|
Post by Spinister on Jul 19, 2010 23:02:56 GMT -5
Spinister can moves his blades. They're not fixed in place. He can also just turn sideways. He does that.
But... but... but... Spinister wants to go climbing in the duct that is likely full of tripwires, slashing blades, and horrible implements of death. Kup is ruining all of Spinister's fun. Spinister glares coldly at Kup but puts his hands together and assumes the position to hoist Kup up, because fine, Spinister can get into the duct on his own. He doesn't need help like some Autobot security director!
Oh well, gives him more time to look at the monitors.
|
|
|
Post by SceneMod on Jul 20, 2010 12:54:42 GMT -5
Once Kup gets boosted up and moves the grate out of the way, he might be a bit disappointed. No spinning blades of death!
Oh wait, it's Spinster who wants the spinning blades of death. Nevermind.
What Kup will see is that the feathers don't appear to have been planted; they look torn out, not shed, and there are bits of blood on the ends. The duct, like most ducts in any action or detective flick, are conveniently large enough for the hero to slink along. The corrosive elements in the air are barely present here. Kup will see more blood, this time smeared away from the vent opening. He might remember from the pictures in K'iere's apartment that Jill is on the smaller side, and would have no problem shimmying through the vents if she needed to do so.
The monitors flicker and jump, some cycling through an obviously set pattern. There doesn't appear to be any movement in the corridors that our intrepid duo recently wandered through.
A previously blank monitor flickers to life, just in time for someone watching to catch a ragged, feathery girl drops into view from above, obviously landing hard and in a pained heap. Her clothes are badly torn, and as Spinister watches, she reaches up and yanks a shred of fabric off her beak. She tries to get up once, twice, falling hard each time before finally settling on dragging herself across the floor and out of camera range. The monitors are gritty black and white, but some of those patches on her feathers could well be blood.
Pity the monitors are only identified with numbers.
|
|
|
Post by Kup on Jul 20, 2010 17:13:08 GMT -5
Kup, sadly, isn't down in the room. Or perhaps not so sadly, because if he could see what had happened on the monitor he left unwatched, he probably would have broken something. However, where he is, there is a blood smear, and that gives him a clue on where to go. He glances back and murmurs in Cybertronian, loud enough for Spinister to hear, "She went down this way," and starts to crawl in that direction himself. Kup, while perhaps not as thin as Spinister, is fairly compactly built, lacking much of the external kibble most Transformers have to deal with, so he's able to crawl down the duct to follow the trail. He's been through tighter places than this!
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on Jul 20, 2010 18:31:25 GMT -5
Spinister stares at the monitor intently, trying to memorise that room from the grainy footage. So frustratingly generic. Nowhere they've been, but no windows, just some interior room.
He considers, for a moment, opening up the panelling and trying to follow the wires from that monitor to its room. Then, he remembers that a) he's not Hook and b) he's on a timeline and c) Hook doesn't do timelines very well.
Spinister actually finds himself having a bit of trouble getting up into the air vent after Kup. Ever so slightly, his hands have started to tremble. For a normal Transformer, it would be nothing, well within tolerances, but for Spinister, it is bothersome. They had better make progress, or he's going to have to chug the first of those three vials. Finally, Spinister makes it up, and in following Kup, he's pointedly careful about how his position his weight, no falling through weak spots, and no creaking the vent to let people know he's coming.
If there are tripwires in here, they're screwed, though.
|
|
|
Post by SceneMod on Jul 20, 2010 22:00:39 GMT -5
No tripwires, no apparent sensors, no random instruments of death. Just a tight squeeze of a ventilation duct, some bloody feathers, and no dust.
The astute will notice that the duct seems to be have a slight upward elevation, however.
It takes awhile, crawling through the vent, but eventually, Kup will come to a place where the grate has been smashed out. There's more blood on the ragged edge there, some feathers and some cloth caught on the jagged metal.
The room below is quite nondescript, though Kup can probably see the place where someone hit the floor hard, where that someone tried to get up, failed, and finally dragged herself off.
Once in the room, the duo will see that the person dragged herself over to a low table, probably to pull herself up. There's some bloody strips of torn cloth on the table, and the remnants of what may have been a wooden crate broken up on the floor next to it. There are oddly gated steps leading along the wall to the door, which is hanging half open.
Jill is apparently a determined and resourceful little thing, even scared and half-dead.
|
|
|
Post by Kup on Jul 21, 2010 20:21:44 GMT -5
Kup is supposed to be the level-headed elder.
Kup really does a pretty bad job in that role, especially when he's riled up.
He's very riled now.
He leaps down into the room and looks around. He may not have been in the right place at the right time to watch Jill fall from the ceiling, but a quick glance around the room tells him what he needs to know most. He takes half a moment to see if he can't figure out what might have been in the crate, but whether he can tell what that was or not, he then charges directly through the half-open door.
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on Jul 21, 2010 21:28:29 GMT -5
Spinister drops down after Kup, and it's a good thing that Kup is looking at crates and charging through the door, because Spinister stumbles and fumbles the landing, and that's not a moment of weakness he wants anyone to see, let alone one of the most ferocious Autobots, perhaps the fiercest vehicle-moded Autobot of all.
Getting himself back together, he quietly paces over to check the crate after Kup deserts it. Then, he continues to wander after Kup, being cover fire man.
|
|
|
Post by SceneMod on Jul 21, 2010 22:49:13 GMT -5
Sometimes a broken crate is just a broken crate.
And sometimes the crate is stamped with a company name. What our heroes can see would be PRIM and half an A.
As for what it once held, unclear. There's a dark, powdery residue on the slats, though. If Spinister touches it, he might notice the withdrawal symptoms start to fade a bit.
