Of Love and Death.

The Future Chapter 12: The Masked Blader is my Favorite Character Pt. 2

     The Masked Blader opened the manhole cover. Instead of leading to a sewer, there was a ladder that dropped into unimaginable darkness. The fading light of the day barely made a dent in it. She had finally, after ten covers, found the correct one. Which was great, she was about done with smelling the sewer. This one stank, but not as much.

     Slipping her hand into her pocket, the Masked Blader pulled out her phone. It was decorated with a whole lot of math, that all amounted to equal zero, something she found hilarious. Especially when people asked what the answer to the problem was, she could just say "nothing". But, opening up Google Maps, she saw that her parents were still able to see her location. Which meant that if she had misjudged or gotten her information wrong, they'd be able to find her.

     Safety first when one's storming an underground blading community that used to take people's beys away back in the day. At least they'd stopped doing that now.

     With the reassurance that she probably wasn't going to be kidnapped, the Masked Blader slipped her phone back into her pocket, grabbed the sides of the ladder, and descended into the depths of the Earth. Or at least that's what it felt like. It was warm and she could barely see two feet in front of her. She considered taking off her mask, but decided to keep it on unless she had no choice. There were some nerves surrounding all of these people seeing her face.

     It took three minutes to descend down the ladder. However, by the time she was halfway down, the Masked Blader could hear the sound of beys clashing. Distant, but there. If there had been any doubt that she was in the wrong place, it was gone. Then, her feet hit solid ground. Without missing a beat, she pulled out her flashlight and turned it on.

     The bright white beam didn't go too far but it allowed the Masked Blader to see at least a little bit in front of her. The ground was made of plain gray concrete. Nothing special there, just gray with a few loose pebbles. There also wasn't anything interesting about the walls, not even graffitti. Just more gray concrete. It was clearly made to look like a sewer, but there was a distinct lack of human excrement that clued the Masked Blader in that this was not, in fact, what it appeared to be.

     Closing her eyes, the Masked Blader focused on the sound of beys clashing. And then began the walk to find the Underground Bladers.

* * *

     The door was interesting. And by interesting the Masked Blader meant that it was barely a door. It was hanging off of its hinges and mildly rotting in places. However, it appeared to have been beautiful once. There was an image of two beys running at each other on the entryway, albeit faded. It also was open, and she walked in.

     Before the Masked Blader had even taken a single step more than that first one inside, her eyes were assaulted. There had been light leaking through the sort of door, but the actual scale of it had escaped her. After so long walking in the dark corridor, the spot lights nearly blinded her. There were ten of them, hanging from the ceiling and all pointed at the center.

     At least the walls had changed. No longer boring concrete, now graffiti lined stone bricks. Posters also adorned the sides of the large room, about the size of the cafeteria back at school. Old wooden steps led down from the small ledge that the Masked Blader was on to the stone floor. And, of course, down to the giant cage, with the double decker stadium. The thing that the Masked Blader had come for.

     Unfortunately, however, it looked like she might have to wait her turn. There was a battle going on. Two people were fighting, both with similar hair and face paint, perhaps they were twins. However, the Masked Blader barely had a moment to take that in before she was asked a question. "You want something?"