"Is this the right spot?" Evan asked no one in particular.

Kinesis thumbed at the walkie-talkie, which remained silent, before glancing up at the structure in front of them.

A decaying hunk of concrete and metal sat buried in the shore, covered in a mixture of illegible graffiti and miscellaneous trash. The opening led downwards, deep into what passed for earth around here. Most importantly, Kinesis noted the sign, half-dissolved into sparkling blue sand but still sporting enough legible characters to make sense of it.

"A subway entrance." Kinesis reported. "That would definitely confirm it, this place is from my world."

"A subway?" Adele asked curiously.

"A subway is an underground train," Illium answered helpfully, "usually for passengers on a daily commute."

"Ah." Adele nodded, pausing. "Er, train?"

"Oi…" Cadena sighed.

"It looks like the way is clear here." Kyle noted, glancing around the entrance. "This might be our best way in, it looks like the entire city is sunk within a crater."

"I could always fly around on Mir." Evan offered.

"Might work…" Kyle turned the idea over in his head. "Anyone else want to go? I…am not the best long-distance flyer…"

"My wings are broken," Adele said, "but thank you for the offer."

"As are mine." Ark rubbed the back of his head apologetically.

"No wings." Cadena said, somewhat more gruffly than usual.

"I'm willing to go." Ho Young smirked as he shrugged. "I have to test the limits on my Nimbus Cloud anyway."

"Two people should be enough," Kyle said, "Ho Young and Evan can scout through the air and meet up with us later. The rest of us, through the tunnel, then?"

"Good enough for me." Ho Young snapped his fingers, and a swirling orange cloud of dust poofed itself into existence near his feet. He quickly stepped aboard, and floated up a few feet, taking a seat cross-legged as it floated up. Evan, meanwhile, mounted Mir, giving a polite wave as he sat atop his dragon.

With a gust of wind powerful enough to blow away part of the decaying sign, Mir took off. The Dragon Master and the Sage flew off towards the city skyline. A beautifully dramatic exit…had Ho Young not been shouting "We'll be back for dinner~!"

"And on that lovely note…" Kyle muttered under his breath. "Kinesis? Lead the way."

"Why am I leading the way?" He asked.

"I…I thought you wanted to go in first?" Kyle scrunched up his face. "The city is from your world, after all."

"I thought he was hanging out in back doing the brooding thing people do when they're acting dramatic." Cadena suggested.

"I'm not brood—ugh, never mind, let's just go." Kinesis rolled his eyes and started walking into the subway entrance.

"Don't bottle up your emotions!" Cadena snarked as she followed behind. "Release your feelings."

"I am feeling an urge to punch you." Kyle huffed as he and the rest of the group began filing into the tunnel.

"Try it, I dare you!"

BAP!

"Ow!"

"You deserved it." Kyle said, emerging at the bottom of the stairs and into a wide-open station.

Much like subways tend to be, the station the group found themselves in was dark. Dark, dirty, and smelling of something that one would hope is only stagnated water. Posters and flyers lined the walls, a smattering of them still intact. In what little grungy, blue light there was tricking down from the night-blasted surface, Kinesis could make out a few words and phrases, none of which he recognized in context.

"This place stinks." Cadena huffed as she rubbed her sore head before hopping an abandoned turnstile.

"Aren't you from Savage Terminal?" Kyle asked, wrinkling his nose. "Can't be worse than that."

Cadena sniffed the air again, before giving a half-hearted so-so wave. "Meh."

"The tunnel does not extend towards the Vanishing Town." Illium noted, gesturing towards the direction in question. Indeed, the tunnel had seemingly collapsed, ending sharply in a pile of blue sand and grey rocks.

"That only leaves forward, I guess." Ark said, hopping down onto the tracks.

"What, through the tunnel?" Cadena looked almost bewildered. "What about the train?"

"I don't think there's been a train in here for a long time." Kyle said, noting the dust and soot on his hands as he hopped down next to the Flora already on the tracks. "Maybe it vanished into the lake like everything else, or maybe it's stuck under the rocks. Either way, nothing's been down this tunnel in a while."

Cadena raised an eyebrow, but followed the group.

"Kyle's right." Kinesis said. "But even ignoring that, there's usually maintenance tunnels along the side specifically in case this kind of thing happens. I think."

