[color=598527]"Oy, wait fer me!"[/color] Aron called out to the scaly parili.
Aron [i]had[/i] been studying the breathing thing he'd been given, wondering what it was worth (a reasonable amount as it turns out) before the strange scaly guy ran down the sewers ahead of him. Aron quickly shoved the rebreather into his leather case. He'd figure out how to operate it later, or not bother. He did have experience, after all.

He hastened down the ladder into the sewers, and as he did, he was met with the smell of fresh rain after a storm. Not exactly a storm, but it smelled fresher than what most would expect. Of course, Aron already knew what it smelled like on any time of day. 

With that said, the idea that the sewer always smelled bad was wrong. There were parts of it that dealt with sewage and parts that didn't. Sometimes, even the parts that [i]did[/i] handle the sewage sometimes didn't, which could get very confusing. It was something Aron just dealt with due to his life experience. Run away from the stink, run away from the water, etc.

As the freshly swept sewer-smell washed over him, Aron was reminded of the days he spent in the sewers as a child. There were a lot more people down there a while back. As the sewers got bigger, however, the people became farther apart. There was always the occasional fellow homeless guy, but he didn't see them so much any more. What he did see more of recently were beasts. Big rats and the other sewer creatures became more common some time ago. Aron didn't really notice it, though, he adapted around it.

He jumped off the last few rungs and landed with a thump.

[color=598527]"Home sweet home."[/color] Aron said, grinning.

Good old nostalgia, alright.

[color=598527]"Hey, I said I can take you anywhere, but is there anywhere you really need to go, or are we just going to walk everywhere?"[/color] Aron called out above.

[hr]

Ash, as per his habits, was behind the rest of the group, fiddling with the rebreather. He wanted to know that it wouldn't fail him in a critical moment. He [i]had[/i] checked it when he'd gotten it first, but there was no harm in being safe. He checked the breathing mask, tubing, and the magical parts (and the other ones if I missed any). They all seemed to be in order.

He put it into his coat pocket and sat back, watching the others. It would probably reflect poorly on his character, but he wanted to be the last person in. There were a few reasons for this. The first was that he hadn't yet built a level of trust with his team. It wasn't a very good reason as most of the squad seemed fairly trustworthy, barring a few members. But the second reason was to cover the back. It was likely that the mission had some potentially harmful risks, and amongst those risks, there was a chance that pursuers with less wholesome goals were tailing the group.

While the expedition's presence had practically been proclaimed all over town, it was still a relatively sensitive mission. Considering it was a mission given to a group of misfits by the mayor's daughter, it had good public support. If it failed, public opinion of the mayor's daughter would sink, giving her political opponents an advantage.

Ash knew all this and stood back, vigilant. It was a job with a lot of potentially harmful unknown variables, and it had been his job to root out as many as he could.