[Sarah]

The smell of the sewers reached him before they'd even opened the way. His suit surrounded him and he was blind for half a second as it booted up. He was quick to initiate New Car Smell protocol. Wanda and Brock made a face, but Wanda was quick to shield them both from the smell. The way was opened to them and Tony was immune from whatever lurked inside. From the look on Brock's face it wasn't pleasant.

Tony snickered and passed them to enter the sewers. His visor lit up and that along with the power cell in his chest the way was easily lit. Looking around there was only slime. Whatever these tunnels had once been made of now had a thick layer of gross.

[Sarah]

Wanda was used to the heat, she preferred it even, but this was fowl. Even without having to smell the gunk, the heat was oppressive. Holding the spell to keep and and Brock from breathing any of it in was easy enough. An after thought as she trudged through the slick.

"Shouldn't someone be maintaining this?" she asked once they had far left Nix behind.

"It wouldn't be that difficult to automate something. I bet I could invent a self-sustaining sewer roomba." Wanda watched the back of his helmet as he talked, but he fell quiet in thought as soon as the idea of his invention came to mind.

[Sarah]

Brock was more than pleased that his tactical gear protected him from the gunk. His air was being filtered by the witch, and anything that might touch him stayed safely on the other side of canvas and light armor. He took up the rear as Tony lit the way.

Sounds echoed softly around them. Everything sounded muffled and he couldn't quite make out what sounds were coming from where. They descended far beneath the city, but it wasn't the weight above them that was the issue. His boots kept him from the worst of the slime underfoot but he had to keep an eye out for the witch. She slipped a few times and he was sure to grab her before she could cover herself in refuse.

[Sarah]

After far too long the curved hallway halted to enter a domed room. Tony stalled in the shadows and Brock moved to stand beside him. Before them was a poorly lit room with a circle of mutated humanoids. They held something thin and reflective in hand and after a moment of observation they began chanting.

"That doesn't sound good," Wanda noted on a whisper. Brock felt the effects of the words instantly, and he could assume on good authority that Tony and Wanda could feel it too.

"We should stop them."

Tony wasn't wrong, but Brock wondered how badly this would go. He heard Wanda even her breathing behind him. Her magic drew in around them and there was a taste of metal in the air. The humanoids didn't seem to notice.

[Sarah]

Brock drew his handgun. No need to take out any major firepower just yet. Tony slunk to the outer rim of the room and Wanda entered. She walked with confidence. Clearly her goal was to kill them. Red surrounded her like a second skin and her eyes lit the room in an eerie red glow. Her hands held the most of the power and as the humanoids turned she threw the energy at two that were close together.

They seemed to liquify and their parts fell to the ground and mixed into the refuse to become nothing more than another disgusting brown.

The other three let out an inhuman screech and Tony began blasting. They could take the hits, but Brock could see their bodies being damaged. Wanda apparently needed a moment so Brock laid down some cover fire on the three that had focused on her.

[Sarah]

Tony put two hands together and blasted one right in the head, or an approximation thereof. The appendage sizzled and gooped and the goop followed down until the creature was nothing more than a puddle.

Brock could see his bullets did no damage. He was careful with his shots, but they all ricocheted off of the metallic skin or armor that the humanoids were made of.

"Now would be a really good time for you to charge up," Tony called.

Wanda made some disgruntled noise and the red she held in her hands became almost black. She shot the energy, no larger than a marble, at the remaining two, and they comically sucked into the point of energy before they and the marble disappeared.

"Well. That went well," Brock commented dryly. Nothing remained of the humanoids, nor what they had been handling. He crouched where he'd seen the first two fall. Nothing on the ground looked distinct from anything else.

"I guess we need to go further."

[Sarah]

[Part 2]
Brock would take another room full of cultists than this. He'd take an auditorium of cultists. This was worse. So, so much worse. Water. There was no going around it.

The tunnels here had changed. They were no longer in the man-made sewers. Whatever this place was had been around for a long time. The rocks were smooth from wear, but it was unclear what exactly had worn them down. The water, where it lapped at the ledge before diving to the unknown had clearly been at that level for some time.

The witch pulsed a ball of red down and closed her eyes in concentration. After a few minutes she opened them again. "We're going to have to swim."

Brock's eye twitched but he held back from openly groaning. "Anything dangerous?" The witch shook her head.

