BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR ❅ PART 2

[nightmods]

BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR

Alarms blare and red alert lights flash and illuminate hallways. The intruders have either escaped the traps or avoided them altogether and are invading.

It still won't be easy for the Guardians. There are armed checkpoints to overcome and giant security doors to figure out how to unlock or break through.

Once they're past the initial security checkpoints, the place is a maze of hallways that contain cells with captured myths that need to be freed (some friendly and some unfriendly), offices with computers and tablets that can be hacked or stolen, science labs with myths being experimented on and technomagical devices of unknown purpose, archival rooms with useful (and potentially cursed) tomes and artifacts, and storage rooms with the plundered belongings of many myths captured over time.

Some of the magical artifacts and Prometheus devices can be used against their forces and used to help the captured myths.

For those that would like to be extra helpful and let others know where security forces are congregating (or to cause a little chaos) several redundant security rooms have screens showing video from closed circuit monitoring. Provided they knock out the guards in each room, they can potentially maneuver them to consoles for the fingerprint panels and retinal scanners that would allow them to unlock cell doors on many of the cell blocks.

Given that the the master unlock for all cells requires the base's Director's security bypass, it'll be useful if several groups do this if they want to mass unlock all the cell blocks.

Some captured myths will also have to be comforted. Others may need to be chased as they escape their cells, rush past, and go on a rampage.

And of course the myths will have to figure out what to do with the escaping staff that isn't security, all of them running for exit stairways and elevators to the outside world or to escape magical portals, whatever's closest and ensures the best chance of survival. Some of these staff members are simple office drones, handling the minutiae and bureaucracy of a large organization like this. Others are even lower on the organizational ladder, like the janitorial staff. But some like the base leadership, scientists, and guards, have a much more active hand in the treatment of the captured myths.

The more aggressive escaped myths will make a beeline for the base staff, to go after them in revenge. The Guardians will have to figure out what they want to do in response.

In any case, there are myths to be freed, artifacts to be pilfered, intel to be gathered, and decisions to be made.

This base of Project Prometheus is going down.

OOC DETAILS

OOC PLOTTING POST

❅ Format: Use prose or actionspam as desired.

❅ Environment: Please feel free to use the plot as an open and flexible environment, and simply ask for anything the requires specifics or might affect the full facility so the mod can provide accurate intel and keep track of the evolving situation during the plot. Players should feel free to largely do what they want. If they want to access and manipulate certain aspects of security, question Prometheus npcs, information gather from captured myth PCs, etc, they can request to do so.

❅ NPCing: This part of the plot will have limited mod npcing, for moments people decide to do in the plot, like getting info from Prometheus npcs or breaking into and messing with security. There will be a thread to request either npcing or information to use in self-npcing from the mod. The mod will decide whether to npc or if players can just self-npc with provided info. The mod will automatically comment in after each round of PC tags unless asked to pause for more PC tags. The mod will use prose for npcing but players don't have to match.

❅ Powers: Now that they've escaped the trap rooms, everyone's powers will work as normal and all their devices and artifacts like the globes will work.

❅ Myths: You can assume rescued myths match their RL myth counterparts. If I need to use a myth later on and make them different from what's been established, we can handwave there are just variations within the same type of myths sometimes. The only thing I'd like to limit is two things:

1) Using some of the big individual myths in mythology in case they need to be used later or I have plans for them. Specific gods and named folk figures, etc. But myths that are just general, like general nymphs, brownies, fae, etc, you can kinda go ham with.

2) Try to be respectful and avoid using myths that still feature heavily into IRL belief systems and cultures like wendigo. Please be thoughtful and maybe do a quick google about whether something would be offensive. There are plenty of other myths from ancient societies to use with less baggage, like creatures from Greek mythology.

❅ Collars: Rescued myths will have power blocking collars that need to be broken or the rune design on them must be scratched when they're freed, to give their powers back.

❅ Resources: Elle will be their man in the chair acting as a coordinator for the mission on the games. Players can handwave that important information was conveyed to or from Elle.

Mini-globes: Mini snow globes the size of marbles will have been given to everyone to use to transport myths out as well as emergency transport to the Pole. For those who don't carry storage with their normal outfits, they'll have been given fanny packs to carry them.

Devices: Courtesy of Miguel, there are mini bombs; spy bots that can fly and scout ahead, transmitting video to their comms; and elemental handheld devices can use to cause localized effects of extreme freeze or extreme heat. The latter is hot enough to melt the door looks to the thick cell doors.

