Into the Drink

Adam had called Selena out here today because he needed some company. Of course what he told her was that it was important to their business which wasn't exactly a lie... It was just an omission of Adam feeling a bit lonely after being away from home.

He stood by the docks with a wet suit on surrounded by the shipmates of the SS Woodchipper which was loveingly called that because it looks and sounds like it had been put through one.

"Is all the equipment on board?" Adam asks looking over the list.

"Aye, we are just waiting for our last passenger" He replied before spitting into the sea.

"If this is another one of your bonding exercises, I think I promised to stab you last time so..." A sardonic and not at all pleased voice called out behind Adam, seeing the docks and the ship and sensing shenanigans. Selena stood nearby, one hip cocked and a hand on it while the other held a bag with a change of clothes. She was wearing a pair of jeans that hugged her long legs and a tight fitting tank top, her orange hair loose for once in soft waves around her shoulders.

The bag held work clothes and shoes.

Her eyebrow cocked as she waited for a reply, tapping a sandaled foot impatiently.

"No no no, nothing like that." Adam said as he waved her over, handing the checklist back.

"That'll be all. We'll be on board shortly." Adam said with a smile. The Captain grinned that appeared like he was missing half his teeth and walked away.

"I'm going to have to have a talk with whoever is outsourcing these types of things." Adam said with a sad shake.

He turned to Selena and smiled warmly. " We are headed to the grimy deep in search of treasure as they say."

"Out about 50 miles or so among the coral reefs is a ship graveyard of poor bastards not gifted with better sailing abilities. Among the ruins lies an artifact of considerable worth. Our job is to excavate it." Granted Adam could have requested someone else but it was good publicity to get ones hands dirty from time to time. Especially if they were members of a trans global corporation

"..." If anything this was worse. This was much worse. Selena stared as if Adam would just disappear from existence just for her, for once, and then caved with a loud groan.

"And of all the crazy, adventure seeking people you know. Like Kostya and Jack and pretty much everyone else fucking ever, you pick me. The homebody." She had caved, she was going to do it. It didn't mean she didn't get to whine about it though. "Fine, fine. Whatever. Might as well die down there. Gimme the checklist and information, I'll go over it. Also do you have appropriate clothes for me? Otherwise this is not going to work."

And a wet suit or something for her to use. Selena stepped closer and fluffed her hair up more, wondering if she would have to call in backup. Ugh, he was right though. The outsourcing was a bitch, this boat looked...rickety and the crew even worse.

"Just think of it as a company trust exercise or something. It'll be fun! Don't worry." Adam said with a small laugh handing her the check list.

"As for a wet suit..." Adam looked back at the boat and realized that it was probably unwise for a lady to change amongst such savagery. He walked to where a pile of bags had been stacked and pulled off one of the top ones and tossed it to her.

"I hope purple and red are your colors." Adam said jokingly. "There is a surf shack right over there where you can change. I'll meet you back here and by then we should be ready."

"Company trust exercises... If I do that I might just stab you." Selena stared blankly for a few moments, trying to stifle her overwhelming urge to kill this man down deep where it belonged. Rage filled murder was only excusable if she had a good reason for it.

Though company trust exercises were almost up there as reasons go, behind adultery...

Dropping that thought for now, she continued her staring before catching the bag tossed to her. She stared down at it and groaned at the joke before turning on her heel. "Kaaay. Ugh, really? Couldn't get just straight up regular colors? Purple and red..."

Selena moved to the shack, bags in hand as she opened the door and began changing. Did she really need to do this? Fuuuck. There goes one of her relaxing days... Once she was in the offending colored suit, she pulled her hair back in a braid and tied it off before heading back out with her bags.

"Purple and red are perfectly nice colors. I could have chosen Robin's Egg Blue next time if you prefer." Adam said as Selena walked back in. He sized her up and nodded knowingly.

"You look great" Adam said decisively before boarding the boat.

The old boat was actually quite large and looked to be one that hauled cargo on a regular basis. Adam found a spot on the deck with a solitary bottle of Chablis and 2 glasses. He poured himself a glass and turned towards a crewman.

