Troops Come Marching In

[stringmods]

It's finally tournament time, which means it's time for the cavalry to move on out. When the rescuers make their way to the abandoned factory that had been named as the entrance by Q, it's rather easy to spot where their destination was. In fact, they were greeted with the appearance of extremely out of place grecian columns and ancient-looking ruins, complete with a large set of stairs leading downward; there might as well be a big neon sign with arrows pointing downward and the caption "HEY EVERYONE!! HERE IT IS!! ENTER THIS DUNGEON!! WIN FABULOUS PRIZES AND LOOT!!!" It's a rather alarming testament to just how powerful rumors are in this town, if the Junes saga wasn't indication enough.

Reiko, a member of the Seven, awaits them at the entrance with her Jack Frost standing at her side, clutching two strange objects in her hands as every assembles.

"I took a look around inside before you got here," she began, a matter of fact tone to her voice, though it was still light despite the gravity of the situation. "It's something else in there! Looks like they've set up some kind of maze inside... You'll have to get through it if you want to find the others deeper inside.

"You'll split up into two groups to get through it; Eikichi, Rock, Kotoha, Ruri and Yosuke on one, and Nano, Shinjiro, Lucas, Lucina and Billy on the other. It'll make it easier for you to get through undetected, but be sure you stay together with your groups, OK?"

She moved forward with the devices in hand, handing one off to Ruri and the other to Nano. "These are courtesy of Q-- they'll teleport you and any others in a short radius back outside here, but they're one time use only. Make sure to only use them once you've found all of the others, OK?"

Once she'd handed them off, she stepped back out of the way of the entrance, her Jack Frost following at her side. "I'll stay out here and watch your back; if you need anything, you can contact me or Q over the CommLink. Good luck! And try not to get anyone killed!"

Comments

[a_gentle_boy]

"W-We're just going to take their things without asking?"

Lucas grew up in a village where everyone kept their doors open and everyone's stuff was communal property. Somehow, it still felt a bit strange to be casually picking through this office.

"I guess we can't really ask anymore. ...We probably should look for how they kidnapped our friends so we can stop them doing it again. But the rest might be private..."

After a few moments of trailing off, Lucas comes up with a solution.

"We should read it here first and only take what we need."

Perfect plan no privacy intrusions at all yes. He picks up the first stack of papers at hand and begins to glance through them.

[all_wound_up]

Nano seems to be of a similar temperament about all of this as Lucas, looking hesitant about the whole thing until he comes up with the compromise solution, at which point she nods.

"I think that would be for the best, too. The demons here are already dangerous enough, so we shouldn't get them even angrier by stealing from them. That won't be doing anyone any favors. Two wrongs don't make a right."

That said, she's okay with at least taking a look at things, moving up alongside Lucas to do just that.

[themortalhalf]

Shinjiro surveys the room as he enters the threshold. His eyes narrow when the reach the table, where the masked figure had been. Shit if they weren't looking for something. And clearly, whoever the hell it was, was just as much of an uninvited guest as they are.

He shrugs his shoulders in apparent agreement. Heads over to the table where the papers are. "No reason to take shit we don't need. Probably should look over that stack that guy was looking at if nothing else."

But while the others are investigating the papers, Shinjiro will start on the scrolls.

[puubuu]

"Awww, you mean we can't show the others this stuff?" Fattycakes folded his arms and pouted before coming up with an idea. "Oh, I know! Do we have anything that can take pictures? Like... maybe the COMPs? We can try and get pictures of the writing and stuff! That'll be like taking it back to show the others without actually taking it."

[all_wound_up]

"U-um... I think I can do something like that," Nano responds, cheeks flushing in embarrassment. "I've done it before, but I'm not very good at it."

[a_gentle_boy]

"...Oh. I can try something, too."

Lucas drops his knapsack to the floor and unzips the top; as he does so, something that is very obviously a large green bug scuttles out. The Stinkbug chitters nervously as it crawls into Lucas's hand.

"Um. ...This is the Stinkbug. He has a perfect memory." And Lucas kept it as a pet, apparently. "B-But um, Nano, you should go ahead and take pictures, too."