[Event] If you want to get out alive...

[adminfury]

Those that sleep will awaken to a pitch black room with nothing but the faint red glow of the emergency lighting. This glow seemed to frame the ceiling of the room and gradually pulsate between a dimmer glow to a glow almost bright enough to read by then back down again. Every electronic device in the entire academy, dorms, and general building on the SHIELD grounds would display a black DOS-like screen with bright crimson lettering that read a simple, cryptic message.

SYSTEM ERROR LOCKDOWN MODE INITIALISED NEW MESSAGE

Activating the new message brings up another black screen with a mostly legible message to the students of SHIELD Academy. This ominous message doesn't seem to be salvageable by even the most brilliant of computer programmers. The file is just corrupt and there is nothing that can be done for it. It's a wonder the thing opened at all, to be honest.

the ⬛yste⬛ has bee⬛ compr⬛⬛ised time is short so make haste you have ⬛⬛ ho⬛rs to get out ⬛efore th⬛ purge sub⬛outine demo⬛⬛sh⬛s ⬛⬛e ⬛uil⬛⬛n⬛ to con⬛ain the th⬛⬛⬛t t⬛e cent⬛al c⬛⬛pu⬛e⬛ m⬛st be rea⬛⬛⬛d and reb⬛ot⬛⬛ dea⬛ti⬛ate the l⬛cking mechanis⬛s on yo⬛r door by ḁ̧̼͙͑5̡̙̩͎̭͗̆ͯ̍⬛̱͈̤̦̊͂ͩͦ̓̋n͉ ҉̬g̲̹̟̘̃ͣͤͬ͢y̩͔̓ͯͩͣ͑ͭ͜⬛ 8̘͍̳̤g̴̅ͫ̂⬛̲̞̺̜͉̿ ̢̲̙̗̩̐ͣ̍͊͗̚3̑͐̓͏⬛ ȁ̹̯̘͙͓̔́ͫ̈̃̃͡d͓͇̤͕͎̦͒ͪ̂̏m̷ͥ̃̇ͯ ⬛̠̩̯ ̌̓̂̉̽͏̯1̮͇̯͉͉͚̪͜ṇ̥͐ ̖̰̖͎͙̹ͨ͟ F̷̘̮̺̥̅̀ͯ͊ͣ͆̏Ȗ̩̦̅̈́̄̌R̨͔͎͎̥̱̼̘̈́ͧ̋͗̔̚̚Y̋͞|

Those that didn't sleep would have found the lights had suddenly gone off around 0400. Shortly following the assumed harmless power outage, the usually white glowing strips lining the edges of every room would have faded to a red that indicated a warning. The red lettering on the screens would have followed after that and finally, a good ten minutes into the disquieting silence, the blue message alert appeared. They would have found their doors locked, and the windows all barred by solid adamantium panels.

There is no riddle to be had here, no teacher seems to be present to consult. The students were alone, required to rely on eachother, their own cunning, and their unique abilities.

For those poor souls trapped in the Hazard Room, well... just don't make any sudden movements. The training protocols seem to still be active. Fortunately, they are set on moderate difficulty. You had been looking to hone your skills and blow off a little steam. Well, you just got your wish.

Mod Notes: Treat this post like a mingle-log. OOC plotting can be found here.

Targets and Weaponry: SHIELD bots come in a variety of sizes from no more than a foot in height to nearly four feet and come armed with a plethora of weapons designed to subdue and capture. Weapons designed specifically to counter the abilities of those that live here, just in case they lose control.

Small built-in turrets keep hidden behind sleek panels in the ceilings of most hallways and in the ground outside. These turrets fire wide range of power nullifying munitions as well as good old fashioned taze rounds.

Targeting sensors on all the machines and turrets use facial recognition to identify each student. Their powers and weaknesses are recorded in the main SHIELD database, which it refers to and decides the best course of action.

Comments

[prophesiedgirl]

Buffy dropped her toothbrush with a clatter and dashed toward the door, attempting to keep from gagging on a mouthful of toothpaste suds. She tried the handle, but the door was locked tight.

"I's 'ocked!" she called to Xander around the toothpaste. She moved toward the nearest sink, spat, and rinsed her mouth. "It's locked," she repeated. Returning to the door, she wrenched the knob again, dismayed when it broke clean from the door. She turned, tossing it to her friend. It seemed to her Xander liked to decorate with whatever shiny objects he encountered, so the smooth brass knob looked like it could make for a nice addition to his collection.

Buffy backed up and dropped into a low, sturdy stance. Recalling Giles' instruction, she inhaled fully, exhaled, and inhaled once more. On the next exhale, she aimed a firm kick just above the lock, but all it got her was a sore foot.

