Meteor thundered its way toward the city like… well, I probably didn’t need to finish that thought. A surprisingly smooth ride, considering how large it was. Belle joined me at the front of the vehicle, while the other three sat on the long benches in the back. A few parachutes and it would look like we were about to drop into a war-zone. A memory that… no, just my imagination.
Other than extra magazines, ammunition, and grenades, we also had emergency medical supplies, suit repair, and several gadgets that hadn’t been explained to us just yet - all in the back with the rest of the team. A mobile base that could take us anywhere we needed and lent us support, whether knocking out villains or shredding through mutant bases in the wastes.
Once the team had finished chatting about our new look, we had sat at the garden table and I had gone through our plan of action. No disagreements or complaints over what I had decided. Every so often I would glance at Roxy to see what she thought, and there was nothing but eagerness and possibly pride in her flaming eyes.
The reason that she wasn’t sitting beside me in the Meteor was simply a tactical decision that she herself brought up. As the meat shield of the group, it made sense for her to be closest to the exit in case things went shitwards. Her words. Belle was the least directly combat-worthy, so being alongside me would be a boon to the both of us. As an aside, while the others were out of earshot, Roxy had also mentioned that Roy was a terrible backseat driver and would yap too much up front.
Rather ironic considering he ran everywhere, but everyone seemed content with the current arrangement.
Data ran over the screen that acted as our window to the road ahead. The route with the easiest terrain to traverse, graded by a faint colored outline. Estimated time of arrival. Speed, internal temperature, and status of the deployable tech the Meteor was equipped with.
A message from Director Kingston came in through my STAR. Nothing too exciting. Some well-wishes and reassurance that our asses were on the line here. He didn’t seem convinced that I was already able to walk, but trusted Clara’s judgement to let me free on the city. It was beyond comprehension - most people agreed. Several times during our impromptu fashion show, I’d catch comments from them forgetting that I had even lost my legs in the first place.
The League might not consider me as having a superpower, but the results spoke for themselves. Short of losing my head, I was starting to believe I could recover from anything. Not that I was willing to test that theory. I was already under heavy observation to make sure I didn’t lose the plot mid-mission, and Belle had been briefed on the potential need for babysitting duty.
Which wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Outside of the pair I lived with, I considered the once-priestess my closest friend. Almost like a sibling. Whether that was because she was the only one immune to my charming aura and could be real with me, or from just having spent the most time with her, it didn’t matter. With life condensing into something normal, I’d be able to do more with all of them outside of work.
Hmm. Work was an interesting word. It had always been contracts or missions. Personal grievances or reckless obsessions. Distilled into something mundane, I wondered how long it would be before I grew tired of it all.
Looking at the squad in the miniature ‘cabin’ screen on the main display, I reckoned it would be a while.
The Villain was named Doctor Titus Hydra. We could only rough him up as much as was necessary to subdue and arrest him. His creations, we were allowed to put out of their misery. Putting down deformed abominations in the sewers wasn’t the most glamorous of jobs, but the energy amongst the Natural Disasters was unshakable. Our big break, to stop the team from falling off of the rankings and getting disbanded.
After that?
I didn’t care to think about it right now. Roxy had warned me that the scheduled calendar events were just the start, and my regular patrols weren’t on there yet. That said, roving around the streets at night looking for thugs and minor villains to beat up sounded like good exercise.
Perhaps I did have a penchant for getting myself into trouble.
“Props to Clara,” Belle said, squinting her eyes at the forward display. “I feel like we are bigshots riding around in this.”
We dwarfed the civilian cars as we rolled through the warehouse district. Several pulled off to the side, heads hanging out the windows, mouths agape. A few took photos, I was sure, and I wondered if anyone had reported us to the police. Even Meteor didn’t look like the type of transport a hero would use. Imposing and unapologetic, we ran red lights and took no detour from the most efficient route.
A little more to the east, and we arrived at the destination. Construction sites littered the area. Half-built structures and yards filled with timber and metal beams. I parked Meteor up beside a large mound of some manner of construction sand, our route of entry to the sewers just ahead.
The maintenance tunnel jutted out from the wall of part of the construction yard. Mostly circular, with a large slatted grate covering the entrance. Just to the side, several vagrants stood around a flaming barrel to keep warm, although our sudden appearance had them focused our way.
[Alright, everyone. Make sure you have everything and keep things professional until we are in the tunnels. Assume eyes are on us at all times.]
Acknowledgement was given, and they all shuffled around, checking their gear and readying for this shitshow to get under way finally. Once they had given me confirmation, I hit the disembark button.
The slanted rear panel at the back of Meteor flapped open, hitting the ground to act as a ramp for us to exit. We did so, Rockslide and Captain Snaps first, followed by Little Wren. Belle was next, and then finally—and definitely most importantly—Gunquake.
I hit the button for the back of the vehicle to close and sent through confirmation to Clara.
//Clara: Piloting Meteor to exit area.
//Clara: Comms paused during travel.
//Gunquake: Understood.
She had been marginally confident that she could watch us and drive the vehicle at the same time. As she was normally entirely confident in everything she did, that meant it was a no go. We could survive five minutes without her guidance, I was sure.
