Secret of Evermore IC

[Executor]

((Urgh, hate to godmod but Karen needs to get in here so we can get this thing really going))

Before Eric had a chance to respond, six bolts of electricity shot out from the machine. The bolts struck everybody there, including the girl Eric did not know but noticed out of the corner of his eye just before the electricity stuck. He did not have time to think more on this unknown person before he felt a sucking feeling, like someone had hooked him by his navel and was now reeling Eric in. Eric felt the ground drop away from his feet and then everything went black...

When he awoke, all was stillness. The sort of stillness that makes you sit up and take your bearings. This stillness was soon replaced by the low rumble of machinery all around them. Eric became aware of the cold metallic floor that he rested his cheek upon, and then became aware that he was splayed prostrate across this unfamiliar metal floor. Pushing himself up, he took a look around. Everything was metal. Metal roof, metal floor, silvery metallic walls. Behind him was a raised platform with an exact replica of the machine he had seen in the mansion. The roof and walls were lined with pipes, wiring, fans and computer consoles of all types. Also laying on the floor all around him was the group that had entered the mansion. At the far end of the room, Eric could see an eldery man in a scientist's white jacket, working on one of the consoles. Standing beside the scientist was a tall, somewhat sinister looking man with dark red hair, dressed like a butler.

"Syl..." he said softy to his sister, shaking her by the shoulder gently as he looked around with a sheepish expression. From the other end of the room, the butler approached them, hands behind his back in the manner of butlers.

"What do we have here? Intruders?" the butler said in an emotionless yet harsh voice as he stood towering over Eric.

[The Boyce]

Brian blinked several times when he woke up. "Shocking," he said as he shook his head. He had been laying facedown until he pushed himself up to standing once more. He considered the butler turning his head to the side, "Intruders? Well, I guess that's one hell of a security system."

[Lonna]

Sylvia woke almost immediately when Eric began shaking her and found herself on her back, limbs spread as if she had fallen backwards and tried catch herself before losing consciousness. She was feeling surprisingly calm, far less panicked than she ought to be under the circumstances. Opening her eyes, she looked up at the butler.

"Where exactly have we intruded? Because Toto, I don't think we're in Podunk anymore."

[Executor]

"Well we have to get you out of here. The Professor's research must not be interrupted" the butler said, narrowing his black eyes at the group. He walked over to the people still laying on the ground, Tyler and Richard and that unknown girl, grabbed them by the scruff of their shirts and heaved them to their feet with inhuman strength.

"Ummm" said Eric as he climbed to his feet, helping Sylvia up with a hand. The butler walked back in front of Eric and regarded him with eyes burning with hatred and distaste for the boy.

"Right this way," the butler continued, walking away from the group. For lack of any better reaction, Eric followed along and the group followed too. As they crossed the room, the scientist, an absent-minded looking fellow with wild white hair and a full white mustache, turned around and regarded them through his bespectacled but friendly eyes.

"What's this Carlton? We have visitors?" Eric noticed that he said Carlton oddly, pronouncing the last syllable like in automaton. It sounded like Carl-TON rather than the more usual Carl-TEN. He ignored it for the moment.

"Nobody of importance, Professor Grant, go back to your work," Carlton said. The scientist shrugged and turned back to his computer console. 'Professor Grant?' Eric thought, craning his head to look at the scientist as they passed him by. Carlton led them to a circular metallic door, which opened with a loud "swwsh" sound.

"The exit is right through here," instructed the butler, pointing down the dimly-lit hallway that the door opened up into. Shrugging, Eric began to walk down the hall.

[TwoBitWriter]

Tyler struggles a bit against the robot's grip. After a few moments he realizes its useless and just plays along. He is very disoriented from what had just happened to him. When he is lifted to his feet he walks slowly, very perturbed at his new surroundings.

When he sees the old man he starts yelling. "What the hell is going on?" Tyler shouts at the old man. "Who the hell are you? What the hell is this place?"

[Trulhammaren]

Between his attempted stop and getting zapped by that machine to wherever he is Richard had a headache that no hangover could even hope to compare to, and Richard had plenty of experience with hangovers. He was perfectly content to stay on the cold metal floor curled up in the fetal position until the pounding in his head stopped.

Unfortunately, this Carlton character decided that staying where he was was unacceptable. Despite his best efforts Richard was unable to walk at more than a lingering pace. Then Tyler began yelling...

"Oh do please be so kind as to shut your damnable mouth kid." Richard said whilst massaging his temple to help ease the pain.

[ninja_penguin]

((OOC: Has anybody else had forum problems? I tried these mid-day yesterday before work and couldn't get them to load, and that's why I haven't been able to post. sorry about that.))

Karen's breath game in short adrenaline fueled gulps as she followed Eric down the hallway that the butler had indicated was the exit. "Where are we?" she asked. "That last thing I remember was just getting zapped by...whatever that was." Karen continued another few quiet steps before shuddering. "I'm not even supposed to be here. Mom and Dad are going to kill me."

[Executor]

As Tyler began to yell, Carlton clamped his hand over the boy's mouth and squeezed tight, muffling the bully.

"Do not interrupt the Professor," warned the butler, then hauled Tyler to the exit hallway and veritably tossed him down it. The heavy football player landed with a thump on the metallic floor.

As the rest of the group made their way down the hallway, Carlton stood by the exit. When the last of them had passed, he pressed a button and the door slid shut with an abrupt bang. Eric turned around as he heard the bang in the dark, then shrugged and continued on down the hallway.

"So, umm, if you don't mind me asking: Who are you?" Eric asked the unknown girl following him, feeling a little sheepish for asking it. He turned his head for a moment to make sure his older sister was still with them, and was reassured to see Sylvia still following along, then looked back into the gloom and continued on, whilst waiting for the girl's answer.

