged into darkness. Can anyone see? Anything?
The doctor will whisper to Darkstorm. "Movement ahead. Hold out your arm and I'll lead you." He keeps any comments about ghosts who can't handle the dark to himself, but he does seem amused.
Moving ahead of the group, Atsuko comes across a ledge, leading far enough down, and illuminated only by a lamp at the very bottom, also illuminating a wooden door.
The drop is around thirty-feet down, and the ground is broken by a series of water pools, how deep is anyone's guess to hazard.
The cave-walls leading down are fairly dry, and appear to be stable.
Felix peers down over the edge, his knees on the damp ground. At least there was light.
"Onward, friends."
She had ttied to respond to Felix earlier, but that obviously ennded in failure as per usual. Having already helped lead him this far she sees no reason in continuing this trend, and completely invades his privacy by grabbing him with one hand and jumping down into the small pit. Her free hand grasps the wall on her way down, and she just fully stretches it to take him to the bottom in a similar fashion to how Felix came down in the first place.
Shrugging slightly, Atsuko simply teleported herself over to the next dry area she could see, continuing to pay attention to the area in several different visual spectrums just to ensure things were as safe as possible. She wasn't too worried about herself... but she did worry for others, and she did not want to try any kind of revival spell from her book. For one, she wasn't sure if she could pull it off... and for two, mucking with the natural order of things was dangerous at best and got rapidly worse from there.
Felix grabs the edge with one hand and slowly lowers himself down slowly.
The group makes it safely down to the bottom, ahead of them a tall double door and a Cape-Killer, his machine gun pointing to the ground.
Welcome. Mr. Dent has been expecting you.
Atsuko - invisible and probbaly not visible to the Cape-Killer - didn't say anything to give away her presence. She did, however, shift her vision into the infrared spectrum - the better to see not just the guard, but whatever might be hiding behind the door and waiting for them.
"Then by all means, please show us in." he says cordially. Given Dent's madness, there was a chance of getting what we wanted without further bloodshed. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless.
Ravager shifted her leg stumps uncomfortably, poised and ready for anything. Well, more or less. Because empowered as she was now, moving in to face these people seemed terrifying.
The Cape-killer opens the door, walking through is a large, round dirt-pit, above is a makeshift arena, half-full with at least ten other Cape-Killers and forty assorted thugs in Two-Face masks, all jeering at the appearence of the heroes. To your left, right, and front are three other large doors, the ones on the left and right numbered 1 and 2 respectively, while the one in front of the team is left blank.
Two-Face's voice sounds through speaker, though he himself is unseen.
I've been expecting you'd find me, though not so soon as this. He said in a hammy voice. You left me barely any time to prepare the festivities.
Oh, good - hopefully his plans wouldn't be complete, then. Still, you'd think he would at least consider the possibility that he wasn't on a wise course of action when his previous "Cape-Killers" had been soundly routed and his own escape hadn't shaken off pursuit at all. But no, she couldn't get overconfident... and she busied herself, looking around the chamber for anything that might actually be capable of detecting her in her hidden state.
"Interesting..."
Felix looks around, twiddling with his throwing knives in hand.
"So do we get a coin to flip or......?"
No coin flip this time, I'm afraid. Two-Face said, noticeably depressed by the sound of his voice. However, I will give you the option of choosing between who is behind door number one, and door number two to do deadly battle with. If you survive, I'll let you all move on along. If you fail, or, God forbid, flat-out refuse, I am in the position to release a notorious criminal out of Arkham, and he'll have a laugh riot all over Gotham if he gets free.
"Wait...so you have two seperate deadly villains who are fine with waiting patiently for us to make a decision between one or the other? Do they have like a personal trailer or something? You got some kind of shock collar on them?"
Felix chuckles a bit.
"Well, if we have to choose, you mind if I borrow a coin to make the decision?"
Ravager rubbed her hands nervously, watching everyone in the room get ready for the next move. She just hoped whatever happened next wasn't too terrible...
You see one fit, shirtless bald man leaning against the wall behind door number one. Behind door number two is a much larger, more ragged figure, his back turned, crouched in a fetal position that conceals the rest of its features.
One might have a collar, the other is on lease to me from the higher-ups, and is quite happy to be getting payed for fighting or not. You're thinking of a different squad there.
Turning to those that could see her, Atsuko pointed to Door #1, keeping her mouth totally shut as she did so... although she couldn't quite get over the sense of being on a gameshow. That probably wasn't Two Face's intention, but it probably was how people who dealt with the Joker and/or the Riddler often felt... eeeew.
Ravager's head tilted slightly in Atsuko'a correction, acknowledging her. She then bumped Felix to get his attention, and held up a single finger to I do care the first door. She didn't know whatever it was Atsuko saw, but she knew enough to trust the other girl's judgment on these things.
"Right...." Felix says, catching Ravager's meaning.
"Guess we'll take door number that one."
He points to the first door, indicated by Atsuko and Masumi.
Very well! Two-Face's voice sounds off in an exaggerated, theatrical voice, the door opens up to reveal a bald man, walking out, waving to the crowd, swinging around a metal chain. Here we have the mighty Absorbing Man! Foe to the even mightier Thor! Who will win?
The Absorbing man laughs, slamming the chain to the ground, simultaneously turning his body to steel. You all are in for an ass-woopin'!
For the moment, Atsuko didn't move to join the fight - she was fairly confident in the rest of the team's ability to handle someone like that. Staying hidden and being able to disrupt things was more useful, and she focused for a moment before looking around the area to try and find any controls or other weak points that Two-Face probably didn't want them to go to.