[crow]

"You sure this is the place?"

Two figures strode into the mouth of a sewer, though to call it a cave would probably have been more fitting. Maybe at one point in time, it was. The opening was too rough-hewn for it to have been careful city construction, though it was possible that they had just gotten lazy and blasted out the last stretch of tunnel. Considering the fact that it was pouring open waste sewage into the ocean, it wouldn't have been a surprise.

[crow]

It was the taller of the two men who spoke, hanging back to inspect his surroundings. His companion, a few centimeters shorter with a shock of pale hair, advanced with one corner of his jacket pulled up over his nose against the smell.

"Sure it is. Trust it to a Mal to hide somewhere like this," said the pale haired man. The taller of the two made a huff that might have been laughter, and followed in his wake. A long metal rod was braced against his shoulder, the dented end of it looking as though it might have been a bus stop sign, once upon a time.

[crow]

"My readings tell me it's further on inside." A voice echoed in both of their heads, and the pale haired man glanced up, not startled but still temporarily distracted by it.

The taller man showed no reaction, beyond another glance around, as if he half expected to see something. A sign, or a clue, maybe. Mals usually weren't a subtle bunch, and it was strange that they hadn't seen any conclusive evidence, even though the Oracle said they were close.

"Bastien, Lucius... Be careful," said the Oracle.

[crow]

"It's just Luke," said the pale haired man, a note of exasperation in his voice. "How many times do I have to say it?"

"Let it go," said the other man--- Bastien. The Oracle had always been a little too formal; it was probably a part of the deal, what with being bonded to a spirit that had been passed down from contract to contract for so long. The veterans liked to say the lineage went all the way back to Delphi in Greece, though privately Bastien had always thought that was bullshit.

[crow]

Or, hey, maybe she was just old, or polite. It could have been both. Nobody knew. The voice sounded young enough, but very few people had ever seen their current Oracle, and the ones who had weren't talking, if they existed. Everything was relayed through encrypted chatrooms, texts from burner phones, and... well, this. If it weren't for how she sounded when she spoke into their heads, they wouldn't even have known that she was a woman.

Was probably a woman, anyway. Not that it mattered, as long as she did her job.

[crow]

And as long as they did theirs. Bastien tapped his weapon against his shoulder, and walked briskly past Luke. "Come on," he said. "We're not going to find it tiptoeing through this place. The sooner we kill this thing, the sooner we can get out of here."

"I was just trying to--- Oh, nevermind," said Luke. Not to be outdone, he dropped his hold on the corner of his jacket, and took a few quick steps to catch up to Bastien. "How far in did you say it was?"

[crow]

"Not far... Maybe a few hundred meters, though it isn't directly in front of you." The Oracle's voice filtered in again. "If you see a left..."

"Take it. Got it," said Bastien. "How are we doing for speed? It's not moving?"

"It's been in the same place for a while now... Approach with caution. I think it might be planning something," said the Oracle. She sounded concerned. Bastien's frown deepened slightly, turning that piece of information over in his mind.

Luke, by contrast, was grinning. "Good," he said. "I've been itching for a fight. It's been too long since we had a feisty one on our hands."

[crow]

"Hey, you. This isn't a game," said Bastien.

"You're starting to sound just like the President," said Luke, sighing over Bastien's words. "Alright. She said left, right? Think that's it?"

Bastien looked ahead, and sure enough, there was another entrance opening up on the left side of the tunnel. Together, they stepped over the stream of sewage and over to the other side, ducking into the new tunnel. The smell didn't improve, and Bastien could see that there were no lights ahead. The light filtering through from the entrance wasn't going to be good enough for much longer.

[crow]

Fortunately, in this day and age, that wasn't the issue it could have been. Luke fished his cell phone out from his pocket and fiddled with it for a moment. Light came pouring out from the camera flash, making Bastien wince at the sudden glare of it right in his eyes. "Watch where you're pointing that thing, dumbass," he said.

"Oh. Sorry," said Luke, angling it away, and moving forward so he could take point. The light startled other things too--- Bastien recovered just in time to see a rat skittering away from them.

[crow]

The fact that there were still rats running around this close to the Mal... Bastien didn't know if that was a good sign or not. Either it was too preoccupied with something else to notice them, or they were too small to catch its interest. Chances were they were dealing with a big one, and maybe it already had a victim. Or maybe the Oracle was right, and it had something up its sleeve.

He was about to ask for another estimate on its relative distance when a gasp came through over the line. "The Mal, it's... It's gone!"

[crow]

"What? Like hell it is," said Bastien, a touch more irritated than he meant to sound. Still, that couldn't have been right--- Mals didn't just disappear like that. And their Oracle wasn't so green that she would make this sort of mistake either, or so their seniors had told them, though even that seemed more likely than what she was trying to sell them right now.

"I... I was certain that it was here..." Her voice faltered, a nervous note to it that made Bastien regret having been so terse with her.

[crow]

It sounded as though she didn't quite believe it herself either. Bastien sighed. He could at least believe that she wasn't trying to mislead them, though if she had sent them on a wild goose hunt, he still wasn't going to be happy about it.

Beside him, Luke was frowning. "What do you mean it's gone?" he said.

"The signal," said the Oracle. "It's not there anymore. At least, I don't--- Oh!" Both of them looked up at the Oracle's gasp of surprise, tensing as they braced themselves for whatever it was that had startled her.

[crow]

The Oracle they knew and worked with was quiet and concerned, but usually more even-keeled than this, if only because she seemed to understand that staying calm helped out those on the field. If she was letting her surprise show through, then this must have been one hell of an encounter for her too.

A moment passed, and then another. Then, the Oracle's voice filtered out to them once more. "I-It's... I don't sense the Mal anymore, but..." She sounded hesitant, as if she wasn't sure herself whether she ought to believe what she was seeing.

[crow]

Bastien tamped down on his own impatience, knowing that it would do neither of them any good for him to rush her. "There's... I think there's another Contact!"

"What?" Luke looked up sharply, and even Bastien tensed. "Someone got there before us?"

"I... I'm not sure. I didn't sense them before now, though maybe the Mal's presence was obscuring it... " There was a short pause. "I don't recognize them. Goodness, I hope they haven't just awakened..."

"Shit," said Bastien. He started down the tunnel again at once, but Luke was one step ahead of him, already breaking into a run.

[crow]

"Hey! Slow down!" Bastien barked at him, but Luke didn't do anything of the sort.

"Are you kidding? They could be in trouble. You heard the Oracle---"

"There's a Mal on the loose, you moron! We don't know what we're rushing into." Nevertheless, since Luke didn't relent, Bastien had no choice but to start running himself, muttering curses under his breath as he quickened his pace. Damn it. This wasn't time to be playing hero. He didn't know what was going on here, but---

"Who's there?"