The Calling Card (Grandmaster)

    Zack and Marigold were very nonchalant about their accepting of the message. Someone was asking them for help and that was all they need to know. They asked for directions and the address of wear to meet up and gave Johan a warning that Speed, Psych and Stacy had probably already given him about how Zack would show up in his "work clothes" The group would hear one of the rusted windows along the high eve of the wall push open, a gold patterned figure in a distinctive helm leaping in, making some acrobatic steps down from the pile of boxes and crates that gave him access to the floor. Marigold buzzed in behind him, her crimson scarf snapping in the wind. 

    "Stacy." The Digi Rider ducked his head in great, holding out his hand to shake. He then, seemingly having totally forgotten the less than warm introduction that Speed and Psych had made with him, walking up to them and offering his hand in turn. "Speed. Psych. It's good to know that we've got a trio like this backing us up, marigold." he said, looking up at the twins was a kind jaunt in his voice. "I want you to know that, whatever was said last time we met, I recognize that we're on the same side. If someone's going to get hurt, then I trust you both implicitly to watch my back, I only hope that you can trust me to watch yours." he said, making a surprisingly honest attempt to bury the hatchet before listening intently to the message. Zack crossed his arms, Marigold buzzing just above his right shoulder, making waving motions at the trio, being especially enthusiastic in her silent greeting to Stacy. Zack was one of the first to pipe up.

    "Alright folks, you know what me and Marigold are good for. You three are the law enforcement here. Where does the investigation start and how can we help?" he said, laying the baton of command at the feet of the three far more qualified investigators, Marigold nodding along sharply with his sentiment.

    "Turn us around, point us in the right direction and tell us to go. Until whatever this is is put to bed, consider us the distraction, the scapegoat and the pack mule." She said, fully laying out Zack and Marigold's assessment of being as helpful as possible. if it needed doing, they would do it.

Johan told everyone where they would go and mentioned that who they were up against seemed to like to dress like a supervillian. Her only response to that was "Sounds like a guy like that would fit in well in an eighties superhero cartoon judging by what you said, Johan, but don't worry I'll be on alert." As for Speed he seemed not to pleased about working with Zack making her curious what Zack had done but figured now was not the time for such things since there was work to be done.

Seeing Psych use his telekinesis to float up to the second floor meant the third floor was hers. Bringing out her D-Tector before fractal coding appeared in her right hand. She then ran her right hand over the top of the digivice in her left hand before she said "Execute! Human Spirit Evolution!" Since this required stealth her transformation was not nearly as noticeable as it usually was and no wolf howl sounded either. The soft glow of holy energy ceased revealing the champion form of her holy line. "Blitzwolfmon!"

Blitzwolfmon looked up toward the broken window on the third floor her tail wagging before the armor wearing humanoid trotted up to the building before using the claws on her hands and feet climbing swiftly and efficiently like Spiderman. Sure some would not expect a humaniod in red wolf themed armor to be such a good climber but she was not one to complain seeing it was a beneficial trait.

The whole in the window was small but not to small for her petite form to fit through and once she got inside she caught a foul scent and judging by how messy the floor appeared to be it wasn't shocking but that doesn't mean it was less unpleasant. A canine's sense of smell was being a double edged sword right now but she could still power through. Walking through the floor with a disgusted look on her face she moved cautiously and silently as if stalking potential prey. Since she didn't know what lurked in the halls she was making sure she was ready for anything.

"Forget everything you know about telly villains, Stacy," Johan said to Stacy. "This man is nothing like them, he is ruthless. He attempted to have me and my friends killed. The only reason we were able to get out of that alive is with Zero's help. That's not all though. My friend's partner Shoutmon's son Luneth was almost murdered by him. I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE HIM."

"Yeesh, you're really obsessed with this guy, aren't you?" Speed responded, rolling his eyes a bit.

"You would be too, if you've seen what I've seen."

Before they all got to work, Zack had some words for Speed and Psych. He requested the latter to keep them all in a psychic contact connection much like what the superhero Martian Manhunter did for the JLA. I do not know who Martian Manhunter is or what the JLA is, but I understand. I shall set up a telepathy communication network between the five of us.

