Domingo shot past a rectangular doorway while somersaulting, his chestnut strands streaking as the white lines seemed to stretch with each rapid rotation. Bie, Ulun, and Uris followed as the girl bashed open the bricks that had settled before them in a hurry, and a strong force threatened to string them along!
Bie activated the ability of Smile, substituting his own Ink for resentment energy as a faint imprint of a large smile gloomily spread out from behind him, hanging behind his back. A suction force was emitted from the auric effigy, and the wrenching pressure lessened to a gentle tug, slowing down Domingo's hurtling through the crevice and allowing his allies to better position themselves. The Ink plummeted at a dangerous rate as they became better situated, the strain on his reserves causing Bie to worry tremendously.
Suddenly, an idea struck him! With the amount he had remaining, he kept the opposing suction force he was releasing active as he lessened his weight the furthest he could go! His body was shot forth at great speed, holding his body taut as his muscles clamped against his insides, unable tp breathe.
But that was fine, because Bie didn't need to breathe in the first place. He caught up to Domingo in a flash, the streaking baby blue flesh drawing a straight line that loomed directly at the fleeing man's back. Thirty seconds had passed as he grabbed onto him by the neck, locking him in place with his legs as they left the two behind. The effects of Smile and Mountain's Step had faded, though Bie made sure to secure Domingo by wrapping his crisscrossed, unattached right wrist along the man's windpipe, his right hand also clamping down on the throat.
The two smashed into rocky outcropping after outcropping, hurtling past some spikier stalactites and bearing down on smooth and hard surface alike. The two were sporting numerous scratches and contusions, their blood flowing down their sides as the liquids intertwined into a blackish rouge that stained Domingo's coat.
His black and dijon yellow strands flapped about wildly as they blurred, his simple bob jutting back and forth as they traversed the crevice. Domingo let out sputtering gasps of air that were suppressed under the whistles of the wind that beat against their ears, and Ulun and Uris held their helms in between enclosed arms.
Whirring sounds resounded along the passage as the barrels of some of the scientist guns jutted out, flashing beams every now and then. Domingo wagged his fingers as he struggled against his restraints, but it was no use. The beams futilely collided with either his body or the red thread, which shone a red gleam that it reflected off harmlessly against.
Uris pulled in Ulun as they neared ground, before pulling out her shield and bringing it down on the ground hard enough to cause tremors in her body, her knees buckling. Ulun pulled her down, holding her firmly as he looped the cane end of his hooks around the now empty handle of her shield. The two sailed against the prying current, the shield gliding over rocky ramps as the tunnel widened.
--
Minutes passed as they finally slowed, a veritable wall of cascading currents lapping gently before them. They fell with a large 'sploosh' sinking like rocks to the bottom before the energy of their momentum was dispersed along the water. In a moment's breath they resurface, carried by shallow waves pressing along meter high water.
The four patiently waited, Domingo stopping his efforts to escape as he took shallow breaths and paddled along. Soon, there was no more momentum left to force them along with the tide, and Ulun and Uris stopped their forward movement and stood amidst the streams. Ulun removed his hook from his daughter's shield, shaking the water off of the blackened blade, while Uris pulled the two out of their own course.
With a heave, she brought the two onto her back before Bie took the initiative to unconstrict himself, tying the red thread back into crisscrossed x's as he reattached his hand. His cloak was sopping wet, along with the other fabric he wore, though rivulets of liquid slid off of the red gleaming barrier arounds his red thread harmlessly.
"Wow." Ulun let out a sigh as he took off his helmet and wrung his hair, and Domingo let out a squeal of excitement! He was enraptured in rays of jubilation as he waved his hands to his face, letting out small whoops of joy as the members of Hook and Shield all scrunched up in unison.
"Is it you?! The fugitive head, Ulun Frederick?!???!? You're the patron saint of all accidents, like little ol' me!" His cheery smile actually receded a bit, reverting his especially crazed look to a more 'normal' one. He held his fingers on his cheeks, each digit pressing down small divots in his flesh as he continued to speak.
"Then...! That must be the daughter you betrayed the Decanthus over! I should've known it was you, you were the one who wrote that paper that won the awards on Quantum Hook Theory! Y'know, your experiments that you didn't finish when you left was the basis that made me into an accident in the first place!"
"And you!" He looked towards Bie, before his eyes faltered and he muttered under his breath. "I don't know you actually?" Bie shrugged, thinking it would be a lot more freakish if the guy DID recognize him, considering that he was definitely not a native.
Uris took off her greenish helm, upturning it as water plopped down the grates in the visor. She then similarly started the struggle of drying her ash blonde hair, while Ulun looked down at his pouch in dismay. The cloth was gushing out water, and the parchment was fading as the water had beat against it. Thankfully, the stamp was still visible, as it was burned onto the material.
What really brought about his ire was the small leaf roll, as he unfurled its contents and tutted in disappointment. His cigarettes were wet...
--
Lava streamed down the crevice they were expelled from and was quenched before it could think of harming them. The suction of the tunnel had worked to force it to fall in small streams, and it couldn't maintain its heat as well as it normally had. The light from it, however, remained as an excellent light source, illuminating the four as they walked and talked.
"Domingo." Ulun said, speaking up in order to stop the young man's incessant babbling. Ever since Ulun had removed his helmet, the clown-like 'accident' just simply didn't stop talking. In fact, the only courtesy he spared was lowering his speech into weird little whispers as others talked to him.
"Why did you scam Aimee out of her payment?" Was the next question Ulun asked, as he was technically interrogating him before he would extradite him to Aimee's judgement. Despite this fact, Domingo was completely cooperative, even taking the initiative to open the briefcase he had received from Aimee.
He removed it from a pocket on the inside of his coat, the distorted briefcase stretching as it was extracted, before it settled back into its original shape.