Night 57: Grand Ballroom

[ninelivesonce]

Taura jogged down the stairs, and looked around. The room seemed far too large to belong down here. More benefits of being at the bottom of a gravity well -- space was cheap, and air was free. The fountains wouldn't be out of place in a fancy hotel lobby, though the rest of the decor was a little macabre

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[toxicspiderman]

[from here]

The group that had blasted the door off the hinges and left a wake full of booby traps was a bunch of middle schoolers and their camp counselor, two of whom were lying in the prepubescent version of an orgy on the floor. He shined his flashlight over on them for a second, and sneered.

At least Peter had a brain, when he wasn't freaking out about Spidergirl. Spiderwoman? Spiderwoman. If she had half Peter's mood swings, she'd kick anyone who got that wrong in the nuts. (And if they didn't have nuts, there was always gender-ambiguous cloning, first.)

"Yeah, sure. You guys owe me a drink." Two, if you counted the beer he'd bought them. "Without me you'd be stuck in the Sun Room, getting ground into bloody froth on the carpet." If not tonight, one of the past few nights. There'd been the nightly apologies on the bulletin, and on torture nights the scab workers didn't apologize.

[scalyfishman]

And here they were, back in the ballroom and under the light of the chandelier, gleaming eerily from the marble and blah blah blah. Been there, done that. Depth Charge moved out of the way of the stairs so that the others could come on through, standing by a candle mounted on the wall with his arms folded in casual defiance to his surroundings.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You're a regular miracle worker, S.T.," he said with another faint grin of acknowledgement. Never underestimate the techie. It was like having Rhinox and Rattrap all in one with the guy, and without any unpleasant odours to boot.

Having said that, though, maybe he was the one who reeked here, because the Maximal couldn't help but notice that Dent seemed to be giving him the cold shoulder. He should have figured as much- they hadn't exactly been sweetness and light with each other way back in Doyleton, and first impressions stuck like scratches on new paint work- but it didn't bother him particularly. Whatever. He was used to rubbing people up the wrong way.

[unheroed]

With Peter and Jones continuing to have their very important conversation, Harvey just focused on following everyone down into the ballroom. He spotted more food littered on the ground and wondered who was snacking on the go. Maybe someone from the group of four that was also here and that they'd seen in the hallway before using the ring. They had to have one of their own if they had gotten here so fast

[toxicspiderman]

If Harvey had ever asked, he would have explained. The pantry was quiet. About the worst they'd be parachuting into would be a few cockroaches. It was also a backup escape route. If the things had enough range to get to town, they could blip them back out of the basement.

And when they were done with this mission, he could use it to go grocery shopping. No fossil fuels or ice cream melting in the blistering heat of a wire bike basket.

Looked like it was just brains and brawn, and this door wasn't home to trinket number three. He watched Indiana Jones do his Basement of Doom routine, and then followed Peter in.

[to here]