Hotel Oblivion

[knife_bender]

This hotel was actually very boring when you were walking around not knowing what you were looking for, Allison decided. "Someone went to a lot of trouble to hide this thing."

"How big is it supposed to be?" Viktor asked.

"You know, old Reg didn't say." If only one of them had it tattooed to their chest.

Five	But they couldn't all stand on his chest, Allison. "Really?" Five said, trailing into the room behind them like he was forming some kind of rearguard there. "Hm. That's surprising. I figured you'd know more about this plan."
Allison	"Sorry, what's that's supposed to mean?" Allison asked, irritated with all the suspicion. Correct suspicion, but still. Annoying.
Five	"I saw you and him in the White Buffalo Suite during the wedding." J'accuse!
Viktor	Oh, Five. "Maybe this isn't the right time--"
Allison	"You know I heard you blacked out that night," Allison interrupted.
Five	"I did, and it took me a while to remember what I saw," he granted her, completely ignoring Viktor's objections. "But I do remember, Allison. You and Dad made some kind of deal." Handshake and everything! "What did you agree to?"
Allison	"A deal? With Dad?" Allison said with a chuckle. "Please tell me you're joking."
Viktor	"He's not," Viktor said quietly.
Five	"Answer the question." He grew up with you, Allison. He knew all the tactics.
Allison	"You're out of your mind." Did you want to throw hands right now, Five?
Five	He could and would! "You and Dad make a deal, now Luther is dead."
Allison	Helping Dad or not, Allison looked genuinely insulted at the insinuation that she'd be involved with Luther's death. "Okay, Luther was killed by whatever that thing is."
Five	Maybe, maybe not. But she was still working with Dad after some shady shit. "And Klaus?"
Allison	"He didn't make it to the tunnel." Though now she didn't sound as confident as before.
Five	"You know, your deal is costing people their lives." Two siblings by his count.
Allison	"Do you really think I made a deal with Dad to kill Luther and Klaus?" Allison asked. She shook her head and lifted up her hands. "I'm done. I'll meet you in the lobby."
Viktor	Viktor immediately went to follow Allison. "Hey, wait, no--"
Five	Five let her flounce her way out of the room with Viktor hot on her heels. He took his time in following since it wasn't like the elevator was particularly fast or anything. But then the sound of Viktor trying to keep Allison from running off cut off completely as he stepped out into the hallway. "Viktor? Allison?" The hallway that should take him to the elevator and them was now a wall with a vase in front of it. Which was definitely a thing. "Alright, so now the fun starts," he muttered to himself, setting off to find them or another elevator to get back to the lobby. And, it took much longer than he would have liked to admit as the place seemed to be going out of it's way to keep him from finding anything... but he picked up his pace at the sound of only mildly familiar bickering from the Sparrows. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually glad to see you guys."
Sloane	"What's wrong?" Other than, you know, everything.
Five	"The hotel is changing," Five said, glancing around the hallway to make sure it wasn't happening again. "I've been walking around in circles, but it's like the thing is alive."
Ben	Oh, like Ben was going to believe that. "We should get to the lobby."
Five	This was why you were the shitty version of Ben, Ben! "Tried it," Five replied. "Whatever direction I choose, I end up in the same spot."
Ben	"Or maybe you have no sense of direction." It's like he had to be an asshole or else he'd keel over and die.
Five	It was almost pathological! "Okay, lead the way, Magellan," Five said, gesturing for Ben to take the lead so he could fail miserably.
Ben	Fine, he would lead. He should have been leading this whole time. Of course he barely made it two steps before the sound of a gong filled the hallway. And even before he could comprehend that a guardian with a sword showed up. "A samurai?" Ben asked. "Seriously?"
Sloane	Sloane ran straight towards the guardian, downright happy to have a chance to attack the thing that killed Luther. She used her powers to flip over the guardian, holding its sword in place with her powers when it went to swing at her.
Ben	"Revenge looks good on her," Ben said.
Five	"Will you shut up and help us kill this thing?" Five snapped, looking around for a weapon and finding his old friend... the fire axe. Oh, they'd been through some things together, him and his axe. But, right now, he was whacking away at the guardian, trying to find a single weak spot on it.
Ben	How did three people wailing on a giant samurai end up in the laundry room? Don't ask questions. It was becoming obvious to Ben that this was doing jack shit. "You've hit him with an ax five times, he should be dead by now!"
Five	"The armor," Five said, panting heavily. "It's like hitting cement."
Sloane	"There's spaces between the backplates," Sloane gasped, trying to catch her breath. She was tired, frustrated and she could feel herself running out of juice with her powers. Still, she wasn't going to stop until this thing went down. Or she died. Whichever happened first.
Five	"We need to get behind him." Sloane, you were the one competent person in the room and he was counting on you. Because Ben was a dick.
Sloane	Nope. It was Leeroy Jenkins time. "Let's kill this thing."
Five	Oh, c'mon! He deserved a competent sibling here! "Wait--"
Sloane	"Hey, asshole!" Sloane charged at the guardian, using her powers to launch herself off the wall. If the guardian was impressed with such chutzpah it didn't show it, instead hurling one of it's smaller knives at Sloane, nailing her in the arm and causing her to hit the ground hard. Well, at least she got it's attention?
Five	Five made a disgruntled noise, teleporting behind the thing to take advantage of it's distraction. Unfortunately for him, the guardian was expecting it and turned immediately to backhand him to the ground. Oh god, it was up to Ben for the hero moment. They were screwed.
Ben	Hey, hey! He could totally pull off a hero moment, dick! Ben leapt up on one of the tables, unleashing his tentacles and wrapping all of them around the guardian. For a moment there it looked like the guardian was trapped, struggling against Ben's hold as his tentacles squeeze harder around it. Then Ben out a loud scream as the guardian tore through his hold, slicing the tentacles to shreds. So close to a hero moment.
Five	Well, it worked well enough to let Five shove himself to his feet once the guardian was turning to kill Ben for that weird little tentacle show. And then it only took one good hit in the little hole in the armor for it to go down. Which was weird, right? That was weird.

