"We run out of gas, end up in Hell's Basin, get our weapons confiscated, aliens are hovering overhead, mad scientists are probably going to offer us up as some abducted sacrifice, that spider's had time to make a million more spiders and there's someone else here, that obviously doesn't have security clearance...God! Don't you just love show business?"
Teller was looking up at the ceiling. He smiled in agreement. "Next time you don't need to pour a whole pitcher of ice cold water on me, if I faint again," Penn whispered over. "Lukewarm water or no water at all would be much better, if you wanna live through this," Penn stated then fell asleep.
Meanwhile Sketch and Igor were sitting in their quarters, drinking hot tea and unwinding. "Did you get all the floor plans down?" Igor asked.
"Yes, yes, I still have to download the underground that leads to the airport. But if the power isn't restored, and we have to run off these back-up generators, my equipment isn't going to be much good for shit." Sketch said, rubbing the back of her neck.
Igor looked at Sketch with an expression of comfort and sympathy. This kind of work in these kinds of situations has stress levels that can wear out even the perkiest people. "I'll give Penn's guns and things back to him. I'm not killing anyone, but if someone is after us, he should be the Terminator...because I'm just too damned tired."
Sketch nodded her head and looked over a chart. She looked back up at Igor. "You know, those names sound familiar...Penn and Teller...I don't know why." Sketch thought for a moment, paused, then drew a blank. Igor shrugged her shoulders a little.
"Well, at any rate, they're gonna have to go under code names while they're here, for security reasons. I was thinking something like Fester and Renfield or Siegmeir and Hans."
"I like Fester and Renfield. It has a ring to it, in a dark castle kind of way. I have always loved those old Dracula flicks."
"You get some sleep, Sketch. The storm's still out there and the vents are too quiet, but we should try to sleep. Don't let the others trouble you..."
The next day, Igor and Sketch showed Penn the tanks and pointed out where all the guages and read-outs were and how to read them. Penn took all of this in. Lurch was busy un-gluing Mole from an airvent opening and Teller showed Ben a card trick. Ben tried his best but kept looking over his shoulder. "Do we have full power yet?!" Ben yelled over at Dr. George.
"Yes, and don't throw on the overdrive for radar and the telescope, young man. We need to shut down all the generators first." Dr. George then went out of the room.
"I'm sorry, I'll have to do this later, Teller, uh, I mean, Renfield." As Ben walked away, Teller looked very confused. He shook his head. By his visage, it was obvious that he was questioning the sanity of this science team. He saw a shadow pass by the slits in the nearby vent. Lurch and Mole who were nearby never took notice. Teller sighed with a very troubled look.
"I have a million things to do, Renfield, ask me later," Lurch said as he also left the room with Mole following him. Teller put his head in his hands and looked as though he was praying or listening to a really unpleasant scraping in the vents. He strained to hear. There were mingled voices from the main room where everyone apparently was. He heard things like 'normal for these kinds of storms to linger', 'slowly circulating', 'abducted, what we're trying to prevent', etc, etc.
Teller stood up and looked around the now empty room. Suddenly a woman dressed in a black jumpsuit, with patches on the arms that said 'Area 51 Security', emerged out of the same opening that Mole was stuck in. Teller was frozen in fear.
"No, no, don't be afraid..." she began, "and don't tell the others I'm here. It's okay, I'm not trying to hurt anyone. My name's SpewHari, Krishna for short. I'm only here because the ship will be here, and you must prepare to help us hide this thing." With that the woman disappeared back into the vent. Teller dropped his deck of cards and ran out of the room in terror. As he ran into the main room, he tripped over a wire coiled in a metal casing and fell down, causing one of the overhanging grates to fall down on top of an empty drum, and momentarily trapped Mole, who was inside of it. Mole popped his head out and rocked the drum until it fell over. He crawled quickly away, tripping and trying to get up. Everyone had just watched this unfold, and when Teller and Mole finally got up and were standing, the others gave them a golf clap.
"Hey that was great, Renfield!" Penn said, patting Teller on the back.
"Sag? Kan jag folj med en stund, Renfield?" Igor then chimed in with a very inviting tone. She took his hand and led him away from the drum so she could pick it up, so it wouldn't roll. "Safety first."
Sketch made a check on the generators, assessing how much power each can put out. If the place was running on full power, then she may have been able to hook her equipment up to a generator and give it a little extra power. She checked the schematics of the generators that she downloaded and figured that generator three was her best bet. She then looked over the floor plans again. "Hey, Igor, you know all the passages and trap doors here right?" Sketch asked in a 'just wondering' tone of voice.
"Yeah, every nook and cranny of this joint. Why?"
"Okay, take a look at this. All the regular doors and windows have been marked in red and green respectively. These entrances here are??" Sketch asked, indicating a few little marks on the floor plans.
"Those are the secret entrances. These," she said, indicating a few with her finger, "have all been sealed. The rest are blocked. Why?"
"And every floor covers the same area right? Each floor is mirrored by the ones above and below it?"
"Of course."
"So why are we missing approximately 500 sq. feet on the second level? This space is unaccounted for." She shaded the area in yellow ink.
"I don't know. I'll look into it." With that, Igor disappeared.
Teller was sitting in a corner, looking lonely and bored. Sketch had finished downloading the plans for the passage to the airport, et al., so she decided to go and check up on the haps in other parts of the building. She heard movement in the vents inconsistent with the ventilation system's bangings and hummings. She noticed Mole just moving towards a grate on the wall near the corner. Teller heard it too. He was on his feet in an instant and huddling behind Sketch.
"Umm, dude, let go. Whatever it was, it's gone now." It was apparent that she wasn't going to shake Teller but she was able to get him to walk at arm's length. She headed towards the generators and Teller followed.
Lurch was monitoring the storm overhead on the computer's weather tracking system. It hadn't moved from above the compound and it hadn't dissipated. "Damn, we're in for a long stay, aren't we?" remarked a voice behind Lurch. Lurch turned to see Penn looking at the monitors over his shoulder. "Of all the places to run out of gas, we get stuck in Dullsville." Penn walked away, thoughtfully munching an apple.
Suddenly a bright flash of light reflected on the wall from the windows. Lurch thought that the lightning sure had an odd thing about it as it was red and came with the eerie sound of metal scraping far overhead. Lurch saw a bright blue light and then everything went dark.