First of all, I must apologize about the massive delays between updates on all my stories, it's all about when I'm feeling inspired and right now I'm in a sci-fi mood, so hopefully I'll advance this story a bit before I loose interest again.

Chapter 5: The Slums

The Ed's left Jake's apartment and stood in the quiet hallway, "I can't wait to use this" said Ed looking at the hand-cannon he was holding, "Yeah, we have to conceal that somehow, no way the security drones would let you pass with that" said Edd, "Not a problem Double D, we'll just use the smuggling chutes" said Eddy smugly, "The what?" Edd asked raising an eyebrow, "Haven't you ever been outside? Jeez you're such an FNG at this" Edd said, annoyance in his voice and his face in his palm.

"Well I'm sorry Eddy, I don't associate with the criminal element" replied Edd in a mock apology, "Please Eddy explain to me what the hell you're talking about and also, anything else that I'll probably need to know" Edd continued sarcastically, "Good to see you've finally taken an interest in my hobbies, Double D" was Eddy's happy reply. "Ok, the smuggling chutes are long vents that fall all the way down to the Slums, a few of my associates use them to get stuff either to Upper or Lower Stratnigrad, they're little elevators, too small for a person, but big enough for a package, which is their usual cargo." explained Eddy, "Only problem is there are only a few chutes in the whole city and only one that works, which isn't good 'cause it's on the other side of the city. But the one near here will do fine, as long as you don't mind getting that gun a bit scratched."

Ed hugged his gun, "I don't want to hurt it" Ed protested, "Too bad Ed, you can get it back in a minute when we reach the slums." Ed mumbled something under his breath, "Follow me, the chute is just behind this building." Eddy led the way to the far end of the hallway and into a janitor's closet, Eddy moved some mops and stamped the wall behind them, the small section of wall separated from the rest and Eddy removed it revealing a number pad.

He punched in a few digits and the entire back wall of the small room opened up. Nothing special was inside, just a small, off-white concrete room with a large, square hole on the far wall.

An ominous sound was coming from the hole, like it was inhaling air continuously, Edd stepped forward and looked down the hole, nothing but all consuming darkness. Eddy cracked a glow-stick he had in his pocket and dropped it down the hole, it fell silently into the dark abyss.

"No way the gun will survive a fall like that" said Edd as he watched the glow-stick disappear. "It'll be fine, you can't see it but the edges are padded and there's a few bends quiet far down that'll slow it enough to make sure it doesn't break." explained Eddy, "Come on Ed, down it goes" said Eddy pointing at the hole, Ed let out a sigh and approached the hole, "See you at the bottom" Ed muttered to his gun before letting it fall into the inky blackness, then Ed removed the ammo pack from his back and dropped it down too, it fell down without a sound.

The three friends left the building and out into the plaza, "Right, we gotta get down to the slums and find this guy" said Eddy, removing the small box from his pocket and looking at it, "Hmmm, Where are we going to sleep tonight, the adrenaline is beginning to wear off and I'm getting tired" said Edd checking his watch. "There's a place down there with some beds we could use, won't cost much, but it's kinda grimy" said Eddy as he led the way to the Descender.

Eddy led them through the streets and down an alley, dumpsters and empty boxes lined the alley, a rat scurried across their path as the three boys walked down the alley, they turned a corner and were greeted by a solid concrete wall with a single, dirty door. Eddy tried to open the door, but it was stuck, Eddy stood back and gave the door a kick and with that it burst open, revealing a dingy corridor with a florescent bulb flickering near the end. The walls were stained a pale yellow. Edd tried to ignore the smell that hung in the air like an invisible fog. Eddy led them round the corner at the end of the corridor and into a much larger room, it was a balcony over looking the floor below, a square section of which was fenced off. Two fences running parallel to each other only half a foot or so apart. The fences seemed to serve no purpose, they were waist high and were enclosing nothing.

The three boys made a loud clanging noise as they descended a flight of metal stairs. The noice echoed through the large room, which remained eerily quiet. "How old is this place" asked Edd examining some rust on the fences that seemed to serve no purpose, "It was here before we were, that's for sure, but I'm not sure when it was built, probably around sixty years ago, when they began building Upper Stratnigrad, or some time after. They stopped using it commercially three years ago, when the mayor passed that law where you had to have a Pass if you weren't a citizen of the Ups (Upper Stratnigrad)" explained Eddy looking around the decaying room.

The large square room had little in the way of features, just the balcony encircling it and an office that over looked the room. It's large one-way glass stuck out next to the off-white that made up most of the room's paint work. On the ground level, beneath the office was a small console on a column coming out of the floor inside the fence area. Eddy opened a gate in the fence and stepped inside, followed by Edd and Ed.

