Trapped (Hobbs)

[Dante Stark]

Dante had been reading the news paper as he flicked across the page he'd been looking at the new politician elections and before he finished looking through the section properly his phone beeped.. Examining the test message he grabbed his black jacket and closed the door.. He quickly cut through the back alleyways as he checked his holster held his new sidearm.. He had gotten information about a disturbance in the sewers. Stark couldn't tell who's number it was as it'd been blocked but he ran through the alleyway as fast as he could. He'd seen the manhole cover and looked around the streets had been empty apart from a few pedestrians.

Stark moved the cover and slid into the hole.. While he did he looked up and saw two brutish men smirk down at him as they threw the cover back on and shouted something to him..

"Ah.. Mr. Stark you've been a thorn in our side but now we're going to kill you in the one place you are not safe.. The Sewers.. We're going to have every exit sealed you shan't escape..The only exit is through the old pipes deep underground.. You have until six o'clock before we blow them up and you are trapped.. Goodbye now.." The voice laughed.. Stark grunted and looked up at the manhole..

There had to be a way out he wasn't trapped like a rat.. He looked down at his watch it was 2 PM he'd had a few hours to find an exit before he'd get caught in the blast..

Stark grabbed his pistol from his holster and his flashlight and held them up as he ventured further into the tunnels.. He'd need to try and make it to the closest vent which was about three miles north.. Dante walked slowly taking notes of the various tunnels in his head.. He'd looked around and he couldn't hear the sounds of any cars or pedestrians he must have taken a wrong turn.

Doubling back Stark took a few detours and wound up completely lost in the tunnels.. Checking his phone he had one bar of signal..Stark wanted to text Hazel and get her help but she'd probably think he was just trying to get her to talk to him.. Stark dialled up his phone and it didn't call out instead refusing to make the call.. "GOD FUCKING DAMNIT.." He screamed as loud as he could as it echoed through the tunnel.. Stark sighed as his boots trampled in the sewage water.. He hated the putrid smell but it was nothing compared to the smell of dead bodies..

Stark ran through the pipes as fast as he could.. He wasn't going to die trapped down here.. It was a life and death situation, He stopped to breath as he rested up against a pipe.. He thought he could almost hear a voice in the distance.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

Hobbs had been cracking through layer after layer of security of the smart phone ever since she’d recovered it on a hunt. She’d tapped into the safe on nest hit with Cortes, swiped the smart phone from inside and shortly after had its security measures cracked wide open. As she continued to peel away layer after layer, breaking through passwords and hacking into accounts, she salvaged more and more information; information that was instantly synced to her tablet and backed up on three different cloud storage systems.

She’d gone out solo to scout locations, set up a sniper rifle, secure vantage points and test out potential to make hits on some of the nests. The smart phone had even given her the locations of several Lycan whereabouts. She’d picked off the loners one by one; larger groups and better defended dens were better off left until she could take the info to Logan... get a crew set up or something. If they were going to take out these safe houses, they were going to do it right.

On this particular occasion, Hobbs was headed underground. Having spritzed herself thoroughly with scent masking spray beforehand, she popped on her infrared glasses, checked her pockets for all her bombs, and descended through the manhole into the sewer. On her left foot she wore a rubber welly, ready for wading through stagnant water, on her left foot she wore nothing. Prepared for water contact, she’d traded out her normal carbon steel and fibre myoelectric-hydraulic leg for her cheetah blade. Not only was there no risk of anything short-circuiting with a curved and springy structure of carbon fibre, but it also shaved about five seconds off her four hundred metre track time; ideal for dealing with pissed off Lycans in confined spaces.
There was a grippy rubber pad under the ‘foot’ of her cheetah blade, so that it didn’t clang when she descended down the ladder. It was also handier than a crowbar when it came to prying up the manhole.

She clicked a magazine of silver fluoride bullets into her Glock as she reached the bottom. Some of her tech stuff was in a backpack over her shoulders, and as well as her usual cargo shorts she wore a black hoodie and her usual leather jacket over the top, the sleeves pushed back up to her elbows. The chain of her dog tags jangled quietly as she walked; the tags themselves fitted with rubber rim silencers to prevent noise. Hobbs tucked them down the front of her top and kept moving.

Along with the top half of her left leg, Hobbs also had half a kneecap left behind, as well as most of the ligaments attached to it. There was, therefore, a lesser degree of movement in what was left of the joint. This would normally have been limiting movement-wise, especially since the cheetah blade was the only one of her legs without a moving knee mechanism, but due to the shape of the blade, designed for movement in every detail, such a factor did not make her any slower or clumsier than she usually was. The only inconvenience was that she no longer carried bombs in her leg. They had been relocated to the various pockets of her cargo shorts.

Then, twenty minutes into her walk, she heard something. Hobbs froze, at first mistaking it for the roar of a Werewolf. But as it reverberated through the tunnels she not only realised that it was a human voice but she almost recognised the voice to whom it belonged. Lowering her Glock a little, she turned, trying to figure out which direction it had come from. Damn tunnels messed up the sound waves...
But for a second that voice had almost sounded like-
"Stark?"