And with Speed, Zack claimed that he had the most utility, using a metaphor with spackles and walls to basically say to protect the others. "One question: what's a spackle?"

And cease with the speak of leaving you behind. No matter what happens, we will all make it out alive, no need for abandonment.

With Psych taking the second floor, Stacy would spirit evolve to Blitzwolfmon and climb up to the third floor a lot like a certain spider superhero, climbing in through a small broken window. The floor would've been pretty soggy, clearly some kind of water main broke at some point. A bit of mold could be seen growing on the walls as well. For someone with a keen sense of smell like Stacy, this would've smelled unbearably bad.

With her careful and cautious observations, something would catch onto Stacy's eye as well. A very similar wall crease, a lot like the one Zack and Marigold had spotted just moments ago. Could this be a connection of some kind?

And with Zack himself, he noticed the crease and was now moving it in all sorts of directions to try to get it to open in some way. Unfortunately no matter how much he tried, the damn thing just simply was not budging. Speed watched as Zack continued to do his thing, his arms crossed and his foot tapping. "Gah, let me do it," the Speedramon groaned, digging his own claws into the crease and attempting to open it as well.

...and Speed was having even less luck than Zack did in that department. In fact, Speed tried pulling so hard that his gauntlets slipped right off, causing the Speedramon to fall over backwards in the process. "Ew ew ew, I'm on the gross floor," Speed complained as he picked himself up.

"As funny as it is to watch you all fail like this, I should probably tell you that after scanning the wall, this is definitely a hidden door, though it seems that it has to be opened via electricity," Zero said to Speed, Zack and Marigold  through the drone. "Maybe you should try, oh I dunno, looking for a button of some kind? The button might be in a place you least expect."

"And where are we supposed to find that?" Speed asked, resting his hand on the wall. That hand would promptly rip right through the damp wallpaper, revealing some sort of... hole, leading downward through the floor. Were you supposed to drop something in there for the wall to open up? It almost looked like you had to... pour some form of liquid in. "Well, this is new."

I believe I have found something peculiar, Psych told the group via telepathy. I found a vial of some form of substance in the middle of the hallway. It looks like as if it fell out of someone's bag. Its appearance is... not like anything I've ever seen before.

    "I'm not stupid, Psych.." He said into the psychic web that the group was now sharing. "If shit hits the fan and its do or die time, the non-powered vigilante becomes real dead weight, real fast. If it comes down between saving me and saving someone else, I'd whip you myself if you chose me." He said, though he offers Speed a hand up off the floor, not even bothering to laugh at the speedster getting hoisted by his own petard for his impatience. Though he nodded with a smile at the sudden blundering into the actual puzzle that was locking the door.

    "Is the goo metallic? because the only way I can think of using some sort of mechanism with liquid would be a mercury tilt switch. So, yknow. if it IS mercury, don't lick it." Zack walked over, running the lining of his gloves along the whole that the liquid was meant to pour into, if there was anything left on the spout he would be able to get a closer look. "Speed, do you think you could manage a quick sweep of the floor? It'd be good to know if there's anything out of place. Psych, if we can't locate another vial can you get the vial you found down to us? Opening the first door you find is usually the best way of progress in an escape room...even if I'm going to bet money that this "escape room" has some death traps along the way." 

    "My Bee-Bee Call attack creates an electric discharge, should I try it against the door or down the whole?" She said, directing the question at the whole group, trying to get feedback for the idea.

Psych sent everyone a mental image of the liquid in the vial he found. Pinkish violet with green blotches? How odd. 'I'm no expert in chemicals but I get the feeling that's not mercury so I think we should be cautious with it. As for it being a fluke it may not be.' Blitzwolfmon said over the link. Maybe she was being paranoid but as far as she was concerned it was better safe than sorry. 'Anyway I'm on my way down and should be there shortly.'

Blitzwolfmon headed back the way she came moving swiftly back to the window she entered in, though no where near as fast as Speed was capable of, climbed out the window to the ground and made her way to the door Speed couldn't open, and channeled a small amount of holy energy into her claws before cutting through the lock. That done she pushed the door open and made her way to the others. Sure the lock was no more but the door was still fully intact so most humans would be unlikely to notice much.

