Finn lead her deeper in the alleys and in the center of one of them was a manhole cover. Finn used his bow, now folded, as a lever to help lift it up. He struggled for a little bit, but finally managed to get it. He set the cover aside and motioned Nova to come. He went down the ladder ten feet down, Nova followed behind and closed the cover. Inside it was cool, wet, and gave a mucky odor that both of them are thankful that it isn’t really strong. Finn led the way left of where they entered and Nova followed. It was like the whole situation when Nova ran with the Fire Goddess, but only this time someone knew where they were going, hopefully. Nova had questions, herself, on who Finn really was. He seemed to go around with ease and knew the area too well. On top of that he is very insistent on following Nova around. She thought about this a while, sometimes dropping it, but then she thought on the possibility that he is a Legion spy trying to gain her trust. The thought of it bothered her, so she couldn’t take the silence any longer and so spoke, “You seem to know the area pretty well.”

“Huh? Oh, well I like to explore around a lot. Doing so brings so many advantages… and its fun!”

Nova didn’t believe him, “Right… so you just explore around? Cut the act, you’re holding out on me! You’ve been awfully chatty the moment I met you… why are you so quiet when I’m the one asking the questions?”

Finn flinched and tried to look like he was busy navigating, but he noticed that he wasn’t fooling Nova. He took a deep breath in and out, “Well I don’t just like to explore… it’s part of my living, if you can say that. You see… I get around by stealing…” Nova was about to comment, but Finn stopped her, “Now hold on, before you say anything just hear me out! I grew up without my parents most of the time, so naturally I had to get around eating scraps and begging for a time. Money started coming into the town, so that’s good I guess… except when the rich people started treating us poor folk like trash. Guess it’s in the nature of money. Anyways when I couldn’t find any scraps or the rich started to refuse to give us a helping hand… I started getting into theft. It didn’t feel good, but I had to do what I had to do. After a while I started bigger heists of food and clothes, some people called me the local Robin Hood like from the ancient tales. Steal from the rich to give to the poor. It almost got to the point where I was the leader of a little thief’s guild here, if you can call it that, really we were a band of orphans and kids on the streets trying to survive society. Soon I drifted off to live on my own, found a nice abandoned building, touched it up a little and it became home sweet home. So back to how I know my way around so well. Mostly I find these places when I’m on the run in my heists... surprise…! So how’s that for an explanation? Do you believe me or do I have to come up with a better one?”

They continued walking down the tunnels slowly now. Nova took in his sob story and it would definitely explain him so far, knowing his way around so well and his home on the roof. “I believe you, it makes sense enough… it would explain why your clothes are so ragged.”

“Hey, well what about you? Your clothes are just as bad!”

“Ha, well explosions and fire tends to do that do you.”

Finn smiled and they finally stopped at a short ladder leading up to a hatch. “This is it.” Finn said, “Any last burning questions before we go up? We’re going to have to keep it down once we go in.”

“Yeah, one other thing. You’ve been awfully chatty, asking questions ever since you’ve met me. Also you’ve been following me around. My question is…why? Why even get involved in the first place?”

Finn scratched the back of his head, Nova’s hands were placed near her weapons in case he draws his weapon or he really is a spy. Finn swung his hands down to his side which caused Nova to tense up and flinch a little. From hearing this Finn seemed a little annoyed which made Nova even more on edge. He was annoyed because he didn’t know what to say and also because of her lack in trust in him. “Well… answer me!”

Finn looked at her with concern, “You just don’t trust people do you? So what if I want to help you? You want to know why? It’s because when I saw you, you were a girl who was clearly in trouble and the fear in your eyes even proved it before the angry mob.” Nova flinched when he said that, “I saw you and thought to myself I needed to help you… because… because… what I guess I’m trying to say is… you reminded me a little bit of me. When you’re out for yourself and there’s really no one to get your back… that look of fear is undeniable. So I followed you because I know you needed help… somehow. Everything I did today was really to make sure you were alright.”

Nova felt like she was punched in the chest hard, but she didn’t show it. She didn’t know why, “Well why…? You could have just let me go and let it be that. Why do you persist in helping me in something as crazy as this?”

