Apocalypse Junction

[Keeper]

Refugee Convoy

"Huh? No, there's no dead cities around here. You must have crossed over from your homeworld at some point. No asteroid hit this place. Not that I can remember anyway."
He seems ever so slightly offended by the comparison to dinosaurs. "Everyone knows dragons are better than dinosaurs because they're like dinosaurs but have wings and breathe fire." But maybe he's biased.

[Earl of Purple]

Refugee Convoy

"Saint George killed a dragon, and Beowulf killed one too, but it killed him back. And Hercules killed two dragons. Nobody's killed a dinosaur." Except G'nichi, but that might not count- it was already dead, just turned into a robot.
"We didn't get on a spaceship or see any flashing lights- well, not since NASA blew up the asteroid- so we've not been abducted by aliens recently. So how have we left Earth?" That brings Michelle's attention back to G'nichi, though she's still holding the alpaca and tugging it back now it's trying to wander away.
"The asteroid was a biggun. KT-event-level big. So NASA and Roscosmos and the Chinese and the others got together to blow it up. Most of it missed Earth, some hit the Moon, and a lot of asteroid-dust burnt up in the atmosphere. That's what did it, I reckon. It was a meteor shower with a bunch of falling stars and then most people just died, though they didn't stay that way. Ones who got left have super powers, but... ours aren't great. T-rex triggers allergic reactions, Michelle doesn't get tired or need to sleep and she's stronger than she looks. I can see behind me." Harry could possibly explain his own power better, if he knew the word 'clairvoyance'. But he doesn't, so his super power currently sounds like the ability to turn his head.

[Keeper]

Refugee Convoy

"What about Conan?" G'nichi is pretty sure Conan fought dinosaurs once or twice. Conan has fought everything.

"Well, that sounds pretty awful but it's not ringing any bells. I also don't know what most of those places/organizations are. Sometimes people just...fall through the cracks to this place. Sometimes you enter a place and just wind up here. Sometimes someone would have died and they wake up here instead. It's all very real but it doesn't try to make sense most of the time. Either way it seems a lot better than where you're from. You can maybe even find a dinosaur to talk to."
Lexington hasn't been on screen since 2012 though.

[Earl of Purple]

Refugee Convoy

"Who's Conan?" The Conan the Barbarian stories might not be available in a sufficiently sanitised format for a six-year-old boy, unlike Biblical stories, English sagas and Greek mythology.
"The Chinese are people from China. Roscosmos is the Russian space agency. NASA is the American National Aeronatics and Space Administration. I don't know what the Chinese called their space agency. I wasn't paying enough attention except when they went to another planet." Hopefully that clears things up for G'nichi, although it also probably doesn't.
"That makes... basically no sense." Michelle frowns at G'nichi, currently unaware that things don't make sense in the Nexus.

Meanwhile, Felicity approaches, having spoken to some of the leaders of the convoy.

[Keeper]

Refugee Convoy

Eh, his Fallout expy was for kids and everyone knows the media in that universe was not unhinged in the slightest!
"Miss, I am a two-meter tall qaglin wider and bulkier than most humans who can still fly somewhat effortlessly by the ability to become weightless at any given time. I can survive on a single bowl of rice despite being a carnivore by all appearances and what you'd think my abilities would require. I don't leave footprints. I can breathe an exceptionally flammable gas at will. Every day my bracelet supplies me with a talking magical weapon to deal with the problems that spontaneously appear almost every day in an attempt to kill me, and-" he snips off his mustaches with his claws. The severed hair begins to disintegrate almost immediately as it regrows from his face. It grows so fast it's plainly visible to see and will be full length within a minute.
"My hair does not obey the law of conservation of mass and energy.

And that's just ME. We passed making sense a long, long time ago."

[Earl of Purple]

Refugee Convoy

"And it's not like we make sense now anyway, Michelle. You haven't slept in a week, I'm watching a butterfly behind me, and Fred can't touch anyone. And Sam can pick stuff up without using his hands." Harry's on G'nichi's side, and Michelle slowly seems to be coming around to it.

