Allen didn't think that was obvious at all, he didn't even know what those things were. He was going to ask her but she walked away before he got the chance. He decided to ask Legion. "Legion, where can I get a silver morph weapon, or a consumer--uhh whatever the machine gun was she was talking about? And while you're at it, what are both of those things?"
"Can you tell us how to kill the consumers?" Allen had merely stood by and watched as Nny and Claire threatened each other. But with the urgency of Nny's blade at Claire't throat now gone, the darkness within him had subsided and he was back to his normal self.
"Get that thing away from her." Allen stood ready to summon his own sword if he needed it. He was appalled to see Nny threaten the girl. As far as he knew she was completely helpless due to the restraints. And the darkness Rako had placed inside him was starting to have a slight affect.
"Yeah, you passed out in the slums and we brought you here. I'm Allen." Allen almost extended his hand for her to shake.Instead he gestured at Nny, and said, "And this is Nny. How are you feeling?"
Allen walked in after Nny. Hearing his question he just waited quietly.
Allen looked up when the doctor asked about the girl. He over to them. To mock Nny's attempt to disregard him he said, "you didn't forget me did you Nny?" He turned to the doctor. "We both helped bring her here. How's she doing?"
Allen leaned against a wall to wait. While he was waiting he thought about Nny. He wondered why he was such a colossal jerk, and why he cared so little for human life. Allen thought about Mixt then, and how that boy seemed to see life as worthless too. Then he thought about Crato, who seemed actively opposed to life. Thinking about Crato made Allen think about Raxtion's home world, and he started to get angry with himself. He found himself wanting to see Jen again; her presence was comforting to him.
Allen stared in shock. He had no idea Nny could do that, or that, that was even possible. He started to pick the girl up. "Help me carry her."
Allen forgot to keep up his act when he saw the girl collapse. He caught her and lowered her to the ground. "Should we take her to the hospital?" He said this just as much to himself as to Nny.
Allen walked up to them and spoke in a sarcastic tone. "Hey now, don't hurt him. He's only a huge jerk." Allen dropped the sarcasm and did his best to sound like he didn't care about anything. "More importantly, how'd you kill that thing? I fought them once and only managed to make more of them."
Before Nny could walk away Allen said, "no. I'm more useful than you are down here, you just don't want to admit it. You need me down here. Not only would you have not found this place without me, but even if you had, your outfit, and, more importantly, your attitude would have kept anyone from giving you the time of day." He walked to where he could face Nny. "More than that, I know how things work in the slums, I grew up in slums, I spent a long time living in these slums specifically. Down here, you're a stranger, you clearly have no idea what you're doing. But this is the world I grew up in, I know how things work here, I know the best way to do things, and you don't. That's pissing you off because you like to be the best at everything. But there's always going to be somebody who's better than you at something, you're just going to have to accept that. And if you would stop being so arrogant, you would realize I'm actually giving you really good advice. If you wanna try and go it alone now, fine. But at least take this." He held out the piece of re bar to Nny. "This could be a valuable trade item, if you knew what you were doing." Allen looked as the pillar of light appeared and the strange girl came through. His anger melted as he watched her kill the creature with relative ease. "Maybe you should ask her."
Allen considered hitting Nny upside the head with the piece of re bar, but thought better of it. Plus as much of a selfish jerk as Nny was he had made a good point, those things could easily kill everyone, and there was no telling if or when they would come back. He also thought that maybe he could teach Nny better with time and care. "Alright, but before we do anything you need to calm down, if you start scaring people down here you're likely to get yourself in trouble, and if it comes down to you or them, I'm on their side. And before you start telling me you don't care if you scare anyone, let me remind you that you're more likely to get what you want if these people aren't against you. Plus if you can't get a hold of yourself you might end up telling someone what happened to the school who doesn't know already, info brokers deal in information, selling and buying, if you give them their product free you lose bargaining power. Now I'm gonna give you a minute to compose yourself, and then we'll start looking for answers. Let me know when you think you can keep from freaking out."
Allen sighed. "Nny, these people don't need to be lied to, or stolen from, or anything else bad you could do them. Look around you, almost everyone here is dressed in rags, or clothes that don't fit, they're here trading for scraps and for garbage. Because that's all they have. Remember the weapons the others had when they came to my defense; they were crude, but they were some of the best made weapons you'll ever find, and the people wielding them could use them better than just about anyone. Not because they wanted to be the best, or because they wanted power, but because they have to be good with their weapons to survive. That's what it's all about in the slums survival, survival of yourself and others. People like you, and the other members of the higher classes, your survival is guaranteed on a day-to-day basis, theirs isn't. So they survive by helping each other, if one can hunt and another can't, then that one will share what he's hunted with the other one. That's how things work here. Slum dogs look out for each other. That's the unofficial code of Cassenova's slums. Because that code is followed, the slum dogs trust each other. We're not going to betray that trust, because these people need better than that."