Jill is only about fifteen minutes ahead of Kup and Spinister if that, and that gap should certainly be lessened given that she is obviously wounded while they are not. Unless something drastic happens to her or to them, that is.
If Kup isn't very, very careful, he's in for a tumble, as that door opens up onto a flight of stairs. There's no real landing to speak of- take one step, then you're on the stairs. For that matter, it looks like someone already took a tumble here.
The stairs lead down into what looks like the processing room. It's full of old, rusted saws and dangling meat hooks. There are things hanging from the meat hooks.
Things that look a lot like they used to be limbs.
|
|
|
Post by Kup on Jul 21, 2010 23:39:59 GMT -5
Kup stumbles but doesn't tumble. He hadn't been expecting the stairs, but it takes a bit more than a stairwell to fully throw the veteran off balance. As soon as he's sure of his footing, he charges down the stairway and into the room, but only gets a little way in before he comes to a full stop. Hopefully Spinister isn't running as full tilt down as Kup was, or there may be a collision.
He looks at the meat hooks.
His lips pull back in a snarl and his fists clench.
His contract doesn't specify dead or alive. That means it's his option.
He'll just have to make sure he leaves enough of his mark left to collect.
But first things first. Jill. He looks around, checking for the trail that let him down here.
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on Jul 22, 2010 9:48:50 GMT -5
Spinister, stupidly, touches the powder and doesn't even bother to put gloves on first. His withdrawal symptoms aches a little less, and he curses in his head, something about sepulchres. PRIM... A and that logo...
This is all tied to something bigger. He was shot with that junk, and now that powdery residue in the crate seems to be the same stuff?
Maybe he needs to engage in some industrial espionage when this is all over, if he survives.
Spinister doesn't run quite as fast as Kup. he doesn't trust his body right now, and he's playing cover fire should Kup get scooped up by a huge tentacle monster or whatever (Windsweeper would; that is what Windsweeper does). Spinister needs to be able to fall back to a better firing position.
The meat hooks don't bother him the way that they bother Kup, and he just simply starts a search for clues and traps.
|
|
|
Post by SceneMod on Jul 22, 2010 11:27:50 GMT -5
As soon as Kup hits the the floor, the meat hooks start to move on their conveyor belts.
Across the wide expanse of the processing room, a door slams, the sound of metal hitting metal ringing over the hum of motors.
Half a second later, a muffled scream, which is abruptly cut off, and the sound of something falling.
When they get to the door, the heroes will find it will not open.
|
|
|
Post by Kup on Jul 22, 2010 19:57:27 GMT -5
Kup's growls softly to himself and looks around as the conveyor belts begin moving. He starts to stride towards the opposite door, but at the sound of the muffled scream, his optics widen. "NOOO!!!" he yells, charging straight for the door, open or not. He does not attempt to run through it, stopping just short of it. But it takes only a moment of searching before he slams his shoulder into the door, attempting to force it open. He's keeping enough weight on his front leg that he probably shouldn't fall forward, but beyond that, there's little thought or foresight to what he's doing.
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on Jul 23, 2010 3:56:36 GMT -5
Spinister rearranges his weaponry, such that Singe forms the barrel and Hairsplitter is the super-charger. Then, he trots up behind Kup and tries to push him aside, pointing at the weapon. Spinister knows that he can't push Kup anywhere that Kup doesn't want to be pushed, but please... just let Spinister melt the stupid door down before you throw yourself into a pit of spikes (but not Spikes) or something, okay Kup?
Though that would be hilarious.
Even if Kup won't get out of the blasted way, Spinister does press his flamethrower to the side of the door and pulls it down, aiming to cut it open neatly and efficiently.
The hero might not find the door open, but the villain will just melt it.
|
|
|
Post by SceneMod on Jul 24, 2010 13:37:22 GMT -5
The door is not some magical door which can withstand a super-charged flamethower! Spinister will find cutting though the metal rather easy.
One they have a hole that they can look though, Kup and Spinister will see that the door opened up onto a sudden drop off, no shelf, of about ten feet. On the concrete floor below is a pile of bloody feathers and torn clothes that looks like it might have once been the savvy reporter from the newspaper headshot.
Across from her, several yards away, is an open door, one of the loading dock bay doors. The rising sun can be seen through the doorway. As the light hits the girl, she twitches, and slowly, laboriously starts to try and crawl toward the door.
|
|
|
Post by Kup on Jul 24, 2010 18:58:18 GMT -5
Kup actually does get out of the way for Spinister, standing by as the sniper melts the door open. Once Spinister stops, though, he immediately pokes his head through and emits a strangled cry when he sees what's left of the reporter. He grasps the still molten edges of the hole, scorching his own hands through to the wires in a few spots, and clenches his hands into fists, crunching the soft metal beneath. When she starts to move, he makes another noise, and then jumps through the hole to land next to the wretched remains of the reporter.
"Jill?" he rasps, voice horse. He waves his hand, making sure sure it's had time to cool - luckily, metal both heats and cools quickly - then reaches for Jill. "Jill," he whispers, "I- I'm here to help. I'll have to lift you, just... be strong, okay?"
Given her condition, Kup realizes he'll have to get her out as quickly as he can. Which means that he won't be able to spend time going after the glitch who did this. Though he's ashamed to realize it, he finds himself angry and frustrated with the idea that he'll never be able to tear that monster apart. But some things take priority.
The fact that this may mean he won't complete his mission and will therefore never collect the bounty for this mark doesn't even factor into the decision making process. There is just anger that he won't be able to kill the one behind this, overridden by the need to protect the girl.
|
|