revivalproject | Warren Exploration

With the group decided, the team made their way past the first obstacle to get into the "secret" area behind the blocked down. For now, it looked like a very, very long corridor, similar in look and feel as the rest of the Warrens.

Time to walk... and walk...

It had started with talking to Tony. That was supposed to be 'safe', Billy figured, wanting to talk to someone that understood cars like he did. Even to gush a little over the part that Tommy had gotten for him. It was a great gift that he hadn't allowed himself time to look over properly because it had been his boyfriend's birthday.

And somehow along the way in those talks, he was here, with this group that included Tony at least, and Munson, with his axe strapped to his back and the security datapoint's gun on his hip. Hopefully no one was nervous about Billy having weapons to go with his quick temper.

At least being upfront and chattering off and on with Tony about cars was keeping Billy in a decent mood. Especially since this tunnel was boring. So very boring. "So is this a mission from the aliens or some bullshit like that?" Billy supposes it beats carving out names on the Warren walls.

"Nah, this one's all us," Cayde replies cheerfully. He's backtracked but whenever the way ahead dipped out of sight even just slightly, the Exo would run off ahead to presumably check things out before coming back to join them. The saying is 'no news is good news', but continually finding nothing thus far has been a bit boring.

"Last time we were down here, we didn't have the means to check things out because of those silly shields, right? Which clearly means something more's back there that someone doesn't want us to find. So...opportunity's come knocking- would be a shame not to bust down the door."

"This place could really use one of those moving walkway things in the big airports," Eddie grumbles. They've sunk enough time into the walk already that turning back seems just as daunting as carrying on, but it's not going to stop him from complaining. "You think whoever built this stuff was making this kind of commute every time they needed to come down here?"

Keith couldn't argue with Eddie's thoughts on that one. This was a really long corridor. He was glad they'd gone back to get more supplies and some other people once they'd gotten the door open. He just listened to people chatting about how they'd decided to come down here, remembering back to helping Cayde with the bottles from the ships and them having the brainstorm that got them here. Thankfully, they had people who'd been involved in building the machine they'd needed to get through the forcefield, so that had worked out nicely.

Now, though, as he listened to some small talk, he was intrigued by the talk about a car, and he remembered that someone had managed to get their Camaro here. Not gonna lie, Keith was jealous. He wanted his hoverbike... he hadn't been able to use it in years...

The further in they got, though, the more he started to feel normal and less affected by the storm affects. At some point, the lights on his armor came back on, too.

"Oh, hey..." he was happy about that. Next to him, Kosmo gave a wag of his tail, indicating that he was feeling normal again, too. It wasn't long after that when they finally, after a couple hours of walking, reached a junction... except going straight or right were closed off by bulkheads behind forcefields again. There were no ways to access the bulkheads this time, though, which meant it wasn't worth trying to waste more charges of the Smoolsher to open up the forcefields.

The left path was open. Keith stared at it for a moment.

"This feels kind of convenient, doesn't it?" he said quietly.

This really was a long corridor. Even Billy couldn't bite back at Munson that it wasn't so bad because it kind of was. There wasn't even any nice scenery to look at for him (he was the scenery for everyone else in his mind).

Every now and then, he glances back at the sound of the weird machine guy scampering off and back. Also to make sure that everyone else was keeping up. So far, so good. The talk about the cars drifts a little, from talking about needed parts, to necessary upgrades (no, the Camaro did not need a CD player), to roads, to California scenery.

That's when they all seemed to stop at the junction. He scowls at the closed off routes. "Yeah," Billy agrees with Keith, staring it down like it was going to magically jump out at them. It doesn't, and he heads through open way with a hand on the handle of his axe. Billy looks ahead and... doesn't really see anything that'd be considered dangerous. "C'mon. No sense in waiting around if the path is gonna be just as long."

But it's only when they all get through does the bulkhead snap down closed behind them. It definitely startles the blond, who plants his feet and grabs his axe out of habit. "What the hell?!"

Cayde was inclined to agree as they were herded along. Sure, it's not like they'd been given much choice to begin with, but while he didn't particularly like the idea that they might be headed into a trap, he hopes at the very least that things would start to get interesting.

"Haha! Was wondering when something'd happen."

For having their way back abruptly blocked off, the Hunter still seems to be in good spirits.

