ic A Small Problem

[Nerdzul]

"You don't look that bad either..." Luke grinned in return, at Cole's exuberant introduction, despite the far from optimal condition, wading in the filth of a sewer and all, it was nice to get some recognition at least.  Although the professor's words a few moments later, made him wonder how much the hacker was sharing about him... 

 

"Nice to meet you both..."

 

"We... They do yes... reptiles hatch from eggs." He confirmed, although with a puzzled look in his eyes.
 

"... undersides of our dominion?" The young dragon echoed Cole's words with more than a hint of disbelief in his voice. "Yeah... of course... Anyway... An egg...That's might complicate things, whatever we are looking for is now protecting their young, they will fight hard, I bet..." 

 

"Most inconvenient my... Sorry I... It had already started... Poisoning the city I mean... It just hit the ones that no one seems to care about." He remarked, clenching his fists, he was confident that if the same things had happened the response from the city would have been way faster. "People are already getting sick, up there."

 

"I do accept the offer though. Dragon  Knight sounds cool." The grin returned to his lips. 

 

"Do you know where the egg is? I was following the scent, but down here, it isn't a freakin' walk in the park..." Nor exactly a pleasant one to be honest.

Edited September 22 by Nerdzul

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"Don't worry my mysterious Dragon Knight, the magnanimous and lovely King Cole cares for all the people of Freedom, no matter if they are of means or not!" She cackled again. It was like she couldn't express a single thoughy without breaking out into laughs."Okay! So! Finding the egg!" She paused dramatically.

 

Pause.

 

Wait.

 

Pause.

 

"I HAVE NO IDEA!" she declared authoritatively. "But that's okay, i have a theory. While these sewers are filled with things that are certainly not just water, it is filled also with water. And water flows along the path of least resistance. Which means if we go against the tide, we should reach the source of the corruption."

 

"Or we will get horrifically, terribly lost "

[Supercape]

GM

 

Professor Armitage agreed, so the three of them started the hellish trudge through the waters (And the solids that floated within) against the flow. It was unpleasant to say the least. 

 

After just a few minutes, the sweeping beams of the Professors headlights caught a pair of red eyes glinting. 

 

A rat. 

 

A large rat, walking on the ceiling of the sewer. 

 

Who spoke. 

 

"What are you idiots doing down here?" it said, nibbling the air in front of him. "We dont get many visitors down here, we dont..."

[Nerdzul]

"Yep definitely not just water... I have noticed..." The young man remarked dryly, although with a playful hint in his voice. 

 

"Go upstream... Not get lost... Makes sense..." Luke nodded, it made sense, at least assuming that the contamination wasn't as widespread yet.

 

"I will lead the way..." He added, it made sense after all, now appearance could be deceptive, especially among superheroes, he figured it would still be safer for him to take the blunt of what was waiting them ahead. Especially if it came in the form of a giant noxious lizard or something of the like.

 

Powering through against the current of sewer water was as unpleasant as he had imagined, if not worse, but then again, it was not like he had any alternative, but soldier through anyway. At least his scales dulled the physical sensations when something slipped against his legs, it was perhaps a meager consolation, but better than nothing. 

 

"A rat... that talks... ok..." It was a absurd, but to be honest the sight was definitely not the strangest he had during his short heroic career (and considering the duo that he had just met, possibly not the stranger within the sewers as well). 

 

We don't get many visitors down here. "Yeah I wonder why..."

 

"Nice to meet you anyway, I was definitely not expecting company down here either." Luke chuckled. "Did you happen to see a giant egg around here... Or a lizard of matching size?"

 

 

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

King Cole kept a mask and a cloth over her face as they walked. She was clearly not enjoying this at all no matter how bold and loud she was, and while she wasn't vomiting anymore, she was definitely a little woozy from the smell. And it only got worse when they started trudging up the water, against the current; now the water and gross stuff was splashing against them as they fought against it instead of going with it. She kept her mouth firmly covered and clenched shut, really not wanting to get any of this nasty stuff in her mouth as they walked up; the suit was no longer getting cleaned, it was gonna get burned as soon as she got through all of this.

