The flickering lights were inconvenient, sure, but not alarming, at least not at first. Emmy had seen far more frightening things in her days, so she continued on stretching right up until the lights went out for real. That was strange. She looked around, her eyes adjusting slowly to the dark room, and she slipped her wand from its holster as she watched their department head try and get some light going in the room.

...Well, that wasn't good.

Emilia raised her own wand in hopes of helping, though when she uttered Lumos, nothing happened. Was this some sort of drill? She glanced around at the others, trying to gauge their reactions.

"Has this ever happened before?"

It wasn't just a head auror or the department head that was on high alert as soon as the lights went off. Flickering wasn't a big deal, but once the lights were off, Evangeline's wand was in her hand. It could be a fluke, but it could also be a test. It could be actual danger as well, so... needless to say, she was ready.

Muttering Lumos like everyone else, Evie had the same result as everyone else... Nothing. So this was a test. And Lex was playing along... Okay. Now, what were they to do? "Revelio," the young auror muttered next, her other senses heightening to try and gauge the situation. If that didn't do anything... then this was a test to prove their physical and mental strength outside of their magic abilities.

Much like the many “lumos” that yieldied no results, the YATIL’s “Revelio” proved equally futile. If any paid close enough attention they would notice the unusual way their wands felt. Almost....disconnected. As if there was no magic left in them or in the people casting them.

Wandless magic will not work, it is by all indication a sudden and unplanned deadzone.

Honestly, it wasn't just the department head or YATIL who went into 'high alert' mode as soon as the lights flickered. Nope, this guy had too. And at least he had enough sense to realize that if they couldn't even get a simple Lumos to work, then a Revelio wasn't going work either. But he also knew that pointing it out wasn't going to help and would probably lead to a very unneeded-right-now fight. So, instead, he tried the door, which......"Door's not budging either." So, they were stuck in a locked room with no light.

"Anyone else feel........almost 'disconnected' from their magic?" Because Ronan was definitely feeling it.

Another thought occurred to him then too. "I don't suppose anyone has a muggle flashlight on their person....?" He carried one, but it was with the rest of his stuff in the office (with several layers of protection, both magical and muggle, in case anyone got any ideas).

Evangeline got a warm smile, and he nodded in agreement with Lex's words. He didn't mind who he sparred with, as long as they were roughly the same level. Amrita and him sparred plenty outside of regular office hours. He was mid stretch when the first flickering began, and straightened up with a curious lift of his brow as the second happened.

When it all went dark and dead, he's already tried to wave his hands for light twice.

Well.

Benzi didn't much mind the dark, he trained often on using only four out of his five senses, but this didn't seem to be normal. There was less.. magic, in the way there's less air in higher altitudes. "Yes, feels like there's no magic." He spoke quickly, replying to Carter and made his way over to the mirror area, hand on the wall to make sure he wasn't running into anyone. He knew this room like the back of his hand. Metal gym equipment, a mirror, nothing inherently flammable, nothing that could give them light. Think, Rider

"Tried kicking the door down?" if the magic in here is dead, so to speak, maybe it was down all over the ministry too. That would mean the doors were now just flimsy pieces of wood, easily breakable.

What in the world????

Ava was just bending over in her stretching movement while suddenly the lights flickered and went off. Everything was... dark. The room suddenly felt smaller as there was no light around them, thankfully she wasn't claustrophobic or anything. The 22 year-old stood up and grab her wand to cast lumos but it didn't work. Great, huh. Was this part of their exercise? Probably not. "Yeah, I can't use my wand either." She murmured. As Carter mentioned if anyone had a muggle device to enlighten the room, Ava reached her pocket and got her cellphone. "Darn it, it's dead." The phone, she meant.

"Looks like we do need to bust the door open." She said echoing Benzi's suggestion. Looks like there was no way else they could be out from here. Would they get charged for property damage? Maybe, but this had emergency reasons behind that.

Lex scowled as attempt after attempt proved futile. The scowl only deepened in the dim lighting at Carter’s comment because yes...she’d felt it too and didn’t like it one bit. There was an uncomfortable disconnect, the kind that left her feeling bare in ways she’d rather not contemplate.

Was this how muggles felt? HOW did they cope?

