The Perfect Combination #1

Chapter 15: Marvie

Marvie felt her body loosen up. Some of the tension she had been carrying in her shoulders dissipated, now that Neo was free and safe. The trouble in the air still hung heavily. 

She couldn't imagine why somebody would bomb that corner, just filled with civilians and innocents, even for the rebellion. Marvie was walking home, sticking closely to the walls of the city, as more and more guards came flooding into Bellburn. Soon the whole place was overrun by the city watch.

A guard came towards her, and even though her white braids and face were hidden under her cap and hood, she was sure he would recognize her if he got close enough. 

She tried to mimic the way that the other people from Bellburn were moving. They were all hurrying like her, staying out of the way and trying to avoid attention, therefore never running. 

Marvie dove down the first ally that she came upon, and hid in a doorway, watching. After a while she felt safe that no one was going to follow her, and started going further down the alley until she found what she was looking for; A manhole cover. 

She took out the crowbar that she had taken with her for just this purpose and carefully lifted the cover.

The smell grew stronger as she was making her way down into the sewer. She landed on the small ledge for repairmen, and shut the cover again, before turning on her telecommunicator; from it sprang the mountain's sewer map as a hologram, and she magnified her location, then started walking.

She had downloaded the map the first time she and Neo had gone into the city, though she hadn't needed it much. Her telecommunicator was offline so they couldn't track her. 

She was navigating, though slowly, as she had to reorientate a lot. But she was steadily going back now, and would soon be back to the Burrow.

She had no idea what she was going to do when she got there. She had to talk to her team and her dad, but tell them what exactly? 

Neo was innocent, but that would make her an instant suspect, and she didn't know if she could afford that right now. She probably wouldn't be arrested on suspicion like Neo had been or well, questioned like him, but she would be scrutinized, and that would halt her ability to move freely. 

It was all a giant mess with Marvie and Neo bound in the middle.

She had reached the hardest part of her return to the Burrow now. The sewer system had two parts: This part and Ivy's part. 

There was a thick metal grid dividing the two, which had been put up to avoid criminals sneaking into Ivy like she was trying to right now. Luckily for her, they hadn't prepared for Pristines trying to enter, especially Pristines as desperate as her, who could breathe underwater.

Slowly Marvie started removing her clothes. It felt as though the stank was invading every pore on her bare skin. She methodically moved the clothes to her waterproof bag, made just for situations like this. 

She bit down on the strap, closing her mouth around it, before taking one final breath through her nose. Then she held her fingers to her nostrils and shut her eyes, before walking into the deep, thick, brown water. Trying to forget that it wasn't mud squishing under her feet.

Slowly that started to not matter, because as soon as the water touched her, a grayish hue started spreading from her feet and up, soon her whole body had turned gray and sleek, water beading off it and her wings had turned into fins. When she finally dove under the gate, it was bearable. 

When she had swum under the gate, she just kept swimming, not wanting to transform back, until she could clean this off.

There was a long way, and even now she had a hard time breathing, from the gills the had sprung forth on her neck.