Magic crystals: These can float over the hand to guide the Guardians towards other myths, as well as provide the location of their home habitats so Guardians can tell the snowglobes to right location to transport them home.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[nightmods]

Ask basic questions about the base, plot, and activities your characters can engage in, here.

[ninjavampire]

Would Miguel be able to glean anything from Prometheus' magitech since he's been fiddling with that avenue of things? I assume it would be mostly mysterious, but maybe there are some clues in there.

[not_your_mary]

What can Maria do as a villain? Could valuable to spice things up.

[bestbrotherever]

What locations are valid for the mini-snowglobes and how many people can they teleport at once? I've already gotten informal approval on plurk for teleporting staff to prisons (assuming the globe has been primed with a name first), is anything not allowed? And would Jack prefer staff teleported out to a safe location be sent somewhere central/public or isolated? (Like "Downtown Haddonfield" vs. the nearest nature preserve.)

Is there a central control room, can it be located via hacking and interrogation, and what can myths do with it?

Re: QUESTIONS

[onegrownup]

So Aqua's giant key can unlock any door, does that apply here or are they warded against being magically unlocked?

Re: QUESTIONS

[oldbookshop]

is there anything of particular note Aziraphale might find while rooting around in archival rooms for things to bring back to the Pole? you know he's gonna get his nerd on when he has a chance.

NPC/INFO REQUESTS

[nightmods]

If you specifically want npcing, request it here. The mod will either arrange npcing a thread if the information has to be handled a certain way, or provide enough info that you can self-npc the thread.

Please accept that whether the thread gets full npcing or must be self-npced will be decided by the mod. If the information or actions can easily be handled by the players in the thread, it may default to self-npcing so there aren't too many npc threads that have to be handled by the mod.

[bestbrotherever]

Loki's gonna be capturing non-combatants once all the nearby combatants are down or globe'd out. He'll give them a choice between cooperating and being sent to the local jail, or defy him and be sent "somewhere less pleasant". He'll ask them where the main control room is, and for groups in minor control rooms, how to disable the security. Will this need mod NPC-ing or can it be self-NPC-ed?

Info Request

[ninjavampire]

Just some snippets/pointers for this thread interrogating a guy. I envisioned him being involved in lab work and having lab-related clearance for things (he may not necessarily give truthful answers).

[armagettingpancakes]

"Hey, hey, hey. They're playing our song."

The sirens going off is Hellboy and Cato's cue to get out of here. Hellboy scratches through the collars with his stone hand and then starts hammering away at the cell door.

With his strength back it only takes a few hits for the door to buckle and not much longer to peel the rest of it away.

"Think you can figure out where they're keeping our stuff?"

[furtitude]

Little Cato types frantically into his little cobbled together handheld computer.

"Yep."

He hacks into the facility's schematics and security maps, quickly looking over them and memorizing all the hallways, security checkpoints, anything that might be important to know about.

"But first, our grand entrance. Or I guess it's our grand exit?"

He finishes hacking their cell door and the giant metal door slides open. He runs out, a true door dasher at heart, tucking his computer away in one of the pockets of his little skirt.

"If we run into any guards, I'm gonna kill them sooo good! I'm gonna murder them so hard and so crazy!" Apparently, his heart is also full of murder. "I'm telling you, life juices all over the place! Splish splash!"

A lot of murder. Like...a lot.

aziraphale | ota

[oldbookshop]

[ Aziraphale will largely be doing his part to try and stay away from things like "advanced technology (by his standards)" or "active combat situations" during this stage of the mission. The former, he simply refuses to get used to. The latter, he really doesn't enjoy having to participate in.

Whether or not it's feasible enough to manage through the night remains to be seen. It's not like he was any more fond of fighting when he was in the Wilderlands, after all.

If he finds himself backed into a proverbial corner or sees someone who needs the help, well. Any proper angel knows that preferences hardly matter much at all, don't they. So he'll be there and he'll look miserable about it but he'll do his due diligence and post up. Throw a chair. Break out the emergency brass knuckles. Etc.

(He will make no such effort to help with anything technological. All those... gizmos... doo-dads... no. He can't. He text messaged earlier and that's his limit on new tools for the century.)

Of course, he may go ahead and physically try to insert himself between parties to discourage some frankly very gratuitous and unnecessary-seeming Revenge Violence, just while he's around.

