>> A Decent Of Fools

Rain burns the sweat from my skin. The dirt from armour. The blood from my hood. The City cleansing us of itself, as I step from cover. Diving, fully, into the endless eruption of water. The rage of The Endless Storm, blasting inward from the utter end of the street. In seconds, every inch of skin and fur and armour is pouring with torrents of spray. Wind sheering water from tarmac to batter me again and again. Blasting through fingers, legs, teeth, and toes. Snatching my arms. Plucking my strings, in an endless symphony of madness that rises to roar across the whole of The City.

It batters me back, and I grit myself against it.

"WOOO!!!! LETS GO!!! HOT CHOCOLATE!!! YEAH!!” Badger cheers and leaps, back in the sheltered nook, as the wind roars up louder and louder. Legs peddle the air as Kami yoinks him back, and Demon fights to insert the hyperactive dingus back into his tissue-thin plastic coat. Arms (and coat) flailing wildly in the air.

Tufty, meanwhile, having actual sense, simply clicks a necklace toggle - plastic flowing down his chest to form a second mac. Complete with neat little peaks for his feline ears. He stretches it down to his knees, scooping his tail up inside as it basically shrink-wraps to his body.

It's not a lot, but it'll have to do.

"At least somebody's with it." I mutter, storming back into cover as our furious [Sniper] snatches a giggling one-handed idiot. Stuffing him directly into the coat - head-first, legs kicking in the air. There's a struggle, and Badger pops free. Limp sleeves flapping cheerfully as he runs happy circles around us - merrily cackling, and spinning.

"YEEAAAAHHH!!! Hot chocolate! Hot chocolate!"

"Not if I throw you off the bloody building!" Kami roars as the kid's coat gets repurposed as a superhero cape for the eleventh time in eleven minutes.

"Badger." I sigh. "Coat. On. Properly. Or no hot anything."

"But! But! Spooooook!!!" He deflates. ""Naaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!"

Which is when Kami tackles him in a spidery mess of arms, legs, and Badgery flailing.

One aggressive re-coating later - this time with duct tape - we lurch out of our little side-nook. Battering our way out into the roaring wind and horizontal rain. Tufty instantly staggered back as it hits us fully - funnelled down the broken street. But even that feels sheltered as we make it to the opening.

It’s a nightmare out there. Apocalyptic.

And we’re not even near the pad yet. Just the street ringing the edge of the tower. Ancient, plastic, trees whipping horribly in the hurricane winds. Torn leaves humming in the massive swell of the typhoon. Every instant threatening to blast us upwards - into that vast, thunder-struck, abyss of a storm with no sky behind it.

No stars. No Sun.

And I half think Kami’s right - that they're all just Fairytale things, made up for stupid kids like me. That the only things twinkling, up there in the sky, are Pirate airships....

And the lights of The Other City.

The inverted one.

I see it only in glimpse in snatches - as shadows, and windows. As vast shapes, jutting from the belly of The Storm. A million jutting spikes of great glass towers, ripping trails in the thunderous clouds as gales and torrents blow them ever on and on. Like bejewelled and glittering stalactites, so massive press their jagged weight upon your very soul.

As if they might drop at any second….

We flee to the grim shadow of the 'Arrivals' building, its rotted car-lifts howling at us in terror of the tempest. Around its edge I catch giddy flashes of the landing zone - far beneath us. A darkened mess of ripped-open ships that’ll never fly again. All looted, broke open, and pounded to rotten death by the rain…..

But beyond its edge....

A broken morass of dead towers, tilted as if against the storm. Every window festering with nightmares. Swarming with things that'll eat you all up. Every wall overgrown with monstrous vines, bulging with eyes that squint - half-shut - against the storm....

Welcome to The Quarantine Isolation Zone.

The QIZ.

From this far inside, you could imagine it sprawls forever - in every direction. Scattered with Pirate megaTowers - all spun together into one by a massive web of skyBridges, hulking ships, and swooping ribbons of monoRail track. Every bit of it shattered to shimmering blurs by the pouring rain-streaked fog of my visor.

And beyond even that....

Beyond the vile and clawing dark.....

Beyond the sensor-blocking fields and illusions of Karrak....

It's just a glimpse. A blade of broken light, crossing the horizon. Staining a wide streak of startling neon across the vast ink of our underground world. But it is beautiful. Its edges a-sparkling in every shade, beneath the wild and impossible Storm... Little more than a quieting shiver of colour - painted against the backdrop of a vast, thunderous, Night that will never.... ever.... end….

Neodine :: City District

Population: 2.225 Billion

Wind wrenches at me again, as if to carry me away. To hurl me up, and then plunge me down in the vast - black - nothingness beyond the megaTower. But I hunker down tight. Shutting my eyes. Hammering my breath, back, under tight control. Old, old, nightmares rising from the inky core of my soul.