[Dante Stark]

Stark collapsed into the water and thrust his face into his knees, he was giving up it'd seemed hopeless these tunnels confused him beyond belief. Stark looked through the dismal tunnels it was crappy and it was going to suck he was going to die in a tunnel and well it'd seem pretty pointless wasting his time trying to find his way around the sewer system without an idea of direction.. Stark slowly unclenched himself from the position he was in and looked down the westward tunnel. The people that'd lured him down here probably already had the main access shafts covered so he couldn't escape that way the only way he'd find his way out was if he could find the old prohibition tunnels and right now he was in the middle of down fucking town.

Stark looked at the crossroads of tunnels he'd found himself in, it wasn't going to be easy and he figured he'd play the game one last time instead of giving up.. He still had things to do and people to tell things to; Stark held his head up high and walked through the tunnel facing west.. He'd trudged through the water, his footsteps echoed through the tunnels filling them with noise in all directions. It had taken him twenty minutes to work his way through the pipeline and he stood in a wider cavern with moss covering the walls. He couldn't hear noises coming from behind him anymore so he thought he'd managed to evade anything that could have attacked him. Stark looked through the tunnel and saw a figure in front of him he couldn't make it out clearly but he could defiantly see someone moving in the distance, it was almost a small figure but he could see it getting closer to him.

"So the Hunter, he has become the hunted.. How unfortunate for you. It appears you're going to die down here Mr. Stark.. and well good riddance you are free to continue through the tunnels.. But when the fire comes you shall be smoked out and killed like the rat you are." A voice spoke as the shadowy figure continued to walk down the tunnel turning right. Stark sighed and chased the figure looking down the empty tunnel as he began to freak out screaming profanities under the sun.

He changed direction and chose the left path and run, he just ran not caring if he had a stitch in his side he wanted out and he wasn't going to stop even if he was out of stamina. Stark stopped when he thought he saw light in the distance he'd been running and it felt like he was about to pass out from exhaustion he'd continued running and finally he tripped his body hitting the ground with a force as he cried out "Hazel..." the lights went black as Stark lay in the sewers passed out.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

Hobbs stared down the tunnel before her. Then, half turning on the spot, she stared down the tunnel behind her, her glasses allowing her view the dark as clearly as she would in the light of day. Had that been Stark or had she just been imagining it? Was it the product of some wistful imagination in the dark?
Stark or not, there had definitely been a yell. Someone was down here, even if it wasn’t the Lieutenant. Her first thought after that was that it could be a trap, but then nobody knew she was here. The rancid water and the scent masking spray concealed her presence and she had told nobody that she was coming down here. In fact, so safety-conscious as she was, it was only because of the GPS tracking chip in her arm that she came down here in the first place. Should anything happen to her she could be tracked.
So: nobody knew she was here, and there had been a yell that sounded genuine. That was no trap, then, she guessed. It was always good to rule out stuff like that before going off into the dark all by oneself.

She looked up and down the tunnel a few times, and continued moving on ahead. There was no sense in turning around and undoing all the distance she’d covered. Eventually she came to a sort of crossroads in the tunnel. Pushing her glasses down her nose, she grabbed her mag lite from her pocket and twisted the head into illumination. She shone the torch up and down the walls in front of her, hoping to catch a glimpse of something the glasses might not show her, like a door, perhaps, in the tunnel wall. Seeing nothing, Hobbs played a brief game of eeny, meeny, miny, moe and set off walking in her randomly chosen direction.

It was only a short while after that, that she faintly heard the sounds of shouting and her torchlight fell upon a humanoid figure moving down the tunnel ahead of her. Peering through her glasses, she knew it to be Human, and upon pushing the specs up to rest atop her head, she realised who it was. It was Stark. And he didn’t look too good.
He was running. And almost as if in slow motion, Hobbs saw him lose his footing and collapse to the ground beneath him, crying out her name as he did so.

Holstering her Glock, Hobbs broke into a run towards him, her springy cheetah blade carrying her easily. Less easy was kneeling beside him, but she dropped to her flesh and blood knee to roll him onto his back. Unfortunately for Stark, Hobbs was not known to be nurturing, gentle, or kind. Tough love was more her style. So holding her torch between her teeth, Hobbs grabbed her hip flask of rum, pinched his nose and poured the liquid into his mouth before slapping him sharply across the face.
That oughtta wake him up.

[Dante Stark]

Dante had been dwelling on thoughts and then he felt the slap across his face, then he'd tasted it.. He knew instantly who had found him as he coughed up the rum and finally came back to his senses. Thank Christ, Hazel it's you.. How'd you know the Lycans had trapped me down here and planned on killing me with gas..? Well i guess that means one thing.. If you are down here with me.. You're also Trapped" Dante sighed as he coughed and brought himself up to eye level with her.. He spat out some of the sewer water that'd gone down his throat from when he had passed out earlier.. He'd not been expecting to run into her down here.

