The Libarby

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase slowly began to breathe again. Why hadn't it seen him? He certainly wasn't...

"Did you just... invisible me?"

[Basil Benson]

Basil could feel Chase whispering against his hand, but he couldn't make it out, which was for the better.

Spiders could also hear relatively well.

He placed his finger to his lips to indicate Chase shouldn't speak, and then grabbed Chase by the wrist before he brought his hand away from the other boy's mouth.

He brought Chase up to his feet, and nodded his head in the opposite direction of the spider. He wasn't sure how much of this had to do with contact, but he suspected a fair amount so he wasn't going to let go of Chase just yet.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase obeyed his invisible guide and backed away from the terrifying arachnid.

[Basil Benson]

As the two of them got what Basil gathered was far enough away, he let go of Chase and spoke.

"We need to find a way to get in touch with others."

[Chase Delacroix]

"I don't suppose you have a tiny cell phone pon you," Chase said with cautious hope.

[Basil Benson]

"Yes, but would it actually work at this size?"

[Chase Delacroix]

"How the heck should I know? Just try it."

[Basil Benson]

Basil sighed, and dug out the device to try it.

He decided to call his boss, Ashlie. She was the only one he could think of programmed into his phone that could fix this.

[Narrator]

The phone rings. Once. Twice. Then the dial-tone dies and a second later Basil feels the heat emanating from his smartphone and the battery cover is popped free by the distorted battery-pack underneath.

[Basil Benson]

Basil drops the phone quickly, concerned about the heat burning him.

"Soooo. That's not going to work." He didn't seem overly concerned about it breaking, slipping it into one of his shoes (which were currently tied by the laces to his belt) once it had cooled enough to touch.

"Right, sooooo..." Basil looked around a bit trying to gauge what to do next.

"We know on one else was in this room. I can't lock up for obvious reasons, but I don't think we need to hang around here looking for others who may have been hit with this.

Shall we trek to the halls?"

[Chase Delacroix]

"Sounds like a plan to me," Chase agreed, starting to do just that. Naturally, he made the assumption that he would take point.

[Basil Benson]

Basil didn't say anything against it, letting Chase do whatever made him feel psychologically comfortable.

He did wonder however if his mate had been drinking some of that 'Morrigan wolf pack' kool-aid that seemed to be going around lately.

[Narrator]

The two make their way to the door, towering above them with it's jumbled up letters on the window. It feels a little daunting to slip underneath what's basically a gigantic slab of wood suspended above them, but they make it through just fine. On the other side the hallway stretches off into the distance on both sides. What used to be decorative elements in the wood-paneled walls are suddenly cliffs and ridges on the side of a mountain, the potted plant far off in the corner a veritable forest. But what really draws their attention is one of the decorative suits of armor standing against the wall. Somebody has rearranged it, exchanging gloves and boots and arms and helmet into a jumbled combination, like a kid rearranging the limbs on an action figure.

Except it's not a kid. Numerous little robots are crawling over the suit of armor, stopping to point a scanning cone of light at parts before moving on. Dozens of them, slightly larger than Chase and Basil themselves if they had to guess. After a moment they seem satisfied with whatever it is they're doing and they begin climbing down to the ground and gathering together in a huddle. Some silent exchange of information seems to happen and after a moment they back away to form a circle, leaving one of them in the center. The isolated robot adjusts it's position, pushing itself a little further off the ground and then it's underside opens up, spilling a strange bubbling glow of particles that slide across the floor until the robots in the circle pick them up. And everything time do there's a small flash of light and they shrink down until the circle of robots has turned into a little speck of seemingly liquid metal.

Meanwhile the one dispensing the odd bubbling light shudders and incrementally grows with each bit of light that drops from it until it is almost a foot high.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase didn't know what was going on with the bots, but he knew that one of the little ones was trouble enough.

"We should... definitely go the other direction," he suggested.

[Basil Benson]

Basil nodded silently, but he did not stop watching the little robots, going as far as to slowing down as he went the other direction with Chase due to 'watching their six' instead ahead of them. He wanted to watch them for as long as his tiny eyes could. Anything they could glean about what they were doing might help someone later to undo what they'd done.

[Narrator]

Once their strange ritual was done the large robot sits and waits for all the nanites to come together in a tiny little drop of silvery liquid that follows the larger one as it heads down the hallway in the other direction.

Ahead of Basil and Chase the hallway eventually leads them to the entrance hall with the two staircases on their right, the gigantic wooden double-doors that look even more like a castle gate from this vantage point, and in between the forest of the thick carpet that's usually meant to take the brunt of the feet stomping in and out of the mansion. Right now it's more of a landscape of tightly packed fabric-trees standing between them and anywhere else in the mansion.

