There had been a plan for the whole team to work together to clean up their room, both of normal messes and the aftermath of that morning, directly upon the completion of brunch. Strangely enough, Penny and Coco found themselves standing in their room, alone, with their non-class time earmarked for chores. Well, perhaps not so oddly.

Nora, who had gotten up to clear her tray with Ren, had failed to return to the table. Shortly thereafter Neo left the cafeteria with the remainder of JEPR, never one to stray far from those she can easily steer into trouble. A shared look between Coco and Penny had been the extent of their remarks at the empty table, however, with a growing understanding that given the events of that morning the task might go faster without them.

A mattress prevented the door to the hallway from opening fully, its former frame propped upon a mostly-untouched bed by the two feet that had been the foot of the bed when made. Sheets were draped over a gap between two bed-frames resting on their long sides, feet pointed inward and holding the cloth roof up, pinned in place by a dresser perched atop it precariously - opposite corners of the wooden box balanced one per bed frame, just barely reaching. One mattress made a third wall, leaning tall over the windows, the final one presumably inside the fort.

One closet door was closed, a dresser pushed in front of it and a desk resting on top; a trail of books, papers, and writing tools led from where it had originally been located. The bathroom beside it was inaccessible, a pile of clothes prohibiting the door from opening. With high steps over obstacles Penny worked her way to her corner of the room. Looking from her misplaced desk to the start of the paper trail she was unsure where to begin, with the school supplies or the desk they belong on, so she turned to Coco.

Coco walked on the mattress toward the fort, cautiously peeking in. Similar to the rest of the room, there was a pile of boxes and clothing that had been under the beds, but inside the fort these items were piled almost neatly in comparison, leaving the inside mattress clear. All three displaced mattresses had retained their fitted sheet, at least partially, and the one along the window had a regular sheet still clinging to it, but curiously this mattress had retained its blankets and had managed to accrue pillows from another bed as well.

She placed a hand on the right bed-frame, farthest from Penny and closest to the other closets, but paused and stared at the dresser.

Penny saw this hesitation, "I will help you!" she said quickly. In her hurried attempt to reach Coco before restraint was lost she tripped on a dresser drawer free from its native home and fell forward, landing on it and a pair of shoeboxes with a sound that implied something broke.

"Penny?" inquired Coco, turning quickly to see the state of her teammate. A groan was her response, but it gave way to limbs moving slowly into a position to lift up from.

"I was going to suggest we attempt to not inflict further destruction." said Penny, finding some solid ground and springing back to her feet. "I might retract that recommendation shortly."

Coco smiled, a small chuckle escaped her chest and closed lips. "Sure, I can wait and we'll take the dresser down properly."

Gingerly, Penny plotted a path through the figurative minefield and reached the side of the fort closest to her. The two young women each took a corner, lifting the dresser straight up and attempting to balance it despite them holding adjacent corners. Coco slid the bulk from between them to Penny, who turned and let it plunk to a sparely covered area of the floor, mostly cloth from bedding and clothing. Not quite balanced, the drawers that had been held shut by gravity rolled open and pulled the bulk of the dresser to fall on its front.

Penny reached out a hand and winced, but let it go, her attention taken by a metallic crash, followed by a second that bounced against the first. Coco had lightly pushed the one bed-frame toward the three closest and the sheet coupled with a lack of opposing force had pulled the second down atop it.

Penny shook her head and began clearing floorspace for those two beds and the frame on her bed. "Do you have any ideas with regard to what could be done to stop these incidents?" asked Penny, aiming to open the room to conversation more than looking for answers.

Coco shook her head, "If only." She smiled, tossing things out of the way. "I think we'd have a chance if it wasn't for Neo."

A tossed shoe tumbled a newly-formed pile.

"It is odd to consider, Neopolitan being as quiet as she is, but she seems well-versed in escalating a situation." said Penny.

"Yep, she likes pushing buttons and then grinning like a deranged maniac when everything goes to hell." agreed Coco, setting them both to a modest laugh.

Soon they made room for the bed frames to be where they belonged, and had the mattresses set upon them. Taking a pause, the two teammates slowly turned, surveying the remaining tasks to tackle.

Much of the floor clutter had been pushed and heaped against the wall in three sections, each nestled between two beds and spreading sideways, threatening to slide underneath and be forgotten. Some boxes had been tossed onto the beds, along with pillows and balled-up bedding, which for one included most of the fitted sheet as well.