Also, i hope we're cool for now.. We're going to be stuck together for awhile till we can find our way out of this cesspit.. We're gonna need a plan.." Stark said coldly as he looked around the tunnel for any source of exit, he was unsure where they would go from here but things weren't looking good from the off-fly.. Stark sighed in disbelief but at least if he was going to die he'd be with a friend at least.. That sounded bleak but things didn't seem to be looking up right now, Stark looked at the crossroads junction they had appeared to be in..

So Hazel, you seem to be better at directions then me, any idea of where we could find the old prohibition tunnels and get out of here..?" Stark replied coldly once more, he wasn't in the best moods and he'd been feeling slightly more cold than usual.

Stark grabbed the flashlight out of his jacket and clicked it on, he'd not brought his weapon but he did have the flashlight which was good enough for now.. He'd find a weapon should the need arise but for now he could defend himself with his fists.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

He’d coughed up her rum again, and that didn’t please her too much. Hobbs kept good rum with her, decent stuff, and he coughed it up? Could at least have the decency to drink it. Hobbs frowned at the use of her name and fought the urge to slap him again for it.
"Just because you know my name, doesn’t give you the right to use it," she said coldly. As far as she was concerned, no they were not ‘cool’, and no they weren’t going to be for a long time, but Hobbs was adult enough to put aside their differences if they were in a pickle. If they were in a pickle, which she wasn’t sure they were. Stark just kept babbling on about Lycans or some shit.

"Stark, just calm the fuck down for just one second, okay?" Hobbs said, getting to her mismatched feet. "What the fuck are you talking about? Why the hell would the Werewolves want to trap you down here or gas you? Not that we even are trapped, of course, I managed to find a way down and I’m not dumb enough to lose my way."
He sounded mad. He seemed to be rambling off the delusions of a man convinced of his own self importance. Why would the wolves think him important enough to kill? No offense, but he was no Logan.

"How about you tell me what the hell you think is going on. Beginning to end." Hobbs had grown tired of his ‘rattle off bullshit and expect her to go along with it’ stuff. He had some explaining to do. "Listen to me. We are not lost, we are not trapped, and right now I’m seriously starting to doubt that Werewolves are even involved or that your sanity is intact."

[Dante Stark]

Dante was sure he'd been told he was trapped down here by himself and here Hobbs was telling him there was nothing down here but him being a twat parading in the water, she had managed to calm him down and he was starting to feel a little calmer as she reassured him.. "Alright, i think i must just been feeling effects of not sleeping... That's what it was.. If you say we're not actually trapped down here." Dante sighed in relief he was feeling slightly at odds with himself now.. Standing up now he wiped some of the grime off of his shirt and looked at the tunnel Hazel had come from..

"So you came from around there.. Let's head that way then" Stark began to finish then he heard it, the loud bang and the crash as he looked and jumped back watching the tunnel she'd came from promptly be destroyed as if by a small powered bomb.. Stark was stuck in the water he'd not felt the rubble land on his leg and he'd not noticed the pain just yet.. "I guess we are trapped.. Let me just get up and we'll look for a way out.." Stark attempted to stand and then noticed his leg was trapped.. He'd hardly felt it... Stark began trying to pull his leg free... He began cursing very loudly when he couldn't pull himself free..

"Okay.. This is a problem.. not a big problem.. but it's up there in the top three..." Dante sighed and stopped trying to unhook himself from the rubble.. Hazel would have had to go on without him he began to sigh.. It wasn't that bad he guessed as he would be alone with his thoughts.. "Hazel, you're going to have to go on without me i guess, it'll be easier if you weren't lugging my ass so go on.. Leave me and come back with some aid." Stark said as he began to close his eyes and wait to hear her leave in the distance.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

She’d been sure he was talking crazy. Trapped down here in the tunnels by Lycans? Yeah, right. Then, only moments after she had spoken, as though on cue, there was a deep rumbling that echoed through the cavernous subterranean levels and the structures around them came crumbling down. Explosions were set off along an organised chain reaction, bringing the tunnels collapsing around them.

Of course, Hobbs’ first instinct was to duck and cover. Indeed, she dropped to one knee and threw her arms protectively over her head to stop rubble the size of bricks from cracking her skull wide open like a coconut. She counted down the seconds until the rumbling died away and the last few bits of dust settled around her. She was okay. She was unharmed.

The same could not be said for Stark, though.

As Hobbs lowered her arms, she saw that Stark was struggling to get up, his leg pinned by rubble.
"Hey hey, don’t struggle else you might break your leg." She paused. If it wasn’t broken already, that was...
She almost laughed out loud at his suggestion to go on without him. Like she would ever leave a man behind. Almost laughed that was, because despite her earlier warning he was still using her name.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" she growled. "Stop calling me Hazel. You don’t get to call me that anymore." She dropped to her flesh knee beside him and tugged off her cheetah blade, before proceeding to use it as a shovel to get the rubble off his leg. With some of the larger pieces, she had to wedge it under like a crowbar and pull it off with help using her other hand, but eventually she managed to get most of it away from his leg. Good thing her leg blade was springy, too, else it would have snapped in two.
"How’s that? Can you move your leg out now?" she said, putting the cheetah back on over the liner. "So, Lycans, huh? What did they say when they trapped you down here?"