Diego	Diego and Annie had ended up on the 6th floor to do their sigil search. Diego armed with a harpoon gun and Annie, well, it's not like she needed a weapon other than the lights. He had thought they were going in a linear direction...until they hit a familiar looking elevator. "Did we go in a circle?"
Annie	Annie was, true to her word, actually staying behind Diego and his harpoon gun, too, even if -- no, she didn't need a weapon, and her skin was (hopefully) invulnerable enough that anything pointy coming her way might not be an issue. (But then again, even Supes from her universe had an upper limit of what they could take, and Annie suspected that this guardian was more on that end of the scale.) "Maybe there's two elevators?" Annie suggested, the idea sounded stupid even as she said it. No, they would have noticed a second elevator way before now.
Diego	This place made no goddamn sense, and Diego was going to say just that when a the noise of a gong filled the area. Then the lights went from a blue tone to a yellow one. Goddamn it. "Why does no one listen to me? Who did it?"
Annie	"It doesn't matter right now who did it," Annie replied, taking his free hand and already holding her own out preemptively for the blasting, like some asshole with scary blades was just going to come right around the corner at them. And you know what? That was a good cue to start walking faster, too. "We're going to get out of this fine." For the first time this whole time, Annie actually sounded like she was trying to convince herself of that.
Diego	"Yeah, totally." That did not sound confident. A loud thud coming from behind them almost mocked that lack of confidence, in fact. Diego turned his head to see a guardian turning the corner into the hallway they were in. And it was scythe boy, the same one that took Diego's fingers. "Oh fuck me."
Annie	"We should go," Annie told him, not even bothering to start pulling power. Not when running was an option, and she'd already seen this guy take three of her husband's fingers when they tried to fight him last time. That was also a testament to how seriously Annie was taking her pledge to take a backseat for the baby's (babies'?) safety, too -- under normal circumstances, running was a solid Plan B. Maybe even further down the list. Plan, like, F.
Diego	"Back to the elevators!" Or...around to the elevators. Keep running until they found elevators, was the thing. And when they did find the elevators, it was the slowest elevators on the planet. "Come on," Diego hissed, pressing the button frantically. "Is it still behind us?" Dumb question, really.
Annie	"Come on, come on, come on," she urged the elevator, turning away from it to look at the totally-approaching guardian. You know what might not help the elevator move faster? Annie yanking as much electricity as she could out of the walls, sorry. The lights surged -- thank God they were responding to her better than they had a few days ago -- and Annie hurled two blasts out of her palms down the hallway, straight at the guardian's chest. Guess how effective that was. Go on, guess.
Diego	It was not effective at all! Still, it didn't stop Diego from mumbling a "screw this" to the slow-ass elevator and going to Annie's side, knife in hand. He launched a knife between the plates of armor on the guardian's shoulder -- nailing his target. Guess what? That also didn't do shit.
Annie	Okay, you know what? If blasting wasn't going to work -- maybe that was a better course of action? So don't mind Annie insinuating herself a little behind Diego -- as promised! -- and also using that advantageous position to snag a knife out of his belt and fling it at the guardian, too. It also smacked him right in the chest and did a whole fuckload of nothing. "Thought it was worth a shot?" All it really seemed to be worth was the loss of another knife, though.
