trans_9 | Never tickle a sleeping Basilisk

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Never tickle a sleeping Basilisk

Sirius hadn't had much time to adjust. He'd hardly returned from the Multiverse's Next Top Model when GLaDoS grabbed him. And then when she finally let him go it was in a place of the ship he'd never seen before. Perhaps that was a blessing. Better to explore than to brood, as he had been inclined to do while he ran mazes.

Sirius didn't walk for very long before he came to something strange, or rather something out of place. He paused and stared at a set of sinks for about a minute before realizing why it looked so familiar. It was similar to the ones at Hogwarts- at least on certain levels. Not any in the men's rooms, probably one of the girl's. He had been in them several times to be sure there weren't any hidden passages and he hadn't found any. But this- this was different. The one sink had fallen away completely, revealing only a pipe. But then it couldn't be a Hogwarts sink, could it? Even if Sirius had missed the entrance then James or Remus ~~or Peter~~ would have found it. How could they miss something like this?

Sirius approached the sink and gazed down into the pipe. It was large enough to fit through. A secret entrance if ever he'd seen one though not very hygienic. As if that was going to stop him.

"Lumos." The light from Sirius's wand illuminated only several feet of grime coating the pipe but the pipe itself continued further.

Clearly there was only one logical thing to do. Jump in. Sirius's honor was at stake, after all, and all of the Marauders'. They had searched every inch of Hogwarts castle and grounds. They thought they had discovered everything. If this really was from Hogwarts then one of the Marauders, in this case Sirius, had correct this oversight.

Sirius stepped up to the pipe, took a deep breath, and practically jumped inside. Even if the pipe was old and covered in slime, the rush of air over his body was exhilirating. He had no idea what was about to happen next, where he would land (hopefully not on a set of spikes), or if anything was waiting for him (he would not be disappointed).

Sirius let out a laugh like a bark and the noise traveled up through the pipes, echoing above while he fell further below until finally he hit the damp stone floor at the bottom. He stood, brushing himself off, and looked up into the dark pipes. There was no clear way of how he would get back but he was not too concerned about it.

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Roger glanced briefly over his shoulder at the handle of the supersledge he carried, mentally weighing it against the sort of force a gorilla's arms could put into the swing. At the sudden mental speech he looked back to Marco again. He'd only ever encountered that once before- earlier. "Say, question," he said. "Do you know a hawk named Tobias?"

And now he was hearing Marco's voice in his head. Definitely not an Animagus.

"Harry is my godson. Before I came on this ship, the last time I saw him he was a baby. As for Animagus, you're not the only one here with a talent for turning into animals." Then he looked at Roger. "There's someone else who can do this? How many of them are there?"

<Yeah,> Marco said casually, although internally he was sizing up Roger and trying to figure out how much he knew. By now their morphing abilities were public knowledge - but as far as the crew knew, Tobias was trapped and couldn't morph at all. Marco had to watch out for the guy. <Just make sure you don't ever get between him and a mouse, man.>

Then he was turning to Sirius with narrowed eyes. <Looking to take a census of my friends, are you?> he said cooly.

"My grandfather taught me never go near the family dog when he was eating, back when I was a boy," says Roger with a shrug. "Same thing with a hawk, I'd imagine."

As Marco's attention turned to Sirius, he turned to examine the area around them. This sounded like an incipient argument, and arguments in unfamiliar places usually meant terrible things were going to happen very shortly while people were distracted.

"Is that an accusation? I have my own reasons for being curious and none of them involve hurting you or your friends."

Well, the Ministry of Magic wasn't going to take Sirius back to Azkaban here. He had no reason to fear revealing his ability. Besides, keeping their powers a secret was one mistake of many that lead to Pettigrew framing Sirius and escaping.

Still, there was no reason to let them know, was there? No, no reason save for a potential connection to someone, an understanding. Something he'd sorely missed since Azkaban. Decision made.

After watching the officials break it in two, Sirius was not ready to part with his wand. Once again he placed it in his mouth and this time they could see him change into an enormous black dog, still holding a wand between its large fangs.

Sirius wagged his tail.

Okay, that was not what Marco had been expecting. <Woah,> he said, staring. Jeez, that was one hell of a dog.

<Yeah, well most people who'd ask questions like 'how many morphers are there' don't want to know because they can turn into animals too,> Marco said, conceding. He was still suspicious - Marco was always suspicious - but he at least wasn't regarding Sirius as a potential threat.

