Serenity led the way down to the subway station. Normally, it was just a matter of pulling out a Metro card and scanning it at the turnstile, or at the most buying one and then scanning it, but that wasn’t going to work. Not when he didn’t have money and couldn’t even see the readouts even if he did have money.

He was going to have to ask for help.

Serenity hurried past the machines where cards could be bought. He couldn’t use them, and simply being near them gave him a headache; they were almost as loud as the woman’s car. Did that mean they were networked?

If only he’d had a chance to figure out this ability. If he had, he might at least be able to use money once he had it.

He stopped in the middle of the floor and looked around. Surely there was an information booth or a place to get help? He couldn’t read the signs, but if he looked for someone behind a barrier or a counter, that might work.

Not being able to see through even a thin glass barrier made it more difficult than he’d expected. Serenity couldn’t tell what was glass and what was wall just by looking.

“Did you know you have a giant man-shaped lizard standing behind you?” A man walked towards Serenity from the turnstiles. He seemed young and fit; Serenity guessed him to be in his late teens or early twenties. He was dressed casually, with a gym bag slung over his shoulder. He looked tired but cheerful.

Serenity smiled, careful to keep his mouth closed while he smiled. “Yeah. This is Raz, he’s a friend. From out of town, you might say. I’m...” Serenity stopped himself. If he was trying to be quiet about things until he was able to check in with his parents and Rissa, he probably shouldn’t use the name Serenity. “Call me Thomas.”

The other man nodded. “I can see that. I’m Roy. Are you from this area? Need a guide?”

Meeting Roy seemed remarkably convenient. Serenity couldn’t help but be suspicious of a stranger that seemed to be exactly what he needed. Still, it would be nice to have a guide. “Arlington, but a guide would be helpful. Thing is, I don’t have any money on me. It didn’t come with me when I left the Tutorial.”

Roy seemed to relax a bit. “Oh, you’re freshly out? I heard that happens sometimes. I was normal, came out right where I went in and was able to pick my wallet up off the floor. Is that where you met - Raz, was it?” Roy started heading towards one of the card machines. Serenity followed slowly, feeling his headache worsen as he walked.

“I ended up a long way from here and met Raz. It was an adventure to even get this close, but now I need to go the rest of the way. I can offer some monster cores if that’ll cover the ticket cost.” Serenity didn’t know if they were worth anything now, but they would be later. Still, it was easy enough to gather more, and he didn’t want to take advantage of the stranger.

“Sure, a couple cores’ll cover a couple tickets. I’ll even come with you if you like?” Roy was already buying the second ticket. This was definitely starting to feel too good to be true. Serenity didn’t think there was any way he’d actually be a threat, but he’d definitely be keeping an eye out.

Serenity reached into his bag and grabbed the first two cores his hand found. “It’s not necessary, I can find the way. Will these work?”

Roy gave them a glance before sticking them in a pocket. “Sure. It’s no problem, I don’t mind spending a bit longer on the train.”

Now Serenity knew Roy was lying and wanted to follow them for some reason, but there wasn’t a good way to stop him. They’d just have to be on their guard. He hoped it was simply Roy being cautious about the possibility of invaders; that would be a good reason. It could be something much worse, but most of those were things that Serenity and Raz could easily deal with. This early, there would be very few Earth-humans who could keep up with either of them.

It was a good thing the turnstiles had auditory cues for the blind. Serenity hadn’t paid much attention to them in the past, but this time they let him go through without any real issues. He had to explain it to Raz, as well, but they made it through without any major snags.

There was only one platform at this metro station, with track on both sides. Roy led them to one side. “We’re all on the right side; the left line’s closed. Construction, I think. It’s a problem at rush hour, but right now it’s not bad. That’s why I was coming through now, this seemed like a good time to miss the crowds and I don’t have anywhere else I need to be today.”

Serenity could see Roy look up at the signs and was frustrated he couldn’t see them. Serenity reached out to one of the displays and was met with a wave of static. When he actively tried to reach it, it was louder and everything else faded into the background; was that the key to making this work?

Roy’s voice broke into Serenity’s thoughts. “There we are! It says the next westbound train will be … in twenty minutes. Joy. They must be running reduced service. I wonder if that’s due to time of day or the construction?”

Roy sank down onto a bench, but fidgeted. After a couple of minutes, he said “I’ll be right back.” and walked down the station. Serenity would have thought he was heading to a restroom, but his Perception paid off; after Roy stepped behind a pillar, he could hear Roy speak. “Sir, yeah, I know. You’ll want to hear this. I was on my way home when I saw a couple of people in a subway station; one looked like a lizard-man. No, not like any of the ones we know about, even the ones down in Florida. He’s more manlike than those, walks upright and everything. The second person has weird eyes and there’s something off about his fingernails, but I couldn’t tell more than that. He says his name’s Thomas and he’s from Arlington, just out of the Tutorial.”

Serenity regretted that he couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation. He could fill in a lot of the holes by what Roy said, but that wasn’t the same as actually hearing the whole thing.

