Del Ethier (blackhole_son) wrote in we_float, @ 2010-06-30 17:19:00 |
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Current music: | 'Where The Streets Have No Name' - U2 |
I want to take shelter from the poison rain...
Who: Del Ethier and Ganesh Surendar
When: Wed. June 30
Where: Jokertown
What: The Adventures of Del and Ganesh continue into Seattle Below
Status: log/complete
Ganesh hadn't been through the Seattle Jokertown, so Del thought it was only right that he should be, at least once. It was slightly awkward playing tour guide in such a situation, but not awkward to be there: with Brenn still living here, Del found himself here at least once a day. For all of Brenn's anti-social tendencies and him living across town, neither of them really got along well if they were out of actual physical contact for too long.
"Like, I don't want to give you the impression that shit around here was idyllic. I mean, there weren't parades in the streets or old guys handing out balloons to children and random passerbys changing out flats for strangers. But this areas pretty much on wary lockdown now. Come out when you need something, stay inside if you don't." Del's sandals slapped the pavement rhythmically as he strode the familiar sidewalks.
"This is where I used to live," Del said as he pulled up in front of a squat, three-story building. He poked the wall. "Yup, still rubber. Dude upstairs from me can turn anything into rubber and he did the whole building when they started shooting in tear gas."
Ganesh's hand slid against the surface as he looked up at the building. It was strangely smooth- indenting gently as he pushed a finger in, watching as it sprung back. "Used to live just a few weeks ago? Or period?"
He'd been smiling since they set foot in this part of the city. Despite the different terrain, it had more similarity to London than any other part of the world he'd been in, with the same kind of people and the grey skies overhead. Ganesh shoved his hands back in his pockets, feet shuffling a little as he took a few steps towards the stairs.
"It reminds me of home," he said and there was a longing in his voice he couldn't hide. "And no, it wasn't like that there either but... it was safe."
"I don't know if it was ever safe. I mean, there are gangs, drugs, what have you. Just people trying to make ends meet, belong somewhere, drown out their life. Same as anyone, really. But it was at least a community. You fucked with each other, but you wouldn't let anyone on the outside fuck with anyone on the in."
"But this is where I lived up until Anhalt. Landlord was cool as fuck; said if I wanted to stay until my lease ran out I could, even if I ran out of money first - you know I got fired right before I started up with you guys. Quan. Cool ass dude." After a reminiscent moment, he started walking again.
"Did you grow up here?" Ganesh ambled alongside Del, interested in the streets they were traveling. His eyes kept watching the windows, noticing how people occasionally came towards the glass, eying the pair of them for a moment. Evaluating them.
Traces of the fires were becoming slowly apparent as they walked towards the lower part of Pioneer Square where the entrance to the Underground led. He saw a sidewalk scorched and ripped apart, as if a small earthquake had erupted just underneath the grate that it had dismantled. He knelt, running a finger along the steel, peeking down into the darkness. There was nothing within that he could see and he leaned forward just slightly, picking up a stick and poking it into the hole that remained.
He'd been ignoring the eyes watching them through the windows, mostly because he was focusing on talking to Ganesh and trying not to be distracted by the street around him. "Nope. At Boeing. Up in Everett - that's north of here. When Brenn and I finally moved out, we moved into Quan's complex and basically were there until Brenn moved in with Preeti a couple of months ago and I moved out to Anhalt. And I wouldn't do that." Del interrupted his explanation abruptly, setting a hand on Ganesh's holding the stick.
Del's head tilted slightly as he slowly took the stick from Ganesh. "There's a thingie. Just on the inside. Lots of wires and a battery." He used the stick to gesture at some of the darker space. "I think that's why everyone is watching us."
"Like Aerospace? Boeing Aerospace? With airplanes and starships and all of that?" Ganesh looked a little envious as he reluctantly relinquished the stick. Then, brought back to earth by a distracting jab of Del's stick, he stood up. "A... thingie?"
Frowning, he glanced back at the entrance to the Underground. "Do you know what it is?" The look on his face revealed that, if Del didn't know, Ganesh intended to find out. He didn't hide his curiosity well.
"Not really. There are stairs though, so probably an entrance into something. Just about 4 feet down is a platform, then stairs. Um."
Del suddenly wished he had one of those art apps where you could draw on the screen with your fingertip. He decided to make do with the stick and hoped that Ganesh could follow what he was tracing out. "So, there is a small box. And then next to it is two 9 volts connected to each other with wire. Then the batteries are connected to the box with wire. Striped wire, I think. One light color, one darker one."
