"Nope senses are normal. Do they have cameras? Maybe they know we are here?" Still followed along vaguely. This was the first time he had done anything like this. Well maybe not since he was a kid sneaking around, but that was about it.

Empress peers around the corner -- and continues to move through the building until she encounters someone,
where she will attempt to bluff them (likely to work due to her amazing Charisma).

---

Ready to go around the bend, continue navigating the map.

This message was last edited by the player at 17:37, Sun 23 July 2023.

It's quiet, perhaps too quiet. For reasons that may or may not come to light because that's what reasons do, it stays quiet.

Empress signals with her hands that its all clear and that shes continuing and to follow.

She turns the corner and looks around, hoping her outfit and badge might give her the edge if she meets anyone unseemly.

"Should we be opening any of these doors? Or are we looking for stairs." Still appeared uneasy and confidently confused about their situation. "I guess we could be ambushed at any moment."

Empress looks at Still Standing with exasperation. "My signals were to NOT TALK!  You didn't understand that?

Anyway, unless one of you can find the bad guys, we just search until we find them -- or maybe get ambushed.

Unless you have better ideas?  I'm all ears."

Still shrugged and mouthed a 'sorry statement'. "Stairs. Likely in the middle somewhere. Probably near the elevators. If bad guys are coming they will use those. Perhaps we could ambush them?"

Empress looks at Still Standing with amazement.  Her mouth drops open.

She whispers, "We invade a supervillain HQ amd you think we're going to get attacked by low budget bad guy henchmen doing cardio running up 50 flights of stairs?

We're about to face real supervillains with superpowers!  Not grunts in uniforms with pea shooters!

The real baddies are likely on this floor, we're in the penthouse of their lair!  Charge up your powers, boys, this is the boss fight!"

Empress laughs, her surprise at Still's idea reminding her of her early heroing days.

"Ha Ha!  If we survive today, we are going to have a laugh about this!"

”Both of you. Stop arguing.”

Kraken has had enough of the squabbling.

”It makes no sense that there is no alarm yet. I suspect we are walking into a trap.”

Empress laughed. She doesnt take orders well.
"This is not an argument, its a discussion, Kracky.

If it was an argument, I'd make sure everyone sees things my way.

This is training.  Still is new to this, but I've been fighting villains in their lairs for more than a few hundred years.  It's not that sexy anymore.  (Yawn.)

But you are right, its most likely a trap -- unless we are really lucky."

It's really quiet. A quiet that seeps into the soul and whispers "shush" to a normal man's courage. But our heroes aren't normal men...

Still tries to open the double doors at the bottom middle.

The doors appear to be steel security doors. They are locked.

Whispering, "Before you rip these apart, I'pl make a teleportal to the other side?
Yanking the doors down is likely to set off a bunch of alarms."

She opens a teleportal directly in front of the door.  It shimmers with golden light.  On the other side of the door appears another portal.

Empress walks through the portal.

---

The teleportal has a golden glow, so unless she has a stealth mode for teleportals, its likely quite visible, which could alert anyone in the vicinity.
Don't think teleportals make noise, (so it could still be stealthy).

Not spending PR since we're not in combat.

Still followed Empress through the portal. He was nervous, but dod his best to hide the fact.

Yes, the plot thickens. It's almost gravy, by now.

Still blinked and his nervousness was relegated to disappointment. "Cosy but not what I was expecting. I think we should try another door?"

Agent 9 says, "a building like this is sure to have enough security features that they know we're here. We shouldn't leave any closed doors behind us, that would be where the ambush would come from. Let's check the door on the end of this hall and then work our way through the rest of the place without leaving any unopened doors behind."

The portal remains open.

Empress looks at the elevator controls.  Is there a level with any marking or indication -- besides ground floor?

"If we smash through a bunch of doors and dont find anything, thats going to be quite a bill to pay.

I'm no lawyer, but we're breaking and entering and trespassing, so we need to find proof, find the baddies, or exit here without doing significant damage.

So stealthy or using our uniforms to get access might still be the better approach."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:21, Wed 09 Aug 2023.

The elevator has the usual panel of numbered buttons for the floor to be visited in addition to a slot for a security card of some sort).
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:40, Sat 12 Aug 2023.

Empress drops the teleportal, takes her keycard/badge, and tries it in the elevator's slot.

"Maybe this will do it?"

The elevator's speaker drops the muzak for a second and a female voice intones "my building, my keycards, my elevator. You're not wanted, here, but let's see you just TRY to leave!"

Empress sounds annoyed.  "Who the heck are you, lady?  Why attack the city with that robot?"

Whispering, Empress sounds more concerned about their position than annoyed, "Oh, this is not good.  Can anyone knock down that door or get us out of this box?  Anyone have any ideas?

I can try porting us out, if necessary."

Empress prepares to open a teleportal, but holds on because it may be best used as a last resort.

Please indicate your character's location on this crude map:

G1-G3 STAIRS
U2-U3 AND V2-V3 ELEVATOR
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:28, Wed 23 Aug 2023.

OOC:  Unclear how elevator works on the map,
but Empress should be standing in the elevator.
Not sure if thats U or V or which # 2 or #3.

3 is my lucky #, so maybe V3 bc it sounds the coolest?