Meteor warmed up, and jerked forward, turning back to the road to head to the other area. No doubt we’d generate some confusion with the armored carrier sitting outside of a busy mall, even at this time at night. I trusted the League to intervene and quash any questions or concerns from the general public.
I glanced over at the group of homeless people, and most of them were either scurrying away or had already vanished upon our arrival. A few remained in the shadows, either too tired or unbothered by us, but it looked as though there was no need for me to give them any reassurance over who we were.
[Care to do us the honors, Rockslide?]
“On it.” She gave me a nod and stepped over to the maintenance grate, cracking her knuckles - as if that had any bearing on her ability to open it up for us. It was a little performative action while we were out in the open world, just in case the League had cameras on it. They’d be foolish not to.
The super threaded her fingers in between some of the slats, and after making a show of flexing her muscles out, she pulled the cover from the settings. A metallic twang echoed around the empty construction area, immediately dwarfed by the louder sound of her placing it on the ground. It was a good thing we were going through the entrance that was further away.
I gave her a nod of thanks. The tunnel itself was a decent diameter - around thirteen or so feet. A flat, stone floor that was more reddish in color than the gray-green curved walls. A singular light flickered into life by the entrance, but it hardly made a dent in the darkness further in.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
[Standard formation. Lights on.]
While our adventures in the wastes had been a little rough around the edges, I wanted to run our hero team with a little more finesse. That wasn’t a knock on Roxy or her experience, and she knew that. The League didn’t really give much formal training when it came to herding oddball personalities, but that was probably by intention. A little freedom to be inefficient made managing the ranking ladder and mission distribution easier. The slight suggestion that we could manipulate that to our advantage had just earned me a tired glare from Roxy.
She took lead. The hardiest of us and more suited to meeting our troubles head on. I was next, slightly behind her and to the right so that I could fire forward while using her as cover. Ren and Belle were in the back, providing ranged assistance and keeping a keen eye on our rear. Roy hovered between us, his speed making him perfect to assist any one of us when required. If we were outdoors it would be a different arrangement.
Close quarters were my favorite terrain to fight in, but we weren’t all built for it.
Into the darkness, our own flashlights switched on. A feed in my eyes brought up a rough map of the sewer system. Destination was almost a mile in, with only a handful of turns. The smell of stale air made it through my re-breather, but there was nothing worse… yet. Even with Roxy shining her light down the tunnel, the space extended on further than we could see.
“Anyone claustrophobic?” Roy asked, mostly murmuring to himself.
Belle put her hand on my shoulder. “How about every time I save your ass tonight, you owe me a bottle of rum?”
[You’re on. If that total ends up being zero, then you owe me an afternoon of training.]
Roxy glanced back over her shoulder. “Not fishing for dates while on the clock I hope, Gunquake?”
[Gross. No offense, Belle.]
“None taken, dweeb.”
We were killing time until Clara got back online. A little banter helped settled our nerves, and the super knew well enough that the sort of training I was hinting at was the literal sense. Belle was the magic-user of the group, and my shotgun hungered for new and inventive ammunition types.
Part of the drone behind me extended with a whirr and then clicked over my shoulder. The static camera the techie had mentioned started recording.
//Clara: Meteor parked. I am back with you all, confirm ready status.
//Captain Snaps: Ready.
//Little Wren: Ready.
//Gunquake: Ready.
//Rockslide: Ready.
//Belle: Ready.
//Clara: Camera monitoring online. Proceed.
I gave Roxy a nod, and she grunted. Time to scout through these underground passageways for the monsters created by the villain. She led the way, and we followed in formation. The residual ambient light from the outside world faded away, leaving only the wide beams of our chest-mounted flashlights to illuminate the tunnel. It was in surprisingly good condition, if not a little dusty.
Five minutes of nothing but tense walking, and we came out to a junction. Roxy and I stepped out into the small joining space, back to back. Nothing but darkness in either direction. Map said we needed to turn left, so after Ren stepped in to keep an eye on the right, I turned to follow the super.
My feet felt uncomfortable in my boots. No unwanted delirium in my skull, but there was the hint that it was only a matter of time. Too late to bail now, anyway. Our tunnel curved slightly to the right to point back toward the north side of our sector. There was the occasional light affixed to the wall, but the bulbs were off. Odd. So far, there had been three emergency boxes - which had basic tools and a way of communicating somewhere on the surface.
I was about to vocalize the fact that this didn’t feel much like a how I expected a sewer system to look, before the tunnel opened up slightly.
The center of the floor gradually dipped down to form a channel two feet wide. Some grime covering the base of this trench, but nothing… fresh. As much as that was the incorrect descriptor for anything we’d find down here.
“It begins,” Ren complained. She pulled part of her cloak up to cover her lower face. Since her sense tended to be better than the rest of ours, I assumed that things would get worse soon enough.
[We’re nearing the edges of the villain’s lair, so be cautious. Map shows many side passages up ahead that would be easy ambush points.]
