[inca1980]

Machete's eyes slowly scan over to where Ruckus is standing and starts staring at him.  "It's your call chief..."

[AJBuwalda]

"We aren't friends, no, but at the very least we are professionals, right? We do not have a problem, do we?" Ruckus rumbles, his hand explicitly on his weapon.

[joe15552]

Devoted stammers nervously in broken English, "Digger... Please... for now... leave it..."

[inca1980]

In one motion Machete sheathes his machete and puts his hand back on the under-barrel of his shotgun.  He tightens the sling on his shotgun and it tightens up against his back, the flashlight still shining toward the ceiling.  "Let's keep climbing."

[Kontact]

Tensions were high, but experience has always shown that's a good thing when facing unknown threats ahead.  If the team was this quick to snap at each other it was only because they're much more ready to snap a shot at anything that moves past their vision.  And, on the subject of vision, these floors were dark.  The dying sunlight which partially filtered through the missing windows of the hollow below, and the lamps that were set on the lower floors were neither found in this upper area.  In fact, the smoke had blackened the windows completely, leaving the next floors as dark as pitch.  Everyone had their lamps on who brought them, and the meager light they provided was a blessing.

Also unlike the lower floors, there were doors on every level.  Closed doors.  Reassuring as that was to most, Devoted was not feeling particularly well.  After 15 flights, he was feeling a tingling in his mind, tracing around in a dizzying way.  Watching his wrist, the glomoss tabs he kept there confirmed it.  The second of them had died, accompanied by his Foci.  There was something wrong in this place.  Something bad-wrong.  History isn't exactly sunshine and roses anywhere in the Zone, but this place is one with a historical significance... or a present one.

[joe15552]

With the conflict over, Devoted regains his calm demeanor. The kid must have had a sheltered childhood, he acted like he had never seen an argument before.

When the second strip of glomoss dies, Devoted stops for a couple seconds to compose his mind and body. Mumbling a prayer to the gods, he resumes following the group up the stairs with renewed intent. Thinking to himself, he wonders if this building contains one of the voids he is looking for.

[Kontact]

The next few flights see everyone slowing down as the sludge born of various petroleum jellies left over from the fire begins to change consistency to something harder.  The crust and crunch of the stuff by level 80 is so much that it can't pass unspoken.  Meanwhile, Digger had been peaking out quietly every few floors and had noticed the disturbing trend of this crust extending out to all the halls outside the stairway.  He froze in place and demanded, in hushed, but angry, tones, to know exactly what this crap is before he took another step.

[joe15552]

Devoted is the only one that responds to Digger's demands, and attempts to get a good look at the stuff on the floor...

[joe15552]

Devoted chimes in on comms, "It reminds me of an old wasp's nest, maybe dead and gone...maybe not..." He looks around the room blankly, not like he's searching for something physical, but like he's searching for a thought in his mind. "...but that doesn't make any sense... that would mean there were millions of wasps! ... or just really big ones..."

[AJBuwalda]

"Oh, real great! Frakking mutated wasp... On second thought Charlene can use the practice" Ruckus chimes in.

[Crossbow]

"Old wasp nest?  Okay, dat explains a lot."

Digger moves his combat axe to ready position and thinks a bit as he hefts the blade.

"Ey wizkid, you tink dat ghostie down below was buggie, or maybe he was the reason we ain't been stung?"

[joe15552]

Devoted turns his whole body to look at Digger. His head tilts thoughtfully in his hazmat suit, and he explains slowly in a serious tone over his comlink, "If that mage, whose echo I saw, is the same mage that summoned the bug spirits responsible for this nest, then we have much to fear... Any magical creature that makes its home here is... very strong, like that dead mage was in life." He begins praying to his gods in Finnish. Names like "Odin" and "Tyr" are accentuated in his prayer.

[Kontact]

Only a few flights higher and the leathery residue from the walls has moved to block off the whole stairway.  Upward progress was cut off by a solid wall of the hard, flaky stuff.

[Crossbow]

Digger walks up and taps on the wall with the axe.

"Yeah, figger'd sumthin' like dat was comin'.  Youze want I should make a hole, or sumbody got a better idea?"

[joe15552]

Shrugging helplessly, Devoted says, "We may be able to burn through, I have some matches..." and he shoulders off his survival pack and begins shuffling through it.