"Hey, G'nichi. I've had a chat with some of the people in this convoy, they've not spotted any red weed but I don't think they've been in the Nexus long either. I'm thinking of going ahead, keep looking. Do you want to come with or help the bikers escort these guys out of here? I think Aizkora's going to see about getting you all to a charity called the Good League of Good, or at least you three." The last is directed at the children, who are all- as G'nichi may not have realised- potentially orphans. The major issue with the apocalypse they survived is that it wasn't discriminate, and it's not clear what separates those who survived the immediate dust-storm and those that died.

[Keeper]

Refugee Convoy

G'nichi considers the question. In theory his oaths to protect the innocent mean he should prioritize saving the refugees. But keeping the researcher out of danger is still a worthy cause. So he answers pragmatically.
"Are the bikers confident in their ability to protect this big of a group? Going alone out here without wings doesn't seem entirely safe." And the wings only help so much.

[Earl of Purple]

Refugee Convoy

"Seven bikes and four other vehicles? They're reasonably confident. They've got some experience with the dangers, and the refugees have some useful abilities as well. Apparently some asteroid dust gave them all super powers, ones less dangerous to their companions than mine." Felicity is not jealous of that, since not everyone wants powers and everyone here lost their whole families to get theirs.
"I don't sleep. I'm sure yours is better than mine." Michelle leaves out the physical improvements she also benefits from.
"My living tissues don't burn. My hair does, really well, it's why I shave it off. My tears, sweat, saliva, and even my urine are more flammable than petrol. And my blood? That ignites in contact with the air. If I fall over and graze my knee, I go up in flames. It doesn't hurt, but it'll eventually damage my clothes, and anything I'm touching. If I'm in a forest or a wooden building, I need to get out of there really quickly because I will cause a lot of damage. I might heal a bit faster, and I don't get sick because my internal temperature is higher than normal, but other than that? I'd take not sleeping. Then I won't need to worry about falling out of bed and hitting my face and giving myself a nose bleed whilst I'm surrounded by very flammable bedclothes." Only a slight worry, but still one risky enough to consider.

[Keeper]

Refugee Convoy

"Well, I think the children can be considered safe, then. You, however, sound like you're heading alone into a dangerous place to do important research. If it's all the same to you, I would feel better if I went along to keep you safe. Especially knowing that any scrapes might incinerate all the samples you're trying to collect."
G'nichi is loathe to leave children in the hands of others but they really do seem like they're quite safe with that many guards. Or at least as much as they can be.

[Earl of Purple]

Refugee Convoy

"I'll be gathering samples. The science I'll be doing is at Vigil. And the red weed I'm hoping to find doesn't burn well. If we get in trouble my car can't outrun, I've got Molotov cocktails. Sort of. They're glass bottles that will burst into flame when smashed, but they don't need lighting first." Because that'd be hazardous for Felicity to do and she doesn't need to put petrol or anything in them; she's got plenty of her own samples that otherwise need specialist disposal. "I shouldn't get any accidental injuries. Power like mine, you quickly learn how to be careful. And this outfit's made of the stuff fire fighters wear; it doesn't burn easily and it's very sturdy. Should protect me from most accidental injuries."

[Keeper]

Refugee Camp

"But if you run into another one of those animated skeletons, just fire won't be enough. I don't think you'd be able to handle that unless you also brought a sizeable firearm."
G'nichi shrugs his wings.
"If you don't want me to come that's fine. It's just an offer."

[Earl of Purple]

Refugee Camp

"No, that's a good point. And you mentioned you don't burn, right? That's useful if we're going to be travelling together. Come on then." Felicity will head back to her car, with G'nichi hopefully following.

Field

Well, this should be the place. It's a fallow field gone to seed, tall grass mixed with wildflowers and small shrubs as the hedge expands out. There's the crashed helicopter, which is marked on the map. It's just that... there doesn't seem to be anything here. Not obviously so, anyway. If Khannie's patient enough, or brought the actual map or a copy of the actual map with her, she can however find a manhole cover in the field. It's not in the middle of it, as that would perhaps be too easy. The actual map has a rather detailed map of the field, with the manhole cover marked on it.

Other points of interest include a large tree in the middle of the field with 'ZY <3 LB' carved into the bark and a rusting tractor with flat tyres, attached to a large trailer.

[Keeper]

Refugee Camp

G'nichi nods.
"Good luck, kids. I'll come by GLoG in a few days to make sure everything went okay." He is not above mounting a rescue mission.
But for now he'll settle for keeping Felicity from being fossil-chow or worse for the sake of fancy herbs.

