Enter a world of heroism, intrigue, twists, bravery, rocks and hard places, mind-blow, humor, deception, shadow, and nightfall. The deeper you go, the more intense it gets... Enjoy!

Update 1-19/2015, 2-9/2015, and 2-19/2015 (and 3-2/2015 and autumn 2016): New summary/description thing. (Yes, that's how I write [EDIT: used to write] dates.)

Update August 2016: After vanishing from my story from more than a year, I have returned and am making major edits to the first few chapters and overhauling an OC. I'm also probably going to make some major edits to a few later chapters, and some minor tweaks all around, before adding any new chapters. Hang in there, I'm entering junior year and am going to be busy. (Not sure whether I'm talking to myself here.) Also, we are past 10,000 views. Thank you, everyone!

Second update March 2018: Another edit wave is beginning!

May contain significant violence (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and theoretical sci-fi (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). (Just kidding, you're all welcome to read.)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Underland Chronicles, only select characters and the plot. I don't own tasers, World Wars, Virginia, Mountain Dew, or Snickers, either. I'm not sure how obvious that is(n't), but you can never be too safe.

Also, you may notice the numerous references, especially to other fanfics, in the story. Generally, these other works helped inspire portions of mine, so I chose to honor them by adding those little tributes to them. Any particularly obscure or interesting references will be explicitly mentioned in author's notes or footnotes, and others will be mentioned in the Acknowledgements and Commentary chapter. Please don't be put off when you see something familiar! (Includes the very beginning of the story.)

The newest chapters are (kind of) open-sourced on Google Docs! Check it out to bug me and look at current progress. (It won't spoil anything that won't be in the newest chapter anyway.) The website doesn't let me post URLs and a Google Docs address would be like literally impossible for you to copy down, so here's the shortened version: tinyurl dot com slash SAI1progress

Part 1

Daylight

Chapter 1

After the Fall

Two fifteen-year-old boys raced through the dangerous streets of what had once been New York City, chased by a group of about two dozen people wielding bats, knives, crowbars, odd pieces of junk, and other crude weapons. Their eyes swept over rubble and wreckage as they searched for a hiding place.

Their mornings often went something like that. The city was far from the magnificent place it had once been.

The first boy, weighed down by several large packages, spotted an abandoned shop and whipped into it without hesitation. The second boy, wearing an odd, large backpack, dodged a thrown knife and followed wordlessly, slamming the door shut. Their pursuers ran past the store, but then backtracked and entered the narrow shop, kicking the door in.

The boy with the backpack reached into it, pulling out a metal tube with several hoses attached. He pointed the device at the pursuers, and threw a switch.

Nothing happened.

He grumbled and smacked the tube halfheartedly on a table, which, on second thought, he also flipped over and took cover behind as his companion went into action with two swords, dropping the packs. "Never mind, Gregor," his voice sounded from behind the table. "I really thought it would work this time. Just give me a moment for now. I'll work on it."

Gregor knew his friend well enough to understand that "working on it" meant that Joshua would start tinkering literally right now. However, that thought lost precedence as his reflexes engaged. Gregor either dodged or knocked aside anything flying at him, and incapacitated five or six assailants with ease, kicking them over to the other side of the smallish room and out of the way.

At the end of those few seconds, Gregor heard his friend call out through the commotion.

"Okay, duck?"

He promptly somersaulted out of the way as his companion activated the device again.

This was a good thing, as the mystery contraption turned out to be a homemade flamethrower. If Gregor hadn't moved, he'd have joined the intended victims, which were now rolling outside on the ground trying to extinguish themselves.

"Nice one, Josh," he congratulated. He would have rolled his eyes, but this was a stressful situation.

Then he registered that his friend had only taken out about half their remaining opponents with that move. The survivors rushed him with cries of rage, but he knew he outclassed them. Someone swung at his left with a heavy baseball bat, but Gregor parried it easily, redirecting the force into another attacker while simultaneously driving his boot into the bat wielder's solar plexus. The remaining six circled around him, but two fell from knives thrown at them by Joshua. Two more succumbed to hard left and right slashes to the neck and chest, and another found Gregor's boot in his face, as well as a metal chair in his back, which Joshua had thrown at him.

The last one swung a crowbar at Gregor, who dodged before the weapon had even started moving. As he did so, though, the guy tripped him with a wraparound leg. As the crowbar wound up for another swing, the man suddenly jerked as he was hit in the back by a burst of paintballs. Gregor rolled out of the way as his opponent stumbled forward, his head meeting the edge of a table with a thunk.

Gregor rolled over so he was facing upward, and took a few luxurious seconds to catch his breath. He looked down and saw that the paint had splattered over his clothes.

