Intrepid explorers!

[cliffjumper]

WHO: Blurr and Cliffjumper
WHERE: Out in the wilderness, in a building they've found.
WHEN: Now~
WHAT: ADVENTURE. Exploring! TRAPS. So many traps.
WARNINGS: Nothing, really.

The structure had looked like a heap of boulders or a small hill at first, but when they got closer it was obvious it wasn't. Question was just what a building, especially a somewhat disguised one was doing out here in the middle of the literal nowhere.

Frowning as he landed from having had a look from the top, Cliffjumper shrugged.

"Either it ain't too big, or it might go down underground." It might be bigger inside, otherwise it couldn't hold more than at the most three rooms, maybe. Three kind of small rooms for someone of average size, three average rooms for someone his and Blurr's size.

"... So, what'd we do?" He couldn't help the scowl as he eyed the rather well-disguised entrance. He just didn't trust this situation, the building, whatever might be inside... but he also didn't feel it safe to just leave the building without having checked said inside.

Comments

[raceme]

"I would have thrown you again if you missed." Perhaps that wasn't the best thing to say, wasn't it? Blurr was smiling very slightly, still nervous.

Oh, there they go. Enjoy Blurr's speed as your own, Cliff.

Blurr grabbed the shortest mech and ran about of the room as the speed of light. The racer close the door behind them and leaned against it, sighing. They found themselves on a long corridor, this time there was only a single door at the other side.

[cliffjumper]

"---sure." Optics flickering and his gyros stabilising after they were out of the room, Cliffjumper eyed Blurr and grimaced. "No, 'cause that'd have been too little time left, I think. And shouldn't we have gone back out the other door, to the big room?"

Glaring down the corridor, Cliffjumper didn't like this. At least with a vast amount of doors to choose from, they had the illusion of choice (of choosing one of the doors or doing nothing). Here there was just one door, because he was rather sure the door back into the room that would get them back into the big room was now locked.

Not that he really wanted to go back in if it wasn't, since that might trigger the trap again, but still.

[raceme]

"Oh...you are right. Sorry I panicked " As if it weren't obvious before. It embarrassed Blurr to admit that he was not over his fear of enclosed spaces and moving walls but he had good reason to feel scared of them.

"Look like we don't have that many options. Shouldn't we check what are those dataslugs, perhaps those are some sort of key." He tried to open it but he wasn't strong enough.

[cliffjumper]

Waving his hand in dismissal of Blurr's apology, because he could understand why; it was just a bit inconvenient for them, Cliffjumper held up the dataslug he'd picked up and frowned.

"Maybe, but I ain't sure I wanna plug directly into this thing before I know it's safe. Rather have a computer to plug it into first. We don't know what's on this at all..." trailing off, Cliffjumper's frown deepened and he squeezed the dataslug slightly.

"Dunno. Should we just... try the door? Unless you're willin' to risk plugging it in." By Cliffjumper's tone and expression, it was clear he thought it wasn't worth it, not while they were stuck in the middle of this and with no guarantee the dataslugs were safe.

[raceme]

He still felt bad now that he could think about it more calmly. Cliffjumper was right about the possible danger and Blurr merely nodded.

"I can't, If that thing tries to download anything onto me my system will fry it automatically." Blurr hit his chest a few times. "Fastest engine ever made also the one that destroys any unwanted connection. Unless I allowed it to happen, which I wouldn't." It wasn't worth it at all, no.

Blurr patted Cliffjumper on the back and headed to the door, looking at the corridor's walls warily. "Let's try it then."

He was surprised that nothing happened and that the corridor seemed free of any traps. When they reached the door, though, it was clear that it had a strange round lock with symbols. "Are those musical notes?"

[cliffjumper]

"Let's just wait, then," grumbled Cliffjumper and followed Blurr down the corridor, eyeing walls, ceiling and floor suspiciously himself, and even if they go across without incident, he wasn't sure that meant much.

"Uh..." Squinting thoughtfully, Cliffjumper leaned in, tilting his helm at the to him barely recognisable squiggle symbols. "... Maybe? I ain't really ever had much to do with music 'sides listenin' to it, but I suppose they look kinda... familiar."

The unfamiliarity with them could of course be both his own lack of knowledge and the fact that the cybertronian those notes were taken from was not the same as his own reality.

"Not that I see what that has to do with anything." Scowling at it, Cliffjumper took a stab at three random ones, which obligingly lit up... and let out the corresponding tone the note was for, though which instrument the lock was tuned after Cliffjumper couldn't tell.

At the same time, though since it was behind them and very quietly it was quiestionable if either of them would notice, a part of the floor slid away into darkness.

