h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*sea keeps to the shadows, tailing DA from a safe distance, and leaving evillene to her carving*

Maestus hurreidly strides through a dark area of the city. Even compared to the rest of the Abandoned Quarter, this place is desolate and haunting. Mostly it is filled with old construction yards and buildings; there is an occasional mining depot, made to extract the deposits of petrol there which turned out to be negligible, sending the economy of Atross plummeting. It is to one of these that Maestus walks. Torn paper hangs off the rotten wooden sign, long illegible. The metal hulk of the building looms menacingly into the rapidly forming cloud layer. In the darkness, the doors bulge and bend, before rending into twists of metal that wilt and fall hissing to the ground. Maestus walks through and starts off down the maze of deserted corridors. He dissapears into the darkness.

Five minutes later Giguschild scuttles over the ledge of a building and pauses at the door. Fields of sensory information are rapidly trawled through, and Giguschild darts down into the blackness of the corridor. A few minutes after that, Death Avocado pounds up the cracked pavement, reading the map. After pausing and glancing up at the building, he runs in after the Alien. Before he does so, he reaches into the grocery bag of good and pulls out some night vision goggles.

Deep within the pitch-black innards of the building, after having strode through endless miles of lightless corridors and stairwells, Maestus reaches a large shaft in the center of the building. It is marked by a myriad of broken struts and spent light-sticks.

*Lies. Dripping.*

On the lip of the chasm, Maestus stands, looking down into the pit. Stale air draughts upwards, whistling like tortured ghosts. The shaft is a straight mile drop to the ragged bottom, sucked dry years ago. But a speck far down on the far side can be see; a small ledge used to service the lift that used to run inconspicuous down the side. The pit is over a hundred and eighty feet across; the glint of streaming water can barely be seen running down the other side. Maestus turns and walks backwards a few paces.

The air around his feet shimmers and fades repeatedly, flexing slightly against the paper-thin bounds of reality. A haze rises slowly, trailing up over his spatz, over the turnup of his trousers, and envelops his calves. He spins on his heel, takes a deep breath, and breaks into a run towards the gaping lip of the pit. His feet pound on the metal edge, space around him compresses with a faint *glicker*; and with the air whistling through his clothes he flies forward and upwards, into the vague blackness.

Half a minute afterwards, a faint clacker bangs throughout the vast corrridor, and the flitting shape of Giguschild flies around the corner. Throwing himself off the wall, the Xenomorph sprints down the corridor and, without stopping, dashes headlong towards the chasm. All four sets of claws connecting with the edge, his limbs *crack* straight and he flies forward, body and tail extended like a demonic ski-jumper.

*sea runs up to the building and scales the wall, determined to get a look at whatever is going on inside. she breaks a window and crawls inside, then up into the ventilation system*

Death Avocado reaches the edge of the pit. He glances with incredulity at the map for a few seconds before realisation dawns on him.

[Death Avocado] *grumbles* huh...alright for some...drjifjiwji..Xenomorphs...I oughta...

As he talks, he rummages inside the Grocery Bag of Good. Eventually he finds a length of grappling wire...clicking it into place in the Vegetable Launcher, he pulls a large lever...the main spring tenses and clunks into tension. Bringing it to bear, he aims at at the far edge of the shaft.

*dkCLUNG-bk...whhishhhhhhhh....*

The wire whines and pays out as the barb flies over the divide and then *BUNK*, impacts with the metal. Death Avocado twitches the line to make sure it's taught; then he hooks the end onto the strap of the Grocery Bag of Good, takes a deep breath, and steps over the side. The wire tenses and, with a *whum*, swings DA towards the small ledge on the other side.

[Death Avocado] WWWWHHEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAaaaaaaarrrrggg-g-g-g-h-h-h-h-h-h........

*Does not move a muscle*


HINT HINT

With a thump, Maestus lands on the ledge, sliding for twenty feet in a lounge, dusty gouge. [Without thinking, he releases UH from the subNexus]. Quickly he stands and strides into a small, dark passage.

A few minutes later, Giguschild passes the ledge, still only halfway across the gap and on his way down. Fifty feet below, he smacks into the stone cold wall, and scrabbles for a hold. Pausing to adjust his Oakleys, he runs forward up the sheer wall in pursuit of Maestus.

A few minutes later...

[Death Avocado] y-y-y-y-eeeaaaaaAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!! *BACRACK!!*,

DA smacks into the wall just above the ledge. He shakes his head blurrily and then, seemingly unaffected by the impact apart from that, unhooks himself from the wire. As he starts the drop of another twenty feet, he mumbles,

"Oh cr-"*SMACK*

"Ow."

Pausing only to adjust his night vision goggles, he in turn rushes into the tunnel.

*UH gets up and rubs his head. Why is he here? He has no recollection of anything. He remebers...a shadow...and then a great light... and then...nothing. His hand moves to his comlink and he dials Gigus*

*bipBEEP...bipBEEP...bip-click*

[Giguschild] "Yesss? Hello?"

[phone]skrkkikrkfrpkrrkk

[Giguschild] "Where are you? How am *I* sssupposed to know? Oh yesss...! We left you on the docksss...

[phone] skrkl-KRSKRPF?

[Giguschild] Yeah...the onesss in the Abandoned Quarter...

[phone] SKKRRPRFSKRKLDF!!! SKRKDFHJKKK!!!

[Giguschild] Relaxsss, bitch! If you're quiet, they won't noticsse you. Now...I'm busssy...

*bik-BEEP*

Giguschild scatters on down the corridor, following the scent.

*sea, having overheard the conversation, snickers*

Maestus, cold condensing on his leather jacket, reaches a large hulking mass of machinery. It stretches up into the darkness, endless myriads of vents and valves twisting and locking away into the black. He searches for a while, and locates a certain place in the battered faceplate of a console. The metal wavers and bends; he plunges his hand into the surface, his arm sinking deep up to the shoulder.

*sea disappears from the forum, due to things happening in other forums and several recent near-continuity-violations*

As Giguschild bursts into the chamber, he is just in time to see Maestus, ring on finger, dissapear in a blinding flash of light...

*Makes his way to the building*

And sees hanging from the ceiling the most horrible...