"Can we go see?" His foot snuck forward, playfully tapping Del's toe. "Please? It could be anything- a camera, maybe?" Or an explosive device. Ganesh thought that more likely but was smart enough to realize suggesting that wouldn't be a good lure for anyone. Whichever it was, he wanted to find out. "Has it always been there? Weren't there people there- I remember the broadcasts, there were."
His words were starting to run together slightly, so swift that his lilt made it sound almost like a song. "I've got a Swiss Army knife in my pocket, I think. Flashlight and everything." He dug it out, pressing a button until the light came on, skittering across the edge of a bent can on the ground and reflecting against Del's glasses. "Not that we'll get into trouble down there."
"Uh. I don't know. I don't watch a lot of news," he said cautiously. The eyes in the windows were moving and he caught every single one as they shifted behind wood and metal walls. He wasn't sure what that meant, but he'd seen movies that'd had a scene like this.
Ganesh slipped the tool back in his pocket. If it was an explosive, someone ought to do something about it although he wasn't quite sure what. There was no point, however, in poking at it with a stick.
He gestured at Del to follow him, no longer waiting to see if he could overcome the other man's hesitation. It was probably justified but at the same time, he thought to himself, they were supposed to be heroes. It was that which caused his step to quicken by half before he jumped up towards the old building with the underground's entrance.
His hand pressed against the wooden door, the flaking paint rubbing on his fingers and casting pale green shadows on them. It wasn't locked- nor had it been for a long time. The doorknob was dangling out of the door itself, clearly shoved out, splinters of wood bracing it on the lower half.
His footstep echoed inside the darkness of the lobby. He could hear the sounds of the nearby water- gulls screeching, the bell of the trolley, an occasional distant horn- but of this place, there was nothing but the rock of a door just ahead. He coughed slightly as he stepped inside, the dust like a film against his tongue as he swallowed.
Del took one very good look around them, seeing what was what before following Ganesh down a moment later. The hairs at the back of his neck were standing up as his attention charted over his wide line of sight.
"Hey G - maybe I'd better go-" Del coughed loudly as the dust caught the back of his throat, "first."
"Ganesh." He dug out the flashlight again, turning it on and shining it across the floor. A rat skittered out of the path of the beam and he blinked, stumbling back in surprise. His head turning to look at Del, Ganesh asked, "Do you want to go first?"
Del looked between the two of them. "I don't know. If we're attacked by a homicidal maniac, do you think they'll come from the front or the back? Homicidal, you'd guess back, but maniac, maybe they'd come ahead."
He knocked on the door. It was a normal thing and it made him feel better. Then he tried the handle.
"I'd say we should go in back to back but walking that way would be bloody tricky."
The handle swung open, revealing four steps that led down to another door. The light of the flashlight was little more than a pinprick in the darkness. Ganesh paused, looking back over his shoulder in the direction of the grate. He needed to orient himself to where they were and he turned for a moment, facing east then back to Del and the door to the west. They'd need to trace the path under where they were standing now.
"After you," Ganesh said.
Del took reached out and grabbed Ganesh's hand, to keep them together. "Keep that trained on the ground - I don't need it to see. Santa B, is this a journey to the center of the earth or what?"
He started weaving the two of them over the cobblestones towards the door. Curiosity was starting to overtake the feeling of trepidation now.
"I love that movie," Ganesh said as he laced his fingers in with Del's, squeezing for just a moment in case it helped, before loosening the grip somewhat. "The old 2D one- did you ever see it?" Stupid questions made what they were doing seem trivial, even though his heart skipped a beat as his foot squished down in something he couldn't see.
Pulling his boot back up, he let Del guide him, trusting more in the other man's light movement than in the tiny light bobbing ahead. His eyes were starting to adjust slightly but not significantly and he kept turning to look behind them, expecting at any moment to see a shadow crossing the cobble. There was nothing, however, but silence.
"Nope, I haven't. Sitting still for 2 hours for a movie with probably awful special effects? No thanks. You know, I think I figured out what that box with the batteries was. It tripped the lights. There are the old school screw bulbs above us every 50 feet dangling from chains and none of them look busted."
"Oh, I love bad movies," Ganesh said happily. He guided the light up to the bulbs and nodded. "I wouldn't have thought of that but I think you're right."
The dangling lights overhead were like something from a horror film, swaying slowly where his light caught them, covered in webs and dirt. The ground underneath their feet was changing, turning gritty and he turned the flashlight down to see why. Ash. Bits of charred earth and clothing. He felt his stomach lurch at that but didn't say anything- it had been weeks since the incident but these were jokers. Why, Ganesh thought, had he expected differently of the same government who took them down? His muscles tensed, angry without anywhere to place it.
