Alexis nodded. "Glad to be of service." She took off, flying just ahead of the group with a shield in front of the entire group.

Nitrox took out a spare Scope, fiddled with it for a bit, and tossed it to MoA. "There. I erased all the data I stored on it and rewired it so that only you can use it. It can only show the crystals as white circles, but it works. And don't try to keep it. It will self destruct. When I tell it to or when it wants to." Nitrox leaked a smile. "But you've got time. The only thing you have to worry about is the slight discomfort when it scans your retina."

Unless I allowed the shock to be a tad more powerful... he thought with a devilish inward grin. I still need revenge from you dragging me around...

"That is definately not a wild animal..." thought Selena as the signals from her time spheres began to disappear one by one. "Something is specifically targeting them...which means that whoever it is knows that I'm here." It was clear to her that the intruders were no archeologists or researchers, otherwise her clocks would have been left intact regardless of their effects. There was no way that random travelers could have found the ruin - it was too well hidden and guarded. That left only one group: treasure theives. "Unless they have their own powers, I doubt that they will make it this far...but even so, I can't let them get their hands on the artifacts behind that door, espicially if they're up to no good." Selena grabbed some flashlights and the bag that contained her time spheres from the pile of equipment and headed out of the chamber, back into the ruin. "I hope they realize that not all of the temple traps down their path are disabled; some of my clocks are there to stop them going off!" she said to herself. "But no matter - hopefully a false trail should buy me some time."

(Boy forgot about Fuse, guess she was always there)

"As if I'd let you scan my retina," MoA says quietly.
[hr]
MoA tosses the scope to Fuse, who immediatly attaches it to a living wire. "You power source is inefficient," Fuse comments. She aims the super enhanced scope around, and she pauses as the circuitry in her eyes lights up. "I count ten more clocks leading up the corridors." Fuse opens a port and blasts a clock Edge is standing near.

Immediatly the trap comes to life and darts shoot out of the wall, however they merely deflect off Edge's armor. Edge continues through the trap ignoring the darts.
[hr]
"Alexis watch out for traps when you disable a clock," Bone calls ahead as Alexis walks up on a clock.

"Got it!" Alexis called back to Bone as she sent a slash of energy at the clock. Some darts flew at her, but Alexis had complete control of the situation, shielding herself well before the darts came close. "Nothing to worry about yet."

As if I'd let her have my Scope...
The lent Scope discharged a small amount of NX, causing it to crumble and vanish.
Nitrox watched. "I guess I didn't disable the security. My bad."

Icarus followed Alexis but once again got sidetracked. He swooped away down one of the tunnels to check out a glowing blob. It turned out to be another glow worm farm and he turned to go back to Alexis. Then he realized that he didn't know the back, he'd gotten himself lost, cursing he punched a nearby wall and all he got was a bruised hand.

Fuse reassembles the fragments of the scope, and using a few random components from her body she assembles a new scope. "Thank you for removing that inefficient power source," Fuse comments mechanically.
[hr]
((Now for a bit of hurrying))

Shortly the group of unified heroes and villains come up into Selena's camp site. Malsityrax nods at Chimera, and after an injection Chimera assumes his beast form. He roars loudly, causing a loud echo throught the ruins, and he starts sniffing around the camp.
[hr]
Though degrading Lycan does the same in her werewolf form, and both Chimera and Lycan conclude which direction whoever had been laying the clocks had gone.
[hr]
MoA heads for a stack of equipment, and comes up with a Laptop. He plugs a small USB object bearing an OBSCURA logo onto it, and he smirks as his OBSCURA hacki-drive, allows him to sift through files. "It looks like our fellow spelunker has been attempting to crack that wall," MoA nods at the rock wall.
"Charge if you would be so kind, remove the obstruction before our fellow spelunker gets back."

"My Scope's heat sensors say she left down that path," said Nitrox, pointing. "More clocks and movement are a little ways off. She's laying out a trail or this isn't what she's after."

Selena had finished laying a false path and was close to her camp when she heard voices from up ahead. A feeling of dread hit her. "They beat me here? Just who are these people?" Thinking quickly, Selena grabbed a handful of her clocks, popped out the crystal panels, and shoved them in her pocket just in case. She also reached into her bag and pulled out what at first glance were two sticks, but which snapped into twin hand sickles with connected chains. Holding them in one hand and bracing herself to launch a time sphere if necessary, she made her way to the doorway and approached the group of intruders. "Excuse me, but this is an excavation site, not a meeting hall! How on earth did you find your way down here without getting killed?"

Alexis turned to look at Selena. "Uhm..." She glanced back at the rest of the group. "Do we have an excuse ready?"

"Watch your tone human," Malistyrax says with audible contempt. "Edge, Alexis, Chimera, restrain her if need be, Nova must have thought she was not important or dangerous enough to mention."
[hr]
Chimera utters a low growl as he stands up off all fours to approach Selena.
[hr]
In an efficient motion Edge pulls his sword and turns his faceless helmet toward Selena.

"Woah, people. Hold on," said Nitrox. "Why should we use force when we easily outnumber her? By the traps she's laying, she won't attack us. She wanted to slow us down."

He turned toward Selena. "What exactly are you excavating?"

"You mean you don't know?" said Selena, addressing Nitrox while keeping a wary eye on Chimera and Edge. "I thought you might have had some idea since you made it this far. This temple is rumored to be the home of a certain sword, the Sanctus Judicum. It is said to be a holy, purifying weapon in the shape of an enormous silver cross, and was used by a renouned warrior named Zanek. However, while I know many researchers who would give their right hands to study it, the Sanctus Judicum is not why I'm here. I'm searching for an armored glove with a large blue stone embedded on the back of the hand that belonged to one of Zanek's companions." Selena turned and looked at Nitrox directly, taking in his appearance with surprise. "You seem to wearing one just like it."

"A holy weapon?" Leslie piped up. "That sounds like it'd work against those Black Knight guys."

Alexis kept a wary eye on Selena, like Malistyrax had ordered, but made no move against her. She could turn into an ally... if we play our cards right.