Alexei and Irina invited us to stay the night again, but I declined this time. We've already wasted enough time as it is dealing with Frankenstein, and I was starting to get a little more than worried about the amount of time we had left. We did, however, stay for a late lunch. Once our hosts understood that we would not be coming back for a while, they were kind enough to give the girls and I some spare clothing and other daily necessities for the trip. And at around 3 in the afternoon, Becca, Sara and I headed out.

On the way, Alexei pulled me over to the side and said, “Are you sure you do not want us to go with you, Mark?”

“Can't have you do that, Alexei.” I answered, “You've already wasted enough time as it is, and like I said, you have Irina to take care of.”

“I understand.” Alexei said with a sigh, “But promise me that you will get out of this alive. Irina and I are looking forward to seeing you and Becca in the future.”

“I know, Alexei. Anyway, I best get going.”

“Of course.”

And without another word exchanged between the two of us, I hulled my old Crown Victoria out of Alexei's garage, and left the the two girls.

* * *

The car ride away from Alexei's manor was uneventful. Becca was doing some maintenance on her sword, and Sara rode with us in silence. I didn't even have to tell them were I was going.

After about an hour, I parked my car outside a dingy looking convenience store somewhere near the edge of the down-town district, and told my companions to take everything they owned with them out. I guided them towards some abandoned houses across the street and gestured them to squeeze in a narrow alleyway that reeked of garbage and shit. I’m amazed that none of them voiced a complaint. At the end of the alleyway was a blue door, I pulled out a small key from my pocket, unlocking the thing and pushed the door open.

Not waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room I walked to the centre and felt for a hidden latch. Finding it, I pulled up and the floor below me opened up to reveal a entranceway to a set of dusty stairs. Given its decrepit state it seems that no one went though using this method any longer. I beckoned the girls to follow after me.

It was pitch black in that staircase, and although I could function perfectly fine without light, my company couldn’t. Becca pulled out her cell phone to illuminate the path, which, of course, alerted the attention of whoever it was that was guarding this particular entrance way. The guy (or at least I assume it’s a guy, as I could only make out his/her outline with the dim light) didn’t even give us a chance to explain ourselves before unloading a few magazines worth of bullets our way.

It was a good thing the corridor was so small, and that I was standing in front because all of the shots managed to hit me instead of Becca or Sara, and although they did hurt, they wouldn’t be enough to down me. I heard a squeak from Sara and Becca mumbled something under her breath - probably cussing, but I quieted them both down before continuing to walk towards our attacker. The girls didn’t follow.

“We’re here to seek entrance to the Sprawl.” I said, my voice even.

“Yeah, you got a pass?” the guard answered; definitely male.

“I do.”

I walked down closer and saw that the bottom of the place was dimly lit by a few worn out fluorescent light bulbs. The guard himself was an ugly sight, even for a troll. He was slouched down but even then he towered over me by a good 4 inches, his face was riddled with scars and various tribal tattoos, and one of his large, puss filled eyes was lopsided. They probably gave this sorry fellow the job of guarding this empty entrance to get him out of the city in case someone’s grandma died of a stroke upon seeing his face.

“Oh, then uh, sorry about shooting you there.” he said, his voice genuinely showing that he meant it, “Just that no one uses this entrance any more, aside from some humans folk every now and then. Had to make sure, yeah?”

“Isn’t there a better method of checking?” I asked, forcing the irritation out of my voice.

“Yeah, well, I reckoned that if you really was invited down here then a few bullets wouldn’t have done much damage, and I was right, yeah?”

“They still hurt, and you ruined my shirt.”

“I said I was sorry, man.” he said with a shrug before showing me to a small booth lit by a crappy electric lamp, “Just show me your pass and we can move on.”

I pulled out an ancient pass out of my coat pocket and showed it to him.

“Shit man, I ain’t seen one of these passes since I was a pup!” the troll said, eyeing me, “An’ you don’t look that old, you one of them blood suckers?”

“Something like that.” I muttered.

“An’ those two behind you part of your crew?”

“They are.”

