An Examination of Residual Material

(to be completed when its not 1 AM)

Ever since the disappearance of Basilisk Fang, the area of the former Morgate Town had started to become a little more habitable, leading to more then just random desperate looters among the ruins, small scavenger groups looking through the ruins for valuable information, be it for those looking to loot, expeditions from other organizations, or the cleanup crews of Fiore who used the town as a combination restoration project and training ground, as the various dangerous residues were fairly well understood, leaving an excellent training ground for people to get live experience in a less then urgent situation, in case of disasters elsewhere.

And speaking of expeditions, one could be found in a particularly dangerous area of the ruins, not because of some radiation and other weapon residue, but because of the delicate fragility of the remaining structure and ground of the area, teetering on the edge of collapsing into a sinkhole that would swallow an entire block, at least that was what Silver Wolf's geologist contact had said when they had been briefing Inkormine on the trip over. The spider had been sent out here as a retriever, the local term for people taking something from the ruins but who had legal permission and such, thus not being looters. Silver Wolf had recieved word of remains of one of Basilisk Fang's experiments in the remains of the bunker at the center of the potential sinkhole, these ones an experiment that was no longer dangerous to approach, although Inky wasn't told much about it beyond that. He'd been assured it wasn't some sort of bio-weapon or poison or the like, however, some sort of materials research under harsh conditions instead.

He'd been given a couple of sensing devices to keep on a vest, that would ambiently monitor the area around him, a bio-sensor for any biological threats that were marked into it, almost useless except in a place like this where all that was left there was either harmless or clearly known in exacting detail weapons, and a geiger counter for various radiation emissions. Then Inky had been let out of the flatbed truck at the edge of the dangerous space, the group retreating to a nearby supply station to wait for his call to pick up, since he was the one heading in for the guild, while they were helpers from the area. This left Inky adjusting the itchy but rugged bag on his back, since he didn't want to risk his normal bag to the strange stuff in this town and area. Looking out over the small open space before a collapsed building, and stepping lightly on the area a few times, Inky shrugged and started walking in. At least this close to the edge, everything seemed quite stable, and since he'd grown up in a desert where a small difference in density could be the difference between safe and getting buried in a sandslide and drowned, he trusted his instinct at least for this much, even in the odd new terrain. So it was a basic walk to the building, where a bright yellow tag marked it as clear of residue, but unsafe for other reasons, which he knew was the danger of the sinkhole. But, the structure itself wasn't in too rough a shape, especially since he wasn't floor-bound, so he crossed through it in a little over a minute, coming out into a debris strewn street.

An orange spray-painted line marked a dangerous area, with several craters up the street easily showing why without needing to check the symbols next to the line. Luckily, getting around them wasn't hard when he climbed his way over a debris pile, besides one close call when a shift in debris nearly caused him to overbalance a piece and possibly collapse the whole pile. But, disaster avoided, he moved past, into a large crater that had removed the buildings of the next street, but was not marked as unsafe, a few small flags flapping in the crater marking people having crossed here before. And none of the sensors on Inky's big pocketed flak vest thing were making any noise, beyond the passive slow clicking of the geiger counter from the slightly elevated background radiation. So he forged ahead, and it wasn't much longer before he could see the big slab of concrete that marked the formerly concealed entrance of the bunker. But, a single step onto the empty ground around it led to a slight sinkage that told Inky he needed to start treading carefully from here.

Inkormine carefully threaded out some web, sticking it to the ground on several of what felt like deep buried rocks, opening a puch on his vest and pulling out a long metal spike, stabbing the piton into the dense concrete remains, wriggling it around some to get it to set, before pushing the button that made the long hooks shoot out to lock the thing into place, then neatly tying the web-rope around it, giving it a hard tug to make sure the piton was set properly. Satisfied, he gave himself some extra length of web, then played it out behind him as he went to the edge, before setting it over his shoulder for a moment as he crossed his arms over both shoulders, bringing his hands across and over his eyes as he channeled the echoes of the moon, reflected in the daytime sky, bringing the moons light to him, but then around him, releasing him from the moons touch, and breathing out the raw night as his hands lowered from his eyes, opening them as his body became a silhouette. This technique saw good use in a fight as it made attacks simply less effective, but the fact that it somewhat removed his form from 'here', also reduced his weight. He couldn't make much of that in a fight, yet, but it was helpful when your trying to not cause a sinkhole with your weight.

