(GM rolls dice:

Okay, now I know what's at the bottom of the ladder. Buzz, roll Insightful check, please...)

Denton sighs. Steps over to the ladder and peers down.

"This would be easier in zero-g." He looks at Buzz while he speaks and gives her knowing wink. "That way I could just float on down with you watching from above. But, this way means feet first, clanging on ladder rungs, and you still have to stand up looking over me for trouble from below. I might need a kiss for good luck."

Laughing, again, at his own perceived clever wit. Denton prepares to mount the ladder and descend further into the complex.

Buzz is already heading downward while Denton is still talking.  She's rolling her eyes as she goes.

OOC: 17:37, Today: Buzz Corey rolled 7 using 2d6 ((4,3)). ... well, that's about as average as one can get rolling 2d6.  My apologies in advance to Denton for whatever's about to happen.

Buzz stops climbing downward.

A little... something... wrong... has presented itself to her, and she's noticed it at the last possible instant.

She wouldn't have-- it would have been too late-- if she hadn't been proceeding so carefully.

Something on a barely-conscious level alerted her that the metal on the sides of the ladderwell had changed color in a couple of spots right where she was-- the sides of the ladderwell were uniformly a dull metallic gray, but suddenly, for about five feet, two rectangular sections were a similar-yet-still-different light taupe... almost a dull coppery color.

And while her brain had warned her about that being a little odd, an alert had been sent out to the rest of her body, and her foot had stopped about an inch before it touched an almost-invisible wire that stretched across the ladderwell.

A trap. And she'd almost set it off.

It was clear to her now-- trip the wire, and electricity would probably zap from one side of the ladderwell to the other.

She slowly raised her foot away from the very thin wire. Her nerves were stretched just as taut. (Buzz gets -1 to her next roll.)

The best thing to do-- well, the simplest-- would be to drop something down the ladderwell that broke the wire and set off the trap without frying a Danger Patrol member. Probably that was the point of the wire-- the trap was ABOVE, not below, so whomever lived in this facility could easily (as long as they remembered) reach up and quickly break the wire, set off the trap above them for a few seconds, and then continue up the ladder if they needed to escape.

Of course, setting off the trap might very well set off an alarm, as well...

"Impatient, huh. I get that." Denton says as he follows Buzz. "Gumption. And a lot of it. I admire that in a woman almost as much as I admire good looks. Almost. Luckily, dear lady, you have a high level of both."

After noticing her come to a halt the hair on the back of Denton's neck stands up.

"Are you alright?" Denton asked with genuine concern. "Should I do something stupid and heroic now?"

Buzz holsters her pistol and holds a finger up to Denton, wait a minute.

She speaks quietly, but deliberately.  "There's a tripwire right below me.  If we want to keep going, we should set it off before we reach it."

Buzz tries to figure out the best thing to drop.  She unhooks her med kit from her utility belt and hands it to Denton.  She pockets a few of the other tools that might fit in the leg pockets of the suit, and grips the raygun in her teeth for the moment.

"Here goes nothin'," she mumbles.  She unhooks the belt and positions it carefully over the wire before dropping it.  She quickly pulls the ray gun from her mouth.  "I hope I get that back.  Custom buckle."

Buzz is too far up to SEE the wire snap, but there's a series of extremely-dangerous electric sparks that arc across the copper-colored sections of ladderwell wall for about six seconds.

Then it stops. The belt can be seen lying on the floor at the bottom of the ladderwell. Someone (a male voice?) says something down there, but you can't quite make out what it says...

Buzz says to Denton quietly, "This is probably gonna get messy fast, Big Strap.  Let's get to the bottom as soon as we can, so we can find a defensible position."  She immediately starts descending with all due haste.

Buzz and Denton are just about to zip down to the bottom of the ladderwell when they hear a heck of a crash from down the hallway they just left, as if someone really strong threw a very large table across a(n uncarpeted) room.

Do they go on, or turn back to check on Flash-Bang and Dr. Cagliostro?

After pausing briefly to consider the noise, Buzz continues downward.  At minimum, she wants her belt back.

Buzz and Denton emerge (safely) into a large room that is immediately recognizable as a medical bay.

There is a robot here. "Oh, I see, you dropped the belt," he says with a calm, soothing (slightly older-sounding) male voice. "I presume the electrical trap did not harm you, since you arrived here under your own power instead of falling...? Are either of you in need of medical aid...?"

Clearly,
--either no one has explained to this robot about the conceptual difference between people who belong here and people who don't, or
--they did but he forgot, or
--they did but he doesn't care and is ignoring the concept.


There is one exit from the room-- a door like the ones found in the hallway above-- which is currently closed.

"Thank you kindly, Mr. Robot. " Denton replies as places himself between Buzz and the robot. Ready to go shield and powered fist if needed, he keeps a calm, casual demeanor. "My friend and I were just talking a tour of this magnificent facility of yours."

Carefully looking the robot over, Denton looks obvious signs of a threat.