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 Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 6:52 am
Quinn glanced at Fish as they ran. "Honestly? Yeah. It didn't matter who it was. If they had left their card with you, you would have saved them. Everyone in that apartment is special to you, from what I saw." Quinn sighed. "Yes, Fish. You would be there, if it had been someone else in that apartment. You would be there if they had taken Marshmallow's aunt Fanny or whatever."
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:06 am
"Yeah," nodded Fish. "Okay."
They climbed another level and then Fish directed them down to the streets, about a block past the blockade.
"You ever been to Uppers before?" he asked, but kept moving. There was a plaza around here, and then the building... They would take what was rightfully theirs. No mercy.
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:13 am
"I think my dad lived here right up until a few months after I was born. Then we moved to the same house I've been in since then. But yeah, I've visited. It's a lot more swankified then middling. Or even the Scene, but the Scene is a different kind of gaudy." He kept pace with Fish pretty well. He just wanted to talk. Anything that distracted him from what happened to his mother.
"The streets are so much better. So much less climbing." Said the lazy b*****d. "So, do you have a game plan, or are we just smashing our way through?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:49 am
"I grew up in harbor," said Fish, briefly and fondly remembering the Zone he had not been to in months. Nowhere better for a child like him to grow up.
"Last time we went there - me and Maria-" God he hated that girl- "We didn't run into anyone at first."
Admittedly, it would have been nice to have Maria's soul-sensing powers this time around. She'd been able to tell where agents were and avoid them accordingly.
"With so many agents on the streets, they can't have a whole lot left to guard the home base, right?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:56 am
"That's a good point. Unless they're like, summoning rockpeople from the ground or something to work as agents. THEN, they'd have an unlimited supply." He nodded. "And that would suck."
Quinn glanced at Fish. "You grew up in Harbor? I guess that makes sense. Why'd you move?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:00 am
"I grew up over night," said Fish with a snort. "I tried to hide it from my parents for a few weeks, but it was too hard. And then the suits started hanging around our neighborhood. I packed up my things, took my life savings out of the bank, and headed to the scene. I blended in pretty well. I've been a lot more fortunate than other players."
He seemed to be playing a game with the streetlights, going out of his way to stay out of the pools of light they cast.
"You still lived at home, all this time?" he asked. "How'd you manage that?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:04 am
"Uhm," To be honest, he'd never really thought about it. "She never really said anything. And she'd been sort of degenerating for months, anyway. She barely spoke. Mostly watched TV." Tears started welling up again. "My dad's been gone since I was a kid, so I didn't have to worry about that."
"Life savings? What were you, like, ten? That couldn't have been much money at all."
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:16 am
"Twelve," corrected Fish. "I was twelve that first summer. Almost fourteen now."
In other words, everything he'd gone through this time last summer ought to have still been just around the corner. Supposing it would have happened at all without Poseidon's interference and the 'greek hero thing'.
It would have, assured the god, which didn't make Fish feel any better.
"It was enough to buy some clothes and pay my rent that first month," he said. "I started working after that. Odd jobs, building my qualifications. I found my own way. I did better than Writ, at least."
He frowned and turned a corner down Reagan Road.
"It's near here somewhere. Look for a big plaza with a fountain in the middle."
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 1:00 pm
Quinn wandered around with Fish for a short period of time before he spotted it. "There!" He said, pointing to a large fountain. "Is that it?"
He listened to what Fish had to say, and nodded. "I think I'm around thirteen. I stopped keeping track. I mean, we were gifted with quick growth past the awkward, dull stages of life. Why not embrace it?" He grinned. "Age is a number, what matters is how we are."
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:24 am
"I don't know what you mean about skipping the awkward, dull stages of life," said Fish, whipping his head around to look at the fountain. "I still lived through them. And yeah, that's it."
He studied the buildings surrounding the plaza. They were all nondescript and governmental... And then he saw it.
Adversare et Obtegere. Carved into the marble of a facade.
"This one," he said to Quinn, and motioned for the other young man to follow him into the alley.
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:51 pm
Quinn followed him down the alley to the door that led to the back of the building. "Hm, let's see..." There was a touchpad. A code ******** that." Quinn pressed his hand against the touchpad and discharged electricity, overloading the lock control. He heard a popping noise, the touchpad quit working, and the knob would turn.
"Ladies first," Quinn said, motioning to the door.
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:59 pm
"After you, then," said Fish, and shoved Quinn ahead of him through the door. He closed it quietly behind them and looked around. A long, white hallway - all this was starting to seem terribly familiar.
"Can you knock people out cold on contact?" he asked. "Like a taser?"
He wished he had a taser right about now.
"Come on, follow me. We need to find the control room. I think I remember my way around from last time."
Unless, of course, they'd reorganized.
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:20 pm
"That's tricky," Quinn said. "Once my electricity starts flowing into something without resistance, it's tough to get it to stop. So I'll either run out of electricity or kill the person I'm zapping, if they aren't wearing rubber everywhere."
"So, probably not. Unless I'm really careful. I'll try to conserve it. It's easier if I don't make contact, and just shoot it at them." He shrugged. He still hadn't gotten complete control over his electricity. "I can blind people pretty well, though, and I have enough poison to incapacitate at least three of them."
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:31 pm
"You get what I mean," growled Fish as he made his way briskly down the hallway. They came to a fork, where passages continued left, right, and straight ahead. He went straight and began reading door labels.
"So you see anyone, you knock them out."
"Looks like everyone's out of the office for the night, though," he sighed. This was almost too easy.
"Maybe they weren't expecting us to be here so soon."
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Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 12:27 pm
Quinn decided it was time to quote some old movies.
"It's quiet." he shifted his eyes around the hallways. "Too quiet."
"We'd better hurry," He muttered, seriously, "Or they'll be back with weapons."
"Because, you know," He continued, "It's a trap!"
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