[Chase Delacroix]

"Any ideas on communicating if we find anyone normal-sized?"

[Basil Benson]

"We'll find a way based off what's available at the time." He replied, weaving his way around the carpet trees with his friend in the lead.

[Narrator]

The two make their way through the 'forest' and it gets very dim very fast. They step over crumbs and dirt until they suddenly spot pale shapes through the 'tree-trunks' around them. A whole cluster of them, suddenly stirring. Squat little bugs, compared to them roughly the size of dogs that lift their strange elongated mandibles at them and start chittering. Dust Mites!

The one closest to them hops forward and runs right at them, it's four mandibles spread wide.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase cried out in disgust and reflexively kung fu kicked the oncoming headcrab dust mite.

[Narrator]

The mite goes flying, hitting a fiber-tree and spinning through the air before landing. In it's place more of them advance, a bit more carefully maybe, but they don't seem very smart overall.

[Basil Benson]

"Wait!" Basil replied at Chase, reaching out to discourage him from continuing his attack.

"They might leave us alone if we move around them cautiously.

They eat skin, but it has to be dead. Live skin isn't of interest to them."

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase relaxed his stance. "If you're sure..." he said, keeping an eye on the hideous things.

[Narrator]

Despite Basil's educated warning, the mites still advance on them, although not particularly aggressively. They crowd around the two, strange mandible mouths open and feeling around their legs, bumping into each other and them like curiously sniffing dogs. Only much more alien and disturbing, especially considering the weird orifice ringed with rows and rows of tiny teeth hiding between the long mandibles poking and prodding.

[Basil Benson]

It didn't cause Basil to lash out, moving slow and cautious while the mites regarded them.

"It's just like a parrot mate. A disgusting, featherless parrot nibbling on your finger to determine why you've stuck your hand in it's cage.

They'll lose interest aaannnny time now."

[Chase Delacroix]

"If they skin us alive, I'm blaming you," Chase said in a soft, even tone in case the bugs reacted to sound. He gingerly shuffled along, for once behind Basil.

[Narrator]

The whole experience is thoroughly unpleasant, but ultimately the mites decide that these two strange things are not particularly tasty. One by one they wander off to find better things to do, leaving Basil and Chase with the question of where the hell exactly in the entrance hall they are and where they want to go.

[Basil Benson]

Basil made sure the carpet pile was sturdy enough to climb, and would start searching around the giant room to try to figure out where the hell they were.

[Chase Delacroix]

"Have I ever mentioned I hate bugs?" Chase asked as he climbed up after him to assist in the task.

[Narrator]

From the vantage point of the 'tree-tops' they take note that they made it a whooping 2 feet or so into the carpet. The front-door to the mansion looms to the left while Mount Stairs rises up on their right.

[Basil Benson]

"You have not. I'm not fond of them, but I wouldn't say I'm afraid of them either.

We need to get to the canteen. At this hour that's the closest facility to likely have other people. "

[Chase Delacroix]

"We'd best get going then," he said before climbing down, "Because this is going to take a while even if we aren't humped by dust mites all the way there."

[Basil Benson]

"Right!" Basil let go and dropped down.

"Onward in a that way direction!" He motioned the direction he thought was appropriate.

[Narrator]

The two make it maybe a couple feet of 'real' distance through the carpet, occasionally spotting some more clusters of bugs that they give a wide berth, when suddenly a giant pillar of polished white metal slams down into the carpet-forest in front of them. One of the legs of the giant nanite! Up above they can see it's one large camera-eye looming, though it seems to pay them no mind at the moment.

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase motioned for silence as he quickly led the way around the leg. He didn't want the machine to change its mind about ignoring them.

[Basil Benson]

Basil was so quiet he held his breath as he followed his friend's directions, desperately trying to not get caught.

[Narrator]

The robot seems to pay them no mind, the giant leg lifting as it keeps moving towards the front doors. It's carrying what appears to be a laptop and a number of phones in it's manipulator arms as it bumps into the door and pushes them open.

[Basil Benson]

Basil took careful notice of the objects the robot was collecting (possibly stealing) as they went on their tiny epic journey across the manor looking for others.

When they seemed to be alone again he whispered to Chase- "It's building something."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Nothing good, I'm sure," Chase whispered back.

"...Do you think they're aliens?" he added half-seriously.

[Basil Benson]

"I'm not the one named after a famous detective." He quipped with a smirk.

"But I can't come up with a reason they'd collect all that inferior technology to them unless they are intending to scrap it for parts."

Basil then added. "I need to find Colette. She should be in the kitchens."