The elevator was normally on the same wall as the stairwell, and to his great relief, it had not moved. The button and the metal panel it sat on were the same they had been, but the modern object looked out of place on the stone wall. Robin pressed the “up” arrow anyway.

The arrow lit up green, and he heard the usual hnnnnnnnnngggggg of the ancient freight elevator. Robin winced. I hope that doesn’t call out EVERYTHING that’s hiding around here… Those black widows are coming. You know they are.

At the first hint of the noise, Opal began to scramble wildly over Robin’s back, then down to his legs, then back up again. Robin received a notification, but Opal having a panic attack prevented him from giving it any attention. She hopped to the floor, and then ran down the hallway, only to tun back to Robin immediately, leaping onto him and then onto the ceiling. Another notification appeared, but Robin was scared she was going to hurt herself. I’ll check them in the elevator.

“It’s just the elevator, Opal! You need to relax, it’ll be okay!” She scuttled towards him and leapt onto him, her claws gouging small holes in his coat and skin. Two more notifications appeared, and then they all disappeared. Robin wasn’t worried; he had always been able to recall them before, and Opal’s claws hurt! Robin could feel the raw terror she was emitting. He did his best to ignore it, focusing on an image of a storm blowing at, over, and past a tree, trying to evoke the feeling of impermanence. This won’t last, Opal. It will pass!

Opal scuttled up his back and leapt onto the ceiling. She began dance-strutting across the ceiling towards the gathering grapeflies, clearly intent on hunting. She was radiating a very focused hunger, ignoring the calm imagery he was trying to present. Is this… are you embarrassed?

Robin looked around him and tapped his machete on his side. This was familiar. The elevator took forever on the best of days. It didn’t usually make the noise quite that loud though… Or that hissing, clicking sound… Robin paled and backed up. He recognized that sound. The freight elevator door, an accordion-style collapsible door with metal segments that spread and collapsed with it, shuddered and rattled. The elevator light ticked to the third light from the bottom, and let out a mechanical belch, exactly what a robot that just got kicked in the robot junk would sound like. Solar Savior Silver’s sidekick did that a lot, so Robin was fairly certain.

The elevator door rattled as the sound of metal grinding increased. The hissing and clicking was growing loud, as well. Robin looked around and didn’t see anything aside from the grapeflies that seemed to be gathering on the ceiling a few dozen meters back. There were only about fifteen, not enough to worry about. I think.

The grinding metal noise suddenly increased in volume and then stopped entirely, right as the elevator light clicked to the second floor. The silence allowed the sound of the hissing, bubbling clicks to be heard clearly, though. It sounded like ...something in pain.

The elevator started moving again, and the metallic groaning rose in volume. Robin waited, his heart leaping into his throat. He lifted the machete and tried to ready himself to swing. He adjusted himself several times self-consciously before settling into a baseball stance.

Opal had a grapefly in each foreclaw and was devouring one of them as quickly as she could.

The elevator light clicked on for his floor. Robin heard the elevator settling and waited for the metallic groaning to stop, but he just heard a disgustingly massive crunching sound. To Robin, it sounded like someone laying down and rolling over a thousand raw eggs. He flinched as he heard the elevator latches connect for the stop at his floor. The door slid open, and Robin leapt forward to hit the small, pizza sized disc that came rolling out.

“SHI..! SHIT!”

Robin accidentally flung the machete into the elevator cage, narrowly missing the heavily modified robotic vacuum. It continued past him down the hall, ignoring the mortal danger it had been in moments before.

Robin felt himself starting to laugh. It welled out of him and he laughed until he was out of breath, gasping. I almost slayed the mighty roomba! Robin continued giggling to himself, growing quieter. He felt something darker welling up, and thought that if he let himself keep laughing, he might break down and start crying. Can’t afford that right now.