[raceme]

Those didn't look like the ones in Blurr's world either but they had some similarities that made them recognizable. Blurr listened to the notes and look in front of him and to the sides. Nothing changed at all in his opinion.

"We could try a few more notes? Maybe it wants us to play a song." The blue mech pushed a few more keys, playing what was the Cybertronian equivalent to 'Mary had a little lamb'. He spent a lot of time hanging around with Wheelie, don't judge Cliff. The door didn't open but another piece off floor disappeared behind them. Blurr didn't notice it.

[cliffjumper]

"Some sorta musical password, yeah. And there ain't much else we've got to do, unless we wanna turn around... And the door might still be locked on the other end." Huffing, Cliffjumper waved behind them but didn't turn around, and so didn't see the disappearing tile either.

"At least it looks like we don't gotta fight against some sort of trap while figurin' this thing out," said Cliffjumper as he reached out and clicked out a reasonably melodic string of notes... and yet another tile disappeared soundlessly.

[raceme]

The racer didn't bother turning around either, focusing on figuring out the code.

"There must be some clue somewhere, we can't just try random notes and songs until it opens."

Blurr crouched close to the key, scanning them. "Some of those are _{more worn out} than others, 4 of them. So either we have 24 possible combinations, or if it can be repeated, then it will be 256."

Blurr tried pushing the same key 4 times. There was an alarm sounds and Blurr winced. "No repeating numbers then."

And again, another part of the floor disappeared behind them.

[cliffjumper]

"Suppose we could, but that means we'd be stuck here forever..." Well, that was hyperbole, but Cliffjumper was getting a bit frustrated. Though, admittedly, this had been frustrating the second they'd put their feet inside the slagging door.

"Gah---" The alarm had Cliffjumper wincing as well, and, optics narrowing, he looked around them suspiciously when the alarm sounded, and at first nothing seemed wrong... and then he caught sight of the floor.

A floor that was missing several flagstones, leaving probably a very deep drop, he was not going to check up close. It was enough to see the darkness of the empty floortiles.

"Uh. Fraggin', rusty mechanism of a slag-drippin' drone! We ain't got all the chances in the world, look," hissing, Cliffjumper reached out to briefly grasp Blurr's shoulder and pointed at the missing bits of floor behind them.

[raceme]

Blurr wasn't sure if they were already doomed or not but it was better to focus on the actual problem than thinking about the big picture.

"Maybe if we try song from...ah?" That stopped Blurr before he pushed another key. "What is i...ohyougottabekiddingme!NOWAY!"

Primus, how much bad luck they can have in one single day. Blurr counted the tiles adn then glanced at the lock. "How many _{of them do you think disappear each time we get it wrong?"}

[cliffjumper]

"Slagging pit." Glaring at the floor and the door on the opposite end of the corridor, Cliffjumper shifted on his feet. They could still, with a bit of care, cross the floor, but the door was probably just locked.

"... Well. Only one way to find out." Giving Blurr a glance and jaw set, Cliffjumper turned back around to face the door and the lock. "Ya keep an eye on the floor and we'll see."

That said, Cliffjumper pushed a few of the keys on the lock, including the ones Blurr had noted to be more worn than the others, but he wasn't convinced they were necessarily the only ones to be used... But then, Cliffjumper was a very suspicious minibot.

The sequence he tapped out, for what it was worth, was a reasonably musical little ditty...

And not the right one, as another large tile in the floor slid away and disappeared.

[raceme]

Blurr cursed out loud. It was pretty colorful and it could embarrass a Wrecker. He didn't do it often but sometimes even he needed to vent and this was the perfect moment for it.

"One by one then. But those are large and THERE AREN'T all that many tiles left, only 18. We need to get it right in less than that." Blurr turned to face the keys again. "There must be some sort of way to do this right, it can't be only by chance, Tehran must be..."

Perhaps if he repeated it enough times it would be true.

[cliffjumper]

"And it's random as well, what tiles get chosen... least I fraggin' well hope it is," Cliffjumper said, pointing at the tiles that were gone; the patches of darkness were spread out in a hap-hazard pattern, not all of them clumped together at the opposite end of the corridor.

Cliffjumper declined to say that given that every single one they got wrong could mean the tiles they stood on by this door could disappear... it wasn't necessary.

"Well, I think you're right the worn ones ought to be included, though if more than that shoúld be or not... and what slagging song it wants as well." Glaring angrily at the door and the lock, Cliffjumper shifted slightly on his feet, unable to quite stand still.

This wasn't good.

[raceme]

Blurr quickly caught up on the implication of the tiles disappearing in random places. He looked down at the ones under their wheels, frowned and then looked up.

"Then we need a plan B. Wouldn't you have a hook with a robe or some sort of weapon in your subspace that _{we could stick to the} ceiling and hold onto in case we can't figure out the code in time?"

