"Any idea how we get out of this trap?" Evan Robertson ran a hand across the smooth surface of one of the walls that had slid in place to block them in. Each of them had tried their hand-held weapons, but neither had done more than caused a slightly warbling effect that rippled across the surface for barely a few seconds before ceasing and refusing to do anymore.
"Not a thing," Meredith shook her head as she walked up beside her partner and stared at the wall. It almost seemed alive, somehow, but she couldn't quite figure out why. "Perhaps if we try using the Zeus Cannons on the ceiling we could blast through to whatever chamber might be there?"
"And if nothing's there other than more rock?" Robertson raised his eyebrows, though they were difficult to see with his goggles obscuring that part of his face.
"Then maybe we can bring the ceiling down and climb up on that rubble and do it again and again until we do locate a way out."
Robertson thought her plan over for a moment and shrugged. "Beats anything I can come up with."
As they aimed their weapons toward the ceiling and were about to fire a charge off, a slight humming sound began. Robertson leapt back, since he realized it was coming from the mid-section of his suit.
"What the hell?" he looked over at his partner, who had a smirk on her face. Even in a situation like this where they might be staring at their imminent death, it was good to see this agent react in a way that didn't display his typical "superiority complex".
"Mine's doing it, too," Meredith laughed. "It's a special feature that lets us know whenever there's a Super nearby. It serves a dual purpose - to warn us in case the Super in question is intent upon doing us harm, or to alert us to possible assistance if it's a hero being detected."
"How do we know which it is and where he's at?"
"By the pitch and vibration of the signal. The stronger the vibration and the higher the pitch the greater the strength of the Super. Good or bad is up to us to determine." Meredith tried her best to look calm and unruffled, but having worn a suit like this before she had also experienced the Super-detector before and knew from the pitch that it was her own husband being detected. No other Super caused the detector to reach this high of a pitch. Somewhere on the other side of one of these barriers Solar Eclipse had walked up and could very well be examining the material the same way they had.
She walked up to the side closest to them and felt no change in the vibrational pitch, so she went over to the other side and the system alert grew stronger. "He's over here!" she shouted as she aimed her Zeus Cannon and fired a full blast at the impenetrable barrier.
"We already know the cannons won't get us out of here," Robertson argued. "Why bother wasting the charge in that thing?"
"I'm hoping to catch the attention of - that Super," she had almost said Eclipse, but realized she couldn't admit to knowing who was on the other side of the wall. "Maybe the particle charge will cause some type of effect that will get whoever it is to try and break through."
Realizing her idea had merit, Robertson added the particle blast from his own cannon to hers, but soon they realized the cannons had no effect as the alarms within their suits became quiet once more, letting them know the Super was no longer close enough to be detected.
"Damn!" Meredith aimed her cannon at the ground and looked at the same spot. Had she not been wearing her goggles her partner might well have seen the tears forming behind her eyelids, threatening to overflow.
"I guess it's back to blasting through the ceiling," Robertson hefted the large weapon up in his hands so he could aim it up at the ceiling. He realized Meredith wasn't joining in with him and looked over to her. She had moved closer to the wall and rest a hand gently upon its surface. From her stance she knew she was feeling defeated - and doomed. He had no idea she was considering the possibility that a moment ago was the last time she would ever be that close to her husband.
"You aren't quitting on me, are you Meri?" he said, using the more familiar version of her name he had never used before. "We are not going to die here today. I won't allow it, and I don't believe you will, either." He lifted his cannon up and released a blast at the ceiling. Nothing happened at first, but then a few small chunks of rock fell and bounced near his feet. He stopped firing and looked down at the rocks, kicking one over toward Meredith where it deflected off her boot.
"We can do this if you add your strength to mine, Meri."
The all-but-defeated FBI agent looked at her partner and new vigor flowed through her. He was right. They had a chance if they stuck together on this.
"United we stand - divided we fall," she said as she lifted her cannon and aimed at the point where Robertson had already managed to blast a few chunks away.
"Let's make it 'united', all right?" he fired his cannon along with hers, both beams converging at the same point. Something began changing in the visual effect of the particle matter where the twin beams merged and struck the rocky ceiling.
"Is that changing color?" Robertson asked, knowing it was.
"Sure looks like it to me," Meredith answered.
"I hope that's a good thing," Robertson said, lifting his cannon higher and pushing the butt of it more firmly against the front of his shoulder where it met with his pectoral.
Suddenly a large section of the ceiling crumbled and caved in. The two agents leapt back out of the way of the falling rock, staring in awe as a mound of debris grew in front of them until the cascading rock ceased. They looked at one another and laughed, then pointed their weapons at the new ceiling further away where the old rock no longer existed and started in with a new blast of particle matter.
"Guess this is one time it's all right to cross the beams, huh?" Robertson said, hoping his partner got the movie reference.
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