Quickly and without a moment's warning Hayate stood chest to chest with Erik, staring up to him with an angry glare, ready to sock him right in the jaw. “And what if those two never report back to the others!†His voice was that of a viper as he hissed in dissatisfaction. “What do you think they will do when two lookouts go missing, lollygag around?†He was angry, but couldn’t deny their total effectiveness as a team so far. The Shinobi took a step back, exhaling a stale soot filled breath, before turning towards the direction of the descending corridor. “If you want any hope of seeing your friend again drop the whole upset older brother act and think like his life depends on it!†In his heart Hayate only wished to teach the scholar a lesson he had learned the hard way long ago.
The two of them spoke less than a sentence to each other as the moved vigilantly further into the maze of tunnels. Surprisingly this once abandoned shaft had quickly turned into a spalling network that Hayate could only assume stretched under the entire city. Every once in a while the two of them would encounter a few souls here and there mining and transporting the raw ores back and forth. They all wore the insignia of the Foundation, which seemed to be branded on everything not bolted down, and were more or less using it as a front for their more shady actions. A previous assumption now confined to be fact.
Before long the boys found themselves at the end of a long narrow passage that opened up into another larger storage room. By now Hayate and Erik has made it to what they thought should be the fifth level of the mine, but in all honesty by now the only thing they knew for sure was that getting back to the surface would just as hard as anything. In the center of the room was a moderately sized ballast fixed over a large pit with a winch attached to the center. A pulley system of sorts for moving cargo between levels, a strange site to see so far underground. Hayate motioned to Erik to follow closely as the two moved between cover getting closer to the pulley.
“Do you suppose we could use this!†Hayate asked tapping his titanium fingers on the thick ballets. “I bet it could hold us?†Erik took a moment to look over the device before the two of them froze at the sound of approaching footsteps and echoing voices. Coming from the same direction as they entered from were a handful of armed men unlike the Foundation workers from earlier. The shinobi gritted his teeth as he clung low to the floor using a crate as cover, hoping that Erik has found someplace to hide. From the looks of them these guys must have been some hired help to guard the thieves treasure trove, and boy did they all look like they could do it too.
Finally after a moment of stressful silence the group had moved on and the boys both stood from their binding spots. They looked at each other with relief knowing that if they were spotted an all out brawl would have broken out. While Erik may have heard rumor of Hayate’s ability in such confined spaces like this network of tunnels he wouldn’t be able to channel his magic freely. A fact not lost to the boy soldier as he anticipates a tough time ahead.
“Now then, how about getting this device working?â€
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