Tesladyne: Every Day's an Adventure!

[tesla_bot]

The door that opens is a free standing frame on a small plywood dais at the focus of a tremendous amount of cabling and particle emitters. The whole area smells of ozone.

Tesladyne's high energy physics department (Advanced Topology Division) is marked by a school of design that thinks things should be able to be cleaned with a pressure washer - painted cinder block, tiles floors, scorch resistant counters, wire reinforced glass and plenty of drains. Decorations lean towards lolcats, and mock safety signs saying 'Do not look at laser with remaining eye'.

There's a calendar open to December 2010 and a clock that says it's about 10.

"Right it's still morning," says Robo, "Watch your step, it was easier to raise the door three inches than to cut down all the equipment by that much."

Comments

[tesla_bot]

Robo is standing on a smallish box to get above the crowd. Tentacles are moving jerkily in the background, but improve rapidly.Phil has excellent video gaming reflexes.

"Everyone, this is Tyler. He's possibly Jenkin's illegitimate child from a different timeline and he is going to show you how it's possible to run the course. You three," here Robo gestures to the stepping stone trio, "The reward for a job well done being another job: You're all zombies after Tyler."

[basic_powers]

"Nice! Hey Clarkson, where's the zombie makeup?" One of the stepping stone trio grins.

Tyler is just vibrating and waiting to get going before tugging on Robo's pantleg to whisper to him. "Have the ones not playing turn their boots in. Don't want them to catch onto how the shoggoths followed them too easily."

[tesla_bot]

"Point. And turn your boots back in if you aren't on the course. You don't get to keep those yet."

There's some grumbling while the bin the boots came from is refilled and hauled off.

"You ready Phil? On three."

Hope Tyler's on the starting line.

"Three!"

[basic_powers]

He doesn't even bother to look behind for the shoggoths, Tyler knows that they have got to be forming up right behind him. It's a quick trot, notably -not- a sprint that takes him up to the climbing wall.

Tyler is staying calm and rationing out his energy. Good thing too, cause the climbing wall is a little unfamiliar for him, but he does make it to the top.

[tesla_bot]

It is excellent progress by Tyler.

"Go get 'em tentacle!"

"That's Phil, Clarkson you nimrod."

The peanut gallery is in fine shape and Phil is certainly doing his best to appease them with swipes from the first tentacle.

[basic_powers]

Tyler's been dodging tentacles for the last year and a half, off and on. He's learned a trick to it, if any of the peanut gallery pick up on it.

He watches the tentacle, sees where it draws back to, and when it lashes out, THAT is the direction he lunges towards, leaving the attack to overshoot him by a foot or so. Using this technique, he makes it to the swinging-tire bridge, just in time for Phil to unleash the screaming mimis.

Take notes class, this kid isn't trying to actively BATTLE anything.

[tesla_bot]

The shoggoths fall through the gaps as before without anyone handy to play skeleton but in addition to the mimis, Phil has also taken the time to hit the strobes, the dimmers and the fog machines. No favorites are being played here.

Pipe maze next.

[basic_powers]

Whough, it's a LOT harder with the strobes going off now to see things. Tyler's reasonably certain that he has left the shoggoths some ways behind but that is NO reason to stop and look behind.

Now comes the part where Tyler keeps thinking on his feet, as he's not going through the pipe maze. Playground gymnastics come mightily into play as Tyler makes use of small size and the many pipes, the tentacle tries to strike at him more than once, but clever use of the pipes as a quick get away and defense prove most useful. He's not making that good of a time though, the screaming mimis often throw him off balance, leaving him to swing holding onto the pipe to make another pass.

"...I woulda thought of that." Hammond mutters for a moment.

[tesla_bot]

Don't feel too bad Hammond, none of the adults came up with it in time.

The zombies, being proper slow stumbling examples of the type, aren't an issue on the pipe maze. They are, however, in the pipe maze. Which makes this the highest concentration of tracers for the shoggoths to home in on.

"He's outsi-" Ah. The one with the baseball cap has had it stuffed in his mouth.

"Shut it Jake. Nobody needs you or your internet habits out here."

Well that's some aggression that won't make it to Tyler.

[basic_powers]

You know what, the zombies are totally helping Tyler right now. Because all four of the shoggoths have made it out from under the bridge by climbing on top of each other, and are now coming for the zombies inside of the maze.

"BLRRGLLLRRRAAAUR!!"