“Ok, you guys clear. And uh, no hard feelings ‘bout before?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah, and uh, have a good stay, uh sirs and ma’ams.”

I manually slid the small metal door behind the troll that lead to a pretty fancy looking elevator and my companions hurriedly joined me. As the door closed I heard a sigh of relief from both of the girls.

“Are you ok?” asked Sara as she stared at the holes in my shirt.

“Yeah,” I answered, “I've had worse.”

“You should have seen the shit we were up against earlier!” Becca added.

“I probably wouldn't want to.”

“True.” I agreed.

“Yeah...” Becca said, shuddering, “Those things were pretty fucking nasty. I guess you lucked out.”

And with that the elevator was plunged into total silence, broken only by the soft ping of the door when we reached the bottom. The awkwardness was quickly broken with loud gasps of awe when we left that uncomfortable metal cube.

I have to say, the place sure has changed from when I last visited. The area before me was absolutely massive, I have no idea how much they’ve expanded but I couldn't see the end of the place from my position and the high ceiling extended dozens of meters above me. There were multicoloured structures everywhere I looked, each with vibrant neon signs and the ample amounts of street lamps lit the whole sector in a dim glow. The entire scene looked liked a busy city street situated in an all consuming twilight; almost like night life incarnate. And there was absolutely no lack of people - or creatures in this case, although it wasn't quite as busy as say, the LA street life. There were people walking around talking, people drinking beers with their buds at what looks to be pubs, and busy business-like people doing important things; all in all, it wasn't too unlike the outside world. It seems that the Sprawl closely mimicked the outside world, and aside from some distinctly non-human figures I could almost say it was a perfect copy of a busy human city.

First thing's first: if we were going to be here for a while, I had to get some money out of my old account. The people here don't use the same currency, so all of the cash I had was useless. After asking around a bit, I found the location to the nearest bank, and I took the two gawking girls there.

The bank was rather unassuming. It was large enough, but it was built like everything else around it. We entered, and after waiting in line for a few minutes, we were greeted by a nice blonde receptionist.

“Welcome.” She said in a nice, professional tone, “What can I do for you today?”

“I'm here to withdraw some money.” I answered, and handed her an old, rusted metal card.

She looked at it for a second, her expression showing the slightest bit of shock for a brief moment, before her usual professional demeanour returned.

“Of course.” She answered, taking the card, “Since this is the old model, I have to confirm your identity. Is that ok?”

“Sure.”

I opened a small wound on my thumb, and forced a drop of blood onto the card. The metal glowed dimmly for a second, and then it returned to its natural state. The receptionist took the card back, and looked at the card.

“Thank you, Mr... Barbiel?” The receptionist said tentatively while reading off the card, “Is that correct?”

I winced upon hearing that old name. Barbiel... the Lord's angel, the Archangel of October, and of honesty. A great figure. But I was no longer that man, nor am I the fallen Barbas.

“I go by Mark Bastion now.” I muttered.

“Of course.” The receptionist said, “We get name changes quite frequently, especially with beings like yourself. Do you want me to change the name on the card?”

“Please do.”

“No problem. I'll be just a moment.” She went to the back, and after a few minutes, she returned with a big smile.

“Ok, everything is set.” She said, returning the card to me, “Your balance is... um, it's 8 460 320 credits, sir.”

She looked a little startled when she read off the number, but I havn't been here for ages, so I had no idea what the conversion rate for credits to dollars were. But judging by her reaction, I assumed that it was a lot.

“How much is the current credit to dollar rate?”

“American dollar?”

“Yeah.”

“It is 1 to 102.5 currently.”

“1 credit to 102 dollars?”

“102.5 USD, to be exact, but yes, that is correct, sir.”

Becca heard the conversion rate, and stared wide-eyed at me. She was even more surprised at the amount of money I had than even myself. I knew that I had a pretty big sum of money stored here, but I never would have guessed that I had that much. I guess compounded interest is a killer.

“Holy fuck, boss. That's eight hundred million dollars!” Becca said, “You're like, filthy rich then, right?”

