Dug Too Deep to the Left

"Dug Too Deep to the Left" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
As Juro was many paces ahead of Grey and Kettil, Shadow made quick work of soaring through the darkness to catch up to him, guided by her echolocation and helped by a flickering layer of plasma across Grey’s hand. The tunnel was relatively unchanged up to this point, but now, there was an odd noise that could be heard along with the splashing and reverberation of footsteps and voices. A slow and rhythmic clanking, grinding sound, a bit more muffled than the sound of their own movements around them. There was a smell as well, something sharp and metallic that made their eyes water, and it grew stronger the further they flew.
Jan 23, 2021
Juro only stumbled twice as he navigated through the darkness, anticipation rising by the second. The shadows slowly receded, and he knew the Chief and the Pookan were right behind him, but it didn’t slow him down. Rather, he quickened his pace, as the environment changed and his curiosity intensified, memorizing sound, sight, and smell to record when he had the chance,
Jan 23, 2021
“Are you kidding me?” Grey asked raising an eyebrow when she saw that Juro was not slowing down. She groaned as she turned to Night Fury. “Shadow, go fetch, will you?”
Shadow crooned and nodded before immediately taking off flying at a low level due to the close proximity of the walls. Thankfully, she shined a small flame from her mouth and saw Juro before swooping down and picking him up off the ground…like a rag doll by his shoulders. 
Jan 23, 2021
Kettil chuckled from behind his aunt. He too was curious about what this way held. An breeze usually indicated a way to the surface. But what was that smell and why did it burn? He mentally went through a list of things he knew that would do this.
Jan 23, 2021
The ground fell beneath his feet as he was grabbed unceremoniously by the shoulders, and he released a small gasp, blonde fringe fluttering smoothly across his forehead and glowing ultraviolet in the plasma light as Shadow slowed down her flight, allowing for Grey and Kettil to catch up. 
He gave an amused sigh, then in a smooth single movement, he swung himself back then over, long legs flying in an arc and using the momentum to remove himself from the dragon’s grip, and finally straddling the Night Fury as a rider instead.
Juro sat calmly on Shadow after that, crossing his legs and taking advantage of the light to finally write down in his notebook, as he forced himself to be patient and take no other action. 
Jan 23, 2021
Shadow looked up at Juro with a deadpan expression on her face. He was sitting in Grey’s spot…It wasn’t that she owned Grey or that she hasn’t had Brandt…Sven…Ingrid…or Grey and Brandt’s children…Warren…Asha…or even Greg ride her before in placement of Grey, but they had permission. This man didn’t, and she glared and growled before giving a dragon like smirk. 
She hit him in the back of the head with her tail and tilted her body so that he would fall. 
Jan 23, 2021
The Bookkeeper grunted at the impact, hunching his shoulders slightly as the dragon tail ruffled his hair. He saw the world lean to the left and felt himself slipping out of the saddle, so in a flash of movement, a slender hand shot out, grabbing a rein right on time to keep himself from completely falling.
Juro glanced up, and amber eyes met scowling green dragon ones as Shadow growled her disapproval. The Bookkeeper only smirked in return, sticking out a cheeky tongue then willingly letting go of his grip. He landed with a light roll to the ground, then stood easily to dust himself off with another sigh, regretful that he lost a ride.
Jan 23, 2021
His timing was fortunate, as he found himself face-to-face with one of the bigger, heavier doors he had seen in his lifetime, a huge double-door metal affair twice as tall as he was. It was built straight into the side of the tunnel with a strong foundation reinforced directly into the earth on either side. The mechanical noises were coming from whatever lay beyond the closed entrance. There were round iron handles on the ends of thick chains to pull the doors open, but on closer inspection, it appeared that the doors had been welded shut, in big messy metallic blobs that seeped through the crack and cooled to ensure nobody could get inside.
Jan 23, 2021
“Good job, girl,” Grey said as she scratched behind Shadow’s ear before turning to Juro. “Will you please just wait for us next time? We–ohh…” She looked up and saw what the bookkeeper was looking at and widened her brown eyes. “Oh my gods…” 
She saw the massive doors…welded shut and chained. “Where does this lead to? And why are they shut so tight?”
Jan 23, 2021
Kettil hummed as he examined it. They’d done something to the door to keep it from opening. Maybe poured molten metal into the crack? “Well, if you can cut through it we can find out.” The Half-Breed says.
Jan 23, 2021
Grey nodded. “I’ll do what I can,” Grey said walking up to the doors. “Shadow, I made need help.”
Shadow crooned and walked up to Grey.
The Chief focused and caused a flame to emerge on her hand and slowly moved it focusing on the weld in between the door cracks watching as the plasma burned through the seal.
Jan 23, 2021
The flickering plasma did well in melting the weeping weld, and it began to bubble and pour down to the ground in silvery pools, but as she got to about waist height, there was a high-pitched whistle and a pop, and an air pocket left behind by the messy job heated up too quickly and snapped, causing globs of molten metal to flash outwards at a dangerous speed. 
Jan 23, 2021
Grey screamed as she was flung backwards by the dangerous molten metal. Thankfully, she was only waist high, but she could feel the pain on her legs as she was forced back to the ground…her elbows scraped and her back bruised possibly. 
Shadow quickly moved to Grey after jumping back from the explosion. As the Chief grunted in pain, Shadow nuzzled her gently as she checked to see if her sister was okay. 
Jan 24, 2021
Kettil immediately sprang into action. He pulled his first aid kit and began examining and dressing the wound.
Jan 25, 2021
Grey hissed as Kettil bandaged her legs. “Thank you, sweetheart,” she said smiling at her nephew. “Was that because of the plasma fire?”
