A/N
Just making sure everyone's with me here... Todd's 'attackers' were really just tools he stepped on, and yeah, you can get knocked unconscious by them, and yep, they do draw blood at times. I've stepped on so many that I wonder why I don't just put the damn things where they belong instead of leaving them laying around... Any how. The voices were none other than Todd's echo. I just had to clarify that in case it wasn't clear, y'know? Or maybe you don't... Hmmm. I'm confusing myself again, so let's move on to something that I can speak in an educated manner about. Or speak about in an educated manner... Screw it.
"I Tried"
Furor Paxx (VulgateOfEarth@hotmail.com)
Chapter 18- Fear
"Why the hell would he be in there?" Logan asked, genuinely amazed that there was a person out there who put secret tunnels in kitchen cabinets, and even more so that there was a person out there who could actually find it accidentally. Who sleeps in a cabinet, for crying out loud?
"I have no idea. I found him in here yesterday morning. He's good at hiding." Lance responded. He could guess why Todd chose that cabinet, but he wasn't going to say anything about that to Logan. After all, if the X-Men found out about the Brotherhood's 'secret stash' then they'd be shipped off to the nearest foster home, pronto.
"So, how does it work? Do we actually have to climb in the cabinet?" Scott asked.
Lance shrugged and began knocking on the back of it, casually sliding the box of bottles to the side as though it belonged there. After the fourth knock, he felt something give under his knuckles and gasped as the entire section of the room that they were in fell away to reveal a slight curving ramp.
Pietro looked at the missing part of the wall and began laughing hysterically. "And we thought the house was settling... we should have replaced those cracked tiles the first time around, Lance."
"Whoa." was all he could say as Scott shone a flashlight into the tunnel.
"It looks like it leads to a storage shed. There are pots, rakes, shovels... man. It looks like it was hit by a hurricane."
"I smell blood." Logan whispered as he clenched his fists and his adamantium claws slid from his knuckles. He stalked into the room and began prowling around.
"Well, let's think about this. If you were asleep and opened a secret tunnel that dumped you in a room full of broken pots, rusted tools and no light, chances are, you'd cut yourself on something, too." Kaysin said in an uncharacteristically icy tone.
Logan didn't say anything, but continued prowling. Scott and the others followed with lights. Logan was nearing the origin of the scent when something jumped out of the ground and attacked him. Logan swiped at it and backed up at once, shouting in surprise, but whatever it was fell back into the ground. As soon as Scott heard Logan shout, he turned around and shone the flashlight towards him. After an unspoken word from Logan, they circled around it and cautiously approached. When nothing happened, Logan poked the ground where the thing had been. Still nothing. He raked the ground with his claws and felt something long and slim. He grabbed it fast and held it in the light.
Kaysin giggled helplessly, and before long Pietro and Kurt were right there with him. In fact, in the time it took Scott and Logan to realize just what had attacked Logan, every single person was laughing- even the Professor, though he was damn good at hiding it.
"It seems like Kay's not the only one getting attacked by garden tools, huh, Logan." Scott said wryly.
"Grrrrr. Shut up." Logan growled, but couldn't help grinning a little.
"Hey, there's a door here." Jaysin called from almost a hundred meters away. The cave was huge and just underneath the basement. Chances were that there was a generator down there and also where the wires for all the computers in the basement were.
"I think Todd may have found that hoe before me. It's got his blood on it." Logan said, his tone sober as Kurt yelped and dodged another tool. THey were all over the place and the dust was so thick that you couldn't see them until you stepped on them. The mutants left footprints in the dirt, but even at the bottom of the prints was more dust. "This place hasn't been opened in centuries, which kinda makes me wonder..."
"What?" Scott looked up from peering at the 50 foot plummet and rock gulley beyond the door, which was actually more like a stiff blanket than a door.
"This house ain't that old, yet someone built a way in and out of here. If this place has been empty for so long, why is that thing in the cabinet there? Who builds something like that and doesn't use it? How could they have known about this place if they haven't been here? It don't add up."
"I hope he didn't fall down there." Kaysin said, completely oblivious. Logan walked up behind him and sniffed.
"He's down there, alright. Wet himself too."
"I think I would too if I fell down there in the dark."
"To be perfectly honest, I think I would too." Logan shrugged. "I don't like the thought of being buried in all that."
"So let's find him." Lance urged."
