Current timeline
<Cassie> Cassandra stared wistfully at the jar of sweets on the table and sighed. Too lazy to get untangled from her semi-lying position in the big cushioned chair and weighed down by a book, the pale girl did the only sensible thing and had a shadowy tentacle fetch the snacks for her.
<Pietro> The tentacle only had the snacks for so long, however. A gust of wind and an 'oooooh' preceded the snatching of the jar and Pietro had opened it before he'd slowed down enough to be visible.
<Bobby> Free for the day, with Paige out shopping with Ripley, Bobby for once had nothing to do. Nothing! Imagine that. It was a rare treat these days, and by God he was going to savor it. What he wasn't savoring was looking for something to savor, since the candy jar was missing from the kitchen and he had to go hunting.
<Bobby> Unless he wanted to raid Hank's Twinkie stash, anyway.
<Cassie> Her raven hair whipped in the unexpected breeze. A moment later she noticed it had taken her sweet treasure with it. "Hey!"
<Pietro> Having retrieved a handful, Pietro offered the jar out to Cassie with a winning smile.
<Bobby> It didn't take him long to find the kids in the candy jar. "Save some for the rest of us, yeah?"
<Pietro> "Normally I would be able to do that easily because I have my own candy hidden all around but... it's all gone.... No. I didn't eat it."
<Cassie> As soon as she was over her surprise, she returned the smile. "Oh, good to see you, Pietro," Cassie said, taking the offered candies. "For a moment I thought a hungry ghost had stolen my sweets."
<Cassie> Her grin grew bigger and she waved at the newcomer. "Hello, Bobby!"
<Bobby> "Petey! Spooky!" Bobby wriggled fingers at the candy jar and came closer.
<Cassie> Cassie extended another inky shadow-arm to offer Bobby some of the wrapped treats. "That's a nice surprise," she said with a smile. "Who let you out this time of the day?"
<Pietro> Pietro was already down to his last candy and he frowned at it, sitting down on the arm of the sofa. Where were all his stashes gone?
<Bobby> Bobby pretended to shudder at the shadow tentacle, but... candy! "Paigey is shopping with Rip, and she better be buying some more candy while she's out."
<Pietro> "Paige is the queen of candy. If she's not out getting more, she's been replaced with a pod person."
<Bobby> "She swears she didn't eat the candy in our room, and Rip can't reach it yet... and Yoda's no more hyper than ever. It's weird." He unwrapped a piece and popped it in his mouth, chewing happily if not contemplatively.
<Cassie> "Well, I hope she brings enough, because this is everything that I could find in the kitchen." Cassie helped herself to something sweet, as well.
<Pietro> "Well it's nice to know I'm not the only one missing stuff... but that doesn't help any. Where is it all going? Did we somehow acquire a candy-hoarding dragon?"
<Bobby> "That's it," he said, snapping his fingers. "Mel's getting drunk and creating a hoard."
<Cassie> "Does that mean she's nesting?" Cassie asked, looking from one to the other.
<Pietro> Pietro pulled a face, "Ew... I don't want tiny lizard people that drink and swear hatching out of eggs in the basement...."
<Cassie> "Aw, but just think how cute they'd be." Cassie grinned while stuffing her mouth with another piece of chocolate. "Especially if Jack's the father."
<Bobby> Bobby stopped chewing and thought about that.
<Pietro> "And yet another mental image I could have done without...." Maybe he should start stashing booze instead of candy? But then he really shouldn't drink and run - that resulted in unfortunate mishaps with walls.
<Bobby> "You know, we've already got one Hellmouth in the basement, we don't need fluffy lizard spawn on top of it," he finally decided. "Have you guys seen that thing in the basement? I thought I was over being surprised by weird... until that."
<Pietro> "I looked at it, decided Illyana would kill me if I investigated it, and walked away...."
<Bobby> "I maaaay have thrown a snowball in it," he admitted, popping another piece of candy.
<Cassie> "I wanted to," Cassandra admitted, cradling the book in her lap as she shifted in her chair. "But the place doesn't feel right. I once teleported closer to that basement, and everything just felt... distorted."
<Cassie> "You know, as if the shadows didn't fall like they're supposed to," she explained, a slight shiver going through her body. "Like something twists and bends them. Not enough to see it, but you can feel it."
<Bobby> This was adequate reason for him to stop chewing again. "Well," he started. "That's not scary at all, now is it? Anybody now officially freaked out?" Bobby raised his hand and gave it a wave.
<Pietro> "If she's scared of it, we've got problems." Pietro agreed with a nod.
<Cassie> "I didn't say I was scared of it," Cassie remarked, with just a hint of hurt pride, and crossed her arms. "Just that it feels weird."
