Token Evil IC

As though in answer to Hallows' question, a sprinkle of some kind of liquid - water with some sort of cleaning agent dissolved into it, probably - starts coming out, pooling on the ground. As soon as the water is about an inch high, there is a rumble, and then the whole room starts spinning like a washing machine. The party is knocked off their feet as the room tumbles around and around, whipping the cleaning water into a frothy mix that gets into every nook and cranny. The sprinklers then alternate to strong blasts of air, blowing back manes and blasting the party dry.

After what feels to be hours of the freshening torture, the room returns to normal, with the party feeling extremely nauseous but smelling minty fresh and looking squeaky clean.

Part of the wall slides open, allowing the party to proceed.

---

"Germane?" The archmage raises an eyebrow, and his horn glows slightly. "Excuse me for a moment, dragons, this seems much more interesting than you."

A light settles around his throat, and when he speaks, Recon can suddenly understand him. "You look familiar. You're that old black project, right? The one who went rogue? I saw the pictures." He turns slightly towards the dragons. "I said, excuse me--" His horn flashes and the dragons are blinked out of existence. "Ahem. Sorry. You looked messed up. I assume you require repairs."

Finally, somepony Recon could understand.

"The Princess told me you were the pony I needed to talk to, since the project labs for me don't exist anymore."

The twins whine, laying sprawled on the floor, breathing heavy to keep from vomiting. The unsteadily get to their feet, their usually matted and dusty fur now fluffed with a healthy sheen- this is probably the first bath they've had in a long time. "Ugh, can we go in now?" "Never again..."

Iota, being a construct, is largely unaffected by the spinning room, though tumbling around still annoyed it somewhat. Sitting up, it puts the imp back onto its shoulder before taking an experimental step - it's surprised to find its steps are not as rusty and grating as before, moving like a well-oiled machine.

"Hm... interesting." It muses, before nodding at the twin's words and moving on.

Broken might have looked freshly cleaned and slightly fluffed up due to the nature of the 'cleansing process', but his gaze betrayed the devastation that he planned to unleash among the world for the embarrassment that he had just underwent. However, if there was anything that he could do it was collect himself enough to put on a professional mask. Holding his head high, he breathed in deeply before breathing out and walking towards the now opened door. "Come along... We have work to do."

Brightheart staggers to his feet, tipping his helmet back slightly to drain it of the water pooled up inside. "Woah."

He can't even keep up his old timey knight affectation. "Urgh- I need a moment..." he shakes his head slightly, staggering after the rest of the party.

The door leads out to a podium sort of area, or some sort of viewing platform, overlooking what must be the most bizarre zoo the assembled cast have seen. There are enclosures that seem normal at first - bog standard grass ground, with entertainment facilities like balls and rollers for the animals to play with. Creatures like hydras, manticores and the like roam about in those enclosures. Then there are the weird enclosures - self-contained blizzards where wooly mammoths lumber about, fiery geysers housing efreets, floating orbs of water in which whales and shakes swim freely. There are also vast open preserves such as large swaths of savannah or massive artificial rainforests. This stretches on for miles and miles, though eventually it ends - apparently the entire facility is set upon a massive floating island, suspended in the middle of a void. Light issues from no direction in particular, bathing the island in a soft white glow.

On the railings of the viewing platform is a map detailing the entire facility. The south quadrant - where the party just emerged - seems to be dedicated to 'Boring zoology', which is regular animals and wildlife. The east quadrant is dedicated to 'Dangerous Metazoology', magical creatures and more exotic species. The west quadrant is dedicate to 'Magical Mishaps', where the stable results of magical experiments live out their mutant lives in peace. The North quadrant is 'The Great Outdoors', a series of wide artificial biomes where creatures are allowed to roam free, including a volcanic area, an arctic looking region, a rainforest, a tall coniferous forest, and a vast grassy savannah.

Unfortunately, it doesn't say where the dragon eggs are.

Looking around, there looks to be a path leading from the viewing platform down to the zoo area proper. Far below, you can see tiny ant-like zookeepers bustling around the zoo, maintaining the functions of the facility.

---

"Oh yes. You see, constructs are a little interest of mine - you've got to find a hobby or two when you get to my age, you understand. So when Celestia told me about your lab, well, I just had to take it apart to see how it works."

His horn glows, and the intersection around the pair vanish. Instead they're standing just a dozen or so feet from the main chamber where the party first met the dragons. "Just a little security spell. Non-authorized individuals are trapped forever, while authorized individuals get to roam free. It's really quite simple."

He walks up to a door at the end of the hallway leading out of the chamber, and opens the door, beckoning for Recon to follow.

Inside the room is a lab reminiscent of what Recon woke up in all those years ago. There's a workshop table at the center, with all sorts of tools lined up around what looks like the empty husk of some sort of automaton. The archmage levitates the automaton out of the way, and pats the workshop table, indicating for her to sit down on it. "Are you in a rush? I can give you a quick fix, or I can give you a detailed tune-up. But the latter will take time. A couple of hours, at least."

