The Undercity

[Malverne]

"You'll find out that manipulating people is a lot more useful that other mediums," Sam said wryly, "Trust me, it's-"

The phone in his pocket rang harshly, one of the shriller generic ringtones available. Sam looked down in alarm and quickly pulled the phone out and held the speaker to his ear.

"What happened?" he asked. Demanded.

Two seconds of silence. Sam's jaw twitched, and he stared at a spot about two feet in front of his eyes, not seeing his surroundings.

Sharply, he hung up and shoved the phone back into his pocket.

"We need to go," he ordered, "Now." Sam veritably sprung out of the booth, yanked his wallet out of his pocket, and forcefully slapped a couple of bills down on the table. He jerked his head toward the door, and waited, not with endless patience, for Ava to climb out and leave.


"Well...this is unexpected," Url commented, on seeing a young woman enter her room, "The normal one absent, and the absent one appears. Nami, I assume? You're a little late...five months or so?" The old orc stood and walked around the desk, shuffling along on her cane.

"Come, follow me," she said, beckoning with a small wave, "I hear you're good with fire. We don't want to burn the building down. The landlords would be upset." Url hobbled out into the yard in the back and turned around to face her student.

"Now," she said, smiling kindly around her tusks, "would you describe to me what your abilities entail?"


Traxel's eyes flared, and for a brief moment he considered thrashing the boy to within an inch of his life.

"You have a dangerous habit of meandering for a long time before getting to the point," Traxel growled, "Might want to see to that before someone breaks your spine for following them home one night. Talk fast, boy, before I gore you." Traxel folded his large arms over his barrel chest and huffed, glaring at the young upstart.

[Dantes23]

Skaeth felt the heat of the blast shoot by and gave a little hop. It wasn't often that people were able to keep up with them, let alone do it with enough prowess to shoot accurately.

They looked back and flashed a grin at the dead elf following. Had Skaeth been alive, they might have attempted to taunt the poor dead thing, or at least try to seduce it. That idea just seemed awkward and ironic now, since Skaeth just couldn't remember what sort of genitalia they had in the first place.

As another flash went by, they glanced back once more and laughed, "you'll have to try harder than that, love!" and booked it, full speed, across the main square. Luckily for Skaeth, free running was a love and a talent.

[Malverne]

The ghost elf skidded to a stop (figuratively, of course) when his quarry turned around to look back. He floated the rifle around and pressed another button.

"Captain?" the ghost asked.

"You caught the perp?"

"No, but it's...a pretty distinctive one."

"Oh?"

"It's a naga."

"...ghost naga?"

"Yessir."

"Well...that makes things easier. Every cop in the city will be on the lookout. Well done."

"Thank you sir." With that, the ghost trudged back to his post.

[lexi luthor]

Ava hung on anxiously to Sam's next words as his phone went off, cutting him off. "What's wrong?" she asked and dashed out of the booth after him.

"Where are we going?" she asked, she could tell something was obviously wrong. Maybe she could calm him down a bit if she tried? She focused and tried to relieve his stress at least a little bit as they ran out of the restaurant to god knows where.

[Malverne]

Sam walked quickly, ignoring the swirling wind and biting cold. He checked the paper in his notebook. One of the addresses listed (there were only two) had a time next to it. Sam checked his clock. Two minutes.

With that, Sam checked the street. No one around? Good. He strode out into the middle of the street and knelt by a manhole cover.

"We're going down," he said, prying it open. Nothing was visible down the circular hole in the street, but Sam wasn't nervous. Actually, he wasn't stressed about anythi- oh. That's why.

"Thing to remember, Ava," Sam said, "Part etiquette and part common sense. If you can manipulate people, and you're doing it without their permission, then you'll probably be seen, at best rude and at worst an enemy. Come on." With that, Sam grabbed Ava's hand and hugged her close to his chest. Then, he took a step into the manhole and they disappeared.

Down, down, down they fell. Lights flashed by at first, but then it was nothing but black. For a full twenty seconds, Sam and Ava dropped, unhindered by anything. Then, with a loud WHUMPH, they crashed into a large net. The net stretched under the force, and clicked into position when it had bowed to ten feet above a cold, stone floor. Sam extricated himself from the rope and dropped down, already walking off.

