"Riding a vacuum cleaner? What, like down the street?"

--------------

"You mean like on wheels or something?"

--------------

"Ah, you won't get me like that. Everyone knows vacuum cleaner's don't fly!"

--------------

"Riding a what?"

--------------

"Oh, yeah. I saw her last night. Came from that direction. Never knew vacuum cleaners could fly before."

--------------

"Came from that way. See that old abandoned laundry over there? Yeah, that's the place."

--------------

The laundry is long abandoned, the windows boarded over, the doors hanging from their hinges. On the inside, it's dusty, obviously neglected... except for one room at the back that shows signs of life.

Greasy old fast food containers.

A mattress.

A shelf containing a web, a small cushion, and a perch.

A large iron cauldron, the contents bubbling gently.

A second shelf containing a few heavy tomes.

Some old, broken washing machines along one wall.

Several crates along another shelf.

And... there's apparently nobody home right now.

"Interesting," Avery announces, trying to do her best British private investigator impression (which is not very good). "Most interesting."

She tries to climb up high enough in the room, perhaps on the broken washing machines, to see what's bubbling in the cauldron.

Some kind of... liquid? Big Bob gives her a boost onto the washing machine; whatever's in the cauldron doesn't smell good (it smells like earwax), and - is that a dead rat floating in it?

No... on closer inspection, it appears to be a toupee.

That's probably not soup for supper.

From up here, she can see a few small items on the shelf with the perch, cushion and web. She can't tell what they are from here, though.

"Oh, this is disgusting," Avery says with real feeling. "I bet Kip's having a lovely appetizer right now and I'm looking at earwax soup." She looks around to see if she can climb high enough to get a better view of the shelf.

With Big Bob providing a boost again, Avery makes it to the shelf. There are obvious sleeping quarters here for three animals; the web for Spider, the cushion has a Snake-shaped hollow, and the perch...

...well. It seems Winifred has a third - pet? Ally? The perch is slightly higher than Avery's head, and there's a small nightcap on a hook below the mirror. If one wanted to reach that hook while on the perch, one would need to be hanging upside down.

"Who wears a nightcap anymore?" Avery asks Bob. "I mean, really." She puts on the cap and models it. "What do you think?"

Putting the cap back, she makes her way down to the ground. "If we could get enough people to help, we could push that cauldron over and get that fur back," she explains to Big Bob, thinking aloud. "It would go a long way toward showing Plato I really am sorry for yelling like that. Even though I don't know if the human would want to wear it again." She makes a face. "Yuck. How many big strong guys like yourself do you know, Bob? I'll pay extra for the element of danger." She wiggles her paws theatrically.

Big Bob looks panicy. Fashion is something he has no opinion on.

Aside from being almost a century out of date, the cap is entirely the wrong shape for Avery's ears and has a chin strap.



"Big Bob biggest rat in all sewers! No other rat as big as Big Bob!" declares that gentleman, firmly.

Avery bops herself in the forehead. "Of course, Bob, what an absolutely ridiculous mistake for me to make. I'm sorry." She looks around. "Let's make sure there's a back way out in case they come back. I don't want to get trapped here. Then we can find some guys who are not quite as big and strong as you, and get that cauldron tipped." She looks around for alternate escape routes.

Possible exits, aside from the front door, include the back door, a side door, and a broken window (via the washing machines). If they return by vacuum cleaner, they'll likely come in through the open skylight.

It's questionable whether any amount of rats can get the cauldron tipped over; it's quite full, and probably heavier than a fully-grown human. Even if Avery were to find as many rats the size of Big Bob as could fit around the cauldron, that probably wouldn't be enough to tip it.

Moreover, although there's no sign of anything heating the cauldron... when she stands near it, she can feel the heat emanating from the underside thereof. There's no obvious cause for the heat, but the heat is there nonetheless.

"Ouch," Avery says, stepping back from the heat. "Well, never mind that." She puts her hands on her hips and looks around the room. "I miss the boys. They always have a plan." She paces, thinking. "Too many cooks spoil the broth, right, Bob? If I can't stop these villains, maybe I can ruin whatever they're trying to do." She looks around to see if there's a way for her to get close enough to the cauldron to throw something into it.

Standing a few paces back and throwing will get something into the cauldron. Avery may or may not be able to throw something high enough; Big Bob will certainly be able to. There is a certain amount of detritus on the floor - bits of litter, a bolt or two, or, for the ambitious, half a brick.

Avery gets another boost from Big Bob to retrieve the nightcap, and anything else handy on the shelf, and asks him to throw that into the cauldron. Then she starts trying to throw anything lying on the floor into it, and asks him to help with that, too.

The nightcap is too light to be easily thrown; it'd need to be wrapped about something heavier.

Wrapping it about a bolt works well; when the nightcap+bolt lands in the cauldron, there's a spark and a briefly louder bubbling noise from the cauldron; then the bubbling dies off. Throwing other stuff into the cauldron just makes splashes.

After a while, the stuff in there stops bubbling.

"I thought that would make me feel better about having such a bad day, but you know what? It really didn't." Avery sighs. "Let's go hide by this back door and stakeout the place. Maybe we'll get some good Clues. If nothing happens, we can go back to base and find out how the guys saved the day. Come on, tell me about your brothers, and all the little ones, and how is your mum these days? Still planning that vacation?"

"Momma still says she'll go on vacation as soon as she wins the lottery." nods Big Bob. "An' little Sammy is -"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Exactly what that booming noise is isn't immediately clear; the ground shakes, the liquid in the cauldron sloshes, and a pillar of smoke is visible - from the direction of the cafe that Kip and Foxglove are at.

"- how to tie his shoes." continues Big Bob, ignoring the explosion as irrelevant.