Allen shook his head, clearly Nny knew nothing about the slums, or he wouldn't be trying to pay with money. Here what mattered wasn't money, it was survival. Likely the wallets didn't even have money in them, just small things that the market goers found useful. "It doesn't matter. We're not trading with stolen goods. Do you have anything else?"
Allen regretted bringing Nny down here, he also now realized just how scared Nny was. "First off, I'll die before I let you harm a single one of these people. Second those things were just monsters, particularly nasty monster, but still just monsters. They also weren't the only thing that could kill you. Sorry but it's the truth. And if you really think they're the only thing that could, then you're more likely to be killed by your own arrogance than anything else. Now if you want answers that badly you're best bet is an info broker. Did you find anything for trade?"
Allen grabbed Nny and pulled him back from the person he was about to question. "Sorry, he's...new," he said to the other person. He turned back to Nny. "You have no idea what you're doing down here, do you?"
After walking for a little while Allen stopped and picked up a long piece of re bar laying near a wall. "If we can't find anything better we can probably trade this to a junk dealer. Keep looking though, just in case." He kept walking. After a time he walked to an unassuming little back alley. It looked like absolutely nothing special; just like any other alley in the slums, but looks could be deceiving. Allen walked over to large, broken, and slightly rusty pipe, it had a whole in it big enough to fit a grown man. Allen tossed his piece of re bar down the pipe and then turned to Nny. "Stay extra close from now on. It's easy to get lost in where we're about to go." The place they were about to enter was known as The Labyrinth. It had been aptly named, the slum dogs called it The Labyrinth because it was a gigantic network of forgotten pipes, abandoned tunnels, unused sewers, and other paths for desperate people. More than all that, it was the city's infrastructure. Allen had put off showing Nny The Labyrinth for as long as he could, the whole city's infrastructure, as well as most of the slums and large amount of places in the city, could be accessed through The Labyrinth. It was the slum dogs greatest advantage and best kept secret, and the fastest way around the city's sprawling slums. The market Allen had told Nny about could only be accessed through The Labyrinth though and so he had been brought to the closest entrance to the market in the hope he wouldn't discover what it was he was being led through. Allen climbed into the pipe and started down, he had to press his hands and feet against the sides of the pipe to keep himself from falling, there was no ladder, and the drop could easily kill somebody. He was sure Nny would be able to manage though. Allen reached a point in the pipe where it turned at about a ninety degree angle, picked up the steel re bar and started crawling. After a while he reached a point in the pipe where there was another whole that he climbed up through into an old industrial complex. Allen led Nny along the complicated path through the city's infrastructure, looking back often to make sure Nny was still following him, until eventually they came into a large underground room, the market. The market was semi-busy at the moment, but not packed. Allen looked at Nny. "Well, here we are."
New character for me: Username: Allen Tor Name: Known only as "The Shadow" Age: 600 (has the body of someone in his early thirties) Gender: Male Race/Species: Immortal, but most think he's human Side/Affiliation: Only loyal to himself Weapon/Power: He has a sliver tongue and prefers diplomacy over fighting, he can manipulate ethereal energy, he prefers to use this to learn things, but can use it for fighting if he needs to, he also has an extremely high IQ and incredible gift for retaining information Rank: Maven Occupation(optional): Information Broker, makes a business of buying and selling information Appearance: Wears a large, uninteresting, hooded grey coat that hides his face and features Personality: He is, for the most part, cold and uncaring, but has a near-obsessive passion for knowledge of all kinds. Bio: The Shadow was born with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, when he was a child he did everything he could to to learn about everything he could learn about. In his teens he started to notice that some of what he knew could be useful to others, when he was about nineteen he started selling information and quickly became wealthy. He earned his nickname because he "knows as much as any people's shadows would." Nowadays he is well known, politicians and big businessmen alike come to him for information. He has a large network of spies and informants, has tapped just about every line of communication, and knows just about everything that in the world, as well as having hundreds of other information brokers working under him. Despite all of this no one knows who he is, or how he seems to have survived so long; there is some speculation that the title has been handed down over the centuries. Likes(optional): Knowing things Dislikes(optional): Not knowing Theme song(optional): None
"Alright," Allen started walking as he spoke, "keep an eye out for anything useful on the way. If we have to talk to an info broker we'll need something to trade. And remember slum dogs can find things useful for different reasons than what they might usually be useful for. That said, don't just pick up any piece of garbage you find think about the possible uses for something, all the possible uses for that something, and decide whether you think it might be valuable to someone because of those uses."
"That's a matter of opinion." Allen stopped and thought. "There's a market place--sort of--slum dogs go there to make trades. It's pretty packed sometimes, sometimes it's practically empty. Even if it's empty though there's usually at least one information broker. I'll show you the way there if you want. Or you can try and find it on your own, it's not as well hidden as most of the slums' secret places, but it can still be pretty hard to find if you don't know where your going or what you're looking for."