"Looks like there was a rockslide. Might not be safe."
"All the more reason to go get him."
"Hold it, hold it. We need a plan." Scott said, halting the pissing contest that Logan and Lance were just getting into. "What if he's buried? Or hurt? Or what if he's not even down there? It's been more than 24 hours, that's a lot of time for something to happen to someone in the dark. Not only that, but what if Todd caused this rockslide? He may be trapped and we wouldn't even know it because there's too much stuff here."
"So what do we do, Slim?" Logan asked as he looked back into the hole.
"We go back to the basement." Scott said firmly.
Todd was lost again. He had wandered around for a while and then decided to return to Jason. Just to make sure he didn't get lonely. So Todd followed the sound of water and found himself on something that seemed to be a cliff overlooking the water. That was fine with Todd, except he didn't know if he could dive from where he was, or in which direction Jason was. Knowing that damn rock, he'd probably just sit quietly if Todd called him, so Todd didn't even bother. Instead he turned around and tried to go back the way he came, emphasis on tried. After a while, he lost the sound of the water and tripped over a rock. When he got up, he had lost his feeble sense of direction and his hold on the wall.
He stumbled on, vaguely aware of the fact that he was starting to get very hungry and hadn't seen, or heard a single bug since those spiders. That seemed like days ago, actually. Todd still didn't trust his internal clock, with as many times as he had fallen and been knocked unconscious, he was beginning to doubt that he was moving at all.
Todd paused to pull his sock a little higher and sighed when the whole thing slid almost up to his thigh. He took the soleless socks off and tossed them to the side. Then he wandered some more with his hands stuffed in his pockets, wondering how much longer he had until he lost his pants too. BAM, he tripped again and as he fell into blissful nothingness, realized that he had torn his pants up...
"Technically speaking, it would work." Pietro said as he frantically typed away at a computer. "The problem is that the tunnel is probably just like this room, quake-proof." One of the large monitors above Pietro came to life and showed the same image as on Pietro's computer. "If you'll look above."
The mouse moved on the big screen and pointed to a window called Seismic Activity. Pietro did some clicking and the screen changed. "Alright, this is telling all the recent quakes we've had. There's nothing here since we got the speakers fixed. See, if that tunnel is insulated the way this room is, then you could split an atom in there and not feel it outside. I think it has something to do with all the adamantium in the area."
"What?" Logan demanded.
"Well, there's a lot of raw, unprocessed adamantium around here. I think this room has a sheet of it surrounding it, that's why we didn't feel the quake when Lance got mad a few days ago. Bayville is pretty much built on adamantium. There are sheets of it everywhere and even what some scientists are calling Adamantium fields."
"So we'll have to go down there on our own." Scott said stoicly.
"Not neccessarily." Pietro said with a smug grin. "I've been running a search for maps of Bayville's underground, just on a hunch." The screen changed again, this time showing an ever growing list of files. "This computer is amazing. Possibly even as powerful as the one the X-Men have." He clicked a button labeled 'Specified Search' and began filling in what he was looking for. They waited silently as the comuter searched for anything matching what Pietro asked for.
20 hits.
He went back and specified even more stuff that he needed and searched again.
7 hits.
Finally he limited it down to two items.
One was a Readme file.
The other was an application.
Pietro clicked on the application and a new window opened. It was filled with staticky lines but the cleared quickly as the resolution focused.
"This is a program that shows movement in the tunnels." Pietro said. They watched as a bunch of rats ran around, chasing something before the picture changed to show more rats. "Ah," Pietro said as he realized something. "We should probably specify where we want to look." He clicked and typed some more and then they were looking at a lake. "Hmmm. How'd that get there?" Pietro asked.
Logan squinted at the screen. "Is that underground?"
"Yep." Pietro did something and the screen showed black and white instead of the green of Infrared.
"Thanks."
"No problem. I think this can also show depth, heat... pretty complex actually, considering the extent these tunnels go."
"Hmm." Logan wondered, again, how that equipment got put up without anyone going in those tunnels and why they would set up an underground surveillence station. Maybe there was another way in... The scene changed again and they were staring at another lake. Pietro explained that it wasn't the same one because the coordinates were different. He tapped a key and stared at the first lake.
"I feel like there's something obvious here that I'm missing."
Kaysin giggled. "Why would someone tie two rocks together with a belt?"
"Not now Kaysin."