"Right. Where's that lift?" I yell over the horrendous cacophony of artificial weather. Tail sloshing, horribly, in a puddle as I turn to the others. Who all wince and look away. "Come on, it's gotta be around here some...."

And there it is.

Or, rather, there it was.

A whole bank of doors, with shining brass doors and scrolling filigree buttons. Shooting you down to into the curved belly of the ancient 'Arrivals' Lounge, overlooking the pad itself, for a simCoffee and a croissant.

But that was hundreds of years ago, or more.

Now it’s nothing.

A shell. A scarred up, ripped-open, void. Gutted. Empty. Its carriages long fallen, into the rotting depths of oblivion….

An ink that calls me. Drags me. Into the clanging darkness……

“Oh! Hey! They’re broke.” Zip laughs. “Yeah uh…..”

My eyes wrench toward him, burning a glare into his glowing avatar. “They are, huh?” I growl into the wind - trusting my comms implant to pick up the sound. “The lifts you said you were leading us to?”

“Uhhhhhh….. Yeaaah?”

"Which you scouted?" My one ear peaks up. "With your army of drones?"

"Hahah....." Zip pulls a cringing wince. "I guess, like....?"

He tails off in the face of my livid glare.

“So....." My eyes narrow and tilt toward Kami - who looks away suddenly. Then Demon, who shrugs helplessly. "No lifts..... I ain't gonna like this. Am I? You're gonna try an' talk me into doin’ something crazy.... ain't ya….?” I pause, ear half-cocked. Eyes flat. “Ain't? Ya?”

The others look guilty. "Um. Like.... No?" Stutters my designated scapegoat.

"Um like yeah. Unless ya planning on 'roping it' down the side?"

“Well.” Kami flips me an appraising look. “I've still got a crapton of duct-tape left over.....”

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"MMMPH!!!" Badger huffs. Picking at his face.

"Hey! Don't even bloody joke about that. You know I don't like height-" I shake it off, take a deep breath. One of many, I'm sure. And then I look up. "Okay. What's the real plan? C'mon."

Zipper makes a weird face. “Stairs, mate.”

“Stairs?” My brows pinch. "What stairs? There ain't any stairs 'cept.....” My eyes go wide. "No....."

“Oh yes.” Kami’s eyes flicker with glee. “C’mon. Let’s put Spook out of my misery.....”

“Hey!? What-!” I yelp as she grabs my arm, dragging me through thick puddles. “Oh no…..”

Partly shielded by the dead and rotted Arrivals hub, I meet my nemesis. A rusted, clanking, horror-show of a staircase. Rickety, and writhing in the wind. Swaying one way, then bashing itself back into the concrete wall - where once it was bolted. Ancient metal struts calling out to me with wretched groans and gnawing scrapes.

The whole thing an instant from ripping free, and toppling.

Smashing and crashing, down into the dark……

I fixate on it. On the fear. On the void.

Lips working, in silence.

"Hah, sorry mate.” Zip chuckles nervously. “But, like, I looked all along the promenade bit...... And, yeah, you oughta see the other ones. Y’know? They’re, uh..... way worse?” He catches my look, and winces harder. “Like..... way, way, worse? ‘Missing big bits’, worse?"

“Yep! Surprise! It’s the only safe-ish way down.” Kami deadpans, thunder roaring behind her as the wind pelts in. Her comms-voice not raising in the slightest. “Now c’mon. It's wet. And I want a bloody hot drink too.”

“Safe!?” I ask, very seriously. “Are you nuts?”

“Yeah. A little.” She concedes, waggling a metal finger at her ear. “But it’s that or rappel down the lift-shafts.”

My ears go, somehow, flatter. “Noooooooooooooo?”

“Pity. The shafts are a lot safer…. Well. Except for the flesh eating critters.”

“Oooh!! Where!?” Badger cheers, tape flapping as he rushes to take a look. Leaning right into the shaft. “Yah! WOOO!! That one's got a MILLION eyeballs! And it’s waving at me!!” He gasps in a very pleased voice, as Demon hauls him away from the edge. “Huuuu!! No fair! I wasn’t gonna HURT IT!!! I just wanted to see!!!”

“Spook. Look. I know it sucks. But it’s late. I…. We hurt all over. And we all want to sleep.” Kami says, in a relentlessly reasonable voice, as Demon claw-kicks weird hairy things back down the shaft. “You…. You need to get over this heights thing.”

“I do, do I?” I grumble. Knowingly defensive. “Well you need to jump off a cliff! Oh look! There’s one!” I gesture at the lifts. Which wave back. “Hop to it!”

Her eyes glint. “Don’t tempt me. I’d bring you along. We could be bestest rappel buddies.”

