Adventure of Thieves and Dragons

[Deleted]

Tonight was turning out to be a particularly bad night. Not for the people walking the streets who enjoyed a nice quiet evening, but for the thief Black Comet or in her civilian form Charlie. Who, after an incredibly productive day, was running for her life. Man I really messed up big, she thought in panic as she turned a corner. She should have known something was off about that last mark. It didn’t really occur to her that he would notice so quickly and have many friends with weapons. Charlie glanced back to see them turn the corner right behind her, their knives shining in the moonlight. One of which had already nicked her arm pretty deep when she managed to slip out of their grip.

What made it worse was that she’d use too much of her powers that day and she was losing energy faster than usual. Charlie felt that she only had one good jump left in her, and she had to use it fast but she also had to be smart about it. It wasn’t enough for a building jump but maybe a fence. Quickly she turned down an alley and luck had decided to put a rather tall wood pallet fence up ahead. “Yes!” She exclaimed as she jumped and launched herself at an inhuman height. Charlie could see the other side until gravity took hold of her again. Her hands reached but just grazed the top of the fence before she slide down to the ground.

“No!” Charlie cried and hit the fence. She turned towards the alley way entrance trying to think of some way to escape with a large black hole in the ground caught her attention. Apparently a sewer grate had rusted enough to leave a hole large enough for someone to slip through. With the sound of foot steps approaching Charlie didn’t have much choice and climbed through the hole into darkness. There was no ladder and she dropped just as the men turned into the alley. She landed on solid ground with an echoing thud which alerted one of the knife wielding foes.

“She’s in the sewers!” He shouted and Charlie held her breath, praying to what ever god would listen that they wouldn’t follow her. Then since luck decided to correct its mistake she heard this conversation.

“I’m not going down there,” one said. “No way, I’ve got a friend who says they’re haunted.”

“Seriously, I’ve heard there are things down there, man,” another said. The other men agreed and she heard one of them curse but grudgingly accept the retreat. Charlie would have shouted for glee if  she weren’t already jumping at ever shadow she saw. They were just kidding about the haunted thing… right? She wondered and flinched with she started to hear whispers echo off the walls.

[Empathy]

The whispers came from a tunnel further south. They approached steadily, echoes reinforcing each other as the awkward voice became more intelligible. Then, at some point, a roar attempt could be heard. Close up, it didn't sound that impressive. "Bido needs to learn to roar. Like in the Monster movie." The bodyless voice declared with conviction. Then his own roar echoed back to him, louder than the original sound. Bido's purple scales shivered, as he looked around to find the source of the roar. The air undulated around his chameleon shape. "Did Bido hear something?" Bio's telescopic eyes strained to thin slits as he attempted to look in every corner of the cylindrical tunnel. "Bido is pretty sure there are no monsters in the sewers." He still edged cautiously around, scaled head twitching from one direction to another. "Bido knows for a fact that there are no closet doors in the sewers." The chameleon's elongated face turned a reassuring green as he nodded to his own words of wisdom. A clanking sound further down the tunnel snapped him out of his reassuring thoughts. The camouflage was back on. "But then, Bido met Naga the great serpent in the sewers. And they called Naga a monster." Bido didn't follow the news, but that much he had caught on during the whole Naga debacle.

"Is anymonster there?" Bido's voice asked into the tunnel. He sounded unsure, maybe even a little scared. Then the mutant remembered Rose, and her pieces of advice to the hoardless dragon. "Bido must be strong. Bido must be scary. Bido will show everyone what kind of dragon he is." And with that he attempted another roar. "Mr. Monster. Bido is one of you. So, please, can you be Bido's friend?" Rose's father seemed to like monsters. And Bido could need some friends. Bido edged closer to the source of the noise, his one good arm stretched forward while the stump that was his healing left arm just wiggled in the air. Inside his oversized mouth, Bido prepared to launch his powerful tongue at whatever was lurking with him in the tunnel.

[Buse]

"Yo man, didja hear about the bling mountain in the sewers?"

And just like that, Dar'Kneevel Callaghan was out and about in the literal underground of jump city. Sure, the conversation went on longer than that, he got more details then played it off like he wasn't interested in some crazy urban legend. A mountain of gold in the sewers? Pfft, like that was even a possibility. Seriously. Yeah. That was as realistic as the tales of monsters and ghosts that lived down here.

