Underground city

Daisy had breakfast and chatted with the hotel staff, expressing her concerns about local security. The staff recommended a gun store to her.

Spending eleven hundred dollars, she took away two Glock 18 pistols and two boxes of ammunition. These guns were easy to carry, with one at her waist and one in her backpack. In theory, she would be prepared for most minor troubles.

In the following days, she began to look for local legends, stories, libraries, and online forums, searching for clues about the ancient city.

She visited the San Juan Police Department for three consecutive days. According to her, she had seen online that eighteen years ago, a couple had lost a girl here. She came following the clues to search for her biological parents.

The police station glanced at her US passport and cooperated with her patiently, searching for three days.

All the searching for parents was a cover. Daisy came to Puerto Rico openly, but she needed to maintain an appearance. Most importantly, she aimed to implant a Trojan horse within the police station's system.

She found the architectural layout of Old San Juan from the police station's database. Despite not being an architecture professional and struggling to identify anomalies in many places, she managed to connect her memories and guesses to discover several key points.

Originally named San Cristóbal, San Juan was constructed by the Spanish as a fortress to control the Caribbean Sea. Over an extended period, it withstood invasions from the Dutch, English, and Americans, making significant contributions to its defence.

It can be confirmed that the ancient city of the Inhumans located deep beneath the old fortress.

The large organisation completed half of the information gathering process at this stage. The next step is to clear the area and utilise large machinery for deep excavation. From what I recall, S.H.I.E.L.D. used high-speed cutting tools, while HYDRA went even further with plasma drills. Unfortunately, Daisy had no help, she didn't even had a shovel.

As for going to a store to buy a shovel and digging a tunnel herself, it sounds quite implausible, akin to a cameo in the Western version of "The Ghost Blowing Lantern" Regardless of how it's considered, it doesn't seem reliable...

The method of digging manually isn't suitable for her.

Daisy delved into the San Juan library, searching through various documents. It has to be said that pressure brings motivation. Her Spanish language proficiency rapidly improved while going through the materials. While her spoken Spanish might be a bit stuttered, her reading and writing skills faced no major obstacles.

In the local folklore, she came across a piece of news that resembled an urban legend.

According to the legend, on the northern side of the fortress, facing the sea, there is a watchtower. For a long time, no one dared to be stationed there, and there are records of eleven missing soldiers. Local tales speak of an ancient demon residing beneath the tower.

Daisy was a bit scared. In the Marvel universe, are there demons? She knew they existed, but they shouldn't be here.

The documents recorded that soldiers vanished without a trace, suggesting a passage connecting directly to the underground city. Since the soldiers lacked Inhuman lineage, it's likely they didn't return because they lacked the means to do so.

It must be said that this urban legend was good news for her.

August in Puerto Rico is indeed sweltering, and San Juan, the city, isn't very large. The streets are narrow as well. The envisioned scene of gunfire and shootouts in the streets wasn't to be seen. The locals were peaceful, casually selling items under sunshades by the roadside, with no one paying much attention.

Daisy went around making purchases. She prepared some ropes, a dagger, a handful of glow sticks. She remembered the underground city had a unique magnetic field that could disable all electronic devices. Many things would be rendered useless, but she still brought a flashlight. In the initial stages, flashlights would still serve some purpose, functioning as disposable items.

She also bought some compressed food and water. In TV shows, everything wraps up in forty minutes, but in reality, the duration of the journey is hard to determine. After all, it's an underground city, and relying on just two feet, it's bound to be a long walk, no matter how you think about it.

Thinking back to the painful experiences during military training, she bought a large pack of sanitary pads. This item could serve as insoles and was useful for personal needs as well. In any case, it was an essential item to have...

The existing city maps provided little help for the underground city, but Daisy still hand-drew a portable map to carry with her. She left her laptop and phone in the hotel.

Daisy wore a beige shirt over her tank top, rolling up the sleeves. She wore jeans and sneakers. A mechanical watch adorned her wrist, and she also packed a jacket in her backpack. This outfit seemed quite warm.

However, she estimated that the underground city would likely be cold and dirty, so it wouldn't hurt to be over-prepared.

After having her fill and making all the necessary preparations, Daisy carried the Monolith and slipped into the watchtower where the demon was said to reside, on a sunny afternoon.

After having her fill and making all the necessary preparations, Daisy carried the Obelisk and slipped into the watchtower where the demon was said to reside.

She didn't possess strong surveillance abilities, and there wasn't much distinction between day and night for her. During the day, if someone were to tail her, she might even be noticed.

Swiftly turning onto a small path, the abandoned watchtower stood desolate and ignored, devoid of even a proper entrance.

The interior was filled with dust, and it felt chilly. She quickly put on her jacket.

She focused her attention and began searching diligently.

After a short time, she found a hollow spot covered in overgrown weeds. Holding her pistol, she descended the stone steps slowly.

This was a wine cellar, and it seemed that the soldiers of the past didn't want to feel lonely. In order to enjoy drinks here, they had specially dug out an underground chamber to store their alcohol.

She tapped the floor tiles and the walls one by one, eventually discovering a deep hole beneath the western wall. Presumably, the last guards had sealed the entrance, but the masonry was casually done, so she managed to open it with just a few moves.

Having read some tomb raiding novels, Daisy stood outside for a while. Afterward, she extended her hand and sensed it. A gentle airflow flowed through her fingers, and a faint cool breeze could be felt.

She tied her long hair into a ponytail and placed the flashlight inside her miner's hat. Carefully donning the miner's hat, she began to descend the passage, taking cautious steps.

The passage was likely excavated by the soldiers who were stationed at the watchtower back then.

The passage was very narrow. Daisy crawled in a highly unsteady manner for an hour. One word : tired!

Fortunately, this passage wasn't long. After traversing a slope, the scene suddenly opened up before her eyes.

A deeper and smoother downhill path appeared before her eyes.

The flashlight went out, as expected.

The gray-haired Daisy knew she had entered the boundaries of the ancient underground city.

Facing the pitch-black tunnel where she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face, she felt a silent wave of fear, tinged with a hint of exhilaration?

Instead of using flashlight, she instinctively reached out and grabbed the Obelisk. The previously smooth, mirror-like surface of the Obelisk revealed numerous orange-red stripes. After days of studying the layout of San Juan city, she immediately recognised that the surface of the Obelisk displayed a map. The stripes converged at a single point, her destination.

The Obelisk continued to emit light and heat, sending a signal to Daisy, guiding her to follow its guidance.

This sensation came inexplicably, but with the faint illumination from the Obelisk, she was able to see her surroundings clearly.

Just a short distance away from her feet lay the remains of seven or eight skeletons. They had been overtaken by some force as they entered the city's outskirts and ultimately met their end here.

At the end of her line of sight, there were even more skeletal remains. Among the clothing, she could identify Spanish soldiers, indigenous people, and even some small animals.

After identifying the direction, she began to follow the guidance of the Obelisk, heading deeper into the city.