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There were times where his curiosity was unquenchable, and his talk with Falias only made it worse. He really wanted to see what was beyond there, even with Mercury pages brought up the sound logic in advising against it. Ankh seemed alright with splitting the team, but just as quick as he was to suggest it, another page shot down the idea of splitting up. Even Falias was against it. "Hm... they are a bit young, and that's way too many kids for a single old man to have to put up with. Right..."

He hated giving up things, but he knew better than to leave the group so early in the game. He'd seen enough horror films to know that was a bad idea.

"Horror movies aren't my thing. Too needlessly stupid and unrealistic for my tastes, but splitting up does seem like a bad idea." Sarras said, conceding on his point though taking absolutely no pleasure in doing so. He stepped away from the dark and ominous corridor, giving it one last fleeting glance before moving to join the rest. He couldn't help but understand Falias' concerns and that's what fueled him to give up the alternate path more than anything else. "If we're going anywhere, it's together, or no where. Lead the way."

He looked directly at Ankh when he said that, letting him know that he was willingly giving him the leadership role. Their lives were now on -his- hands, and that was perfectly fine with Sarras.

Catching up

Being old wasn't as terrible as some of the fart faces in the apartment complex Hallow Bastion resided in would have claimed. People feeding you and coddling you and telling you how 'strong you looked' and how you couldn't possibly be a couple of days over 65 never got old. What also never got old was watching old man Pines stumble across the hallways whenever there was the sound of a duck call. The old coot would grab his 'indoor safe made' nerf rifle and go waddling down the hallway. "I'mma get em!" he said over and over, his pants often still down about his ankles, giving Dolores and Christine a good look at his saggin' ol white knickers.

The time had been right after the last medicine call of the night. All of the ol' fogies had retreated to their rooms as had Bastion. His worn out face wasn't senile just tired, so for the past few whatever time that has past since that one meeting on that there one planet he had prepared. Extra push ups, extra jumping jacks, he was ready to help that young knight on her task. He was old and he wanted to tell her to take care of her own problems, but how could he say no to such dewy eyes? Why did the call have to be right when he knew Pines was getting ready to get off the john? Dolores looked like she could really use a laugh tonight yet here he was in some bizarre cold labyrinth of sorts. Atleast he was able to power up first and instead of his robes and his slippers he was bundled up tighter than a swaddled babe. His little ol' weapon of a worn out ledger was held tightly in his arms.

Seemed like the young folk had no time to wait of the opinions of an old man. They were gone faster than Terrance after Soft Taco Tuesday to the bathroom. Bastion liked to think he was in better shape than all the whippersnappers that were around here on a ratio sense. His years and speed in correlation to theirs. It only took a few extra minutes to catch up to them and swipe a trinket to take home with him. The old people always did like to explore the crap he had stashed away.

"Good thing I caught up to ya'll folk. They'd be not nothin' left for me to gander at if I had come any later. Now I ain't the only one hearin' that noise, huh? Kinda 'whrrrrrrrly' sound, right? I ain't just goin' deafer?"

Ankh is considering Room 3, and has retrieved a 12-foot coil of rope from the pile.

Ankh stepped through the door with trepidation, casting his eyes about . . . but no danger that he could see seemed to present itself. Thank Christ, he thought. The last thing we need's someone breaking a leg and turning this little outing into a royal trainwreck.

He stepped up to the table carefully, hoping to make the first move to take something from it -- in case it was booby-trapped -- but Hogwarts, one of the little Mercurys, had beat him to it. Thankfully, nothing seemed to go wrong.

"Alright," Ankh said, "See what you can make of this pile, find something useful and bring it with you." So saying, he grabbed a long coil of rope and looped it over one shoulder like a bandolier. "Everyone carries something so no one's loaded down. We travel lighter, we travel faster -- got it?"

