Under the sea I mean city [Lagoon Boy]

[Gaunt]

Gaunt locked up the office and headed out into the tunnels. It was time for the first weekly check. Make sure the structure of the place was still sound, check the entrances, and so on. He was no civil engineer, but he had learned the basics of tunnel inspection back in L.A. It was a pain, but it wasn't too hard for someone with his experience. The entrances were trickier. There was a delicate balance there. Had to be secure enough to keep casual passers-by out, but loose enough to let determined clients in without too much trouble.

Gaunt grumbled to himself as he worked on the first door. He really needed to get some employees here, or at least an intern. There had to be someone around this town who could help him out. Not many of his kind stayed in this city. The prevalence of supers could give some cover, but the supers also tended to attract a lot of attention. It was too risky for any non-expendable vampires to stay there long. Still, with all those supers running around there had to be a few that were Rat's Nest material.

He headed off on the long trek to the next station. At this rate, it was going to take all night.

[Deleted]

He was finally here! Oh glorious galavanting guppies, he could finally begin to explore!

It was friend Speedy who had first told Lagoon Boy of the subway tunnels and the long, metal worms that raced through them. And Lagoon Boy, believing most anything, thought that the long metal worms -- the trains -- were living creatures that voluntarily carried surface worlders through Jump City's underbelly by swallowing them and then spitting them back up upon arrival. Of course, La'gaan had to investigate such an unnatural phenomenon. So, after receiving a set of rather crude directions to the subway, he risked the trek through the city.

Though the fish boy was initially cautious about wandering through Jump City by himself -- the first time he had tried such a trip the public had not reacted well to his inhuman appearance -- later attempts proved that the city's residents were much more accepting of the weird and wild. It was probably due to the large influx of superheroes and villains invading the area, though La'gaan didn't know about that yet. Still, although he received his fair share of awkward stares as he walked around with nothing but his tight-fitting black trunks and an ankle boot, pandemonium did not ensue. It was going to be dark soon as well, so there were less people wandering about in the first place.

Eventually, he found the tunnels. Or at least, he was pretty sure he had. Navigating the surface world was very different than swimming in the streets of Atlantis. Were the tunnels supposed to be this deserted? Where were the metal worms? Did they go to sleep at night?

"Hello? Great metal worms of Jump City! I have come to admire your digestive manners! How is it that you may swallow surface worlders and then unswallow them?" La'gaan began to holler into the tunnels, leaping back in shock as his voice echoed back to him. Neptune's nuptials, he was being mimicked!

"Please, is this a game? Say something to me, giant worms, so that I may repeat it back to you!" he cried, venturing further into the tunnels.

[Gaunt]

Gaunt looked up in confusion as shouting echoed through the tunnels. Some kid was shouting about giant worms and digestive manners. "They come here. They all come here. How do they find me?" He made his way towards the source of the sound. The shouting continued, as apparently the boy didn't grasp the concept of echoes.

Watching from the shadows, he could see the cause of the confusion. It was a fish boy, probably not used to surface things like echoes and not shouting nonsense at empty subway tunnels. Gaunt seemed to remember something about this guy from the files. Lagoon Boy, his name was. Not one of the shoot first, ask questions later supers. Gaunt stepped out of the shadows, showing himself. "What you're looking for is the Belle Reve line. That don't run in these tunnels anymore, but there's a new station about a block away from the old one. Train runs every half hour."

He kept a close eye on the kid, trying to judge his reactions. The file said he was pretty friendly, but you could never be too careful when you looked like a movie monster. Hopefully, Lagoon Boy's own movie monster appearance would soften the blow a bit.

[Deleted]

Lagoon Boy continued to walk deeper into the tunnels, hollering random nonsense as he looked for this delightful metal worms. Since it was the worms he was looking for, his surprised reaction was expected when not a worm, but a pale, hairless man revealed himself instead.

"Mmmmighty mackerel!" the fish boy yelped, leaping back and flailing his arms in a dramatic fashion. He stared at Gaunt for a moment, frozen in shock, blinking at the strange-looking fellow with round red eyes. Once he began realizing that this surface worlder -- was it a surface worlder? -- appeared to mean no harm and was instead telling him where he could find the giant metal worms, he immediately relaxed and assumed a cheery disposition once more.

