Using a clone would allow Sparks to get away from his pursuers at the door; those focused on pursuit dogpiled it all at once. Soon enough, however, they'd calm down and begin heading back the way they came... as it turned out, that was certainly to Sparks' benefit, because proceeding around the corner made it clear that an identical hallway extended from the door they'd seen on the other side of the lobby, which had never been opened... until now, that is. Several of the gray creatures had finished wrenching it open and would have been flanking Sparks' momentarily had DragonierMan not convinced Power to call them off.
At any rate, there was no point in looping back around through that way, so Sparks' interest would be drawn elsewhere: a long hallway now to his left as he turned, leading deeper into the dam. Lights lined the walls at either side near the roof all throughout. None of them had seemingly popped like the one that had been near Sparks earlier, but that didn't mean there was no danger; each light was still flickering sporadically, likely from the gray men draining the grid through other sources. Thankfully, the flickering meant Sparks could make his way deeper if he wanted to, without having to hold up a sword or spin a spear over his head to illuminate the way.
Sparks pressed on by himself, in hopes of filling out more of the spaces on the Samurai Bingo Card more than anything else. Whatever ReservoirMan abandoned would be up for grabs, and he'd run out pretty quick, so there was a chance he'd left behind something useful... or just cool. He might experience a sense of deja vu as he continued down the hall... there were no rooms, so it was just a long expanse of samey stone architecture, but as he continued along, the condition deteriorated. Cracks were visible along the walls and the further he went, the worse they became. It began to seem like he wasn't going to find anything... there were no doors, so seemingly, nothing to explore. More worryingly, as he continued, he would notice spots where complete darkness hung for a moment due to a complete outage of lights or where the cracks were allowing water through in slow streams.
Eventually, Sparks arrived at a door. This one was mechanical, but not like the others; it appeared to open via a large button near the side. If he entered the room, he'd confirm there was another similar button on the other side. It was likely ReservoirMan needed those to fit his huge hands, as even a simple, ordinary sized knob wouldn't have worked for him. If he chose not to investigate the room and instead to continue on, he wouldn't get far: just up ahead, the cracks became wet rubble, and that eventually turned into a massive pile-up of concrete, twisted pipes, and dangerous, sparking equipment. It wasn't too far from ReservoirMan's office, actually, so the navi was probably lucky he made it out as well as he did. Regardless, that way was a dead end now.
At this point Sparks could either head back, jack out and back in at the front of the dam, or explore the office. ReservoirMan had been rather distinctly shaped; it was a little odd that he hadn't designed the door differently or widened it assuming it had been built for someone else, given that as it was shaped, ReservoirMan would have had to stick first one arm through, then shuffle out sideways. Aside from the door, the rest of the room made sense for its owner. A desk with a console sat at the center, with no chair behind it. A carpet was lain across the floor, damp near the entrance where the water had started to reach it. A large indentation in the carpet showed that the console was likely the only place he ever stood (or more like rested) in here. The only other items of note were a few bookcases and shelves, most which looked as though they hadn't been disturbed in a while. They seemed to contain some binders with information related to the dam's history. It was pretty quaint, to see it stored this way rather than in a more convenient medium. Whoever had archived them that way was probably the same person who got a kick out of moving around in an old-fashioned cart, which probably meant it wasn't ReservoirMan himself. He hadn't bothered to take any of it with him, either.
A closer look at the console would reveal that it ordinarily tracked various factors of dam performance, but right now, most of that was meaningless next to the red, flashing exclamation mark symbol in the center of the screen. Beneath it, the words "EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY" were written. The fact that only ReservoirMan had access to such a warning showed what a solitary existence he had here, besides the Mr. Progs, who had presumably left soon after him and didn't seem like they'd be much for chatting regardless.
Unfortunately, it was really hard to call anything in this room "something cool." Perhaps there was somewhere else in the room he could think of to check? The bookcases, binders, desk, console, carpet, and entrance button... none of them seemed likely to conceal anything. Also, the sound of running water outside would remind him he was on a timer until the deterioration of the dam worsened, possibly up to the point of more areas becoming flooded or collapsing.