Being able to issue some kind of leadership commands felt good, even if the commands were vague and mainly just common sense. He looked around, surveying the group, and noticed it was more than just the three he'd started out traveling with. The other two knights had joined them -- thank ******** God, he'd been worried they'd get hurt and the rest of them wouldn't know to go back and find them in time. Plus, they were both a little older than the three Ankh had had with him, and that made him feel more comfortable about the safety of the group. He'd put them on the outside, if he could, and keep the kids safer in the middle. There was another knight, too -- one who looked like he might even have a few years on Ankh, if that were possible. Seemed hale enough, though. And another girl, maybe a little older than the schoolkids from Mercury, looking like a Uranus knight.

"Cosmos and Earth," he said, "You two cozy up with our Mercury knights here -- they're your new best friends. Hold the flanks, for now." He pointed at Bastion next. "You in the back, you're with Mars. See that you two don't lose each other." (It was the nicest way he could think to say, You're old, so I put you in the back in case you're slow. Pigfarts, make sure he doesn't fall behind.) "Uranus, you're up here with me. Watch my left and I'll guard your right."

He raised his voice a little more, to make sure he had the group's attention while they sifted through the table for supplies. "Listen up. Keep a tight formation when we move. Mercury, I want you two staying in the middle of the group. This is your planet -- if anyone here has a chance at understanding any of the junk in this maze, I expect it's you two."

He looked at the map next, where Hogwarts had indicated. "We'll have to hit Room 3 one way or another to get to the stairs, so we may want to clear that first . . . otherwise, I'm fine with your thought. Work through the smaller rooms before the bigger ones, keep our search tight while we can." He offered a gruff, approving nod to Hogwarts. "Best to think quickly and be decisive, either way. Good initiative, kid. You lot -- get your s**t together and come take a look at the map, see if anything jumps out at you."

Falias is considering Room 3, and has retrieved a crude-looking hook from the pile.

Falias had been on his guard when the Pluto Page (Ankh) had thumped on the door in front of him before giving it a push, so it had been kind of anti-climatic when the door had swung open on an empty room containing a long table with a variety of items on it.

He followed after the others as they moved into the room, noting that somehow the old man Pluto Page (Ankh) had somehow managed to end up as the de facto leader if the way the others were following was anything to go by. Falias personally wasn't sure he sure he liked the idea of the old man acting as de facto leader - no scratch that he very much disliked the idea - but he didn't particularly want to play leader himself and it didn't change the fact that he didn't feel comfortable leaving the kids and old man to their own devices - and especially not the stick-waving Mercury Page (Hogwarts since he still had doubts that the other was real - doubts that were not helped by the way that the other had seemed to march into the room.

He'd cast his eyes over the items and had been eyeing the rope himself, but the Pluto Page had already snapped it up and then he'd spotted what looked to be like some sort of hook and had slipped the thing into his pocket - after all if nothing else there was the possibility that it might be able to be combined with the rope that the Pluto Page was carrying.

He had looked over at the comment from the old man Mercury Knight (Hollow Bastion) about the noise, having noticed that the rumbling sound seemed to be getting louder himself and then had found himself looking back at the other again. Wait two old men and three kids. Falias was liking this less and less, though maybe it was just the noise which was really not helping his feelings of trepidation.

Once the hook-thing was in his pocket, Falias shifted position so that he was closer to the Mercury Knights and by the small high schooler one in particular (Menae), although he made a mental note to keep an eye on the stick-waving one too.

"I have no problems with Room 3" he said, when the discussion turned to where to head next. Much as he didn't particularly like the Pluto Page (something that had been heavily influenced by the other's earlier 'kid' comment), he had to acknowledge (albeit to himself and grudgingly) that his reasoning made sense. "If we're going to have to go that way then may as well be sooner rather than later."

Pigfarts is taking a pair of insulated gloves and voting for room 3!