<Bobby> "...oh well that's asking for a dare, babe." He gave her a bright grin.
<Pietro> "Hey.... maybe someone threw all the candy in the portal thing? Just because they know we can't function without it."
<Cassie> Cassandra raised an eyebrow. "A dare and the promise of lost candy?" She seemed to wrestle with herself for a moment, before cracking a lopsided grin. "You two know what a girl wants to hear. What are we waiting for?"
<Bobby> Bobby cackled with glee and clapped, rubbing his hands together. "Yes! Being a responsible adult is so overrated. Let's go!"
<Pietro> "Don't tell Illyana I agreed to this..." Pietro attempted to look threatening.
<Bobby> He snorted. "Yeah, I'll have Paige tell her - are you high? Of course you don't talk about basement club. That's the first rule of basement club!"
<Cassie> "Now that just sounds kinky," Cassie commented as she gave up her comfortable lounging position and rose to her feet.
<Pietro> Pietro's nose wrinkled at Cassie's statement.
<Bobby> "Hellmouth club?" He snagged the candy jar for the road.
<Pietro> "Less strippers and more spooky factor than the Hellfire Club, that's for sure."
<Bobby> "That's a matter of opinion."
<Pietro> Pietro shook his head, "Nooope. Hereditary member, I know stuff."
<Cassie> "If any of you wants to take off his shirt to help shift the strippers to spooky balance, I wouldn't mind."
<Bobby> Deciding professionalism had gone bye-bye for the day anyway, Bobby lifted his t-shirt to flash Cassie before he headed off toward the basement.
<Cassie> "Now there's another incentive," Cassie said and followed with a grin on her lips.
<Pietro> Pietro face-palmed and quietly wondered what he was getting himself into as he followed behind them both.
<Bobby> Humming to himself, he gave Cassie a little ass wriggle and laughed, sneaking candy as he led the way to the scarier-than-hellfire basement.
<Cassie> "Not to be pedantic, but do you think we should leave a note or something?" Cassie asked as she strolled after Bobby. "But the others might want to retrieve our remains if we get torn to pieces by extradimensional giant flying shrimp."
<Pietro> "I can go leave one on Carol-uh-Leiutenant Colonel Danvers' desk if you want..."
<Bobby> Bobby gave Pietro a look like he'd grown two heads at the title. "Formal, much?" He turned and flicked candy at Cassie. "Nope, remember it's lizard fluffies."
<Pietro> "I'm not used to the teacher thing... and she's not a teacher thing... also that woman terrifies me."
<Cassie> Cassie caught the flying sweets with a small web of shadows. "I won't promise I'm not going to keep some if we really find any fluffy mini dragons down there."
<Bobby> "Did I ever tell you about the giant turtle?" Bobby began the story as they wound through the corridors, winding up on the steps to the darkened basement. "Okay, shadow girl, sense anything waiting for us?"
<Cassie> Cassandra slowed her step and peered into the darkness, her gaze distant. "No," she said after a moment. "I don't think so. As I've said, the place feels weird."
<Pietro> "They really need to do something about the lights down here...."
<Bobby> "That's just the black mold..." He slowed as his footsteps echoed down the staircase. Wait, was that an echo? "...did you guys hear something?"
<Pietro> "We would not last long in a horror movie... I'll get flashlights."
<Bobby> "I thought they had fixed the lights down here," he said with a frown, but when he reached the switch and flicked it nothing happened.
<Cassie> "They might have, but that won't do us much good if all the bulbs are missing," Cassie pointed out, having stopped right underneath one of the ceiling lamps and pointing upwards.
<Pietro> Pietro returned and held out a flashlight to Bobby, "Who'd steal light bulbs?"
<Cassie> Cassie turned back to Pietro. "Little dragons, perhaps."
<Bobby> "I wonder if they have long floppy ears..." he turned on the flashlight and aimed it at his face. "Mwahahaha!"
<Pietro> "Well let's go look for the dragons and get my candy back...."
<Cassie> Cassandra giggled and warped the shadows cast on Bobby's face to make his features more rabbity. "Yes, something like this."
<Bobby> He couldn't see anything, but Bobby could sense when he was the butt of a joke better than anybody. "Heeeeey...."
<Cassie> "I promise, that was just the lighting," Cassie assured him with a chuckle, while she turned to follow Pietro. "...now I heard something, too."
<Pietro> Pietro frowned, shining the flashlight around, "Don't see anything...."
<Bobby> Bobby shifted the candy jar under his arm, flashing the light across the bowels of the basement. Why did basements have bowels anyway? Gross. "Hey... is somebody down here?" he called.