So prepared, Inky crossed the open space, careful to tread lightly and playing out the web rope behind him as he went, a lifeline in case everything collapsed under him. Thanks to these precautions, or maybe even without them, he easily reached the slab, and soon hauled up the bunker hatch. Once locked, but the lock had long since been broken open by the explorers that had first come here, not knowing what would be inside. so Inky squeezed his bulk into the hatch and the stairs beyond, descending into the armored dark bunker. The light streaming in from above made everything easy to see, studded with the ethereal glow of his moonsight as he crossed through first a ruined reception area with smashed arms lockers, and a couple of bullets he pocketed. If they were weird then the guild would appreciate having them, if not, they'd give him a few Jewels for them, which would at least cover the lunch he'd bought in town, so hey, win either way. Past that was some halls with some windows in them, most of them broken and showing empty lab spaces, but one was fogged over with weird blackish stuff on the inside, and a few scratches from gunfire showing that this labs window was much tougher then the rest. Probably what he was looking for.

A little roaming found Inky the door in, although it was locked, the reason that the guild had been charged a pretty penny had been because the explorer had the code to open and close the door, thus also knowing what was inside. And Inky entering it in caused the door to slide open, a quiet groan of the door showing its age. Thus proving they hadn't been swindled out of their Jewels, Inky stepped inside. The moment his legs touched the floor, there was an ominous groan, making Inky stop dead, freezing until the noise faded away. He carefully pointed his abdomen up, shooting a blast of webbing up to stick to the ceiling in several places, and weaving himself a harness, tightening it up some until the ceiling support struts were bearing some of his remaining weight, but left so he could slip free quickly in the event of the sinkhole opening up, and hopefully escape to safety. Suddenly the stress of being in such a dangerous place made itself abundantly clear to the young spider man, making him swallow tensely as he slipped into the harness, then stepped back into the room fully. A lack of unusually loud groaning metal noises seems to show he'd been smart with his prep and the floor wasn't looking to collapse on him just yet. A walk through the lab showed broken beakers, rotted papers, busted sample cases filled with dust and not much else. For a few minutes, it almost seemed like the info on what was inside had been a dud, but that didn't seem right. Why would the guy have given them an accurate passcode, but then lied about what was inside?

A few minutes looking around gave Inky time to think, and then remember. Hadn't the guy been oddly short, even for a human? A calculated risk of taking off the harness and flipping over to cling to it with his legs quickly paid off, as a telltale glow, just barely noticeable, showed itself behind a toppled specimen case. Some more webbing and weight redistribution let Inky move the fallen case, to show the single intact case with a light still on, showing a small green piece of metal, a dark green that seemed to not be reflecting any light at all, even in his moonsight. Just sitting there in the case. Inky managed to get the case open without breaking it, running the biosensor over the thing just in case. But, after getting nothing on the sensor or the geiger counter, Inky hesitantly took the metal chunk. It felt cold, probobly from the air conditioned interior. A quick search over the rest of the case found a small drawer with a folder in it, which had a lot of words in it Inky only recently learned from books in Silver worth, saying stuff he really didn't understand, about alloy re-manipulation and organic tempering. Things like that. But, he took both, climbing up the webs to the ceiling and crossing back to the door from there. Luckily getting out was pretty easy with the rope along the way to guide him, leaving him a little time to wonder at the piece he'd retrieved. He didn't know much about metallurgy, but it was still just an odd looking piece of metal on its own. The truck found him turning it over in his hands inquisitively as the driver pulled up to pick the spider up.

Word Count: 1,797 Words