"Jesus H Christ-" Eddie startled away from the bulkhead, and sighed heavily, though really it wasn't all that unexpected.

"Okay, taking bets now, how long is this next part going to take us?" he asked, eying his watch as he started walking again. "I've got 2hrs."

"Quiznak." So, yeah... the whole group had just gotten jump scared. As the others commented, Keith moved towards the bulkhead that had slammed shut. Like the other two outside, there wasn't anything that indicated a way to open it. Nothing that, this far down into the tunnels, the storm's effects on his armor had completely worn off, Keith drew out his bayard from the armor's particle storage successfully, and then managed to activate it in a flash of light.

But, after a few attempts to find a place where he could secure it to attempt prying the bulkhead back open, he gave up with another frustrated curse. He glanced down at Kosmo, placing his hand in the ruff of the wolf's neck, but he whined in response after about a second or so hesitation.

No teleporting back out, either.

By now, it seemed that the rest of their team had resigned themselves to being stuck, so there was nothing else to do about it but keep going.

"I really hope it's not another two hours," Keith grumbled as he turned and moved with the rest of them further into the tunnels.

At this point, Keith was glad he'd brought his sketchbook. One long straight path was easy enough, but that had been their first junction, so he started making notes and quick sketches. It seemed fairly straight forward enough as they walked, and Keith was starting to wonder if this was just going to be a series of straight paths to a destination... but, after another hour or so of walking and the group making small talk, they reached another junction. There were no obvious choices, as all path options were open, but nothing had anything particularly distinguishing about it to make the choice easy.

Keith took a deep breath.

"Well, we can either split up and each take a path, or we can pick one and stick together." Keith also pulled out his communicator at this point. "If we want to split up, we should make sure these work first." Since his Paladin armor's functions seemed to be working again, Keith was pretty willing to bet they had basic comms available. At least, he was hoping they did.

Billy looks ready to try and punch the door open - or worse, use his axe on it, but thankfully someone getting between him and the door is enough to stay his hand. For now. For now, he just grips it and grits his teeth while glancing between the others.

That metal guy was way too happy about this shit.

"We could split up, but no one goes alone," the blond nearly barks like he's in charge. Because of course someone like Billy's gonna think he's in charge. He doesn't even bother getting his comm out, mostly because he always forgets about the damn thing. Those closest to him can attest to that. "If we split up, are we going to meet back here after a certain amount of time or what?"

The way Cayde sees it, response means they're getting somewhere. He's more curious to see what all lies ahead than invest any worry in getting back the way they came just yet.

Another lengthy corridor isn't exactly his idea of interesting, but he perks up once they come to where several paths branch off. He looks about ready to raise his hand when Keith puts forth the suggestion to split off, letting it drop back down with almost a pout (how can a robot pout) when Billy lays down some ground rules. Boo.

"Okay, okay so we buddy up. If any of these are as long as how far we've been going already, then it'd be too hard to figure how far to go before backtracking just to make the meeting time. I say we keep going until we find something, and if it's a dead end, then whoever gets stuck with it can come back, take a break and try another one if the others aren't stuck too."

"There's only five of us," Eddie points out, "If we're splitting but no one goes alone that means we're only covering two branches." Which might be fine, but could also lead to a lot of back tracking if they aren't lucky.

"Makes sense though, so far at least it doesn't seem to easy to get lost down here."

Keith wondered if having Kosmo with him counted as "not alone" even if Kosmo was a wolf and not humanoid, but he wasn't sure if he should push that right away. But, at Eddie's comment about only covering two branches, he put the idea out there anyway.

"If you guys want to pair off, I can take Kosmo and make a third team. We'd cover more branches."

It was a thought.

"Otherwise, I'm open to ideas on who goes with who," he added. He didn't know Eddie and Billy that well, but he was fine with any of them at this point.

Ground rules like sticking together are important, Cayde! What if there's some bullshit from the Upside Down down here, waiting to possess one of them by themselves? Billy thinks he's in charge and if something bad happened to one of them, he'd take responsibility for it.

He glares over at Cayde, then a little at Eddie. "If you go with Tony, both of you have to be careful." Was he saying that because he was fearful for Eddie and Tony? Or fearful that if anything happened to either of them, their significant others might use Billy to take their anger out on?