He gestured inside. There weren't any maintenance tunnels to be seen, but the point was made.

"Besides," he continued, "we're super-powerful heroes. I think we can stop a train."

He paused.

"We…can stop a train, right?"

"Er, probably." Ark chuckled Adele and Illium slid down behind him.

"Good, good…" Kinesis clapped his hands lightly. "Then, let's go, I suppose."

"Down into the pit we go." Cadena said.

Illium muttered something under his breath and motioned with one hand, causing a ball of soft, pale-yellow light to rise out of nothingness and settle above his palm. He flicked the ball up about a foot above and to the right of his shoulder.

And with their newly-crafted light source, the group marched quietly into the stale darkness of the tunnel, following the tracks to wherever they may lead.

Following.

Following.

Shockingly enough, still following.

"At the risk of sounding impatient," Adele said as she watched Illium renew the light spell for the third time, "how long is this tunnel?

"Given that we're walking in a tunnel designed for high-speed trains and the fact that the Seoul Metro has a few regional lines that stretch over a hundred kilometers," Kinesis said tiredly, "quite long. But we shouldn't be too far away from the next station."

"Good, because renewing this light spell is getting a bit irritating." Illium huffed uncharacteristically. "It simply does not want to stay on—whoops!"

The light blinked out and the group was plunged into darkness.

"Hey, what gives?" Cadena's voice shouted from the void.

"I applied the spell incorrectly," Illium's voice explained, "it shouldn't be too much of an issue to—OOF!"

THUD!

"GYAH!"

WHUMP!

BAMPH!

"HEY WATCH IT!"

"OW!"

Illium flicked his light on, with some difficulty given that his arm was squeezed between Adele's back and Ark's face.

"Maybe we should have stopped walking when the light went out?" Cadena grunted from her spot at the bottom of the pile that had formed. "Now, if you idiots wouldn't mind GETTING OFF OF ME?!"

The was an awkward shuffle as the pile of people sorted itself out.

Adele dusted some of the grime off of her pant leg, which somehow managed to come out even whiter than before.

"Is everyone unharmed?" She asked.

"Just my dignity, thanks." Kyle grunted.

"Well on the bright side," Ark said, "we should be really glad there aren't any trains running, we wouldn't be able to see them."

The tunnel began to shake lightly, and a rumbling sound echoed through the darkness ahead and behind, the distinct clickity-clack of wheels on rails.

"You jinxed that." Cadena said, pulling out her chain whip. "You jinxed that and I hate you."

"Train!" Kyle shouted, though it was stupidly obvious. "Where's one of those maintenance tunnels, K?!"

"I-I don't know!" Kinesis was lightly panicked, darting his gaze at every possible point in the tunnel. "I don't see anywhere to go!"

"Then get ready to hold it off!" Illium said.

The group took up a fighting stance and drew their various weapons, as two bright lights barreled around a corner.

A horn sounded.

Kinesis raised his hand, ready to activate his psy-limiter.

There was a screech of metal on metal.

Every person standing there braced themselves for a full collision as 300-something metric-tons of steel careened towards them…

…and stopped, just a few steps away.

…and a several feet above the tracks.

Kinesis let his eyes wander across the surface of the locomotive. Where there should have been wheels was nothing but a gap between the flat metal floor and the tunnel. Lights had been strapped to the sides pointing down, and the cabin itself glowed an eerie electric blue. The windshield of the train's front had been graffiti'd over with what looked like random graffiti gibberish at first, but rather was a mocking face drawn upside down.

And then, a head popped out.

From a hatch in the bottom of the train, a metal helmet poked itself out. Two dimly red electronic eyes studied the group for a moment, before climbing out the hatch and standing on the train.

Kinesis did a double-take. The robotic man, dressed in a tattered hoodie and carrying a backpack of what could best be described as blue glass popsicle sticks, was standing upside-down on the bottom of the train.

Kinesis glanced back at his companions, noting in relief that he wasn't the only one seeing this. Reactions varied from Adele staring wide-eyed and noticeably speechless, to Cadena flapping her mouth open and shut like a fish.

Turning back to the mysterious robot man, Kinesis locked eyes with the newcomer.

There was a brief pause, during which the robot man tilted his head.

"Hey there, weirdos," he finally said, "what'cha doing up there?"