[Sarah]

"Do you know the way out?" Stark had been hanging back. The bastard had a full suit. Swimming through a freezing underground tunnel system would be no problem for him. "Shining a light through there might agitate whatever lives down there."

"Only fish," Wanda said, "but I know the way." Well, there was a silver lining. Tony wouldn't trouble whatever he thought might live in the water, and they wouldn't have to grope blindly through a suffocating maze.

Brock would have been more than happy to take up the rear, but luck was just not on his side. Wanda stepped into the water and Tony took up a position behind them.

[Sarah]

There was no other way but forward. Brock hoped his tactical gear didn't slow him down too much, or try to drown him. The thought of Tony having to drag his ass out of there was humiliating enough. Brock entered the water with a steadying breath. Once again the witch's red magic shone along his skin.

He found he could still manipulate the water so he dove. His skin was free of moisture, and he could open his eyes without worrying about what diseases grew in a place like this. He followed the silhouette of the witch in what scant light there was.

[Sarah]

Tony was bringing up the rear and Brock would catch the occasional glimpse of light. He didn't know what Stark was doing, and at the moment he didn't care. All he wanted was out from the water. Even dry he hated to be surrounded by it on top of the crushing weight of being in a cave. He'd never considered himself claustrophobic until he was faced with the water.

Thankfully his training was as much a second skin as the witch's magic. His mind blanked and his breathing evened and soon enough he could put himself anywhere else.

There was another bend and the tunnel seemed to slope upward. The water was no less encompassing, but it gave him hope that the end might be near.

[Sarah]

The witch disappeared for a heartbeat but the current of her body moving the water was telling enough. There was a sharp incline, almost vertical, and Brock pushed himself up with hope in his heart.

It wasn't for another minute that his head broke the surface. He blinked in the dim red and saw Wanda at the edge of the water. Her had was held out and he allowed her to help him out of the water. Tony was not far behind, and once he was on dry land his helmet fell away.

It seemed they were all much happier to be done with that experience.

[Sarah]

[Part 3 ; The Server Room]

"What the fuck is this place doing at the end of all that?"

"Clearly we entered through a back door," came Tony's dry response. He took up the lead and Brock had the good sense to draw his gun.

"This looks like a back door to you?" Wanda asked. Both men stalled in front of the door to look at her. She was looking around the open cave. Her red magic floating to illuminate the grey rock.

"Okay, it doesn't," Brock conceded, "but why else would they put a door here?"

Wanda and Brock turned around at the sound of the latch on the door clicking. Tony had apparently become bored with their wondering. Brock clenched his teeth, annoyed, and followed the tin man inside.

[Sarah]

The three stayed tightly packed as they entered a room hauntingly similar to a reception area. They'd not encountered anyone other than the cultists on their way through. Cultists and the long dead. So where was everyone?

Brock eyed the hole in the wall while Tony and Wanda approached the front desk. A sense of dread threatened to lock his muscles. Something primordial. A survival response buried so deep in his evolution he almost didn't question it.

Wanda came into his peripherals before she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I can feel it too." At her words he was able to relax some. The fear dissipated without a loss to his edge. The instinct was still there, but it was useful instead of debilitating. Surely a result of the witch in his head, but he couldn't bring himself to mind.

[Sarah]

"Server room's our best bet." Tony dropped the papers in his hand and they fell in a mess over the reception table. This place was bothering him too. Brock's stomach turned at the thought of turning away from the hole in the wall and he gave a terse nod to indicate he agreed.

Wanda guided him back until they were fully inside the glass of the server room. It was as frigid as he expected. The temperature was almost a reprieve. He had a single heartbeat to breathe before something else went to shit.

The security was apparently still running, but what was running it...

[Sarah]

"Assimilated," Tony echoed. He sounded, at once, curious and perturbed.

Then the things came.

Brock narrowed his eyes and raised his gun. He didn't want these things getting close to him, but shooting in an enclosed space wasn't ideal either. A thin red shield surrounded them and he took the chance he had to holster his weapon and draw the six inch combat knife from its sheath on his sleeve.

"Cover me," Tony instructed. There was the brief sound of whirring machinery. The goo monsters had come upon the red shield and they were testing its limits. The magic bent but did not yet break.

Brock spared a glance over his shoulder. Tony was out of his suit, which was standing as a sentry. The internal AI would be able to dispatch hostiles leaving Tony free to tinker with the servers.