Although Penny's bed and closet were mostly untouched, her school work had been tucked between the desk-and-dresser barricade still in place as guard of her closet. On the other side of the room, not one closet had been addressed and not one of the three could close. One was ajar no more than a hand's width. The out-facing side of the middle closet door was adorned with a poster for a band with a lightning-bolt logo, and held open by a pile of clothing spilling from its confines, which may or may not have been clean. The final door was also tasked with too large a burden, but its contents arranged neatly, including the tidy boxes at the floor that would never allow the door to latch.

The next task was to get the desks and dressers back to their proper locations, picking up items and tossing them on the bed of their owner or kicking them into a floor pile. Nora's clothing was left in front of the bathroom, temporarily. Going through the dorm deeper with each pass they eventually sorted through the heaps between the beds as well.

Penny scooped the pile of Nora's clothing into her arms and walked to the closet in which they belonged, the middle one, her feet dragging a few items that had spilled from her grasp. Coco was ahead of her, in two steps she was at the door, hand on the knob. There was a plan, born from caution on the high probability of unintentional booby traps: Coco would open the door, Penny would toss the clothing in, kicking the articles on the floor all the way in, then jump back so Coco could close the door before anything jumped out.

It almost worked. A blanket fell from the overhead shelf and blocked the door. They tossed that back in and tried again. Something hard hid within the clothing already on the floor of the closet, blocking the door as well. They both knelt to shove it in, which ended up requiring the item to be lifted at an angle, quite possibly a hanger. A short few words passed between them and Coco stood up. They counted to three and Penny pulled her arms back as Coco tried to slam the door shut a third time. It worked.

Penny rolled back, stopping herself in a reclined sit, breathing hard with relief. "I suppose that will be her problem."

Coco snorted and looked to Nora's bed. "Well, it is if she is sleeping in here tonight, I don't think that'll all fit under her bed even if she does take the time to put it under nicely."

"Ha, that will never happen."

"Of course not." Coco laughed out, falling to a sit herself. "What's next?"

Penny looked around the room, Coco's gaze following a similar path. "I would like to fix up my desk but that pile on Neopolitan's bed is worrisome."

"Agreed, same plan?"

"Sure." Penny lazily replied with a sigh, jumping to her feet.

Coco pushed from the floor slowly, groaning as though moving took a great effort.

Penny's arms were laden with likely-unbreakable items, and Coco was once more in position, now at the closet door merely slightly ajar. Coco gave it a tentative push; there was some give but it wouldn't shut.

"You're going to need to kick it in." Coco warned, to which Penny nodded.

The door swung open, Penny tossed in her load, and a net shot out from the upper back of the closet, weighted with magnets that promptly latched to the floor. She cried out and fell backwards, a nimble Coco maneuvering out from behind her but caught in the same trap.

Just as their shouts of surprise died away a whirring sound was emitted from where the net came, along with a multi-point laser sight. Following the tether of the net toward its source, it seemed to be attached to the weapon, a silent threat against struggling or cutting its wire-strengthened rope.

As the discussion about how they ended up trapped, why, and how to get free, already circular, began to grow louder and more heated, the door to the room opened and was slammed shut.

Penny and Coco looked over, meeting the mismatched eyes that rested upon them after first scanning the room for a threat. Neo's thoughts were still on the situation she had just escaped, her face serious with wide eyes before her laughter took over and she bent forward clutching her sides.

"Stop that you insufferable brat!" Coco was unwilling to allow Neo time to compose herself.

Neopolitan opened her mouth to respond but no sound escaped, serving only to gasp for air.

"What the hell goes on in your head that setting a trap on your closet seems like a good idea?" continued Coco. "Get us out of this."

Penny placed a hand on Coco's shoulder, an attempt to calm her teammate down as a grin began to crack on her own face.

"B-blue," Neo managed to choke out, her laughter gradually subsiding and coming under control.

Coco growled, unwilling to accept that excuse as the reasonable catalyst for a trap that it was.

"Please free us from this trap, Neopolitan. We were merely attempting to right our shared living quarters." pleaded Penny.

Coco jumped on Penny's comment, removing the intent of peace. "Yeah, shared, and yet we were the only two here working on fixing this mess despite us all agreeing to clean it up together."

Neo rolled her eyes and stood back up. She walked to the closet, reaching up toward the shelf on her toes before she paused and dropped to her heels, looking at her entrapped teammates.

"Don't you dare." warned Coco, fully reading the threat to leave them there. "I know where you sleep. You don't want to go there."

Neo smirked with a tilt of her head, pretending to weigh the costs and benefits of her options. With a shrug, and more growls from Coco, she once again reached up to the controls of the trap, disabling the magnets and the weapon they were connected to.