"Oh, come on," he said, trying to lighten up the mood. "I liked this shirt, too." His nerves were still very jittery.

"Sorry," Joshua mumbled. He started retrieving weapons from bodies that were dead or unconscious, but mostly dead.

"Hey, it's okay, alright? It was a joke. I was joking."

Gregor looked around, trying to figure out where Joshua had even gotten the paintball gun. His eyes settled on an empty stand on one of the shelves, with a few more guns nicely packaged for sale beneath it. Ha. So there was a loaded demo gun in this store? He let himself chuckle, imagining the carnage that might have resulted from younger children coming inside.

Gregor got up and helped dig around, taking their attackers' equipment. Not because they needed it—they had more weapons than they could handle—but so that no one else would be able to get their hands on them.

Joshua stuffed miscellaneous metal bits and the like into his large pack, which was handmade but of surprisingly good quality. "Can we start heading back? I feel like that last find should be enough for today."

They picked up the packs and went out the door to walk the thirteen or so blocks to the building they used as a refuge. They picked their way through wreckage and puddles of rancid water. What had once been a magnificent row of skyscrapers had now become a burned-out, dusty pile of rubble, a testament to the sheer madness of what had happened to make it this way.

It had started two years ago, a year after Gregor had come back from his last adventure. The sounds often came back to him at night. The whine of a plane's engines, careening down wildly toward Times Square, as if it were a landing strip. The frantic chaos of the school as a wave of panic swept through the hallways. Huge plumes of smoke in the late afternoon sun. The shock rippling through the city, as if the whole thing was a dream, too surreal and too dramatic to be real. It was a foreign feeling. This kind of thing was something that only happened in movies, or perhaps in the Middle East or something. Not New York.

What had to have been a powerful terrorist group had annihilated many prominent buildings and banks, as well as destroying any access into or out of the city, but it mostly centered on Manhattan. Who had done it? They had used no identifiable equipment. The planes they used were hijacked from civilian fleets, the bombs left behind no identifiable fragments-though they were impressively powerful. Al-Qaeda? Nope. ISIS? Nope. The IRA? Ha, no way. Russia? North Korea? No one claimed responsibility. Countries and governments around the world started to be wary of each other, pointing fingers. International relations were strained.

The government had done what they could to evacuate the city, but the attackers then proceeded to destroy the main bridges and countless docks. The government couldn't just abandon the remaining New Yorkers, so they had to resort to airdropping packages of clean food and water into the city to supply everyone. The water might have been a bit redundant, as the water mains were still mostly operational, but it wasn't like a random government person could just land on (or through) a building and ask if people needed a plumber.

These packages were what he and Joshua had been looking for, and why they had competition with the gangsters. The airdrops had stopped a few months ago, but the food was mostly non-perishable. The city was pretty much entirely disconnected from the outside world, so Gregor hoped New York was the only place where the attackers had struck, but there was no way to know.

His parents had decided to delay their move to Virginia for a few months, and coincidentally started it exactly at the time of the attacks. Gregor, Lizzie and Boots got separated from them and were trapped in the city. They did manage to get word to their parents, though, saying that they were alive and well and intended to stay that way.

The weight of the food and water Gregor was carrying dug into his mind again, as the packages were a bit sharp and the handles were uncomfortable, and the straps going over his shoulder chafed him somewhat.

Gregor didn't mind the pain, though. Now, pain only served to alert him to injuries, and it rarely bothered him enough to affect his concentration.

"Can we stop a moment?" Joshua asked. "I've been thirsty for like an hour."

"Yeah, sure." Gregor put everything down and dug around the packages for something to drink. "Hey... guess what we got today?"

Joshua smiled widely, and nodded, visibly excited. Pink lemonade. They hadn't had lemonade in months. They usually just had to settle for water. But not today. He drained half a bottle before Gregor even figured out how many there were to start with. "Anything else worth mentioning?" He wiped his mouth and drank some more.

Gregor looked. "Five packages of... whatever this is. Beans? Uhh, freeze-dried beef here, canned fruit..." He continued listing their findings.

Joshua nodded.

Gregor gulped down some lemonade and just looked at him. Joshua. His best friend. So different now than when they had first met...

"Hey, freak. Whatcha doing there?"

Gregor's head turned. It had been months since he had returned from the Underland. Actually, it was his birthday today. His first birthday during the try-to-make-people-think-your-life-isn't-a-huge-cover-up phase that he suspected would last the rest of his life. He thought he'd done a pretty good job hiding his scars and whatnot, but apparently he had let something slip somewhere and was in for a decidedly unpleasant birthday present.