Del didn't notice overmuchly about the debris they were walking through - for all he knew, it could have happened a few years ago, maybe even a decade. Things that had been burned for warmth or for cleanliness or some other reason that you needed to burn things. But the muscles in Ganesh's hand tightened around his own and he thought that perhaps there was something about it to be scared of. Or maybe, Del thought suddenly, it was the lack of seeing that was making him nervous.
Del saw the motion before he heard it. He halted in his tracks as the heavy yet silent doors that they'd opened to get into this dark corridor were slammed shut.
"What was that?"
"Door behind us just shut. And um. Um."
What did you say at a time like this? The words, while ready in his mind, had trouble moving south to his lips. Bricks were gliding silently out of the mortar around them - little hidey holes that you could spot a face through, or poke a gun through. Both were happening, along with the ready aim of a few well-placed hands which, Del presumed, were well-armed in and of themselves.
"Don't shoot! We're unarmed!" Del called out suddenly, the words finally erupting loudly and abruptly as he held both of his hands, and one of Ganesh's hands, up. Ganesh lifted the other hand, wanting to ask what was happening but not sure that he could without making things worse. Trust Del, he urged himself. You've got to trust him.
The light furthest away from them came on and the rest followed suit like dominos until they revealed another set of doors. Which were now opening.
There was a woman who was the very definition of formidable - from the serviceable bun of curly graying hair to the jut of her chin, all the way down to the old fashioned billowing skirts that seemed to move just out of synch with how she walked. And walk she did, flanked by a man not much older than Del himself and looked like an extra from Miami Vice and a completely veiled someone.
"Unarmed," she said in a steely, grandmothery tone. "Well, that's good to know."
Ganesh paused, his hand still in Del's. His eyes weren't yet adjusted to the light and he wondered whether he should release Del's hand so that he could run. He decided yes, his fingers slipping away as he looked at the woman in front of him, then the person behind, little more than a faintly shimmering veil.
Do you know these people? he asked Del silently, looking at him and willing a response.
One eyebrow peeked out from behind the darkness of his shades.
"Well, except for the two I've got. And the two he's got," Del replied, body tense. Gangs headed up by an elderly woman who looked out of some period film were unfamiliar but, considering her compatriots, not necessarily less dangerous than any of the usual ones. There were still guns and they were still being pointed at them from gaps in the mortar.
The party of three halted about a meter before them.
"Search them," the woman said curtly and Del let the contents of his pockets float without resistance out of his pockets to settle in mid air in front of the thin man in the gleaming white suit. His wallet and Ganesh's unfolded, id cards sliding out of pockets.
The man looked sideways at the woman and both id cards slid into her field of vision. She, in turn, looked at the cards, then from Ganesh to Del. She took both of them into her hands and passed them across her body to the veiled person next to her. Delicate hands plucked them and held them tightly.
It was another moment before the person passed them back and spoke.
"There is no threat," the person replied in a distinctly female and with English that was forced rather than easy on her tongue.
"Does that mean we can have our stuff back?" Del ventured hesitantly.
"What did you do to the cards?" Ganesh asked, more emphatically. How did these people know that they were no threat?
"Curiosity killed the cat," the shrouded woman stated cooly.
"Satisfaction brought it back," Del said automatically, then flushed a little. "Sorry."
The elder stateswoman walked closer to Ganesh. "What brings you down here?" she asked him, eyes set so firmly on the Brit that the term 'locked on' could be applied. It was type of stare that was absolutely piercing.
He backed down but just slightly, glancing over at Del for a moment before looking back up at her. What was he supposed to say, Ganesh wondered. Pointing out that they were superheroes was ludicrous, to say that they were working for the government would get them killed.
So he spoke the most basic truth that he had. "We're here to help."
She didn't look pleased or annoyed by that response, but the blue in her eyes seemed to glow slightly. "And who told you we needed help."
"No one," Ganesh admitted. "But I saw the news and what it looked like the police were doing." He paused, then said, "Help doesn't mean charity." The engineer shrugged.
Del tried to keep from fidgeting too much out of nervousness. "He just wanted a tour of the area - you know, to compareLondon and here. And I used to live here. So..."
The woman's attention didn't falter from Ganesh as she asked simply, "is that true?" Her expectant eyes readied for an answer.
"Yes, partly." It was what he'd told Del. Ganesh wasn't terribly astute when it came to lying. "I grew up in the Joker District in London. Both of my parents were jokers- I haven't drawn." His eyes went to the veiled woman, wondering if she was a joker or simply in hiding.
There was a long pause before the woman straightened up - Del hadn't realised she's bent over slightly to align herself better with Ganesh's eyes. "Give them their things so they may be on their way."
Del exhaled a breath he hadn't known he was holding as the butts of artillery and the occasional hand withdrew from the gaps between the mortar.
