The First Night In Voltham

Bits of sparks fizzled angrily as they touched down on another concrete floor, here the porous gray darkening with sweat.

The lingering glow casting a senseless series of shadows that lasted just as long as the spell had.

Orange lights reaching up in long cut squares and divided bars to illuminate nothing more than that same darkening gray. Blackness returning to the room to greet its two new visitors, a voice echoing slightly as Izime asked Cradle to remove the unwanted owner.

"Little light please Cradle?" Izime's voice cut through the blackness just a moment before the blue glow provided by Cradles eyes spread over the 'room' Izime had selected.

It had possibly been a junction room at one point then stripped.

Now the hollowed remains of cable boxes and pipe inlets were all that remained, giving rats the only access to the sealed room. It had once reached by its operators through a reinforced steel door. Now that thick steel door had been rendered inoperable due to rust and the settling of the sewer over time.

That or sealed intentionally, seeing as there was technically one resident though the overly large skeleton hardly added anything to the atmosphere of the room. The handle for the massive locking gear on this side was wrenched as if someone had tried to tear it off, the main culprit being said skeleton.

Thick slats like tiny bits of slate were rusting, peeling away as the seasons cycled through.

Now wet and slick with the winter humidity that combated the warmer Voltham sewers.

Izime carefully set down the guitar case in the darkness behind him, it was a soft case after all, and the abandoned room was concrete. Turning to move both Cradle's light and him, Izime tried to locate his target using Cradle's flashlight vision.

His search a bit difficult with all the industrial leftovers on the walls, Izime instead looked up.

"Let's see..." Izime whispered as he glanced at the lights on the ceiling, eyes following the sealed pipe cable protector until he found a switch on the wall. Clicking it a few times to no effect Izime sighed, disappointed he'd even considered the notion. "Dead. No surprise there."

Turning towards a shelf along the wall Izime pulled a small box down, rummaging through while Cradle hopped off his shoulder to provide better lighting.

The soft muttering of 'battery' filling the gaps between the occasional drip as both man and crow searched the box. Finally locating one of the incredibly handy portable power bricks, Izime checked the bar on the side finding it partially full.

The tiny things were probably the most versatile and best-selling tool Izime had discovered so far.

A simple battery, well simple to use.

How exactly it managed to be absolutely universal in both powering other things and re-charging itself still a mystery.

Izime didn't plan to look a gift horse in the mouth, these weren't his physics nor were they his laws of energy conservation. He'd take all cheezy sci-fi he could get already having suffered from the bullshit laws that ruled his home.

"Thank god for advanced alien technology." Grumbling though it was happily Izime took the small square device and twisted the dial on the front.

Frowning as nothing happened, he quickly gave it a hard tap on the shelf next to him. Two counter rotating sets of teeth appearing and whirring to life as it finally activated.

The sharp edges slightly hooked to not just sheer but snag at cables and other electronics, a tiny inlet sliding open to accept nearly any connection or power.

"Like I said," Izime grunted as he slammed the power brick onto the protective cover just above the light switch holding it there as it worked away.

Letting the teeth eat through and pull in each cable inside, individually sorting connections through whatever tech-voodoo that made the device operate. Finally seeming to have pulled in enough to lock from the tension four arms shot out clamping into the wall.

"Thank god for advanced alien..." Izime sucked in a breath before giving the switch a final flick, shouting as the lights finally activated.Glancing over at Cradle as he finished the excitement spreading, "Technology baby!"

Cradle giving its own caw of excitement and flicking its blue lights off as the room was finally lit fully.

Exposing a simple room with their companion of a overly large skeleton in the corner. Along the far wall a few rows of shelves holding a couple boxes, against the closer a spring bed with no mattress or cushion.

Their closeness and position having formed the oddly layered shadows from before.

Izime nodded as he looked back towards the broken door, the duffel bags dropping. Joining a stash of other supplies that he'd prepared beforehand. The goods already on the floor were just odds and ends of gear that might be handy.

A few smoke bombs, various electronic diversions, as well as some handy signal decoys all lay near some less well intention-ed gear.

 The duffels he'd brought with him now had a few quilts and blankets to make the bed a more comfortable, along with some RAM sticks for Cradle to munch on.

He'd not wanted damp bedding or Cradles food to start corroding away while stored in Voltham. Fresh memory cheaper to buy than letting the raven have at the tech they might snag in Voltham, so keeping some good RAM around was just good sense.

The boxes on the shelves were full of some nicer prizes he had stashed after scavenging the battlefields of actual heroes. A few spare gate-rings, a stash of those power bricks, a few grappling guns and ropes from Dark Night. Then a tiny yarn ball of prototype metal webbing, and collection of actual guns from Voltham's P.D. and goons.