 

"Yes." she said, in a much less boisterous tone of voice now that they were heading into the smell. "You..you go in front, Dragon Knight." she said, then gagged a little.

 

She was really regretting the fact that she believed she needed to sacrifice for others, and at some points she wanted to quit, but she continud to go forward after the two men, against her better judgement. This was not very Heroic to her; it was not what she wanted to sign up for when she agreed to be a Superhero, and she was regretting it immensely.  Then they met the rat.

 

"Rat! It's a rat! A wise Mr. Rat, a great King Rat, maybe?" she looked up at it excitedly. "Who has been given the gift of speech, even! Perhaps he can help us!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"King. Great. Well, I wish. Maybe I am, in some worlds, but I have been crushed under many feet and hooves, I can tell you," said the Rat, smirking despite its teeth. Its eyes blazed red for a moment. 

 

"I am called Vermin. You may call me Vermin. My real name, well, even I have forgotten that and frankly it is probably best forgotten. It comes from an ugly place,were words, and names, have power."

 

Vermin scuttled down a wall and to the floor, staying away from the horrible waters. 

 

"Maybe I can help. Maybe I can't. Whats in it for me?" asked Vermin, tongue licking its lips. "And please dont say cheese..."

[Nerdzul]

"I can carry you on my back by the way... I mean.. assuming the ceiling doesn't get too low..." Luke offered as he noticed King Cole's discomfort, not that he was actually enjoying the situation himself, but at least from a first impression he probably was better equipped to handle the navigation through those putrid depths.

 

"Vermin? Sure..." Whatever, it's his choice.  

 

He didn't introduce himself though. If names truly carried power, there was no reason to share his with the rat, they seemed friendly, but still...

 

"Well, whatever that thing is, it's poisoning the rest of the water down here, we can fix this when we find the egg." Luke scratched the crests in back of his neck. Somehow, he imagined that it would not be enough to motivate their new 'friend'. Admittedly though, he was no expert in bribing rats. He turned to face King Cole and the professor, wondering if they had any ideas.

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"I am fine! I am fine! A King must walk amongst her people! She must suffer the same as they do, walk the same path as they do, for otherwise she becomes blind to their plight." Then she regretted the amount of breathing she just had to do and paused for a moment to retch again.

 

"Lord Vermin, I offer you only the finest of aid for assisting us! How would you like to be King Cole III's official Royal Rat Vanguard!? It comes with no pay, but the prestige is unmistakable and you may, if you even want to, come back to the surface and live up there with me, or my court librarian if my parents say I can't keep a talking rat in my room."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"My my, aren't you the crazy queen with a silver tongue?" said Vermin, eyes twinkling red. "And you have a lizard of your own, don't you?"

 

It scuttled around their feet a few seconds, sniffing. How anyone could sniff in this place was beyond human comprehension, but then, Vermin wasn't human. It was not entirely clear if the creature was a rat. 

 

"Royal Rat Vanguard? No thanks. I have enough problems without being your court jester," it said, nose writhing into what might be a sneer. "And you are pretty crazy, I would say. Although I am no psychiatrist."

 

Footsteps echoed down the tunnel. 

 

"And on the subject of court jesters, here's my prime gem of a fool..."

 

"Vermin! Vermin! Stop running away! Did you find.. did you find... huh?"

 

It was a man. Or more precisely, a punk. A man of pretty average build. Green hair, pale skin, tattoo's. He didn't look particularly dangerous, other than the glinting knife he carried. But then, the sewers could be a dangerous place. Hobos and vagrants, crooks and thugs. And if the stories were to be believed, snakes, zombies and mutant crocodiles. And that was just the good ones. 

 

"Who are these guys?" said the punk. 