Then he glares at Keith. "No, you're coming with us then, because dogs can't use comms in case you get hurt or some shit and can't communicate. If we have to come back because of a dead end, we should mark it somehow so the other party doesn't go down that path."

Cayde already figures they're being played with here. They've technically been played with ever since they'd been brought to this universe.

He eagerly starts to raise his hand as teams are brought up, dropping it when Billy starts assigning positions. Pushy little guy, ain't he? Cayde looks at Tony and shrugs. So much for team fun?

"Yeah, I can go with Tony. His smart balances out my dumb," Eddie agrees with a small smirk and a sarcastic salute. "We'll take...that one?" He gestures randomly, not seeing a lot of difference.

Keith just made a face. No, Kosmo couldn't use the communicator, but he could come back and track down help. He was a wolf, not just a dog.

But, whatever...

It was kind of a good thing Keith didn't like to lead unless he felt he had to. IF Billy wanted to be the one in charge, Keith could easily sit back and just do what he was good at... being stubborn.

When Eddie picked a path, Keith glanced at the remaining choices and then pointed at a different one. It was different enough that he felt like they'd cover more ground without crossing their paths too often.

"We can take that one then," he said. It was the one he'd been considering already anyway, with or without Billy and Cayde. He turned and went to start down that path...

Fine, a canine. Billy glances at Cayde's eager raise of the hand, then to the others as they start sorting themselves into groups. Billy waits, just observing for the moment. No Team Fun here, Cayde, not without a boombox and smokes for Billy .

It's when Keith starts down the pointed out path does he grumble and practically stomp off after him. "Doesn't take you long to just try going off on your own," he grumbles aloud, only casting a quick glance over his shoulder to see if Cayde was joining them.

"I hope you two can fend for yourselves because I'm not a babysitter. That's Harrington's forte."

Robots can't possibly pout, or at least that's what one would think, but Cayde sure is making a pretty good approximation. He wiggles his fingers in a sad wave after his favorite partner-in-crime and their potential intern before turning to bring up the rear as Keith and Billy head off down the other way.

By the time Billy's glancing back at him, the Exo has folded his arms behind his head, walking along casually.

"Oh, don't worry. I don't intend to babysit either. But I'll lend a hand if things get messy," he reassures. It's hard to miss the hand cannon holstered at his hip and the knife tucked at his belt.

Edited 2024-12-13 04:35 (UTC)

In which Billy thinks he runs the team, and Keith is doing his best not to be a disrespectful jerk.

Cayde watches his BFF go off with another........

The team finally got back together. They'd mapped a lot, found some challenges, and now had to get through another door into the control room. Now came the fun part.

Eddie was going to sleep for a week when they got out of this. If they got out of this... It was like karmic payback for all the years of PE he'd skipped out on, all coming back to bite him in the ass.

"I swear to fuck, if we end up getting cornered down here by yet another thing that wants to eat us, I'm definitely some kind of cursed, or fucking delicious."

The cycles of Tony's exhaustion were more staggered, already drawn and tired before losing access to Extremis, which had been shielding him from the worst effects. Adjusting to life without it, and with zombies, was mostly an explosively debilitating reaction of adrenaline, which left him numb as they reached the still silence of the underground's security. He could have been asleep right now, for all he knew, the repetitive trek through the empty halls a long, trudging dream, making the zombies seem far enough away that he blinked at Eddie at first, not sure what he could have possibly meant.

"Delicious, obviously," he concluded for Eddie. "A curse couldn't be so consistent. Magic, you know." He declared this with confidence, as though this nature of magic was self-evident. "Explains why Billy keeps looking at you like that, too. Very gracious, to pretend not to notice. Probably why everyone was so enthusiastic to get you two apart, it's exhausting."

Billy certainly thinks that this robot guy can't pout, so color him a little surprised when he sees what can only be one on Cayde's face. Either way he heads down the path, listening for anything that might be lurking further down the path or something.

He's not entirely nervous about tunnels. No. Never.

There is a quick glance over at the other two as they walk, then eyes forward again. "So what kinda of places do you two come from?"

Warren Exploration - Forward Team

Initial Starting Point

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Billy, Cayde, Keith

Eddie, Tony

Reunion

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