Jan 25, 2021
“It might have been because you went for the seal rather than the door itself Aunt Grey.” He finishes tending too her wounds. “You should be fine if you wanna try again. Just be careful.”
Jan 25, 2021
“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” Grey said raising an eyebrow. “I’ve never had fire powers before. That was…more of your dad’s thing.”
Jan 25, 2021
Kettil smiles as he helps her sit up. “I doubt dad would have fared much better.” He says with a smile.
Jan 26, 2021
“I suppose that’s true,” she said as Kettil helped her to sit up. She looked up at the doors again and took a deep breath before standing up. “Okay, let’s give this another try.” 
She activated the flame again, and instead of working on the seal, she began to work on the door in hopes that that would work better.  
As thick as the doors were, they weren’t full of molten weld, and it was slow-going but safer as tiny plasma-colored fireballs spat and flashed across the ground, and a crooked semicircle wide enough for each person to walk through was formed–though Juro might need to duck if he wanted to pass through it. The chunks of thick iron finally crumpled in a cloud of sparks, and Grey stepped back as they fell inward. The room was incredibly dark minus some small, stationary flames burning on the floor, and a bed of coals near the opposite wall highlighting the underside of what seemed like a huge, flat metal cauldron, but the smell billowed outwards, clearly indicating that this was the spot they were looking for.
From the other team’s end, heard by the Bookkeeper, there was suddenly a loud bang, but the barrage of voices afterward revealed that nobody had been severely hurt.
Grey sniffed and cringed as she held her nose tightly while Shadow retched at the scent. The smell was stronger in this area, and she held her hand up lighting a small flame in the palm of her hand to illuminate the mysterious room. “What is that smell?” Grey said nasally as she held her nose. “This is definitely where it’s coming from.”
As Kettil teleported away and the remaining pair stepped inside, the light painted a strange scene, one that was both extremely foreign and strangely empty. There were rows and rows of workbenches, some of which that had been turned over, some of which seemed to have had a sledgehammer taken to them. The coals in the wide alcove across the room were hot, which was strange, because everything seemed to be covered in a thick layer of dust, soot and ash, with no footprints disturbing the debris across the floor, a mishmash of powdered glass and metal shavings. A closer eye revealed that there was a freshly broken glass phial that had fallen off a nearby surface and smashed near the furnace, and whatever liquid had been kept inside had been volatile enough to catch fire and stoke the coals anew with the tiny bit of limited fuel that had trickled across the masoned stone floor. There were a few scattered scraps of burned parchment as well. The rhythmic clanging also became apparent. The plasma’s light jumped on a set of moving chains. The furnace was not only a way to heat whatever was in the huge pewter dish that hung inside of it; it also provided fuel through some complex mechanism inset into the wall on either side of it. The clash of metal on metal was being caused by a fault in the chains that had some kind of iron rivet slapping against the chains’ holdings every time it passed by. The room was just barely recognizable enough as some kind of lab or workshop, but alien enough to be unable to discern its purpose. It could have been for any combination of crafting, studying, or experimenting.
The curiosity and interest radiated from Juro so intensely that Grey was almost certain she could see it rolling off him in waves. He ducked under their makeshift opening, pulling the scarf tight over his nose and doubling its layers to keep the smell at bay, forgetting for a moment about the portal and the communication line as Virion temporarily dipped out of sight from both ends. The Bookkeeper didn’t wait for the Chief–although he motioned for light to continue illuminating the place; he carefully began picking his way through mess and debris, making sure he disturbed as little as possible save for dust and dirt on the ground, taking some steps on benches when he needed to. He wanted to see anything and everything, from whatever was being heated, to the parchment and broken evidence scattered on the ground, and even the odd mechanism, although he slid his gaze way too quickly over the chains in subconscious effort to avoid the visual of it. Still, he made a beeline for the main attraction of the mysterious room.
The more he looked, the clearer it was that the destruction of the room was a clear indication of someone going scorched earth on its contents. The machine moving around the heavy bowl had never meant to be activated again, but by sheer dumb luck, whatever had spilled across the ground had decided otherwise. The belly of the dish had some leftover debris inside, but it looked accidental, like the intentional sabotage of the room had knocked the remnants of some kind of project inside in their haste to leave. Most of it looked like scrap metal, and a bit of sticky weld, accounting for the harsh metallic smell permeating the lab, but there was also what seemed to be a few digits of a mechanical finger, unfamiliar in design and large in proportion, fairly unscathed aside from being separated from a mechanical hand. It was clearly hot from being inside the shallow cauldron for who knew how long.
Grey used the flame to illuminate the room allowing her to see the destruction that clearly occurred some time ago. It clearly looked like something had occurred, but she couldn’t figure out what it was, and she peeked into the cauldron inspecting the scrap metal holding her nose still as she smelled the source of the rancid scent. “It looks like there was an attack of some sort…” Grey said as she looked around the room some more. “Like someone was working on…whatever they were working on and got attacked.”
Feels more like it was destroyed on purpose. Juro hummed to show he was listening, but provided no further input as his pen flew in the dim light, slowly inching his way around the heat. A hum filled the room and right behind Vox’ head as he felt Virion find its way back to them, slowly making an opening on both ends right on time to hear part of the conversation regarding Central and the rest of the tunnels. “Commander, Virion probably has ten minutes left on him…” he absentmindedly said, hesitantly reaching out his pencil to poke the odd device around.
Not much changed as he did so. However this system was operated, it didn’t seem to be through overly conventional means. He did find a small engraving on one of the gears–a scarab, pressed neatly into the copper like a brand.