Much more his speed and higher on the list of probable sightings:

Catch him in any of the archival rooms. Were the traps not already laid, he might think these were specifically designed to lure him in. They're full of tomes and artifacts. Love that. Feels just like home. So obviously he needs to have a look around, find what he can find in these collections while the opportunity is afoot. Yes, little reading glasses and all.

It's fine. Aziraphale probably won't get cursed.

He'll also be volunteering to lend a hand when it comes to freeing myths from the cells. Less with the practical matters of getting cells open than with doing his best to herd, direct, and/or give some reassurance to the captured myths in question.

A bit of kindness and consideration could probably do them good right about now. All things considered. He can manage that much, surely. ]

Revenge Violence? cw: implications of myth torture

[furtitude]

[There are multiple doors to one of the science labs and the exit the security guards try to usher the scientists and lab assistants though turns out to be blocked off by a mass of huge spider webs. One of the Tsuchigumo has passed through.]

[When they turn back to the other door, they see it's suddenly occupied by a small helmeted figure suddenly in the door frame. The two security guards are shot in the head before they can finish raising their guns.]

[It is this scene Aziraphale stumbles on, right as the guards fall, through the third and last door. A science lab of horrors, with implements and machines that seem only an inch away from belonging in the Spanish Inquisition. Blood spills from the heads of the guards, pooling. The scientists and lab techs cower; a few start hyperventilating or crying.]

["Please," one begs. "Please don't kill us. We're unarmed."]

You don't have to be armed.

[Despite the raspy darkness in it, the voice sounds young. Even despite the helmet, the height suggests youth, too. Little Cato is smaller than human fourteen-year-olds.]

You know what you did.

[He and his cellmates only had to suffer through scans but the screams made it clear they were the lucky ones.]

hey babe

[demonicmiracle]

[It isn't, as it turns out, the guards that prove to be the real problem. Crowley can handle some humans with guns, those can be spirited away with a snap and pose no particular threat to him, unless they landed a very lucky shot.

Instead, the main issue are the other myths. Namely the ones that aren't even remotely human who've been locked in the dark for a very long time. He can't blame them for their anger or violence, especially the ones who are clearly operating on instinct rather than actual malice. A lion isn't evil for eating a zebra, and these myths aren't evil for eating humans, but Crowley likes some of these humans, so he needs to handle that.

In the end, he allows himself to spread outside his corporation, wanting the size and teeth and claws that come with his demonic form.

Aziraphale may get the impression that he's being stalked, as demonic energy hovers nearby without ever quite coming into range, because Crowley is keeping watch over him, but doesn't want to get too close, not when he looks like this. Best to avoid him until he has a chance to slip back into something more comfortable.

That grand plan goes to shit when Crowley spots a Nuckelavee slipping into the archival rooms, where he knows Aziraphale is pouring over tomes and probably not paying as much attention to his surroundings as he should be.

The next few seconds pass very quickly, with Crowley slithering down the hall, shoving his serpentine head through the door and closing his teeth around the Nuckelavee's flank so he can drag it out of the room. He makes a split second of eye contact with Aziraphale before disappearing, not wanting to linger too long and risk seeing fear or revulsion.

Just don't worry about the sounds coming from outside the room. He's got this handled.]

Archival Rooms

[kemonookami]

Hey, is this really the time to sit down and read?

[This creature was just going around trying to break things apart, and then he comes to see if there are cells to burst open and instead finds one of the people from the workshop browsing tomes]

freeing myths

[arthropoda]

[It'd be far more reassuring if there wasn't someone with a supervillain costume with Aziraphale, but at least she's trying not to be threatening. They're not people she needs to intimidate, after all]

Come, over here. You're safe.

[She says. The myths being freed don't look too convinced because there's somewhat of an ominous air on Skitter, even though at the end of the day she's a teenager and therefore not all that big. At least Aziraphale is there to counter that]

[bestbrotherever]

Loki's in his element. He strides through the hallways as if he owns the place, cloak billowing dramatically, horns on full display. When he comes across groups of frightened cowering civilians or wary armed guards, he simply smirks and spreads his arms towards them in a mocking gesture of welcome.

