Sketch and Ben started walking to their computer system when Sketch suddenly turned to face Teller. Teller stood alone in the middle of the room, back to them. "How should I know where your friend is?" Teller looked at her. He pointed at himself, gazing at her questioningly. "Yeah, I was talking to you," Sketch said as if Teller had actually asked a question. Teller shook his head in disbelief and walked towards a shelf adjacent to the wall.
Sketch suddenly spotted her pet tarantula crawling up Teller's back. "There you are Quentin Tarantula," Sketch said, and pulled the spider off of Teller's jacket. A tremendous bang overhead startled the two as Mole fell from above. In Sketch's surprise, she dropped the spider. The large bug raced away.
In another part of the building, Igor and Lurch continued their plans to terrify everybody. "Hey, there are a lot of places for a person to hide and quite a few possibilities for pranks and booby-traps around," Igor started.
"Yeah, and the noises in the ventilation system are great for getting people all wound up," Lurch added. Little did they know that just around a bend in the vent, there was someone listening to their plans.
"I know a few secret passages that were built, in case of emergency. There's one under the science lab and another behind the cabinets in the kitchen." Igor began ticking off all the good hiding places as she talked. All the while, the mysterious person listened.
Outside, Penn was taking things out of the van. "Hey, someone's been in here. My knives, a rope, and my tools are missing. Where's my nickel plated .357 Magnum? It was right next to the Beretta," Penn yelled out loud to himself. Later that evening, Sketch sat by the window, watching the storm clouds over the horizon grow closer. All the turbulent activity and unfocused lightning befitted the cataclysmic storm. "Those clouds don't look so good. We're in for a major storm. Well, back to work." Sketch went back to her computer system and continued downloading the floor plans of the compound.
As night began to bleed into the dusk sky, Igor and Dr. George stood outside, a few hundred yards from the building. "It does look like a poor structure of fiber-glass and stainless steel, doesn't it?" Igor said, rubbing her hands together for warmth.
"I wanted to talk to you alone. You need to seal up all the secret trap doors and passages in there. Except the underground tunnel to the airport," Dr. George instructed her.
"Already did, sir. I even let Lurch know where a few of them are. Those are the ones I put the contact cement in and around. Just because..."
"What about the supplies, and the containment factors?"
"I got it all down; the floor plans are being looked over. This place will be easier to re-build if anything happens."
"And the telescope? The lens and the beam?"
"It's almost ready. We're only going to get one shot at this. That storm is a mother-ship out there, and NASA's probably already tracking it." Igor looked up at the sky knowingly.
She looked back at Dr. George. "By the way, who are those two fellows that NASA sent here, anyway?"
The doctor looked at her with a blank expression. "I don't rightly know, but they say they're magicians. What the hell kind of cover is that?"
"I don't know who they are, but Teller says they've dabbled in science expeditions from time to time. They have a grade D in Scuba diving...master divers, you know."
"What the hell are they doing out here in this god forsaken place?!" Igor shrugged and Dr. George furrowed his brow in confusion.
Later that night, they were all gathered around the mess hall tables, which had been put together to form one large table. The lightning was a glaring series of flashes as the thunder could be heard getting closer, weaving the entire compound in an eerie glow as everyone ate quietly. Lurch sat by Sketch. Igor and Ben were talking casually, their attempt at breaking the ice. Penn and Teller were staring at everyone. Dr. George was staring at them.
Finally, Penn broke the small talk. "Why do you have my gun?" he asked blatantly while looking at each and every person seated at the table.
"I have it in safe keeping. You'll get it back, if you don't piss off the aliens and blow us all to hell, or Hell's Basin as it were," Igor answered calmly.
"Aliens?"
"Teller has informed me that these kinds of missions are usually suicide, so you should know that any use of force or hostility will set us back the fifteen years, like it did last time when this alien paranoia caused the last team to decide that tracking these rare magnetic storm fields would somehow lead to an invasion. You know not with what you're dealing with," Igor said without skipping a beat.
"Your little case of dynamite is also outdated..." Lurch added.
"Yes, and Teller has already told me that everything is non weapons grade," Sketch said.
"Nitro that couldn't even put a dent in a Yugo," Mole chimed in, snickering.