Happy birthday. Make a wish.

Ha, if only.

Then he realized the comment wasn't directed at him. He looked down the hallway to see a cluster of boys down near the lockers. He recognized most of them. Every seventh grader feared them, and rightly so. But there was one more, a slim boy with dark messy hair and green eyes, and nearly a head shorter than Gregor, whom he had never seen before.

"You new here?" one of the larger guys demanded. He seemed to be the leader. "Well, you're gonna learn to respect us."

The boy said nothing, didn't even look up at them. Gregor started moving toward them. He'd tried to avoid getting involved in anything big and noteworthy for the past few months, preferring to keep a low profile so people wouldn't pay any attention to him, but he wasn't about to let these guys pummel someone who was obviously defenseless. His Underland experiences hadn't changed that about him, at least.

"Look at me!"

The boy still didn't look up.

"Hey, there's something on your face." The brute stepped forward and punched the boy on the jaw so hard that he fell backward against the lockers. "It's pain!"

The boy impressively managed to stay on his feet, and made absolutely no attempt to fight back. The larger boy yelled again and gave him another punch that threw his head to the side, and Gregor saw that the boy's other eye was blue. Hmm, different-colored eyes. That likely explained the "freak" comment. If Gregor had more time, he would've thought having one blue eye and one green eye was pretty cool. But he had more pressing things to worry about at the moment.

"Hey, lay off! Leave him alone."

Heads turned to look at Gregor. "Oh, hey. I'm in the middle of something here. What's up with you? Feeling suicidal today? Want some death? Well, that can be arranged." The leader's voice had become low and dangerous. A small crowd was starting to gather around them.

Gregor narrowed his eyes, switching to his opponent's language, so to speak. "Oh, there might be death, all right. But I think you're mistaken about whose death, exactly."

"Oh, you want some? Come and get it."

The thugs had mostly turned away from the other boy and started moving in on Gregor instead. He refused to make the first strike, but subtly lowered into a slight crouch.

The leader noticed and interpreted it as a flinch. "Oh, scared, huh? You should be."

Gregor felt himself automatically returning the bravado. "I'm not scared of you. I'm scared for you."

The leader sneered and threw the first punch.

Seconds later, five bodies were strewn across the floor. None of them were dead, Gregor noted. That was a plus.

Someone in the crowd let out a small squeak.

Gregor sighed. "All right, show's over. Nothing to see here. Come on, you're all going to be late."

As the crowd started to break up, Gregor turned and noticed the new boy looking at him with understandably wide eyes.

"Thanks..." he said, barely loud enough to be audible. There was a strange quality to his voice. Not flat, but... downtrodden. It reminded him of someone. Himself, maybe?

Actually, during these first few months after returning from the Underland, Gregor had more or less stopped seeing any purpose in his life and slipped into what he halfheartedly assumed was probably depression. He did everything in a glum and robotic manner and rarely even cracked a smile. What was the point? His life should have been so much more than this. And the move to Virginia was still looming over him like a death sentence. His parents tried to get him to cheer up, to no avail.

But the person in front of him now practically screamed for his attention. There was something about this boy that he just couldn't treat with apathy like he did everything else. Maybe it was the way he still seemed to curl inward, even though they were alone, arms crossed and eyes now downcast as though he was perpetually expecting to be hit with a fist or an insult. Or maybe, Gregor thought, as they made eye contact, it was that his eyes showed the scars of long-suffering pain, like he saw with Ripred.

Gregor reached out and put a hand on the boy's shoulder, prompting him to flinch a little. He managed to find a kind tone of voice that he didn't know he had, and said, "Glad I could help." And amazingly, it didn't feel like just empty words. "What's your name?"

"Joshua."

"I'm Gregor." Then a thought appeared out of the blue. He was fairly certain that he was going insane, but he said it anyway. "Want to be friends?"

Joshua frowned, as if he didn't know the meaning of the word. "Friends...?" he whispered. "...Okay." He nodded with a far-off look in his eyes.

Gregor managed an impressively legitimate smile. "Awesome. Are you hurt?" He remembered his suspicion that Joshua was new around here. "You know where the nurse's office is?" Then his smile faded as he recalled how hard the boy had been hit.

"I think I'll be okay."

Apparently, Joshua wouldn't throw a punch to save his life, but he could take them. Maybe he did take them. Gregor looked back up with a start.

