Chapter 27

The elevator came and the doors opened. The five of them stepped inside and as the doors closed Ajax pressed floor minus thirty. Maximus looked at the buttons and found it to be very weird. First, there were the regular floor buttons, one that said roof followed by the numbers one to ten for the ten floors, followed by a large 'G' for ground. Now came the weird part, there were thirty more buttons on the panel ranging from minus One to minus thirty and Ajax had pressed the very last one. Maximus had heard of having one or two basements but having thirty seemed a bit much.

"Shouldn't we stop at the ground floor to go outside?" Maximus asked Ajax. "Nah only if we want to get down on the over-city, and there's nothing much to see their other than The Colossus. I think we should go to the under-city first."

Maximus stared at him even more confused, and Rex and Hedger joined him. It was Achilles who stepped in to explain, "It seems you don't know, but Vulcan city is the biggest subterranean city in the world. The entire city is actually underground and the underground area is called under-city. What you see above is called over-city and it's actually the higher floors of the buildings in under-city that are too big to fit underground." Maximus took in the new information. He knew about subterranean cities before. They were entire cities that were built underground. Mostly by underground dwelling races such as dwarves and goblins. But he had no idea that the entire Vulcan capital was one.

"Self-turning screwdrivers, you guys didn't know that. Achilles didn't you explain anything to them on the way?" Ajax said, with a hand on his head, "you guys didn't really think what you saw above was the entire capital did you? The real city's just coming up."

With that the doors to the elevator opened and they stepped out. Floor minus thirty seemed to be the real ground floor and it was buzzing with life. The elevator opened up into a huge lobby, with lots of different people of different races moving around, going about their daily business. Maximus noticed that the majority of them were dwarves, humans and goblins. These goblins were all dressed though, unlike the ones in the desert. One of them was even wearing a suit. Maximus also spotted some other races such as Minotaurs, elves, satyrs and nymphs although they were much lesser in number. There was even a Cyclops in the corner wearing a security uniform, holding a club. There was also no shortage of robots or automatons, or whatever they were called. All around them these machines were whizzing and rolling around doing different jobs. There were two of the giant robots with a gun for a hand from yesterday, standing outside the main door.

A lot of people seemed to know Ajax. Not surprising as he was their champion. But unlike the champion of Mars he actually seemed to be liked by the people. "You guys wait here while I go clear up some formalities," Ajax said and went along to one of the many reception desks situated around the lobby. Meanwhile, Achilles had worn his cloak again and put his hood up. A smart move since the world thought he was dead. After a few minutes, Ajax came back to them with a tissue paper in hand. Maximus noticed there was a lipstick print on it. "Got your paperwork sorted out. And got the number of that pretty nymph receptionist in the process. Guess you're not the only one who can pick up girls now, eh Achilles?" Ajax said.

"I never said that," Achilles said with a smile, "I just said I don't have to try very hard. Besides women were the last things on my mind since my 'death'." After that they went to the main doors. Ajax pushed them open and said "Behold, the great Vulcan city".

All of them stepped outside, and the first thing Maximus noticed was how huge it was. The entire city seemed like it was sitting inside a cave. And the entire city was covered by walls. The word Steampunk was still the design of the day. The whole city seemed like a giant metal and bronze maze, with large gears and other devices at work, also the city was spewing steam here and there. The smoke on the other hand was being let out above ground. There was a huge system of vents that interconnected all the building exhausts into huge chimneys that went above ground. Maximus now understood what the chimneys that he saw above ground were for. He also finally spotted the factories. All around them, nearer to the cave walls, were huge industries that seemed like giant machines at work. There was a lot of equipment outside the buildings as well with large gears and levers. But the area they were standing in seemed like a large and open road. It was really noisy and crowded here and there were an endless number of shops on either side of the street. This seemed like the main market area of the city and the street was way bigger than the trenches.