"You are not a worm," he stated in a chipper manner, flapping his ear fins and tilting his head to the side curiously. "You do not look like a surface worlder either. Do you live below the surface? An underworlder? Neptune's beard, I've never met an underworlder before!" La'gaan exclaimed, crossing the distance between Gaunt and himself with little problem.

"Seashells and salutations, underworlder! I am La'gaan of Atlantis. It tickles my fins to meet your acquaintance," the fish boy chirped, promptly squirting a jet of water at the guy's right ear as a sign of greeting.

It was only after Lagoon Boy had given himself the time to really think about what Gaunt was saying that he adopted a puzzled expression, beady red eyes narrowing in confusion. "I am surely grateful that you have told me where to find the giant metal worms. But...this Belle Reve you speak of. Friend Robin tells me it is not a good place. That bad surface worlders are sent there," he said, exposing his new, pale friend to the fact that he knew a little about the infamous prison already.

[Gaunt]

"You are not a worm," "You don't say." The boy's reactions were all over the place. He was clearly a little loopy. He had gone from dramatic shock to cheery curiosity in 1.5 seconds. The babbling about underworlders only confused Gaunt more. He recalled that Lagoon Boy was an Atlantean, so that explained the surface worlder part. Did he really think there was a society under the ground? Technically true, but probably nothing like he was talking about.

The greeting surprised Garrett. The fish kid was faster than he expected, crossing the distance between them probably faster than Gaunt himself could manage. He wiped the water from his ear with a sour look on his face. "Charmed, I'm sure." He considered a suitable codename to use. Gaunt was publicized as the leader of this branch, but he didn't want to reveal it was a one-man operation. "The name's Nos, I work for Mr. Gaunt." He offered a firm handshake.

He chuckled a bit when Lagoon Boy realized he'd been had. "Well it's not just for bad people, you know. It's also a nuthouse. And you gotta admit, coming down here to yell at worms is pretty damned nutty." He still hadn't figured out what this guy's worm obsession was. The kid was a mystery to him.

[Deleted]

Charmed? What did it mean to be charmed? Was the pale stranger happy, then? He didn't look very happy, Lagoon Boy noted, as he pulled a rather sour face and wiped the water off of his ear. But, he had said that he was sure he was charmed. Perhaps people's facial expressions meant different things underground. He would like to try this charmed expression, posthaste!

The boy's fishy features scrunched up in a cheap imitation of Gaunt's "sour puss" face, an expression that fell somewhere between comedic and terrifying. It only lasted for a few moments though before his face slacked once more and fell back to its neutral expression -- which, in La'gaan's case, meant a rather large smile.

Nos! What an interesting name.~  Lagoon Boy's face stretched in a wide-eyed grin as his new friend introduced himself, webbed ears waggling in delight. And who was Mr. Gaunt? But there was no time to worry about that. Because look, a handshake!

Having been taught that shaking hands was a common method of greeting on the surface, La'gaan actually knew what to do in this situation. A large, webbed hand gripped Nos' own and shook it. It was still a little too eclectic and vigorous for a normal handshake, but he was getting there.

"Who is Mr. Gaunt? Is he your king?" La'gaan asked, releasing Nos' hand after flopping it all over the place. He and Aqualad served under King Triton -- was Nos' servitude to this Mr. Gaunt the same?

But now the topic had moved on to nuthouses. Blistering barnacles, why were nuts kept in the same place as bad people? The fishy lad tilted his head in confusion, round red eyes blinking curiously at his new friend. "Nuts are a type of food, yes? Why would the surface worlders grow nuts with vile villainous types?" Ohhh, alliteration. You are his only friend besides Garth and Spotty and Starfire and Maverick and Speedy and --

Oh, friend Nos was questioning him about why he was here! That was a perfectly alright thing to ask, he supposed. "Friend Speedy told me that I might find large metal worms down here! They travel underground and carry surface worlders by eating them and then spitting them back up unharmed! A most wondrous thing, isn't it?"

[Gaunt]

Gaunt was a bit taken aback by Lagoon Boy's sudden change of facial expression. For a second he thought the kid was mocking him, or maybe trying to be threatening, but then he remembered the fish kid was too sincere for that. What was he trying to do? He didn't ask, just letting the topic go rather than delving deeper into the kid's blistering insanity. La'gann was already smiling again anyway, so no point making a big deal of it. He didn't know what the ear waggling was about, but judging by the expression it was either a happy thing or he was about to be eaten. Probably the former.