[Rebonack]

[Field]

Well.

This is it, huh?

Khannie is well prepared today, as it happens. She's here in her full Ghost outfit, bodysuit and helmet and everything. Since this place might be dangerous having some extra protection definitely isn't a bad idea. And the weapons she found in the same neon bunkers along with the suit increase her reach pretty notably, which is a big deal when you have to fight off monsters. You never know when you might have to blast some zombies. Especially considering the reputation this part of Outside has.

Once here, she unfolds her map again, looking it over, and finds the marked cover pretty easily. "Yep, looks like the place alright..."

Now, one might think getting a cover that weighs a few hundred pounds moved would be hard.

But that would be assuming Khannie is just a human in a plain old suit!

That is very wrong.

Khannie is a physically inclined pokemon currently in human shape and wearing tech that enhances speed, strength, and agility. Which means grabbing the cover and yanking it free with a shocking casualness.

Now.

What sort of nonsense is she going to have to deal with today?

[Earl of Purple]

Field

The manhole cover is pretty heavy, but not impossibly so. Lifting it up reveals a brick-lined spherical shaft descending into the earth, with metal rungs sunk into the brickwork as a ladder. It's dark down there, so hopefully Khannie either knows Flash or has some way of replicating the effect. The bricks are also worn and wet, and some of the rungs are lose; care will be needed to ensure she doesn't fall.

When she reaches the bottom, she'll find herself in a large brick-lined chamber, with a notable slope to the other walls. The floor is rough concrete, dotted with shallow puddles of water. There's still no light in here, but Khannie should have something packed for that. And there's a light switch in the wall nearby, though it doesn't work. This chamber has three doorways. One in the north-west corner, and three in the south wall. In the north-east corner there's a large piece of machinery with wires leading up and into it, which then dive into the walls and trace up to the ceiling and the light fitting there. There's a socket for a part that's missing, and a pile of cogs and gears on the edge of the pool.

The doors are a metal one to the north, and in the south-west corner an old-fashioned darkroom door, a round tube that prevents light passing through it because it's not open at both sides at once. In the middle of the southern wall is a metal cabinet built into the wall. And in the south-east corner a wooden door with water pooling nearby. It's probably swollen from the water and may be stuck.

Leaving Refugee Camp

And so Felicity and G'nichi head off, leaving the Road Pirates and refugees to make their way to the Good League of Good.

[Rebonack]

[Field]

Khannie does not know Flash. This isn't too much of a shock, given that she's never beaten up Lieutenant Surge's pokemon. Or the pokemon at any gym, really. Save for a dojo she fought her way through one time. That's where she got her much used Brick Break TM from. She makes up for that lack with a very useful tool.

Electric torches built into her helmet! It's really handy because it lights up whatever she's looking at.

So.

She doesn't climb down the ladder.

Instead she jumps and, after a few moments, goes wisp and incorporeal. This doesn't cause her to stop falling. No indeed! But it DOES cause gravity to stop paying attention to each other. So instead of accelerating toward the ground at a dangerous clip she falls at a relatively sedate pace. Once she's a few feet above the floor she snaps back to reality and drops the rest of the way onto solid footing.

Once she's landed she paces the room, looking at everything carefully. She tries the switch (to no effect) and looks at the odd machine to see if she can't assess what the missing part might be and whether anything nearby matches the description. If nothing immediately jumps out at her, she'll go check the metal cabinet.

"Urg. Spooky bunker things are lame," Khannie mutters. She was hoping for something a little more... historical? Well obviously this place is historical since it was built in the past but not the distant enough past to be REALLY cool.

[Earl of Purple]

Field

Bricks have been around for a very long time, Khannie, and the earliest concrete structures were built millennia ago. Granted, this is not ancient concrete.

The missing part is a cog or gear, quite a large one; the one at the bottom of the pile of cogs and gears might fit. That'd require moving them all, though, and it's not a guarantee they'd work.

The metal cabinet is... not a metal cabinet. Somebody's knocked the back out to use the whole thing as a doorway, and a narrow corridor lies beyond, with brick walls and sheets of corrugated metal serving as a floor. The cabinet's top shelf does have a few things on it; a disintegrating cardboard box containing an incandescent light bulb, a plastic tool case, and a dented vacuum flask.

