Forums » General Roleplay » On the Wings of Freedom: 1x1

The walk to the tower was a bit unnerving for Alexis as well. Since the entire city was encased by concrete, you could hear almost everything. That goes for automobile alarms, gunshots, gang fights, and a whole lot of everything else just bouncing off the solid roof and back again. They had reached one of the many stair cases that started at the base of the column. The design was rather unique. Each staircase was labeled with all the addresses one would run into as it climbed up to the top. The rooms were indeed nothing else but holes drilled into the side of the column with a simple wooden door to protect one's privacy and as they climbed, some of the doors were left open revealing that it was simply a cave with a single room with everything someone needed in it. The smells, too, were quite overwhelming. And this is coming from the combined odor of hundreds of residents that lived there.

After climbing perhaps fifteen flights of stairs, they reached the top. Alexis was surprised to actually see there was a shortcut. A makeshift elevator at the very center of the column. Most likely stopped only at the very top and the very bottom of the complex. There was a giant green tent tht broke off into three sections, the middle being the biggest and the brightest. Its clear roof and industrial powered lamp gave the illusion of a searchlight that was propped at the top of the column.

"Hello?" Alexis called as she looked around. Whoever lived there had it a lot better off than the others below them and she was surprised that this managed to exist seemingly unguarded.

"Hold on," there came a voice from inside the tent and a young, slender woman with short black hair appeared out of the main entrance of the tent. She wore dark clothes. A black t-shirt and loose fitting jeans covered in holes and what looked like oil stains. She smiled at them as Alexis only stared warily back and after a moment she spoke. "Can... I help you two?"

Erasai seemed eager to just get the information they needed, and so she was the first to speak after being questioned about their needs. "We are looking for a way out of the city, not taking the high road, of course," she said, looking to the girl. She would glance behind the girl, looking at her home. She wondered just how she lived up here. How she lived up here? There seemed to be a lacking of basic necessities, and she began to think about the times ahead of them.

"She means we're trying to get out of here without Upper Haven knowing-" Alexis started.

"I know what she means," the young woman said and ran a gloved hand under her chin. "The problem is, it's going to cost you."

Alexis dropped her shoulders in disbelief. "We don't... I don't have anything else," Alexis said, "I just gave away my cell phone..." She was tempted in just using the gun to threaten her.

"What about the gun?" the young woman asked, catching Alexis by surprise. "What? I can see the outline of it in your jacket. I'm gonna need more though. What else you girl's got?"

Erasai kind of saw this coming... It was lower Haven after all. She had only been here five minutes and she already knew what to expect. She sighed heavily and looked at Ophelia asked about the gun. And she wanted more? What more could she offer?

"Are you kidding... We... look at us, do we really look like we have more?" For God's sake, she had holes in her clothing, she couldn't possibly look like she had anything of value on her.

She patted herself down, but found nothing at all she could give. "You're not better off than asking for the shirts off our backs..."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Ophelia said with a grin. "Not you, though. Is that blood on your blouse? Yeck. But you!" She pointed at Alexis who jumped a bit in surprise, "That's a nice jacket you got there. I like fluffy things and it gets awfully cold down here. Give me that and we got a deal."

"But... I don't really have anything under..." Alexis unzipped her jacket a bit, revealing the bikini top she had bought with Erasai.

Ophelia shrugged, "Don't matter to me. Now hand it over. Gun too."

"How do we know you're actually going to give us directions after I give you my gun?" Alexis asked.

"Because, if I wasn't going to help you," Ophelia reached behind her back and pulled out a pistol of her own and spun it in her fingers, "I would've shot you both by now."

Alexis hesitated looked over at Erasai for any other ideas before she was forced to give up what little she had left.

Erasai frowned. Was this girl really going to take a coat as payment? Whatever. If it would get them the information, then it was the only choice. She certainly didn't have anything else to offer. "If there really is nothing else that we could give you, then take it..." She looked to Alexis and sighed. She gave an apologetic look, letting her know that she had run out of ideas.

Hopefully they wouldn't have to pay for anything else... because then they would be out of every kind of currency.

Alexis gave a loud sigh and unzipped her jacket, exposing herself to the chill and she tossed it over to Ophelia who took it with a smile. She threw it on immediately. "Oh~ it's warm!" she said and patted the gun in the pocket. She then looked the young woman over. "A mercenary, I presume? Bullet wounds. And is that a knife wound? Not common for a soldier to be down here. Anyway, follow me!" she said, gripping onto her gun.

She quickly ran off to the edge of the column and leapt off, grabbing onto a zip line and sliding down using the pistol as the pulley. She landed quite a distance off, rolling on top of another building's rooftop and waited for the other girls to get down.

