Cider, with an implied question from Dempsey, gave back a quick nod. 

[b]"Aw, babes,"[/b] the cloaked Worm said, his voice effeminate, [b]"when someone tells you to head out, you should really head out." [/b]

[b]"There's an unmarked car waiting outside the ward. Suit up and get in, it'll take you to 9th industrial. There's a manhole that leads inside, take it and just,"[/b] Cider said worryingly, [b]"stay safe."[/b]

Finishing whatever business they had at the safe house, the group left the claustrophobic maze of alleys and roads that protected their base of operations. The trip there was, for lack of a better term, uneventful. They entered the car, only to be greeted by a rust-bucket of an android sitting in the driver's seat. Though, to call it a robot was a touch misleading; it was most similar to a mannequin. Their chauffeur was completely immobile, save for its simplistic, featureless head which turned with a single motor. Everything that the driver needed to do was handled by the car itself. The robot only served as an aesthetic feature that made the car look more human. That and it dispensed licenses and registrations through a single slot on its head. The car was completely ordinary,  except for the blood on the backseat. Not an extraordinary amount, but enough to know who exactly left the mess.

[right][sub][i]The Tetsu Foundry, 9th Industrial[/i][/sub][/right][hr]

The 9th industrial district was always an odd place. Almost every square foot of the place was used for four-story concrete buildings. Narrow roads with no place to walk allowed for some travel, alleys forgotten by time, and thick, voluminous nets covered anything higher than one story. Not a single light out on the street illuminated the way for travelers. Only light-bleed from the bustling factories gave a sense of space in the dark, cramped concrete jungle.

The car drove next to the Tetsu Foundry. Officers, along with their yellow tape and (more persuasive) threats of beatings, kept both worker and onlooker from checking out the foundry. But the robot drove past and instead, stopped outside an alleyway. There was that manhole, slightly ajar from its hole. A bloody hand print marked the edge of the hole. Obvious who it came from. Entering the manhole was, in essence, entering the third circle of hell. As if stepping into the raging inferno, a sweltering heat overcame all trespassers.

With dense buildings covering every square foot of the ward, there was no way to use any overlook for this operation. Instead, a pipe was climbable to the walkways that allowed for supervisors to oversee the mooks. With a knife, one could easily cut through the netting and break into the building via a window. It was still extremely hot, though. More of a dry heat, if anything.

The ones who entered from the hole were greeted with a simple ladder up into a small closet connected into an office. A single tiny window covered in iron bars allowed for vision out, but it could barely cover 1/4 of the building. Anything of value had already been taken. All that was left was useless papers and furnishings. A single, heavy door separated the office from the work floor. But that scraping, that horrible screech. Metal across concrete, that noise permeated past the door.

Whatever had invaded the foundry, it was on the other side.