“Well if you saw someone in need would you just leave them? It’s just the right thing to do… and the reason I’ve come this far is, like I said, you reminded me of myself so I want to help.”

There was an odd silence between them and Nova just stood there looking at Finn, then at her feet. All as if what he had told her was even crazier than taking back the Glaive of a Goddess. Finn just looked to her to see what she would do next, but then started up the ladder, “Come on… we’re wasting time here.”

He went up through the hatch and left Nova. Nova still stood there not knowing what to take of the whole experience. She didn’t take his words to heart because she was having trouble believing it. She didn’t believe that he really was looking to help, but she couldn’t bring any reason as to why. She shook her head and snapped out of it, then she proceeded up the ladder and through the hatch.

Upon entering, she saw that she was in a basement store room of some sort. She saw that it was all concrete, pipes crawled along the walls and ceilings and the room was dimly lit by fluorescent lights, which seemed to needed to be changed. There was a big power box off to her right and at the end of the room she can see a set of metal double doors. She scurried towards it and carefully opened it as quietly as she can. It lead to a long hallway of kiosks and small stores, she checked the coast and didn’t see anyone. She saw that the windows along the hall seemed as if she was already in Legion grounds. It looked as if following the hallway to the right would give a good lay of the base. Eventually it opened up to a large area with three floors. Nova seemed to be on the ground floor, and looking towards her left she can see the majority of the building’s exterior was made of windows. There were stairs leading up to the third floor and escalators beside it.

She heard a bird like whistle coming from somewhere, she looked around to find the source and found it right above her. Finn was leaning over the railing to signal her to come up. She quickly climbed up the stairs to join him and promptly they followed the hallway down to their left. It looked as if the interior area was left unattended, but they didn’t want to take any chances here so they set their minds to finding out where the Glaive is at and then leave. The third floor halls were like the ground floor where there were windows to look out of on the right side as they went. Finn stopped them to listen for any guards close by, but after a long moment of silence he heard nothing and so they continued. They stopped by a window with a clear view of the open courtyard below. Looking at the area it was heavily guarded. Two sniper towers with spot lights, small man patrols moving through the base and they can see lookouts posted along the rooftops. Looking closer, some of the patrols switched out for small groups coming out of some of the buildings, meaning that every connecting building was also being guarded, which made Nova feel uneasy with the fact that there could be guards roaming the mall they are in at this very moment. There were tents posted throughout the base, most small, but some were bigger than others. The streets and all possible entrances into the base were blocked off with metal walls or guarded gates. In the back center of the base was a small metal building, brightly lit and heavily guarded. From Nova’s guess, that must be where they’re keeping the Glaive at. She pointed to the building, “There, that must be where the Glaive is being held.”

Finn looked around the area and found where Nova was pointing. He then scanned the area for a way they could infiltrate the base in a quick and quiet fashion. He looked and noticed the roaming patrols and the lookouts on both the towers and roof tops. He thought about the plan with deep thought. They could try going in quickly from the roof down to ground level, but then they would risk being spotted from snipers and look outs. He thought about directly approaching from cover and taking out the lookout of the building, but that would need a ridiculous amount of luck and skill. The best solution would be to disguise as one of the switching guards and hope to get in that way, but he doubted they would let anyone in. The only way that plan could work is with a distraction to draw everyone’s attention, giving a window to quietly take out the guards in front of the building and infiltrate there. However, a distraction would mean one of them would have to act as the distraction, all that attention on only one of them would mean disaster. He shook his head and cursed under his breath, “This isn’t going to work. We need more people for this.”

Nova looked at him, “Know anyone who can help?”

He scuffed, “Anyone crazy enough to help with my plan? Not a chance! See my plan involves us getting disguises and then a distraction… but anyone volunteering for the distraction is basically signing their life away, if they get caught that is.”

“Well how big of a distraction are you hoping for?”

Finn put his hand on his chin, “Well the kind I had in mind was one big enough to catch the attention of all the guards around us in the base… so that would mean a big one.”

“Damn… okay, let’s get out of here now. I don’t want to get caught around here.”

“Agreed lead the way.”