"I'm not sure," Claire admitted. She thought on that for a moment.
"But she has to be here. And if the only way left to go is down, then..." She roughly moved past Billy, who let her go.
"We might be going about the loops a bit wrong," Billy said, crossing his arms.
"It might not be as simple as convincing them things aren't real."
"You're telling me..." Elliot said under his breath.
"Come on, let's follow her."
Filled with determination, Claire rushed down the many metal steps that wound down the small corridor. There was no choice but to follow her into the depths. Down and down the group went, until it almost seemed the corridor was unnaturally long.
The stairs eventually ended, leading into a small narrow hallway. As they passed through and came to an open area, Claire seemed renewed with vigor. They stepped along a metal catwalk, just above a small area with a bunch of piping and machinery.
Part of the catwalk was blocked with debris, leaving no choice but to drop to the area with the machinery below. Claire made the leap before anyone could really make comment.
"Just have to find a ladder," she said.
They came quickly to a ladder leading back up, but it was out of reach. Billy was about to suggest someone fly up to it or something when a girl appeared at the top of the ladder.
She looked down at the group for a moment, seemingly looking excited once she spotted Claire.
"Sherry!" Claire exclaimed.
"Claire--!"
The girl reached out but was pulled back by a figure who stepped out of the shadows behind her. The figure was shrouded in a black hood. Sherry struggled in their grasp as the figure removed their hood.
Underneath the hood revealed an unfamiliar blonde woman with a malicious sneer, easily maintaining a tight hold on the girl named Sherry.
"Now now, little girl. Where do you think you're going?" She chuckled deviously, paying little attention to the group until Touma called out to her.
"H-Hey! Who the heck are you?!" Touma exclaimed, initially confused about the sudden appearance of this unfamiliar woman, but after Bane's intervention earlier and the fact that she clearly did not look like she was from this world, the boy quickly reasoned...
"A Revanchist agent?!"
"I have a name, you twit," the woman clicked her tongue, her curled sneer turning to irritation as she looked to Touma and the group.
"It's Larxene. I won't even dignify your other question with an answer," she breathed, whether because the answer about her allegiance should have been obvious, or whatever the like.
Touma gritted his teeth conflictedly, before braving to speak again.
"Let the girl go! Or else--"
"Or else what?" Larxene smirked, suddenly summoning what looked like four small, yellow knives in between each of her fingers with her right hand.
"You're not exactly in a position to be making demands here. You know that, right? Wouldn't wanna hurt this little cutie now, would you?" The woman cackled, tauntingly pinching Sherry's cheek with her left hand.
"You wouldn't...!"
Larxene tilted her head, and then pursed her lips, whether to mock Touma or whatever she was feeling to do.
"Hm, you're right actually. Not yet, at least. She and I have lots to talk about. Girl time, maybe. No boys allowed!" She exclaimed, sticking her tongue out before a dark portal suddenly appeared behind her, the blonde vixen stepping back into it with Sherry in tow.
"In the meantime, if you're so restless, why don't you play around with our mutual friend? He might seem a bit scary, but Mr. X over there is... Well, I can't really lie about that. He is scary, and it's totally understandable to wanna pee yourself right in front of him!" She cackled, before waving to the group.
"But you all play nice with him. Pretty please. It'll make my job that much easier if you do. In the meantime... toodles!"
"No!"
Claire had her gun trained on Larxene. It shook in her hands, Claire feeling tempted to fire but couldn't hurt risking Sherry. Once Larxene was gone, there was a crash from the way they came. It was then that the man who had pursued the group upstairs appeared, jumping down next to them. His hat was back on and he looked as ready to fight as ever.
"We got Trenchy here!" Cullen exclaimed.
@Takumi @mintyy @Jeremi @Gummi Bunnies @Indigo Al @York @Capri @Crunch @Yun Lee @Lucky @Neko Shogun @Sark @Minerva @Space_Candy @Alex Azure @Krieg @Ver @Josh @Kaykay