The kid had a grip like a vise, and shook a bit harder than was strictly necessary. In spite of his powers, Gaunt had to shake out the crushed hand a bit after Lagoon Boy let him go. He was brought back to reality by the hero's question. "King? What? No, nothin like that. He's my boss, one of the local higher-ups where I work." He folded his hands behind his back, hoping to avoid any more over-the-top handshakes.

Before he had time to think too much, the kid's train of thought had jumped rails again. Had he really never heard of a nuthouse? "No, not that kind of nuthouse. You know, funny farm. Loony bin. Wacko basket. That sort of place." He hoped that at least one of those would get through. Struggling to keep up with the kid's motor mouth, Gaunt felt himself dragged to the topic of trains. "Really? You really don't know what a train is." He sighed. "I watch the news, I know you Atlanteans have vehicles. This shouldn't be such a hard concept." Gaunt knew he couldn't get a headache, but he thought he could feel one coming on.

[Deleted]

Aahhh, so this Mr. Gaunt wasn't a king. It made sense, he supposed. For if he was a king, friend Nos surely would have referred to him as King Gaunt!  Lagoon Boy nodded rapidly, a happily naive grin plastered on his fishy features at Gaunt's words.

"I understand, friend Nos! What do you do for your not-king, then, if he is still your superior?" he questioned. As a lower-class Atlantean, he understood the mechanisms of power more often than he let on; he was genuinely curious to see why his new friend was working underground. Surely laboring beneath the surface was a lonely experience -- unless there were other underworlders like friend Nos in the area. Ooooh, now that was a thought!

No time to follow up on that though. Nos was now talking about farms and bins and baskets...which, in La'gaan's eyes, had nothing to do with a house for nuts. Was his friend perhaps confused? But then, he had said there were different kinds of nuthouses. Perhaps it was himself who was confused.

"I did not know there were different types of houses for nuts," Lagoon Boy admitted sheepishly, scratching the thick flesh on the back of his neck with clawed fingers. There was much to learn when it came to the ways of the surface world -- and the underworld!

Wait, what? A train? He knew what that was! "I know what a train is! We Atlanteans prefer individual vehicles or our own bodies when it comes to underwater travel, but I have heard of these trains before, friend Nos. Friend Speedy was not telling me about trains though, but of long metal worms that...that..."

It finally dawned on the gullible fish that he had been the subject of a prank. He knew what that was, too; his bulbous red eyes widened slightly as the realization hit him, and his fins seemed to almost visibly droop as he glimpsed the extent of his own naïveté. "It appears that I have experienced the prank. Friend Garth warned me of friend Speedy's mischievous ways," he muttered forlornly, a small part of him stung at the thought of his curiosity being used for the amusement of others. He would get over it soon enough, but right now he was giving himself a moment to pout.

[Gaunt]

Gaunt took a moment to consider Lagoon Boy's question. Truth be told, he did a lot of things in his Nos persona. Nos was the sledgehammer of the Jump City Rat's Nest, the one who went in when things got real ugly. Still, that wasn't the sort of thing you told a superhero. You don't just inform one of the most goody-goody heroes in town that you're a legbreaker for a criminal organization. He'd have to be tactful. "I'm a problem-solver. If there's something what's giving Mr. Gaunt trouble, he sends me to take care of it." That should be enough to cover things without raising too much suspicion.

His palm met his face when, once again, the hero didn't get it. Just how dense was this kid? "No, no, no. Different words for the same thing. It's a place they lock up the crazies." He couldn't believe he had to spell it out like that. Explaining a joke took all the bite out of it, and explaining it six times in a row killed the joke, buried it, and built a housing development on the graveyard. Besides, he'd just explicitly told a hero he was insulting him. This one was supposed to be nice, but that could still go badly.

It was a huge relief for the vampire when Lagoon Boy finally figured out what these tunnels were for. Apparently the Atlantean was dimmer than he'd been led to believe. "Yeah, guess he got you good." Gaunt chuckled, but the laugh petered out when he saw how dejected the kid was looking. This was just awkward. He looked around, trying to think of something to distract them before the kid's sadness spread any further. "So yeah, these tunnels ain't used these days. Not for trains anyway."

