'Use your sets of temp codes to go through the portals, and you are best passing during the night time.'
The smuggler said, giving Jon a single plastic tab which contains a magnetic chip, 'the system's sensitivity level is reduced at night, so you will be able to move through it without too much problem. Also, don't talk about the portal as you cross the portal!'
'Does it go to sleep or something?' Pethant asked, and the smuggler gave him a long look without saying a word.
'Oh well whatever.'
'You ready?' Jon asked, looking around the group that he has gathered around for this particular expedition. Both Ally and himself are wearing matching specialized clothing just so they won't get destroyed in a fight while Pethant is carrying his armored cameraman suit. Patty, on the other hand, had a rolling luggage case which contained Purple and Yellow while Bones is wearing his usual big brown jacket, a hat and a pair of black gloves. The detective look couldn't get any more classic than that.
'Let's-go-on-an-adventure!' Ally said, wrapping her arms around Jon as she started dragging him forward towards the wrong direction.
'You looked doom and gloom?' Bones said, walking by Patty as the luggage started moving automatically behind her, 'what's the matter?'
'Nothing!' Patty said quickly before correcting herself, 'I...I mean I just don't know what we will find down there.'
'Let me tell you something.' Bones said, popping out a protein bar from his pocket and started munching on it much to the approval of Pethant, 'Truth comes in flavors. Some are sweet while the rest are bitter.'
'And which one do you think it will be down there?' Patty asked, and Bones simply shrugged.
'I prefer to keep my expectations at bay and taste it one dish at a time.'
'My-love! What's with the portals?' Ally asked quietly into Jon's ear as he prepared to step through.
'Don't talk about the portal as you cross the portal!' Pethant screamed into Ally's ear, and she made a face back at him.
The portal was located in a dark alleyway in zone 4, and it took the five of them directly into a bush in the underworld. It appeared that this specific portal is abandoned on both the levels of S Prime and the Underworld, which explains why the smuggler is able to take advantage of this. However, his warnings lingered around in Jon's mind and continued to give her a sense of unease.
Bones looked towards Patty as the two of them crossed over into the Underworld, and she looked perplexed by the portal which warped all of the light around them. Subjectively, it felt like all they did was walking down a flight of stairs, and yet there is a sense of turning inside Bone's stomach as they traversed through a vast distance.
Crushing the weeds right underneath his boots, Bones took in a deep breath and breathed in a lungful of the Underworld's air. There is a distinct sense of rawness and roughness in the air that he couldn't quite quantify, and Patty also coughed once before getting acclimatized to the air.
'We should be alone.' Jon said, activating his eyes as sharp as a a string of atoms and scanning the enviroment around him. Ally did the same by turning on the range in her eyes and Patty performed a quick scan with one of her fancy phones. With the triple verification proving their loneliness, the party then located themselves on the map before they started getting changed into the sets of outfit common for the underworld.
It was nothing special about their disguise, but a cloak and a face covering is common place in the underworld, as that not only muffles the facial features but full body cloaking also prevents security systems which can identify one's gait.
The entirety of the Underworld is designated as zone minus one by the outsiders despite it's size rivaling that of S Prime if not bigger. Down here, the zones are referred to merely by their designated coordinates on the map, which smoothly avoids the issue of power changeovers when one gang demolished another.
However, certain areas of the underworld do have names, such as the EDGE, which is where Freya told Jon to go to.
'Trippy, wasn't it?' Bones said.
'Do you want to hear a story about the portals?' Patty suddenly said as she matches with Bones' footsteps stride by stride, 'I happened to come across some information about it, but I think calling it a story might be more accurate...'
'Or a legend!' Jon butted in from in front of them before he had to pull back on Ally who accidentally went the wrong way again, 'it's a creepy story even for us who grew up here!'
'Oh?' Bones raised his eyebrow perplexed, 'Now I really have to listen to the story.'
'The portals and the naming of the place gives off the illusion that the Underworld is geographically close to S Prime.' Patty said, whirling her fingers in circles as she told the tale, 'but some suspected that Underworld may be extremely far away, or underground. Hence, that's why it's always cloudy here.'
Bones looked up, and cloud did indeed cover everywhere he can see.
'But that's not the spooky part yet.' Patty said, 'the story says the one who created the city and the portals is a superhuman called the QUEEN. Legend says she is the one who is maintaining the portals, and she gets angry when people talk about the portals as they cross it, as she is providing this service for the good of the people rather than any personal gain.'
'So she ain't gonna hear any shit talks.' Bones lets out a chuckle, 'How very human.'