Of course, that's not the real Loki, but an illusion he's using as a decoy. Loki himself is usually nearby, but hidden under an illusion of invisibility. Even if the guards' weapons wouldn't be much more than an annoyance to him, it's better to be safe. And much easier to ambush them while they're aiming at his decoy, throwing mini-snowglobes at their feet, hoping to teleport entire groups away at once. Those who don't get sucked into the portal, he quickly dispatches with magic or his dagger, not particularly caring whether or not they're still alive.

At times he can be found herding small groups of civilians into whatever room is nearby. There he offers them a choice; either they can cooperate and he'll send them to the county jail, or they can defy him and he'll send them some place less pleasant. He'll welcome anyone who wants to help him with his interrogations.

Other times he's lurking outside of an auxiliary control room. Unlike his posturing when traversing the halls, he's treating the control rooms seriously, taking his time to ensure that all occupants are neutralized and minimizing their opportunity to mess with the controls before he can take over.

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia is still suffering from the effects of having been tagged by the blinding light in the trap she'd fallen into: she's not completely blind, but she's definitely not working at fully capacity. Fortunately, she's not limited to her human form anymore, and wolves have a keen sense of smell. It's easy enough to track the smell of gun oil and the sounds of shouted orders through the facility to find safe targets for her ire.

There's a group of people up ahead ordering someone to surrender. Stacia breaks into a run, trusting their shouts and otherwise-drawn attention to hide the clicking of her claws against the floor; pleased at her success when no one starts shooting at her. And when she finds the distracted guards well, it only takes a little Rage to go from a regular wolf to a wolf the size of a pony.

She collides with the guards like a wrecking ball, knocking them to the floor and not particularly careful about whether they get trampled.

control room

[kemonookami]

When it comes to the control rooms, Garurumon is better suited outside it than inside. A lot of people would think twice if they were trying to get to a control room and when turning around the hallway they see a large blue wolf monster with blades guarding it. Intimidation has its perks, really.

Still, he itches for a fight, so perhaps it's not too unsurprising he says something that's more on the destructive side:

"Wouldn't it just be enough to melt those things down?"

He knows nothing about technology. As far as he's concerned, all this is simply stuff that's better broken so myths can't be imprisoned again. Nobody ever said Garurumon was anything but the brawn, really.

interrogations

[arthropoda]

Even though Taylor hates to intimidate civilians, she has a knack for it. A little too much.

She walks slowly down the hallways, baton in hand, combat knife strapped to her hip. Every light of the hallway goes off when she's a foot away from it, making it seem like she's bringing darkness along with her. It just is bugs ruining the wiring, nothing more impressive than that, but she makes it seem more ominous than that. There even are multitude of fireflies inside her mask, lighting up the yellow lenses enough to be faintly visible in the dark -- impairs her vision, but there are enough insects in the air to give her a perfect mental image of her surroundings. In the past opponents have tried to blind her to gain an advantage, and she has gotten through it every time.

Skitter reaches one of the civilians, her voice modified by the buzzing around her.

"Move. I'm giving you a chance to ensure your safety. Go against it and I'll do the exact opposite."

The baton in her hand is hint enough of what she means. That's how she has led some non-fighters around. She encounters Loki while she's just doing all this, and she just gives one of them a push with the baton so they go towards Loki. Better for someone else to handle the interrogation part because, well, she's better suited for the rougher stuff. The Undersiders had an information gathering expert that didn't involve violence and it wasn't Skitter.

Closed to Boimler

[divasmio]

Apollo is powering through the facility trying to track down more captured myths. He's got no concern for any guard or mercenary willingly participating and protecting the cruelty this facility perpetuates. If the arrow wounds they sustain from him are fatal, so be it.

For the time being, Apollo's managed to shake the guards that had been chasing him. Unfortunately, the maze of a facility is difficult to navigate, especially with so many hallways looking the same. Is he going in circles?

He eventually emerges in what looks like... some kind of laboratory? There's equipment and computers strewn about. He knows his way around a computer, more or less, but he doesn't recognize what this place is for.

There's another man in here — the blue-haired man with the robot parts. Apollo recognizes him from the North Pole.

"Hey," he calls, glancing toward the door a moment then back to Boimler. "Anything of note in here?"

Re: Closed to Boimler

[antigravboy]

Boimler almost puts down his PADD to duck and reach for his nearby phaser but fortunately, it's someone he recognizes. He hasn't really introduced himself but he at least knows he's another Guardian.

He goes back to tapping away.