Eddy pushed a button on the console. Nothing happened. Eddy pressed it again, still nothing. "Generator must be out again" said Eddy, "Ed, go sort out the generator, I'll reset it" ordered Eddy, "Righto Eddy" said Ed giving a fake salute, Ed turned around, hopped the fence and disappeared into one of the two doors on this level. "Come with me Double D" said Eddy pointing at the office "We gotta reset the Descender from up there".

Ed walked along a dimly light corridor and into the generator room. A large fan that was inside the wall, behind a wire mesh was attached to a cylinder with a several large wires coming out of it. The cylinder sat upon a concrete pedestal with a console attached. Ed examined the console, the small screen read "Fault detected. Coupling 3", Ed opened a slab of metal from the cylinder, inside were several dozen wires and few electronic components that played some vague, however important, role. Third wire from the top left was fried, not a problem, Ed tugged the wire next to it and it was removed from it's top socket, Ed removed the problem wire and replaced it with borrowed one.

Ed pushed the reset button on the console and the room went dark along with the entire facility. Meanwhile....

Edd and Eddy walked along the metal balcony that led to the office, Eddy opened the door and entered the dank room, the air was moist and the smell of a developing fungus was lingering in the air. There was a wooden desk with an old computer sitting on it, no chair though. Eddy tapped a button on the computer and it awoke, just a white screen awaiting instructions. "Ed'll turn the power off in a sec..." Eddy began before being interrupted by a sudden darkness, the whole room was dark except for an area near the window where light from some outside source shone in.

"Three...two...one" Eddy whispered to himself, the screen of the computer came back on, a black screen with green letters asking "Complete System reset?". Eddy tapped the "Y" button and light was restored.

The trio met back at the fence, "Ok, for real this time" said Eddy as he pushed a button on the console, the floor jolted. Then it began to slowly descend. The two fences parted as the Descender slowly lowed itself to the Slums. After a few metres the Descender sped up and darkness enveloped the Ed's as they left the light of the facility above them. Ed looked over the edge of the giant elevator down at the slums, they were at least 300 meters above them, the lights shone up, making for quiet an impressive view, not as good as seeing a major city from the sky, but you could see every pathway, make out individual buildings and see in far better detail. None of the surface high-rise buildings existed down here, the tallest building Edd could see was four storeys high.

Edd turned his attention to the massive columns that held up the city, they were huge, large enough to be buildings themselves, each had pipes of varying sizes running down them like vines. They led up to total blackness, no light shone down from the city above, Edd could just make out the underside of the city, huge support beams and pipes criss-crossed underneath. They were approaching the bottom now, the facility down here was little more than a building with some maintenance gear in it. The trio left the building onto the cold, dark streets. There were no roads or cars down here, just wide walking paths and alleyways.

"Well I'm about ready to collapse. What you think about getting some shut eye?" asked Eddy rubbing his eyes, "That sounds good" Edd replied, Ed let out some noise that sounded in the positive. "Good, just this way" said Eddy pointing down a alley.

Eddy led them to a place called "Danny's", the entrance was down a short flight of stairs. "Danny's? Sounds friendly" said Edd noticing the neon sign above the doorway, "It isn't, Danny's an Ex-merc and has a habit of stabbing people who don't pay up on their bets" said Eddy. "Thanks for the heads up" replied Edd, now a lot more worried about sleeping here. They entered the hovel of a bar and were greeted by ... no one.

The bar was empty, not surprising given the time, Edd looked around his new surroundings, The floor was made of wooden panelling, except for a few areas that were missing planks that had been filled with concrete. The wood was ancient, pale grey and shrinking. They creaked loudly when stood on. The walls were mostly plastered, but large chunks revealed the brinks behind the plastering, graffiti covered a lot of the walls, especially around the tables in the corners. The chairs were torn and had bits of stuffing coming out. A neon light flickered in one corner, a few florescent lights hung from the ceiling, but didn't do much to help the grim appearance of the whole place.

Eddy went over to the bar and lent over, looking for something. "Hey Phil where are you?" Eddy yelled over the counter, a fat man with a neck beard came out of a room in the back, "eh? Who's calling me?" groaned the fat man, obviously drunk. "It's Eddy, from the Academy" Eddy said waving his hand to get Phil's attention, Phil looked at Eddy and after a short delay ... "EDDY! Good to see you man, where you been I haven't seen you in years" said Phil coming over to Eddy and grabbing him in a hug over the counter, "thanks Phil, but it's only a few months" said Eddy, trying to pull his head away Phil's chest. "Oh, well it felt like such a long time" Phil blubbered drunkly. "Yeah sure, me and my friends need a place for the night, got any spare rooms" asked Eddy, "yeah sure, there's a few rooms free, got a whole bunch of you kids coming here all night, what's up?" asked Phil, "Other kids? Like who?" asked Eddy interested in his drunk friend's muttering, "I don't remember, some girls, some guys I don't know" muttered Phil, "Ok, never mind, we'll just find those rooms then" said Eddy pulling away from Phil.