He eyed Sirius for a moment. <You're morph's way better for looking around that mine. Gorilla's might be awesome, but they aren't really the scouting type,> he said, starting to demorph.

"Huh," says Roger. "Well, don't expect any demonstrations from me. The only thing I turn into is a crankier, older soldier."

Not, he knew, the most helpful of statements- but when two people out of three suddenly demonstrated incredible abilities in some of the old pulp books he used to enjoy, it usually meant the third person either had to match their talent or top the both of them at once.

Sirius also changed back and took his wand out of his mouth. He wiped it off on his sleeve before raising it. It was still glowing from his lumos spell, waiting for the word nox. Right now it provided the only light source in the tunnel.

"As long as you can can hold your own I have no problems." He said to Roger before looking at Marco. "It's handy for exploring but I'd rather stay as I am now if I can help it. I can't use my wand as a dog and I can't talk either. You'll have to tell me how you can when you're transformed after we're finished here."

"Dude, that's almost the scariest ability of all," Marco said, grinning. "The scariest being the ability to transform into a gym teacher."

He shrugged at Sirius. "It just comes with the morphing," he said, keeping any explanations vague. "But hey, I don't need to worry about a stick when I'm morphed. I can do plenty of exploring." And with that he started morphing again, but this time to bat. For a cavern like this, it was the best morph.

Somehow he'd ended up forgetting that he hadn't actually wanted to come exploring at all in the first place.

"I've fought giant scorpions, desert raiders, and angry Deathclaws," said Roger dryly, gesturing towards the weapons he carried on his back. "And this is good armor in good repair. I'll manage, I think."

The bat thing was an interesting trick. Large animals with close-to-human body weight were one thing, but where the hell was that kid's mass going?

"Stick? A stick? This is my wand, idiot. Call it that again and I'll shoot you down. Stick..." He grumbled and started walking forward, not waiting for the others to follow. "If we run into anything you'll be glad I have it with me."

Muggles. They didn't know any better. It was no use getting mad at them.

Roger, you really didn't want to know. Marco still tried to not think to hard about all the the blobs of Marco-mass that would just float around z-space whenever he morphed small.

<Oooh, thank goodness for the stick. Please, oh great holder of the stick, protect me!> Marco said after he'd finished morphing into bat. He launched into the air, darting ahead of Sirius and flitting around all over the place so that he'd be harder to hit - just in case Sirius did try to shoot him down.

"We're in unfamiliar territory in an area where something carnivorous lives, in an unknown part of the ship, with no way of communicating with anyone else," Roger snapped. "Could we please refrain from giving each other a hard time until after we figure out what our next move is?"

Pause.

"Because I'm pretty sure I can hear something nasty moving around out there," he added, and reached up to switch on the light attached to the side of his helmet.

"You're absolutely right." Sirius said right before he hexed Marco. The spell was only mildly inconvenient, if not very pleasant. Bat Marco might feel a sudden, overwhelming vertigo for several seconds before Sirius ended the spell.

"That settles everything." He said brightly.

Marco swerved suddenly, slamming into the side of the cavern once before spinning around dizzily.

<...I meant to do that,> he said.

Roger almost answered. Almost. What he saw ahead, though...

He held up one fist in the 'everybody stop now' gesture he'd used in the Army, and froze. His helmet lamp, and to a lesser degree Sirius' wand, cast a faint glow into an enormous, faintly green-litten chamber. Pairs of pillars thick as a man, carved all over with snakes and serpentine designs, stretched away into the gloom. The whole place had an air of chill, of gloom and shadow, and frankly, he didn't like the sight of it one bit.

He reached over his shoulder for the laser rifle, just in case.

Though unfamiliar with the gesture, guessed what it meant and stopped. He also gazed into the chamber and immediately recognized it.

He swore. "It's the Chamber of Secrets." Why it didn't occur to him before he didn't know. He couldn't count the hours he'd spent looking for this place. He thought it was a myth. Now here he was standing in the lair of Salazar Slytherin and his monster. What any of his relatives would do to be in his place.

This was an incredible discovery and he didn't regret for a moment following his urge to explore. He did regret bringing two muggles with him. He didn't know what creature Slytherin left in here but he knew it wouldn't be friendly. He also knew that if it had survived this long it would be nearly impossible to kill.