Another more complex box was locked tightly as it held few tubes of very questionable nanites along with Izime's scavenging outfit. The outfit was there to keep it safe and as added padding for those delicate tubes The nanites were sealed in a weird clear liquid Cradle had produced after fighting off the infection they had given it.

Izime didn't know where the raven had caught them but he kept them just so the unknown critters couldn't wander.

Izime pulled the locked box down and opened it, the hiss of its vacuum seal breaking filling the room. Reaching in he carefully unwrapped the tubes to take the items that had been in with them, it was time to start gearing up.

The heavy and long yellow raincoat wasn't exactly the best get-up for sneaking around but Izime wasn't trying to catch a round because he was the dark figure in the alley. Replacing it would be difficult, those yellow suits from FazzPazz's insane time traveling rival were hard as fuck to find.

Truly a bit of top tier legendary kit considering it was both friction-less and highly visible. High vis was probably the better feature of the coat honestly.

Ideally Izime would show up after the actual fight went down and before the heroes or their crews could come and clean-up.

More than once though the loot had been tempting enough to risk jumping in mid-showdown.

That really upped the risk factor, the occasional close call where Izime had even resorted to playing the scared civilian just long enough to disappear. Those alone had convinced him that being highly visible was in his best interest. The incidents of narrowly avoided shots and not so well avoided sharp objects had decreased sharply after creating the high-vis coat.

Along with that impressive coat was a pair of higher end combat-cargo pants, bulletproof vest, and civilian gasmask. 

The cargo pockets were a necessity, to handy for snagging the odd Dark-a-rang or alien techno-bauble. Their Kevlar weave was only really useful against thrown objects, not even really stopping a good thrust, beyond that the built-in padding kept his knees safe from the odd bump or badly timed snap. 

The vest was self-explanatory. Bad guys used guns, and the really bad guys could punch a bullet towards things intentionally. So, a bulletproof vest was just entry level protection for the mere mortal man. The rest Izime relied on his own senses enhanced by Cradles bond to aid him in snapping out of the situation.

The gas mask was useful for when the police inevitably showed up and started tear-gassed everything into oblivion. Though like the vest far less handy against the concoctions Villains could produce. Izime usually tried to keep those contained, usually far too dangerous to sell. Though the few that he did were very profitable in the right circles. Everyone needed a little pick-me up, even if it was a psychosis inducing gas.

Taking the scavenging outfit Izime placed each item on the shelf and resealed the box. The boxes lid clasping with a hiss as it began to vacuum itself closed. Izime nodded as he considered it the best protection he could offer the delicate tubes. Finally spinning the dial to reset the lock as the interior bars slid into position.

Glancing at the various watches on his arm Izime located the one etched with the Dark Night logo. The whole city of Voltham leaning into its capitalist roots and hocking the touristy thing which now had its two arms indicating 8pm.

Well, it was a little later but there was still a bit of down time possible, Izime planning to make the most of it.

"I'll give you some..." Izime walked over to one of duffel bags and unzipped it, rummaging before pulling out a few silicon rectangles. Holding them up Izime took a look at the printing on the sides of the stick reading as he asked, "DDR-4 if you go out and scout?"

Watching as Cradle nodded its head excitedly, catching one of the sticks in its beak.

Grasping it in its talon and tearing a few chips off greedily before flapping over to one of the shelves. Resting the stick down among a few other already picked over pieces that had all been gathered into the once empty corner of a shelf. The raven tucking the once shiny, now scratched stick into its newly made nest.

"I'll set an alarm for three hours." Izime nodded towards the door pulling out a beaten looking flip-phone, watching as Cradle began to separate into smaller nanite structures.

The otherworldly technology slipping through the tiny, rusted gaps in the steel door as Cradle left to scout the skies above Voltham.

Izime turning towards the power brick on the wall, taking a quick measure of that small blinking light bar on the side that indicated the energy drain. Odds were the device would either power the light for a day or for the bulb's entire lifetime.

Either way Izime wasn't going to risk it burning out, his supply was limited after all.

Flicking the switch, he felt his way along the shelf, carefully avoiding the box of parts he had left on the ground.

Finding the bed using the dim light, Izime tossed the duffel full of blankets onto it before pulling some out at random which flicked out. Letting them fall at random in the dark before tossing himself on-top with a groan. The meager bed already a thousand times more comfortable than the usual cardboard he and Wesson made do with.

Looking down at the service-less cellphone Izime set an alarm for three hours and laid-back waiting for sleep to take him. Eleven P.M. sounding like prime time for Voltham's finest filth, and with Cradle monitoring for hot spots of action ahead of time tonight could be very profitable.

Wesson and Shya wouldn't need to worry about a hotel just over the winter, he could get them an apartment if he kept this up.

Hell, maybe tonight he'd even find a cool mask to complete his outfit, though not a lot went with bright yellow. Maybe he was better off with the big-eyed gas mask... Izime slipped into dreams of redesigning his outfit.