Xaviers!

"He's like your roommate."

"Or he was."

"Inexplicably into Bad Girls?"

"Maybe we should take a look inside," Tosh said as he tested the door to see if it was locked.

The door wasn't locked. The handle turned quite easily. On the other hand, it did seem to be wedged by something and wasn't opening easily. As soon as he cracked the door though, he could feel a small brush of a breeze from the crack and he could hear soft music start to play.

"You know Wanda's not just a mutant, right?"

"He was what she'll become."

"Creepy," he said before trying to push his way inside.

The door opens into a small hallway. A long, rough rug on the floor shows some damage from bleaching closest to the door. It quickly becomes obvious what's getting in the way of the door. Chips of wood litter the rug and are probably wedging themselves under the door as he tries to open it. The wood chips appear to have come from the hallway's walls, where all sorts of interlocking triangles and other rough, runic symbols have been gouged into the walls with rough tools.

"Uhh... guys? You need to see this," he said, continuing to push at the door.

Nailah frowns a little at Isolde, but is distracted by Tosh calling them over before she can say anything. Walking over she stands on her toes to look over Tosh's shoulder as he forces the door.

"All this magical mumbo-jumbo is nothing but bad news, I swear..."

Now that the door was open, the music was a little more audible and intelligible. It sounded like it was coming from a doorway down the hallway to the right that seemed like it might be a living area.

"This might be a trap..." She says, narrowing her eyes.

"It probably is, but we came all this way. Might as well commit," he said, surprising himself with his boldness. He moved forward to peek around the doorway.

Stepping into the house felt like stepping through a slightly oily curtain. It was an unpleasant, skin-crawling sensation just to be inside the house. He could see a few other doors further in the house, probably kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. Peeking around the doorway into the living area, he could see a smart phone hooked up to a charger. There was also a speaker sitting on the table that seemed to be the source of the music. There was also a small, old chest, wood worn with age except for the fresh carvings on its exterior. The carvings didn't look like those in the hall. The shapes were different and the symbols less runic.

Nailah is hanging back outside, closing her eyes and trying to search the near future for any catastrophic occurrences around this creepy as fudge cabin in the gosh-darn woods.

It's hard to sort through the impressions as they get blended one over the other. In one, she sees Isolde opening a chest and then she sees herself holding Isolde's head in her lap with Isolde covered in blood. In another, it's the same thing, but Tosh this time. Anytime she tries to focus on the moment of opening the chest to see what's causing the injuries, the vision gets hazy and painful. She can almost hear a hissing pop followed by a chorus of small thunks in that moment, but lingering in that moment burns.

"Shoot!" she gasps out. Then, as soon as she's pulled herself back into the here and now she makes a break for the cabin, shouting at the top of her lungs. "Don't open any chests in there!"

Tosh stopped halfway to the chest. "Good to know..." he shuddered.

"A trap, I take it?"

"The carvings on that are different," she says as she comes up behind Tosh.

"These aren't preventing us from getting in," she gestures to the walls.

"Those aren't even in the same alphabet." She points to the chest.

"I don't know what it is, but it's no bueno."

"Have to assume it's something intended to put me down, or someone like me."

Now that they were closer, the carvings on the chest had more flowing lines to them. The breaks in the varnish on the chest seemed to indicate that the carvings were a recent addition. Isolde and Nailah had seen a few of the runes before in Wanda's journal, though these were a twisted, almost thorny, version of them, resembling them as though in a funhouse mirror.

Now that they were in the house, Isolde could smell blood, though not in any great quantity. She could also smell the undercurrent of wolf. Not currently here, but here at one time.

"Magic stuff is so not in my wheelhouse. This is all Greek to me."

"And come to think of it... who... started the music?" Tosh asked, boldness replaced by the heebie jeebies.

"This place is the worst..." Nailah shudders a little. "But I guess they just... left it playing?" she says, grabbing the phone to turn off the music.

As Nailah picks up the phone and shuts off the music, she notices a text message on the phone.

Code: Select all

Gotcha.

The latch on the chest pops open and the lid begins to rise.

Isolde tenses and goes to tackle Nailah away from the chest.

"Everbody down!" Nailah shouts as she spins around, right into being tackled to the ground by Isolde.

Tosh dived behind some furniture and covered his head.

As he does so, the lid of the chest flies open and the sides of the chest fall away, revealing an orb that looks like it's covered in some sort of fine grain metallic finish. Then there's a hissing pop as that finish resolves itself into thousands of small spines that are ejected in every direction. They embed themselves in every available surface, making the living area look like a horde of metal porcupines exploded. Several of the spines catch Tosh in the arm. One manages to catch Nailah in the bicep before Isolde's tackle puts her in harm's way and she catches several in the back. For Tosh and Nailah, it's painful. For Isolde, it's almost immediately excruciating as the spines burn her where they've struck.

"Fuuuck..." Tosh hissed as he pulled spines from his arm.

Isolde's eyes flare golden, her teeth sharpening as she grits them, biting back the pain.

"P-poisoned," she hisses out, making a wild guess.

Nailah winces as she plucks the needle from her arm and looks at it.

"Fffffrick! Poisoned darts!?"

"Hold on, let me check before anyone freaks."

Tosh plucked out the last of his needles as he made his way to the others and used his scanner's chemical sniffer on it.

"I'm telling you, there's something in these!" She snarls.

She hasn't gotten up yet, trying her best to do anything other than writhe in pain.

"Get them out of me now!"

There was no chemical on it other than some propellant. It was, however, silver.

"I'm not feeling anything so far..." Nailah unhelpfully supplies, but she does start carefully pulling the spines out of Isolde.

"We'll be fine but we do need to get them out of her now," he said as he stowed his gadget and hurried to help remove spines from Isolde, "They're silver."

Removing the barbs hurts in its own way, but also lessens the pain considerably.

"He always was a bastard," she growls as the last of the barbs are pulled.

"I'm so sorry... How'd that even work?" she says, looking down at the phone and the message still displayed on it. She pokes around a bit more out of guilt for having set off the trap than anything.

Looking at the time on the text message notification, it looks like it was sent days ago back when the attack was reported. The phone is actually pretty bare bones with very few apps and seems to be running some sort of custom operating system. Etched into the back of the case is another one of the flowing, yet thorny, sigils.