We split onto either side of the trench as it widened to three feet. From my basic understanding, this tunnel was mostly for overflow to avoid flooding, and the actual ‘wet’ sewer section was coming up ahead. Of course, I didn’t know how my own house had working plumbing, so this was all a stab in the dark based on the information Clara had given to me.
Roxy paused in place, and the rest of us followed suit. Weaponry up and eyes scouring ahead.
“Part of the wall here is broken,” she said. “On both sides.”
I brought a clear tube out from one of my side pouches. It crackled in my hand as I bent it as the internal parts that were holding chemicals in place mixed, creating a bright glow. I threw it further down the tunnel as it lit up fully, the glow-stick bouncing along the right-hand path. It stopped, momentum killed by some broken stone.
[Proceed with caution.]
The area ahead had been dug out. Clearly done with rough tools and inefficiency. As we got closer, it came into better view. The tunnel widened into a loosely circular chamber. One exit straight ahead, and one to the left.
Ren crouched down and ran her fingers across one of the split bricks. “Claw marks. Wider paws than any domestic animal I know of.”
[Any tracks?]
She tilted her head to the side, the blue of her goggles moving around the room slowly. “This doesn’t seem to be a place frequented often. There is rubble missing, so this may have been mined for another purpose.”
Captain tapped on the broken wall near him. “Looks like they were after wiring or something.”
I stepped over to him, allowing my camera to get a better view of what he had found. From a brief glance, I couldn’t tell whether it had just been destroyed alongside the rest of the stone, or actually broken into for a certain purpose. Several thick cables had been torn, the wiring within now frayed and unconnected to anything. A space on the rock was light colored, as if a control panel or similar had been removed.
//Clara: Some of it is the connectors for the lighting and emergency phones.
//Clara: There is possibly some larger machinery deeper in.
//Clara: For pumping or filtering the water.
[Intentional sabotage, or gathering things for the villain’s machinations?]
//Clara: Let’s assume the latter for now.
Breaking the lights might dissuade city workers from venturing too far, especially if the League knew of the potential danger down here. Otherwise, self-sabotage didn’t seem that helpful.
[Keep an eye out for traps or further signs of theft.]
We reconvened and went out of the left exit, as that was the quickest route to our target. After a few feet, the tunnel was no longer damaged. I was wary of finding these nests… and had also started coming to the realization that I had imagined the changed animals as being much smaller, and they might be more of a threat.
That said… we had battled countless mutants and nigh-invulnerable ancient robot suits. Even if the danger level was higher than I first thought, we were the Natural Disasters. The five of us working together would be fine.
“Feels colder down here now,” Roxy murmured from the front.
I shivered involuntarily, a sudden bout of vertigo clinging to the edge of my balance. The barrel of my shotgun scraped noisily against the wall as I held it out to keep myself steady. I stood still as the others all looked at me.
[Just some brief vertigo. I am fine.]
Roxy’s eyes were practically glowing in the dark, and she narrowed them at me. “Dubs…”
[I will keep you updated and take a step back if necessary.]
We hadn’t even had a whiff of combat yet, and my legs were starting to become a drain on my mind. I wiped the stone dust off of the end of the barrel and double checked my gear hadn’t moved out of place. Everything was great.
Our formation continued, and the smell of sewage increased by the minute. The next two emergency boxes had been torn from the walls. The central dip of the tunnels was damper now, threatening us with the inevitable. Even our footsteps seemed to slow as we reached the next part of the Map.
A four-way intersection, if it could be called that. Our overflow tunnel ended with a flat edge of concrete acting as a dam to prevent the flowing sludge beyond from coming out way. While my re-breather did a fine job of filtering out the worst of the smells, there was still a slightly unpleasant tang to the air.
The flow of filth ran from the west and north tunnels, joining to create a river that ran to the east. Several complaints rose from the ranks, as the walkable pathways looked thinner to the north - our intended route.
“First person to fall in the shit gets the first round of drinks later,” Roxy said.
Clara had said my tech was relatively waterproof, but I didn’t intend to get soaked through with fecal matter and foul water. In fact, I would do everything possible to avoid that fate. A twinge in my brain told me that the thinner my sanity got, the less likely I’d be staying safe and dry.
[Let’s just get through this nice and quick. The sooner we get the villain, the sooner we can go home.]
We should be so lucky. My suggestion was met with no resistance, those without a gas-mask having a worse time with the stench down here. According to the map, we should reach an area closer to a purifier which would be less oppressive with the constant stench.
“Music to my ears,” Roy agreed. “Let’s get over these channels nice and careful… I’m not sure how well I’m grounded.”
//Clara: I won’t dignify that with an answer.
Reluctantly, we started to make our way to the edges of the junction. Roxy stepped across on the left side with no issue, followed by a more hesitant Captain. I paused to help Belle across first, partially to be useful, but also having someone on either side of me reduced the chance of my brain tipping me into the drink.
I stepped across without issue, pressing my back gently against the curved wall so as to not crush the drone.
Ren, however, paused in place.
The rest of us froze in our positions by instinct, as we watched the elf bring a finger up to her lips. Five seconds past before she slowly turned her head toward the eastern tunnel.
[Scout?]
She shook her head and drew her bow ready. “No. A pack.”