Diego	"I mean, it was hot." If not effective. The blessed sound of the elevator dinging occurred at the same time the guardian decided it was done being hit by things and picking up speed. "Run!"
Annie	Annie didn't need to be told twice, hurling herself into the elevator and immediately hitting the door button as soon as Diego was safely in behind her. And good thing, too, since the door was barely shut before the scythe ripped through the wall right by Annie's head, and then...slowly dragged upwards. Apparently they were going down. Which was fine, as long as it was away, right now.
Diego	"That thing almost took off your head." Which might explain his actions in about two minutes.
Annie	"Yeah," Annie agreed, a little breathless as she leaned against a (safe, interior) wall. "This thing is fucking relentless." Usually knives and/or blasts tended to slow shit down, even if you were talking Stormfront or Soldier Boy or Swedes or whatever. "You're okay?"
Diego	"Yeah." No. Not really. That thing almost took off her head. The elevator door opened, not at the lobby but at a floor that didn't have a deranged samurai so that was an improvement. He took Annie by the hand to lead her down the hall. "Come on."
Annie	But it had not actually succeeded in taking off her head! So no big deal! "So far, so good," Annie noted, glancing over her shoulder as she hurried along with him. "I mean, he'd have to take the stairs to follow us, anyway." And Annie hadn't even spotted stairs! Potentially two elevators, but no stairwell. This place had all kinds of fire code violations, probably.
Diego	Well, consider who designed the place. Sir Reginald didn't care about fire codes. Diego absolutely knew he was facing Annie's wrath with this next move, but the scythe to the head was too close a call. So when they passed an open door to a utility closet he shoved Annie in there, quickly closing the door and jamming it closed with a knife. "I'm sorry!"
Annie	What the hell? "What the hell?" Annie yelled through the door, momentarily too surprised to really register what was even happening. "Diego! What are you doing?" She had a pretty good idea what it was, and...God, she loved him, but also -- "Let me out!"
Diego	"I can't--I can't lose you and the baby," he said. "I'm sorry. If I don't--tell them I tried my best, okay?" Them being one or both of their children depending on how it shook out.
Annie	As mad as she was about this, hearing that just about broke Annie's heart. "I'm not telling them -- " Okay. This was dumb. This was dumb on, like, multiple levels, especially considering Annie was in a utility closet full of meters. She blew out an exasperated breath, listened for a moment and hoped that Diego had actually moved away from the door, and pulled power into herself. A second later, and the door to the closet was slamming into the wall across the way, and Annie neatly stepped out to give her husband a vaguely incredulous look.
Diego	Oh, right. Even with the light change there was still electricity, wasn't there? Not his smartest move. Well, shit. "Probably should have thought that one through better." Like, handcuff her and then throw--no, then he'd be no better than Five.
Annie	Annie shook her head as she crossed over to him, reaching up to take Diego's face in her hands. "I love you. Don't do that again. We can't lose you, either." And she was sealing that pronouncement with a kiss, tempted though she was to, like, yell at him a little more for shoving her into a closet.
Diego	That was fair. It had been an impulse anyway. He kissed Annie back for a moment before bumping his forehead against hers. "Let's get to the lobby." Hopefully they'd have a better chance with the guardians if they were all in the same spot.

[One more post to go! NFB, NFI but OOC is fantastic. Taken from TUA 3x10 Oblivion and preplayed with apocalypsehow and defenderofdesmoines]