[hr][center][h3][b][u][The Abyss - Paracausal Research Facility: Muriel - Interior][/u][/b][/h3][/center]
[center][A Fate001 / XianaEvermor Collaboration][/center][hr]

[b][color=#db60b0]"There’s supposed to be more than two-hundred staff here at the facility. One-hundred sixty-seven [i]psychically sensitive[/i],"[/color][/b] ID explained as the elevator slowed, reaching its destination. “Psychically Sensitive” wasn’t technically a lie… since Mana was reactive to both thoughts, and emotions it could technically be considered a psychoactive phenomenon… technically.

A small, empty landing platform with some scattered equipment for moving freight greeted them, along with an enormous reinforced tungsten-steel blast door that was sealed shut. Twenty inches thick, four vacuum insulated, hermetically sealed plates, each weighing somewhere in the tens of thousands of pounds, pressed together both vertically and horizontally. All the emotion drained out of IDs voice as she stepped off the elevator just before it came to a stop, throwing a dull crash echoing out into the darkness behind them.

[b][color=#db60b0]"The fact that this door is closed does not fill me with confidence. The facility director should be here to greet us,"[/color][/b] ID whispered, though her voice carried loudly in the void. She studied the facility schemata in silence for a long time in the middle of the landing platform next to an inert forklift.

This whole platform, including the elevator and its tracks retracted into the cliffside, and was EM-shielded and rendered invisible via optical camouflage when it wasn’t in use. The fact that there was equipment out in the open meant something had gone horribly wrong.

ID reached into her pack. She heard MG fidgeting with her gear which generally meant she was ready. There was no way beyond brute force to open the blast door without a command slate, which she pulled from its hiding place in the secret compartment beneath her compressor. ID locked eyes with the lifeless gaze of MG’s sealed helmet.

[b][color=#db60b0]"I have no idea what to expect when that door opens. It moves funny, looks weird, does anything out of the ordinary, or doesn’t know the proper protocol, you don’t hesitate, you kill it. Does not matter what, or more importantly [i]who[/i] it looks like,"[/color][/b] ID paused. MG knew the drill… ID also knew that when you were dealing with Magic, it never hurt to have a pre-mission refresher that they were stepping into the jaws of the unknown.

[b][color=#db60b0]"Trust [i]me[/i], not your eyes or ears. Take no chances, KTF,"[/color][/b] she instructed coldly, tapping the override code into the command slate. A deep thrum echoed throughout The Abyss as seals were undone, and ID slid the command slate back under her compressor.

[i]Kill Them First.[/i] Collateral damage was a secondary concern. Other assets could be replaced. The drone of industrial hydraulics began pulling the massive slabs of metal apart. There was another door just like this one on the other side of an enchanted steel iris. ID could already feel the pressure of intense mana through the barrier. It was very likely whatever happened had created a Mana Warp. She grasped the hilt of [i]Ildsjel[/i].

The hiss of pressure normalizing between the irises filled the silence as the heavy blast doors finished their opening sequence. At least there was still power.

*[i]Shunk![/i] The inside iris opened. The outside barrier… its wards and arrays burned brightly. It shuddered, disrupting the plates enough to disrupt the arrays which winked out, leaving artifacts in her vision. ID extended her domain of [Fire/Light], though it was mainly to insulate herself from the [i]Warp[/i] she sensed beyond the threshold. A small, high intensity bubble that wouldn’t interfere with MG’s powers so long as she maintained distance. MG wasn’t Mana-Sensitive, so she wouldn’t just immediately get shredded by the astral forces like ID would.

*[i]Shunk![/i]* The outer iris withdrew. ID’s bubble was immediately buffeted by the [i]Warp[/i], and a flurry of… snow(?) spilled out onto the landing platform. No.. it was more like powdered glass, and it was saturated with [Mind] aspected Mana. ID took a step and froze, at the hurried clack of a shotgun being leveled at the back of her head. Nowhere to run but deeper inside…