In the Heat of the...Tunnel?

[Drayson]

The woman approached from her place backdropped against the shadows of the tunnel, and the way she moved was...well, he was certain she was a woman. The way she moved was far too fluid, to be a man. Graceful didn't seem the right word for it.

He let her draw near; had she wished them harm, she likely would have struck from the shadows. The distance she had gotten off that Oni head had seemed far too casual and easy. She was, he suspected, stronger then she looked. Of course, it was equally possible that it was just the darkness of the underground playing tricks on his perceptions.

The picture she hinted at was less then pleasing; far too many things dwelling under Moscow. Three dead in one day? Apparently within hours of each other? The existence of a third creature answered what had happened to the Italian.

"I shall do what I can to help you people, but my hands are tied. I understand why those of you down here are loathe to work with me on hollow promises, but without your help, there is only so much I can do."
He of course did not realize she was not one of the illegal immigrants, or even that she wasn't human. It was frustrating at times, how hard it was to gain their help, their trust, but equally so he could understand why, and the reason for that was equally frustrating.

He turned slightly to watch Ivan return, nodding in approval to the man's resolve to keep trucking along. He'd seen seasoned officers crumple under less. Everyone had their breaking point, but Ivan was young yet, and hadn't the weight of years pressing down on him. Drayson was almost enviable, and certainly felt guilty for how fast the young officer's innocence was fading.

"It is rare to find someone down here willing to help a stranger. I must thank you on the Italian's behalf, if he has not yet done so."
But had she followed him to assure the man was safe, or to quiet him to what he had seen? Was she Atharim then? He chastised himself silently; he could not assume every person fighting these monsters was one of those cultish hunters.

[Ivan Sarkozy]

The tightness of the dressing seemed to help with the pain somewhat. Well that and the local anesthetic/anti-bacterial application that had also been applied. But he was sure that tomorrow his leg would hurt something fierce. Oh well, nothing a few pills couldn't take care of. He had plans after all.

The Cap was talking to the woman. Ivan looked her over. Tall- maybe up to his eyebrows- and swathed in black wrappings of some sort with some sort of pack. Looked like a ninja to him, though he'd never heard of a woman ninja. Well maybe on that reality show from DIV everyone talked about- the one with all the homeless kids who fought and stuff. It was seriously messed up, that. A joke he'd read came to mind. "DIV exports crazy like DV exports oil." He didn't get how that was supposed to be entertainment. Then again, there were a lot of things about the CCD he didn't get. He hoped Ascendancy would be able to take care of stuff like that.

But this woman- and from the way she moved, she was definitely female. A part of him wondered what she looked like under all those wraps, so tall and statuesque and clearly strong to have tossed that head as far as he had. He smiled. Nice! An Amazonian Ninja down here in the Moscow tunnels. Remembering that old show Pops used to watch, he though, Or maybe Xena! And once he thought of that, that was it. She was Xena.

"Got an arm on you there. Nice toss.


With his power-enhanced vision, he noted something interesting about her eyes. They looked to be slits or something, like a snake. Cool contacts. So anyway, he just stood there and listened to the Cap make his spiel. He doubted it would make much of a difference with Xena here. It hadn't with the others. But he could be wrong. She had followed the Italian guy after he'd had a run in with a monster, from what Ivan could tell from having listened in while getting patched up. So that was something he guessed.

At any case, he waited with the Cap to see what Xena'd do. And for the wagon to arrive for the Italian guy. And the monster cleanup crew.

[Akantha]

Akantha gave Drayson a level look. Truth be told, she wasn’t exactly sure what to make of him. Perhaps he meant what he said, but how long would that last once he discovered what she really was? The thought of trusting one of them was all too foreign to her. Some of her clan were more open to the idea, but she saw the whole thing as a foolish notion. Yet, the same instincts that had once screamed at her and caused the Naga to view every human with dislike, were growing curiously quiet in this man’s presence.

Sarkozy joined them before she could say anything in response to the inspector’s observation. Despite his friendly remark, Akantha spared him a sideways glance accompanied with a soft grunt. At the moment, the man was less agitated than earlier, and showed no signs of hostility, but she remained wary of him. It was, she realized, no fault of his, but rather the fault of what he could do. That was something she’d not seen before, and a skill that could very easily turn into a weapon against her.

