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It was raining. Or it was just beginning to. The skies could be read like an open book, gray and angry, ready to unleash its fury upon the ground below. For that very reason, Six was in a hurry, if only because he didn't like to get wet when it could be easily avoided. From the hill that he was standing on, he could see the towering building that made up Diamond Heights, though it was a sight you could see them from miles around, even where he lived, on the edge of nowhere. Now, from where he stood, he was barely a stone's throw away from the city proper itself, and because of that, it was all the more impressive to see Paradiso stretch so high that it seemed to tear into the old gray sky itself. Just looking at Paradiso made Six a bit scared. The last time he had been in the city, he had been doing his utmost to get out, though it had felt more like an invisible hand had guided him as far away from the city as it could. Now he was going out of his way to return to Paradiso so that he could finally figure out what was really happening to himself, but it was still a long shot. He had no idea who he'd be able to turn to for help. Even so, he had already long ago come to the conclusion that he had no other choice than to find someone, even if he had to flip the city on its head to get to them. Ignoring the problem wouldn't help him, and it definitely wouldn't help anyone who might get hurt because of it.

Six's boots gripped into the dirt, grass, and rock as he descended down the hillside, his arms raised apart to help with his balance; he didn't want to take a tumble all the way down the hill. There was water at the bottom that appeared to be stagnant, and Six wouldn't even drink it even if he had a body that needed water to survive, though he feared that the people in the area didn't have much of a choice, especially those stricken with the bio-plague. In any case, he skirted along the water's edge, trying to avoid having the water soak the inside of his boots the best that he could. Then he finally came upon the very thing that he had come all this way for. It was a drainage pipe, whether it was for sewage or storm drainage didn't immediately matter, though the latter was clearly preferable. Six climbed into the pipe, looking over his shoulder as the rain started to pour so hard that he could barely see anything behind him. Inside the pipe, it was a bit cramped, even for him, and he had to pull his backpack to his front so that he could avoid having to crawl into the muck itself. He did have a sense of smell, so Six hurried as quickly as he could, since there was no fear of getting lost in a pipe that only went two different ways: in and out.

Soon enough, Six came to a large metal grated door, where the actual drainage pipe ended and the large underground tunnel began. It had likely been a way in for maintenance workers, Six could only guess- many of the mysteries of the old world were lost upon him. These tunnels were old, older than almost anything else in Paradiso, and possibly among the last of its kind. The others had long ago been filled with concrete or upgraded into a much more efficient waste disposal systems. For whatever reason, some were overlooked and forgotten about, much to the benefit of Six, who had taken advantage of that fact with he had originally escaped from the Lower District nearly a year and a half ago. Six carefully stepped to the side where he would be on stable concrete, mindfully avoiding the wastewater that flowed in the middle. Some of the buildings on the very edge of the Lower District were likely still connected to this, and he wasn’t confident enough to take the chance that they weren’t at the present time. He set his backpack upon the concrete and pulled out a few things that he’d undoubtedly need to navigate the sewers that were before him.

The first was a flashlight. It was dark… so dark that it was difficult to see much in front of him. His eyes didn’t have night vision, no more than they were capable of shooting lasers, at least as far as Six was aware. Most of the flashlights that Six had found had originally required disposable batteries, which was certainly an archaic form of technology that the world was fortunate to do without, at least in Six’s humble opinion. Most batteries that he had come across had long since corroded into dust by the acid that they held inside, so it wasn’t really an option for him. Fortunately, he was a bit of a tinkerer when it came to electronics, so he managed to jury rig several components together into a kinetic charger and retool most of his devices to be compatible with it. All the walking he had did to come here actually proved to have another purpose, and he pulled the device out of his pocket, plugging it into the back of his flashlight. Now there was finally light, or enough so that he wouldn’t end up tripping over himself.

Next, he pulled out an electronic device that were once called a cellphone, if he remembered the terminology correctly. It had a half-eaten apple on the back of it, which made Six all the more fascinated at how branding worked in the old world. He had downloaded a map of Paradiso and the old sewer layout, fusing the two together with a program he had made only days prior. Though he wasn’t able to forget much of anything, when he first ran through these sewers, he had a strange feeling that led him to where he needed to go. In the end, it had only left him with a surreal, dreamlike experience, and hardly one that he could accurately call back upon. So, with this, he’d know where to go, and roughly what was above him. With that sorted out, he zipped his backpack up and slung it on his right shoulder, and began to head on his way.

The walls around him were dark and dank, heavy with some kind of moisture and so very cold. The water flow was picking up, and would only continue to do so as it rained, though he was appreciative of the fact that there was some way to vaguely gauge what the weather topside was like. Being down here almost made him feel like a ninja turtle, who were among some of the many characters that he had read about in the many comic books that he had managed to come across, though he had to admit that his combat skills were sorely lacking when compared to theirs. It would have been nice to have three androids backing him up, but he’d be on his own once he finally made it out of here. That was a solemn note to think on, yet he was more than happy that he didn’t have to live out his entire life in the sewers. They definitely weren’t growing on him.

After more than his fair share of twists and turns, Six finally came upon where he needed to be, or probably more aptly, where he wanted to be. It was a steel ladder leading up to a manhole, and it had become slippery. As he made his way up it, he wasn’t able to make out anything on the other side, which he supposed wasn’t all too surprising. According to his phone, which he had already slipped back into his backpack, this was an alley off of a minor side street, leading Six to believe that this spot was the best place to come out at. Six pressed against the manhole cover, and to his surprise, it wouldn’t budge. That was odd. Six strained against against it to no avail, growing increasingly angrier as he did so. He wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea of spending anymore time in the sewers than was necessary. Six only hoped that they didn’t pave over it long ago, but with a city this old, it wasn’t completely out of the question. Still, he was here and he might as well give it another shot. He crouched with his legs slightly, intending to place as much power behind himself as he possibly could. Then he went for it, propelling himself upwards, connecting with the manhole cover with the lower part of his right palm. It practically made the cover rocket itself away, proving to Six that he was clearly much stronger than he had previously thought. The rain was now hitting him in the face, but he chose to ignore it, preparing to throw his backpack out on the street above with himself following soon after.