"But seriously. Are they afraid one will run away?"
"Will you-"
Pietro interupted Logan as the older man turned on Kaysin. "Dear God, he's right. Those rocks are tied together with a belt." He moved the mouse and pointed.
"Todd?"
"I guess, but why isn't the monitor picking him up?"
"Maybe he's under the water."
"He should have come up by now."
"He can stay under for at least half an hour."
The picture changed again and they were staring at the second lake.
"See anything, Kaysin?"
"Ummmm. Well, what's that?"
"I have no idea." Pietro muttered as he squinted at the screen. He tapped a few buttons and the camera zoomed in. More, more, more... still no one could identify the floating object. Suddenly the image was wrested from them and replaced by another.
"There he is." Lance cheered. Todd was slowly getting to his feet and looking around in his usual dazed manner. His shirt was missing, as were his socks and shoes and he had all but ripped the waist off his pants. "That was a sock we saw..."
Pietro was typing madly. "He's heading towards an underground... bunker... there's machinery here, guys... Look at this." A second monitor lit up and everyone stared at it.
"What is that? Why is it there?" Ororo asked as she stared at the buildings. There were lights on, but the motion detectors were only picking up rats moving around. Pietro cycled through each of the rooms- there were supplies, a sink was gushing water from a hole where the tap had been before it rusted away, lights were on in just about every room and in one, presumably a dining room, there was even a plate, though the contents had long since been eaten.
"I don't know. But I don' t like that. Not at all. Reminds me of all those ghost ship movies..."
"What? Scott asked sharply.
"You know, like the boats that drift into the Bermuda triangle and then drift out with all the people inside gone. Food still on the table, candles that burned themselves out... Or maybe that one Stephen King movie... the Langoliers I think it was. But there was this one famous ghost ship that shows up every now and then with a skeleton crew, and I mean literally, and right after the boat that saw them radios it in, all their communications go dead and when the Coast Guard finally arrives, it's just like on the Bermuda ghost ships..."
"I really wish you hadn't said that." Kaysin said in a tearful voice.
"Oh, please, who believes that anyway." Pietro laughed.
Kaysin sobbed and pointed to something in the background of the screen.
A huge boat with full sails.
And skeletons.
Just making sure everyone's with me here... Todd's 'attackers' were really just tools he stepped on, and yeah, you can get knocked unconscious by them, and yep, they do draw blood at times. I've stepped on so many that I wonder why I don't just put the damn things where they belong instead of leaving them laying around... Any how. The voices were none other than Todd's echo. I just had to clarify that in case it wasn't clear, y'know? Or maybe you don't... Hmmm. I'm confusing myself again, so let's move on to something that I can speak in an educated manner about. Or speak about in an educated manner... Screw it.
"I Tried"
Furor Paxx (VulgateOfEarth@hotmail.com)
Chapter 18- Fear
"Why the hell would he be in there?" Logan asked, genuinely amazed that there was a person out there who put secret tunnels in kitchen cabinets, and even more so that there was a person out there who could actually find it accidentally. Who sleeps in a cabinet, for crying out loud?
"I have no idea. I found him in here yesterday morning. He's good at hiding." Lance responded. He could guess why Todd chose that cabinet, but he wasn't going to say anything about that to Logan. After all, if the X-Men found out about the Brotherhood's 'secret stash' then they'd be shipped off to the nearest foster home, pronto.
"So, how does it work? Do we actually have to climb in the cabinet?" Scott asked.
Lance shrugged and began knocking on the back of it, casually sliding the box of bottles to the side as though it belonged there. After the fourth knock, he felt something give under his knuckles and gasped as the entire section of the room that they were in fell away to reveal a slight curving ramp.
Pietro looked at the missing part of the wall and began laughing hysterically. "And we thought the house was settling... we should have replaced those cracked tiles the first time around, Lance."
"Whoa." was all he could say as Scott shone a flashlight into the tunnel.
"It looks like it leads to a storage shed. There are pots, rakes, shovels... man. It looks like it was hit by a hurricane."
"I smell blood." Logan whispered as he clenched his fists and his adamantium claws slid from his knuckles. He stalked into the room and began prowling around.
"Well, let's think about this. If you were asleep and opened a secret tunnel that dumped you in a room full of broken pots, rusted tools and no light, chances are, you'd cut yourself on something, too." Kaysin said in an uncharacteristically icy tone.