"Uh, yeah, this seems to be a place where they tortured sentient beings. I'm not going to dignify it by calling it scientific experimentation because science doesn't deserve that."

Does he sound pissed? Because he's pissed. It's a righteous fury, the result of someone from a utopian society full-tilt getting exposed to the kind of horror that would've been acceptable during The Bad Times. The outrage is in part because he knows it can be better, and knows people can - and should - evolve past xenophobia like this.

"I'm downloading as much data as I can. The more we know about what they know, the better."

miguel o'hara | ota

[ninjavampire]

a. The Lab

One of the rooms cleared is full of odd equipment. Strange, gossamer orbs of magical origin are framed by a colorless industrial menagerie of machines containing and manipulating them. The lack of an immediate area to place a victim is what makes Miguel pause and take a closer look. No artifacts - this experiment appears to be trying to manipulate something more primordial than that.

"Wait." he says, pulling a recently unconscious guard off a console to be dumped on the floor. The accompanying Promethean gun is snapped in his hands for good measure (Miguel is not a fan of them, it seems). He takes a long, even look at the data ticking up the screen in front of them.

"This is - I need to look at this."

His hands dance over the controls as he hunches forward. It wasn't his technology, but it was familiar enough to start to acquaint himself to the system in front of him with a particular fervor. Given they were on a rescue mission, it was either an important detour or a distraction they couldn't afford - What to do?

b. An Unlikely Rescue (Let's limit to 2 bc I am NPCing for this one)

Most of the myths were happy to leave their hellish encampment once they were released, but not all. Some had more lethal goals on the mind. One particular pair of locked doors hisses open to a troubling scene:

A squirrely man, wide eyed and cowering in a corner, wearing a torn up dress shirt of a dull, pastel green and accompanying slacks. He was unarmed, surrounded only by scattered pens and bedecked with a lab ID clip and a cracked pair of rectangular glasses balancing precariously off his face. A handgun lies tossed astray and well out of reach. Torn out of his hands, more likely.

"I'm sorry, I give up! I was just doing what they told me!"

"Ah, now you beg for your life."

The man is trapped by a Fury of the Greek Myth persuasion. The primary feathers of her broad, vulture-like wings are imperfectly clipped, leaving her with a struggling but still possible flight. Her hands and feet end in long talons - some of which had tasted the blood of the mortal in front of her, but it clearly wasn't enough.

Shit. As much at that guy probably deserved having his eyes plucked out... After a beat, Miguel sends a pair of red webs to trap the Fury's legs and pull her down to the floor, immediately drawing her attention.

The Fury has all the reason in the world to whip around at him with bubbling rage, releasing a shriek that sounded sorrowful enough to immediately regret his decision. Too late. Miguel grips the webs to prepare himself to evade, shouting to the Guardian next to him.

"Globe, now!"

And she flies towards them with a single demand:

"Release me this instant, you wretch!"

c. wildcard!

Feel free to have Miguel accompany your character to unlock doors and cells, help in firefights and otherwise raid all the juicy tech. (brackets or prose ok)

c. control room clearing

[bestbrotherever]

Loki's pacing in front of a heavy door, one of the ones that heralds a cell block's control room. He starts and prepares a spell when someone approaches, though he relaxes when he recognizes Miguel.

"Not the reinforcements I expected, but I suppose it will do." He grins coldly and waves at the door. "Perhaps you could assist me in solving this puzzle. The remnants of a patrol have taken refuge within. Being perhaps the smartest guards in this entire place, they have realized that our assault is, at least in part, a rescue mission, and have threatened to activate the block's jailbreak measures should I force my way in, killing all of the myths within. I could of course easily overpower them, but likely not before they have murdered their captives."

[For Miguel] [prose]

[hallelujahjunction]

Thank God there's a horse in this computer lab, said no one ever, and yet here Dan is, tucking tight to Concrete Blonde's withers as she charges through doorways, clutching a bundle of injured, semi-conscious jackalopes and drop bears to his chest. He has a black eye and three equidistant cuts above his forehead, a memento from a scared phoenix that lashed out at him before it realized he was there to help, not hurt. They're leaking blood down the side of his face, into the corner of his mouth and down his neck, mingling with a nose bleed and making him look much worse for wear than he actually is.

He swings himself off the horse as soon as they get to a safe distance outside the building, gently pulling the injured from his coat and settling them in the boughs of a tree and hidey-holes of the roots, making sure none are at death's door and urging them to take care of each other. He's back up on the horse in moments, but rather than rush directly in he rides her in a diagonal line to intercept a familiar figure.

