Rue: Web of Deceit - Part 33

Disaster / Destruction

An unexpected meeting with Suplex is cut short when the entire courthouse that her and Rue find themselves in is suddenly dragged deep beneath the earth.

As they roam through the courthouse corridors, Rue tries to remember Jonathan Sinclair's scent, keeping their eyes and ears open for any clues towards the man's whereabouts.   They struggle to pick the scent of a man they barely met out of the mess of conflicting information being picked up through the halls of the courthouse as they make their way up to the first floor where many of the court offices can be found. While they're searching however, trying their best to look inconspicuous as they sniff their way around, they do notice another distinctly familiar scent. A fruity perfume that they've become fairly familiar with, "Rachel?"   They almost instinctively follow the scent, careful to keep their footsteps light as they get closer. They wonder if the Railyard hero is there to help defend someone, and so they find their interest piqued despite the nagging feeling that they should just carry on with their given task.   Fortunately for them, the two objectives appear to intersect as they follow the scent through the hallways and eventually find themselves outside a door labelled "Jonathan Sinclair, Esq.", through which they can see, using their x-ray vision, the familiar redhead sat in the man's desk chair in darkness, facing away from the doorway.   “Huh,” Rue frowns, opening the door and folding their arms across their chest, not bothering to switch on the light, “I take it you’re not planning a surprise party for our dear Mr Sinclair?”   The chair spins around and Rachel raises a brow, "Rue? What the Hell are you doing here? I had the whole cool reveal worked out!"   “And how long were you planning on waiting in that chair?” Rue asks with a smirk, “How long have you been waiting there?”   "Only about fifteen minutes," she says, leaning back in the chair and putting her feet up on the desk, "I was considering a nap. I think Sinclair's gone to lunch."   “Has he definitely been in today?” Rue asks, leaning against the doorframe, “And do you think he’ll be back?”   "Oh yeah, he's around," she says, nodding to a coat hung upon a nearby stand, "What about you? What are you doing here?"   “My job,” Rue shrugs, decidedly not elaborating, “What about you? Last I saw, you and Sinclair aren’t exactly best buds, and your desire for a dramatic reveal tells me it’s not a friendly visit.”   "Hardly," Rachel says, chuckling as she kicks a crack into the wood of the desk, "Apparently, he didn't much appreciate us blackmailing him into going easy on the roaches. He sent an assassin after us."   “He- seriously?” Rue’s eyes widen in surprise and they stand upright. Suddenly painfully aware of the lack of a distinct purple haired individual, they anxiously ask, “I hope no one got hurt? Aside from the assassin, that is.”   "Nah, everyone's fine," Rachel says, standing up and walking to the front of the desk, "I just came here to put a little fear of God into him," she says, punching against her own palm with enough force to disturb the air around her, "You don't suppose-"   She's cut off, as the two feel a distinct rumbling in the floor beneath their feet. Like some sort of small earthquake, it seems to rock the entire building and Rachel looks at Rue with sudden concern, "What the fuck was that?"   The relief that Rue feels at Rachel’s reassurance that no one was harmed is short lived when the earth beneath their feet begins to shake. They place a hand on the door frame to steady themself, their senses sharpening as they search for the source of the disturbance.   Before they get a chance to detect much however, Rue and Rachel feel the floor falling out beneath them, the lights in the hallway losing power, and the office's window going dark as it's covered by earth and stone. The movement is accompanied by a catastrophic noise and both superhumans are thrown to the floor as it suddenly comes to a halt. The force sends anything that wasn't fixed in place flying onto the floor alongside them, with a thick layer of dust being kicked up as the two are left in utter darkness.   "Rue, you okay?" Rachel says as she paws blindly at the darkened room around them.   ''I'm fine,'' Rue says between coughs as some of the dust enters their airways and irritates their eyes, ''What about you? Are you hurt?'' They take a moment to adjust to the darkness, rubbing some of the dirt out of their eyes to allow them to take stock of the situation as they grumble something about their job never going according to plan.   "Oh yeah," Rachel says, coughing as she stands up, "Takes a little more than a fall to hurt me," she looks around as best she can, "Can you see anything? What happened?"   ''Well, for lack of a better way to put it: the building's sunk,'' Rue deadpans, pushing a toppled over chair aside as they stand back up, ''Looks like we're quite far underground.''   They walk over to Rachel, who still seems to be struggling with the lack of any light source. With just the two of them in the room, Rue forms a small flame in the palm of their hand to illuminate their surroundings, ''I guess we should go up, find a way back to the surface?''   "Shit." Rachel says, her grimace barely visible in the flickering firelight, "Yeah, alright. Can you see a way to the roof from here?"   “I’m sure I can find something,” Rue shrugs, turning their head to look for the quickest and least troublesome route up, “Meanwhile, I don’t suppose your phone has a torch on it? Can’t exactly walk around like this, just in case…”   "Oh, right," Rachel mutters, pulling her phone from her back pocket and activating the rear-facing light, shining it around the room to take a look at the place, "Well, the structure doesn't seem too badly damaged. Hope the rest of the building is the same..."   As Rachel takes in their surroundings, Rue looks through the walls of the building, searching for the roof exit. Soon enough, between all the people trying and failing to find their way to safety, they manage to locate a stairwell that leads up to the roof and turn back to the Railyard hero.   “There’s a stairwell that’ll get us up to the rooftop not too far from…” Rue trails off, sighing wearily and pinching the bridge of their nose, “We can probably get up there and get out of here in the next few minutes, but let me guess: you’d feel bad about leaving everyone else in the dark?”   "You can go ahead, Rue," Rachel says, baring her teeth in her usual grin, "I'll get the people out... somehow. I'm sure if I figure out who did this, I'll be able to get them to undo it."   ''Uh-huh...'' Rue says sceptically, the light in the room dimming as they extinguish the flame with a flick of their wrist, ''So let me get this straight - you're going to get the people out somehow? Are you just giving them directions and sending them on their merry way into the darkness?''   Their voice starts to raise gradually, their annoyance at the situation growing as they ramble on, ''And how do you intend to find the person who did this? When you find them, do you think they'll just say sorry and raise the building back up, or are you going to fight them under the light of your phone torch?''   "Let's see," Rachel says, stepping out into the hallway and shining her torch in each direction, as other people begin to get the idea and do the same. She points one office worker to the stairwell and tells her to get up to the roof before turning back to the younger superhuman.   "Yeah, pretty much," she says, shrugging, "In my experience, a supervillain doesn't make a big display of power like this unless they want to be seen. They've probably got some demands or outrageous plot. I find them, probably in one of the courtrooms, the foyer or the cafeteria, beat seven types of shit out of them, and make them let us go. Everyone's fine, and we all make it home for dinner."   There's a barely noticeable twitch to Rue's eye, their jaw tensing as they watch small groups of people slowly moving towards the staircase, ''Right then,'' They say, the smile on their face not quite reaching their eyes, ''Since you have it all under control, I'd best be on my way.'' Despite their earlier remark on making their way upwards, Rue stomps away in the opposite direction of the stairwell.   "What are you going to do?" Rachel asks, as yet unmoving from her place beside the office door.   ''I'm going to find Sinclair and do my job,'' Rue calls over their shoulder, stepping aside for a few more people to pass through the corridor, briefly looking for the man in question between them, ''Have fun with your hero stuff.''   Rachel sighs audibly and places her free fist against her hip, "Alright, Rue. Be careful," she says before turning towards the stairwell and calling back, "I think the cafeteria's on the ground floor, though."   ''Yeah, yeah!'' Rue calls back dismissively, turning the corner and nearly bumping into another panicked looking lawyer. They point behind them with a sigh and tell him to head towards the rooftop via the staircase.   To be continued...