[for Clark] Well I don't hang with the crowd

[notaparker]

This city is incredible. It's... actually kind of scary as all heck, given it's falling apart and there are crazy people with superpowers everywhere, and here's me with none of my own. Unless you count the couple I have sitting in the knapsack I brought down. Tonics. All I have to do to correct the imbalance is dose myself up. You know, take the

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[only_son]

Clark really doesn't like it down here. The color of the sea filters into the light, painting everything in an otherworldly patina of shimmering blues occasionally cut by the sharp glare of neon. Sound echoes in the disrepair, and the entire city seems to emanate the feeling of tarnished elegance. Something once grand now fallen into ruin. It reminds him entirely too tangibly of the alternate Metropolis he'd been in when he first arrived on the island, so little hope left amidst moral and physical decay

[notaparker]

I'm torn. Step out, I have to explain why I don't have an escort, like we're supposed to have. Not only is that awkward, I don't want to get Peter in trouble. He did me a favor by getting me down here, and then another one by letting me head off to do my own thing.

But he might scare off any Little Sisters that show up to stick their disturbingly giant needles into this particular corpse, and since I'm in the market -- no, let's rephrase that -- since I need to find one so I can figure out how to help them, I need to move him on.

Not sure how, though. Time to see what kind of spiel I can come up with.

"Psst," I hiss at him, from where I'm lurking in a small alcove, in the shadows. Of which this little thoroughfare, like so many in Rapture, has in plenty. It'd almost be like a charming little street, if it wasn't for the lack of sky, the rubble and general air of degradation. Also, the corpse.

"Maybe we don't want to stand in the open in the middle of the dangerous area, Clark."

[only_son]

Jessica is one of the last people Clark would have expected to encounter lurking down here in the dark. They all have secrets, Jessica maybe more than most, but finding her familiar outline painted in the shadows of this place throws him.

For a brief moment, he simply stares in bewilderment, wondering if she's really there.

"Jessica?" he asks, and steps from the light with a frown. He has no clever line to blithely volley back to her, and the concern it written all over his face. "What are you doing down here?"

[notaparker]

I rub the back of my neck, but at least I do have a valid reason. Sort of. It's mostly valid.

"Science?" I say. "I'm doing science. Well, okay, right now I'm lurking in the shadows waiting for a little girl to come along, which... sounds way creepy when I say it like that, but- science. I'm part of the science team."

See? It's all true. That is why I'm down here. I'm not equipped to take on any of these guys, so as much as I want to get my punching on, it shouldn't be in the cards. I have to help in other ways. And frankly, finding a way to help little girls to escape from the same kind of genetic manipulation that basically ruined my life (in addition, okay, to being the reason and the cause of it) should probably be a higher priority than punching dudes in carnival masks.

But man, do I want to punch out some dudes in carnival masks.