"The city is split into three major parts. The place we are at right now is the market area and it makes the innermost area. If we moved a little outward into the next area we would reach the residential area. After that the third and outermost one is the industrial area and that's where all the factories are. So if you ever get lost here just remember to keep moving inwards," Ajax explained. Even though they were completely underground now it was like there was still sunlight here. Maximus looked up to see huge floodlights on the cave ceiling. The kind they used in sport stadiums or gladiator arenas only much bigger. Ajax saw Maximus looking at the lights and said, "I see you have found our light source. It's a clever little invention from Lord Hephaestus, the intensity of the light changes according to the light outside. So we have regular days and nights, only without the desert's scorching heat or chilly nights. Maximus had to agree that despite how crowded and confusing it was, the entire city seemed to be designed to run like clockwork.

They started walking and Rex asked, "So what about the army barracks?" "Those are situated behind the castle, actually. It's not very big since we have a comparatively small army," Ajax said. "Also, more than half of our army consists of Automatons and they can be turned off and stored easily during peacetime." Maximus didn't care how small the army was, if it had battalions of Automatons it seemed pretty scary to him. "Other than the automatons our soldiers are few. In fact we don't even have any generals, the general's duty also sort of falls on me. I'm sort of the head of the entire army," Ajax added but he didn't seem too happy about that.

They started moving through the market now, and there were some really amazing things for sale there. The main goods here seemed to be metal works. And there were some really fine swords around which caught Max's attention. He was actually saving up for a new sword, but now that he had unsheathed the 'cursed blade' it would be pointless to buy another one. Also he had to think of a better name for his sword than the cursed blade. He thought that maybe he should buy a shield instead. There were plenty of those here too. While he was in the army, sword and shield was his specialty, but now that he was travelling, carrying a huge metal shield around would only be more troublesome. Besides, now that they were on the run, spending the money didn't seem wise. They might need it for something more important later. But swords and shields weren't the only things here. The shops were littered with a variety of stuff. Gauntlets, energy crystals, oranges, rat soup, grape wine and electric motors were just some of the things they passed by. Then, Maximus saw something that he knew would surely get Rex's attention. There were even a few shops selling bionic limbs scattered around the market place. He knew that Rex wanted a bionic arm badly, but they were simply too expensive. He would have to save up almost all his earnings for at least five years to even think about getting one. He caught up with Rex to talk to him privately. "Hey, Rex. You want to go check those bionic arms out. Maybe there's something here, right up our ally," he said.

Rex looked at him and snorted. "It's no use Max, you know how much they cost."

"You know I was saving up for a sword, I don't need it any more. So maybe I could chip in." Rex gave him a sincere smile and said, "Thanks for the offer Max. I appreciate it, I really do. But I don't think we'll be able to buy a bionic finger even if we pool in all our money much less an entire arm." They walked past the bionic limb store without a second glance.

"You guys go on ahead, I still need to go and get a watch for Daedalus," Achilles said and went off.

"Yeah and I think I might need some new clothes as well. As much as I appreciate these overalls, Ajax, I'm not used to covering my chest. Only the females of our race do that," Rex said.

"That's fine, Rex," Ajax said, patting him on the back. "In fact, I know the perfect place to find clothes for big guys like us." Then he turned to the other two and said, "You guys coming?"

"Nah, I think we'll hang out here for a while," Hedger said, and soon he and Maximus were browsing the stalls alone.

They were at this for a while when someone said, "Hey, you, the boy with the sprite. "Maximus turned around to see who had called. He saw that it was a dwarf. He was barely half of Max's height like most dwarves. He had thick brown hair and an unruly beard. He also had a look on his face like he had just eaten a sour bowl of grapes. "Yeah you come over here," he said.

Maximus didn't like his tone, but he went over anyway.

"Yeah what?" he asked.

"Show me your sword," the dwarf said. Maximus was really not liking his tone. "Why should I?" he asked.

"Because I said so kid," the dwarf said angrily, then he snapped his fingers and three goblins surrounded them. One of them snatched the blade before Maximus could do anything.

