Starring:
Summary: The second team for the train job do their work.
Dark Future Date: August 4th, 2009
Train Job: Earthbending
Underground Tunnel and Acela Express Line
The underground tunnel had a message twenty-four hours ago. It was buried in missplaced dirt so that Claudine would recognize it.
8:50pm, August 4th.
That is all. At exactly 8:50pm, Peter dissolves into the underground tunnel and looks around. He's dressed in the same clothes he usually wears. Dark pants, dark shirt, long trenchcoat despite the heat. His hair is pulled out of his eyes thanks to a ponytail. He's expecting to see two people in the room, and he hopes that he does.
—-
When Peter dissolves into the underground tunnel, he is greeted by Orion Granger. The tall man stands, half in shadow, just across from where Peter arrived. He is dressed in an old style of suit, business casual of a sort, but it's clearly not modern tres chic. Black sport jacket, black silk shirt, black slacks, and black leather shoes, all of it just loose enough to provide Granger good movement.
"Good evening," intones Orion as Peter looks around. Orion steps out of the shadows, his goatee more plainly visible as a result. The tall man glances around a few moments before tapping his foot against the ground twice. Just twice. "Claudine will be with us in a moment. I trust this is about your prior request?"
—-
Ninja stealth. Or lack of it. Claudine has decided to be fashionably late..or rather she's on Filipino time, coming in at 8:51. She knows Peter isnt one to really take Filipino time (which would translate to 9:50), and so she arrives, running in. "Soooorry! I was resting and overslept. Totally mea culpa.." she admits ruefully.
Soon enough, she stands next to Orion, definitely much shorter than standing only at 5'4" give or take an inch. She's dressed in a pair of black stonewashed denim jeans and a matching black tanktop. Her skin is a healthy tan, so she didnt want to wear longsleeves considering it's hot.
—-
Peter has a schedule, so Filipino time wouldn't make much sense, really. As Orion steps out, he nods once, looking up at the much taller man before he speaks outloud, "Yes. I'm glad she informed you— you'll be good backup for her in case anything goes wrong. I'm hoping yours goes smoothly." From the way he sounds, he doesn't think the same thing will happen to him. He's a magnet for bad luck sometimes. When Claudine appears, he looks over. "You're late. Here's the plan— I can't stay long." There's places he needs to be, and he needs to be there shortly. "I'm teleporting you to an area a mile from the tracks. It's a cave, so you should be right at hime, there." It's not meant to be insulting, either. But they can cave themselves in if they need to, easily. It seemed the safest place. "I will meet you there in two hours when we finish with our part. If you meet resistance and need to extract early, you may. But you have plenty of track milage to handle on your own— mine just will take a little longer. Everything clear?"
—-
"It sounds reasonable enough. I imagine that's always going to be the worrisome part."
Orion's reply is dry and terse, humorous perhaps but not it doesn't sound intentionally so. Granger wraps an arm across Claudine's shoulders as she steps up beside him as he nods to Peter. The tall man adjusts his stance to be ever so slightly less quasi-hostile as he nods to Peter.
"Good luck on your part."
—-
As the arm is wrapped around her shoulders, Claudine nods and leans against Orion, nodding as she just listens to him for a few moments.
"For all the mayhem and destruction you want, it'll take some time. I'll need to attune myself with the land if I'm doing major mojo.." she says firmly and resolutely, having practiced before while chewing on her bottom lips a bit.
"And good luck to you. Dont die."
—-
"Either of you dying would be worse. The Underground needs you both." Well, specifically it needs Claudine. But she needs Orion. So Peter will leave it there. The Underground needs them. He can die, multiple times, and still be of use. "You got two hours, hope it's enough," Peter adds, reaching to put a hand on both of them. They've been through this before— they should know how it goes. The world around them dissolves and then resolidifies into a cave. He points out into the darkness outside, "The tracks are a mile that way. Destroy as much as you can. Remember, the highway is on the other side. I'll meet you back here in two hours— I hope."
—-
Hey. The Underground needs Orion too! He's their security guard and the guy who… Okay. So they don't really need Orion /THAT/ badly. Granger nods to Peter, "It will be enough time," is his encouraging response. The tall man looks to Claudine for an affirmation of his confidence in her.
—-
Well, Claudine needs Orion. He's her pillar of strength so to speak, and she'd be a rather sad panda if something bad happened to him. she lets out an eek as they're teleported, and every time it happens, there's always the same result.