[Deleted]

Friend Nos was a solver of problems! Blistering barnacles, but what a marvelous profession! Lagoon Boy fantasized that Nos' problem-solving job was similar to what the superheroes of Jump City did. Of course, if he really knew who Nos was then he would know that his mental comparison was just plain laughable.

"An excellent job, friend Nos! Pray tell, what problems do you solve?" La'gaan chirped, his curiosity practically begging him to pester the pale man for answers.

His eyes widened in realization, however, as he finally understood just what Nos was referring to when he was talking about a nuthouse. Apparently it had nothing to do with either nuts or houses. Unless one was referring to housing the mentally troubled. Fortunally, Nos' comment about him belonging in such a place was too far back in the conversation for La'gaan to bother with. Fish tend to have short memories. Not Lagoon Boy -- he was just naive -- but fish.

"Oohhh. I understand. I don't know how a person can act like a nut, but I know what nuthouses are now," La'gaan said, a grin slowly beginning to spread across his face as he partook in this new knowledge. Oh, but he was learning so much this evening!

Of course, that was when he realized he had been pranked by Speedy and got all droopy-eyed and limp-finned. Limp-finned is totally a word, Sam is not making this up because she's tired and wants to break the fourth wall. It lasted for only a few moments though, as Nos' dry chuckle began to snap Lagoon Boy out of his funk. Pranks were meant to be laughed at, yes? Pranks were all in good fun, and the surface worlders made no exception to this rule. So it made sense that he should not be sad, but rather happy!

"Ha HA. Ha ha ha HA! That he certainly did, friend Nos!" La'gaan said, his attempted laughter actually successful in brightening his mood. The dejection he felt was considerably lightened if he laughed at himself over this.

Fortunately for Nos, he was spared any more of Lagoon Boy's awkward laughter when he interrupted him with a statement about the tunnels. The fishy lad's eyes immediately became alight with curiosity. "If these tunnels are no longer used for trains, then what is their purpose now?" he asked, taking a small step towards his new, very pale friend.

[Gaunt]

Gaunt was not generally a happy person. He was lonely, isolated, and under a lot of pressure. Being confronted with someone who was this irrepressibly happy was a little jarring for him. No matter what, La'gann never seemed to get more than a tiny bit upset. Even when he was sad about something, he bounced back almost instantly. Gaunt had no idea how someone could be that relentlessly cheery without chemical assistance.

"Sorts of problems?" That was a tricky one, for a number of reasons. He'd just gotten to this town and had barely even set up, he wasn't in mission-taking mode yet. There was also the little fact that Rat's Nest was involved in a lot of criminal activities. He was talking to a hero, it might be very bad if he let that slip. He'd have to go more noncommittal on this. Gaunt shrugged as he answered. "Whatever problems people will pay to solve, really."

Gaunt was relieved when Lagoon Boy dropped the nuthouse topic. There was a whole other conversation to have there explaining figures of speech to him, but the vampire figured someone else could have that headache. He was done talking nuthouses with the chipper super. It was a bit surprising that he didn't seem to care that he'd been accused of being insane, but Gaunt figured it was probably just another thing about talking that he didn't get. Better to leave it alone, he didn't want to make the kid pout again.

"Well you see, they ain't used. Not anymore. Well there's squatters and folks like me, but this all is just space now." The Nosferatu gestured to the empty tunnels around them. Over the years, he'd come to like places like this. Dark empty tunnels, an occasional rusted old train car. It had a cool post-apocalyptic feel to it, like living in a Fallout game with none of the inconveniences. "Lots of space for people who don't want trouble to hide."

[Deleted]

Lagoon Boy tilted his head, giving Nos a curious look with his round, red eyes. That...hadn't really answered his question. Nope. What sort of problems did people even pay for other people to solve? He certainly had no idea. It could be anything. Or everything. Mighty minnows, did friend Nos do everything for a living? How marvelous!

"I am curious, friend Nos. What problems do surface worlders pay to have solved? Would your problems be similar to an Atlantean's problems?" the fishy lad inquired, ear fins twitching with anticipation. His gaze began to wander around the tunnels, fascinated with every nook and cranny of this underground world. Were squatters a subspecies of underworld folk, like friend Nos? So many questions to be asked, so little time.

