recolle | What Lies Beneath - 5/5

Togusa had promised to give Ardyn a call when he was going to do this. "Meet me in Enprise, I think we just got our opportunity." What Togusa was not expecting was for Ardyn to show up with one Dante Rantanen, but the kid does have a car, something that they might need down there.

Togusa looks between both of the others, before finally speaking up, "Are you sure about this? We have no idea what's down there." For his part, he might actually be more worried about Ardyn's safety down there than Dante's.

Dante was a natural choice, Ardyn thinks, especially since the boy has access to an remote controlled car. Though he has a few things to say about how well the boy drives the car. (Read: in the most terrifying manner ever.) Regardless, the professor remains just as unflappable as always, even on the cusp of a dubious exploration mission down in the subway.

"I'm quite sure," he reassures, "otherwise I wouldn't have agreed. We only need to exercise caution."

Caution, Dante. Caution.

"Caution," Ardyn says, and if Togusa's looking anywhere near Dante he might be able to see the way the teen turns his eyes upward in a mixture of amused exasperation. That whole "dad" joke is starting to feel more and more accurate, between the lecture the prof gave him after the debacle at the police station and reminding him on the network not to drag other people into his schemes, the way he'd come to Dante's defense after Isa's comments and the critique of his driving skills. He drives perfectly fine! It's not his fault the prof apparently gets heart flutters any time he gets above running speed...

"I'm sure too," he says, his usual confidence seeming to emanate from him. In spite of the hassle it's been, being shrunken down like this, he can't deny the fact that he's been having fun with the experience so far, being able to get into places he normally wouldn't and collecting as much information as possible. "Besides, if we don't go now, when's the next chance we'd get?"

Yes, we. Because as far as he's concerned, now that Ardyn's looped him in on this, they aren't getting rid of him.

Togusa holds up his hands as if giving up. "All right. I appreciate any help, I mean it. No turning back now, then. I call shotgun, because, unless this thing has headlights," Togusa clicks on his flashlight, scaled down like the rest of his gear. Better than nothing, but this isn't the best situation.

"The subway should be down, I don't think any power is active through here, but I'd recommend keeping away from the third rail anyway." Togusa shines his light along the rails at the bottom of the subway. They may have to follow along the tracks, so they'll try to keep this as safe as possible.

Togusa settles into his seat, and he adjusts the revolver sitting at the small of his back. There's a comment, somewhere, right on the tip of his tongue, about how odd this specific group of people going on an adventure is, but maybe he'll keep his smartass comments to himself for once.

It's okay, Togusa. Any smart-ass comments actually enunciated will be met with similar from Ardyn. Though even the professor has to admit that this is an unlikely group, they've all a vested interest, just as much as any officer more "equipped" to deal with this expedition.

At any rate, it seems as if Ardyn has been delegated to the backseat, and he settles into his spot without any complaints.

"Let's not move through it too quickly, either," he remarks, and of course he's not at all directing it to Dante and his reckless driving. "No point in rushing past any potential clues, since it's the whole reason why we're on this adventure to begin with."

The RC jeep doesn't have headlights, no, but Dante has clipped a couple small LEDs to the top rail of the body. Still, he's got no issues with the seating arrangement as he climbs up into the driver's seat--"You might wanna belt in," he advises the other two men, following his own advice before he pulls the controller into his lap. For as much crap as Ardyn's giving him about his driving skills, there is a makeshift restraint system that Dante's added into the car, paperclips bent and wrapped around themselves to form anchor points and twist ties and rubber bands looped between them to serve as belts.

"Let me know if you see anything," Dante says once the three of them are ready, shifting the controls and putting the jeep into motion. It's only been a couple of days, but even in that time he's already gotten enough experience driving around the city that it's a fairly fluid motion to get them going, heading for the stairs that will lead into the tunnel proper (because he doesn't exactly see a ramp to get them down...!). "Hold on tight, this part might be a bit bumpy!"

And bumpy it is, but Dante figures it's probably a better idea than ramping off the edge of the loading platform entirely, right? He doesn't know how Togusa does in stressful situations, but he's pretty sure the prof would have a heart attack if he did something like that, no matter how sure he was they'd be fine.