Opal had finished one of the grapeflies, snatched another, and hopped to the floor, inverting her position midair. She waddled awkwardly over to Robin, who picked her up and placed her on his shoulder. She began eating her grapeflies. Robin smiled at her, admiring her pinkish-white skin. She’s … way too pale, right? Robin shook his head and stepped over to grab his machete.

As he grabbed the handle, he felt something stroke the back of his head, tugging at a few of the hairs in the same way his father’s rough hands had. Robin jerked back, snapping his head upwards.

Robin let out an involuntary scream and fell backwards out of the elevator, crawling backwards on his butt to get away.

Between the elevator and the wall were what were only partially identifiable as spiders. They had been obliterated by the elevator travelling downward, grinding them into the wall and… Robin took a look… the bottom, as well. There were a few of the basketball-sized black widows, and that was what had touched Robin. He was relieved to see that it had touched him in the process of curling up, a sign of death in spiders. And most bugs. Duh. There is nothing wrong with noting all the facts!

Robin stopped and took a breath. He was arguing with himself, and he was not sure he was winning.

What are the other spiders? That one looks like it was fuzzy, but I can’t tell without seeing more of it…

Robin remembered the notifications he had resolved to check in the elevator. Glancing at the elevator, he decided that anything that put any amount of time between now and when he had to step into that thing was just fine. Opal hopped off of him and slowly climbed the ceiling, still clutching two grapeflies. Robin watched her for a moment, then went over, and carefully took her off the wall while focusing on trust! He reached up and placed her on the ceiling, her legs immediately grasping it. She seemed to radiate satisfaction, but he wasn’t sure if that was because of the assistance or because she immediately started eating another fly.

“Opal, you only need one of those. Your booty is big enough already!”

Opal stared at him and then slowly took a bite out of her struggling victim. Robin sighed and pulled up the notifications. It looked like they had consolidated when he lept receiving new ones without checking them. He liked that; it meant there was less of a chance that it would pop up mid-fight mid-flight! and distract him, or worse.

You have acquired motes of magical energy and potential from creatures you have slain! When you have acquired enough of these motes, they may merge into a class ability, trait, power, spell, or ability!

x2 Time (Reverse) Motes

x4 Instinct Motes

x2 Venom Motes

x1 Chitin Motes

x5 Web Motes

Congratulations! Your motes have merged! x2 Web Motes and x1 Time (Reverse) Motes have become... Reshape Web You may reshape a web (in any form) to another form. Limitations on creations are based on the imagination, AURA, and artistic Skill of the user. This power drains MENSTAM while active. Congratulations! Your motes have merged! x2 Instinct Motes and x1 Chitin have become... Lesser Armor of the Beetle You may trigger a growth of exoskeletal chitinous armor! The armor is as strong as leather, and will grow stronger with additional levels. The armor provides five PHYSDEF. It remains until dismissed.

Robin did not like the sound of “trigger a growth” at all. Armor was okay, but… he’d rather not go Tetsuo if he could avoid it.

Congratulations! Your motes have merged! x2 Venom Motes and x1 Time (Reverse) Motes have become... Venom Immunity (I) You have gained a small amount of [universal] immunity to venom. Venoms are marginally less effective against you. Poisons are unaffected. You have reached level 2 of Blue Entomage! +1 BODY, +1 WILL, +2 SP per level, in addition to other bonuses.

You have reached level 3 of Blue Entomage! +1 BODY, +1 WILL, +2 SP per level, in addition to other bonuses.

That seemed to be the last of them. Robin pulled up his stats menu and checked to see what had changed.

STR 12 AGI 16 CON 10 BODY 14 INT 16 WILL 13 AURA 15 LOOKS 10 PHYSDEF 3 MENTDEF 2 ENERDDEF 1 SPEED 4 RECOV 5 REGEN 1 PHYSTAM 48 MENSTAM 58 MANA 10 RUN 7 SWIM 2 LEAP 3 SP 17

His jaw dropped when he saw the seventeen SP waiting for him.

I just pushed a button!