When they poof back into existence, she rushes off toa darkcorner and retches, never liking it as well, she did get discombobulated and then brought back together and so it's hard on the stomach. Gah.
After finishing throwing up, she wipes her lips and looks a little pale from what she was doing and heads on over, taking a deep breath. "Two hours, got it. And take care. Make sure you backup doesnt die either.." he did tell her he would be taking others and soon she motions towards the caverns.
"We need to get closer so I can do my mojo, hun."
—-
Raising his eyebrows, Peter watches Claudine wretch over in the cave, but he can't quite blame her. With her specific senses feeling her position on the earth shift so dramatically would be jarring. But they're going to have to teleport back, too… assuming Orion doesn't need to carry her back in an emergency. "There's no trains due on this line for three hours. By the time you destroy it, they'll have notification to stop all trains." Or that's the plan. She specifically said no trains be involved— he just hopes there's no flaws in the schedule he procured. "I'll be back at 11."
8:56. He dissolves again, disappearing from the cave.
—-
There are times, like now, that Orion loves his particular expression of the Metallic Exoskeleton ability. Other persons with the ability would be juggernauts, nigh impervious to physical harm and capable of flinging tanks around. Orion, on the other hand, has his metallic exoskeleton integrated into the very tissues of his body. Even when he is not metalized, the tall man is capable of accessing certain natural extensions of his ability.
Where Claudine can just 'earth surf' her way across the landscape between the cave and the railroad, Orion has to run. He sucks in a deep breath of air, saturating his lungs with oxygen before he takes off at a sprint, keeping pace with Claudine in spite of his fancy (if old school) clothing with relative ease.
—-
Claudine is totally a surfer chick, as long as said surf is made of rock, mineral and soil of course. Perhaps sand will do as well, it is easier to shape. She looks back towards Orion, a wry grin curling onto her lips as she giggles impishly, "Come on! You so can run faster than that.." she says teasingly while waggling her brows.
Of course, it didnt occur to her that her surfing would send seismometers off, and anyone working for the gubmint would know that a certain wanted terrorist is coming. She isnt exactly subtle about her destructive capabilities. Soon enough, they reach the spot, not too far away from the train tracks.
The tracks are off to the side, maybe fifty yards away in front of them if..they were above ground. Alas they arent, and she sighs, flopping down onto her rear. "Okay hun..gotta do my meditative mojo..you keep an eye out?" she asks before starting to attune herself to the earth.
—-
Orion tilts his head slightly to look at Claudine. Liquid metal streams out of his pores as he runs along, sealing his body up as he moves. A gleaming metal grin is offered to the Filipina as Orion keeps moving along side of, if a bit behind, her.
"And ruin my view of your butt? Or trip over my own liquid metal feet? Nah. I like it just fine back here."
The metal finishes pouring out of Orion's body, completely coating his body in liquid metal that has bulked his form up significantly. It remains hidden under his black clothing, but the loose cut suit is no longer quite so loosely cut looking. It feels, to him, loose, but it still fights his gellid metal 'flesh' as he moves.
Oh how she wishes she could have responded to that before going into her meditative state. Alas, she doesnt respond for now and remains sitting in lotus position, her legs crossed as she expands her own earthen senses, feeling the flowsof magma underneath, the slightest movements of the tectonic plates, anything and everything so that she can better know the land..and she remains quiet..for quite some time.
Orion, this is totally the time to tease her without her getting pissed off!
—-
Orion smirks at Claudine, tempted to make more little jokes, but he doesn't say a word. He understands the meditation she must undergo to do her thing… Besides, Granger has his own work to be doing around here. The tall man steps backward and away from Claudine, disappearing into the shadows as he draws a 9mm pistol from within his sport coat, unbuttoning the coat in the process.
Granger promptly starts looking around, surveying the area for signs of resistance… Or other dangers.
—-
More time passes, and soon she becomes aware of their surroundings, her eyes opening wide. It's a feeling of euphoria everytime she truly attunes herself to the surrounding earth and she eases on up, her eyes still closed, blissfully unaware of what's actually going on around her.
She starts moving slowly, stretching out her foot as she moves in a circle, keeping her other foot at the center the whole time. Her arms move up, rising a little as she remains in deep concentration.