“Then do not make your promissesss hollow, Chief Draysson. My people have been going misssing. A few ventured out into the tunnelss asss normal and never returned. Neither have thosse that’ve gone after them in sssearch for anssswerss. Now, I am looking. If I help you, you mussst keep your promisse to usss in return. I want you to help me find out what happened.”


Turning her face to look in the direction the young man she’d followed there had been carried off to, Akantha shook her head. “I wassn’t helping him… I was killing the beassst.”


The Naga knew that wasn’t quite right. In the end she had meant to help him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have found herself following him to ensure he made it out of the tunnels in one piece. Yet, despite knowing the truth, Akantha silently told herself she simply didn’t want to eventually find out she’d risked her neck and earned a nasty gash for nothing.
Edited by Akantha, Aug 16 2014, 03:03 AM.

[Drayson]

"That is turning into all too common a story. Some are lost to more mundane causes. The sex trade is all too active down here. Organ harvesting."
It was sickening that the situation had soured so much that something like sex-slaves were 'mundane' reasons for disappearances. He already knew of two serial killers in the city; one fled and vanished, the other only recently arrived, but who knew how many could be at work below the city's streets, preying on those that did not exist in the eyes of the system?

The woman's bold statement of her motivation was met with a hint of a knowing smile. There was a hesitation at the end, a hint of self reflection. Her motivation was not so martial as she might wish to let on. Or, perhaps, he was entirely wrong, but he somehow doubted it. Few would hunt monsters just for the thrill of the kill. And they certainly would not follow someone they had just rescued for the hope of finding fresh prey.

"I will leave my reputation to speak for me and mine. I hope that the fact that we are down here at all will broker some trust. But, as I said, I am not able to do anything in an official manner; the Custody does not admit that you exist, and so I cannot either. Is it common for these creatures to be so close to the surface?"
Close to the surface was a bit of an odd statement; they were many levels below ground, but still in regions that, at least occasionally, saw city workers, and more importantly where many of the largest reclamation projects were under way. The Custody was spending a rather substantial fortune on such projects.

[Ivan Sarkozy]

Xena looked at him for a moment at his compliment and then grunted. He wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean but whatever. No skin off his back. And truth is, especially if she had killed a beast herself, she probably wasn't in the mood for jokes. Course he was, but then again it was rare that he wasn't.

Her words, though, were sobering. The mistrust was there, which was expected. Most tunnel dwellers lived down here for a reason. Topside just wasn't their place. Injustice, illegals, runaways, cult members, vagrants, mental health- there were all kinds reasons and types to be down here. He watched Xena as she and the Cap felt each other out. Which category did she fall into? She did have a foreign way of speaking, though whether he would term in an accent or not he wasn't sure. And at nearly 6 feet tall and strong, she didn't seem a runaway waif or vagrant. Maybe illegal. She spoke of "my people". A group then. Vaguely he wondered if they were a group of Amazonian ninjas. Now that would be something to see.

Ivan waited to see what their little heart to heart would bring.

[Akantha]

Akantha grimaced beneath her face covering. She couldn’t understand how humans could treat each other in that way, then turned around and looked down at her people? The old man from her earlier encounter sprung to mind. He’d let her go, though she was sure it had taken a lot of self-restraint in his part.

As Drayson continued to speak, the Naga listened with as much of an open mind as she could allow herself to. With this man, she would make an exception and trust him until she couldn’t. The feeling, however, was all too alien for her and she wasn’t quite ready to clarify that whatever this custody was, it probably wouldn’t know her people existed.

In response to his question, Akantha shook her head. “No. They tend to sstick to the deeper tunelsss. There are more tunnelsss, further down, that even thosse of usss haven’t ventured down too. Mosst of the time our concernsss are with the criminalsss and the onesss too hungry or lossst to remember scivility.”


Looking over at Ivan, then at the head of the creature he’d dispatched, the female sighed. If the creatures were venturing so close to all the humans and the surface, then there was nothing to stop them from getting to her clan. Had she been too hasty in leaving them? The group wasn’t exactly unprotected, but a feeling of guilt she didn’t like at all crept its way inside her.