"Hey, give it back!" he shouted. A crowd was gathering now but the dwarf ignored all this and looked at his sword. "This is no fake. It's the real stuff, a pretty high quality sword. So how did a piece of trash like you end up with it?" "I don't think that's any of your business," Maximus answered; he was really getting angry now.

"You stole it didn't you, you little thief. Well too bad for you only we dirt-picks do the stealing around here," the dwarf said. Then he re-sheathed the blade and with a sick smile on his face said, "So why don't I just take it off your hands."

That did it, Maximus was mad now. He grabbed his blade from the dwarf and shoved him to the ground. But the sheath was still in the dwarfs hands. Only the blade was with Maximus and it was glowing red.

Maximus was staring at his now glowing red blade. But Hedger nudged him on the shoulder and said "Eh... Max."

Maximus looked around to see they were now surrounded. A few dwarves and humans had joined the goblins and all of them were armed with swords and metal rods. "An energy weapon, there's no way I'm going to let a beggar like him have that. Get him," the dwarf he had pushed, said. Well things got bad real fast, Maximus thought to himself. But there was no way he was going to just give up his blade without a fight, especially since it was glowing red again.

Suddenly someone cleared his throat very loudly behind them and everyone turned to see Ajax standing there. He walked into the middle of the commotion and stood beside Maximus and Hedger. He then asked the dwarf "What seems to be the problem?" The dwarf was stuttering with fear now. "No ... no ... nothing Mister Ajax. This bo … boy has a very expensive sword with him. I think he stole it." Ajax took the sheath from the dwarf and handed it to Maximus, and said, "Well, this boy happens to be a very good friend of mine, and I can vouch for him personally. Achilles and Rex also entered from the crowd and stood on either side of them as well. Most of the dwarf's goons had decided to drop their weapons and move away quietly. Ajax then broke his knuckles and said, "So if there's nothing else bothering you, then scram." The dwarf didn't need telling twice, he picked himself up and ran as fast as his tiny legs could take him. His goons were also nowhere in sight now.

The crowd that had gathered to see the show had started to disperse. "So what was all that about?" Achilles asked. Maximus and Hedger explained the entire incident. Finally Ajax said, "You shouldn't blame them Achilles. I know that dwarf from before. His name is Munroe and he's as rotten as they get. He and his gang have been causing trouble for a while now. But they're not usually this ballsy."

"So these dirt-picks are like a street gang?" Hedger asked.

"The dirt-picks, why do you say that?" Ajax asked, sounding confused.

"Well he sort of said that he was a part of a group called dirt-picks," Hedger said.

"The dirt-picks are the dwarven mafia that exists in the city. I heard they were recruiting. I guess Munroe's gang joined up with them. Damn it, if I knew that I wouldn't have let him go."

They started walking again and Achilles asked, "So are these dirt-picks causing you trouble?"

"Well, they were always around but recently they have been trying to expand their men and territory, and if they keep it up me and the army should be the last of their worries."

Maximus didn't quite understand what he meant by this. What would worry those criminals more than the army? "Anyway, let's forget all that and get on with the tour. Let's head back and get my ride. Then we can head to the industries."

The rest of the day didn't involve much trouble. They visited the factories that made everything from paperclips to tank armour. A few of them were tall enough to touch the ceiling. "A building has to be at least thirty stories high to touch the top. The floors after that are what you see in over-city" Ajax explained. After that they stopped for lunch where they had something called mixed-meat kebab. It didn't seem very healthy, but like most things that weren't, it tasted great. They were heading to over-city next, there was a trail that lead directly up from the residential area without going back to the castle to do so. As they passed the residence Hedger asked, "So do you stay around here Ajax?"

"No, as the champion I got an entire floor in the castle to myself. It's got everything including a gym and a garage, even a swimming pool. It's actually quite the sweet deal." Soon they were above ground again and under the scorching desert sun. They were about to reach the last stop for the day: The Colossus.