Ganesh took his identification back, slipping it into his pocket. They weren't wanted- he wondered if that response would have been different with Del alone. But he wouldn't take any chances, at least- not this time.
"Come on," he said, lightly touching Del on the shoulder. He couldn't leave without him. Dark eyes resting against the woman again, he added, "Thank you." It seemed a privilege to be allowed to leave-their stance hinted that it was a rare one.
"Wait," Del said confusedly as he took his things from the man before him and saw that his money and his check card - for however useful it was - was still inside. Drug dealers other varieties of the criminal element took anything valuable, the didn't give it back.
"If we come back are you going to try and shoot us again?"
Ganesh's head shot back over at the question, his eyes blinking rapidly. He thought that he heard a faint noise from the veiled woman but whether it was a laugh or a hrmph, he wasn't sure.
"Well? Are you? I mean." Del's head tilted slightly to see past the woman and through the space in the door they'd walked through. For the most part it was clear, but Del could just make out the an occasional leg and an arm. "I mean. She said we weren't a threat."
Trying to be subtle, Ganesh moved a little closer, kicking Del's foot with his own.
Del looked at Ganesh. "But this is our audience," he said quietly, glasses giving Ganesh a look.
The other man hesitated, finally understanding what Del was saying. Then he nodded slowly.
"Why are you here?" This time, the voice came from the woman behind the veil. The soft sound of fabric rustling against concrete accentuated her words, as if something was moving beneath. Ganesh couldn't see enough to determine what it might be. "Why will you return?"
Del looked back over her, a little startled at the movement. It reminded him of The Shadows, even if it wasn't as discombobulating. This was in front of him, not on the edge of his vision, so to speak.
"Because," Del said, attention shifting to Ganesh to renew his resolve, then back to her. "Because if we aren't all together at least. You know. In some way. Then they're pretty much succeeding in what they're accomplishing. The government, I mean." Del paused because he wasn't sounding very authoritative and that was really what the situation called for he though.
"Divide and conquer doesn't work so well if you don't divide first and maybe Wild Cards are scattered all over the place physically but that doesn't mean that we have to be scattered period. We're still a community."
"So maybe we'll be back just to know that you're still here."
"Then come." The faint sound again and Ganesh knew it, but couldn't quite place it. "We'll remain, as long as you do not become the enemy." The words were directed to Del, however, and not to him. He felt that, even if he couldn't quantify the feeling. He did not belong.
"Be a bit masochistic, wouldn't it?" Del replied.
"Beware of who you work for." The veil shifted again, enough to where a faint shimmer could be seen underneath before it was hidden by the sudden drop of fabric. The woman slipped backwards, shrouded further by the man who had escorted the strangers in.
The corners of Del's lips dropped, suddenly serious and focused.
"What?" he asked, startled into confusion.
The veil continued to drag, moving slowly backwards as the man stood in front, clearly guarding her exit. Ganesh whispered to Del, "What did she see when she took our identification?" Was this an ace power or simply joker paranoia?
"Past, future? Fuck if I know. Look- I get that being mysterious is fun--"
As soon as he took a step forward, he knew it was a mistake. Stepping towards telekinetic people who were obviously cagey wasn't the best idea and Del suddenly found himself off of his feet and careening sideways into a wall.
Del bounced off of it and couldn't get his feet under him fast enough to keep himself from collapsing onto the pavers. His shoulder and his temple stung, but not enough to distract him from the sudden disappointment of realizing that the temple of his shades were broken.
"Aw, man." Del picked up the broken ear piece from next to him and pulled his sun glasses off to examine the front of them. The hollows of his eyes ballooned in the well-lit room, stretching to consume most of his cheekbones, forehead and temples as he turned the cheap plastic around and the left lens fell out.
Ganesh reached out, pressing his hand against the wall as the figures behind it grew more difficult for him to see. His own eyes were dilated larger than before, huge and dark- the brown so difficult to see that they looked nearly black. The skin on the back of his arms was prickling, afraid- not of the fact that these were jokers but that one of them was an ace.
"Are you okay?" He whispered, taking another step back.
"Yeah. Man. You're going to have to drive though otherwise every fucking cop we pass is going to pull us over." He looked at the pieces rather helplessly, then shifted his attention to the retreating figures. "Not cool, jackass."
It wasn't said threateningly as he got up to his feet and stuck the broken pieces of his shades in his pocket.
Ganesh offered Del a hand as he mirrored the movements of the others, in the opposite direction. They were at the disadvantage, with Del's glasses broken and the dark that lay just ahead. His tiny flashlight wouldn't cut through the blackness but he held it out again, shining it towards the exit.
"Let's go, Del," he murmured. "Yes, I'll drive."