“Mosst of the people here keep to themsselvesss; they try to remain quiet. I don’t often encounter othersss from above. If more of you are venturing below it could be a reason for more of the monsstersss to venture thisss far up.”
It was a wild guess, and one she was clearly holding with a good dose of skepticism. If fresh meat, so to speak, was what was drawing things like the Oni higher up in the tunnels, then Akantha would have been in this situation long before. “I cannot honesstly say why the thingsss are here and not down below where they belong. What I want to know, isss if there are more of him.”


She looked at Sarkozy once again. “I’ve not ssseen what you do before. You are dangerousss.”

[Ivan Sarkozy]

Xena's slitted eyes shifted between them as she spoke. She looked irritated, but then appeared to make a decision. Ivan listened to her speak. He was intrigued at her statement "those too hungry or lost to remember civility,"
course with all those 's''s that she added to everything. Sounded like she was doing a snake impression or something. An old cartoon from his childhood flashed to mind, though he couldn't remember what it was from. Some kid in a tree and a snake talking like that. The memory flitted away, but the impression had solidified.

Between the speaking and the contacts, he had the distinct impression that this woman was trying to be snake-like. It explained the way she moved too. Yeah, she was a woman- no question there- so she already had that curvy and sinuous way of standing or walking whenever she wanted, like all of 'em did. But this seemed...exaggerated, quicker and more deadly. Is Xena trying to be a snake ninja?

He reassessed her. Regardless of what she was trying to do, between the way she moved and the way she'd thrown that head, it was clear that she was formidable. And yet clearly she was bothered by the number of creatures that seemed to coming up from below- things that, up until a few minutes ago, he'd not even know were real! What would it be like to live down here and have that as part of your day to day concern? Ivan knew that that would be about the day he started packin it in to get the hell outta dodge. Of course, he had to admit, he had that luxury. She didn't. Or at least, he didn't think she did. Most people down here didn't. He frowned. It was a jacked up situation.

She had been talking to Drayson, so he had been watching her while keeping alert for the rest of the tunnel. The girl could come back, or maybe even more of those bear-things. Mikhailov seemed to have the Italian guy in good charge. He almost missed the woman's comment. "What I want to know, isss if there are more of him.”
She looked at him with those slitted eyes. “I’ve not ssseen what you do before. You are dangerousss.”


He tilted his head. Dangerous? It was still going to take some getting used to thinking of himself that way. He knew he was good in a fight. And God help the person who thought they could get away with hurting someone else when he was around. He was dangerous then. But she wasn't talking about that, he knew. He wasn't a weapon. He could just...do things, is all.

He shrugged and smiled. "Dangerous? Maybe to the ladies."
A quick glance at the Cap and he went on a bit more seriously. "I just can do stuff, that's all. There are others around I guess. I don't really know any of them."
Ascendancy's secret was not his to tell. "But if you have more of those things, I can help."
He looked at the Cap again. "If it's alright with the Cap, that is."

[Drayson]

Even in light of the events of Dominance V, things like Mr Sarkozy's abilities were something to be kept 'off the record.' At least for the time being. The realization that the Custody's police forces employed men or women capable of leveling an entire building at a whim would not be well received by the citizens. That made conversation topics such as Mr Sarkozy's decapitation of a giant monster with magic a touchy subject. Of course, the presence of a giant monster was also one not suited to open conversation under most circumstances.

There was some debate of just how deep the tunnels under Moscow ran. In the Soviet era, they had plunged ever deeper into the earth to build their protective bunkers or hidden labs, and even some of those reports, those few he had managed to read himself, had indicated that at least some of those projects had simply re-purposed existing chambers.

City workers only went so far; if there were no mechanisms that allowed the city to function, there was no need of city workers, after all. But the immigrants? Who knew how far down some had plumbed? Many of those old bunkers had been sealed up with the very supplies these sorts of people would need to live. Reservoirs of drinkable water and fuel, supplies of food and fabric and construction materials and more. Weapons even.

Ivan's comment was met with a wry shake of his head. The lad certainly seemed to have weathered the day's revelations well. He would likely fit in with the more seasoned officers that had made up his new task force, being those officers that had seen and dealt with such things in the past, before there had been any open talk on the matter.

