A trail of aching derrières- next time they'll be more thoughtful

[gone_byebye]

The door opens onto an expanse of asphalt, steel, and glass. Nearby a sign reads:

WELCOME TO WHITE FLINT MALL
BEST PRICES IN THE DC AREA

4708 BETHESDA AVENUE
CHEVY CHASE, MD

It's a big parking lot, with the mall itself only visible off in the distance. Ray gives it the squint-eye before turning to the others. "Okay, people," he says. "This is it. Johnny says it's underground. Egon's best estimates indicate three miles down. Are we good?"

Comments

Re: And we're under way!

[lt-naraht.livejournal.com]

Naraht laughed.

"Can I? I once tunneled 250 miles at sharding sprint. This will be a cakewalk. Just give me a general direction and I'll find us the nearest branch of that warren to break into."

His fringe began to twitch in anticipation.

Re: And we're under way!

[redsnout.livejournal.com]

Raptor Red can't help but eyeball Naraht's fringe for a moment-she's not sure what to make of it-but decides to focus on the hunt to-be, instead. She shifts from foot to foot uneasily as she sniffs at the air, once more trying to find which particular scent she's supposed to follow. But the raptor still has no luck, and decides to just keep an eye on their surroundings instead.

Re: And we're under way!

[wyrd-fox.livejournal.com]

Foxtrot grins.

"You know, I don't exactly navigate like you guys do, but I can get in there like pronto. Want me to go lay down a little preliminary chaos?"

Re: And we're under way!

[gone_byebye]

"My friend," says Ray, "if you could do that for us, I'd take you back to the Firehouse and give you the full tour when all of this is done. It's about time you met my apprentices anyway-"

Behind him, his world's Egon is greeted by the local Peter and the local Winston. "Yo! Ray! When are we gonna boogie?"

"Just getting started, Pete. GO for it, FX."

Re: And we're under way!

[wyrd-fox.livejournal.com]

The ninja-Fox snaps to attention and salutes.

"Roger Wilco, O Great God of Geeks! Got me a big-ass stick to stir up this anthill! See ya!"

With that, he jumps into the air...and keeps going...and going...

He tops out at about twenty feet and does a gracefull swan-dive right through the ground.

Re: And we're under way!

[doc-venkman.livejournal.com]

"Kooky guy." Peter shook his head at FX with a chuckle, and glanced at his local counterpart with a nod, and a sly grin.

"Hey, other me. Want to see some baby pictures?"

Re: And we're under way!

[ifeelsofunky.livejournal.com]

".... excuse me?" the local Peter said weakly.

Re: And we're under way!

[doc-venkman.livejournal.com]

Nothing amusing like scaring the bejeebus out of an alternate universe version of yourself.

Peter got out his wallet. Yes, he's one of those parents now. Fear!

And held them up to his other self with a proud expression on his face, "See, there's Oscar, and that's Maria. He's over 3 now, and she's close to 5 months old now. Oh, and there's Dana, but you knew that already."

Re: And we're under way!

[ifeelsofunky.livejournal.com]

Peter stares. Really, he stares quite a lot.

Winston, for his part, prods the other man cautiously in the shoulder, and then edges away when he fails to respond.

This is because Winston is wise.

Re: And we're under way!

[steadfastknight]

Kitt nodded once and, at a casual sprint, he faded into the crowd of cars that was the parking lot. There was, soon enough after that, a soft rumbling idle as a Trans Am with darkened windows approached and parked nearby. The scanner at the vehicle's prow swept back and forth, the whisper nearly silent as sensors swept intentionally downward.

The asphalt itself was no hazard to scan through. That was easy enough. The difficulty was the network of city pipe and sewer below that. He began to navigate his sensors further and further, using the pipes as resonants for all of his sensors.

"How covert do we plan this alternate entrance to be?" Kitt asked, trying to be as inconspicuous as a talking car could be.

Re: And we're under way!

[gone_byebye]

"I'd rather not have rent-a-cops down on our head from the mall," Ray said. "We're not going to be able to achieve total secrecy, though, so don't worry about it too much. K can probably take care of any really pesky questions."

Re: And we're under way!