She waited til Carter was done checking the door before giving it a particularly hard shove. All she got in response was an aching shoulder and more disapproval. No flashlights and a dead phone.

“Breaking it down it is.” They’d find no objections here. There were too many things to be done to remain locked in an exercise room. “This is a solid door, though and I’d rather you lot not needlessly fall out of commission.” Lex looked to the equipment, their shadows anyway. “Let’s make our own battering ram, see if we can’t get this thing sorted.”

Now what was the heaviest thing in here?

Some may argue brute force was never the answer but...they’d obviously never had a day in the DMLE.

Amrita was scowling, though it hardly seemed to matter considering that everything had gone dark. If they'd been at home, at least she would have a flashlight. Or Jasmine's glow-bear that had been creatively named Glow-ria.

Think, Amrita. Think. What could be used as a battering ram?

"Don't we have a bench-press in here?" she asked, brute force clearly being the first thing that occurred to her. But then, she kicked herself a little -- she was an auror, and they all knew that the first idea that occurred was rarely the most effective. She was also a woman. A woman with extremely thick hair.

She had hairpins.

"Alternatively," she said, slowly, an idea forming already. "Does anyone remember if the door had a manual lock?" If the door locked the muggle way, they could probably bust out even without alohomora. "Or we could try unscrew the hinges."

You saw a lot of things when you were in the MLE department, and yet, the lights going out and all the magic somehow...disappearing? completely was not something Penelope expected today. Especially the magic part. What was up with that? It made no sense to her, and she didn't like it.

She still kept her wand out though as everyone was giving out ideas. Brute force was often her preferred method, especially when she was a teenager, but Sandhu's suggestion made a lot of sense too. Though she actually couldn't remember if the door had a Muggle lock on it. But it definitely at least had hinges, yeah?

"We should probably try that first," she said. "Then brute force if not." She ALMOST hoped they couldn't get the hinges unscrewed so they could actually break the door down. That would be more fun.

So, he wasn't the only who was feeling- or not feeling that- then. Not great, definitely something that should be investigated later, but didn't leave him feeling unsettled. He could make it in the muggle world if, Merlin forbid, it came down to it. The dead phone didn't bother him as much as some might expect it to either. It was just something that happened, even to the best of them.

"Except that we'd need a screwdriver to remove the hinges." Not something even muggles carried around regularly. So, removing the door hinges was out of the question. Unless someone was holding out on them....?

So, Ronan started feeling around near the doorknob for any kind of keyhole. "Anyone have any hairpins, paper clips, credit cards, anything like that?" If not, he had his water bottle he could tear, but he'd rather not get water all over the place.

Note to self: Never leave your flat with low-battery phone.

Ava put her useless cellphone back into her pocket and just listened to the others. If they're going to bust the door open, it could be done since they're in exercise room and there's some fitness equipment that could be useful for that like the barbell for example. There were several people that could lift it together to break the door open, right? That sounded like a doable plan. The Auror eyed one of the barbell and was about to nudge Rider until Sandhu mentioned about try unlocking the key or unhinging the screw.

A hairpin? Oh, she had one.

"Here." Ava took one of the bobby pins she used for her side bangs. Would it work? She wasn't sure but let's hope so... Or they're back with busting the door with barbell plan.

Well...that seemed like it would take far longer than simply breaking down the door would. Carter also had a point. To take the door apart peacefully, someone would need to be walking around with muggle tools and if someone was...that led to its own set of questions, namely why? What would go through any of their heads to make them think “today is the day I’ll need to bring a muggle instrument into work”. A curious thought, in truth.

Lex looked about at all the shadows in the dark room, her eyes beginning to adjust with each passing second.

Fine. Try the door that way, everyone else get ready to bust this thing open if it doesn’t work.” Whatever got them out but they most certainly would need to be out. There was work to be done and the longer they stayed in here was the more agitated she’d grow.

Benzi appreciated everyone's efforts to preserve ministry property, and not break the door but rather try and pick the lock. Not really his style, but he wouldn't go against Sandhu, for all intents and purposes his partner on most cases, or Grimm. Or his boss, for that matter.

"On it." Time to get some sort of battering ram ready.