Logan didn't say anything, but continued prowling. Scott and the others followed with lights. Logan was nearing the origin of the scent when something jumped out of the ground and attacked him. Logan swiped at it and backed up at once, shouting in surprise, but whatever it was fell back into the ground. As soon as Scott heard Logan shout, he turned around and shone the flashlight towards him. After an unspoken word from Logan, they circled around it and cautiously approached. When nothing happened, Logan poked the ground where the thing had been. Still nothing. He raked the ground with his claws and felt something long and slim. He grabbed it fast and held it in the light.
Kaysin giggled helplessly, and before long Pietro and Kurt were right there with him. In fact, in the time it took Scott and Logan to realize just what had attacked Logan, every single person was laughing- even the Professor, though he was damn good at hiding it.
"It seems like Kay's not the only one getting attacked by garden tools, huh, Logan." Scott said wryly.
"Grrrrr. Shut up." Logan growled, but couldn't help grinning a little.
"Hey, there's a door here." Jaysin called from almost a hundred meters away. The cave was huge and just underneath the basement. Chances were that there was a generator down there and also where the wires for all the computers in the basement were.
"I think Todd may have found that hoe before me. It's got his blood on it." Logan said, his tone sober as Kurt yelped and dodged another tool. THey were all over the place and the dust was so thick that you couldn't see them until you stepped on them. The mutants left footprints in the dirt, but even at the bottom of the prints was more dust. "This place hasn't been opened in centuries, which kinda makes me wonder..."
"What?" Scott looked up from peering at the 50 foot plummet and rock gulley beyond the door, which was actually more like a stiff blanket than a door.
"This house ain't that old, yet someone built a way in and out of here. If this place has been empty for so long, why is that thing in the cabinet there? Who builds something like that and doesn't use it? How could they have known about this place if they haven't been here? It don't add up."
"I hope he didn't fall down there." Kaysin said, completely oblivious. Logan walked up behind him and sniffed.
"He's down there, alright. Wet himself too."
"I think I would too if I fell down there in the dark."
"To be perfectly honest, I think I would too." Logan shrugged. "I don't like the thought of being buried in all that."
"So let's find him." Lance urged."
"Looks like there was a rockslide. Might not be safe."
"All the more reason to go get him."
"Hold it, hold it. We need a plan." Scott said, halting the pissing contest that Logan and Lance were just getting into. "What if he's buried? Or hurt? Or what if he's not even down there? It's been more than 24 hours, that's a lot of time for something to happen to someone in the dark. Not only that, but what if Todd caused this rockslide? He may be trapped and we wouldn't even know it because there's too much stuff here."
"So what do we do, Slim?" Logan asked as he looked back into the hole.
"We go back to the basement." Scott said firmly.
Todd was lost again. He had wandered around for a while and then decided to return to Jason. Just to make sure he didn't get lonely. So Todd followed the sound of water and found himself on something that seemed to be a cliff overlooking the water. That was fine with Todd, except he didn't know if he could dive from where he was, or in which direction Jason was. Knowing that damn rock, he'd probably just sit quietly if Todd called him, so Todd didn't even bother. Instead he turned around and tried to go back the way he came, emphasis on tried. After a while, he lost the sound of the water and tripped over a rock. When he got up, he had lost his feeble sense of direction and his hold on the wall.
He stumbled on, vaguely aware of the fact that he was starting to get very hungry and hadn't seen, or heard a single bug since those spiders. That seemed like days ago, actually. Todd still didn't trust his internal clock, with as many times as he had fallen and been knocked unconscious, he was beginning to doubt that he was moving at all.
Todd paused to pull his sock a little higher and sighed when the whole thing slid almost up to his thigh. He took the soleless socks off and tossed them to the side. Then he wandered some more with his hands stuffed in his pockets, wondering how much longer he had until he lost his pants too. BAM, he tripped again and as he fell into blissful nothingness, realized that he had torn his pants up...
"Technically speaking, it would work." Pietro said as he frantically typed away at a computer. "The problem is that the tunnel is probably just like this room, quake-proof." One of the large monitors above Pietro came to life and showed the same image as on Pietro's computer. "If you'll look above."
The mouse moved on the big screen and pointed to a window called Seismic Activity. Pietro did some clicking and the screen changed. "Alright, this is telling all the recent quakes we've had. There's nothing here since we got the speakers fixed. See, if that tunnel is insulated the way this room is, then you could split an atom in there and not feel it outside. I think it has something to do with all the adamantium in the area."