Over the next few months, they discovered that they had a few classes together, and chose seats near each other when they could. The two of them quietly celebrated Joshua's birthday the next month, just the two of them. Joshua started opening up, talking more, though he was still just about silent. Gregor learned that his mother had died in a car crash four years ago, and his father was abusive when he was drunk (which was often) and awkward when he was sober. Joshua was a little like Gregor's dad and Lizzie, and perhaps (though it might have been a bit early to be sure) Boots. He was clever and inventive, and good with his hands, but Gregor was fairly certain that he was the only one that had ever seen this side of him.

Gregor found himself opening up too. He started feeling more alive. He found himself smiling more often than he thought he would ever be able to (though it admittedly still wasn't much), and renewed his friendships with Larry and Angelina. Was he starting to heal?

A month before his birthday, he would have scoffed at the question, or ignored it. A month after his birthday, he found himself actually starting to care about what the answer might be.

Then Joshua hit a growth spurt and shot up until he was nearly Gregor's height. Gregor grew too, but Joshua managed to almost keep pace with him. Gregor's hair stayed short, but Joshua's black hair was slightly longer, and refused to cooperate with any sort of attempt to make it behave.

Joshua started to grow bolder, too. In one memorable incident, they had discovered that he was actually impressively strong, though no one would ever have guessed because he was slim and looked sort of bony. When a couple of bullies had tried to beat him up again, Joshua actually tried going on the offense and punching one in the face, and knocked him out cold. The other one backed away, and Joshua stared at his fist in amazement for what must have been a full minute.

"Did you see that?" he'd exclaimed. "I did that!"

The bullies gave them an acceptably wide berth after that.

Then one day, just when Gregor was thinking his life could actually return to some semblace of being normal, the attacks hit. Larry and Angelina both lost their families, Gregor lost his grandmother, and Joshua lost his father. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? From what Joshua had said about his dad, Gregor honestly wasn't sure.

They were all in shock, but managed to stick together and find new lives, and started the healing process over again. It only brought them closer together.

Joshua had been the best birthday present Gregor had ever received.

Gregor was jerked out of his reverie by Joshua's voice.

"That store. Have we raided it yet?"

Gregor frowned. "That's... not possible. People have been raiding everything in Manhattan for years. And this is so close to our hideout. There is absolutely no way that place is still loaded."

"I mean, it looks pretty pristine. Doesn't it?"

"I still refuse to believe that we've been stupid enough to have missed this place for this whole time. Plus, any number of people should have come across it by now." Gregor tried adding some more humor. "It's not like they've gotten so scared of us that they'd stay away from here."

They hadn't seen an intact store for months, and their shelter was about a block away.

Well, it was true that they didn't come this way often. At all, actually.

"I think I could still carry more. I guess I'll go check it out," said Joshua over his shoulder as he started off.

"No way. First there was just the lemonade, and now a whole store..." Gregor muttered under his breath.

They jogged over and shattered the glass door, going inside. It was a hardware store, which meant there was probably no food except maybe some gum at the counter, which partially explained why other people hadn't been quite as interested in this place. The shelves were still loaded with merchandise. Gregor grabbed a couple of flashlights. They could always be useful. As could those nine-volts on the shelf to his left. He heard an "Ooh, lighters!" somewhere to his left. "Hmm, whoever owned this store kept the lighters and propane on the same shelf."

It was an overcast day, meaning that the interior of the store was a bit dim. Echolocation helped a lot there. He caught sight of something about twenty feet from him. "Hey! Josh! I found some Snickers!" He sprinted over, grabbing some. Joshua clicked his way through the aisles and found the spot.

Everyone in their group could use echolocation, but none of them, except Lizzie, knew where Gregor had learned it. When they asked, he'd just say that he'd tell them later. He would, too. Gregor was planning to tell them, or at least Joshua, on his sixteenth birthday. Next month. It had been a while. Gregor ignored the fact that he had said this about his last birthday, too. And the one before that.

After about another twenty mad, exciting seconds, Gregor said, "Okay, I think that's all we can carry. Let's come back here later." Joshua followed him through the aisle and out the door.

With that taken care of, they turned a corner and saw their hideout coming into view.

First fanfic, just keep that in mind while you *review* (hint, hint).

August 2016:

So... I added the flashback/prologue/thing. This probably ends any plans for a real prologue, or a prequel. Do you like it? Doesn't it make Joshua feel really different? Did I screw up some detail and contradict myself somewhere?

Let me just add that I changed Joshua's appearance (hair, eyes) as a tribute to a character in QueenAurora's stories. (If the name is unfamiliar, then I would refer you to the HTTYD realm.) I also tried to make his personality like Hiccup's in TAAOFHAW. Aurora, if you ever read this, you should know that I'm dedicating this chapter to you. Also, I swear the name Josh was just a coincidence.

Chapter was first uploaded on 15 November 2013. Most recent edit was 4 August 2018.