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Post by Dexden Greenwood on Apr 21, 2014 0:45:29 GMT -5
She hadn’t meant to get lost. Dexden had gone down into the tunnels perfectly confident that she would be able to get out just fine, and she had just ignored all the missing posters plastered across the boarded up mouth of the tunnels. She’d been lost before and things had always seemed to turn out alright and it didn’t really occur to Dexden to think about how that had never really been thanks to anything she had done. And it wasn’t as though she hadn’t gone in with a plan. At every intersection Dexden had gone down the furthest tunnel straight ahead, and she drew a little ‘x’ in red chalk on the tunnel she had come through heedless of other chalk markings she drew over. That way it would be easy just to retrace her steps on the way back out. It wasn’t until she had turned around intending to go back that Dex realized that her plan hadn’t really worked as well as she thought it would. ‘Go straight’ wasn’t as simple as it ought to be since on the way back since there were times that the mouths of two tunnels were impossibly close together and curves off into a far off distance and her red x’s were completely useless; some just blended into other markings and others had been washed off completely by water dripping from the ceiling.
By the time they somehow came to a room that was almost completely flooded and had to backtrack, Dexden had to admit that she was well and truly lost. She hadn’t meant to of course, but she supposed that no one ever really did.
So Dexden was wandering through the tunnels, trying to figure out the right way out now by seeking out everywhere she could smell fresh air. She had a torch but it was turned off and in her backpack, she didn’t want to attract the attention of any infected and because she had Armo, her Aron, with her Dex didn’t really mind being in the dark. He was a cave pokemon and could see in the dark just fine, his bright teal eyes gleamed like little lanterns and he muttered everything that was ahead of them to her and offered help whenever Dexden seemed to not know where to go next. His presence kept her grounded and calm, and he was just as convinced that things would turn out well as Dexden was herself.
She was carrying Armo comfortably so he could face forward in her arms rather than walking on the ground before her or beside her – something she was only able to accomplish thanks to her mutation due to Armo’s great weight. If she was just a normal human it would have been a colossal effort whereas as a mutant Dexden could just carry him as if he weighed as much as a pillow. The main reason she chose to carry him was obvious, there was water down in these tunnels and infected pokemon roaming about and she was determined not to let another one of her companions catch the disease.
Dexden wasn’t worried about herself; if she got into infected water she would just get sick but still keep her mind. And if they got attacked Dex could just return Armo to his ball for safety and fight it herself. The infected were supposed to be mindless and Dexden was strong enough that she could confidently bank on being able to get away. And there was Kairi too; she was a ghost and could fight against them without much danger of becoming infected herself. Dexden could probably find her way out of the tunnels much easier with Kairi’s help as well but Dex wanted to avoid letting the froslass know she had been lost if she could help it. Kairi would never let her live such a thing down.
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Post by Madeline "Madd" McKenna on Apr 22, 2014 0:55:24 GMT -5
Six. Just six. Being an ‘adult’ was a pain in her flat-ass.
Her father had allowed her to grow up pampered and painless, The rotten bastard had crippled her. The swimming pool in the basement felt natural and something every girl had. Madeline had been unprepared for the world of struggling, hard work, and bleeding fingers. While she had gotten used to it recently, a large road block had just appeared in front of her. The rent was due in less than a week, now. Her boss, senile to a point of ridiculousness, had lost her check in the mail; the crotchety old bat refused to trust the devilish internet. The landlord, breathing down her neck like a feverish Charizard, was ready to toss the big girl into the streets.
Having will was not the issue; she wanted to keep her apartment and prove the sperm donor wrong. The redhead would rather die than ask him for help. Losing her rent money would not make him bat so much as an eyelash. His smugness at the idea would kill the eldest McKenna child, dead. For days, exhausting all her usual options, Madeline had managed to scrounge up about half the money. Walking back from work one day, spotting a piece of paper flapping in the breeze, her lips had curled up. The reward was perfect—it left some cash for cigarettes and bad books.
If Aubre had the guts to go outside, when she couldn’t speak without trembling, Madeline believed she could survive a tunnel. She had survived Kole McKenna and “Bug”. Calling the number on the bottom of the paper, ranting about her Pokemon expertise, she found herself approved for a jaunt into the tunnels. The job was simple. An infected Vigoroth was supposedly running rampant in the sewers near the west. The Pokeball was custom-made to capture the rabid and easily enraged beasts. It was a piece of cake.