Piggy couldn't help but roll her eyes when Ankh assigned the elderly Mercury page to her watch. This was sooooo lame, she didn't want to spend their whole adventure babysitting! So when the door opened easily and they spilled into a marvelously un-boobytrapped room, she split from her position and ran over to the table, quickly selecting a pair of insulated gloves and tucking them into the waistband of her skirt.

"Well, if we're going by seniority," she said to Ankh, "Then what you say goes." Discounting Hallo Bastion, of course, but the guy looked senile. Ankh hadn't steered them wrong yet, and she didn't expect him to. Her prize secure, Pigfarts retreated to the back of the formation, keeping a safe distance from the elderly page. Just because she had to stand by him didn't mean she had to like him.

Room 3 sounds good!

Ankh’s approval had Hogwarts beaming from ear to ear. It wasn’t that he wasn’t used to praise (he was a straight A student of course), but he’d been a little worried that nobody would take him seriously, what with his diminutive stature, big red hair and glasses. But he was sixteen, well capable and he’d been doing this knight thing for three whole months.

“Well, I’ll go with everyone to room three then,” he declared as he made his way to the group centre to be with his fellow Mercuries. He was still holding onto the item in his pocket and he took it out to look it over. It was a ball made of brass but that was it. As he watched everyone else take something good from the table, he blushed slightly, wishing he’d picked something else.

“Oh hi,” he grinned back at Isengard. “It’s kinda too hard to tell where the sound is coming from. Once we secure Room 3, we’ll probably find whatever it is in the larger rooms.”

He was imagining some big engine room, full of whirling cogs and steam and motion and… “Oh crap, my shower is still on. That is going to be so hard to explain to dad.”

Room 2, and taking two healing potions!

Menae would never admit to having been nervous, so instead of acting like she at all was, she sashayed over to the table. "What an absolute wonder!" She said, and she couldn't mask her delight. What interesting treasures - there certainly wasn't anything like this at Menae. If there were, maybe she would make an effort to o to her Wonder and deal with her insufferable ancestor more often.

"Let's see, let's see," she pawed through and pulled out a glowing red potion, labelled with a white cross. "Oh! I...think this might be healing!" she said, and then she ran off to join the group.

If she could be helpful, she would.

In the next room, there was another table full of treasure, and from that one she picked up an identical potion to the first one.

"So!" She said, adjusting her glasses once more. "I think our ideal choice is the room labelled 2, on the map? It seems to be in the same direction we have been going, and we have been quite lucky so far!"

Room 2 or Room 7, depending.

Ankh tried not to show how relieved he felt when they entered the next room and found it just as harmless as before. All these kids are following me, Carolyn. It's terrifying -- I don't know any more than they do, and I can't possibly keep an eye on all of them. They're trusting me to get them through this somehow.

"Alright, gang!" he said with completely bullshat amounts of authority in his voice. "You know the drill -- everyone grabs their favorite bit of hocus pocus and everyone sticks together. Keep an eye out for Mistral's device, and don't touch anything that looks like it'll burn your fingers off."

He reached into the pile and grabbed something that looked like a very large, heavy magnet -- then slipped the rope around his chest through the loop at the top of the magnet to carry them both together.

Ankh considered the input of their fellow team members, studying the map with everyone else. Hogwarts had originally suggested Room 7, and he wanted to back the kid up -- he seemed to do well with the confidence boost -- but the other Mercury knight, Menae, nominated Room 2. He listened to Sarras's input -- it was sound logic in either direction. But they had to pick something.

"Here's how things stand, boys and girls. We want to get in and out as quick and safe as possible, and we've already cleared our escape route. That's good. Other than the map, there's one other thing we know: we've got that machine rumbling somewhere around us. You figure we can find that and see what it is, maybe it gives us a better idea what's in these other rooms and we clear the whole place faster, find our missing thing. Now, ears open -- if it's louder in here than it was in the last room, I say we go to Room 2. If it's quieter, we go to Room 7. Everybody pipe down for a minute and give a listen -- see what you think."