"Leave the war tactics to me, Penn. Teller's already said that he doesn't want to have to scrape you off of the sides of this place," Dr. George said in a very polite manner. Penn looked over at Igor. She just pushed her food away and took a drink of the sparkling clear water with a thoughtful, faraway look in her eyes.
"It was all Teller's idea. He planned everything." Penn said sheepishly.
Lurch winked at Igor from across the table. Igor then took notice. "I'm sorry about biting you earlier today, Lurch," Igor apologized.
"You kissed me. You're such a minx..." Lurch began to laugh, but felt his neck and then let out a sharp "Oh shit!" as he realized there were a few teethmarks that just then were felt.
"No I...I bite."
Everyone else smiled and chuckled a little and were in the process of thinking up a good joke to add to that when, all of a sudden, the tarantula ran across the table. There was chaos and Sketch tried desperately to catch the poor thing. "Do NOT hurt my spider!" she cried while leaping from her seat.
The spider continued its path off of the table and down to the floor. "I used to have one like it," Igor remembered.
"No one's gonna hurt it, please? Please promise me that no one's gonna try to kill it!"
"It's too small for food, so no one's gonna touch it. It'll be okay," Igor reassures Sketch.
Teller hid under the table crying, Penn fainted and Ben and Mole were nowhere to be found. Sketch took off after the spider as quickly as her little legs could carry her. The spider cut a corner and disappeared. Shortly after, a scream could be heard coming from the direction Sketch had gone. Teller crawled out from under the table, knocking one of the cold water pitchers onto Penn, and went towards the scream. Penn followed at some distance. They found Sketch huddled in a corner of a room, two-thirds of the way down the corridor, on the right. She was in shock. Her eyes were unfocused, staring blindly at an open vent on the other side of the room.
On the floor, in front of the vent was a note. Penn was the first to see it. He picked it up and read it aloud to the others, who had followed him into the room after some time.
"Meerka muck loor finke boo." Penn laughed. "Nah, just kidding. It says 'Tag, you're it!'" Penn rolled his eyes. "Now, does this mean I'm it or what?" Teller noticed a huge red dart sticking out of the wall not even an inch from where Sketch's head had been.
After they put Sketch in the infirmary, Dr. George led the others back to the mess hall. "Who wasn't here at dinner? Penn was sitting across from Mole. Teller was next to Penn. Sketch and Lurch were sitting together, next to Penn and Teller. I was next to Mole and Ben and Igor were talking to each other. That's everybody; even the freakin' spider was here! So who could have attacked Sketch?"
"How do you know she was even attacked?" Ben asked.
"You know her better than anyone. Would she fake something like this?" Lurch asked.
"Don't worry Lurch. I'm sure if this is a prank, you'll be the first to step in it," Igor mused. "Let's just ask her when she wakes up," Igor said decisively.
Later that night, Sketch awoke. She looked up to see a face hovering inches above hers. She screamed. The face twisted into an expression of surprise. Sketch moved away from the face and tumbled out of bed. This took place in less than three seconds. Teller climbed onto the bed and looked down at Sketch. He seemed apologetic as he reached down and pulled her up from the floor. "Don't do that. You almost gave me a heart attack." Sketch held her chest and waited for her pulse to slow.
When she had caught her breath, Ben was the first to ask the question that had been on all their minds since her bloodcurdling scream pierced the calm air around them after the chaotic stir with the spider. "What the hell happened?"
Sketch looked innocently at Ben. "Well, first, before I tell you anything, give me back my spider that you're wearing in your hair." At this Ben freaked out, then ran out of the room screaming. He came back in, rather annoyed.
"You were saying?"
When everyone was through laughing, Sketch took a breath. "Well, I was chasing my spider and it ran into the empty storage room. I followed it in and just as I got my hands around it, the vent banged open. I turned to see who it was and..." Suddenly, there was a clap of thunder and the lights went out. Lightning briefly illuminated the room and revealed looks of near terror on everyone's faces.
"...and then like so, I had the spider, right?" Sketch continues. "But when I turned to see no one standing anywhere near the place, the spider ran off again. But something's in these vents and we're all too busy frying bigger fish to worry about any damned intruders."