Issue 1 Downtime

The door opens to a walkway leading to three other doors. The walkway is suspended over a massive pit that seems to have no visible end. All it is is inky black darkness. The air smells ionized and along the edges of the pit, small blue lights blink periodically.



Each of the three doors (labeled 1, 2, and 3) has a camera installed above it.

"This test will determine your leadership skills and decision making capabilities. Decide which of the three doors you wish to progress through. Two of them lead to terrible, deadly traps. The third leads to the next test. Which is also filled with terrible, deadly traps but also the illusion of hope."

"To decide, the majority of testers have to stand in front of the chosen door."

"To help you decide, you may also send a single person through each of the doors. Who you choose is entirely up to you, but I would suggest sending someone you hate. Like Haley. Or the secret traitor that you don't know about."

"You have one hour to make a decision. At that time, the room will be sanitized for the next group, who are much smarter and cooler then you all."

"Hey Rusty, how about you fart out a piece of metal to throw down there." Sid says, looking down into the pit.

"I vote we jump into the pit," Emily says, leaning far over the railing, "It looks safe."

"Fuck you."

It wasn't clear if she was addressing her new frenemy sid, or the speaker.

"Something smells... off."

"Kind of like Sid did when she lit up like a Christmas tree."

"You're welcome, She-Ra." she stares daggers at Brigid.

"Well I'm just saying, you want to avoid that happening again, right?"

"I think something here is electrified."

"The whackjob probably electrified the door handles," Steve said.

"I can open them from across the room," she suggested.

"Then what?" Mars asks, "Do we send someone through at random?"

"We think about it first, that's what we do," Cal said. "Something's electrified, but the question is what. Give me a minute here..." He shifted to a sensor mode of vision to detect electrical fields, checking the pits, the doors... hell, everything. "Because if that's the problem, I can survive it, he can survive it, and... well, debatably she can survive it," he said, indicating Alex and Sidney in turn. He was more than a little tempted to suggest that Sidney be the one to face anything electrified.

"Is there any way to determine which door leads to the next test?" Mariuset asked.

"Not by me anyway... unless there's something alive with a brain in one. Like a pit full of vipers or something."

Calvin would find that the walls to the chamber were electrified with a current strong enough to burn any normal person to a crisp.

There was also devices lining the walls below the walkway. There function was a mystery, but they looked like some sort of emitter.

Haley stood with the rest of the group near the door they entered and tried to feel out the door to their left from a distance with her TK. She was trying to see if there was a handle to use or if she'd just try to brute force it.

"Yeah, don't touch the walls," Cal said. "At all. Unless you want to be dead, no questions asked."

"Oh, and there's a bunch of what's probably the 'sanitization' devices under the walkways."

Code: Select all

Secured transmissions on.

So... will it do me any good asking what you want this time? Or are you really this invested in the whole 'Murderworld knock-off' thing?

There were no handles, but if a single person approached a door it would open. If anyone else got too close, it would snap close.

Steve could faintly sense a telepathic presence behind the door labeled "2".

Calvin Strong wrote:"Yeah, don't touch the walls," Cal said. "At all. Unless you want to be dead, no questions asked."

"Oh, and there's a bunch of what's probably the 'sanitization' devices under the walkways."

Code: Select all

Secured transmissions on.

So... will it do me any good asking what you want this time? Or are you really this invested in the whole 'Murderworld knock-off' thing?

"You got experience with this kinda bullshit, Sparky?"

"Let's say I must have failed the course and had to come back to repeat it," he said, holding up his mechanical hand and flexing his fingers demonstratively.

Meanwhile, Alex shifted irritably as people talked.

Well, someone has to, I guess, he thought, heading toward the door on the right, his heavy footsteps clanging on the walkway.

"He got sent to a place like this after he manifested." Aisha said, trying to stand up for Cal.

Tommy walked up to a door, kinda freaked out.

Aisha Khan wrote:"He got sent to a place like this after he manifested." Aisha said, trying to stand up for Cal.

"Well that explains how he lost his sense of humor. And, you know, turned into the tin man. I dunno about the rest of you guys but I'd like to do a little better than that."

"Then try that door," Cal said, pointing at the door Alex and Tommy weren't already recklessly approaching.

"Maybe I will." Sid says, not necessarily smart enough to notice when she's being manipulated. And so she walks up to the third door.

"Wait!" Steve shouted. "There's something behind Door Number 2. Let me try something first."

He then reached out to the unknown mind.

Trap card sprung! A sudden telepathic assault on Steve!

Steve cried out and tried to shut out the attacker.

"Steve!"

"It... was... a trap..." he said through gritted teeth.

"Haley, can you get the heat off of him?"

Haley narrowed her eyes and concentrated. If she could find the source of the assault she tried to just ram as much raw mental energy and negative emotion and pain into the person as possible.

If not she would blast the door with her considerably more powerful TK, and hopefully catch someone behind it.

The attack tried to counter-attack Haley, but its focus was split. It faltered and then broke, the telepathic presence disappearing.

Her TK blast left a considerable dent in the door, but it was stronger then it looked. It held solid even after her attack on it.

"...okay, so there's two ways to look at this."

"Either they wanted us to think that's the door because of the telepathic presence behind it..."

"...or they wanted the backlash to be too scary for us to try it because that's the door."

Steve stumbled on his feet but steadied himself.

"I really don't think that's the door."

"Motherfucker!!!" Haley roared. "I'll melt your god damned brain!!!"

She tore into the door with all her telekinetic strength, pounding more on it and hopefully breaking it down.

This added assault seemed to be too much for the door. Haley blasted it right off the hinges and it fell back into the tunnel behind it.

It was a dark black tunnel, just like the other one had been. It was difficult to see very far down it without getting closer, but there didn't appear to be anyone inside.

"Excellent job, whore," Emily says. "Now just do that two more times."

"...what is with you?"

"Stop yelling at me!" Emily snaps at Brigid, practically shrieking at the girl.