X continues to make the exchanges, and in roughly 28 minutes he finds himself in another neighborhood, not as posh as the hunting grounds in which he *SHOULD* be tonight but not exactly squattersville, either. In fact, a lot of the cars are better than last year's model - a telling sign. Naturally, there isn't a soul on the streets here at the bus stop, but (X) you're fairly sure they're ambling around somewhere nearby. The street goes left to right, with a few cross-streets, bringing to your mind a saying from an ancient text-scroller game, something about being in "A maze of twisty passages, all alike". Not an omen for comfort tonight, that much is certain. From down the street off to your right, (approaching rapidly, like a bullet) you hear something like a Whoosh-CHUNK! Next to you a privacy wall's elder concrete cracks and pops explosively, scattering small chunks of debris behind you. Somewhere in the darkness (distant, also off to your right) you hear a whispered curse.
Aftre a brief discussion, the Property Brothers easily make the leap to the fire escape (actually, Block feels as though he could have levitated them both to the rooftop five stories up, no problem) and bounce (somewhat) quietly up to the rooftop. Actually, Ace is making all of the noise, Block's feet don't seem to actually touch anything as they make their way to the rooftop. And on the rooftop, they find an expanse of tar-and-gravel, interruped here and there by BIG power transformers humming quietly to themselves, air handlers and air conditioners and the occasional chimney. Quite the exotic obstacle course, sprinkled hither and thither with structures that look like they *could* be inhabited, or have very recently *been* inhabited. You idly wonder if anybody has a dog (or worse) on a chain (or OFF the chain!) up here? Naturally the lighting is very irregular up here, with a lot of things under-lit from the streetlights below. Down on the street everything remains calm, cool, and collected as people wander along on their own missions, lost in their own little worlds. Towards the park end of the block, Ace spots a small group of what could be wraiths (if he believed in them), as they vector along in the shadows in a *REALLY* tight formation. The formation shifts as they progress up the street towards Ace and Block's location, but they don't stumble over each other, or cause difficulty as the move efficiently along. The hair on the backs of Ace's and Block's necks begins to unfurl and stand - as they both get "a bad feeling" as they view this undulating mass of shadows moving up the street, seemingly towards their position directly.
Strangely enough, nobody hears anything from Tiny during this interlude. |