"Ow!" she cried, more from frustration than actual pain. To Xander, she added, "So that didn't work."

[theheartpart]

All the while, Xander stood there, watching her with the shiny doorknob cradled against him. She was right, it would make a nice addition to his collection, but he wasn't exactly focusing on that with Buffy standing there, trying to break her food on a solid door.

"You think?" he asked, voice sarcastic. "I knew we should have gotten cleaned up in our rooms." He hadn't mentioned that fact before stepping out for sidekick duty, of course, but Harris did often expect his best friend to read his mind.

Stepping over to the door, Xander dropped down to look at the hole left by the door handle. Inside the door, he could see the barest edge of some wires, which he fixed for with the end of his fingertips. "What do you think might happen if I pull these wires? We're not lucky enough for that to work like it does in the movies, are we?" He was trying to remain rational, but considering they shouldn't have been out in the first place, he was already feeling a bit worried they were responsible for triggering this.

[prophesiedgirl]

Buffy frowned, mentally reviewing the probable outcomes for Xander's action. Maiming (maimification? maimed-ness?) and disfigurement rushed to fore of her imagination, but notably absent among her predictions was the one where the lock magically disengaged and the pair of them were set free from their basement washroom prison.

She discouraged her friend with a frown and a shake of her head. "I don't want to have to call Willow and tell her I let you electrocute yourself within two weeks." What was more, even if disconnecting the wires disabled the lock, there was no telling what might be triggered of fiddling with the electrical systems. Of course, she hadn't thought of any of that when she'd been trying to kick the door down, but now that some action had been taken to no effect, forethought was definitely in order.

Sadly, planning was not one of Buffy's greatest strengths. Strength was Buffy's greatest strength, and that had failed them. So that left finding an alternate exit. "Maybe there's another way out?" She turned on her heel and went to the windows. They were covered in a metal Buffy couldn't even dent, and banging on them only served to frustrate her further. Next, she turned to the fixtures themselves. The wall on which the sinks and mirrors were mounted was only connected to the outside wall, but the walls behind the toilets and showers ran all the way to the hallway. Surely, there was a way to access the plumbing, and the pipes had to go somewhere. She wrinkled her nose in distaste at the thought of crawling through a crap river á la Andy Dufresne, but needs must. She didn't want her and Xander caught out of bed, so surely, a little demolition was a superior alternative, right? Right.

"I have an idea," she warned, choosing the wall of showers. She stepped into a stall and inspected the shower head and the rust-flecked knobs, crouching to peer down into the drain. Knowing exactly zero about plumbing, she wasn't even sure what she was looking for, so she stood, gave Xander a bright grin, and pulled the shower head and the connected pipe cleanly through the wall.

[theheartpart]

"Buffy, I don't think—" Xander was just about to toss back a warning of his own when his best friend went all Incredible Hulk on the shower. The pipe and part of the old tile work wrenched free of the wall and Harris winced, positive that the shuddering noise rattling through the pipes would be accompanied by rushing water gushing forth from the newly-made hole.

He shot his friend a look, something that said he was thankful that neither of them were facing drowning at the moment, and then pulled the trash can from its spot along the wall, tossing the lid aside so she had somewhere to throw the extra material.

"It's a shame we don't have Thor's hammer," Xander added, almost conversationally; it doesn't take much for him to be okay with an idea, specifically if it meant that he wasn't getting piped through or drained of all of his blood. "Were you thinking we'd just go through?" He waved his hand for the shower head. "If so, let me have a whack at it, I've always wanted to be in demolitions."

He didn't know what was on the other side of that wall, but as far as he was concerned, it was as good as freedom and they weren't really ones to be easily stopped.

[prophesiedgirl]

Buffy took a step back, more than happy for Xander to be all manly and have a go at bringing down a wall. After a few loud whangs, she pointed to a crumbly bit where the handles pulled through.

"You should take that part out. There's some rust." Hey, anything to help out a friend whilst escaping a bathroom. She glanced up at the ceiling, wondering what was going on above.

[theheartpart]

Hey, he was a big, strong man, wasn't he? Even if Buffy's always been tougher, pound for pound, thank anyone Xander knew. This sort of help allowed him to feel useful and that's really all that matter when you think about it. It was when he was akin to dead weight that the young man wanted to crawl under a rock and never come out again.

"You don't think we're going to get in trouble for this, do you?" he asked, watching Buffy for a second before striking the wall again. "I mean, we're trapped in here and there's a good chance we could die. They don't want a lawsuit on their hands just as much as we don't want to die down here," Harris reasoned. As far as he was concerned, threatening to call a lawyer was always a good move when willful destruction of property was going on the rap sheet.