At that moment, pillars of rock and earth rise up with enough force to bend and break the metal rails. Nature starts reclaiming the ground that was developed and worked on…
—-
Ah, Earth bending. Is there anything more awesome than that? Well, okay, yeah. Metal bending is the shiznit, but fortunately we don't have to worry about Claudine or Orion whipping out Toph-style moves. Although Orion seems able to blur the line with his own metal sometimes.
Granger continues scouting the perimeter around Claudine's meditation and devastation point, his 9mm pistol half-hidden by his gellid metal hands. He sweeps the perimeter rapidly, senses extended as far as humanly possible, seeking out anything that could put the operation and Claudine in danger.
—-
Water bending is pretty darned cool, and perhaps one of her siblings has that ability. Who knows?
As Claudine continues her earthbending, she moves through her kata, her eyes closed as she can only maintain her pseudo-avatar state for so long. Oh geez, see what you've done Orion? Lots of Avatar references. I miss Avatar.
She clenches her fists and goes for a one two punch before slamming a foot tothe ground. From there she moves and spins into a flying kick of sorts…
Meanwhile, up above, waves of earth rise up over the tracks, tearing it to shreads and soon, large boulders smash into the tracks, bending and destroying what she can. The process continues and at the flying kick, the earth moves, opening a fissure in the ground..
—-
Claudine's rampaging is kicking up a lot of both dust and noise pollution that Orion could do without, but he muses briefly over the fact that he really couldn't do this job as efficiently if she were quieter about it. If anyone he was protecting was quiet about destroying miles of train tracks.
Granger pauses a moment, glancing at his watch. No reinforcements yet. This could be supremely dangerous indeed. The tall man pulls in another deep breath, centering himself in a very Karate or Tae Kwan Do sort of position. Even more gellid metal pours out of his metal-coated frame, completely encasing his pants, shoes, and shirt, though his jacket remains unencumbered. Metal on his head reshapes itself, taking on an appearance not unlike the helm of a knight's suit of armor. As the last of his metal finishes covering him, it suddenly hardens with a soft, almost sub-audible creak.
For a few moments, Orion doesn't move at all. Soon enough though, Orion returns to sweeping the perimeter.
—-
When Orion sweeps the perimeter this time, he might catch sight of a pair of black army helicopters flying in the direction. They're rather quiet and low flying, and one of them turns on a spotlight to shine in their direction. The Homeland Security people inside aim their weapons and open fire, long range— the first weapon fired out would be a rocket, launched from the open side.
—-
Alas, the young earthbender is blissfully unaware of a rocket headed in their direction. She's at one with the earth and anything breaking her connection now would also break her attunement to where she couldnt cause such massive destruction and mayhem. So, she continues her kata, closnig her eyes as more ramparts of raging earth continue to rise up above the ground as she continues her trance like state…
—-
Granger steps clear of the roaring earth and plumes of dust, just in time apparently as he catches sight and sound of the helicopters. Orion's eyes widen as he sees a flash of light that is, well, not encouraging. It has its own plume of smoke and it is spiralling in Claudine's general direction.
Orion takes off running, his metal feet *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK*ing against the ground as he moves between Claudine and the rocket. The projectile explosive impacts his thick, metal hide with a thud before it explodes in a cacophony of sound and force that sends Granger sailing backward a good thirty feet before his metal heels dig into the soil and he manages to curl around, digging his hands into the soil to stop himself.
Orion slowly, slowly stands up straight again. Three plumes of black smoke rise from his midsection while a larger, thicker one rises from the burning remains of his sport jacket. The tall man fixes his metal gaze on the helicopter, letting out a smoke disrupting blast of air. For the most part, he looks undamaged… Although that was just the first attack.
—-
Up in the helicopters, they can't possibly hear what's being said or what's going on, but it might be a very good idea to counter attack or get out of here, because they begin to switch weapons. Machine gun fire starts to sail in their general area, not controlled wonderfully due to wind resistance and bad aim, but it certain seems threateningly close the first pass… The second helicopter doesn't turn around, as if it has another destination, but after this one sweeps by, it starts to turn to make another pass. The open door with the rocket launcher is on the other side now, giving them time to reload.
