I followed her to Ichiban. Mira looked like she'd go through with this no matter what, and abandoning her wasn't ever an option. 'Sides, I had my own vested interests… mainly in the Skill Point reward for finding Edward Smith.

Helping to take down a Fedra conspiracy though… well, they were the worst anyway, so it was a good thing. It was an open secret they were responsible for the Endless Sandstorm and Dune Walkers. Or, at least, mostly responsible.

We passed under the red holographic gates of Ichiban Street. I tried to keep my wariness hidden. We most definitely still had tails. Insight hadn't stopped buzzing for a second. It was, unfortunately, impossible to spot them in the crowd. Especially considering the number of off-duty FSA troops to blend in with.

True to her word, Mira pulled me into an arcade. We spent nearly an hour and a half just playing around. It was fun outside of the constant tension, and hopefully would drop our watcher's guard. The more we delayed though, the more unnerved I was about the whole situation.

My nerves showed in the scores. Mira beat me in almost every single game, but it wasn't my fault… It was the nerves. If I was in peak condition? I could easily wipe her in every single game… chek, easily…

Thirty minutes in, I took the time to call Shinobu for a favor. Nothing serious, just a request for the Jade Fang to let us use their Underground entrance and some gear. He was more than happy to help. Knowing a high-up Fang Enforcer certainly had its perks. It'd be ready in an hour.

"Damn, Shiro, you suck at these." Mira smirked as she beat me once more.

"Oh, yeah? Now you've done it." I finally started using Insight to play some of the games. The ones that required reaction time? A breeze now. For the next hour that we played, I brought the win rates up to fifty percent.

At some point, Mira gleefully smirked and tugged me toward the back of the room, citing a need for the bathroom. Things were finally starting to move. We snuck out the back of the shop into a filthy alley. A group of homeless were camped out, though most of them were too zooted to pay attention to us.

We skittered around and back into Ichiban Street through a different back door. Being known as a Fang affiliate certainly had its advantages. We vanished into the crowd, losing our tails in a far less conspicuous way. This way, it'd hopefully be considered incompetence on the tail's part rather than an intentional shaking.

Neither of us spoke for several streets. At least, not until Mira showed a looked of relief. "Think we lost them? Alright, Miss Investigator. Where we headed?"

Insight was silent for once. It seemed we really did give them the slip. "Sure you should come with me? Looks like they're only watching you and uncle." I hated to say it, but I wasn't under watch. And I usually worked better alone.

"And risk you being 'accidented'? No chance. Anyway, you're shit with a gun. Think of me as an… escort? Whatever we're headed for killed two hundred soldiers." Mira shrugged lightly. "Sides, think you'll be able to head through the Underground uncontested?"

I rubbed at the back of my head and directed us to a spot closer to the backside of the Dragoon Saloon. Entrance should be over here somewhere. "Been down there a few times for the Fang… needed someone to fit into narrow passages. You're right, though. Probably best I had a bit more protection."

Some of the creatures down there? Calling them monsters would actually be correct. I definitely didn't feel comfortable enough to take some of them on alone. Everything from flesh-hungry ghouls to mutants lurked down there. Wasn't even counting the Scavs and Savants that liked the decrepit tunnels, nor other human elements.

The Underground was a restricted zone through and through. At least on the surface, people usually didn't kill each other Willy-nilly. That was bad for business. Down there? Shoot first, ask questions never.

Inside the building was like a warehouse, with armed guards camping around a massive hole in the ground. A ladder was bolted into the side of the hole, going far down into the darkness below. There was a lift too, but looked like it was out of operation for the time. Because of course it was.

Ladder it was. So began the long and tedious process of entering the Underground.

— — —

I cracked a glowstick and shed pale light on my immediate surroundings. I hooked it onto my backpack, allowing me to see somewhat as I panted for air. The climb hadn't been good.

The hole led deep below the surface into an ancient brick tunnel supported by metal rings ever once in a while. Deep shadows swayed all around, and a chill settled amidst the worn and torn brickwork.

A scent, somewhere in between rotting sewage and mildew filled the entire place. Really, the fact I could even catch a scent through the mask covering my face proved the strength of it. How utterly repulsive.

The mask was quite a high-quality product, but it suffered from the same flaws as other similar ones. The biggest issue was the spiked difficulty in breathing. It wasn't too terrible, though a bit uncomfortable. It was like I had to use double the effort to get the same amount of air.

For however much the mask sucked, it was required down here. There was no telling what kinds of viruses and pollutants were trapped in the Underground. Sure, we might not need them at all, but I'd rather not catch some terrible pathogen… though on second thought, I might be fine? Did Quick Healing work for stuff like that?

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Two feet slammed into the ground behind me. I looked back to see Mira, in the same mask as me, stretching out. The climb had been hell on me, and yet she looked as though she just went for a light walk.

She tried to speak, but the words came out muffled and garbled by the mask. I popped in my earbud and created a channel. I flashed my fingers, giving her the frequency and code. She joined a moment later. "This place reeks."

"Just wait till we move deeper," I spoke, my voice subconsciously quieting down here.

"Can't wait!" She waved her arm in faux-cheer. It was slightly odd hearing her voice perfectly even with her having a mask. She pulled a ballistic helmet and put it on, shifting her golden hair up and under to hide it.

"What's the plan?" I asked and made sure my stuff was ready to go should I need it. I likewise put on the helmet she tossed to me. "Can't search the entire Underground. 'Specially not if we avoid the main passages."

"Are we avoiding the main passages?" Mira pulled her gun free. It was a submachine gun of some sort, potentially a Knight Security firearm? Looked similar to the KS Squire-14, the recoiled gun she brought to go shooting. I followed her lead and also pulled my Rhymer out.