“Woo! Rappel buddies!” Badger cheers, waggling an angry carnivorous toadstool. “YAH! WAIT! I didn’t bring mine!!”

“Hence the stairs.” Kami tosses him a weary five-armed shrug. The dead sixth shuddering. “I can’t babysit you and Spook going down the pipe.”

“Babysit.” I repeat, receiving a condescending pet-pet.

“Oh yes. You’d be absolutely adorable if you weren’t our damn boss.” She teases, tiredly.

“Gee. Thanks.” I snark in my least-cute voice.

“Precious!”

“Knock it off!” I snort, knuckle-swiping her back.

"Make me!” She scoffs. “Now c’mon. You gonna conquer this bastard, or what?"

I flash fangs, and glance away. “Yeah, look, I’d bleedin’ try it. But-" We all duck as something dreadful and slimy goes flopping overhead - Tufty leaping away from it with a frantic 'yeep!'. Clutching his tail under the coat, like he’s worried it’ll slither off.

Much like the slimy thing. Which does just that.

“Spook. I’m getting absolutely soaked. So are you with us, or not?" Kami droops her arms. Clearly losing patience. One hand clamped to her side. "Please. Zip looked everywhere. It's a total bust. Everything else is rotted to scraps. Every lift. Every staircase. They even took the damn buttons." She drops her arms. "Only other option is the Toll Lifts back at the Core. But somebody wasted all our money on food.”

I glance away. “Crap.” But every time I look at that staircase my gut does a flip. It’s one thing to say you’ll do it…. Another to…..

Zip nudges a virtual elbow through my chest. “Yeah, uh…. better hurry mate. Storm’s getting worse. And, uh, like…. other things too....” He adds as Demon rescues a tiny, terrified, fifty-legged crab-thing from Badger - tossing it back down the hole.

“Right. Right.” I growl. Staring up at the death-trap staircase. "Look. You know I'm tryin', but this is..... It's bloody hard for me."

“Fine.” Her eyes glimmer. “How about a bribe, then?”

“We’re outta snacks….” I falter as she pops the taser off her armour. “What…..”

“The bribe is I don’t shock your ass.” She grins, sparking it off with a nasty snap.

I yelp, and jump - skidding backward. “Hot shit….!? Are you…. S-serious?”

Her smile is ever-so evil. “I don’t know.” She leans in. “Let’s find out.”

“Kami….!!!!” I yelp, backing up toward the monster mosh-pit.

“You know I’ve been meaning to test this." She purrs, a crack of ozone blasting away on the storm. "Any volunteers?” She glances down. “Oh look!”

Tufty gives a tiny “Yeeeep!”, and vanishes down the wet steps in wild blur of green. Bounding on all fours, and skidding at the corners. Stumbling, almost drunkenly, with his shrink-wrapped tail.

“YAH! Wait for meeee!!!!” Badger yells, hopping about and waving a severed tentacle. His head spinning between me, the chaos, and the fled cat. Not sure who to stick with.

I stare after. Wide-eyed. “Yikes. He really went down there.”

“Some of us have better priorities.” She shrugs. “Now. That’s one down - who’s next?”

Dammit, Tufty…..

I storm toward the storm-soaked steps. Taking a deep, shaky, breath. “This…. it's really the only way down? No yankin' me ass-ornament?”

They nod.

I grit fangs, and shudder. Dragging myself toward the steps. “Crap. Well. If I gotta die to some death-trap, I’ll do it on my own damn terms…..”

“OOOOOH! I’LL HELP!” Badger rascals back to offer me a gross, slimy, appendage.

And, no, I don’t mean his hand.

I fend him off, with a twitching eye. “No…. I’m gonna do this on my own, squirt. I don’t need no help.” I glare at Kami. “Or bloody ‘encouragement’, neither…..”

“YAH! But…. But the power of FRIENDSHIP!!” He wails in true horror, waggling the severed monster limb.

“Power o’ my foot up yo jack-end, more like.” But I shoot him a near smirk. He’s trying, in his own way. But my mouth narrows as I tilt back toward my doom. “Okay….." I whisper to myself. "Deep breaths….. Deeeep breaths….. Get it done, quick, before ya can think….”

I touch a foot to the cool, thick, layers of rust…. and it crunches, like fat cornflakes. My heel sinking in, as the entire freaking structure shifts beneath my pad. Dragging one leg away from the other, with a wracking moan. Every bone I have juddering as the lethal structure smashes right into its anchoring bolts. Knocking them just that little - tiny - bit more loose.

My eyes go huge.

“Not safe! Not safe!” I stutter, very bravely, as Badger gaily prances down the pouring-wet steps. Whooping and jumping, and flapping that gross tentacle - like he’s singing in the rain. “Noooooo……! STOP IT! Come back!”