Except this time he believed it, and he didn't even get a map. There probably was no map, of course. Mad Dog had mentioned the possibility of some notes on the walls marking the way, but Dar hadn't found anything until that point. After a while searching, he started to think that listening to Mad Dog might once again have been a bad idea. Thankfully, he had the sweet sound of DR Period playing on repeat on his earphones to cheer him on and absolutely nothing to do later to help in that.

"Alright, man. Look out, cheddar cave, I'm gonna find you!"

After a quick sentence of reassurance, he heard a nearby thud. Well, not REALLY nearby, but the sewers echoed well, and it was loud. Maybe it had something to do with the CA$H $TA$H? He had to give it a try. Turning the sound down and his invisibility up to 65%, he moved towards the noise. Sewers are dark already, figures 65% is probably enough, right?

[Deleted]

“Eep!” Charlie cried when she heard a sort of roar echo in the tunnel. Not cool, so not cool, she thought. Completely done with being in the dark Charlie decided to dig through her backpack on the off chance that she packed a flashlight. Sure she had night vision binoculars but they were more stealthy than a bright beam of light. With a frustrated whimper she slipped her backpack on and sat against the wall until her eyes adjusted to the dark. Her goggles weren’t helping much and she almost took them off except when voice echoed around her. She flinched and then listened carefully. 

It sounded relatively human and just about as scared as Charlie was. Apparently he thought she was a monster and she almost laughed until it said that it was ‘one of you’. What?! Did that mean it was a monster? But he said he wanted to be friends… What did that mean? “U-um… I-I’m not a monster but I suppose I could be your friend,” she said loud enough for her voice to echo a little. Her voice sounded distorted when it came back to her. It was odd how echo’s worked.

“J-just don’t eat me o-or k-kill me,” Charlie couldn’t believe how much she was stuttering! Yet she was starting to shiver, whether it was from fear or the cold or exhaustion. In an effort to stop the shivering she hugged herself but accidentally squeezed her fresh wound. “Ow!” Again she flinched and carefully ran her fingers over the cut. It went up her left arm and was about three inches long. Dang, I really liked this sweatshirt, she grumbled and put her hand back on it. Pressure would probably stop the bleeding but that didn’t mean it was painless, Charlie bit her lip to the pain.

[Empathy]

Bido tilted his head up. Another echo reverberated through the tunnels. The screech-like roar made Bido jump in the air. "BiBiido?" He whispered. His scales shifted around as he entered a less dark section of the tunnel. His hand rested against the stone wall, as if trying to feel the place's pulse. "Bido's hand is cold." The open palm lifted, so that only the lizard's three finger tips were pressed against the wall. "Bido can feel something. But he doesn't know where it comes from." That's when a new wave of words echoed through the tunnel. Quickly, Bido stuck his sensitive tongue against the wall, and tried to locate the direction the vibrations were coming from. "Tschiich waaaaaii." Bido retracted his tongue, then thought for a while. "The other monster says its not a monster. Maybe Bido shouldn't trust it. Maybe Bido should go home." His voice was rather soft, but probably echoed anyway. "But it said it wanted to be Bido's friend. Bido should go see it." The lizard-man seemed torn. "What would Rose want Bido to do?" He started banging his head against the wall. That sometimes helped.

As more echoes came along, Bido made up his mind." Bido is going to meet the monster that isn't a monster. Bido is going to be brave." Plus, stuttering monsters weren't quite as scary as non-stuttering monsters. Bido remembered that from the movies. "Bido is coming!" He said, this time intending his voice to carry over. His camouflage was back on 100%, and he moved cautiously in the direction of the other voice. "Bido only eats candy." Rose had discovered that pretty quickly. "So unless this is a candy monster, it will be fine." The little dragon wasn't even hungry to begin with. He had stocked up plenty on candy at home, before his n-th trip to search for his lost hoard. "Maybe the monster has seen the evil men." Bido whispered to himself. "Maybe it knows where Bido's hoard is." Bido's eyes shone with newfound hope.

"Or maybe it will eat Bido."