"FUCK! SHOGGOTHS!" One of the zombies promptly declares as one of the shoggoths takes a lunge and misses. They forgot about the shoggoths didn't they?

Tyler's almost out of the pipe maze now folks.

[tesla_bot]

Eh, they did but they'll get by. The shoggoths are herding them towards the other end of the maze anyway.

"GROWMPF!"

"Faster Jimmy!"

Or not. The question now: Did Tyler out think three panicked men in face paint and a quartet of pseudo-abominations out of Lovecraft, or did they get lucky and end up at the right exit to the pipe maze?

[basic_powers]

No, no he did not. He was more focused on getting through the maze to the point he knew he'd have the best chance of getting across. The Stepping Stones ball pit.

However as soon as he realizes he's out of the maze and where he wants to be...he's also noticing the zombies and their shoggoth entourage.

NOW is the time to sprint for the ball pit and dodge every zombie on his tail.

[tesla_bot]

Three shoggoths slumping, two zombies lurching and a shoggoth with zombie.

Also a tentacle from above. Phil isn't even trying to be subtle, that sucker is out and swinging back and forth. If Tyler can time it right it's literally just a hop, skip and a jump and he's out.

[basic_powers]

That is IF he can time it right...so, why not BUY some time? As he flattens himself against the stepping stone to avoid a tentacle swipe, he grabs up two of the balls from the pit. Then Tyler rolls onto his back and sits up.

Zombie number one, Zombie number two?

-ponk!- -ponk!-

Headshots for both of you!

[tesla_bot]

Headshots or no they don't quite go down - those are just hollow plastic balls after all - but they do pause.

"GROOOWMFP!"

Right that's the zombies delayed, consumed, whichever, but there's still the advancing blobs. How that timing looking now Tyler?

[basic_powers]

It's looking pretty darn good!

See, there's a reason he didn't put the last double shoggoth egg in the ball pit.

Physics time: What happens when something of a denser mass enters a body of something lighter?

It sinks.

So the three shoggoths who have fed sink down into the depths of the ball pit, leaving Tyler with just two foes to face.

Shoggoth #4 is creeping it's way across the ball pit slowly now... And he hasn't forgotten about his friend the tentacle.

Jump, dive, flatten! Jump, flatten, two stones left... Phil is really getting his game on now.

Hokay...and..Jump, dive and roll...

"Made it!" One ten-year-old bouncing around at making it to the finish zone.

Uh, Tyler don't celebrate too soon cause Phil-

"WAUGH!"

...hasn't shut down the tentacle yet.

[tesla_bot]

"Got 'em!"

"You can let him go now Phil."

"Aaaww. Nuts."

"You good Tyler?"

"That is why you need to go back to training," says Robo, "And why you don't stop trying."

[basic_powers]

"MRFGFRRGLE!"

...Guard you shins after this Phil. The tentacle drops Tyler down into a nice landing in the ballpit after a second and goes slack.

He's also a.. ahem. A little pinker all over for having come out of this tentacle.

"I'm good, nothin' broken, but I'd like a shower and a big old snack."

...

"Oh and did anyone wet their pants the first run? I have a bet with Phil to settle."

[tesla_bot]

Everyone points at Jake who is sputtering indignantly.

"I threw up, but that's manly."

"Shut up Clarkson."

"Right, turn the rest of the boots in and everyone clean up."

Robo has private showers, away from the regular workers.

"The odds were thirteen to one in my favor," says Phil who is back out of the tire-blind, "Heck of a run you had there."

[basic_powers]

"Thanks, I've been wanting to practice more stuff like that for a while." Tyler says to Phil as he passes the tire-blind. "I owe you five bucks and a coke, then. Hammond just looked like the one most likely to have gulped down a whole carafe of coffee before the exercise."

He's just going to shut down all the putty eggs for now, to conserve their energy, and to take the Gameboy of Mad Science with him.

"Don't tell the guys how the shoggoths followed em, we wanna keep em guessing."

[tesla_bot]

"My lips are sealed," says Phil, "And I think Hammond's just naturally jittery."

"You want to clean up here, or back... you know?" asks Robo, "Your choice - I've got guest rooms around here and everything."

[basic_powers]

"Here's good, I've been spending a little too much time in the bar lately, anyways."

Granted it's as close to normal as he gets but really...

And you know. Two more runs to plan out.

"I've got an idea for the next run I wanna throw at you too... It's called 'toy soldiers'."