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Eternal Sailor Encke, Transcended Senshi of Plasma, Basiluzzo, Squire of Uranus, and Mauvian Viatrix are tasked with maintaining the lighting around the Hall.

It’s a simple task, the Mauvian Soleiyu has assured, but a necessary one. He’s made his rounds to secure the programming as best as possible, but something is disrupting the lights in the Hall. Inside the lobby, and in some of the halls, and even in the hub of electronics they’ve been stationed in, the power sometimes flickers.

To lose the lights could be catastrophic, and they have been tasked with ensuring the programs operating the lighting stay functioning. Alastor was never a technologically savvy world; everything currently here was given to him by Soleiyu, and set up to the best of his capabilities.

It wasn’t perfect. But, it functioned. The programs clearly stated that there was something visibly disrupting the broadcasting of these computers to at least one part of the Hall–and where one distortion occurred, there could be others.

They were protected, as much as they could be, deep inside the Hall. A team sent to find The Disruption should be in contact once they identify whatever is interrupting the wireless commands.

The room they are in is closed off, and bright LED lights line the ceilings. Eight computer screens show the Hall in various locations, but they have been programmed now to show which lights are functioning, and which are in danger.

The Chaos is creeping towards the Hall, and while there are defenses in place, it is not a perfect system.

The shadows will find a way in, and they will strike here in an effort to destroy the light that weakens it. Already, something menacing seems to be moving through the walls.

They can’t see it, but they can feel it.

They need to do whatever they can to keep this room safe–and to keep the lights on.

Without its protection, everyone is in danger.

Basiluzzo, Squire of Uranus

"Oh, probably." Basiluzzo stretched, pulling on first one elbow behind his head and then the other. "At least, I sure hope so, because this is going to suck major a** otherwise." An optimist himself, he appreciated Viatrix's optimism, but couldn't deny Encke's frank realism. "We'll have this more, though, if we get right to it." As opposed to letting whatever monsters get the drop on them.

There were undoubtedly monsters.

There were always monsters.

The question was, also always, to what extent the monsters were going to be a problem and get in their way. Looking at the area, Basiluzzo was willing to bet the answer was 'a lot'. A lot a lot.

He could also feel the miasma of the area looking to sink itself into his bones, and he wasn't super thrilled about that part. "Okay, so we have to keep the lights on." He looked over at the screens, at the lights whose statuses it reported back to them. "So which one of us is going to go squabble with whatever tries to take out the lights?"

Several of the cameras flickered–not an impossibly alarming thing, considering how much energy already seemed to be flooding the Hall. Soleiyu had done his best to prepare Alastor for this, and while the Senshi was not particularly technologically inclined, Soleiyu had made it as easy as possible. And, he’d fiddled with the electronics plenty while he was in the room, just to make sure they were as stable as possible.

So, it wasn’t a technical error when one screen went black.

Or another.

A third screen flickered, and then–black.

The light was still on. It was still receiving a signal.

It was just dark.

The Hall groaned in a haunting, unfriendly manner. Everything stayed perfectly still but it still felt like something was shifting.

The camera outside the door went dark.

A few seconds passed–and then, a knock.

The lights inside flickered enough that the room was bathed in an eerie, dim light. They flickered, but half of them returned to full brightness.

Someone knocked again, this time more desperately. There was a voice–muffled–but it was impossible to hear through the thick door.

It sounded scared.

Eternal Sailor Encke, Transcended Senshi of Plasma
& Mauvian Viatrix

Viatrix glanced over her shoulder at Basiluzzo and Encke's murmuring. Were they talking about her?

Encke bit the interior of his lip at the considering. Considering she was the reason why he was still living to tease him no--

... No doubt.

As Basiluzzo straightened out and Viatrix let out a fascinating string of curses he was fairly sure she had picked up from Anser, Encke straightened his back out too, and put away the slightly playful banter from just a moment ago. The way the screens flickered and turned off even as the lights remained on made him uncomfortable. There was definitely something not right...

Viatrix smacked the screen a few times in case there was a power flare. Maybe it had something to do with whatever that other group was sent after. Weren't they looking for disruption of some sort?

The hall was shifting, even if Viatrix couldn't quite tell how yet, and she quickly went back to work.

"Don't really like that."