"Mr Sarkozy is right. He can help. But again, not officially."
He looked to Ivan, and gave the man a commiserating pat on the shoulder, "Hunting monsters would be an extracurricular activity. Strictly off the books, after all."
Most of the task force's work would be in dealing with Channelers; in the guise of tracking serial killers, gang leaders, and other dangerous criminals. That was a topic that could, soon, be revealed to the public, and the existence of a tried and proven CDPS force would shine well upon the CCD. Monster hunting though...that was something to be kept under wraps for a time longer.

[Akantha]

She nearly hissed at Sarkozy’s little joke, which of course, she didn’t find funny in the least. Moreover, the Naga’s scowl deepened when Drayson saddled her up with the young male. Instinctively, Akantha nearly snapped at the Chief that she worked alone. That she would have rather worked alone than in close relation with a human, but that would have defeated the entire purpose of her hopes of finding out what was going on. After all, here was her chance to have eyes where she couldn’t go without great risk.

“Very well.”
What stuck in her mind, however, was the fact that the younger of the two men knew there were more like him. More of him wandering around the tunnels could mean trouble. Well, more trouble. “You will hunt with me then, Sssarkozy, but I will ssay what we kill. You sseem… impulssive.”
Truth be told, she had no desire of him spotting another Naga and trying to dispatch her kind in his ignorance. She would also have to keep her own guard around him. If she’d had hair, it would have probably stood on end, as it was, her scales felt tighter than usual.

“When will you come down here nexsst? I cannot meet you in the sssurface, my plasce iss here.”

[Ivan Sarkozy]

Xena didn't like his little joke and glared at him. His grin became a wide smile. He wasn't trying to be a jerk to her but when women glared at him he couldn't help it and that smile came out. It usually got him in trouble- his mom had not been a fan of it when he was kid, not by a long shot- but it really didn't matter. It was fun. No skin off his back. Women always found something to be mad at you about anyway.

The Cap was really cool, though. "No problem Cap. Off the books sounds fine to me."
He shrugged. "Less paperwork too."
That was the worst part of his job.

Xena finally spoke, though it seemed like the words were hard to get out. “Very well. You will hunt with me then, Sssarkozy, but I will ssay what we kill. You sseem… impulssive.”
Man, she was really into that snake thing. Guess you had to be a bit nuts to live down here though.

He laughed at her words, though. Him? Impulsive? He was never impulsive. Course he didn't sit around naval-gazing either. Decisions had to be made, sometimes at the moment. And once they were made there was no point putting things off. But whatever. She could think she was callin the shots all she liked. But if they ran into trouble, she'd find out right quick who was in charge. Little clue here. It's not gonna be the civvie. Even if she does think she's a snake ninja!

But out loud he said, "I'll be sure to dial it back a notch, snake-lady."
His smirk and twinkle in his eye told her what he thought of her assessment of him. "As for when I'll be down here again, it will have to be this weekend. I can meet you right here on Saturday at dusk."
He thought for a minute. Did that work? He was going out with Zoya tomorrow. He hoped it would go well. If it did, she might want to do something on the weekend. Probably throw paint on people wearing furs or something. Well, probably not that. Most fur was fake nowadays. It was pretty jacked up the way people got it. He'd not give her a hard time about that.

But there were monsters down here. And from the concern in the Cap's voice- even his sanctioning a bit of monster hunting on the DL- as well as from Xena's begrudging willingness to work with him- he could see this concerned them. Him too. Fact was, it just wasn't right. Now that he knew about it, he couldn't just sit and do nothing. This was his city. And somehow, he had the power to deal with those things. Well, so did that psycho-chick with the sword- man, talk about being high up on the hot-crazy scale. Yikes. What kind of man would try to crack that nut? He liked fire and spunk and a sassy mouth. You know, the kind of girl who'd tell you her mind and twit you for being a dork. And that you could tease in return about her own brattyness. She could be mad at you all she wanted and you could just give her that grin- the one that he had given Xena earlier- and in the end, it would all be good.

Where was he? Oh yeah, monsters. No sir, he did not like it at all. He wasn't about to stand for that kind of thing in his town. Nope. So Saturday would be just fine. "Saturday night right here work for you?"
He chuckled. He was going to ask her if she needed to check her calendar to make sure she didn't have a hot date that night. But he decided that would be pressing things a bit far. Especially this early. Maybe later, though. Be funny to see what she did. See? I'm not impulsive!


Edited by Ivan Sarkozy, Aug 25 2014, 01:02 PM.