 

With remarkable agility, Vermin scuttled up the unresisting man's leg, to perch on his shoulder, licking its lips. "Friends," started Vermin. "This is my... associate. Filth."

 

"Associate? You mean you are my pet?" said Filth, giving his rat an evil grin before turning his gaze back to the heroes. 

 

"So. Really. Who are you? This is my patch. You are trespassing!"

[Nerdzul]

"I am not a... well not exactly... a lizard." Luke growled an objection, not that he was exactly in the mood do discuss semantics with a rat however.

 

 

When Filth appear Nightscale quickly turned to confront him, raising his fists and shifting his stance to a fighting one, although he relaxed not long after when the talking rat introduced the newcomer. 

 

The situation though felt like it was growing more bizarre with every passing moment and the sewer definitely far more crowded than he had expected.

 

"Don't worry man, we are not invading your turf..." In fact, he would much rather be anywhere else, but alas he had no choice if he wanted to get to the bottom of this. "We are just passin by, in fact, we are lookin' for a freakin' giant egg that's stinking up the place, I mean, more than it actually is..." He paused for emphasis. "...With poison. Which I bet is not gonna be great for you two either, unless we find it in time." He explained, now those two did not seem dangerous, but still, Luke studied Filth's expression as he spoke, after all he might as well be behind all of this mess.

 

"Did you two know where to find one, by any chance?" He continued, although the tone of his voice clearly betrayed that he did not have high hopes on the matter.

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"No, the King Cole rules the area above, the land below can be all yours; King of the Underground." The King said simply and with authority. "If this is your demesne then I do not argue your claim upon it. But if a pox upon your land is infecting my land, then we need to work together to find and purge it, because it will infect and damage your land as well; while our lands are not one, they are in spirit connected, and as such our cooperation is beneficial." she waved her hand in front of her face in a way that she thought was regal, but really it was just her wanting to waft the smell of this place away from her nose again.

 

"And as that implies, I am King Cole III, the Tyrant King of Freedom. This is Nightscale, my loyal Dragon- not Lizard, Dragon- Knight, and this is Armitage, my loyal Librarian. Armitage informed me of this stinky and old poison egg that has come from a far off country, and then we met Nightscale and I conscripted him to my service." She points to each of them in turn.

 

"We have no quarrel with you and no desire to engage in fisticuffs, since we doubt you are the reason that everything is poisoned. Unless you are the cause of it, I guess, but it doesn't seem like you are."

[Supercape]

GM

 

Filth and Venom smiled in unison, but it was Filth he spoke. 

 

"You saying our lands smell of crap?" he asked. "Well, they do. And my Gods they smell worse then ever right now. Yeah, we know the sewers pretty much better than anyone, and we noticed this place is like a pool of poison."

 

"An Egg, you say? What kind of egg?" asked Filth, rodent nose twitching. 

 

"I bet its the kind that hatches," said Filth, spitting to the ground. "Like, there has been something slimy and large floating around the sewers. Now, me and Venom and all the rats here. We can look after ourselves. But we also know when we are beat. There is something down here. Something big..."

 

He swallowed. 

 

"So if you want that egg, you going to be going up against something big..."
 

"What is this egg?" repeated Venom. 

[Nerdzul]

"Yeah I kinda got that feeling... giant egg... giant monster..." Luke remarked. 

 

"Whatever, any chance the two of you have seen it somewhere? Or the beast that's guarding it maybe?" Yeah assuming that they were correct about a monster there was no way that the rats wouldn't have noticed if it was hanging out around their sewers. "Find the monster, find the egg... Easy right?"

 

"You can talk with other rats right?" He winced. "Maybe you can ask around?"

 

"We can get rid of the problem, all the poison gone, you just need to point us out in the right direction... and you can reclaim your kingdom, we will be back to..." He glanced toward King Cole "...Well to our own kingdom in no time once we are done..." Not that he was gonna miss it, to be honest.