"Get behind me."

<The Chamber of what now?> Marco said. That did not sound good, and Marco was definitely getting a sense of that things were seriously not good right now.

Why were they doing this, again?

He fired off some clicks, trying to 'see' what was out there. When the clicks bounced back, Marco's blood ran cold.

<Guys, there is something seriously big out there that is moving towards us,>

Roger swore under his breath. "You recognize the place," he said tersely, falling in behind Sirius. "What's both huge and likely to be in here?"

It was unfamiliar ground, and he didn't like it one bit.

"I don't know." Words Sirius spoke rarely. "Slytherins are snakes and Salazar was supposedly a Parselmouth. Maybe- some kind of snake? Or-"

At that moment something stirred behind them. Scales rustled against the floor. Sirius turned and caught sight of the creature's side as it moved back into the shadow, circling them.

He let loose a stream of curses that would make a sailor blush.

"It's a Basilisk. Close your eyes! If it looks into your eyes you're dead. CLOSE YOUR EYES RIGHT NOW."

As soon as he finished speaking the Basilisk reared forward. It was shaped like a snake but grossly distorted in size, at least 50 feet. Its fangs were doubly lethal, not only capable of puncturing bone but delivering venom that only phoenix tears could cure. Its beaming yellow eyes were death to look upon directly.

Sirius shouldn't have bragged about the powers of his wand. The Basilisk's scales reflected magic. Sirius didn't have much faith in whatever technology the Muggle had with him.

They were dead. There was no way they were going to live through this. The only one of them who had a chance at surviving this was Marco if he flew away fast.

The realization sent a wave of fear through Sirius's body. His wand hand shook. He grasped his wand tighter and his hand stilled. They weren't dead yet. Sirius had brought the others here. Their lives were his responsibility. He would protect them until he breathed his last. He would die a Gryffindor.

<A snake? That thing's a giant snake?!> Marco said, incredulous. Except now that it was closer, the bat's echolocation was showing that Sirius was telling the truth.

There was a giant goddamn snake that apparently could kill them by looking into their eyes coming after them.

<Okay I know people talk about 'if looks could kill', but this is insane!> he said, flapping around madly. At least he was lucky - in this morph, he didn't need eyes to see. Not that being able to see was at all reassuring. <Oh man, it's getting closer...>

"Oh, hell's bells-"

Roger was facing in the right general direction, and the thing was the size of a building. The way he saw it he stood a good chance of laying some pain down on the thing even if he fired wildly, so he took the best aim he could manage before closing his eyes and rapidly squeezing his rifle's trigger several times. If he was lucky, the red laser would at least damage the thing's scales somewhat- concentrating fire on a patch of hide worked wonders with Deathclaws, after all.

Just as Roger fired the Basilisk swerved closer to its prey- and out of the lasers line of fire. The light however, did cause it to rear back and hiss instead of striking at them.

Sirius risked a glance at the creature, keeping his line of sight close to the floor. Once he saw its position he shut his eyes again. He raised his wand at what was hopefully the Basilisk's eyes.

"Conjunctivitis."

Luck was not on his side, at least not in this instance. The spell struck the Basilisk's body and the scales repelled it back onto Sirius.

"SON OF A-" Out of instinct, Sirius dropped his wand and raised his hands to his swollen eyes.

<Dude, aim more to the right, it's moved out of your line of...what the hell was that? You idiot, what are you doing?> Marco said, changing track from trying to direct roger to wonder what the hell Sirius was doing when that...whatever that was happened.

But as much as Marco wanted to yell at Sirius for a while, he didn't have time for that. The thing was still coming for them, and since the genius with the stick had managed to take himself out he was gonna be in serious trouble. And not the kind he could make a fun pun about.

<If this thing eats me, I am so going to come back and haunt you. And your stick!> Marco yelled as he launched himself towards the basilisk and flying in circles around it's head in an attempt to distract it.

"Aiming right!" Roger snapped, eyes still closed and hoping like hell nobody got in the way. "Firing!"

The AER9 laser rifle is not an automatic weapon. It is, however, a weapon that can get twenty-four good shots in a row off a single microfusion cell, as fast as the operator's finger can repeatedly squeeze the trigger.

If Marco's aerobatics didn't distract the monstrous snake, the barrage of laser fire probably would.

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