<Bobby> As the echoes died he cocked his head. "Yep, we're horror movie fodder."
<Pietro> "It's somewhat worse thinking about this place being used to film an actual horror movie...." He still didn't see anything though.
<Bobby> "Yeah... have you seen it?" He moved into the dark, toward the room that housed the... hole. "I live in the weak and the wounded, doc," he singsonged.
<Cassie> "At least you won't be able to say your day off was boring," Cassie told Bobby and stepped past him, still trying to perceive anything in the darkness beyond their lights, but it was like everything was slightly out of focus. "There is... something down with us here."
<Pietro> "Yeah I've seen it... and if you do that again I will beat you with my flashlight."
<Bobby> Before he could launch into a rendition of "What's up Doc?" he turned back to Cassie. "Not ominous at all... what?"
<Cassie> The girl blinked and even shook her head, but she knew the problem wasn't inside her head. "I don't know. I thought there was something moving, but then it was just gone. It wasn't very big." She sighed. "Maybe it's just this place."
<Pietro> "Hmm... I could do a fast sweep maybe?"
<Bobby> "Rats?" That made him sweep the light across the floor and the baseboards of the walls. "Might not be a bad idea, Pete, just to make sure we're not nuts here."
<Cassie> "Just be careful not to run into any mole people." Cassie put on an uneven smile.
<Pietro> He nodded, "Even though we obviously are nuts coming down here..." he gave them a wave and dashed off with his light.
<Pietro> It didn't take him long to run the labyrinth of tunnels under the building, scanning every inch with his flashlight for movement. And then he saw something, he stopped in surprise but it was already gone.... maybe he'd imagined it? Nope. Wasn't imagining that smell. Oh God.... he ran away from it.
<Bobby> Bobby edged closer to Cassie while they waited the few moments for Pietro. "So... come here often?" He gave her a bright grin.
<Cassie> "You know damp, dark basements are just the place to be on the weekends," Cassie replied, returning the grin. "You just have to beware meeting creepy people."
<Pietro> "There's something down here... I don't know what it is but I know it smells really bad."
<Bobby> Pietro's sudden appearance made him jump. "....well that's not good. What do you mean you don't know what it is?"
<Pietro> "I saw it, I stopped and then it was gone... I wasn't sure I actually saw anything until the smell caught up with me."
<Cassie> "It was gone?" Cassandra asked, remembering her own experience.
<Bobby> "Soooo, what? Just it and no other description? Was it big, small... a fluffy dragon? And it smelled? Like what?" He was shining the light into the dark again.
<Pietro> "Small... and it reeks of sulfur." He pulled a face as the smell came back with the memory. "Didn't get a proper look with it being dark and suddenly gone again."
<Bobby> "Sulfur?" He made a face and headed cautiously toward the next room... the one with the portal.
<Cassie> "Maybe we should not stay down here." Cassandra slowed down as they approached the room Broo had uncovered.
<Pietro> "Yeah, it's gross..." he glanced into the dark hallways behind them, shining the light around to check for anything else.
<Bobby> He stopped in the doorway, leaning in with the light. "If the undead spooky chick is spooked, that's a sign..."
<Pietro> "A sign we're supposed to be all macho or a sign we should all run away?"
<Bobby> "Well, running away is a valid option, but we haven't found the candy." He flashed a weak smile and went into the room.
<Cassie> "We might find a lot more than that," Cassie pointed out and cautiously followed him.
<Pietro> "No, we haven't... but at this point I think I'd rather just run to the store...."
<Bobby> "It's... a matter of principle?" He realized something and huffed a laugh. "We're looking for rabbits... with big pointy teeth." Bobby turned back to them to illustrate said teeth with his fingers...
<Bobby> ....then screeched as something skittered behind him. "Motherfucker!"
<Pietro> Pietro swung his light around to shine it on the area the noise had come from.
<Cassie> "I saw a tail!" She pointed to where she saw the small shadow disappear behind some of Broo's machinery.
<Pietro> Being the most qualified hurrier, Pietro went to that location next.
<Bobby> "A tail?! It has to be rats! Surely it's rats!"
<Cassie> "Sure, they can be blue rats, I guess," Cassie said, without trying to convince even herself.
<Bobby> "...blue?" Bobby's face screwed up at this concept and he followed Pietro, heading around the other side of the machine to try to trap it.
<Pietro> "Blue?" Pietro echoed, looking over at her having found nothing behind the equipment.
<Cassie> "This place might be messing with my senses, but I can still see pretty clear even in the dark. And what I saw was a blue tail and a matching butt." Cassandra cloaked herself in shadows and floated further up to get a view from above - and to get away from anything that might be scuttling across the ground.
