12

Patrick leads us through a series of caves, the next progressively darker than the last. Each of the caves smelled of mildew had the drip, drip, drip of forming stalactites forming on the ceiling. We finally stop and a light sputters to life as Patrick lights a candle. He then walks to a wall and examines it closely. When he finds what he's looking for he lets out a brief "ah-ha" and pushes a part of the wall inward. The segment of cave wall next to him rumbles and shakes, then against its will shifts and slides upward. The city it reveals within is remarkable. It's tightly packed with sandy white clay buildings that look like they were stolen from the tatooine set from Starwars. They were dome capped square buildings, some of which had bright, multicolored neon signs with lettering that was completely foreign to me.

"What language is that?" I ask Kara as we walk by a glowing sign

"It's cryptolingual, the hidden language." Kara tells us  

"Can you read it?" I ask

"I can, but it takes a second to translate it mentally."

"So then what's that building?" I challenge her

"That's a w***e house. Feel better?"

"Not really, no." I flush a deep red

We continue walking until we find a café.

"Daim, do you think they have blood here? I need to feed soon." I ask

"I'm sure. I think we all need to. Let's stop for a while.

"We'll ye do that. I be needin' to get back to me work."

"Before you go Patrick, where can we find a Chaos Eclipse recruiter? I've got a few questions to ask."

"In the dark district. Ask the one ye call Kara, she seems to know somethin' bout the Undergrounds." Patrick bids us a farewell and turns away, heading back out of the city.

We enter the café. We each order a glass of blood. Even though she's been a Vampire for several weeks now, Saundra still squirms when she drinks blood. I personally enjoy the liquid with its silken texture as it glides down my throat. The blood we were drinking must have been mixed with something, it's a subtle change at first but becomes more recognizable in the aftertaste. The restaurant has added mint to it so that the blood warmed you as your drank it, then when you inhale you get a blast of cool mint. Once we're done Daim pays for the drinks. Luckily the Underground is more technologically advanced than I originally thought.

"So what’s first? Gathering a rebel army or questioning the bad guys' recruiter?"

"We need ammo to use against them so questioning first." Daimian states matter-of-factly

With some confusing directions from Kara we find our way to the aptly named Dark District. It was very dark, but I guess Very Dark District just doesn't roll of the toung as well. Its easy to see that it was a mess though. The domes here are dilapidated and gangs have been tagged on just about every wall we come across. We eventually come across a  large table-booth. There's a blue tablecloth with an eight pointed star in front of a cross with barbed ends. In the middle of the star was a big blood red eye. The tablecloth had two matching banners, one on either side. Behind the table was a very large, very ugly...thing. It was eight foot six and covered with a lumpy greenish brown skin and a crop of feathery orange hair shooting from it's head. It had a couple of fair sized tusks protruding from its mouth.

"Kara, what is that thing?" Saundra asks curiously, eyes glues to the creature

"That would be a troll. Be mindful not to make it mad. Trolls are mean, ill-tempered, and stupid."

With a nod Daimian composed himself and approached the troll. "Excuse me my bridge dwelling friend, I'd like to ask you a few questions about your army. You see my friends and I would like to join."

"Fine, what you want know?" The troll says in a deep mumble

"Well, what exactly is the Chaos Eclipse? What are you fighting for?"

"Army is group of things that want to rule over puny humans and use as slaves and food. We follow Avengus. He promise victory over tiny humans."

"Sounds intriguing, and who is this Avengus? How do you know this is the real one?"

"Uh..." The troll scratches his head, "Avengus god of riches and revenge. Thrallis likes those, that why Thrallis joined."

"Is that so? Well this is very uneventful and unhelpful. Ivan, Taylor, and Saundra would you ease come here?"

I look at Taylor, the Saundra and follow Daimian's command. "What's up?"

"This troll is unhelpful and quite frankly very irritating. Since he's of no use whatsoever...kill him. Kill him and the guards."

I smile letting my fangs grow visibly, "Gladly." I draw my tanfa-blades and begin spinning them. Saundra and Taylor follow my lead and draw their own weapons.

The two Guards draw their swords. Big, heavy, and boring. Man these guys are dull.

"What you draw weapons for?" Thrallis asks pulling a dagger out from under the table

I bare my fangs and growl, "I don't know if I can rip the flesh from your bones, so better safe than sorry."

Thrallis crashes through the table and charges for me, intent on impaling me with his tusks. He's clearly acting out of rage, he's not thinking about his moves.