La'gaan darted around Nos and ran several feet deeper into the tunnels, as if doing so would prompt a squatter out of hiding. Seeing an abandoned train car in the distance, he gave a small gasp of excitement and scurried over to it. A clawed finger reached out and scratched the car's rusty surface. "Sumptuous seaweed! What a marvelous little hovel. Do underworlders like yourself live in these, friend Nos?" Lagoon Boy asked excitedly, tempted to clamber into the car right then and there. Except that would be rude, if there were people living in there.

"How many others live down here with you? Is there a whole underworld community down here?" The questions just never stopped with him.

[Gaunt]

Gaunt raised an eyebrow at the continued questions. This kid wasn't going to take vague for an answer, was he? "Well, I don't really know much about Atlantean problems. As far as me goes, I do a bunch of things. Get info, retrieve things, and so on. Stuff they can't trust the regular supers for, or stuff what needs to be handled discreetly. I work for lots of private people." He hoped that would be enough to shut down that line of questioning without revealing too much. He didn't know how the hero would react, learning he was talking to a crook for hire.

Before he really had a chance to organize his thoughts, Lagoon Boy was off and running again. The kid started scrambling around a train car, seemingly fascinated by it. The vampire followed him, watching his antics. "We call that a train car. I guess someone could live there, yeah. Not a great place for it, but there's worse." He leaned against the car, keeping an eye on the hero. He was like a kid in a candy store, if kids in candy stores asked a billion questions about each and every piece of candy. "Not much community. Mostly hobos, they don't stay long. Always on the move."

[Deleted]

Friend Nos' job description was so versatile! It seemed to involve a lot of retrieving, however. Friend Speedy had described a dog to him once with that very word in it's name. A...Golden Retriever? But Nos was not golden. Nor was he a dog. But it was a fun comparison to make, all the same. Friend Nos' statement about "regular supers" was a little hard to follow, though.

"How can someone be regular, and yet super? And when you say super, are you talking about superheroes? I am one of those! Am I a regular super, friend Nos?" La'gaan babbled excitedly. But then he was running down the tunnel and examining those marvelous contraptions that Nos had called train cars. Blistering barnacles, but this was fascinating!

"It reminds me of the abandoned cities under the ocean," Lagoon Boy commented, his round red eyes adopting a distant look as he lazily traced a claw along the side of one of the train cars. Sometimes Atlanteans like himself would live in the more decrepit parts of the cities under the sea, at least until the King had opened the gates of Atlantis to him and his kind. It was funny how something as foreign as a train car could remind him of home.

La'gaan suddenly shook his head, ear fins flapping a bit, as if by doing so he would banish such thoughts from his mind. At least friend Nos was kind enough to distract him with tales of hobos. Whatever those were. "What is a hobo, friend Nos? You say they are always moving. Are they like the salmon who leave the ocean to migrate to fresh water every year so they may reproduce?" the fishy lad asked curiously. Not waiting for a response, he leaped into the nearest train car and entertained himself by poking around.

[Gaunt]

"I guess you are a regular super. You're one of the public ones, and my clients don't want that. They want their business to stay as private as possible." He ran after the young superhero. This guy had more energy than a toddler on 4loko, it was hard for even a vampire to keep up. Gaunt was glad he didn't need to breathe, it would be a lot harder to talk to this motormouth if he was panting from chasing him all over the undercity.

He was a bit amused at the idea of abandoned underwater cities. Until Atlantis had made contact with the surface world it was assumed to be exactly that, and here was an Atlantean talking about visiting such places. He wondered if Atlantis had slums, the public image they put out didn't mention that sort of thing. Then again, no city put out banners saying "Come for the homeless, stay for the crushing poverty." It wasn't good for tourism. Gaunt could tell Lagoon Boy wasn't going to be very informative on that. He didn't seem to know anything about the slummier aspects of city life, he must have been either pretty sheltered or more of a country boy. Did Atlanteans even have country boys? This was raising a lot of questions, but he wouldn't have time for any at the rate Lagoon Boy was talking.

Gaunt was baffled when he asked what a hobo was. Did he seriously think they were a kind of fish? "No, hobos are people who don't have a home. They live on the streets, in tunnels, shelters, wherever they can really. Some of em come down here, but they usually don't stay long. It's creepy, and there's nowhere to get food or money here." He followed the excitable super into the train. It was like watching a kid on a jungle gym.