—-
More pillars of earth rise up from the ground destroying the tracks to where there's no way they'll be repairable anytime soon. As Claudine continues her 'dance', she raises up her arms, now starting to make flowing graceful movements which swirlsthe earth near the tracks, mixing it with the various minerals as well as making the land more arrable. She's really doing a good thing right now, terraforming, and it's something she's always wanted to do, as there's an expression of pure ecstatic joy on her face.
Fortunately for her and her beau, she raises her arms up in the air and a huge wall of earth protects them, smashing the rock and slowing down the bullets so that they wont be fast enough to actually kill anyone. They might graze Dine, but surely Orion will be all Colossus smash if that were to happen. The wall rising isnt without any consequence though as it only depens the fissure and a loud crack can be heard as bubbling, oozing magma wells over the surface of the crack. She's definitely in her element it seems.
She remains blissfully unaware of the goings on until the rush of heat and the air from the rocket making contact with Orion knocks her down on the ground and she loses her trance, gasping for breath as she coughs a bit. There's blood trickling from her nose as she was knocked out of her semi-ecstatic state and just stares blinking a few moments. THat's when bad things happen. Barely able to contain her anger, she goes from sweet verdant serenity into the raging molten passion of a thousand volcanos.
The bubbling magma shoots on forth like a geyser of hot death as it oozes on own, cooling almost instantly as it touches the air, and it's only then that she realizes she's lost control.
"Shit.."
Nature doesnt like being messed with too much it seems.
—-
This is getting aggravating and Orion hasn't had time to get a new sniper rifle… Or a rocket launcher of his own. What Orion wouldn't give for a rocket launch-
Err… Why's it getting hot? More to the point, why does it feel like his left shoe is melting inside of its metal reinforcement?
OHGODHEISSTANDINGINMAGMAANDITBURNSITBURNSITBURNSITBURNS!
Orion lunges away from the bullets and the magma, sending sprays of the molten rock from beneath the earth into the air. It hardens or at least turns sludgey in the air, bullets shredding it rapidly. Granger pants and hisses softly, kicking his foot into the cool earth to rapidly cool his metallic exoskeleton. Said exoskeleton sizzles in the Earth for several seconds before Orion turns his attention toward the helicopter.
The 9mm comes out again, brought up with a hasty motion. Orion doesn't like rushing his shots, but this… This is just a warning shot. It goes wide of his intended target of the fuel tanks and the engine of the main prop… But it probably nails the helicopter near the cabin area. Fortunately there's a door or a wall between the people inside and Orion's bullet. Right?
—-
Fortunately there's metal between the people and Orion's bullets, and it also happens to be armored metal, since these are army helicopters. Still, when the ground starts to do what it's doing, the helicopter continues on ward and turns around, most of their bullets hitting the rock and the lava, and not getting anywhere near those two— but when they turn, the rocket launcher has been reloaded and it turns, open door presenting a target, and also giving them a chance to fire.
Another rocket goes sailing in their direction, and the aim this time is a little better.
—-
While Orion might be willing to give anything for a rocket launcher, Claudine would be willing to give anything for another elementalist to help with the situation. A pyrokinetic to transfer the heat away from the magma, a hydrokinetic to help cool it, or heck, an aerokinetic to help her move it!
Her eyes widen as she wrinkles her nose and chews on her bottom lip a bit, surveying the situation. Her heartbeat is racing fast, as adrenaline pumps through her system, forcing her into fight or flight mode while slightly increasing her capabilities.
"Orion! We really gotta get out of here!"
There's panic in her voice as she does what she can or at least, trying to do what she can. She crouches, moving into a low stance, bending her knees while spreading her arms apart, holding her thumbs in her palms. She takes deep breathes, inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her lips. She moves slowly and deliberately for a few moments before suddenly moving in a constant twisting action, directing the fluid flows of the magma as she spies the rocket heading towards them.
Hopefuly, the big metal hulk can take care of that next blast as she's too busy trying to not destroy the land around her. This was so not her intention.
Fortunately, the magma responds to her mental command, and suddenly she raises her arms up in a swift and hard movement, and it cools into yet another wall. She's trying to give them a bit of cover so that they can flee..safely. And she also doesnt want to end up ruining the local ecosystem. Burninated cute animals are sad.
—-
What the hell is Orion supposed to do? He's just this guy that can cover himself in metal. He's not very good at ranged combat, especially against the freaking American army. Oh. Pumice and obsidian walls? Don't mind if he do.
