The Underground That Nobody Could Fathom: ONE

Down the hallway that man was in, another man, clad in the same grey that paved the walls of this underground labyrinth that they both find themselves in, both of them calmly calculating each other's movements before relaxing themselves, the man pressing his back against the wall and sliding across it to sit down. The man in grey walks over and sits next to him, processing the environment around him. A crackling sigh comes from his mask as he adjusts his scarf - colors change, the scarf turns into a black and orange patterned design, triangle, and squares placed across it. His suit turns into charcoal black, gold-lined across the helmet and gaps of his Mexe suit, his long baggy pants having gold chains and jewels running across it, a waist bang keeping the pants in place; no boots. He turns to the gas-masked man, "Name?"

"Call me, Svartur, and you?"

"Icelandic..."

"Your name?"

"No, that's the language your name comes from. I've noticed similarities and such to my own world across this godforsaken galaxy but can't find out why it's so similar. It shouldn't be, but it is. It doesn't make any sense, because of the distance between my planet and everyone else's, the difference in languages or name choices should be completely different."

Svartur chuckles, "It's good to get your emotions straight but it doesn't make too much sense to rant to a stranger."

"Sorry... I..."

"It's understandable. I can take a good guess that you have found yourself in some sort of unpredictable circumstance that had led you to be as stressed as you are," Svartur smacks the man on the back, "Loosen up. You'll become old while young."

"I definitely don't want that."

"Why don't you tell me your name?"

"I abandoned my real name so I'll only tell you my title... I am the Gambler."

"A Gambler... why that title?"

"That's for me to know and for you to find out."

Svartur let's out a light chortle, lightly sliding his hand across the floor he sits under, "How do you find my humble abode?"

"You own this place?"

"No, I meant the planet."

The Gambler nods, "Scary."

"Reasonable - the air that we breathe isn't safe when the clouds are overhead. A chemical that they create can turn you into a Bativattsva, if you're lucky, you die. That is the most likely scenario at least. It rains down like ash, as small as a random piece of dirt that you'd find on something like your Pauldron, but it is deadly..."

"One of those 'Bativattsva' that you refer to put my girlfriend into a coma."

"I see, that is worrying."

"Will anything happen if those cut you or anything?"

"Brain damage."

"Fuck..."

"I apologize for not being able to do anything."

"No need to apologize for something you have no involvement in." The Gambler looks to Svartur's waist, "What's that big pistol on your waist?"

"A rail pistol," Svartur takes the pistol off of his waist and shows it to the Gambler, "It takes high caliber rounds," Svartur chambers a round of his gun and a large bullet the size of his head flies out, catching it in mid-air. "It can tear through human flesh with ease and could even take down a Bativattsva just as easily."

"Are you wearing a Mexe suit?"

"No."

"I heard only normal people could use it with a Mexe suit, I have something similar and my Mexe suit always compensates for what I can't handle regarding it."

Svartur chuckles, "I can handle it, but I won't tell you how I can. 'That's for me to know and for you to find out,' - your words."

The Gambler sighs, "Damn, got me there."

"How long have you been on the planet?"

"Not too long, to be honest, I'm still not sure that what I came across was what you were referring to or not."

"Bativattsva do not have a clear cut form. The only similarity is that they bleed like us but have white flesh in a variety of different forms. Some could be the size of giants while others are a mutation of each other, an ugly monstrosity made up of tentacles and goop. If you were really unlucky though, you'd have come across a Budvarittsma. Humanoid creatures with purple lining coming across their bodies, almost glowing in allure, a hole where their face should be as if blown out by a cannon."

"Shit... Budvarittsma, that's what it was."

"You were lucky then, to have escaped that is."

"I used my pistol to cripple it and had my drones hold it back while I ran with my concussed girlfriend in my arms."

"Clever you are, but nevertheless, it surprises me that you have managed to cripple one. I thought something the equivalent to my rail pistol was the only thing that could injure it."

"Similar pistol."

"I see, I see... maybe that could've happened then."

"Doubt?"

"No, challenge. I feel like killing one."

"You're a crazy bastard, I barely made it out alive, plus, you said that they were worse than the Bativattsva but here you are saying that you want to kill one?"

"Pride."

The Gambler sighs, "I guess that could drive someone as well."

Svartur stands up, patting himself down, turning to the Gambler. "Shall we head out?"

The Gambler stands, "What?"

"I'll show you how to deal with that bastard, all you have to do is show me the way."

The Gambler stares into the goggles of Svartur's gas mask, stunned, "Alright..." The Gambler sighs, showing him the way, walking back from the direction he just came from. They head up to the floor above them.

Walking, walking, and walking. The Gambler's feet tapping against the ground and scraping against it which each step is nothing soundwise compared to Svartur's clacking boots, the heel of which being lined with a dull metal attached to a rubber sole. A bridge on the floor they're on leads to the pillar in the middle of this curving wall, seemingly endless until you realize you've already lapped back around. The Gambler leads Svartur to the pillar, coming across the flimsy stone bridge, wiring lining the bottom.

They reach a door twice their size, "So yo-"

Before the Gambler could explain, Svartur shoves the door open with all of his strength, easily separating its ends from each other. Svartur let's out a deep sigh, "Heavy," He turns to the Gambler, "Was it in here?"

"No... this just leads to it."