"Miguel, I need help. There's someone in there about twice my size unconscious, and if I leave him long enough the myths are going to rip him to shreds as payback."

Dan tried to get the employee onto Concrete Blonde's back, but Dan simply isn't big or tall enough for that, even with Concrete Blonde stooping. He doesn't stop to ask if Miguel's alright assisting him in helping the enemy; he just makes an assumption, a wishful thought, maybe, and goes with it as if to assume it is to conjure it into reality.

[ninjavampire]

Miguel is momentarily distracted by a hangers-on from a brief detour outside the building. It appears to be the plump body of a tsuchinoko wrapped around his waist like a belt, hanging on for dear life to the first hint of 'escape' since its trapping in a too-small tank.

It squeaks in a panic when he works a hand under the belly to try and pull it off. It did not want to leave! Dan's voice distracts him from this problem, looking up. His mask doesn't entirely hide the worry.

"You're hurt." he says, and then the request processes and makes his the eye-marks narrow with very clear displeasure. Someone, huh? He wasn't absent of the disgust he felt to seeing the excesses in the building, but at this point he's seen science gone wrong far too many times. Miguel made the decision long ago that saving as many lives as he could was what counted the most.

"The Prometheus stooge better write a damn nice thank you card." he grumbles, but walks towards Dan to join him.

[starfleetashell]

She'd been stepping through the portal.

It had been a long step, and when Mariner finally touched the soil of Krulmuth-B, she glanced behind herself to see if Boimler was coming. He better not be stuck--!

And then between one blink and the next, she was standing in a hallway, somewhere she'd never been before, and there was an alarm blaring in her ears.

She blinked, shook her head to reorient herself, and slung her bat'leth off her back. (She hadn't had it with her before, in the past. But now she does. And everything comes back quite suddenly.)

"Boims?" she shouts, trying to be heard over the alarm. Her heart's pounding in her chest, her system flooding with adrenaline, and she's ready to kick some butt. She'll get the details later.

[antigravboy]

Boimler, in the middle of leading a small, scared brownie to the yetis so they can take him to the Infirmary, instantly perks up his head at the familiar voice. His face lights up.

It hadn't been easy, her disappearing, but Jack had assured him one of the yetis saw her briefly blip back to a world that almost certainly had to be Krulmuth-B.

On the one hand, he'd been glad she'd gotten home safely. On the other, he missed his best friend, and knew how much better their odds against Kuk would be if she were in the Guardians' world.

"Mariner!" He runs over and grabs her by the shoulders, shaking her a little. "Oohh, you have no idea how glad I am to see you! It's been a month, I didn't think the magic would bring you back."

Belated OTA + Miguel

[mostdangerousbird]

[ Robin is zipping through the lower levels in his smaller form. It's not the most indiscrete means of travel - the fiery streak of his wings is easy to spot, but it's quicker and lets him fit through tighter spaces.

He has a hierarchy of things that he's interested in - freeing captured myths, removing information digital and hardcopy, locating a room that's off the beaten path, and talking to two very specific types of individuals to talk. One would be a high-ranking security type. Not a grunt, not what he thinks of as lobby rent-a-cops. Someone who knows how they take the myths and what they do with them when they're "done." But the real coup would be finding one of the top tier scientists. Unless this place is run by a person like Lex Luthor, where the money IS the science, there has to be one somewhere. He'll settle for any scientist, but he expects that they've kept the information quarantined. If they don't find someone near the top of the food chain, they might not find out what really goes on here.

It's the kind of place you don't put things in writing. ]

[ OOC: Finding someone to interrogate is closed to Miguel. ]

here we goooo

[ninjavampire]

[ Miguel's usual method of being stealthy isn't available to him when he can't fit in the vents or sneak in from the open space outside. The brawlier-than-average build really hindered him in that regard. So he's made do with scouting the labyrinth hallways by deploying an occasional magitech spider drone, about the size of a large coin, skittering through any small openings and acting as an extra set of eyes.

He's remained crouched a decent distance down from a heavily sealed room, observing his watch's video feed of what appears to be a security detail and a single member of staff. With the place having cameras all over, he is hesitant to get close to alert them. Not yet. ]

Tim?

[ he glances over his shoulder, catching the flicker of flames out of the corner of his eye. ]