Iota steps up to the map, inspecting it for a moment. "Dragons... Dangerous Metazoology?" It suggests, pointing at the east quadrant.

"Or the Great Outdoors..." "If they have full sized Dragons here they'd need a pretty big space." "And Dragons usually live near volcanoes, which is there." Hallows points to the map, and Gallows continues, "But then, the eggs might not even be kept with the big dragons anyway..."

Recon thinks a moment.

"I'm supposed to be undercover with a band of villains raising hell about the palace, but...I suppose I'll have those hours to think of a cover story for being tardy. Although...when I was here last, I heard talk that the original Project Recon team was working on a Recon Mark II. If you have a working model, we could see if there's an upgrade or two we can get out of it."

Iota nods ponderously, turning to look out at the zoo. Dragons tend to be recognizable - perhaps the suit of armor can spot where the dragons are.

(Perception: ...2 + 10 = 12)

Taking a moment to look over the map himself, Broken's gaze seemed to cloud a little with thought as he searched his memories for rumors or tidbits of relevant information as to where dragon eggs might have been stored for safe keeping.

Dice rolls:

From the washing room Krix finally manages to crawl out, looking completely battered and bruised, but with scales so clean they are at least two shades more vibrant. "Is this how I die now?!" he moans, "From a giant rotating bath?! Then let the wails of my tribe deafen these damned halls for all eternity!"

The silence was deafening...

Finally dragging himself into the discussion, Krix studies the map while others give their suggestions. "Jolly pony said dragon eggs are used for testing and experiments, yes? We have to find out where these experiments happen. Magical Mishaps sounds close to that."

"Methodical search, then," Iota says gruffly, looking over the map again. "Clockwise."

It points at each zone in sequence, finally turning to look at the imp on its shoulder. "What do you think?" It rasps, partially at the imp, partially at the group.

"We don't have much else of a lead," Brightheart agrees. "A methodical search sounds good, my armored friend."

Iota doesn't notice anything noteworthy out of the many zoological preserves laid out in the Zoo, but Broken has gleaned from rumors and hearsay here and there that there are two probably locations that the eggs are stored: In the Great Outdoors, kept with an apparently cooperative dragon who accepts experimentation, or under guard, in a ward shared between the Magical Mishaps and Metazoology sector.

---

"So what are we thinking in terms of upgrades? We have blueprints, but nothing concrete that's ready to be installed-" The Archmage wrinkles his brow as he looks Recon over for good. "Good heavens, what happened to you? I heard there were little scuffles around the city, I didn't think it'd be this bad. Your spell-circuits are completely fried. I'm surprised you can channel any magic at all."

Broken couldn't help but frown a little in mild annoyance with himself; He hated guess work and the fact that he was required to bank any plan on rumors and gossip alone bothered him somewhat... even more so when it only helped him narrow down their options. Still, it was better then nothing. "I do believe I can help speed this search up but narrowing it down to two places. They will either be in the Great Outdoors under the watchful eye of a dragon that is willing to cooperate with the handlers and experimenters or under guard somewhere around the Magical Mishaps and Metazoology sector. Could be either of them honestly... "

"Kidnapped and sapped by changelings. Overloaded by the Princess to aid in subduing those changelings. Years without a proper tune-up. And that overload probably burned off a few yards of bent paper clips and the half-pound of chewing gum holding things in place..."

As if on cue, her left eye shorts out, goes dark, and stops moving and blinking with Recon's right eye.

"...and then I thumped my head against a wall a minute ago to get my navigational systems to work, and broke my language processor instead. And it must've knocked other things loose, because now the connection in my left eye's gone dead. I'm honestly surprised I'm still intact."

"Dragons are easier to deal with than layers upon layers of guards, traps, and magical defenses, methinks." Brightheart says. "What say we go take a look-see at this rare cooperative dragon? ...Or, well, not so rare, if we consider the big golden lady who sent us on this endeavor in the first place."

"We may end up searching both places anyway." "I say we start with the big dragon."

Iota shrugs, instead turning to the imp on its shoulder. "Imp... prefer braving dragon? Or guards?"

"Dragonz eat impz," the imp says. "Guardz please."

The imp then turns to the kobold. "If it helpz, little lizard, you can hide with me when talking to the dragon."

He snaps his fingers, and turns invisible.

---

"Right, well," The archmage cracks his neck. "I'll try my best, but if I'm honest, you're a wreck. It'll be a fresh miracle if you even come out of this at normal functionality."

His horn glows, and Recon feels a force trying to put her under. "I'll be putting you under for a while. It might be... unpleasant, if you stay awake for this."

He pauses. "Well... unless you want to experience living hell."

"No choice there. The security restrictions the project engineers fitted me with already make life hell. Mind doing me a solid and seeing if you can get rid of a few of them while you're at it? Thanks."

And then she lets herself go under.

"Dragon... then..." Iota says, studying the map one last time before heading off in the direction of the dragon place.