A small screen in her hand, a GPS on the phone, prevented her from getting lost. It was well charged.
Supplies had managed to eat up a quarter of her savings. As she moved deeper into the tunnels, eyes adjusting to the dimness, it felt like a great buy. The flashlight in her hands allowed her to watch Rattata scamper by and catch the gaze of their larger cousins. “Don’t walk so fast, Yakuza.” The Linoone raced ahead by at least ten feet. Half of the winnings were more than worth it—besides—Madeine doubted he wanted to be homeless. “What a fucking joke!” While she might have scolded him for making so much noise, it was true. “It seems to be a bit quiet—“ Her words seemed to come back with more intensity; it half seemed like something dared her to be quiet. Some small part of her wanted to rebel and scream. Rules were sometimes worth paying attention to; it was likely illegal to be down here. The signs seemed to indicate it. Besides, as she wasn’t stupid, Madeline didn’t want any issues.
The Vigoroth needed to be captured. Noise might attract it from the wrong direction. Something clattered in the distance.
Drip! Drip! Drip! Distant water splattered against cracked concrete. An old advertisement for the subway system blew past. The woman and Linoone rounded a corner.
Silvery light caught a distant upright figure. The sudden noise and voices bothered Madeline. She reacted on instinct; there was only one chance to catch this thing. “Go. Now.” The Linoone, like a bullet, shot toward the distant figure. The flashlight lifted slightly.
“Shit.” Madeline expected the weasel to stop, realizing it wasn’t a Vigoroth, but he seemed to be having difficulties. It turned out, much like a freshly polished wooden floor in a bowling alley, that moss was slippery.
“Look out, dipshit!” Who was she shouting at? The girl or him? Yakuza found he didn’t care. The broad approaching should have watched her step! The pierced Linoone, instead of looking like an idiot sliding forward, ground his claws in. Screeeee! A silvery streak was left in the old stone.
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Post by Dexden Greenwood on Apr 22, 2014 3:00:00 GMT -5
”I don’t actually think this is that bad,” Dexden whispered to Armo as she walked. Sure they were lost and in a dangerous situation – but it was nice to be alone with the little aron. If she carried him around like this in public she’d get too many second glances since someone of her size shouldn’t logically be able to lift him quite so easily. ”Don’t you miss caves? This is probably as close as we can get to one in the Citadel.” Armo squirmed a little in her grasp before he imitated Dexden and whispered back, ”I suppose you can look at it that way, and I appreciate the sentiment, but really I’d rather be back home.” Dexden almost laughed at that, but she held her amusement in. She didn’t want to find the attention of anyone unsavory by making too much noise.
Not that she needed to make any noise to attract danger, it would seem. Dexden was just minding her own business, toeing around a large rock Armo had warned her was straight ahead when they saw a sudden flash of light ahead. It was dim and flicked away quickly but after hours of wandering around in essentially absolute darkness even the small flicker of light made Dex stumble back and squeeze her eyes shut as ghost lights burned under her eyelids. She hissed in pain while Armo writhed so much in her arms that she almost dropped him and he cried out in surprise.
She was confused, and things were happening too quickly for Dexden to really comprehend what was going on. Logically, she knew that the flash of light had looked electric and was unlikely to come from anyone but another humanoid in the tunnels but it was hard to think logically when she heard the sounds of something charging at her. Dexden turned her shoulder defensively and with one arm pressing Armo so deeply into her chest that he had to gasp for air. Trust her of all people to be in danger of crushing a creature made of animated stone and rock but Dexden wasn’t thinking about anything aside from protecting him. Her pack slid off her shoulder and with her free hand Dexden drove her hand into the bag, looking for Kairi’s ball. Instead her fingers wrapped around her torch and she pulled it out, fully prepared to use it as a makeshift club when instead the would be assailant came to a halt on its own.