[Rebonack]

[Bunker Below the Field]

Bricks and concrete HAVE been around for a long time.

But generally speaking cog machines with lots of wires running out of them typically haven't been.

Regardless! Khannie eyes the the various objects critically for a few moments before snapping a picture of them. Once that's done, she'll stow the items away in her pack. An important part of ACTION ARCHEOLOGY! is properly documenting what you find before you pillage collect it. Khannie pops the plastic case open to see what's in there before stowing it as well.

Then?

She'll dig through the heap of gears and try slotting the big one into place.

It sure LOOKS like a puzzle. And if she's accustomed to anything it's bunkers having puzzles in them for no reason.

Honestly she's disappointed that there wasn't anything written anywhere. Maybe this part of the bunker was just set up to foil people coming in from outside and not checking through the false door?

[Earl of Purple]

Bunker Below the Field

The Antikythera Mechanism is a cog machine! Though it lacks wires. It might not have done, if the suggestions of the Baghdad Batteries are correct.

The light-bulb box disintegrates a little under Khannie's fingers, though the bulb itself appears fine. Inside the plastic case is a magnetic screwdriver with an assortment of heads, all carefully stored to avoid them getting lost (which is very easy to do, with those magnetic screwdrivers). The vacuum flask also sloshes as it's picked up, apparently being half full of some liquid.

The big gear is heavy, but it slots into the missing space easily enough, and when it does it'll start to turn, quite slowly but implacably. Due to how cogs work, this means other bits of machinery are also moving, and generating power. The light flickers on, and the door to the north starts to hum.

[Rebonack]

[Bunker Below the Field]

Khannie knows about the old batteries! They were mostly used for electro-plating, though. The amount of current they could produce was really low since the most acidic thing people put in them was vinegar and that's a pretty weak acid. She's also read about the mechanism which was an analog computer, basically. For tracking planetary motion! Very nifty.

Anyway, the dubious 'treasures' Khannie has found so far are stowed away. The humming door is interesting, but she's going to check out the 'secret' door through the cabinet first.

That's a good rule of thumb when it comes to exploring dungeons.

Always check the secret doors first since they usually lead to secret side chambers with neat stuff in them. The main OBVIOUS doors are typically the way forward. Or deeper into the dungeon. Whatever.

Hopefully there's more stuff down here than just old junk.

Like a half full thermos.

Khannie doesn't open it since she has no idea what's in it. Who knows, it might be something gross.

[Earl of Purple]

Bunker Below the Field

It barely counts as 'secret'. Surely if they wanted this door to be hidden they'd have put a false back in the cabinet? Instead absolutely no effort has been made to hide the gaping hole. The only thing hiding it was the fact the cabinet's doors were closed.

The corridor has a few bends in it, and the corrugated metal floor is awkward to walk on, but ends at a wooden door covered with peeling brick-effect wallpaper. It's currently shut, but there's a notable dip and sag in the corrugated sheet floor- which is unusual, as mostly it has been relatively flat to this point. If Khannie stands on it anyway, it'll give way underneath her and she'll quickly find herself at the bottom of a brick-lined rectangular pit. Somebody's thrown broken bottles in there, but there's no real effort at making the pit more dangerous than just a nine metre hole straight down, and Khannie- if she falls- is likely to land on top of the old metal anyway.

[Rebonack]

[Bunker Below the Field]

Even barely secrets are still secrets!

Sometimes the point is to MAKE them somewhat easy to find for anyone really looking around.

Khannie isn't sure WHY but it happen soften enough that there's no way it's an accident.

Anyway!

Down the hallway! She's using pretty standard dungeon delving methods here. That is to say, moving slowly and looking for anything that looks suspicious. Like a chunk of floor that looks notably different. She drops down on one knee, carefully feeling along the edge of the sag to find out if-

Yep.

Sure enough.

This is definitely a not-particularly well disguised pit-trap. She ran into a few of these in the neon bunkers, but they were a bit more sophisticated. They were mechanical. This one seems like it's just a dead-fall. Khannie hauls back, focusing her fighting spirit into one fist, and then pounds the floor with a blow of BRICK-BREAKing force! If her weight would have been enough to make the floor fall in then that definitely will.

