"Whose fault was this again?"

"Don't you start..." said Henry wearily. Will squished up next to Ashley, who had been hassling Henry for several minutes as part of her long term punishment strategy. Once upon a time she had been quite fond of Nubbins – right up until one of them ate through her favourite gun grip. Now she found that her affection on the matter had waned.

"Any luck yet?" Will set his hand on Henry's shoulder. Henry's computer screen had made the corner of the room a blue-ish glow which flickered every time he brought up a new security screen.

"No. The buggers chewed through three of the surveillance cameras so we've got no eyes on the top level. Sensors are still working – but I don't think they're capable of detecting Nubbins."

"That smoke?" Ashley wrinkled her nose.

"Could be," Henry frowned. "Nubbin had a party behind the remote server which ended in a similar way to last year's firework display."

"So, progress is being made." Ashley grinned at Will, but Henry remained distressed.

"How so?"

"Well, one down, one to go..."

"I may not be a genius on abnormals," Henry admitted, "but the walls sound like they're eating themselves so I'd say we got more than one to worry about now."

*~*~*

Nikola bent his exceptionally long figure in half as he inspected the box in the hallway. James paced around behind him, following a trail of chewed cardboard that led through the hall and into the house. From what they could gauge, the 'Nubbins' showed characteristics similar to RedBull-infused mice, chewing their way through obstacles.

"She should have bought a mousetrap," muttered Nikola, prodding the chewed corner of the box.

"I think that it's possible, old friend," replied John wickedly, "that we are the trap."

"Then we're not getting paid enough..." Nikola was now on the floor, trying to see in through the hole. The interior of the box was mostly dark, except for the small shards of light streaming in through the occasional hole. It was empty, as far as he could tell. "Shame," he said, "I guess I was hoping there'd be a few left for us."

"Ha... you think the great Magnus would call for an easy task?" John plucked a large piece of cardboard from the floor and examined the tear marks around its edge.

"I thought she might have invited us for the company."

"We make poor companions, the both of us. Entertainment, maybe – but I believe that we're here to work on this occasion."

"What are you doing?" quipped Tesla, as John sniffed the cardboard.

"Mind your own business, genius."

"Play nice..." said a voice, slinking into the main hall. Helen's heels clicked over the wooden entrance, drumming out her approach as the two men broke their glare and turned to face her. "Don't make me separate you."

"Good of you to finally join us," said Nikola.

"I've just been with Henry. He tells me that we're already looking for a rather large colony. From this point, nobody goes in or out of the building using any method," she looked particularly at John who let a grin creep over his features. "Nikola," she waited for his attention to wander in her direction. When she was certain that his black eyes and half-smile were focused, she continued, "I want you to follow Ashley down to basement and inspect the power conduits and our generators. These things seem to have a taste for warmth so it's a good bet that you'll find a few snuggling in a corner."

Nikola couldn't think of a worse companion. Helen's child had made a point of expressing her intense dislike of him and had gone so far as to say that she would, 'like to see him on a spike' sometime in the future. Not a good start to a relationship, really.

"Fine, whatever," he muttered, brushing past Helen on his way out.

"You," she said to John, once Nikola had left the room, "are with me."

*~*~*

The nethers of Helen's castle were as he remembered them – dank, dark and unpleasant. Extensive trails of cords had been crudely tacked on to the stone, unwisely allowed to drape toward trickling rivers of water running over the wall from above.

Ashley had not said a word to Nikola as they made their way through the serious of tunnels. She carried two traps with rattled with her step and a flashlight which she continually tracked over the ground in front.

Ducking to avoid a low pipe, Nikola wondered how they were going to catch anything whilst making so much noise.

"You are nothing like Helen," he noted, always several steps behind her. The scruffy blonde exhaled irritably and flashed the torch in his direction, bringing them to a stop.

"This will go much easier if you don't speak," she said, shining the light directly into his eyes. They seemed to enlarge as she watched, becoming more globe-like.

"Just trying to make conversation," he shrugged. "Work on my people skills." There was a foul fume on the air – below detectible smell. He could feel it like a sticky substance clogging his sinuses and making him dizzy. It reminded him of high altitudes where the chest became heavy and thoughts blurred. Ashley was not immune to the effects – although was apparently unaware of them. He had seen her stumble several times and linger on corners, searching for the correct route when her knowledge of the house was presumably grand.

"Lost?" he asked her once. She merely growled and promptly made a choice, leading them further into the din.

Finally, they came upon a cylindrical contraption that resembled a generator. It was the hub of all the electrical wires which streamed into the depths of the structure, nesting in warm swirls of plastic and copper.

"No sign of Nubbins," said Ashley, openly relieved. "Last time they tore the place apart."

That accounted for the poor repair, thought Tesla, who had already gauged that the entire thing would breakdown in less than two years.

Nikola and Ashley bent down to the main control panel together, and gave each other a fright. It was Ashley who backed off, realising that this was probably the reason her mother had sent Nikola down here in the first place – to inspect the generator.

"My, my..." he said after a while. "Something's been having its fun."

Ashley reluctantly returned to the suited-man's side, leaning in to see a serious of teeth marks that had attempted to gnaw through the man conduit.

"Very recent," he added. "I'd say your little critter is still around." Indeed, he had already seen several sets of eyes blinking along the wall behind the generator.

"Pardon?" Ashley asked, genuinely forgetting Tesla's first answer. She couldn't place what was wrong with her – but there was defiantly something amiss – especially as she had caught herself twice staring at the unnerving man's well – the point was, she didn't do it voluntarily.

"'scuse me," Nikola had been trying to get her attention for some time. "If you're not going to listen then there's no point in me explaining."