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"Yeah! Big Egg! Biiiig stinky egg, from across the see! Like a Basilisk egg! Or a Draaaaaagon Egg. But not his egg. A Different Egg. We are not looking for his egg, it is a different egg that may also be a monster, that is causing the corruption of this area. And from the corruption comes that biiiiig stink!" she said, gesticulating wildly.

 

"And we really have no desire to keep staying down here. Not that it's your fault or anything but I can't stand this stinky...I don't want to deal with it, not at all not at all!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Rats?" said Filth. "Oh yeah, rats. We got a ton of them, and I am king of them..."

 

Venom, still on his shoulder, scowled. 

 

Filth continued. "In fact, I saw you guys coming a mile off. Or rather, my rat friends did," he said with a smile, tapping his forehead. "So yeah, I have a pretty good idea of where the egg is. And as you say, it ain't too safe around there."

 

He paused, and Venom pitched in with his squeaky rat voice. 

 

"We can take you to the egg, but you best tell us what it is...?"

 

"Nonsense!" interjected Professor Armitage. "I will not say! We will not say! This is a dangerous artifact, and not safe in human hands!"

 

"Well... I'm a rat," said Venom. "And if its so dangerous, you best tell us what it is!"

[Nerdzul]

"Yeah definitely not a dragon egg..." Luke reinforced King Cole worlds, not that he had ever seen one to be honest, but well... 

 

That's not good... Yep, definitely a problem if filth and his rat friend decided to betray them once they found the egg and fought the monster. Now, of course their intention could be benevolent, but well... They would need to keep their eyes open. 

 

"I have no idea... what I know is that it is poisoning the sewers and the people that live on top of them, I can't allow this." He explained, although to be honest, the professor's reticence to explain what the egg did was kinda suspicious, wasn't it? Admittedly he would have wanted to know what the egg did if it was indeed an artifact of some kind and not just some creature's offspring, but this was not exactly the time.

 

"Whatever, can we talk about this once we found the freakin' egg? Ok?" While he tried to remain calm, irritation definitely transpired in the tone of his voice, his little 'bro and his people were sick and there they were wasting time bargaining with Filth while they could be chasing the source of the disease. 

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"The Egg! The Egg! The secret of the Egg? You really wanna know!? You wanna know what the secret of the egg is!? What's inside of it!?" She staged whispered, gesturing them closer. "Come here, come here, I'll tell you, I'll tell you what I know!" she said, bending forward conspiratorially. "The secret of the Egg is...that is to say, the secret we're looking for, the hidden egg, the chick within it, the goose that laid it, the golden egg. It's secret is..." she paused.

 

"WE DON'T KNOW!" she said, her voice echoing off the walls, laughing. "We only know it's bad, there's a thousand possibilities, and we won't know what it is until we find it and examine it! Then I'm going to make something to get rid of all this corruption, but I have to know what it is first! AHAHAHAAHAHA-hurk." she paused in the middle of her cackling to wretch again, covering her mouth.

 

"...I need to stop getting big mouthfuls of this stinky...I can't handle it." she said, clearly a little green around the gills at this point.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Possibilities... possibilities. Well, we shall see. Follow us!" said Venom, jumping off Filth's shoulder and leading the way. 

 

"Come on, come on... its only a few minutes away. Probably..."

 

And so the three humans, one dragon, and one rat started a merry walk through a bracing scenery towards an egg. The tunnels bent this way, then that, almost always in darkness. A few sporadic lights shone through cracks, and it seemed a few luminous mushrooms were growing on the ample fertilisation that flowed through the forgotten sewers. Occasionally, bubbles or movement could be seen in the water. Well, what was mainly water. And not always mainly, either. Partly water. 

 

Rats scurried this way, that, nibbling at detritus, like cars around a city. Organised - purposeful. An army. 

