aaaaaaaagh_sky | Museum Station

Annabelle will no doubt recognize the cast of the sunlight and the thin dry feel of the air when she and Ellen emerge at last from the reeking Metro tunnels. They're on the opposite side of the Mall from last time, though, and the steps up on this side aren't anywhere near the same- they're rusted, corroded, two-hundred-year-old escalator steps, frozen in place with the weight of time and decay. "I don't hear too much from here," Ellen reports, "but I'm all out of Stealth Boys, so we'd better be careful. There might be mutants."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Northward, to the Dupont Circle area," says Ellen, "so that'd be that tunnel over there. The one with the train off its tracks."

From:

aeons_crackshot

"A good place for an ambush," Annabelle says with a wry grin. "Not that we've got much choice about heading down that way..."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Unfortunately," Ellen agrees. "If we're lucky we might find a side door with access to the maintenance tunnels the old workers used to use. They'd be small, but there'd be less hiding spaces..."

Alas, there is no such door as they head into the tunnel's darkness. Up ahead, however, there is a faint light in the distance, a faintly pulsating orange colour.

From:

aeons_crackshot

"Well, I'm reasonably sure that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't an oncoming train," Annabelle quips.

"Do you know what would cause something like that?" she asks Ellen, her senses still searching for potential trouble in the darkness.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"There are a few emergency systems down here that have fission battery backup," Ellen says. "They might not have gone offline yet, or they might've only been triggered recently. I ran into things like that in the tunnels under Grayditch, with the ants."

From:

aeons_crackshot

"They're not necessarily a sign of people, then," Annabelle says with a nod. "And a bit of light will make things much easier for us."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Beats relying on my Pip-Boy," Ellen agrees, and picks up the pace- just a little, though, since while it's light it's just a tiny glimpse, and the rest of the tunnel is still dark.

As they draw closer, the light grows brighter. It's a flashing orange beacon in the wall next to a metal door; a faded, long-ago sign reads EMPLOYEES ONLY. Ellen glances at the light, then at the door. "What do you think?" she says. "Should we see if there's anything in there to warrant that?"

From:

aeons_crackshot

"It might be worth checking out," Annabelle allows. "It could be a shortcut of some kind."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen nods and tests the door handle; it's locked, but when she trains her Pip-Boy light on it, her eyebrows go up. "Someone went to a lot of trouble to get this thing open recently," she says. "The rest of the door's grungy but lock area's all clean. Are you any good at lockpicking, or should I get out my bobby pins?"

From:

aeons_crackshot

"I suspect you have more experience than I do at picking locks," Annabelle says with a smile. "I'll cover you in case there are any surprises waiting for us when you get the door open."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen nods. "All right," she says, and produces her screwdriver and bobby pins. "Let's see, now..."

It takes a little bit of working both the pin and the screwdriver around, but eventually the door does get opened without a hassle. Beyond lies, alas, not a shortcut but an equipment closet. There's a few Stimpaks, a can of Cram, and something vaguely resembling a chainsaw piled up on top of a safe.

".... uh huh."

From:

aeons_crackshot

"Well now, that's an interesting piece of work," Annabelle says, looking at the weapon. "I suppose we might as well take these things with us, after we see if there's anything useful in the safe."

Annabelle's not sure how much use she'll get out of the thing, but if Ellen doesn't want it....

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"I've seen them before," Ellen says. "They're called rippers. They're really effective against human targets, although you have to practice against inanimate targets with them because there's no safety setting. That's what they said at Regulator headquarters, anyway. You're welcome to the stimpaks, I've got my own supply..."

She crouches down and starts fiddling with the safe's lock, muttering to herself as she does so.

From:

aeons_crackshot

"That makes sense," Annabelle replies with a nod. Most people don't have Annabelle's uncanny knack with weapons, after all. "Do you mind if I add the ripper to my collection along with the stimpaks?"

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Go ahead. The ones I found were kind of-" There's a click. "Okay! Got the lock. Let's see... what... they..."

Ellen settles back on her heels with an indescribable expression on her face as she lifts out the distinctly filmy contents of the safe.

From:

aeons_crackshot

"Someone had a...peculiar sense of priorities," Annabelle finally says with a shake of her head. "I suppose you could sell it to Bar, if nothing else."

Annabelle picks up the ripper and the stimpaks.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Don't go getting any ideas," comes a man's voice from the doorway. He's a little taller than Ellen, with short-cropped blond hair, and he's wearing an outfit that looks like it started off as armor once. 'Outfit' may be stretching things, given that most of his torso is bare and his shoulder is only just barely covered by a patch of leather and some strategically arranged straps. More importantly, he's got a sawed-off shotgun in one hand, and he's pointing it at them as he says, "I'm only gonna say this once. Hand over the naughty nightwear."

God help us, it's his canon dialogue.

From:

aeons_crackshot

Annabelle is calculating several possible approaches to take out the man using the ripper the moment she becomes aware of his presence.

"What do you want to do, Ellen?" she asks, never taking her eyes off the man. Annabelle's expression is calm and slightly cold. She does not care for being threatened.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"What the- this?" Ellen looks down at the stuff in her hand. "You're crazy, mister."

But she does throw it at him, and it hits him in the face.

"Fank oo," he answers, before peeling it off and folding it up neatly. "That wasn't so hard, was it? You never saw me. I wasn't here."

And he's gone, and Ellen is just shaking her head. "Surface people," she says, "are crazy."

From:

aeons_crackshot

"It certainly seems that way," Annabelle says with a shake of her head. "Good aim, by the way," she adds with a small smile.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Thank you," says Ellen. "It wasn't exactly aerodynamic."

There are, thankfully, no further incidents in the tunnels of any real significance. It's just a long, unnerving slog in the dark until they finally emerge into daylight.

From:

aeons_crackshot

Once they reach daylight, Annabelle switches to her rifle and the HEAP ammunition. If they run into mutants, Annabelle wants something with more punch than her pistols.

"This place is in better shape than I would have thought," Annabelle says as she looks around.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"No kidding," Ellen says, squinting up at the Monument a moment before looking to the buildings. "Considering how little is left in some other parts of the city, they got off really light here... do you see anything that looks like a hospital? Or a sewer maintenance hatch?"

From:

aeons_crackshot

Annabelle looks carefully around the area for the things that Ellen mentioned. "Is that it over there?" she asks, gesturing toward one of the buildings.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"I think so," Ellen says. "It's going to have to do..."

Especially since the sound of gunfire can be heard a little distance away, off between several of the buildings on the other side of the fountain.