Edd found the rooms to be, joyfully, not as bad as he thought. The mattress was old, but not in such a bad condition that Edd couldn't sleep well enough. The walls were bare brick and the floor, mostly concrete, but Edd was too tired to really care about the deco.

The next Day...

Edd was awoken by the sound of rushing water, he looked around the room as the memory's of the previous night flooded back in. The source of the noise was a pipe running down the side of the wall, it was shaking as the water fell through it. Edd got out of the grungy bed and put his shoes on, he'd slept in his clothes with the exception of his shoes. He went next door to Ed and Eddy's room, Ed was up, but Eddy was still sprawled out on his bed, mouth wide open. "Morning Ed" Edd greeted, Ed yawned, "Morning Double D, what a night eh?" replied Ed, "yeah, I'm still exhausted" Edd said rubbing his tired eyes. "It reminds me of that time I camped out for two days waiting for Day of Death 2 to come out. That was such a great game"said Ed holding back a yawn. "Will you two shut up" came a voice from the pile that was Eddy. "Just get up Eddy, we gotta find that guy your friend wanted us to give that thing to" said Edd annoyed, prodding Eddy's leg. "Gah, your worse than an alarm clock" grumbled Eddy as he got up and put his combat boots on.

The three walked into the main room, there were a few people here and there, still too early for the main crowd. But in one of the corner booths Eddy saw a sliver of blue hair, he moved round to get a better view of the person and to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from lack of sleep. He moved round and saw the two Riverdale girls. "Hey" said Eddy punching Edd lightly in the arm, "Look who's found their way down to us". "Nazz and Marie?" Edd squinted to make sure, "Your right, it is them".

Eddy approached them, backed by Edd and Ed. "Now what are two girlies like you doing in a place like this?" Eddy asked in a deeper voice than usual, the girls looked up, Marie noticed Edd and stood up, "It's you guys, when did you get here?" she asked, happy to see a familiar face. "Last night" said Eddy sitting down next to Nazz. "More like early this morning" Edd corrected. The girls shuffled in to make room for the Eds. "How'd you end up down here?" asked Edd "After the shit hit the fan at the academy we went out into the city and found a park to sleep in, but then we remembered you guys talking out the Descender, luckily for us, the janitor of some hotel was on his way down here as well, so took us down with him. This place was the first place we found with beds, so we stayed here, there was some drunk guy who said we could" explained Nazz. Ed nodded quietly, "Yeah, well who wants a drink? Coffee? Booze? Booze n' Coffee" offered Eddy standing up "You can have anything, the guys know me" Eddy offered again, "I'll just have a cup of coffee" said Edd, "Me too" said Marie. "Ed? Usual" Eddy asked, standing at the bar "Yup" Ed replied happily.

Eddy jumped over the bar and into the back room. "So what do think about those terrorists that attacked us last night?" asked Nazz, "Well they said they wanted to help us, but then why did they shoot at us." said Edd, "Maybe we should find them and ask them ourselves" suggested Nazz, "It could be a trap" said Marie, countering Nazz's advice, "I might be able to find out more about them, then make a decision" said Edd, "I'll see what I can find out".

Eddy returned a few minutes later with the drinks. They talked for a while and the conversation eventually turned to their biomods. They each explained their modifications, Eddy finally asked, "So why's a rich kid like you got such weird mods? I mean a leech drone? That's rare even within the army". "Well" Marie hesitated, "My parents are sort of obsessed with my security, they wanted me to be almost bullet proof, but I wasn't the right type for actual bullet-proofing. I chose the eye mod though" she explained. The conversation continued around biomods, eventually ending up on the history of biomods, how the earliest one were really gory.

After an hour of idle chit-chat, Eddy realized that he was behind schedule, he still had to deliver that little box. "Well, ladies I would love to stay and continue this pointless banter, but we gotta go" Eddy said, pointing his thumbs to the door. The Eds got up and began for the door, Edd turned around and quickly said "We'll be back in an hour, meet us back here" before being dragged oput the door by Ed.

(A/N) Well that's the chapter. Sorry for the immense delay, hopefully the next chapter will be out sooner now that I have a plan for it.