”Uh?” Dexden blurted out in confusion and she straightened up. That wasn’t how infected pokemon usually behaved. It took a few moments before her wild thoughts collected together and Dex realized that she should probably turn her flashlight on to clear up a few things. She had thought she had heard someone’s voice over the blood rushing in her ears too but Dexden couldn’t be sure. There was a faint click and the tunnel was bathed in light, finally revealing the Linoone. ”Er. Hello,” Dex offered, blinking in surprise. Had she wandered into his territory or something? It was surprising though, Dexden had assumed that every pokemon down here would be infected. It was Armo that came to the logical conclusion, and remembered the flash of light that had started the mess in the first place. As soon as Dexden’s death grip loosened enough of the aron for him to be actually able to breathe, Armo shook his head at looked further down the tunnel to where the other girl was. ”Is someone else there?” He rasped, blinking hard as he tried to adjust to the brighter lights of the torches. He knew the answer to his question, but he figured that would be a good enough way to get her to show herself.
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Post by Madeline "Madd" McKenna on Apr 23, 2014 0:49:48 GMT -5
What was so scary about these tunnels? Madeline, who lived in the slums, thought it was preferable to her apartment. The rats seemed friendly and healthy. The cockroaches happened to be smaller than her fist. Padlocked tightly, or not, the manhole covers allowed sunlight to filter downward. “It’s almost homely, Yakuza. “ The Linoone, who had grown up in a mixture of dumps and sewers, snickered. “You’d be right at home here, bitch. With all the primordial ooze.” Pale lips curled up in a tiny smile. “Look at you—a word larger than three syllables.” While she turned left, picking the turn that lead her into a world of trouble, the McKenna fought a bout of laughter.
“One..two…six? Three? Stupid things.” Human ears could hear the whispered counting. “There were four of them, Yakuza.” Dancing forward, boots making a clamor in the darkness, the redhead avoided a savage swipe.
Noises erupted from the distant figures. Twisting upward, orange eyes filled with questions, Madeline pondered a series of questions. Did Vigoroth hiss? Something in that area sounded reptilian. What were they anyway? To be honest, while she had researched their target, she couldn’t remember if it was the stupid sloth or some weird insect with a similar name. Madeline wished her nerdy cousin was around for some useless Pokemon facts.
The shouts didn’t seem to work. The bull-headed idiot kept charging the distant figures. A sigh escaped past slightly ajar lips; it was a Here we go again—“ How much money had she lost paying lawsuits, fines, and angry managers on the Linoone’s behalf? Kicking the hard-headed idiot to the streets would likely pay the rent ten times over. She was just a big soft-hearted idiot. Besides, did the world deserve Yakuza? Having her father in it was more than punishment enough.
The weasel was diurnal. By the time he realized it was a human, them and smelly monkeys weren’t that different, his quick attack was The beady eyes, set beneath bushy brows, were not created for dark places; the former just protected baby blues from falling dirt. Staring up at the flashlight, dangling from the strange woman’s fingers, he sneered. Turning over his shoulder, voice a harsh bark, he showed the patience of a saint. “Goddamnit! Madeline! You stupid bitch! Can’t even tell the difference between a damn sloth and some smelly brat!” Instead of an exasperated sigh, it was an angered hiss of frustration. The world can have him. “ ‘ Sup—getting in trouble down here?” Judging by the piercings, neon fur, and slight obesity, the rodent wasn’t exactly wild. His tongue was about the only untamed thing about him. Betcha you can get arrested.” Muscles tensed. “You don’t sound very happy to see me.” Muzzle rippled in a snarl. “I nearly broke my back to stop from hitting yar dumbass. Ungrateful little ass.” Claws began to flicker with purple flames.
Realizing it wasn’t her quarry, unless Yakuza was mouthing off in a stomach, the woman turned on the flashlight. The beam lifted lazily. The girl looked like a vampire. "Oh gods. She's even uglier with the lights on." The giant of a human hoped Dexden had a sense of humor. A fistfight was not on her itinerary for the day.
“There is.” Without hesitation, deciding two heads were better than one, Madeline strode towards Dexden. The water lapped at her feet. The urge to splash in it, just to drive a knife in the image of perfect little angel, was overwhelming. “You see a Vigoroth at all?” A boot kicked the Linoone in the ribs. He wouldn’t set anyone on fire. He had been the hot-headed idiot. “I’m Madeline McKenna.” Deciding to play the part of oracle, she made a guess at the future of the conversation. “Yes, one of those people.” The President was her uncle. The wealthy CFO was her father. Her cousin was the crazy girl in the park. Ah, family.
“In 3.1 yards, turn left.” The phone decided it needed an introduction as well.
(This is horrible. I have no idea where my writing ability has gone.)
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