Upside?

There is now obviously a hole there.

Better for not accidentally stepping on the thing on the way back.

"Oof, that thing's pretty deep, too," she mutters, peering down into the dark. If she had fallen in there she would have gone misty almost immediately to prevent the fall from being that bad. But getting back OUT still would have been a pain in the butt.

Assuming there's room, she'll skirt around the hole to get at the door on the other side.

[Earl of Purple]

Bunker Below the Field

Khannie's investigation also reveals the reason why it was sagging- the supports, deliberately weak to ensure trespassers fell, have rotted and sagged. If the wood had been properly maintained and replaced, it would not have been so obvious.

There's just about enough space to squeeze around, and fortunately the door beyond is pushed open, rather than pulled. Pulling it would be awkward without falling down the hole. Once open, another room is revealed, of similar dimensions to the first- though it's hard to tell, as this one has been used as a barracks. There's ten rusty beds in here, with a footlocker at the base of each one. There's another door in the north-east corner of the room, and another door to the south. The door Khannie used isn't very effectively hidden; more brick-effect wallpaper peeling from it. It might have worked better when it was new. The north-east door is a wooden panel door, like that inside many houses, whilst the southern one is an archway concealed behind a curtain of plastic strips like those in a butcher's shop to keep flies out. The room smells musty and neglected, and there's mould visible on many of the bedsheets.

[Rebonack]

[Bunker Below the Field]

It sure seems like no one has really been down here int a while.

Makes the place kinda creepy, though Khannie isn't totally sure why. Ancient ruins are kind of cool and mysterious but NOT ancient ruins just feel... empty. Haunted by the spirits of whatever this place was for. It's the people that make it alive but without the people it's like...

A dead thing sprawled out on the road.

Gross.

Khannie slips into the bunk room, moving to pop open the footlockers one after the other. She's pretty specifically looking for something that might provide clues regarding the purpose of the bunker. Like a journal? Regardless of what she finds, she'll shove the plastic 'curtain' aside to see what's beyond there.

Thankfully the musty smell isn't bothering her much. Her suit is sealed and it's nice enough to filter the air she's breathing.

[Earl of Purple]

Bunker Below the Field

Most of the footlockers are empty, and... it seems whatever purpose it was intended for, it didn't achieve it. There's beds, and they're old and mouldy, but don't appear to have seen much if any use. Whoever was intended to sleep here, never did.

The final footlocker Khannie opens, however, is different. Somebody has used it, and it contains a packet of wax crayons, a pad of lined paper that has gotten wet and been dried, the paper's got that wavy, slightly stiff fee to it, a folded-up Rock Lord action figure of black plastic and blue-painted metal, and a bracelet of colourful plastic beads on a length of string, though if Khannie touches it the string disintegrates and the beads go everywhere. Some of the beads have letters on, spelling the name 'Micaela', though only if Khannie reads it before she touches it.

Beyond the curtain is an underground garage, with no other visible exits. In the centre of the room is a small vehicle, probably a car, covered with blue tarpaulin sheets to offer protection. It's resting on a rusty car elevator, and the roof here is metal with a zig-zag seam in the middle where two folding doors meet. There's a hanging cable with a control panel dangling from the ceiling within easy reach of the car, though the mechanism might not work. The visible parts of it show signs of corrosion. There's also a delicate network of pale roots forcing their way through the seam between the doors, and soil has fallen onto the tarpaulin. Against the west wall is another metal cabinet, pushed up against the wall. There's old scratches in the concrete to one side, as though it's been moved a lot.

[Rebonack]

[Bunker Below the Field]

Khannie's getting the impression this place wasn't ever... used.

Exactly?

Or got built and mostly abandoned. That's often how it is with these old dungeons. At the very least this one isn't full of giant mutated roaches.

Giant mutated roaches are, quite possibly, Khannie's least favorite enemy type.

So! More looting. Khannie digs through the lockers and finds... old paper? Nothing written on it so who cares. Regardless, she takes a photo of the contents before trying to grab anything. An old plastic bead necklace that just immediately falls to pieces the moment she tries picking it up. And... some kind of action figure thing? Hmm...

Well.

Maybe one of the Frescot boys will think it's cool? They're about the right age of action figures.