Granger charges toward the wall nearest the helicopter and its terrible rocket launcher. Orion's fingertips turn to liquid metal for a few moments, seeming to stretch and elongate before hardening into steel claws. The tall, metallic man rapidly scales the wall of freshly formed rock, resting on the peak as he times out what is to follow.
With a final, deep breath, Orion launches himself out into space toward that on-coming rocket. The tall man sails through the air as any ordinary human with increased oxygenation and years of parkour training might be able to manage with a once in a life time chance. Granger tackles the rocket in mid-air, his weight shifting the balance of the weapon toward the ground… Rapidly toward the ground. Orion swings himself around, claws ripping deep furrows into the sheathing metal of the rocket before he slings himself away from the explosive. Orion spins and flips through the air before he crashes into the ground with a tremendous *WHTHOOM* that sends cracks spreading out across rock and dirt before he can turn his downward momentum into forward momentum by tucking into a forward roll… And another. And another. And another. Actually, this might keep up for a few moments. Granger's riding the rocket's detonation shockwave too.
—-
Between the efforts of a man of steel and the magma shooting up to try and act as an escape, the helicopter's pilot must loose some nerve because it starts to wobble. It turns around, probably reload or ready a better aim on it's machine guns, buying them more than enough time to escape.
—-
"ORION!!!!"
Oh, Claudine's freaking out now as she was NOT expecting that to happen at all. Why oh why would anyone in their right mind run and jump on a rocket. She's definitely in flight mod as she swallows nervously and looks around, not quite sure what to do.
He's spinning, and so she wrinkles her nose, starting to move behind the now obsidian walls she has made, trembling the entire time. She's nervous, and she cant work things out in her head, so the ground will have to be her 'scratch sheet of paper'. Her hands move over it, and soon the earth starts rising up, showing numbers as she starts making the calculation of how much force he might land. Of course, she's using the terminal velocity, along with her estimated mass of the rocket and her estimated weight of her beau's mass.
It's just a complicated dynamics problem and she knows she's not got alot of time, trying to approximate where he might land. If anything she can make it soft and smooshy, but then the impact would cause a huge dust covering, which would be good for their escape. She's definitely thinking out of the box as the earth rising up and down with new numbers and equations, and then…
Bingo! She knows where he'll land (thereabouts).
She points in that direction softening the earth as she tries to move away and extract any hard minerals or rocks there. Boulders and rocks will be pulverized to powder. She just wants his landing to be as soft as possible, cause that means there'll be a huge crater and lots of dust in the air. Easy way to escape..
—-
The rocket landed point blank of Claudine's softened earth. It disappears under the surface and explodes several seconds later, probably hundreds of feet underground due to the utter lack of anything to impede its progress. The Earth rises up in a great mound that breaks into waves that wash Orion away after he plows into the softened Earth an odd, almost oblique angle.
It cracks and craters under and around him before the cracks and crater disappears, washed away just as the metal man is. He slams into another obsidian wall with a *WHUMPF* before slowly getting to his feet. Granger rubs his metal masked head for a few seconds before he yells, "HAVE WE MADE OUR POINT?"
—-
It would be a good time to have made their point, too, because not only is the wobbly helicopter swinging around, but the one that passed by starts to appear in the distance, coming back to supply back up. And the clock ticks closer and closer to 11:00. They still have time, but moving might be a good decision. The machine guns ready to open fire again, but they're better than the rocket launchers.
—-
Ride the waves of earth, cause the young Filipina's going earthsurfing. As she moves her legs, using the last bit of her strength, she rushes over to Orion and kisses him on the cheek.
"Sweetie, they wont talk, unless it's with big giant rockets,nukes or lots of bullets. Time to vamoose?"
The magma flows have stopped and she's soon burrowing underground, trying to go as fast as she can back to the meeting place where Peter's suppose to pick them up. Hopefully this damage is sufficient for the bossman.
—-
"Definitely time to vamoose," replies Orion. The tall man wraps his arms around Claudine and glances over his shoulder at the helicopter. With any luck, she'll be faster than their targeting sensors. Orion really doesn't want to try to deflect military bullets. Military rockets were bad enough.