"Did you not do any research about this place? I don't wanna run into a ghoul or mutie nest." Large chambers throughout the Underground were known to be gathering points of the various hostile entities.

She tilted her head. "Faintly? The file mentioned Talus Tower, no? Maybe we poke around there?"

Talus Tower… that was the furthest apology out from the cent of Aythryn City. Not too far from Ichiban, but down here? A long and confusing journey awaited us. Too bad I was only good with the Fang. Might've been able to get a bit closer otherwise.

I led away and pulled a downloaded map of the city into my HUD. There were no flawless maps of the Underground. The decent ones? Extremely expensive. Getting around with even a hint of confidence would take a lot of time and guesswork.

Even that had its flaws though. The reception down here was spotty at best. The GPS constantly cut out, leaving me to just do my best at following our direction. For similar reasons, outbound communication was also super limited. More so, even.

Mira followed behind. Her feet splashed around putrid water obnoxiously. She didn't even try to avoid them. She definitely wasn't cut out for Stealth. Keeping quite wasn't even an issue for me, but it hardly mattered with her clonking around behind me.

I tried to ignore my growing sense of unease as we moved. It didn't really work. Every shadow that moved caused me to flinch, even if it was only an unusually sized rodent burrowing back into its den. Even shadow looked like a face, and every mound? A sleeping figure.

There was just enough light to see down here. Small patches of glowing lichen and the occasional glow graffiti here and there offered some illumination. Nothing too crazy though. In the same way the darkness strained our eyes, the light of our flashlights scared off most of the smaller wildlife.

For the most part, we kept silent as we moved. Mira would only pep up to ask about things we passed, such as too-big claw marks or rotting bones. Very few dead things down here kept their flesh for long. Most of the time, I could only guess about which monstrosity inflicted such wounds. I blamed it on the ghouls mostly, but ghouls also rarely had claws that long.

Course, they could just be bladed weaponry from the occasional Jade Fang or Crusader moving about the Underground. There were enough lines of flicked blood to prove they were active down here. Although they asked for protection fees, they actually did the job of protecting their territory.

At a junction, Mira spoke up. "What are we going to do if that group chases us down here?"

"They'd have to fight through the Fang first… we could set up an improvised trap though, if you want." I could easily rig something up with some of the grenades and microwire.

Mira looked around at the graffiti for a moment before shaking her head. "It might hit someone unrelated. Probably best we don't."

"Right." It was also a good reason to pay attention to our surroundings. I hadn't seen a trap yet, but it was only a matter of time.

We passed through an assortment of collapsed tunnels and naturally forming caves. Each passage caused me to practically guess which path to take. We ran into quite a few dead ends, though that was preferable to the other things we could run into.

It'd been about an hour or two before Mira put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. She raised a hand to her ear and began to speak quietly. "Voices up ahead… sounds like a small group. Two- maybe three?"

I didn't doubt her for a second. Her cyber audio suite was far more sensitive than my ears. I pulled back a bit and stuffed the glow stick into her hand. I likewise turned off my flashlight. "I'll sneak up and check it out. Stay back and I'll call you."

"Okay." In the dim glow of our chemlights, I could see the aggravation on her face. Not at me, no. It looked to be more towards her lacking stealth skills. She didn't refute me though.

I nodded and worked my way forward. Fox's Paw kept my footsteps entirely quiet even in mostly unfamiliar terrain. I stalked forward, dodging a few bear traps set up. Another bonus to the Perk, I guess. If it was floor based, I probably wouldn't ever trigger a trap. Eventually, I spotted an intersection.

The tunnel on the left had collapsed, leaving just the other two that faded into darkness. A glow stick cast dim light around the cross-section, revealing two people. Scavs. Even at a glance, it was obvious.

They had patchwork clothing, the kind usually associated with the down and destitute. Their armor, however, gave them away immedietly. Bits and pieces of cyber scrap were sloppily welded together into makeshift armor. Some of it? Still dyed with the blood of their victims.

Like true psychopaths, neither of them had masks on. They just stood around, the area, guarding the way forward. Cross marks of red paint were all over the place, like some child had been let loose with a paintbrush slathering it everywhere.

Scavs… they were the lowest of the low. Low-abiding? Granger? Even Corpos? It didn't matter to them. All were a product yet to be processed. They were the kind horror stories were told about. A very real reason to keep your children close, and your gun even closer. People were mere meat waiting to be processed.

'Course, they weren't after flesh. No- they were after chrome. They ripped it while their victims still lived to get around death lockouts. Alongside Savants, they were the lowest of the low. So low, they skipped past scraping the bottom of the barrel to below the barrel itself.

Absolute scum… I had a particular hatred for them. I made the perfect victim for them. I had a pretty high-end Neural Link and Neural System Interface. I'd run across them in the past, and the scenes hadn't been pleasant. There'd be zero regret in eliminating the beasts.

I hid in the darkness, watching the two of them chatter. One was completely covered in cuts as if diseases didn't even exist. A black tar-like substance covered them. Patch. Highly addictive and flawed designer drug that gave the user near-constant adrenaline and sped up the perception of time, almost like a poor man's speedware. Incredibly short and brutal highs.

I was worried for a moment about the guy, but that worried once I spotted his constant twitches and jitters. Patch withdrawal. Likely hadn't had any fresh Patch in a while. His reaction speed should be even slower than a normal person's then.

The other looked like a corpo-drone. Nothing stood out about him. Together, they were lightly armored with scrap chrome, and had crappy homemade guns. Shouldn't be a big deal. I backed up to Mira anyway. Where there was one, there'd be more. Like rats in that regard. Charging without a plan would be a particularly poor idea.

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