[The Boyce]

"Well that was...different." Brian said twisting his mouth to the side. He looked around at the hallway, but saw nothing to peak his interest. He started walking. "Let us walk and talk at the same time, don't want anymore angry butlers throwing people around. And I wouldn't worry about your parents too much."

[ninja_penguin]

"I'm Karen, a senior at Podunk High" Karen said in response to Eric's question.

"Does this seem really creepy to anybody else?" she continued, her voice dropping down to a whisper. "I remember my parents talking about how everybody here disappeared when they were kids. What is anybody still doing here?"

[Lonna]

"Does this seem really creepy to anybody else?" she continued, her voice dropping down to a whisper. "I remember my parents talking about how everybody here disappeared when they were kids. What is anybody still doing here?"

"They aren't here. Or rather, we aren't in the mansion anymore. Look around us. There isn't nearly enough dust for this to be the abandoned dump we chased Rusty into." It was Sylvia who answered. She was slowly losing the unusual calm she had had when she first woke up, and fear put an edge in her voice. "Where is he anyway?"

[Executor]

After several minutes of walking, the dark corridor opened up into a larger, more well-lit metallic room. There were five circular portholes covered by closing metal doors in the room, four red ones on either side of Eric in the center of the room and one silvery one at the end of the room on a raised dais. Eric walked into the open room, looking all around. He walked up the steps of the dais and looked down at the closed porthole, wondering how to open the metal door that covered it. These doors in this place where strange, each consisting of nine to twelve curved triangular metal segments, whose points came together at the center of the porthole. The doors in the hallway had opened and closed extremely quickly with a 'swwssh' or 'shung' noise. This one did not seem to sense Eric's presence and stayed close.

"Hey Syl! I think I found a way out!" Eric yelled, cupping his hands to his mouth as he did. Almost on cue, the porthole opened and the boy plunged through. It was not a far drop, just a few feet, and he landed on something that felt like a leather chair. Looking around through the darkness, Eric saw what looked like controls for some kind of jet or plane. He was obviously in a cockpit of some kind.

"Yeah, definetely a way out," he continued. Just then he heard a bark in the darkness.

"Rusty, is that you?" Eric asked. Another bark... but it didn't quite sound like the familiar bark of the Scot Terrier... it sounded more metallic, almost computerised. As Eric put his hands on the throttle of this jet, plane, whatever it was, a loud siren began to blare in the room. 'Oops' Eric thought as he looked up out of the porthole frantically as the rest of the group entered the room. The bright white lights turned to red and began to flash as the alarm sounded. The four red portholes opened and out of them came... robots. Real robots. They were each about six feet tall and about two feet across, vaguely shaped like flying number Sevens, with a powerful jet as the diagonal line and a large gun or cannon as the horizontal line. Where the two lines met there was a sheet of black glass with a red line moving back and forth across it. The four security-bots flew into the room silently...

"INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS!" the security-bots screamed in loud, artifical voices as they charged towards the group, their guns firing white streams of electricity and energy, which impacted the walls in blazing explosions around the group.

"RUN! GET OVER HERE!" Eric roared as the attack begin, gesturing wildly for the group to get into the cockpit with him.

[The Boyce]

Brian had begun to lag behind as usual, but the influx of gun-toting automatons made him sprint. "Robot, it had to be robots." Being the somewhat old school guy he was he had to try and help the women in the group. So he tried to wrap an arm around each one as he ran by. He made a dive into the cockpit, as a beam whizzed by his feet. "Safe!"

[Lonna]

Sylvia was already heading over to see what Eric had found this time when the robots emerged. A single glance was all that was needed to send her into a run, her muscles protesting the third unscheduled sprint in less than twenty minutes. She had nearly reached the entrance to the ship when Brian's gallant attempt at chivalry knocked her head first into the cockpit. In a feat of agility Sylvia would have sworn only Richard could manage, she managed to twist in mid-air, neatly avoiding landing on Eric but smashing into the control panel behind him.

[TwoBitWriter]

Tyler Pugh was big, strong, and when he ran at you he hit like a freight train. Unfortunately, it took a long time for him to build up momentum and he quickly feel behind everyone else. He had no idea what those metal things were, but he didn't care. They didn't seem happy that he was there so he ran, following everyone else.

It didn't take long for him to lag behind. "Don't leave me behind!" He screams. He dives into the ship, crashing loudly and making the whole craft shake violently.

He curls up into a ball, away from the entrance.

[ninja_penguin]

Karen had already begun turning to run towards the escape pod the moment that the robots began screaming their alarm. Brian's attempt at chivalry merely knocked her off balance slightly, causing a chaotic tumble into the escape pod, safe for the next few seconds.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Rusty was grateful. He really was. He knew that the humans meant well in trying to help him chase the hated cat, but did they really have to be so slow and clumsy? Rusty tried not to be critical, because he knew that humans couldn't help being huge and lumbering. Though he should have been annoyed when they all flew into the escape pod one after another, disrupting his search for the cat beyond hope, he knew that at times like these, the humans really needed him.

In the darkness his small form couldn't be made out, but Sylvia couldn't mistake the feel of Rusty's tongue as he dutifully licked her elbow.

[Trulhammaren]

His head pounding like nothing else could Richard was barely able to keep up with the rest of the group as it was, when the security bots started making noise things just got worse. As everyone made a bee-line towards Eric's position Richard was able to make what would normally be classified as a drunken stumble towards the same place. Upon making it to the escape pod he just fell face first onto the floor barely conscious.