[i]Sewers of Boston, Enclave of the Iron Coast[/i]
Eighteen sets of footsteps echoed through the relatively clean sewers of Boston, a city depopulated by wars both nuclear and conventional, North American trials and tribulations, and an unfortunate bout of Chinese flu that claimed the lives of four children and was the last straw for a lot of Bostonians. The city had lost about 90% of its population in the past few years, and the maintenance the city needed had dropped dramatically. The group of mostly young adults hurried through the tunnels, their unnecessarily dramatic cloaks keeping what stench there was at bay.
After several minutes of silence, the group finally made it to a large room (through a drop-down ladder) that broke off into nine different directions covered by doors. Each door was opened by a pair and the pitch-black tunnels were entered by said pair. As the pairs progressed, they placed series of wires and small electric devices on the walls and pipes, before reaching the ends of the tunnels and placing larger packets with a dull LED on the ground. After confirmation from each pair via radio, the pairs exited the sewers by climbing up through the manholes above them, and dispersing back through the night.
[i]Governor's House, Boston, Enclave of the Iron Coast[/i]
"This is it?"
"Yes, Lady."
"Ah, that's rubbish!" Lady, whose name took after her grandmother (also Lady), threw her weight around her butler and squeezed. The man was straight out of a Batman comic: average height, stout, witty British accent, and unusually agile despite his advanced age. Butler Williams gently placed his arms around the young woman just returning from university abroad and patted her on the head.
Lady Upton was a Bostonian who had married into fortune, and whose husband died an untimely death in the riots the year past when he had successfully defended his wife from hooligans who wished to have their way. She finished her final year of university abroad and came back to a heavily-secured home and Butler Williams. She inherited the estate upon her arrival and was now the most influential woman in Boston.
"No Butler of mine will be carrying my luggage, yeah?" She slapped her arm on Butler Williams' shoulder and started hefting her small assortment of luggage around the rather impressive house. After several minutes of nostalgic moving, Lady reemerged from a bathroom with dark smudges all across her loose shirt and white jeans. Looking ever the tomboy, she hefted a safe from her bag and motioned for Butler Williams to open the locked door to the maintenance level below. It was essentially a basement, but far creepier. It had an indirect line to the sewer system (it was an old house) below and typically smelled, but it was secure and housed many valuables.
However, her trip was cut short by a young man who was leaping up the stairs and who bowled straight into Butler Williams; thinking quickly, Williams gripped the young man in a vice hold and slammed him against the ground. Lady used the safe as a bludgeon to strike the man's hand with a sickening [i]crunch[/i] - he yelled out in pain before gurgling and going still. He had died, just as quickly as he had appeared.
Butler Williams dropped the man and retrieved a handgun from his coat, then proceeded down the stairs. The indirect sewer line had been forced open by some sort of industrial machinery, and the man had climbed through. There were no others.
As Lady contemplated the strange young man who had just killed himself in her maintenance stairs, Butler Williams called the police and an uneventful investigation revealed nothing. She went to bed that night shaken and vulnerable - and vowed that the elections tomorrow would take her mind off of this.
[b]Public Records.Boston - Voting 101[/b]
June 28, 2XXX
Lady Upton - 44%
Marshall Rathers - 23%
John Louis - 12%
Mirreile Absolucion - 4%
Abstention - 17%
With a majority of the vote and the next three challengers unable to meet her vote, Lady Upton is elected Governess of Boston.
Her victory speech was short and quiet, as the newly-arrived Upton was unsuccessfully assaulted in her home last night. Many attributed the speech to her assault, but those close to her say she never intended to make a large speech and was surprised at the immediate victory. "A new day for Boston starts with a new leader - an educated young woman who won't back down. Long live Boston!" Cried supporters are a rally.
((OOC: I think it's safe to say only the public record things are known to anyone but me =]))