[steadfastknight]

"In this area, there are a great many pipes and buried lines that we may wish to avoid - not to mention the idea of a rather obvious hole in the asphalt. However, if my sensors are correct, there should be a patch of actual bare earth - a mulch bed, I believe - that should be able to mask much of an entrance, unless you'd prefer to find the actual enterance. Which seems to be to the west."

Re: And we're under way!

[gone_byebye]

"These guys're probably gonna have security on the actual entrance," said Winston. "We don't have anything against the guards, just the guys who messed with Ray."

"Winston's right," Ray said. "Let's go with the mulch- unless that's a problem for Naraht."

Re: And we're under way!

[lt-naraht.livejournal.com]

The Horta sighed.

"We would have to start out in organic material. Oh well, never let it be said that I let foul-tasting mulch get in the way of a mission."

He glided over to the spot KITT indicated and paused a moment to get his bearings.

"Okay, let's do it!" he said, his voice brimming with excitement. "Remember, give me a full 30 second count before following unless you want to burn away your shoes on the trip down."

Vapor and smoke began to belch out from beneath Naraht and a faint, grinding sound emerged as he began to sink through the mulch...and then the topsoil. He took his time. After all, they needed a BIG tunnel so that the team wouldn't emerge at the other end half-crippled with back aches.

Re: And we're under way!

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Matilda prudently decides to wait until someone else starts down the tunnel before doing so herself, since burning shoes are potentially at stake. She passes the time by folding and then lighting fire to a paper crane, keeping it in the air all the time so it doesn't accidentally set fire to anything on the ground.

Re: And we're under way!

[steadfastknight]

One of Kitt's windows rolled down, his sensors reading Naraht's progress for the displays. He could pick up the acidic traces of Naraht's passage, and turned the trail green as it became safe. "All right," he said. "Entry into the tunnel should be safe now."

Re: And we're under way!

[gone_byebye]

"Excellent," Ray says with considerable satisfaction. "Let's get a move on, then. No sense letting these boogerheads get ready for us."

Re: And we're under way!

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Matilda drops the no-longer-smoldering remains of the crane to the ground. "Just show me what I'm supposed to make explode," she says cheerfully, following Ray into the tunnel.

Re: And we're under way!

[doc-venkman.livejournal.com]

Peter eyed the little girl oddly after jogging up to join them. No wonder she got along with Ray there.

But enough with scaring local Peter, they had some extra special busting to do.

"Sure there'll be plenty for that," he remarked as he headed into the tunnel after them.

Re: And we're under way!

[lt-naraht.livejournal.com]

A Horta in his natural habitat...solid rock all around.

Naraht is making good time as he chews his way deeper and deeper. He's not going as quite as steep as he would if he was solo. After all, there's humanoids who have to walk down - and, if something goes horribly wrong, run up - this tunnel.

It takes a while...but soon they're only a few meters from breakthrough. Naraht pauses, waiting for the others to catch up.

"Okay," he says. "That last four meters is the Rubicon. Any last minute advice to bestow, admonitions to give or aspersions to cast?"

Re: And we're under way!

[blond-w-brain.livejournal.com]

Blond-Egon smiles. This should scare those that know him.

"I believe the applicable terminology for this moment is 'let's give them hell.'"

He flips on his proton pack. So does Brown-Egon. And now one other difference becomes obvious: their packs, as they activate, emit a soft while that's JUUUUST different enough to raise hairs.

Re: And we're under way!

[gone_byebye]

Ray's eyes get oddly misty at that.

"You know," he says in a hushed tone, "it's times like this, when I'm three miles below the civilized surface of the planet, surrounded by people who're intent on using fifteen different kinds of science and PKE to wreak incalculable physical and psychological damage on a beyond-top-secret black ops installation of the United States Government because the people involved done me wrong, that I realize.... I've got the best friends in all of Explored Space. Who all's up for a group hug?"

Re: And we're under way!

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Matilda grins her adorable grin. "Group hug!" She sets her bag of explosives carefully on the ground and rushes over to hug Ray.

Re: And we're under way!

[blond-w-brain.livejournal.com]

The two Egons both grimace and pat Ray on the shoulder.

Re: And we're under way!

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Clearly mere shoulder-patting is insufficient.

Matilda exhibits a mock-glare with all the adorability quotient of a determinedly huggable not-quite-six-year-old girl, and proceeds to hug both Egons and Ray all at the same time. This feat is accomplished through the clever application of too much cuteness for one person to legally possess.