Sara just shook her head at Becca's reaction. I guess even that sum of money wasn't that big for her.

“Seems like it.”

“Boss.” She continued, staring into my eyes with a firm expression, “I think it's time for me to get a raise. And a bonus too. You know I deserve one!”

I just laughed, and said, “I'll think about it after we get out of here.”

“Come on! Don't be so stingy!”

“After we get out, Becca.”

“Fine!” She said with a pout.

The receptionist looked at the whole scene with amusement, and eventually said, “So will you be withdrawing credits today?”

“Uh, I'll take out 20 000.” I said, picking an arbitrary number.

“I'm sorry sir, but we do not have that much cash on us.” She answered, “If you want to withdraw large sums, please go to the main building. If you want, I can give you directions there.”

“No, it's fine.” I answered, “How much money do you think the three of us will need to live here for the next few weeks?”

“At most, sir, it should not exceed five thousand credits, even if you wish to spend extravagantly.”

“Then five thousand it is.”

“Of course, sir. I'll be just a moment.”

The little receptionist disappeared towards the back again, and after a few moments she appeared with a hand full of bills. She counted each one in front of us – they were all 100 credits each – and once she reached the correct amount, she handed it over to us. The bills themselves looked pretty strange; they were made out of some kind of tough plastic, and on each side of the green bills was a dashing figure that I could only imagine is of someone important. I also noticed a very subtle trace of magic on the bills, and I could guess that it was there to prevent counterfeits.

After we left, I found what appeared to be a hotel, and paid to stay there for the new few nights. The room was a standard bland looking place that held two queen sized beds, and aside from a tiny, outdated TV in one corner there really wasn’t much I could say about it. The place is pretty small given the amount of money I laid down, but I wasn’t really expecting something exquisite in the first place. After unloading the small bags that we carried, I the money I had on me into two piles of two thousand, and gave it to Becca and Sara.

“What’s the money for, Boss?” asked a startled Becca, who quickly stuffed the cash into her pockets as if asking would mean that I was going to take it back.

“We didn’t bring everything that we needed, we'll be here for a while, and I thought you girls would want to get something while you waited. That money is for buying clothes and whatever else girls use. You guys can go shopping when I'm out later.”

“Although I appreciate the money,” Sara said, “but is it safe to go outside alone? I’ve seen some of the residents, and they don’t look too friendly.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. This place is actually pretty safe; there are more than enough security around to stop anyone from trying to hurt you two. And plus, Becca can take care of herself in a fight, if anything breaks out.” I said, although I wasn’t 100% sure if that were still the case, after all, I haven’t been here for quite a while.

“But we're humans, Mark. I thought you made this place specifically to keep us out, so won’t the residents be hostile towards us?”

“Also no need to worry, Sara, the creatures here don’t really hate humans… Well, they do but only those fanatics affiliated with the Church. Plus, old grudges die out with time. I’m sure you’ve noticed, but there are some humans among the residents. Most are servants and what not, but there are some who are welcomed here due to their work for the higher ups. The fact that you’re in here means that no one will question you about it.”

“Sweet!” exclaimed Becca, “I’m going out to shop then! You're coming with me, right boss?”

“No can do, Becca, I have something to take care of. Take Sara instead.”

“Boss, that’s not even funny.” She said, dragging my arm.

“Well, it’s either you wait here for a while or you take Sara with you. I know I said that it’s safe out, but it’s not that safe. There’s no way you’re leaving without someone with you.” I said, and under my breath I added, “And I need someone to keep an eye on Sara.”

“Fuck, fine!” Becca said grudgingly before turning over to Sara, “Let’s go then.”

Becca grabbed a spare set of keys off the table and shoved Sara along with her. Sara looked like she was going to protest but decided against it, instead she just shook her head, gave me a cold stare before going with Becca.

“Oh, and make sure you don’t get lost out there!”

“I’m not a kid, boss!”

“I’ll make sure to be the responsible one and keep a track of where we are at all times.” Added Sara, and with that Becca slammed the door behind the two of them and left.