[attr="class","framed69"]

[attr="class","biglowe69reescroll"]

[break][break]

Elara had pondered that one for a bit well after it had been said- was it cannibalism by proxy to eat something that had eaten people? Maybe. It really depended on how much human was left after something had been digested. Did a cow or chicken live on in a person in some way if someone ate the flesh? Elara had gone vegetarian years ago but still had to wonder if she was somehow part fish. Going a step further, did eating all that greenery make her part mushroom, or part carrot? Perhaps Elara’s genetic makeup was slowly shifting more and more close to that of a potato. Either way, they were at the entrance to the sewer and would be fighting the gator, not eating it. At least Eel didn’t plan to eat it.

[break][break]

She continued to put up with the bad French accent that he had been on the entire time, but had to stifle a giggle at the joke about eating in the sewer. Couldn’t encourage Gleeford, especially if it hadn’t been a joke. Elara readjusted her mask before heading inside with her partner for the day. She’d remarked in relation to her perhaps extreme preparation for sewage adventures. “Well yeah, I didn’t wanna get sewer juice all over me. But…”

[break][break]

It was quite a bit different than she had initially imagined. Two upper pathways ran along the lower drainage stream, at least ten feet above the slime that rushed along down below. The smell was still a bit rank, even through her mask and ‘perfume’ preparation, but it was tolerable. She leaned over the railing with him and inspected the flow but found her mouth watering and her gag reflex working against her. Elara backed up fairly quickly, not wanting to puke so early into the mission. Or at all, really. “You’re right, I don’t like this.”

[break][break]

“As for a plan…” She pulled up her system map and scanned what tunnel she could see from it, but it would probably only serve to keep from getting them horribly lost. Elara shrugged. “I guess we wander until-” She’d already started walking away and immediately spotted a little blotch of a brackish red-brown, forming a trail that made it’s way further into the tunnels. “Huh. Guess we follow the uh, the ominous trail of blood. Yeah.”

[attr="class","big69"]

[attr="class","framed69"]

[attr="class","biglowe69reescroll"]

[break][break]

Continuing on showcased even more utensils, plates, old and new torn clothes- all stained with blood. None of it was fresh, but it was foreboding nonetheless. Confusing enough was the lack of teeth marks on anything, and the clearly human prints left in blood on a large salad fork. "Does the gator have hands?..." Nah, the quest giver would have mentioned something strange like that.

[break][break]

The further into the sewers, the worse the smell permeated the mask. Elara rubbed more menthol on the inside but it could only do so much. She carried on through the concrete tunnels, feeling more and more cold the further she got from outdoors. She figured she was at least a few city blocks worth underground by this point. Elara found herself at an open runoff area, hearing a familiar liquid sound besides the gently listing sewage.

[break][break]

"Bah, more Oranges." Looking down at the platform below she could spot a group of the things, all calmly globbing over something solid, something with bits attached to it. Something familiar... "Oh, a skeleton." The slimes obscured the shape but it was still unmistakable- that was a picked clean corpse down there, distinctly human. The creatures seemed uninterested in her, content to scavenge. Elara snuck on by.

[break][break]

The lights got more and more sparse, left cared for the deeper into the tunnels she went. Some were even broken, glass still shattered on the ground. Still more bones, old scraps of newspaper smeared like napkins. Finally there in one of those weird pits that some sewers have, the big square room, lit only by the light reflecting off the water from down a faraway pipe. Elara heard it before she saw, the low growl. A warning. She pulled a lantern from her inventory and checked below, but saw no nose poking up from the water. In fact, didn't alligators usually kind of hiss when they growled?

[break][break]

Two human hands clambered up the side of the fetid pit, stained with anything and everything. The growl continued as a face emerged, bearded with wild, matted hair. His face was covered in viscera, and the stench of rot intermingled with that of waste. He stood taller than Elara with muscles glistening in the lamplight from a recent swim in the water. He bared fangs, and from his belt Elara spotted a half-eaten human arm. She'd found the 'alligator', apparently.

[attr="class","big69"]

[attr="class","framed69"]

[attr="class","biglowe69reescroll"]

[break][break]

The run through the darkened sewer pathways was harrowing at best. Elara felt her shoulder aching but hurried all the same, barely finding her way. Thankfully the lights started coming back, the sure sign that she was making her way back to civilization. But Elara knew she couldn't just run the whole way; the woman had been sent here to do a job, and leaving would just allow him to eat more people. This needed to be solved, not just survived.

[break][break]

Elara ran, swerving and weaving to avoid more swipes of the cleaver. Gator man hissed the whole way and seemed especially excited the second time he managed to get a glancing slice of Eel skin. "I really, really don't want to be lunch!" She kept running and her waders kept squeaking, but finally Elara found herself back in the room with the slimes. It wasn't exactly well lit, but even in her frantic need to get away Eel was able to stop a clearly crumbling area of the ceiling. A plan fomented there in that moment.

[break][break]

She stopped and turned on her heels, Gator stopping in his tracks as Elara took up her own fighting stance. The slimes could still be heard quietly picking at their leftovers. Elara threw herself down to the lower landing and narrowly avoided taking a dip. The slimes though all reacted poorly, especially as Gator jumped down after Eel. Two of them ran, one of them flattened themselves against a wall. The fourth though...

[break][break]

"It's you!" It hadn't been necessary- Elara was going to find something to throw either way, but here, in this moment? Orange Crusher squelched there in place and Elara had never been quite so happy to see a viscous anvil. She gave attention back to Gator Man and hit him with her Anathema, furthering those guilty statuses and hindering his movement. The carnivore startled in place this time, the ailments finally catching up to him. Maybe he was feeling bad about eating people, maybe he felt guilty about trying to cut Elara up with a butcher's knife. Maybe he just felt bad about walking out on his wife and kid all those years ago in a past Earth.

[break][break]

It didn't matter, and Elara wasn't a mind reader anyways. She took advantage of the enemy's cannibal pause and grabbed hold of Orange Crusher, straining her legs and arms, even her hurt back into a low squat. Twisting as carefully as she could she spun and hurled, releasing O.C. at a particularly 'crumbly' looking bit of ceiling above her, but not before Crusher re-shaped the area Elara held into little spikes. Regardless of pierced hands though Eel was able to hit her mark. The ensuing rumble and groan of concrete above told her as much.

[break][break]

From there Elara threw herself across the platform to the other side of the waterway as tunnel collapsed onto Gator man and the whole room began to fall into itself. Elara was hit by a fairly large bit of concrete as she climbed the ladder back to the upper walkway but managed not to be knocked unconscious. Gator for his part tried to chase, hopping across and reaching a grubby hand at Elara's pant leg, but was buried under further rubble.

[break][break]

She kept running regardless. Elara was fairly certain the cannibal had been buried, but the cave-in- tunnel in?- continued until the room and the entrance to it in the tunnel itself was inaccessible. Elara felt herself heal a little, the tell-tale sign of defeating a guilty foe.

[break][break]

Hopefully Paris would be safe from alligators and people who imitated them hereafter.

[attr="class","big69"]