Encke agreed, and he liked the sudden light even less. Everything about the setup made him think about the people who had the misfortune of being left behind in a horror movie when something was coming to haunt them. That got even worse when he heard the knock and the fearful voice behind it, and he found himself somewhere between wanting to help whoever was stuck on the other side and wanting to keep that door closed as tightly as possible.

Basiluzzo looked like he was going to handle it himself, but he stopped short.

"Depends on who it is on the other side," because that much was true. If it was someone who was getting chased down, they should let them in. But Alastor spoke of the chaos here as if it was a force that was less violent and more ... manipulative. "Do we know who else is in the building with us?"

"I could figure it out!" chirped Viatrix, as Encke joined Basiluzzo near the door. "Though I should probably keep my eyes on getting these lights back fully online. Important to keeping the shadows away..."

Encke nodded to her, before turning to the door.

Well.

"Who's there?" he tried projecting, first. "We're having trouble hearing you!"

Basiluzzo, Squire of Uranus

The loss of another monitor made Basiluzzo shift his weight from foot to foot, agitation running taut along his spine. But the humming, the rumbling, was distracting enough to make him shake his head to--unsuccessfully--try to clear it. "Is there chance," began he, voice terse, "that there's actually someone out there, or is it this place?" He itched to go open the door, to let the source of the voice in toward safer surroundings, but what if it was a trick?

He was having issues keeping his train of thought on one track.

"The, uh, computers. Too." Vague, irritated waving toward the screens. "We need to get them back up." They might have to go investigate the outside anyway if it was something wrong with the cameras themselves. Basiluzzo took another step toward the door. "Any ideas?" Another step toward the door. "We might have to open this door anyway."

For a few seconds there was the frantic pounding of someone trying to knock on the door, or turn the handle, and then–

A weak, fragile sound. A startled squeak. A whisper.

“No,” the voice pleaded. “No, no, no.” It sounded like it was getting further away.

And then, a scream. Horrified, agonized. Something heavy slammed against the door with such force that the frame seemed to strain. It sounded like the walls were being ripped apart outside; metal was thrown to the ground and rocks sounded like they were crunching under the pressure or force.

And, through all of it, the screams.

Scared. Hurt. Desperate.

Eternal Sailor Encke, Transcended Senshi of Plasma
& Mauvian Viatrix

The screams.

Viatrix felt a chill go down her spine, but she couldn't go pay attention to it even if she had wanted to. She had a duty, and it was to keep the darkness and the shadows away from here, away from this important core, and she couldn't chance looking away and another monitor going down or wavering. She bit down on her lip hard, ground her feet into the ground, and focused her attention on bringing up any backup power to get these lights more fully online.

That left Encke and Basiluzzo to decide.

Encke felt Basiluzzo's panic and returned a helpless, "I don't know," because the Mx. Distressed wasn't providing them a true answer, which might have pointed toward thus being another trick of the shadows and the chaos. Why would they so intentionally hide who they were? By the same token, though, whatever was happening beyond the door--

Beyond the threshold sounded like it would tear him to shreds.

The screaming, the screaming, the voice he hadn't himself had, the voice they might have been using to escape the horror. But was this just another psychological game? Begging and pleading to let them within, knowing it was the only way to convince them?

None of the answers seemed right.

Encke laid his hand atop Basiluzzo's.

"Maybe I should open it, if we're going to." He swallowed hard, his words tumbling out faster than he could wet his lips. "I'm the strongest of us. If this may be a very tempting trick, I might be able to hold it off better."

It wasn't an insult. He was the eternal.

The screams stopped, and Basiluzzo's breath caught.

Were they too late?

Had there been someone after all?

Had he heard someone die--

Basiluzzo looked first to Encke and then Viatrix with horror in the set of his jaw and the slightly-too-much-white of his eyes. Viatrix was still working, and Basiluzzo was about to ask if it was getting anywhere.

Then he heard the snap.

Then the pressure of chaos bore down even more than it was before. It was enough to take his breath for a moment, and Basiluzzo whirled toward Viatrix. The frame was groaning toward the exit. Was the chaos still trying to get in even still?

Chaos' whole point was to eat and destroy everything. Of course it was.

"Vi, look out!" The warning came just as he saw the tendrils under the door shoot for himself and Encke. Curses fell from his lips as he yanked back--hard--on them and it did nothing but maybe slow their pull by an imperceptible millisecond. He struggled harder against them, yanking and twisting and pulling and dragging and--

And it wasn't working--

His heartbeat thundered in his ********, ********, ******** class="quote">