RES University

"I have... no idea." King replied, his voice dripping with... fascination. "... I'm almost tempted to deviate from our original plan..."

"C'mon, King, we have a lot of walking to do." Altair spoke up. "Think of the guy with the cane before you assign even more walking."

King frowned, almost like a disappointed child. "Fine, fine. We shall move along."

"I don't want to be near that thing, thanks." Hoxton muttered.

"We should just... Ignore that thing. For now at least. It doesn't seem to be hostile," Aria suggested as she continued walking. As a precaution, her wings appeared from her back in large, crystalline shards that gleamed faintly in the darkness. 

Blair said nothing, but continued walking. 

"I hope it isn't." Hoxton murmured. "Got enough tah deal with, anyway."

"Ah, well." King sighed. "We'll just... keep moving."

A particularly nearby explosion caused a bit of a tremor, the entire tunnel shaking. 

"... Are you sure this is safe?" Lawrence asked.

"It's never been taken down before." King replied. But even he felt a bit of uncertainity.

"So much fer nothin' gettin' in the tunnels, eh?" Hoxton said, as he continued to follow King. 

(OKAY SO ONCE AGAIN BAD NEWS. TODAY AND TOMRROW I'M STUCK T THE SCHOOL

but chatzy works I think so if youd like I csn link you to that lol)

"Well, Masked not getting into the tunnels." King corrected himself. "I don't know what that was, but it was certainly no Masked."

There was another particularly large explosion, once again rattling the tunnels.

"T-That one sounded closer than before." Lawrence murmured.

"Let's keep goin'. I don't wanna blow up." Hoxton muttered.

(I wasn't on today(yesterday) anyway - busy)

"i have to agree. Getting out of here as fast as we can is ideal." Altair nodded. He was hobbling along at a bit faster than walking speed, but it was what he could manage. "I can feel a slight breeze. We're probably going to be out of here soon."

Lawrence sighed in relief. "Great. This place is creepy. And, y'know, probably dangerous."

(my time is limited to like 10 minutes rn but I'm gonna put the link down anyway, mostly for reference day after tomorrow:

http://us22.chatzy.com/98727667827042)

"For once, I agree with ya." Hoxton nodded.

And sure enough, it didn't take long before a small amount of light could be seen. It was like a pinprick, but steadily grew bigger, and bigger...

"A-ha, this must be it!" King picked up the pace.

And by the time they were near enough to be out of the tunnel...

... Everything was oddly silent.

Hoxton glanced around, whispering, "Somethin' doesn't feel right."

"Oh, fer fu**s sake." Hoxton muttered. If he made a move for his guns, he'd probably be shot.

"Y-Yes, we are." King replied, strggling to keep a composed tone. He knew a couple of these people. And of course, the one time they leave the shelter, they run into them...

The teenager looked around to her friends, grinning. "Well, guys? What do you think? Should we take their valuables and burn 'em on the spot?"

"P-Please don't do that." Lawrence spoke up, voice shaking. "We don't mean any harm, 'kay? Just let us through, and that'll be-"

"What are you doing out here?" A new voice interrupted. A redhaired girl had spoken, and she looked about ready to go with exactly what the teenager had suggested. 

"We're... uh... going to see what we suspect is the origin of the Masked." Altair replied. King had frozen up. Oh, great. "I promise, we have no intentions of-"

"The origins of the Masked!" The girl cut him off. "Y'know, that might be something we could keep you alive for. We'd probably kill you afterwards, but... you've gotten our interest." She glanced around at her allies, who all murmured in agreement.

"I'll fu**in' slice your throat open if you try that, you little b**ch." Hoxton spat.

Aria finally emerged from the tunnels after a somewhat long while of minor exploration. The moment she caught a glimpse of the others, who seemed somewhat hostile in appearance, her relatively pleasant expression contorted into one of a mild grimace. ''Oh, looks like we have company,'' Aria said coolly with a slight flutter in her lashes. Her wings grew twice their natural size, which was a thing she'd done rather rarely. ''What do you want?''

Meanwhile, Blair feigned fear and stood behind the majority of the Anti-Masked cluster, a smart decision for someone who didn't have powers. ''Careful, they seem impulsive,'' she spoke in a hushed tone. ''I wouldn't doubt they had a thing or two up their sleeves.''

"How polite." The redhead remarked flatly. She noticed Blair and Aria. "Oh, there're more of 'em? Great. At least one looks to have no powers..."

"Okay, okay, before any more of you show up, I'm gonna explain something nice and easy so you all understand." Kara "Firstly, you're kind of our hostages. We have better weapons, and Gardenia here's been getting awfully good at teleporting us around. We can probably avoid any bullets you fire. This means that if you try anything, we'll kill you. And if you're not going to be polite to us, we'll kill you anyway. Secondly, all we want is information."

Altair sighed. No use in trying to argue. There was something in the teen's eyes that suggested she wasn't bluffing. "We recently found out all Masked migrated here from an area outside the city. We were heading there, and..."

"What kinda place is it?"

"A rich neighborhood."

"You're worse than a fu**in' cop, you know that, right sunshine?" Hoxton muttered.

Aria and Blair both were silent, neither one of them daring to make a move.