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Outside, DragonierMan and ReservoirMan's lender were butting heads. "Ha ha ha ha! Listen to bat boy getting worked up! You sound like some snot-nosed elementary school kid with a picture book, trying to convince his friends how cool dragons are! They're basically big lizard bats, aren't they? Not cool at all!" the pirate cackled, sounding herself rather like a bullying schoolgirl from inside the questionable safety of her ship. "Ha ha ha! But what if the president's in the pocket of some
shadowy mastermind or something, huh? I'm more like that, nothing uncool like a landlord!"
The two continued to shout back and forth, advancing a conversation of debatable merit. "Contractors my ass! I'm not 'getting paid', I'm claiming what's already mine! Nobody's my boss, okay? You with the GNA or something? Maybe you're more like a sheep than a bat!" she taunted. "If you think I'm filing jack crap to repossess this location, then you're even dumber than a sheep! I don't care about this dam at all... It was just one of many power centers I've got, okay? I don't really even get why he wanted to be in control of the big dumb lake here, but it doesn't matter now, right? I don't care about the land and I don't care about Reservoir Dump, though he's gonna pay for screwing up my investment somewhere down the line. All I want now is whatever he already made for me, and it's gotta be stashed around here somewhere."
While he was chewing that over, Lee and Sake arrived from their hike back up to the entrance. "Woah! That's her, huh?" Lee asked, looking at the ship and shielding her eyes with one hand from the sunlight glinting off of it. She bent her back and stuck out her hips, as if looking extra hard. "Ha ha ha!" she finally laughed, planting her spear back on the ground and standing up straight. "She called you a bat sheep!"
Sake's smiled and shrugged. "Well, I got your message. Thanks for getting her to call the guys off, but it doesn't really matter which way we got out so long as we got out. Unless you just really wanted us to owe you one!" she laughed. She held the goofy smile for a bit, then reacted in shock. "Wait a second! Sparks is still in the dam?! Doesn't he know that thing's falling apart?"
"Psh, don't worry! He'll be okay," Lee reassured Sake, slapping the smaller girl on the back. "Why do I say that? Well, uh... Hey! It's pretty cool he wants to fill out the Samurai Bingo card, isn't it? That just shows you what a great recruit he's gonna be!"
Sake's wry smirk looked unconvinced. "You think so? It seems a little goofy that he cares so much about finding something cool for your bingo card that he's willing to drown inside that old collapsing dam for it..." she remarked quietly.
"I-It's inspiring! He's just having so much fun cause of the Bingo game I thought up!" she insisted, pouting. "Anyway... I guess we're just waiting on him now?"
"Huh, you screwballs look a little familiar... Well, whatever. Say, you goofs were in the dam just now, weren't you? Did you see my stash? Kinda like a bunch of old golf cart batteries or something?" the voice of Captain Power reentered into the conversation, talking loudly enough so she was hard to ignore. "Fess up if you saw them, unless you want me to blast you with bolts till your body fat slides off'a your bones! Just give me a reason!" the young girl cackled.
Sake sent the others a message again:
Quote (Sake)
It'll be easy to bluff and say we didn't find anything while we were in there. Don't reveal you know anything about the canisters. We should also be quiet about the fact that Sparks is still in there... if we talk about that too much and she figures out that one of us is still in there, it'll be hard to defend our ignorance. And uh, Sparks, maybe finish up in there... We're stalling her but eventually she'll think we're all out and her guys are going to start tearing up the place. If that happens, they'll find you, then, again, our bluff is compromised.
Quote (Lee)
We could just leave... but, the Bingo card!
Quote (Sake)
... It's your Bingo card. Couldn't you just give them the space for free?
Quote (Lee)
That'd ruin the whole thing! Hard work is it's own reward! Go on, Sparks! Find something cool!
Sparks had been given a tall order, considering how sparse the rest of the inside of the dam was. DragonierMan might be able to help out by either calling off the search or otherwise finding something cool himself.