[lexi luthor]

Ava pursed her lips and cast her gaze down, "I was just trying to help," she mumbled. Suddenly she was being hugged and dropping down into a manhole cover. She would have screamed but the sound got stuck in her throat. Instead she death gripped Sam and squeezed her eyes shut.

She lost her grip as they hit the net and bounced to the middle. Scrambling she made her way to the edge and rolled off onto the hard ground with an ooph.

"You know, you could have warned me." she said and brushed the dust off the back of her hoodie. She jogged up next to him, and looked around with wide-eyes.

"Eck, it kinda smells down here." she noted once she was walking next to him. "So where are we going now?"

[Malverne]

“You know, you could have warned me.”

The fall on the net didn’t slow Sam’s pace even mildly, and he replied over his shoulder, “I did tell you we were going down. And, to be fair, that’s still where we’re going. Down.”

Indeed, the rough stone floor of the tunnel was sloping downward rather steeply. The lights bolted onto the cave walls by the net were fading behind them, and soon Sam was walking in darkness. He made sure to keep a hand on the wall to his right, and had the sense to grab on to Ava’s hand as well.

“The smell is mold,” he said, “We’re below the frost line, so the water drips down and creates a very good environment for mold. The Undercity will have a different smell too, but you’ll get used to it. Ow! Shit...” Sam’s foot slipped on a particularly steep patch and his other knee cracked down hard on the stone. That’d bruise later… “I’m fine, just…tripped.” Unhindered, Sam pressed on into the darkness, going as quickly as he could, given the fact that he was blind.

“About your empathy,” said Sam, after a few seconds, “One of the first things you’ll learn is ethics. People have a right to control themselves. Thoughts, emotions, those kinds of things are very personal and very private, and messing with that is a pretty gross breach of etiquette. I get that you meant well, which is why I didn’t get angry, but from now on, don’t use your abilities on friends unless you ask first. Understand?” Sam looked back at where he knew Ava was, even though he couldn’t see her, and she couldn’t see him.

[lexi luthor]

"Yeah but down where?" she asked slightly annoyed. The darkness was imperial, and it scared her. She was used to the constant lights of the city. As they descended further she began to tremble a bit.

"Oh! careful," she mumbled as Sam tripped. "Uugh, I hate the smell of mold, it's worse than skunk smell." she said forcing herself not to gag, but the struggle was real.

Ava listened to Sam's advice nodding at certain moments. "OK, well I guess I understand. But.. what if I can't help it?" she asked. She stopped walking and jerked on Sam's hand. "D-did you hear that noise?" she stuttered and looked around wide-eyed to no avail.

[Malverne]

"You'll learn how to control it," Sam assured the girl at his side, "That's why we're going down. To the Undercity, obviously. It's the onl-" Sam cut himself off as he heard the noise as well. A small scuff of something that was not stone, brushing against the ground. To be more clear, a footstep.

At once, the ambush party struck. Bright lights illuminated the pair, and Sam clapped his hands over his eyes. It was impossible to see how many there were, or where they were, as the lights were blinding and the figures were moving.

Two bodies tackled Ava to the ground, stunning spells quickly knocking her unconscious. Hands pilfered her pickets, divesting them of all their contents...which really wasn't much. The ambushers passed off everything (which was only a wallet and the journal) to their leader.

"Take her to the Pit," the leader ordered, "Let a judge figure out whether or not she'll be punished."

"Sir, are you su-"

The leader shot the vocal subordinate a vicious glare, and the man fell to his knees, holding his chest in pain.

"The Pit," he enunciated. "Go."

[Dantes23]

Skaeth came to a stop when they realized that they were no longer being followed. With a grin, they took a look around them only to come to the conclusion that they were now lost.

Skaeth had been all over town, in every nook and cranny, even the inside of walls were familiar, but this alley was different. It was as if they had discovered a whole new section of town, which seemed quite impossible. But with a shrug, the curious Naga made their way down the alley to discover the secrets of these walls.