Alexis tried to cover herself, feeling awfully embarrassed about being in nothing more than a bikini top and a skirt. There were additional pulleys sitting conveniently on the box right next to the designated zip line. In fact, the seven other lines that surrounded the roof area each had a box of pulleys.

"At least she's helping us right away...You know how to use one of these?" Alexis asked Erasai, grabbing one and fastening it to the zip line, "Just hold on and keep your legs in front of you."

She shrugged and took a hold of the pulley. She really wasn't enjoying this girl's overly odd ways, but, at least they would be getting out of this place. So she couldn't complain too much. She just leaned forward and let the pulley carry her down the line, to follow Ophelia where she had landed. The wind was cold as it wiped around her, especially since it lacked any form of sunlight to warm it.

Alexis followed close behind, letting Ophelia lead the way. When she reached the bottom, Ophelia took no time in waiting any longer and ran ahead, leaving open several improvised bridges, gates and ladders for the other two to pass over. The young woman finally stopped at a manhole on the city floor marked with an x which Alexis figured was one of Ophelia's secret passages.

"Here you are. Your exit to the city," she said with a smile as she opened it.

As she did, Alexis was greeted with a pungent smell that almost made her gag. "What is this?" Alexis said, not wanting to breath in any more of it.

"One of the last junctions in the city's sewer system that leads out into the ocean. Aw, c'mon don't give me that look. I could've had you guys start more towards the center of the city. That would've been maybe an extra mile of you walking in this stench. This is the shortest walk out of here and you know what else? It's next to a train station. You girls want that, don't you?"

"Is there some other way to get us out of the city? I don't know if I can handle the smell."

"There is... There's lot's of ways, actually. This one is just the easiest. Another exit is being used as a tolling station for one of our city's lovely gangs. We also have a really old catacomb in a graveyard. Take your pick."

Erasai followed closely behind, keeping up with the two and stopped when they did. She, too, was greeted almost immediately by the horrid smell that came from below. "Agh," she said, covering her face. "No, this will do. We just need to find something to cover our noses..." She looked around, before settling on the bottom hem of her shirt, ripping it off. She raised it up and tied it over her mouth and nose. It didn't block out all of the smell, but it did help. She made her way to the manhole and looked down it.

"Any other surprises we should know about?"

She's seriously going down there, Alexis thought and shook her head. Erasai had her own mask to block the smell but Alexis? Well, unless she was going to tear off her skirt, she would have to go down without anything to help remedy the odor.

"Well, I had a story for the catacombs but since you're not, the most you'll have to worry about is football-sized rats. And the occasional junkie who has lost a little more than enough of their mind to be legally out on the streets. So long as you got a gun, though, you'll be fine. Oops," Ophelia twirled the second gun in her finger as she said that.

Alexis took the ladder down after Erasai into the pitch black tunnels of the sewer and she looked up at the last bit of light from the street light shining into it. "How long is this tunnel?"

"Hell if I know," Ophelia replied with a grin. "But if you DO manage to make it out, more power to you. Good luck~" And with that, the manhole was covered leaving them alone in the dark. The sound of rushing water seemingly non-existent save for the very faint trickling sound Alexis could hear when she held her breath. As far as vision went, everything was fine. Alexis didn't need her eyes to see in the dark and sensed the form the shadows took around them. Like sonar, she picked up movement in short increments that allowed her to identify that there were indeed gigantic rats in their immediate vicinity. "You okay, Erasai?" she asked, trying to figure out exactly where to go in the tunnel from there.

Three orbs of light rose from Erasai's hand. They might have looked familiar to Alexis, but they were less threatening this time. They illuminated the area around them, giving them a good 15 feet of light. She had just been about to step in a pile of... something, but caught herself just in time.

"I'm good," she said, slightly muffled by the cloth. She looked to Alexis, and then pointed to her own shirt. "Do you want a piece of this?" She was, of course, referring to making another cloth mask, but it might have been awkward to someone that had witnessed just that part.

The light scared the rats away and Alexis had to shield her eyes for a moment as they readjusted. Normally she would have taken that comment a little less seriously but the smell... "Please," she said with a nod as she held her breath. At least with the light, Alexis was able to tell where the sewage was flowing. The tunnel was big enough to fit two tour buses in and was divided by a canal of flowing brown and green liquid that simply looking at would make anyone hurl. Honestly, she preferred it if the light would be off for that purpose. "Thanks for the light," she said, "But don't you think it would attract attention from the others that Ophelia said was down here?"