Which is when Kami gives me a ‘helpful’ little nudge from behind - sending me skittering, right onto the mad thing. I stumble. Steps blur. And I land flat on all fours, at the first landing. Tail bristling. Ears back. Confronted - suddenly - by the blistering, rain-slashed, nothingness beyond and beneath the steps.

A void that rips claws into my guts.

Dragging them down. Down. Downdowndown-

“No. No, no, no….” I backpeddle into Kami’s legs, and spin. Snarling. “I said I’ll do it on MY terms! You bitch!”

Her gaunt face flickers with guilt, and she relents. “Look. I’m just…. It was a joke…. Okay? I was just trying to…. help?”

“You were, huh?”

“It’s just….. That storm’s getting worse, and-” Her breath heaves, a little pained. Hands grabbing at girder as everything sways.

I hiss something unspeakable.

Zip winces at her. “Hey, Kam…. mate, like….. you sure this ain’t going too far?”

She hesitates. “I just want to fix this damn phobia.”

“You’re! Making! It! Worse!” I force through fangs as my eyes twist toward that dark, roaring, pit beneath the steps. Claws gouging through flaking metal. Kami winces, and Demon grips her arm. Zip blocking her way, too, for whatever that’s worth.

“Zpook must do zis. Alone. Or it is worth nothing.” He says, limping ahead down the steps. Breath hard. Limp tail bumping down the steps.

“Yeah.” I shudder. “I WILL DO IT!” My defiant shout torn off into a yelp as the stairs shift beneath me.

Her face crumples. “Fine. Fine. Just….. please…. hurry up…..” She says in such a bleak tone that I feel the pain in it. My eyes slip beside her, to a glass-eyed Demon. His back is straighter than the stairs, but his arms sag. His head low. Maybe I should have helped with the damn monsters….. Instead of being so….. self involved.

I stare down at my twitching hands, clenched to the metal.

Take another long breath.

And start picking my way down.

Bit by bit. Hand, and foot, and gripped-tight claw.

Badger races back to support me again - because a goopy one-handed dingus is the best crutch. But I grab the railings instead. Which wobbles like a bust tooth - lurching me, out, toward oblivion. But I swallow, I shut my eyes, and I just keep feeling my way down onto the next step. Groping my way with clutching hands and grabbing toes. The metal damp and flaky against my skin, as water sprays in from the exposed side. Groans and screeches rattling up through the structure as it leans away from the wall again - slamming back, with a jaw-breaking crash. Every bolt wobbling, frantically, in its hole…..

“Keep going. You’re doing good.” Kami calls down from above, in a far softer tone. I take another step, and something goes ting-ga-tink-a-tink off into the night. Causing a few low whimpers from someone I won’t name. “Come on. Just six flights down to the pad.”

Slowly, it becomes five. Then four. Faster and easier all the time, though the tower-high structure warps beneath me. The steps themselves creaking, almost breaking, as I step on them. Water pouring down through slats and steps above. The night outside a blank roar of rain and wind, pressing in on us from behind the Arrivals hub-tower.

It’s not much of a shield. But it’s enough.

Until the metal begins to thrum. And then to shake.

I hug a step and hiss as the staircase rattles itself into a frantic blur. Shocked into motion by the tram carving a sudden, raging, river of light across the dark beneath. Right along the inner edge of the platform itself.

Not even stopping.

It’s gone just as quick. The retreating streak of windows little more than a flapping tongue of mockery in a broke-toothed mouth. Flashing its light across ruined shops and homes from better days. Even a cobbled market ripped apart by time and scavengers - with paint cracking off plastic timbers.

Inhuman eyes flicker in reflection.

Mutants and GMOs like me - but not. There, and gone, in the dark. Wild, and nameless, and less than animal. With shadowy tendrils, stark against the walls. Things that aren’t hands. Things that aren’t faces.

Shrinking back from the light.

And, for just a second, I wonder how our world came to be like this…..

But after that moment of madness, the rest is almost easy. A few more turns, and I tumble out onto rough tarmac. Onto solid, beautiful, ground - lashed by pouring rain. Giggling in frantic and hideous relief as Badger whoops and claps all round me. Yelling about how great I am, and how he was cheering Team Spook all the ways down. Grabbing Tufty in a crushing hug.

And maybe he was.

Maybe it was all lost to vicious wind. Carried out to the distant lights of The City.

Or maybe I’m so pathetic I-

I snarl, mentally, and shake off the pity-party. It never helps. Not really. I’ve just gotta fix this. This fear.

Before it gets us all killed.

I stand, shaken but proud, and stare out into the writhing storm. The thunder. The rain. The chaos and maelstrom. Plastic bags slapping past at half the speed of sound.

One final push, and we’re there.

"Time to get go home." I breathe, and the sky whites with fire. Shadowing the vast bulk of a wrecker ship against the mad expanse of the storm.....

....and the inverted City, hanging above it.....