<Bobby> "Shit, this place would mess with anybody's senses, babe." His own thermal vision wasn't really helping, as everything was sort of a uniform level of dank basement room temperature. Moving behind the portal, he kicked something that rolled away into the darkness.
<Pietro> What he did find behind the machinery he was now searching, was more of the smell. He backed up at high speed.
<Bobby> Chasing the sound, Bobby located the source but had to put down the jar of candy to pick up the bottle. He sniffed it. "Broo's been busy."
<Cassie> "Are we sure this isn't just Mel building herself a nest down here, after all?" Cassie asked, having produced several shadowy tendrils to pick up the some of the empty bottles piled up in a corner.
<Pietro> "If it is, someone needs to talk with her about what she's eating because the smells coming out of this place are toxic."
<Bobby> Bobby followed the wall and picked up a candy wrapper. "Heeeey, that's one of ours!"
<Pietro> Pietro eyed the portal, "So... anyone know what's really on the other side of that thing?"
<Bobby> "Hell," he said over his shoulder.
<Cassie> Cassie drifted closer. "You know, I had hoped we wouldn't find them down here," she said. "Because that means whatever those things are, they're pillaging our stuff."
<Pietro> "It can't really be hell... it'd be warmer down here and less damp..."
<Bobby> Bobby heard a muffled concussion behind him and spun. The candy jar was gone. "What the fuck?! ...what the fuck?" he repeated after a moment, his hand going to cover his nose. "Jesus! That stinks!"
<Pietro> "Told you!" Pietro's eyes scanned the room again, "Teleported."
<Cassie> "It took the rest of our candy!" Cassie floated around the room, trying to find a trace of the little creature. She didn't dare to teleport that close to the strange anomaly. "So this is why none of us noticed anything."
<Bobby> "What the... I mean... I don't understand.... what?" Bobby was shining the light erratically around the room now and nearly backed into the portal-thing.
<Pietro> "A tiny, blue, naked, kleptomaniac, teleporter," Pietro summarised.
<Cassie> "It looked like a little demon to me," Cassie added.
<Bobby> "....a demon."
<Pietro> "Well... mystery solved. What are we going to do about it?"
<Bobby> "Nooo, there's no such thing as demons."
<Pietro> "Then you can go through the portal and find out what it really is."
<Bobby> His scoff was a little too high pitched to be convincing.
<Cassie> Cassie looked at Bobby and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what it is, I only said what it looked like. And I don't know what else to call a little blue person that doesn't sound politically incorrect."
<Bobby> "...Smurf. I'd prefer Smurfs." He frowned. "I think." Bobby studied the portal, trying to shine the flashlight inside.
<Pietro> "Smurfs don't have tails," Pietro pointed out, ".... and they wear pants."
<Bobby> It was just... blackness. Blackness that seemed to eat the light. He backed up. "Yeah, I'm guessing we need to report this level of crazy..."
<Cassie> "Besides, I don't remember Smurfs being this thievish." While Bobby stared at the portal, Cassie tried to scan their surroundings once more, this time taking into account the erratic movement of their little house guest. "I think I can feel it jump all over the place. It's moving very quickly."
<Cassie> She tilted her head to the side and frowned. "Or there's more than one."
<Pietro> "Hang on.... I'll do the speedy thing and have a proper look around, try and angle the flashlights to cover as much as possible..." he tossed his to Cassie.
<Cassie> Cassie somehow managed to not drop the flashlight, even though it ended up shining her right in the face during her attempt to catch it. "Great, now I see as little as you guys."
<Bobby> Thermal vision wasn't working great in that portal either... there just seemed to be nothing there. "Uuuugh," he said helpfully and moved closer to Cassie.
<Pietro> Pietro blew out a breath and stopped concentrating on slowing himself down to the same speed as everyone else and scanned the room at high speed. As he slowed back down again the words that could be made out if you were paying attention were 'holy shit'.
<Bobby> Bobby didn't like the sound of that.
<Pietro> "There's a lot. More than ten, less than thirty. Can't get any more accurate than that though... and I think they ate all the candy because they do not stop."
<Cassie> "Maybe they're blue rats after all," Cassie suggested unhelpfully.
<Bobby> "Yeah, okay, we're going," he said with a nod and turned for the stairs. "Time to tell Lehnsherr and he can... I dunno, magnet them out."
<Pietro> "Yeah sure... magnets..." Pietro was already in the doorway.
<Cassie> "If that doesn't help, we can still try an exorcist." Cassie picked up speed as she floated back to the stairs.
