A pause
later, Mabel added, "I'm in the middle of a raid!"
There
was a thud as another trap was triggered, one that dropped a spiked
ball onto a black tile.
"Yes,
Mum, it's an interesting story. I'm busy keeping up with the damage!
You can tell me when I get home."
A fiery
ball exploded above a white tile.
"And
how did you call all the way out here anyway? This is out of range
for a regular call... Did you get Laura to build you something?"
A
rotating blade swung out from the ceiling into the wall next to a
black tile.
"Yes,
yes, I'll pick some up on the way home."
A
stuffed goat dropped onto a black tile. An unremarkable stuff goat.
At least George thought it was a goat - he had only seen one once on
a documentary show.
"Goat!"
Iona exclaimed.
Okay,
George was then certain that it was a goat.
The
cloaked Vixen jumped out, nimbly picking her way through the wreck of
a room and retrieved the stuffed animal. She made it back safely with
the toy. She held it up for George to inspect. "See. Cute, isn't
it?"
As far
as George could tell, it was a perfectly ordinary stuffed toy of a
goat, complete with horns, hooves and tail.
Finally,
Mabel ended the call. She sighed. "Jeez, did she have to call
now?"
Iona sat
at the stairs with the toy next to her. She tossed another ceramic
block. That one caused blades to swing out of the floor.
George
had to admit that it was pretty fun. If he ever had the occasion to
destroy a room in a fit of anger, it would be awesome if he could
match the destruction that was going on in that tower level at that
moment.
A flying
piece of rock knocked the "Trial of Caution" sign towards
them. Tricia caught the sign before it landed. "So... where's
the 'Caution' in all this?" she asked.
Iona
took the sign from her. "Don't know, don't care." She tore
the sign into two and flung a piece at one of the remaining visible
tiles in the level. "Now go Boom!"
There
was no Boom. Instead, a pillar dropped from the ceiling to crush the
sign.
"Aww,"
Iona groaned disappointedly and tossed the other piece of the sign.
Blades
flew out and shredded the sign into ribbons.
The room
was a mess. There were rubble, various blades and pointy things all
over the place. There were gaping holes in the walls, ceiling and
floor. There was wiring sticking out at places and there were
cameras, broken and exposed. A thin cloud of smoke hung in the air.
The opposite stairs was out of sight with all the clutter in the way.
"Think
we got all of them?" Tricia asked.
Iona
shrugged. "Don't know."
"If
Laura were here, she'd keep track," Mabel mentioned.
"If
she were here," Tricia added, "she'd probably build some
sort of holographic display showing tiles that were still live."
So who
was Laura anyway? George was beginning to feel that she might be some
sort of technological genius. He had a pair of pretty big shoes to
fill if he was going to take her place.
Mabel
peeked over the edge of the level. "We got those we can see."
She turned to the cloaked Vixen. "Hey, Io. Check and see if
there's a safe path to the stairs."
"Okay."
Iona got up and nimbly stepped past rubble and sharp objects, careful
to look for any traps that remained.
A short
while later, she was back. "Good news and bad news."
"What's
the good news?" Mabel asked.
"Good
news is that there's a safe path," Iona reported.
"And
the bad?" Mabel prompted.
"Bad
news is that the stairs are buried under rocks."
The
party headed through the safe path that Iona had found. As the
cloaked Vixen had said, there were chunks of masonry on the stairs
blocking the way.
"Shouldn't
be a problem for you, right, Trish?" Mabel asked.
"It
isn't," Tricia replied. Clearing the stairs was an easy task for
her with the enhanced strength granted by her power armor.
Then
they found out that they had missed a trap, right when Tricia had
carelessly tossed the first piece of rubble back into the room. That
had triggered a spear, which thrust up from among the broken tiles
and tangled metal on the floor, just behind Mabel's foot.
"Watch
it, Trish!"
"Sorry."
All the
same, Mabel kept an eye out for tiles on the ground. So did George.
***
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