D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Hunter ---

Hunter spread out her aura and then just ripped the hatch open. This wasn't like the giant doors that would require some effort to open quietly and may unleash a robot army or something, this was an elevator hatch and it was removed swiftly and without too much noise. The welding was pretty weak and a good tug was all it took. Hopping down into the elevator it had clearly seen better days.

It had a bunch of scratches and scorch marks on it, having probably been used during the fighting on the floor above. The real issue, considering Hunter wasn't planning on using the elevator, was that the doors were welded shut.

Sighing and keeping her aura up Hunter jammed her fingers straight through the welding and tried to push the door open. Instead, the much weaker metal of the elevator doors simply gave way under her fingers instead of letting themselves be torn open.

Hunter reacted quickly, pulling out a knife and slicing first upwards then straight back down to cut all of the welding away and pressing the manual override on the panel.

As partly expected nothing happened. Hunter did hear a click in the walls implying something should've been released but the mechanism either failed at some point or was intentionally broken. Hunter just decided to get on with it and tore a hole through the metal and bringing herself face to face with another door.

This one had a keycard attached to it but through the gaps she could see that the behind the door a number of steel plates had been welded across to keep it shut even if you had a keycard.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

So, the good old rip your way through was utilised once again with Hunter slicing through the metal using the gap in the door including the deadbolt keeping it in place. Now, technically the door opened towards her… but a good kick and the sound of screeching metal had it opening the 'correct' way leading Hunter in to what looked like a reception area.

It was clean but not as well maintained as the rest of the place. The carpet looked old and rotten, the circular desk for the receptionist to sit at had a number of cracks running through it and more than a few old stains.

Lining the walls were a collection of couches in various states of disrepair. The cushions were fraying, some of the legs had snapped at some point, the pieces left around to just sit in place and unlike the desk that had clearly been dusted at some point in the past few years the couches needed a much better cleaning. The paintings on the walls actually looked pretty good in comparison.

They were in glass boxes and while the boxes now gave everything a slight orange tint the paintings on the inside seemed to be fine if unremarkable.

They were a mixture of landscape pictures, from forests to farmland with a few cities complete with flying cars and a spaceship sitting in the background. It made Hunter wonder if that was all technology these people once had or if that picture was depicting a dream for the future.

Considering the planet was devastated but no groups had returned from space to take it back over, Hunter was confident in guessing that if they had regular space travel it wasn't widespread yet.

Hunter looked around a bit more. There were obvious places for a couple of computers to have sat once upon a time but they'd all been moved at this point along with the chairs that might have once been behind the desk. Which made it interesting that the desk had clearly been cleaned recently. It was old and not cleaned properly but the dust was gone.

Hunter frowned a bit at that and looked around the room some more. There was two obvious doors at either side of the desk but they were off to the left if you came in from the elevator.

Still, Hunter checked them over and found that while they did have locks on them they weren't locked. Hunter opened both carefully, just a crack to look down but saw nothing but old corridors in much the same state as the office. Mostly dust free but clearly aging with less than stellar maintenance.

Hunter carefully made her way down the corridor, flicking her tongue out as she caught the scent of a few people. Not particularly fresh but not old either. Someone, or someones had been up here less than a month ago.

*That confirms it people are still living here. I don't know what that means because these rooms don't seem lived in. There must be somewhere else. I suppose I'll follow this scent trail and see where that puts me.*

Hunter did try one of the nearby doors for a quick look inside but they were locked. Not all that well by the looks of things, and not with electronics so they seemed quite pickable but Hunter didn't want to get distracted with them for the moment. Now that she had confirmation of people living here looking into that was her top priority, especially if they were messing around with the drake part.

That could potentially be quite bad.

Following the scent past the rows of doors and through a few other corridors had Hunter standing in front of another elevator and the scent of the individuals was quite strong here. Every time they came to this floor it was from this location and all of the scents had mixed together somewhat.

Old and new scents, it was clear this elevator had been in use for quite a long time. Breaking into this elevator would get noticed quite quickly and using it might be even worse. Even with her aura to ignore things… if they knew everyone was already in the area it would be a bit too strange to ignore.

Distant sounds were one things, but an elevator that is only used by a small group lightning up while everyone was accounted for? That would trigger some things.

Hunter looked around the elevator for and way to open it. The obvious force open for the doors had been welded over for some reason which made entering the elevator much harder then it needed to be. *Hmm… I didn't see any traps or anything so why would they do this? Was it really a concern or was someone just being stupid? Maybe kids?

I could see them playing around in the elevator shaft if there wasn't much else to do.*

Hunter examined the welding carefully and compared it against her memories of the other welds. Quickly confirming that this one was much, much older then the ones blocking her entry to this floor. *Alright. So I can't be certain this was for child safety reasons but I can at least confirm that it isn't to stop the robots.

I could spend some time chipping away at the manual override here but I'm not sure the mechanism would still be working after all of this time with motel metal stuck to it. Hmmm….*

Hunter started tapping the walls nearby looking for a hollow panel that could be removed but wasn't having any such luck. It wasn't uncommon in elevators, but wasn't super common either. The hatch she managed to find under all the dirt and grass had probably been in the back of a maintenance room once upon a time so that would probably work here but… Hunter glanced at the ceiling.

*Could there be another entrance in the wrecked floor? I feel like if there was it would've been sealed a bit more thoroughly then some shoddy welding and steel beams… but maybe they didn't know?

It's hard to tell exactly how long ago the robot uprising was and with a rough idea of where this elevator IS I should be able to head to the matching spot in the floor above me to look for a maintenance hatch. At the same time… hmm…*

Hunter moved to the nearby doors looked at the locks. Basic, and now she had a better reason to make her way into one. Pulling out a set of lockpicks Hunter was able to swiftly get the lock open and walked inside. It was an old bedroom setup.

The mattress was gone but the frames were left behind, the closet was empty of everything including clothes hangers and sadly, there was no convenient vent in the closet that led to the outside. There was an old desk that was part of the wall, but it was against the wrong wall for the vents and didn't have anything on it anymore.

It was kind interesting that it had managed to remain for so long though, especially with all the dust indicating disrepair.

Hunter could also see under the bed through the missing mattress and dismiss that as a location as well so she locked the door and backed out, checking the other room nearest to the elevator with practically identical results it was just that the room was mirrored. *Hmm… heading upstairs is looking more and more like the best idea.

I'm sure there are other rooms I could check around the elevator shaft but these are definitely the closest.*