“No, I don’t remember a recent one in Arlington, either. There was that one what, three days ago? That’s recent enough, he said something about meeting the lizard-man after the Tutorial and having a trip to get this close.” There was a longer pause this time. Serenity wasn’t sure if Roy was getting orders or the person on the other end of the phone was looking something up. “Yes, sir. Understood. I’ll try to find out.”

Roy didn’t immediately come back, so Serenity leaned over to Raz. “I think Roy is following us to keep track of us instead of to help.”

Raz chuckled. “Wouldn’t be the first time. At least he’s being polite about it. Mother took me to the Iltith Bazaar once. We had a guard assigned to us the entire time we were there, and they flat told her that it was to keep us from stealing and he wasn’t there to protect us if anything happened. Nothing did, but we were in and out of there as fast as we could be.”

Serenity blinked. “Maybe getting you to leave fast was part of the reason?”

“Yeah, could be. I know we didn’t go back. Not that we had the money to go, anyway.” Raz looked down. “So you said you know where we are? Any idea when we’ll get out of this?” Raz waved sort of upwards.

Serenity wasn’t sure what Raz was waving at. “Out of what? It’ll be a while before we get to my parents, probably a couple hours. Should only be an hour to an hour and a half til we’re off the subway.”

“The smell. It was a bit odd when we were outside, but it wasn’t really unpleasant until we got to this place.” Raz wrinkled his muzzle. Serenity hadn’t realized he could even do that.

Serenity sniffed. It smelled like a subway station. A little bit of a scent of people, a touch of exhaust, a slight scent of dankness from being underground. Nothing unusual. “Which scent is the problem? It smells like a subway station to me.”

“The most obvious is the fire smell, I’m not sure what’s burning but it doesn’t smell like wood. There’s also old oil and something I can’t even recognize …” It took a while for Raz to describe it well enough for Serenity to realize that Raz could smell the rubber used as a seal on the subway car doors, even though there wasn’t actually a subway car present. It smelled like something else burning to him, until he knew what it was. Raz was not happy to know that he’d have to put up with all of the smells until they got off the subway.

Serenity was shocked at how many smells Raz could process. Yes, he’d sort of noticed all of them at one time or another, but he didn’t notice them at all until Raz pointed them out. The odd thing was that once Raz pointed them out, Serenity could smell them. Was he just normally oblivious, or had his sense of smell improved? And if it had improved, was it one of his evolutions or was it just his increase in Perception?

While they were talking about smells, Roy came back. He didn’t say anything until a train arrived. Serenity and Raz started to get up, until Roy said it was the wrong train - they needed one going the other direction.

There was silence for a moment until Roy asked, “So what were you two talking about? I’ve never heard that language before.”

“Hm? Oh, we were talking about the smells here. I’d never noticed most of them until Raz pointed them out, it just smells like a subway station. But the combination is what makes the smell, I guess.” Serenity shrugged. There wasn’t much else to do until the car arrived.

“What do you do? For a living, I mean, when you’re not escorting aliens around,” Roy probed.

“Aliens? Oh, you mean Raz. I guess he is technically an alien. Huh. Anyway, I’m a network engineer for - hm. I’m probably not anymore. I was a network engineer, but I doubt I have a job anymore. Can’t be gone weeks without notice and expect to still be employed.” Serenity frowned. That was on top of the fact that he couldn’t see to do his job anymore either. If he wanted to keep it - or get it back - he’d have to get the direct neural interface chip working soon.

Serenity wasn’t sure he wanted to keep his job. He hadn’t the first time; he’d thrown himself into dungeons, one after another and time after time, to keep himself busy. He didn’t really want to do that this time, but he was afraid he might need to in order to stay ahead of the invasions.

No, what he needed to do was throw himself at the invasions. The earlier they were taken out, the easier they’d be to handle. He also needed to get other people ready to take out invasions; he couldn’t do everything even if he wanted to.

Past that, though, he needed to look at the future. This round of invasions would all be handled. It might be ugly, but it would end. It was the one in ten years that he needed to prepare himself - and Earth - for.

Serenity suddenly realized Roy and Raz were standing. “That’s our train,” Roy said as he tapped Serenity’s shoulder.

Serenity didn’t like being in the subway car; it kept trying to talk to him and all he got was more static and noise.

The first few stops were easy; a few people got on and a few people got off. After the fourth stop, Serenity realized the three of them were the only ones in that car. He’d seen a few people look in, then decide to head to another car. Right before they left the station, a girl darted into the car and claimed a seat at the other end.

They rolled forward and Serenity started to feel the ambient magic level rising back to something comfortable, then past that level to something almost intoxicating. It washed the distracting near-pain of the nearby presence of the subway car into insignificance.

Roy’s voice intruded on Serenity’s relaxation. “Are you glowing? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dark purple glow before.”

“Probably. We’re in a ley line, I’m told I glow then. I can’t see it.” Serenity stopped talking as something flashed in front of his vision.

[Conditions for Dungeon Core formation met]

[True Core detected within interference range. New dungeon core assigned as subsidiary to existing true core]

Serenity could only think Oh hells as he heard Roy confusedly say the glow had stopped.