Even in the low light, the dubious look that Togusa gives to their 'seat belts' is clearly visible. Is it actually better than nothing? How broken does it have to be when even the straight-laced cop is considering not using it? Togusa sighs and that was definitely a curse word in Japanese as he 'buckles' himself in (Is that a twist tie from a bread loaf? They're going to die.)

But Togusa actually does amazingly well under stress. Once they hit the first bump, he jumps, but braces himself against the side of the car, and he can take the rest solidly. He is focused on keeping that flashlight as steady as possible because one irregularity in the stone might send them crashing end over end. So, the car doesn't have a system of shocks at all. This is why your car needs those. But, for somebody who is driving by using a remote control in his lap from inside the car, Dante is doing really well, Togusa has to say. He certainly doesn't think he could do better.

Once they hit the bottom of the stairs, Togusa grins, and has to turn around in his seat to check on Ardyn, because the look on the Professor's face is probably priceless.

It's true that their bumpy ride down the stairs isn't nearly as harrowing as his experience with Dante's driving in the RC car prior, but in some ways, it's worse. The way his entire body jostles with each individual descent, the way he has to rely on rubber bands and paperclips to keep him strapped in, the way that their lighting only affords for them to see a laughable amount ahead of them as they go down, down, down.

However, Ardyn will not give anyone the satisfaction of making any sort of noise or exclamation. Instead, one hand reaches out to steady himself by clasping the back of Togusa's seat, and the professor slams his eyes shut and grits his teeth until it's over. Strands of hair fall into his face, and when they finally hit even ground and the jostling stops, only then does he open his eyes.

He sees Togusa looking at him expectantly, and he exhales, lifting a brow.

"Yes?" Say something. He dares you.

If Dante knew the thoughts the two men are having about his restraint system, he'd honestly be tempted to try a couple brake checks just so they could see how effective it actually is--so it's probably for the best that he remains ignorant, focusing instead on keeping the jeep upright as it bounces down the last couple steps and onto solid ground.

He sits back in the seat as they do, rolling his shoulders as he pulls them closer to the tracks (though he's not coming close to the third rail, thank you, if he wants to be electrocuted he already knows a woman for the job). "So," he says, "are we looking for something specific? Or just anything out of the ordinary?"

Togusa keeps the tight-lipped grin on his face for a second, and maybe he'll let the moment pass...

"Could have been worse, we could have brought your brother down here." Just imagine Fynn behind the wheel instead, there, Ardyn.

Togusa turns back around to look where Dante is, and he frowns. He moves his light back and forth a little to try to get a better view in front of them. "Well, thing number one we're looking for. Where's all the construction that's supposed to be keeping us out of here?" The tracks are clean, free of any debris, but it doesn't look like anything has been happening to them. "Maybe we came in on the wrong section, but, I can't be the only one that thinks this looks weird?" It's a little too clean and orderly for this to be an active construction site.

Ardyn almost, almost rolls his eyes at old student's remark, but manages to avoid doing so. He'll not linger on the horrifying thought of Fynn driving them down here; besides, can you imagine all the bickering? No one would be able to focus.

And focus is what they'll have to do, squinting past the dark with only their lights to illuminate their path. He has to agree with Togusa, because from what he can see, there's no construction at all. Only an empty subway, lacking in debris and other signs of abandoned work.

"Suspicious, but it's too early to say just yet." Ardyn straightens in his seat, making a cognizant effort to release his grip from the back of the seat in front of him. "And even if the talk of construction was a lie, it's a blessing for now. We can move along undeterred."

"I'm not surprised," Dante says with a derisive huff of air. "Happens all the time--they say construction's ongoing to make sure people can't get in, then don't do anything for another three months or so. Sometimes it takes years before they actually get around to it."

Source: adventuring. He's not about to admit to how many times he's ignored "KEEP OUT" signs, but there's been more than one site he's explored while on tour with his parents, only to come back a year or two later and find that construction still hasn't been completed or even progressed very far during the interim period.