When the group was back together Psych preceeded to pour the liquid into the hole and oh boy the stench was enough to make her eyes water. "Oh God, that stench is foul. I thought this building was bad." Blitzwolfmon gagged before backing away so she didn't vomit.

The liquid opened up a secret passage leading to an elevator and Speed was eager to check it out as he sprinted for it. "Speed, I understand your excitement but we need to be cautious." she called out but too late it seemed. Sighing she dashed after Speed and into the elevator determined to at least try to keep the fast moving dragon out of too much trouble.

Inside the elevator she noticed that their was a button for the basement and as Speed pressed it she braced herself for the potential trouble they could find. After all why would this guy go through all the trouble of hiding this elevator if it didn't lead to trouble?

A few minutes later the doors opened to the sight of what appeared to be a combo of a hospital and a labratory. Taking a few cautious steps out of the elevator Blitzwolfmon looked around taking in the sight wondering how to best go about things.

Both possibilities of it being a fluke or not are indeed possible, Psych said to the group. Like I said, it was simply lying haphazardly on the ground. It's hard to tell if someone simply dropped it, or if it was placed her deliberately for us to find. But if that's the case, why the second floor instead of the first?

Now that the group was standing in the middle of this main lobby area of this underground establishment, they had a choice to make: which hallway would they go down? While Zero's drone and Stacy were observing the immediate area, Zack had an idea: split up into two teams to go down the two different hallways. "Why do you wanna go down that hallway?" Speed asked. "It looks like just boring workplace stuff."

"Are you fancying a snack from the cafeteria?" Zero's voice joked from the drone.

Zack's reasoning did make at least some sense though. What if some employee left something important in his locker, bring up the vial key's convenient appearance as an example. I understand, but I doubt you will find anything in there.

Zack looked to Speed, basically telling the dragon that he would be the only one quick enough to save Zack and Marigold if they did fall into a pit trap of some kind. Speed didn't even acknowledge them visibly, but they had no need to worry... as angry as Speed was at the two, if they needed help he would go rushing right to them. But would they do the same for the twins and Stacy?

Zack and Marigold would find a lot of the usual stuff when going down that hallway. It was laid out cleanly enough, at least, not too easy to get lost in. Going into the breakrooms would find... a couple of seats, a bookshelf, a refrigerator and microwave. Checking the drawers of the counters would only result in finding plastic forks. Nothing in there. Going into the locker rooms would yield similar results, a line of open, unlocked, clear door lockers with nothing inside of them and nothing else.

Meanwhile, Speed, Psych, and Zero's drone would split off once they entered the other hallway. Speed would check out both the Arena and the Cages. The Arena was what one would expect, a circular battlefield surrounded by bulletproof glass protected viewing boxes. Were they... making people fight in here or something? After checking that out, the Speedramon walked into the Cages room and-

"Speed?"

"AUGH!" Speed jumped as he looked towards the source of the voice. Inside one of the cages was a Wisemon, one wearing some form of... technological wrist bracelet. But this wasn't any old Wisemon... "Weston? Wh- what are you doing here?"

"Please tell me you didn't come here alone."

"Of course I didn't. Weston, what happened? Why are you in a... cage...?" This would be when Speed would notice the other cages, filled with all different types of Digimon ranging from rookie level to Ultimate level, each one wearing a variation of that wristband, and each one looked nervous and scared. "What in Homeostasis...?"

While that was going on and while Zero's drone would search the computer room, scanning and hacking the computers for any bit of information that he could get (which was tricky, these computers' firewalls were absurdly strong,) Psych would be the one to enter one of the rooms marked "Containment Room." The first thing facing him was one giant glass container filled with that same pink and green liquid from before. The liquid itself was thick and pulsating, the green blotches fluidly moving through it as if they were alive. I believe I found something... unexpected in one of the Containment Rooms, Psych told the group.

Well I bet my big unexpected thing beats yours. There's tons of Digimon in cages here, including our friend Weston the Wisemon.