Khannie stows the rock-lord away in her pack. She's got no idea what the thing is supposed to be. Kind of like a transformer or something? Except it turns into... a rock. Okay, whatever.

In the next room she'll once again take a picture of the chamber as usual since the difference between archeology and raiding dungeons is the fact that you actually document things. So some kind of... way of putting vehicles up on the surface? But there's no vehicle in here. And she didn't see anything outside that looked like it came from down here. Judging from the dirt it hasn't been used in a REALLY long time.

She isn't going to try opening the roof-door.

That might just dump a literal ton of dirt all over the floor.

Instead she backtracks to the paneled door and takes careful stock of that before opening it up.

[Earl of Purple]

Bunker Below the Field

So no investigating that metal cabinet? Last time Khannie saw one, it was a door. And even if there's not, this is a garage; some tools might be valuable.

Back through the bunk room! The panel door is hard to move; the hinges have sagged, so it requires a sturdy push to get it open. But open it can be, and it leads into a mostly-empty chamber with a sandbag wall across the middle and clad with soundproofing. Across the wall there's some targets and more sandbags, many of which have spilled. There's four other doors, one next to where Khannie has entered, to the east. There's two more doors in the north-east corner, one in each wall. The other door is in the west, with sandbags piled against it. There's a gun cabinet in the corner, and a rack of long arms next to it, with a collection of rifles; mostly old bolt-action ones, with a few exceptions as well as a shotgun.

[Rebonack]

[Bunker Below the Field]

Well...

She'll probably be through again on her way back.

Maybe.

But for now she doesn't want to go poking around in the garage. Khannie had this icky feeling that if she moved the tarp off the car there would be something gross in here. The vibe just felt off to her so she got outta there. Maybe it was nothing, but given that she's pretty ghosty herself she trusts her ethereal gut when it comes to spooky vibes.

But onward and... onward?

This next room is looking like a shooting range. As she's done with all the rooms so far she takes some pictures. She's not really thinking it would be a great idea to grab guns. She's not super big on weapons, anyway. At least not regular ones. The baton and pistol that she found in the neon bunker really don't do anything on their own. They're just for extending her reach with the moves she's already got.

She'll check the gun cabinet first. Just in case there's anything in there aside from more guns. If it proves to be locked a nice Brick Break to the lock should shatter it pretty good. Being able to smash through walls and locks and barriers with that move has proven invaluable in Khannie's ACTION! Archeology outings.

Once she's done with the cabinet she'll check the door that was right next to the one she came through.

[Earl of Purple]

Bunker Below the Field

The gun cabinet was locked, but the key was stored in a rather insecure manner- namely, on top of the cabinet. Since I don't think Khannie looked for it between trying the lock and smashing it open, the key remains where it is.

Inside, there's two revolvers, one of which is rather unusual in that it shoots from the bottom chamber and not the top, a broom handle Mauser, a chunky 10mm semi-automatic pistol and a double-barrelled derringer. There's some boxes of ammunition in there too, mostly for the derringer, but not much. Might be useful, but since Khannie doesn't like guns and can look after herself with other means, maybe it'd make a good present for Arthfael?

The door Khannie tries swings open surprisingly easily, and leads to a narrow corridor, with vinyl flooring down instead of the previous corridor's sheet metal. There's no obvious sags in the material, so there shouldn't be any hidden pits this time. There's a single lightbulb in the ceiling, which is flickering erratically, and three metres down the straight corridor is another wooden door.

[Rebonack]

[Bunker Below the Field]

So!

Khannie punches the door!

BAM!

The force launches the key off the top of the cabinet, which bounces off her helmet.

"...this looks like the key for the lock..."

Yep!

But the lock is a ruined mess now OH WELL! Khannie takes the key, anyway.

Khannie is pretty sure that Arthfael wouldn't really be into guns. He just doesn't strike her as the type. Besides, he's got the cool summon things he can create! Those are better than guns, anyway. But maybe having some kinda backup isn't a terrible idea?

She hems and haws about it for a few minutes before she finally takes the derringer and its ammo. Maybe he'll think it's cool at least?

Well, she'll find out later.

With her latest spoils stowed away, she moves down the short hallway and, as always, checks the door to make sure it doesn't look like it has any trip mechanisms to explode in her face. Once she's sure it's safe she'll shove the door open.