"But who knows?" he adds after a moment's thought. "Maybe they're starting on the south side and making their way up."

Probably not, by his thinking. But who knows, maybe he's wrong! At any rate, the tunnel stretches out in front of them, long and dark and entirely unexceptional, aside from the usual offshoots where they might keep equipment or extra cars if necessary. The jeep speeds along, bumping every so often as they hit a stone or other imperfection in the tunnel's floor, fast enough to feel a wind in their face but--by Dante's reckoning--slowly enough that they'll probably be able to see anything worth checking out further.

There's nothing, though, not until they come up to a fork in the tunnel where the cars split for different routes. Dante slows them to a stop, trying to orient their position with the mental map he holds in his mind's eye. "That one..." he says slowly, gesturing toward the left tunnel, "should take us toward Tisse, I'm pretty sure. The right one goes toward Apprassage. Which one?"

Togusa spreads out his hands to illustrate his thinking, "The official story of the city is that something on the line was damaged, but when you think about it, it's strange they shut the entire system down instead of finding ways to reroute?" He leans back and looks up towards the ceiling far above them. "Not that we've really suffered in its absence, the city finds a way to adapt anyway. But I hadn't heard anything about any progress being made, either."

There is slight movement out of the corners of their eyes, the shadows being dispersed as they roll down the subway track. Maybe one or two of those motions are something more, but it's hard for Togusa to tell if it was actually something skittering away or just his imagination. Every time he turns to look, he never quite catches anything.

They roll to a stop, and at least the good thing about being in a subway is that there are only a few tracks to follow. Even they can't manage to get lost. Togusa thinks about Dante's question for a second, and then points to the left tunnel. "Tisse. Retrospec's headquarters is in that section. Let's see how close they'll let us get." It's the riskier path, but Togusa thinks that if Retrospec is up to something, that will be the way that they will find an answer.

It is odd that an entire subway had been shut down with no rerouting, but there's no need for him to voice this agreement, as everything still hinges on speculation thus far. And so, after they roll to a stop (and Ardyn checks to see that there is indeed nothing there when movement flickers at the edges of his vision), he puts in his two cents.

"Then Tisse it is. If there's a mystery to unravel, it'll be closer to Retrospec. As I recall, we had speculated that this might be a route that their ever-mysterious employees take to stay out of the public eye. If that's true, they'll be coming from the left tunnel anyhow."

He can't argue with that logic. There is a part of him that wants to know what's in the tunnels beneath the residential sectors of the city, whether there's anything that might cause trouble for them in the future, but there's nothing saying they can't check out both, right? "Tisse it is," Dante decides, swinging them into the left tunnel at a wide angle.

For a minute the only sound is the whirring of the car, but then Dante's got another question for Togusa and Ardyn. After all, Togusa's a cop and Ardyn's a lawyer. Maybe they'll know the answer to the question he and Luke had posed... "What do you guys know about filing blueprints?" he asks, sparing a glance toward each of them. "Depending on zoning, Retrospec might have had to file building plans, right?"

Assuming, of course, that they hadn't just power-of-suggestion'd their way into getting whatever it was they wanted out of the building location.

"Mmm," Togusa nods in agreement. "I know that sort of thing should be public domain. And Retrospec would absolutely have had to file something. It's worth it for somebody to go down to the right city offices. Building permits, construction permits, lease on the land, deed to the building? All of that should be somewhere. Maybe even hard copy, if we're lucky."

"I don't know if anyone has looked into it yet? I could definitely send some of the new people we've gotten on the application after it?" They have more boots on the ground, Togusa wants to encourage them to keep engaged. "Except that it is a safe part of the problem for someone not with the Department to go after. Tedious, but safe."

But Togusa sits up further in his seat, brow furrowed tightly, and points the light directly at an odd white and black tile, a sharp contrast to the rest of the floor. "What in the world? Hold up."

Subway: We Can Have Our Own Dudebro Roadtrip Edition.

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Subway: Let's do this the sensible way Edition.

Re: Subway: Let's do this the sensible way Edition.

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