Chapter 3: Hot in Pursuit
The room was dark, and even with his acute eyesight, he didn't catch sight of the dark figure in time to stop himself from being attacked, something hard hit him in the shoulder, and he wasn't sure what it was, it knocked him sideways, and he almost fell, he reached for the lights instinctively, the room thrust into brightness that was almost sore upon the eyes.
A figure, dressed completely in black, a black faded and very dirty looking trenchcoat, and a black mask with two eyeholes shot out from at his left, catching him off guard. The black figure wielding a bronze bo-staff. He gasped and ducked, rolled across the floor and up to his feet, he looked around, several chemicals gone, a bag on the counter seemed to be their location.
The black figure swung the bo-staff at him, and he ducked again, he thrust his weight and pushed against the figures torso, pushing them against the wall, the torso threw the bo-staff up towards the ceiling, smashing one of the strip lights hanging there.
Remy didn't want to chance an explosion in a room full of chemicals. While his powers didn't generate heat nor fire, there was a chance that on any kind of powerful enough impact chemicals could combust themselves, he didn't want to chance it while others where in the building. Putting himself in danger was one thing, but putting others in danger was quite another.
"Who are you!?!" Remy demanded angrily.
The figure did not speak, but simply grabbed the large bag on the table, Remy could make out the sound of glass clinking against glass. Then, he gasped as the figure ducked behind that very counter and didn't come back up.
"What the fuck…" Remy asked of himself, he ran around to the other side of the counter, looking for a trace of who it had been. Nothing. He reached and smashed his hand against the alarm button, the sirens beginning to go off.
How the fuck could someone get through my security system?! He demanded, he knew no one could have possibly been that good at thieving that they could have outwitted him this time. He'd thought up every possible way to keep someone out. How had they done it?
It was then he realised something, the tiles he were standing upon were slightly different from the rest, the gap between four tiles seemingly a lot wider than the rest, could it be…
No, it couldn't have been, he had to tell himself sternly. But he took a single card and wedged it in one of the gaps, he held onto it, focusing a small amount of energy into the card. Not enough to cause a massive explosion, just enough to break the floor.
He moved back, covering his face as hard tiles flew past him and the soft blast of the explosion rang out in contrast to the alarm, he looked down.
A hole remained, through concrete, through earth, it was almost impossible to say how deep it might have been. Remy could see no bottom.
How could he have missed it? He'd spent almost every day in this laboratory standing over the very piece of floor where the tunnel had been. How could he have missed this?
It wasn't in the blue prints, he reasoned with himself, so whoever had done this had to have done it after the building had been erected. He turned as the security guard, Ray, and Carmel all rushed into the Lab, Carmel looking tired and confused, Michael's eyes flaring with anger at the damage when he ran around.
"Thief's been at it again, they went through the floor," Remy said, "I'm goin' after him, in the meantime, get a hold of Moira and Sean and tell them what's goin' on. If I'm not back in an hour, send someone after me," Remy said, he stared down into the rather long dark earthen hole, and sighed.
He climbed down, wedging his feet into the earth and shimmying down the hole, the sides close enough to allow him to hold himself up. He wasn't going to allow himself to fall just in case this was deeper than he'd allowed for.
Finally, the hole reached its end, and he leg go of the walls, letting himself fall into a rather large pile of soft damp earth that eased his landing. He pulled himself up, now caked with dirt. He begun to realise it was no wonder the thief's trenchcoat had been dirty. Remy reached into the inside pocket of his black trenchcoat, locating the a foot long pole he had left there days before, he was thankful he hadn't thought to remove it earlier. He pressed down on the three almost hidden buttons of the foot long pole, and it extended with a soft grinding of metal against metal, and to its full length of six feet. He held it tightly in his right hand, he retrieved a card from his pocket with his left, and charged the card up, it providing a small amount of light to see by. He walked carefully. He knew not what to expect.
The tunnel of earth seemed endless, its width considerable, more than eight feet wide and about seven feet high. It seemed that the tunnels were also older than he had first thought, judging by the large pillars of wood that were supporting its structure, the wood slightly festering, discoloured and damp. He held his card near to one of the pillars, yes, it was damp, and the wood felt strange.
Something about the tunnel seemed to suggest this had been underneath the island many years, perhaps even since the first or second World Wars, maybe providing underground shelter from bombs or even secret tunnels for hiding weaponry, rations, or maybe even for passing enemy lines – although Remy really couldn't have seen the German Army having spent enough time on Muir Island to have settled a base.
The only obvious thing about the tunnel was that the hole upwards towards the centre had been dug recently, since it had no particular support around it, and of course, the pile of earth underneath the hole, showing it had been recently disturbed.
Down in distance, almost echoing, he could hear the squeak of rats, and he could hear the noise of scuttling. There was probably more than rats down in this dank channel under the island. Insects…
Remy shuddered, if there was one thing on earth that made his skin crawl, it had to be insects. Remy wished he'd thought to bring some kind of large flashlight or a lantern, his own charged up card not providing much light.
The sound of dripping water was distant, and the tunnel seemed to go even further down, and then…it came to a T junction. At the end of the tunnel he'd passed through, was another tunnel facing east or west as opposing north, the way he'd just come. He looked blankly down both directions. He had no way of knowing which way the person he was pursuing had gone.
Trust your instinct, Remy, he could vaguely hear his fathers voice in his head, it was something his adoptive father had always told him when he didn't know the answer to something. His instincts were telling him nothing, he decided on pure luck, he pulled the pack of cards from his pocket, "okay," he said to himself in a whisper, "high card, I go left, low card, I go right."
He draw a card from the middle and turned it around in his hand to see the face, it was the ace of spades staring back up at him.
"How ironic," he muttered, knowing an ace could either be high or low. He frowned, "I don't have time for this," he shoved the cards back in his pocket furiously, "okay, which way would Rogue go?" he asked himself, he glanced left and right.
He knew the answer. Rogue always went right when it came to decisions like this, Remy was sure it was because Rogue was right handed, and her direction always seemed in that favour. He turned right and began down the passageway.
He was becoming increasingly aware how much the air was becoming even more stale than it had been in the passage, a pure sign that he was far away from an exit. He began to wonder how far he could be from the other way out – and surely, there had to be another way out, after all, how could this thief have gotten in?
Remy walked along carefully, his heart pounding furiously in his chest. He was so close this time to the thief he could almost taste revenge. Revenge for Rogue, revenge for her because of the drug this thief was allowing to be made. He began to run, feeling that he must be closer. Remy's thoughts of revenge and victory left him unaware of how close he was to danger, metal hit his jaw, the same bronze bo-staff having swung out from a darkened area, he felt the pain surge, but ignored it. He wielded his staff, and held it with both hands just in time as the enemies bo-staff came crashing down again, he managed to block it before it could hit him. He swung his bo-staff back, whoever he was fighting seemed to anticipate and know his every move and had chance to block before being hit. In the darkness the two figures were a flurry of fists, and metal. Remy was finding it almost impossible to fight, it was like fighting a mirror, he couldn't catch this person off guard with any of his moves.
"Who the fuck are you?!" Remy demanded, his voice angry, "tell me now!"
There was no answer, he dodged just out of the way as a fist came flying towards him, he caught it and pulled the fist behind the figure in blacks back, but caught off guard when he was thrown over, his back hitting the cold wet earth on the ground, he let out a cry of shock. He heard running, feet slapping against the cold earth.
He wasn't letting them get away.