I sidestep and make short work of the thundering troll. I hit the back of his legs as he rushes past, severing tendons and muscles. Thrallis crashes to the ground yelling something in cryptolingual that I'm positive I don't want to decipher. I pounce on him and drive my blades through his eyes and deep into his brain. Shortly after the guards are on Saundra and Taylor. Though they have no idea how to keep cool the guards have been well trained. Taylor, I know, can handle himself with his short sword. Saundra on the other hand probably needs some help, but I'm not going to come to the rescue just yet. This is a prime chance to see what Saundra has learned in her time training with me. The guard has her on the defensive, she's blocking and parrying all strikes made towards her properly and effectively. Then the guard makes a risky move that I hope Saundra sees the huge opening in his defense. The guard spins and slashes at Saundra full force. She deflects the blow and quickly thrusts her blade at the opening in his armor between his helmet and chest piece; the blade bites into his neck and severs the jugular vein. The guard is dead within seconds with a sick croaking sound. Although she looked fine I could tell by a hollowness in her eyes that she was sickened by what she had just done.

The table suddenly bursts into flames. Seconds later more fireballs rain down on the area taking out the banners. I, as well my fellow rebels, look to where the flames are coming from. At the top of a staircase a person in a black duster stands holding a fireball in his hand, poised to roast me to a blackened crisp. I steady myself, ready to leap away from any flying campfires hurled at me. Another person runs up to him, this person also in a duster but red, and says something pointing to my left. A moment later they dash off in the direction, out of sight and out of the Dark District. So much for that.

We then hear the cries of anger and urgency, the police and probably the fire department as well are on their way. We take it as a clear sign to get the heck out of there. We flee in the direction that Mr. Fireball and his cloaked friend went. I hope to myself that we run into them again, no one threatens to fry me without some answers!

Kara leads us into what she calls a cafe, to me it looks more like a sketchy version of the catina. A long glass bar counter makes a big square in the middle of the main room. There are neon cryptolingual signs covering most of the walls. In one corner were some instruments, both recognizable and totally foreign, propped up on stands. We all pile into a booth along a wall under a sign of a martini glass with an eyeball speared on a toothpick in it. I pick up a menu to be greatly disappointed that it was written in cryptolingual as well.

"I always liked picking my food at random." I remark with heavy sarcasm

"Get over it you big baby, the menu is in English. Here, just translate the letters." Kara says scribbling down a chart with cryptolingual letters and their English counterparts underneath.

( http://n3cr0matic.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5jfkdb )

I examine the list carefully, then throw some words together from the menu at random. "Drr-ink, Bay-cun, liv-er. Liver? Eww."

"Ivan, keep your voice down, they serve all sorts of diets here. Most carnivores like live...raw. Remember what Patrick said, be polite." Kara warns

An Orc waitress walks over to us wearing a purple uniform. "Can I get you some drinks?" She asks in amazing English.

"I'll just take a mug of blood please. B neg if you have it." Daimian orders

"Make that two." Kara follows

"Don't suppose you've got Mountain Dew do you?" I ask hopefully

The waitress c***s an eyebrow

I smile. "Human Drink," I explain," I'll have a water then."

"I'll also have water." Saundra requests, not looking up from the Menu except to glance at the letter sheet

"One second. Uhhh..." Taylor says moving his index finger along the lines of the menu quickly," You know what, I'll just have blood. No preferences."

The waitress nodded, writing down the last order. "Alright. Your drinks will be out momentarily." Then she walks away and into the kitchen.

I look around, taking in the fluorescent surroundings and start humming the music from the Cantina in Star Wars. "Seriously I feel like I'm in the movies. I keep expecting to see a Jedi or something."

Taylor and Daimian chuckle at the reference while Saundra and Kara simple shake their heads in disdain.

As I'm observing the surrounding something at the bar, or rather someone, catches my attention. A hooded figure is staring at me, rarely blinking. It's the flame thrower. Without hesitation he stands and walks over to us, joined by two more figures along the way. The One in red and one iridescent in purple. When they reach our table they stand in a triangular formations, the one wearing purple in front. I can see now that its a young woman. The air around us suddenly smells like a mix of an old shop mixed with burning leaves, probably her perfume. She begins to speak.

"My comrades tell me that you assaulted an Eclipsean registry post." She said calmly

"Aye. And your buddy there torched it, then threatened to turn me into barbecue." I hint at my upset

She glances back at Mr. Flame in his black duster, "I apologize for his actions, he's got a nasty temper problem we're working on."

"You don't say." I remark dryly

"Ivan!" Damian snaps, "Respect."

"I'm sorry, I've forgotten my manners." I stand and bow, "I'm Ivan Burgman, and these are my friends." I gesture to each in turn as I state their names

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. I am Murine Yamamoto." She removes her hood to reveal a pale skinned face with black hair in pigtails with purple highlights. "To my left, in the black, is Ra and to my right is Amber."