"What?" Logan demanded.
"Well, there's a lot of raw, unprocessed adamantium around here. I think this room has a sheet of it surrounding it, that's why we didn't feel the quake when Lance got mad a few days ago. Bayville is pretty much built on adamantium. There are sheets of it everywhere and even what some scientists are calling Adamantium fields."
"So we'll have to go down there on our own." Scott said stoicly.
"Not neccessarily." Pietro said with a smug grin. "I've been running a search for maps of Bayville's underground, just on a hunch." The screen changed again, this time showing an ever growing list of files. "This computer is amazing. Possibly even as powerful as the one the X-Men have." He clicked a button labeled 'Specified Search' and began filling in what he was looking for. They waited silently as the comuter searched for anything matching what Pietro asked for.
20 hits.
He went back and specified even more stuff that he needed and searched again.
7 hits.
Finally he limited it down to two items.
One was a Readme file.
The other was an application.
Pietro clicked on the application and a new window opened. It was filled with staticky lines but the cleared quickly as the resolution focused.
"This is a program that shows movement in the tunnels." Pietro said. They watched as a bunch of rats ran around, chasing something before the picture changed to show more rats. "Ah," Pietro said as he realized something. "We should probably specify where we want to look." He clicked and typed some more and then they were looking at a lake. "Hmmm. How'd that get there?" Pietro asked.
Logan squinted at the screen. "Is that underground?"
"Yep." Pietro did something and the screen showed black and white instead of the green of Infrared.
"Thanks."
"No problem. I think this can also show depth, heat... pretty complex actually, considering the extent these tunnels go."
"Hmm." Logan wondered, again, how that equipment got put up without anyone going in those tunnels and why they would set up an underground surveillence station. Maybe there was another way in... The scene changed again and they were staring at another lake. Pietro explained that it wasn't the same one because the coordinates were different. He tapped a key and stared at the first lake.
"I feel like there's something obvious here that I'm missing."
Kaysin giggled. "Why would someone tie two rocks together with a belt?"
"Not now Kaysin."
"But seriously. Are they afraid one will run away?"
"Will you-"
Pietro interupted Logan as the older man turned on Kaysin. "Dear God, he's right. Those rocks are tied together with a belt." He moved the mouse and pointed.
"Todd?"
"I guess, but why isn't the monitor picking him up?"
"Maybe he's under the water."
"He should have come up by now."
"He can stay under for at least half an hour."
The picture changed again and they were staring at the second lake.
"See anything, Kaysin?"
"Ummmm. Well, what's that?"
"I have no idea." Pietro muttered as he squinted at the screen. He tapped a few buttons and the camera zoomed in. More, more, more... still no one could identify the floating object. Suddenly the image was wrested from them and replaced by another.
"There he is." Lance cheered. Todd was slowly getting to his feet and looking around in his usual dazed manner. His shirt was missing, as were his socks and shoes and he had all but ripped the waist off his pants. "That was a sock we saw..."
Pietro was typing madly. "He's heading towards an underground... bunker... there's machinery here, guys... Look at this." A second monitor lit up and everyone stared at it.
"What is that? Why is it there?" Ororo asked as she stared at the buildings. There were lights on, but the motion detectors were only picking up rats moving around. Pietro cycled through each of the rooms- there were supplies, a sink was gushing water from a hole where the tap had been before it rusted away, lights were on in just about every room and in one, presumably a dining room, there was even a plate, though the contents had long since been eaten.
"I don't know. But I don' t like that. Not at all. Reminds me of all those ghost ship movies..."
"What? Scott asked sharply.
"You know, like the boats that drift into the Bermuda triangle and then drift out with all the people inside gone. Food still on the table, candles that burned themselves out... Or maybe that one Stephen King movie... the Langoliers I think it was. But there was this one famous ghost ship that shows up every now and then with a skeleton crew, and I mean literally, and right after the boat that saw them radios it in, all their communications go dead and when the Coast Guard finally arrives, it's just like on the Bermuda ghost ships..."
"I really wish you hadn't said that." Kaysin said in a tearful voice.
"Oh, please, who believes that anyway." Pietro laughed.
Kaysin sobbed and pointed to something in the background of the screen.
A huge boat with full sails.
And skeletons.