 

"What are you going to do with this egg, anyways?" asked Filth, seemingly used to the smell. He wasn't exactly clean, but Filth obviously knew his way around the sewers like nobody else, and he had developed a reflexive habit of always planting his shoes in the cleanest parts. 

 

"I will be ensuring its safety," said the Professor, in between curses as his tween suit got progressively more dirty and ripped. His flashlight swung in frustration. 

 

"And who will be ensuring you are safe?" asked Filth, smirking. 

 

"Is that a threat?"

 

"More of a question," said Filth. "These bodyguards of yours?"

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"Hey hey, stop being so mean to them." Renee said, lightly elbowing Armitage in the side. "We are visitors in their demanse, and you are acting like you own the place. Remember that my Divine Mandate ends at the ground, and we are below that now. So Filth and Venom here are the rulers of this land, as far as I can see, and you're being haughty to them." she tsked. "If they decide to punish you for your insolence, I won't step in to protect you unless they start to really hurt yoooou~" It was unclear if she was taunting or being serious. She was doing her best to match Filth's pace, stepping where he walked to try and avoid the most dirtyness as possible.

 

"As for what we're doing with it; I'm going to need it to fix the poisoning it's caused. If it survives that use of it...I'll probably take it under my care and protection. Or give it to Armitage to protect. If it can do all this when it's not even being actively used, I'd not want some evildoer to get a hold of it and intentionally use it."

[Supercape]

GM

 

The professor grunted as Renee elbowed him, but said not a word. 

 

"Fix it?" said Vemon the rat. "Mmmmm. Does it need fixing, I wonder? Maybe, maybe...."

 

"Maybe we can use it?" said Filth. "I mean, its pretty safe down here, isn't it? I never got sick in my life. Maybe I'm a mutant or something hehehe..." he said, chuckling to himself. "I mean, me and my pet..."

 

Venom tskd and spat. 

 

"...we run the show pretty good down here. Maybe a few zombies, maybe a few mutated alligators, but we run it pretty good. And for free, too. Damn city oughta give us a medal. Or something else valuable. Now this egg, maybe it belongs down here?"

 

He gave another chuckle. 

 

Up ahead, gurgling waters could be heard. The flashlight swerved up, ahead. Was that movement in the sea of abhorrent fluid?

[Poncho]

(King Cole III)

 

"Well, unfortunately, while I would like to say it's no big deal and you can keep it down here, it's currently making people sick up above. In the same way that I respect your demanse and territory and do not intend to impunge upon your hospitality, it is only right that your lands and location does not do harm to the Tyrant King of Freedom's lands and holdings. So at the very least, we must deal with the parts of it that are making other people sick, otherwise this objcet will continue to cause issues amongst the greater population." she explained. 

 

"So if you want the egg, maybe you can keep it, but only once I've made sure it's not a danger to anything going on above or below; it's nothing about not thinking you won't keep it safe, and everything to do about wanting to make sure it's not a danger to you, as much as it's a danger to others." She said.

 

Then her eyes swished to watch the movement.

"...What was that?"

[Nerdzul]

While Luke didn't exactly mind some company when navigating the sewers, at least the chatter did manage to distract him from the overwhelming stench, he certainly did not seem to enjoy the way the conversation was going. He was there on a mission after all and that did not entail dealing with sewer politics, his little 'bro was sick, his people were sick.

 

"I don't care where it belongs..." He growled. "That thing is hurting m-... people."

 

"All that matters is that it stops spewing freakin' poison." He remarked, growling again to show his fangs threateningly. In truth, he wasn't even sure if the egg was the source of the problem, but if it was, there was no way he was gonna let it sit there, especially in the end of someone whose intention were certainly unclear.

 

"You both can make a damn omelette out of it if you like after it's gone..."

 

He was about to punctuate the urgency of the matter by exhaling a small jet of flames, but he stopped in his tracks. What the hell was that? His muscles tensed as Luke assumed a fighting stance, clenching his fists and trying to peer into the darkness with his dragon eyes for the source of the movement.