[Buse]

The boy was moving towards the source of noise when a roar made itself heard, covering the not-so-loud music. He nearly jumped, before putting himself together again, upping the invisibility to 75% and turning off his music player. There were problems bigger than music at hand. As he was stuck in place, parts of his conversation with Mad Dog echoed back in his mind.

"Yeah, right, why didn't anyone get it yet?"
"Didn't you hear it? The place is like, cursed and stuff, man! There's friggin' monsters out there!"
"Come on, yo, don't tell me you believe that sort of stuff. We all know the real monsters are up here, yo. Like... Slade or something."
"Yo, alls I'm saying is I ain't goin' down there. You wanna play crazy, suit yourself."

And there he was, playing crazy. D-Ice, master of bad ideas. A quick reminder of the reason he was there was enough to give him strength to continue, however. If even sewer monsters were a real thing, there was no reason for the stash not to be. Besides, he had an insane advantage in that area, both in the darkness helping him hide and in his eyes helping him see enemies. He didn't really consider the fact that underground creatures would be used to the dark, but why would he? There's no way anyone could be as good as he at what he did.

The voices continued as he walked, and one of them was definitely familiar, though he couldn't quite link it to a name. His doubt only lasted up until he took a turn after so many and found himself looking at none other than Charlie Rudolph in the distance. Well, that was surprising. Good to see he wasn't the only one crazy enough to go into the sewers... though moving closer, he found that what drove her there probably wasn't boldness, but a complete lack of options. Nobody would be stupid nor crazy enough to go into the sewers with a wound like that if they could help it. She looked scared, and seemed to be talking to someone or something else... the boy decided to just keep hidden in the shadows, watching silently.

I mean, if it came down to it, he'd help her, of course. No way he'd leave her to be attacked by a monster. But... the element of surprise could help him and her both... right?

[Deleted]

After being in the dark long enough Charlie decided to take off her goggles, it was so much easier to see when they were off. She let out a small hiss of pain when she moved her injured arm and put her goggles in her pack. It was then that she saw that the first aid kit was missing from her bag, thinking back Charlie last remembered setting it on her kitchen counter so she could refill it. Just her luck, the one time she was thinking ahead and she forgets the first aid kit. Nice move Charlie…

Not knowing what else to do she sat in the dark and waited for the person calling himself Bido to appear. Every so often her mind would play tricks with the shadows and her ears the silence. Charlie had a serious fear of silence and though she knew she wasn’t really, the girl felt a little alone. In the back of her mind, dark thoughts started to seep forwards. Negative emotions she would normally push back leaked like smoke through her defenses. She scowled in the darkness and squeezed her arm causing the sharp pain to be the only thing on her mind.

Her jaw clenched until the pain passed, with the threat of silence surfacing again she started to softly hum a tune that aways made her feel better. A children's song her brother would sing when they were kids themselves. So Charlie sat alone in the dark softly singing ‘You are my sunshine’, waiting for someone else to join her because the thought of a monster appearing was not in her now optimistic thoughts.

[Empathy]

Finally Bido summoned the courage to face the mysterious voice in the tunnel. He was still invisible, however. You couldn't be all brave all at once. "Bi-Bido is coming." That's when Bido saw hurt Charlie his camouflage broke and turned a concerned turquoise. "Bido didn't know the monster was a hurt girl!" Rushing ahead, the lizard man started circling around the person, trying to understand her injuries. "Did the evil dragon-hunters hurt you too? Do you heal like Bido? Do you eat candy?" Questions flowed freely once the Morlock had reclassified the voice as non-threatening.

Bido poked the girl's hurt arm. "Does it hurt?" There was no malice in the reptile's voice, just curiosity. "Should Bido blow on it? Maybe Bido's spit has healing powers!" To illustrate his point, Bido's tongue extended and started rubbing saliva onto his own hurt arm. It didn't do much, but he knew the limb would eventually grow back. "Why is the monster girl hurt? And what song is she singing?" Bido liked tunes. He didn't have many of those down in the sewers. Once he stole a broken mp3 player from a dump, but he couldn't make it work. He still wore it sometimes, humming to pretend songs.

"And why is the monster girl down here? The sewers are dangerous."