[There's four floors. How high are you going?] ( The top, since that's where I'd hide something of magical importance that I didn't want someone taking. ) ( Ooooo....kay! ) * Maria scrambles up the side of the building and onto the balcony. She carefully checks for traps or other security measures, and if she finds none she puts her ear to the door, listening. * SpiritRei floats up to where Maria is and looks around. [Maria sees animated puppets inside. They're armed.] ~Freaky chicken!~ * Maria says quietly, trying to stay out of sight of the puppets, "No kidding. Am I the only one who feels uneasy about tangling with armed puppets?" [You hear gunfire from below] ~Gunfire. That must be where we should go.~ ~These guys're just here to slow us down. Bad mojo.~ * Maria sighs. "Works for me. Down we go, then." * SpiritRei nodnods, not that Maria can see it. * Maria hops down, then. And thereby saves the GM much hassle. ^_~ [When they get down there, in fact, all they see is Francine, Marco and Roy fighting more puppets.] * Maria blinks. * SpiritRei looks. ~Lame.~ Right. I'll let them take care of the puppets. ~What the hell? Whaddaya think, Maria, can we take puppets by ourselves? At the top, I mean.~ * Maria shrugs. "We can try. And I can get away fast if it doesn't work." ~Sounds like a plan.~ * Maria clambers back up to the top floor, and looks in to see how many puppets occupy it. * SpiritRei zooms after her. [There are three in the room you can see.] * Maria sneaks into the room, then, trying to get behind them, and taking a different door in if she has to. * SpiritRei doesn't bother sneaking. She just goes in. [Maria skillfully sneaks past the puppets.] * Maria has a look around. * SpiritRei follows, humming a cheery song in Maria's head. Some people would recognize it as Kung Fu Fighting. [after going down a hallway, Maria sees a blue-ish glow emmitting through a sliding rice-door.] ~Helloooooo, nurse. This must be what we're lookin' for.~ ~Want me to peek in first, see if anyone's watchin'?~ * Maria nods in answer and checks the door for traps or other security measures. * SpiritRei zips through the door. Or tries to. * Maria blinks as she realises something, but keeps checking for things that might keep her from getting in. [Rei succeeds! Inside, she sees... (this may take a VERY long while). Oh, and Maria finds no traps.] [Inside, Rei sees four people, three have their backs turned towards her, and are facing whatever is giving off that glow. The one on the left is dressed in a tuxedo, with a tophat and dark hair. The one in the middle is wearing robes, and looks much younger. His hair's brown. And the last one is wearing a white suit. His hair's white. You can tell the difference by their hair, yup.] [The fourth one is leaning against the wall. He is, unsurprisingly, the guy from the museum.] * Maria scowls. * SpiritRei speaks to Maria, ~Heeeey, the guy from the museum's here. Y'know, the blond wannabe.~ * Maria closes the door without a sound. ~I'm gonna take a look at the glowing thing. Ten to one it's the stone of TRANSLATION!~ * SpiritRei goes to do that. [When Rei approaches, she finds herself being pulled towards the stone. Make a body roll!] [Rei gets pulled towards the glow!] * Maria doesn't see this, tragically. * SpiritRei screams. ~Help! Helphelphelp it's pulling me and I can't-~ She tries to scramble away. * Maria blinks. [Rei doesn't get free.] * SpiritRei wails some more. [Rei gets sucked into a glowing sphere!] * Maria gets really damn nervous. * SpiritRei is... sucked into a glowing sphere. She shuts up now. ( ;_; ) * Maria waits a few seconds... Rei isn't talking. Something's definitely wrong. * SpiritRei is now known as Rei * Maria sneaks back out the way she came, and then hops down and enters the tower on the ground floor. Gotta tell Prof. He'll know what to do. Maybe. [You see Rei running for the tower and screaming. Go ahead back in :P] * Maria blinks.