'You'd think so.' Patty said, 'but people who know about it always considered her to be a sort of divine figure, or a part of natural law, a part of existence itself...Because the portals are open all of the time, and there are thousands of them all around S Prime. This amount of energy output is simply unthinkable, which puts the QUEEN on an level even above the TEN FINGERS.'
'Great, yet another character that breaks the power scales...' Bones said, scratching his head, 'Let's hope we don't have to deal with her for a long while.'
'That's it for the story?' Pethant asked, and Patty got quiet quickly not realizing that the entire group is quietly listening to her, '....I wonder how strong she really is...'
The woodlands that they were walking through quickly came to an end and the signs of vibrant metropolis began to show its head, starting from the few rubbish disposal plants near the ends of the city. The plan was to head to the city first before downloading a map and head to the Edge then, but it looked like this would have to be a multiple day journey.
Thankfully, the Underworld uses the same currency as S Prime, which means they should be able to move around freely.
'Look what we have here...' As the five walked past the first rubbish disposal plant, sounds of rapid footsteps enveloped the entire group as darkened figures emerged from behind the buildings, fences, walls and the chimneys. The five were surrounded and Jon really had to rub his eyes to make sure that he isn't seeing some weird shit.
They were surrounded by groups of deformed superhumans which all had eight legs like Arachne. The claws at the ends of their black leg segments allowed them to claw into the various surfaces as tens of them were attached to the walls of the rubbish disposal plant while a few more sits on webs that looked initially like overhead cables for electricity. There are at least fifty or so Arachnes surrounding them within the blink of an eye with the owner of the voice descending from the net above.
A man descended while holding onto strand of spider weave from above before he landed gracefully. Compared to the rest of the Arachne, he appeared completely normal as he wore a light blue worker's outfit with stains and dark patches all over the place.
'It ain't usual seeing visitors who are just strolling around the woods willynilly.' The man said, a distinct country tone inside of his voice as he walked towards the five, 'gotta be careful of the monsters in the woods, am I right?'
'My-love?' Ally spoke lightly as she reached out to hold Jon's hand, who returned with a few squeezes, 'can-I-kill-them-all?'
'Let's not get ahead of ourselves!' The man said with open arms, clearly hearing what Ally had murmured, 'I welcome visitors like paid customers! All you have to do is to pay a fee of passage, and we shall simply grant you passage, how does that sound?'
'Let's not draw too much attention just yet.' Jon said as Bones moved from behind him.
'Let me handle this, boss.' Bones said lightly, 'I can talk my way through this.'
Jon would be lying to say that he wasn't curious about what Bones can do, especially after Pethant repeatedly vouched for him before. Being a member of the Ten Fingers is no small feat either, regardless of his actual position in it.
Looking from behind, Bones approached the man before he threw the hood of the cloak back and reached out with his hand. Then, he wrapped his arms around the man before they walked on, chitchatting with one another like drunk buddies after the bar is closed with Bones being the first one to crack into laughter with the man following suit dryly.
The pair talked and walked for a few more minutes before the man finally raised a hand and gestured for all of his Arachne to return to work, and that was when Bones let's go of his arm around the man's neck.
Ally squinted her eyes during the entire exchange and tuned up her audio sensitivities as she tried to hear what Bones and the man is talking about, but it was nothing special. They were really just talking about the weather, the local fauna, and....gardening?
'Hahahahaha....' Jon lets out a light laugh before turning around to face Pethant who also shared a smile, 'did you see what he did?'
'Yes, master.' Pethant nodded as he picked up his gigantic luggage.
'My-love!' Ally shook Jon's arms back and forth unsatisfyingly, 'tell-me-tell-me!'
'Pethant, you tell her.' Jon said, dragging Ally forward as she made a grumpy face.
'Bones approached the man, and wrapped his arms around his neck despite all attempts by the man to evade and counter his movements. Then, he locked him in position with the threat of snapping his neck at any time but choosing not to do it, preventing him from doing anything else while acting completely natural as not to startle the Arachnes.' Pethant explained quickly, thanking Bones for all of his training that he is able to read out all of the subtle details of movements and body language, 'it was a demonstration of far superior skill and strength, and that is all.'
Speaking of which, the man immediately ran for his life after Bones lets him go, and he gestured for the rest of the group to move on.
'That was pretty impressive....' Patty said as she went to walk alongside Bones again.
'Don't sweat it.' Bones said, popping open a protein bar and biting into it, 'Having to deal with thugs are a daily for my line of work....'