—-
Underground, they can avoid persuit, so that escape method was a good decision. When they eventually do arrive at the cave, there stands Peter, looking even more cranky than normal, and looking at his watch. He's still dressed in the same clothes he was in, covered in white dust as if he exploded concrete. Relatively unharmed, it doesn't even look as if he bled on this assignment, but at the same time it looks as if he didn't have time to clean up. One lock of long hair has fallen out of his ponytail, and hangs in his face. His jaw is set in anger.
—-
The sound of rumbling and shifting earth can be heard in the distance and soon, a tunnel opens up. She looks utterly and completely exhausted as there's Orion by her side. She's leaning against the bulky metal man with her nose bleeding, sighing a little as she's worn herself out.
"Never doing that again. I like my volcanos in Hawaii thank you very much.."
What the heck did she do? She sighs a bit and quirks a brow as she sees Peter looking all emo. She'd tell him to snap out of his 'tool mode' but alas, she does want a way back home. "So um..we did what you wanted. Things destroyed and the land is definitely more arable. So why do you look so glum?"
—-
As they emerge into the cavern and Peter is the only person there, Orion's knight helm melts back into his face, revealing his metal-coated features. One eyebrow arches with an ominous creak as he studies the He-Rogue.
"I'm going to have to kill someone, aren't I?"
—-
"No traitors this time," Peter mutters under his breath, reaching up to tuck the stray hair behind his ear now that they're both here. "But there were complications with intel. Or the government decided to be… it doesn't matter. There was a train when there wasn't supposed to be a train and I was forced to flip it off the tracks." That's all he really needs to say about that. He's not happy about it, but he can't change what happened. Even if he hadn't flipped the train, it would have derailed as soon as it hit the part of the track they'd already destroyed. There was no way they could have stopped.
And to make things a little bit worse… "It was a detainment transport." Which was exactly why he attacked that line in the first place.
—-
"You're a telekinetic! Why didnt you lift it off the tracks and set it down gently?!!?"
Claudine seems horrified at this and closes her eyes, grasping on tightly to Orion, shaking her head as she mutters a soft prayer under her breath. She sighs and just remains quiet, taking a few moments of silence for all those people hurt and killed..
"There are limits to everyone's power, Dine. If he could have, he would have."
Orion gently wraps an arm around Claudine, holding her close to his metal body. Granger watches Peter Petrelli curiously for a few moments more. He seems almost to be trying to read Peter Petrelli's mind. Like he doesn't quite believe that's the only thing bothering Peter Petrelli. He may also be trying to fit Peter Petrelli into this pose as many times as Peter Petrelli Possible.
Peter Petrelli?
—-
"It was moving to fast," Peter Petrelli explains with a grunt, though he's glad at least Orion understands. "It was also too long. I managed to stop and lift the first car, and the rest crashed into it and I couldn't hold it anymore." That's all he really needs to say about it. He's not pleased about this at all, and when Peter Petrelli isn't pleased… bitches get choked. One might imagine this already happened. He had many more stops, and the helicopters started patrolling after an hour and a half. He reaches for them both, and the world twists again. "Good job. I won't ask for help again for a while." That's all he's going to say, before he lets go, and disappears again.
This day has not been good. What could happen to make it worse?
—-
And the world spins before her eyes once more. When they arrive back at the meeting time, Claudine really doesnt look good as she doesnt even have time to run to hurl. She just lets it all out, considering she feels crappy already from the expenditure of energy and pukes. Ewwww. Disgusting..
At least Peter isnt there when it happens.
"I hate teleporting.." she says once she's finally done, wiping her lips with her hands. "And I need a shower.."
—-
When Claudine is done vomiting, Orion reaches out to help her to her feet. He is no longer metal coated and has, somehow, retrieved a fresh sport jacket from somewhere. He probably hid it in the walls of the tunnel where they met before Peter Petrelli arrived. Always thinking ahead this one.
"We also need to find out what has Peter Petrelli's panties up in a bunch, aside from the train."
—-
"Arent they always in a bunch?"
Claudine gahs a little as she nods and blinks blankly as she sees him in a sports jacket. Hawt. He is ninja and she likes that. She nods though and wraps her arms around his as she leans against him. She's still a little wobbly from the whole trip, but she starts walking towards their little hole sweet home.
"But you're right. He was even more emo than usual. Surely it'll come up in the news. Or maybe his wife cheated on him?"
—-
"We will see," replies Orion. He keeps much of Claudine's weight spread across his body as the pair make their way into the tunnels leading to their home. Such as it is.