Each of them remove their hoods as well.

Ra is Olive skinned with a bald head. Amber has ceramic-white skin and hair as equally dark as Maurine's in three braids that reach to her mid back.

"It's my pleasure." I shake each of their hands and sit back down, "How may I be of assistance?"

"I was wondering two things. First off, why would you attack the Eclipse?" Maurine asks

"That's really more of a private matter. I'm not entirely sure I can trust you." I answer warily

"Ra charred the stand, remember? We'll be in just as much trouble as you if we're caught."

"Fair enough." I glance questioningly at Daimian who gives a nod that tells me 'only what's necessary', "We're building an army of our own. A rebelling army. We attacked the registry post to get some answers, but found nothing." I say in hushed voice

"We'll actually ,Ivan, I had you attack them for another reason. I knew we wouldn't find out anything useful from the troll, but now someone higher up the ladder should come looking for us. I'm willing to bet they will know something." Daimian explains

"No. I figured you were rebels and wanted to warn you. Rebels are always punished if they interfere. The Eclipsiean's grip is spreading like wild fire. Out of curiosity how big is this army of yours so far?"

"Mostly Lycanthropes right now along with a couple vampires. Other than that there's nothing. Thus why we're here. We're accepting any and all who oppose the army of the Chaos Eclipse." Daimian answers for me

"We're in." Maurine, Ra, and Amber say in unison

"And just what are you? You don't smell like a dog, nor a bat. In fact I've never smelled blood anything like yours before in my life. You smell...unique."

"I'm a Necromancer, Ra is-" Maurine is interrupted by my chuckling

"I'm sorry to be rude, but necromancy isn't real.

"Neither are Lycans." She remarks dryly, cutting my laughing short, "As I was saying I'm a Necromancer, Ra is a Pyrokinetic, and Amber is my Wraith. A wraith is a Necromancer's personal, reanimated, assistant."

"So Amber is a Zombie?" I blink stupidly

"In short yes, but not exactly. Zombies are the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less. A wraith is much trickier because you have to bind the soul to a corpse. They are smarter, sturdier, and far more loyal."

"Intriguing." Daimian notes, becoming immensely curious, "How does a wraith operate combat wise?"

"It depends on the summoner's ability, but mostly the soul and the status of the new body. Amber is quite skilled in all aspects of combat. Her soul had a black belt in three different martial arts, as well as a master sword and marksman. I knew her soul personally while she were alive. When she passed away in a war a bound her soul in a younger, more agile body." Maurine informs

"Are there more like you and Ra?" I ask hopefully

"Yes, but not many. A couple hundred like him world wide and maybe twelve thousand Necromancers in Necropolice. I'd probably to get couple thousand to join through my connections."

"And how about the Pyrokinetics?" Taylor asks

"I'm not sure. I've only met two others besides Ra. Max? I might be able to get twenty or thirty, but that's if I'm able to find them. Most are hidden so preserve themselves. They're a dying breed." Maurine explains

"Tell the ones you know that if they aid us we will build a sanctuary for them to live peacefully in and get their numbers back up." I promise

Ra steps up to the table. "You would do that for my people?" He says through a heavy accent

"If they ally themselves with us, absolutely." I smirk, "And no one throws any fireballs at me."

We all give a good laugh then push a couple tables together and order food to celebrate our first alliance.

 After we eat we head out, back to the human world. We're planning to come back but don't feel comfortable staying in the Underground. We're stopped before we are able to leave.

"So ye found some meat for yer army ehh?" Patrick calls to us, addressing our newest members

"Yea, so what." Taylor shrugs, "Three people isn't going to make much of a difference."

"I heard 'bout the wrecked Eclipse post in the dark district. Reckoned that sounded like yer doin'. So if ye aren't workin' them, then who are ye workin' fer?" Patrick asks

"A rebelling army." I huff tiredly at Patrick, "You in?"

"Aye laddie. I can probably get tha King to meet with ye. Might be able to set up a treaty fer peace and an alliance."

"How many Leprechauns are there?" I ask, suddenly full of energy

"In tha army? At least a good four thousand or so. They're all trained and ready ta go too." Patrick beams

"How soon do you think we could get a meeting set up?" I ask, my voice oozing with excitement

"About two days time." Patrick estimates

"Fantastic! Go arrange this meeting at once." I politely command

"Aye aye." Patrick salutes and dashes off as fast as his little legs could take him

"So now we've got three possible races joining us. I'd call that a successful day. Shall we find a Hotel and risk the city a bit longer?" I recommend

"Do we have a choice?" Taylor quips

"Kara, if you don't mind, lead the way." I ask

"No need. We already have a room, you can stay at our hotel. Follow us." Maurine states and heads back towards the city