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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<No, but somehow I seriously doubt that this thing won't be able to smell and sense us.> Marco said, coming down to the ground and starting to demorph. The bat was good for checking out the place - in a fight, it was practically useless. <And if I left, you'd probably end up knocking yourself out with your own attack again. Someone has to stay here to make sure you don't do something completely stupid.>

In a roundabout way, that basically meant that Marco wasn't going to bail. As much as he complained and acted like he'd run off at the first sign of danger, Marco was a lot more reliable in a fight than he seemed.

<You wouldn't happen to have any explosives on you?> Marco asked Roger. <If we can get one it it's...> his thought speak cut off as he demorped, but his message had come through clear enough.

Roger shook his head. "No explosives," he said sourly. "One laser pistol, my rifle here, and the sledge. If the thing's vulnerable inside its mouth, I can place five hits in a row on an area the size of a man's thumbnail at two hundred yards with the rifle in the time it takes to wind up and swing a baseball bat. Probably won't kill an enemy that size, but I will give it serious pain."

Sirius was never going to live shooting himself with his own hex down. But he could minimize the damage to his ego later, if they survived.

"Right. I'll distract it and get it to open its mouth while you er- shoot is the right word, I think?" Sirius lifted his sword and took several seconds to admire it while he still had the chance. "If that doesn't kill it I'll get close enough to finish the job."

"Right, and what happens if it eats you first?" Marco pointed out, now fully demorphed. "Or if he misses? That's way too risky, and way too dependent on just hoping it'll do what we want. If we're going to take this thing down, we'll be better off trying to find a way to immobilize it, or at least restrict it's movements."

"It'll be back around soon," Roger pointed out. "If you've got some kind of suggestion I'd really like to hear it."

"If you know how to immobilize something with no legs and nearly impenetrable scales then go ahead. Ah!" Sirius had finally spotted his wand lying several feet away. He darted forward, grabbed it, and moved back to rejoin the group. "I'll put up a few protection spells. Might slow it down."

"You can't hit it, but there's nothing to stop you from hitting anything else," Marco pointed out. "You got any spells that could cause a cave in?" Marco paused. "Man, I cannot believe I just asked that."

Roger considered that, and then turned and looked at one of the nearby pillars.

"Hey. How hard do you think a gorilla could swing this?" he said, indicating the sledge on his back. "It's got kinetic energy storage and release mechanisms built into it. Give it a few good swings and by the time you make impact it'll come in with three or four times the force of your actual swing. If he can't cause a cave in, I'd bet you could."

Sirius took a break from creating barriers to interject.

"I could create a cave in but it's a bad idea. Even if we weren't crushed it might seal off the exit. And there's no guarantee that it would kill the Basilisk. Our best chance is to hold our ground and fight."

"Fight, yes; make idiotic sacrifices, no. And the idea isn't to kill the Basilisk. The idea is to slow down the Basilisk, because that will make it a lot easier for Roger to shoot it."

And at that point Marco grinned. "Oh, a gorilla could swing that pretty damn hard. Hell, I'm betting I could at least stun it pretty damn hard with that."

"Take it, then," Roger said. "I'll set up for a shot. I only need its mouth open for a few seconds to make it wish it'd never been born."

Pause.

"Hatched. Whatever."

Sirius grinned at Marco and stowed away his wand.

"Ready for an idiotic sacrifice?"

"Dude, no way am I doing any ididic sacrifices. You can have that part all to yourself. Meanwhile, I will be coming up behind the snake in what we would typically call the 'not completely insane approach', which at least has a chance of working without killing you in the process." Marco said, taking the hammer and starting to morph.

Edited 2012-01-24 06:05 (UTC)

"Gentlemen, you have your parts," Roger said crisply as he knelt and readied his rifle. "Let's flatten this snake, shall we?"

Before they could get in position, the Basilisk came out from the shadows- across from where they had been prepared for it. It lunged for them but the shields Sirius had set in place slowed it down by several seconds.

Sirius's reaction was immediate. As he'd feared, the spells weren't effective but he needed to draw attention from the others. Holding the Sword of Gryffindor, he ran towards the Basilisk. The plan was still on this was just a complication.

"Go!" He yelled at the others.

It was a good thing Marco had already started morphing and was just about finished, because getting caught mid-morph would not have been good.

As far as he was concerned though, the fact that Sirius was still going along with his idiotic plan to kill himself was definitely not at all good. <You idiot, what did I say about not trying to kill yourself?> he yelled at Sirius. It didn't stop him from moving around to get behind the Basilisk though, swearing all the while.

Roger growled, gritting his teeth, and scrambled for a position that would allow him a clear line of fire. He wasn't the fastest man alive by a long shot, not at his age, but that thing was one hell of a motivator.

"Come on, you wretch, open that mouth and give me something to shoot at..."

The Basilisk moved its head from side to side, flicking out its tongue to pinpoint exactly where its prey was. It focused on the one coming towards it and reared back in preparation to strike.

"Distraction!" Was all Sirius had time to yell at Marco. As he did he hefted the sword back and threw it like a javelin. The sword wasn't aerodynamic at all and while it was arcing towards the Basilisk, it was going to miss it entirely. That's where being a wizard came in handy.

"Leviosa!"

The sword straightened out, and Sirius aimed it at its head. The Basilisk's mouth wasn't open but he managed to slice off part of its tongue. The Basilisk hissed.

<What the hell? Dude, do you think you could have mentioned being able to make swords fly before?!> Marco said, incredulous.

Sirius was right about one thing though - the Basilisk was definitely distracted now. Which made it the perfect time for Marco to swing that hammer, and strike it in the back of the neck.

Psyker, thought Roger, but he didn't bother saying it aloud. Marco was bringing down the hammer- and one good blow from a primed supersledge, in the hands of an ordinary infantryman, could send an armored enemy flying. In Marco's considerably larger and much more dangerous hands, that snake was in for a lot of pain, armored scales or no- or, if nothing else, an impact that would at least shock the hell out of it.

And the instant it opened its mouth even the slightest fraction, Roger started firing at the exposed interior for all he was worth.

The sledgehammer did not penetrate the Basilisk's scales but it could crush perfectly fine regardless. The Basilisk let out a shriek only to be attacked again, this time with a laser rifle.

Overcome by pain, the Basilisk let its body fall to the floor. Blood streamed from its mouth but it was not dead yet.

Sirius slowly approached the Basilisk. Its body was shuddering but aside from breathing, it didn't make any other move. He was too tired to maintain any fine control on his levitation charm. He waved the sword closer and grabbed it, just as he stepped up to the serpent's head. Its jaws were still open.

The dying Basilisk looked pitiful but he couldn't feel sorry for it. He hated it. He hated it more than perhaps he should, even for a creature that had tried to kill him. After all the Basilisk was mindless and hungry, acting only out of its nature. But to Sirius, in that moment, the beast represented everything he hated about his family and their obsession with Slytherin.

The Basilisk lifted its head and turned toward Sirius. He plunged the sword up into the roof of its mouth. The Basilisk's head fell back onto the floor, still and silent now in death.

For a moment, Marco just stood there staring at the dead Basilisk.

<Well,> he said finally. <This isn't going to be the time when you tell us that this thing has the ability to come back to life, or about the other giant thing that lives in here, is it? Because that would totally suck.>

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