[Kinslayer6788]

"Of course mighty Traxel. I don't want to waste anymore of your time. I am glad you got angry at me in front of your peers. It allows my plan to actually maybe work." Kruth'al stopped just a second to give himself the courage to go on.

"I was going to say the best way to progress would not be attack out right. Doing so may make you look strong but a visible civil war would cause to much dissention amoung the other tribes. It may even cause the entire Masons to be destroyed from the inside out. Which is what," Kruth'al shuddered just thinking about these implications and him saying them meant to what was going on, "the chairman probaly wants."

Standing a llite straighter, "So my suggestion on the best corse of action is this. Send someone in who can join Red Hammer's group of loyals, that can find the truth. I nominate myself. I am new to the Masons thus it would be a good political move on my part to side with what it preceived was the strongest. Second, thanks of coruse to your wonderful display of distain for my lack of an answer infront of everyone. It is only natural that I would be ashamed to come back to meeting with your group. This allows me to join them without arousing to much suspicion. I do not, nor recemend you, to trust anyone we were meeting with today. I believe some to be in the pocket of Red Hammer.

[lexi luthor]

"Sam!" Ava screamed shrilly, just before losing consciousness. The lights blinded her and she was unsure if Sam had set her up, or if he was being ambushed as well.

She awoke with a start and let out an angry scream, followed by tears as she realized her surroundings. It was a white cell, with a bed and a sink and a toilet. The bed was lumpy and uncomfortable. She sat up still crying, tears wetting her rosy cheeks.

She patted her hoodie looking for the comfort of her journal, but it wasn't there. She threw herself on the floor and looked around the whole cell.. even though she knew she wasn't going to find it.

Furious she went to the bars and gripped them in her hands, shaking herself back and forth she screamed and cried "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" repeatedly until she exhausted herself. Now with hardly any energy she stumbled over to the bed and laid down, pulling her knees up to her chest whimpering.

Where was Sam? Where was she? Why was she locked up like an animal? What did she do to deserve this? She hated everything that was happening. Her eyes and face were blush red from crying, and her body shook tremendously.

[Malverne]

"Ava!" Sam ran into view and skidded to a stop. His knee was bleeding where he'd smashed it, he had a bruise on his cheek, and he looked utterly exhausted. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you? Look, I don't have much time, I only just slipped away. Let me see your hand." Sam reached through the bars and grabbed Ava's left hand, turning it sideways.

"No ID number," he mumbled, eyes sliding shut as he thought, resting his head against the bar, "Okay, good sign. Basically, they've got you here because you're technically a runaway, because you left the Undercity. Don't worry about it, trials are fair and they'll recognize that it wasn't your choice."

There were footsteps down the hall and Sam's head whipped around. The footsteps receded and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Here," he whispered, shoving a cell phone into Ava's hands, "Take this. It's got my phone number in it already. Don't let them find it. I gotta run. Be safe, and do what they say. Don't resist." With that, Sam bolted, disappearing down the hallway.

[lexi luthor]

Ava sat up as soon as she heard her name, and Sam's voice. "Sam." she whimpered and hurried over to meet him at the bars. Ava let out a sigh of relief, happy Sam was still on her side. She had been worried that he had the ambush planned all along.

"ok" she said and took the cell phone with shaking hands. She put it safely in the elastic waist band of her leggings and let her hoodie fall over top of it.

"Wait.." she whispered and reached her hand through the bars to grab his arm before he ran off, but only skimmed the surface of his skin. She pulled her arm back and watched sadly as he ran off.

"They took my journal.." she mumbled, and rested her head on the cold white bars.

[KoyiTar]

"Well my abilities are elemental in nature. Thus far the only element that I have shown any real form of control over has been fire. I can't exactly make fire or anything like that but I have accidentally turned small bits of paper to ash. There was also the time I set off some firecrackers in my face. Other than that I haven't really been able to do much with it." Nami said to the orc standing before her looking a bit embarrassed at the last thing she had said about accidentally using her abilities.