Benzi called to memory the layout of the exercise room, considering their options. Any one of the machines would work, if someone assisted him in pushing it at full force towards the door. Especially if they pile some weights onto the instrument.

Actually..

"Hey, anyone by the door, can you check if the door hinges are on our side?" he couldn't remember if the door swung in or out. "If they're exposed, we could take some weights and smash them up."

"Thank you," he replied, taking the pin from Ava's hand. Honestly, he really needed two, but he could make this work. He pulled the pin into an 'L' shape, carefully sticking it into the lock. Then, he pulled an ink pen out of his pocket, took it apart so that he had the ink cartridge. That ready, he turned the bobby pin in the lock to create tension, then stuck the ink cartridge into the lock and wiggled it slowly up and down.....and *click* went the first piece of the lock. All this took Ronan all of thirty seconds. So...no Benzi, they weren't busting up the hinges.

Wiggling the ink cartridge a few more times, he heard more clicks and the bobby pin was swinging freely. "No need," he replied, giving the door a good elbowing which caused the door to pop open. "Voila!" The whole thing had taken him about a minute, start to finish. You're welcome. "Just, you know, keep the door open until that lock can be replaced, lest you end up locked out or back in again."

...

.....

Well, she supposed that was that then. Was it bad she'd been looking forward to breaking the door down? All that pent up frustration from having to have this exercise session in the first place...but she guessed if the door was open now... "Good work, Carter." She said, already moving through the door. Praise where praise was due, yeah?

"Think we can call it a morning then, unless any of you are still keen to give it a go. If anyone down at legal asks, we worked out til 8. Gonna see if I can get to the bottom of whatever the hell just happened." Lex looked back to the others still within the room.

"In the meantime, avoid anywhere that might suddenly decide you don't have anywhere better to be." Namely anywhere with a lock that could suddenly close. Thankfully the work area was an open space. This could have been worse.

So that was weird. And anticlimactic.

Benzi noted Carter's name in his mind as a talented lock pick. Good to know, should the auror ever need the YATI's expertise. Personally, Benzi never cared for the subtle art of bobby pins and credit cards. He knew how to do it, but honestly it was one of the least fun things in his muggle skills kit.

Looking beween Lex and his fellow aurors as she dismissed them, he couldn't help but slightly frown. What about this weird dead zone that's now plaguing their gym? And might possibly spread? He had some items in evidence that wouldn't fare well in a non magic area, and he really needed them to stay intact.

"Should I call... maintenance? To check out what happened?" he asked as he walked forward to speak to her directly. He'd do it himself if he had the time. Though, truthfully, he had few ideas about where he'd start, provided it wasn't some weird ward that was cast with malicious intent. That, he could handle. ... But that would mean the Ministry's compromised, which would be very bad news.

Best let the Ministry people check it out first.

"That's where I'm heading. No need to tell everyone to remain on alert, yeah?" Lex didn't slow her strides as she turned to make her way through the corridor though she was cautious enough. No telling what had caused the little black out just now and it somehow felt it hadn't lifted. If something was lurking around here...someone...it'd stand to reason they'd think they were in the advantageous position with the magic seemingly off but she would still give them quite the fight as needed.

"Level 3, actually. See who's running charm maintenance over there and what the hell they think they're doing. Walk with me if you want." As friendly an invite as he was likely to get to tag along.

It wasn't until she walked by the clock out in the hall that she caught sight of the time and slowed some. This had been an early morning session.....right.

"What time d'you reckon those blokes will get in?"

This just became all the more inconvenient.

Right, yes, good point. He looked around at the rest of the department before deciding that yes, he will be accompanying Alexa to Level Three. There's no way he'd be able to sit still at his desk today following this unsolved and unchecked mystery, all the more because he had a mountain of paperwork and research to go through.

About to begin theorising on what could possibly be the source of such an anomaly, he stopped beside her when she stopped, and glanced at the clock as she did. Ah... "Don't think you'll have someone to talk to before 9am," he sighed, and looked down the corridor half wishing a more immediate solution would simply present itself. Life would be so great if it worked that way. "Urgent memo? Reckon the receptionist will be the first one in.. Or Dodderidge on a floo line?"

Something told him that woman would be all sorts of unpleasant this early in the morning, as most people are. Question was how urgently Lex would be categorising this incident.