"Well, how do you expect me to see? I'm not a cat," Erasai said, ripping off another strip of her shirt. She was now left with enough shirt to cover her chest decently. She held out the cloth to Alexis. "I'm not really worried about being down here, as much as I was being up there. At least here, you can hear things approaching, so it will be hard to surprise us."

"That is true," she replied, tying the cloth over her mouth and nose. It didn't help much but at least it kept dust or whatever else from directly flying into her mouth when she spoke. There was also the familiar scent of Erasai in the cloth. That and a lot of gunpowder, dust, and asphalt. What a day.

And so she began walking, leading the way down the path where the river flowed through turn after turn, deeper and deeper into the tunnels and for a while it was nothing but tunnel. Concrete and darkness in front of them, concrete and darkness behind. The smell had numbed her senses somewhat and she could feel her head swirling from nausea. It felt like she was in a dream. Just walking straight in an ongoing, never ending tunnel all the while her body felt more and more heavy. She stopped at one point. "I can't take this. I feel like I'm going to puke."

There was the occasional sound of rats scurrying as the light hit them. That added a different sound to the flowing of sewage. When Alexis stopped, she looked to her. "That Ophelia... she better not have lied to us." She was feeling sluggish herself, but in no way wanted to stop here.

"Maybe it's not too much farther... Let's just, keep going a little bit further." She pulled Alexis up a bit, trying to support her. "Just... Think about the freedom, okay? About how that will smell."

"I hope not. Though I wouldn't be surprised if she did just lead us down here to die," Alexis said. She really did feel like the smell could kill her. When Erasai helped her up she forced herself to laugh. "I certainly hope it doesn't smell like this." She let Erasai help her for a few yards of walking before she regained some control of her stomach.

Eventually, they were walking at normal speed again down the tunnel that seemed to go on and on. The sound of rushing water was growing, though and that was the only form of reassurance Alexis had. However, the entire time they walked, Alexis had a feeling that something was following them. Rather, multiple things that accumulated over time. Sure there was the occasional rat that would appear under Erasai's light, but there were these larger entities just beyond the lighting that Alexis sensed, trailing them. "Stay close, Erasai," she said, putting an arm around hers, "I... still feel unwell."

They continued walking for an additional half hour and they finally stopped at the source of rushing water. It was a gigantic cylindrical room where the sewage flowed down into a very deep hole. The path they walked on hugged the concrete walls and the ceiling was dome-shaped with a small hint of light shining in through a manhole lid. Other than that, it was a dead end with an old rusted ladder on the other side of the room.

There came a sound behind them. A wrench dropping in the not to distant fringe of light that Erasai held. It was picked up by a dirty, paled hand and a man came in, rubbing against the dirty concrete wall, towards them. "D-do. Do you have?" he said, dropping his head before raising it again towards them. He had a a very scarred face and a non-existant lower lip that seemed to have been chewed off a long time ago. "Jolt. Do you have Jolt?"

There was another voice behind him as well as movement from multiple figures as they stepped into the light. "Ophelia!" the voice called, "Where is our Jolt!?" Each and every one of them were disfigured in some way and advanced at a slow pace towards them.

Jolt. Alexis knew what they were talking about. That would mean these men and women weren't normal people and it became obvious when the first man with the wrench raised an upturned palm and a small, weak flame, was conjured.

Erasai had begun to look around the dead end, trying to see the best way out, if one existed. But, she turned when she heard the wrench drop, and nearly stumbled off the edge of the walkway. She caught herself on Alexis, and looked to the man behind her. And then the others...

"What the --" she started, before the started asking for Jolt. What the hell was Jolt? She looked to Alexis, wondering if she knew what was going on, but didn't hold her vision on the girl for long, when she saw the flame rise from the man's hand.

"That's... not good," she said, taking several steps back, almost wanting to extinguish her light... but that would only be bad news for them. These people lived down here, apparently, so they were use to the darkness.

Ophelia took their only weapon and the two girls were practically defenseless against them. It was like she left them there to die. Well. She did have their magic. But Erasai's light was going to be a problem in this situation but Erasai would be able to fight for herself based on what she saw earlier. Hopefully.

"Erasai, we'll have to fight magic with magic. But your light's going to cancel mine out. Head left. I'll take a few on the right." she said, cautiously moving over to her side. Suddenly the one bearing flames thrust his hand forward, unleashing a weak but intense jet of flames at them.

She did as she was told, and just in time to avoid the flame. She frowned. So they were magic users. She wondered if they had obtained it naturally, or if it was forced onto them. But, that wasn't something to think about at that moment.

One of the orbs of light around her vibrated a moment, before it flew at one of the people that had been following them, hitting them on the side and knocking them into the water.

"I don't want to hurt you, but if you keep coming at us, I will! So, stop where you are at!"