[cliffjumper]

"... uh, no." Blurr would have to excuse the slightly incredulous look Cliffjumper gave him at that question, shaking his helm. "While I did pick up a length of chain and some other things instead of all my weapons, I ain't got somethin' like that."

He sighed, a bit aggravated, though more at the situation than anything else.

"We're just gonna have to chance it." But actually continuing pressing the keys now that he knew there was a trap felt like willingly stepping further into the trap itself. But it wasn't as if there was anything else to do.

[raceme]

It was a legit question to him, you where the one with the subspace not him. Blurr raised his hands into a 'well, sorry' gesture. His energy chainsaw is not strong to pierce and get stick to the walls of the building, he knew that much.

"I'm a it reluctant to go and press random keys, Cliff."

[cliffjumper]

He sighed, shaking his helm and gave Blurr an apologetic glance.

"Yeah, me too. But... what else choice do we got?" With a grim grumble of his engine, Cliffjumper straightened up, took a step closer to the door and the keypad, and flicked out a short tune, hoping, but knowing it wouldn't be the right one.

Because why would it be?

[raceme]

He shrugged, understanding. They were all tense and worried, at least they weren't yelling.

A piece of the floor, on the right, disappeared. However, it did it at a slower peace than the last time. "Odd. This time it didn't move so fast what could...? Could that mean that some of the notes were right? "

[cliffjumper]

Might still yet get there, but hopefully they wouldn't, after the brief bout of yelling they did earlier in the room behind them.

Looking back when Blurr spoke, Cliffjumper frowned.

"... As possible as anythin' else, especially since the other piece didn't go that slow. Question is just which of them were right, and which other keys beside those are right..." Scowling, Cliffjumper glared at the keypad, hovering his fingers over the keys he'd pressed for Blurr's benefit if he'd missed them earlier.

[raceme]

Blurr appreciated the gesture and paid attention to which keys were pressed, mentally running all the possible combinations.

"We don't have much option but keep trying and wish the luck is on our side. As bad as this i0,s so far we've been lucky. "They were a lie and not crushed, that was 'lucky' in Blurr's standards.

"I will press the first key you touched but change the order of the rest. Keep a look at the floor?"

[cliffjumper]

Well, Cliffjumper would agree that they were lucky; neither of them had been so much as lightly injured so far, not to talk about gravely such, not for the lack of trying on the part of all these traps.

"By Primus, I certainly slaggin' hope so, don't think luck is too much to ask for," muttered Cliffjumper and then turned partway around so he could face the corridor behind them.

"Right, shoot."

And while the first two were wrong, at least the tiles that disappeared were on the far end of the corridor. The third, however...

"Fraggin' pit---!" Squawking, Cliffjumper jumped back from the tile he stood on and crowded up next to Blurr as his tile decided to disappear. "Slag-drippin', rust-afflicted... Try again." The last was said through gritted teeth, muffling the words slightly.

Because what else was there to do, really?

[raceme]

"Areyousureyouareokay?" Blurr's immediate reaction upon seeing that was to reach out and hold Cliffjumper close to make sure he did not fall. They ended in a somewhat awkward position but he hoped Cliff didn't mind of the proximity.

"I..okay let's try one more time." And Blurr really hope this time the door opens before they fall to an imminent death.

[cliffjumper]

If he was okay? Not really, but at least he was alive, and for that he'd stand as close as he needed. At least they had more space on their tile due to their differeing frame designs than they otherwise might have had.

"Well, I didn't fraggin' fall and ya know, that's as good as it gets right now." Scowling into the dark hole to their right, Cliffjumper huffed and nodded.

"Nothing much else to do, unless we wanna stand here until he run out of energy," said Cliffjumper with a grim, lopsided smile as he bobbed his helm in a nod, keeping his optics behind and under them to see what tile moved next...

The short melody Blurr punched in was of course unfamiliar to either of them, but some others might have recognised it, strangely enough, as a few chords from a rock song on Earth... though not any Earth in a cybertronian reality.

And this time, no tile disappeared but rather the lock spun and retreated into the door, and the door slid aside.

"Finally!"

[raceme]

"No, running out of energy doesn't sound like a good strategy." Playing the music game didn't either, but there was no option. Blurr was so surprised that it took his processor a few seconds to react.

"Ahhh~It WORKED!"

Who would have guessed, he heard that song once but he can't remember the planet he was at the time. Blurr smiled and Cliff and then look inside the room, trying to be extra careful.

It was a huge room, clearly made by someone almost 50 times their size. There was light coming from above, a misty blue ray of light that shined over some sort of box in the middle of the room. The box was on top of a very large pillar -like structure. And behind that there was another door, smaller, and with a small window that showed the exterior.