"Tell the Captain we're ready" Adam said before turning to Selena.

"Can I interest you in a drink? It'll help calm the nerves"

"One solid awful color is better than combining two perfectly good colors into one hot mess." Selena just glared lightly as Adam looked her own, her eyes rolling rolling at the compliment. She scoffed before following the man onto the boat with her bags, pushing her glasses up her nose with one hand. "Of course I do, even I could make this hellish combination decent."

Selena took a quick look around the deck and eyed out any potential traps or problems, the crewmen and others on board potential security leaks as far as she was concerned but... Adam did whatever he wanted so it wasn't like she could complain too much.

"...Nerves. Yes. Calm my nerves." Nerves wasn't her problem, it was grumpiness and anger. Selena eyed the glasses and bottle for a moment before tossing the bags down and rummaging through the one for her glasses case. "A glass is fine. Should you be drunk diving? I hardly think thats safe."

"I highly doubt such a drink will intoxicate me. I'm a more experienced drinker then that." Adam said with a light laugh before pouring her a glass. He raised his glass up in a toast.

"To the Kingdom. Long may it live until everything passes into dust." Then as if on cue the boat was released from the dock and began speeding off into the sea. The trip would take about half an hour to reach the murky depths where they will dive. Not nearly long enough to explore the ship... Not that there was much to see anyway.

"I was under the assumption you always were drinking." Selean retorted as she took the glass and raised it the required height for a toast. A grave nod followed before she downed the glass in one long gulp before taking a seat nearby.

She crossed one leg and leaned back for the ride, content to wait until they arrived as the boat headed out to sea. At least almost content, she sent a text out to Luca and Julian with her geographic coordinates just in case something bad happened and a few hour time limit.

Maybe she was a little paranoid.

"Most of the time, but that hardly means I'm always drunk." Adam said with a laugh. The ride was predictably uninteresting with only a small bit of "whale watching" as a few critters had been spotted in the distance. A bell sounded to Let the duo know they were close. Adam made his way to the belly of the ship and motioned Selena to follow. Each step they took seemed to creek and flake with rust until they got to a port door that seemed vastly out of place. The alloy looked to be titanium but it seemed to glimmer like it had never been tarnished.

Adam hit an old intercom next to it but got nothing but static. Adam hit it again but shouted "Captain... Let us in."

A small cackle and the grizzeled old sea dog's voice broke the silence. "Aye and what be the password?"

"There is no password" Adam said dully.

"That be the one. Enjoy your trip sir." He emphasized the last word with a flat mocking tone. An electronic whirling could be heard as several large gears clanged together followed by a loud thud five times over. The door then swung open

Inside the room was night and day from the outside. On the outside rim of the room were a few people working on computers wearing lab coats and Quincy Crosses around their neck. In the center was a large tub of water with a small submergible vessel in the center. Everything in the room seemed to have its own, almost otherworldly glow.

"Welcome to the Deep Sea Reaserch Vessel 1... or just DSRV for short. Didn't think we were traveling in just another rusty bucket for nothing huh?" Adam said with a foolish grin.

"Ah yes, the perks of being legally over age without fake IDs. Being over twenty and twenty-one must be nice." Selena's voice was as dry as the salt deserts of Utah. "When being drunk only part of the time is acceptable."

Least it was boring enough to allow her to relax slightly before whatever special adventure Adam had planned for them.  As soon as she was motioned for though, she stood and brushed her braid over her shoulder before following the other quincy down into the ship. Really what kind of boat was this? This rusty bucket would give her tetanus... Best have Luca do an examination when she got back.

A door like this though explained a few things and she sighed as she crossed her arms, tapping her foot at the captain's idea of a joke. Looking at her nails while waiting for the gears to unlatch the door, she spoke with utter seriousness as she waited. "And that's what you get for your personality, Adam. Jokesters."

At the reminder of the weapons, Selena double checked on the one always on her left wrist for a moment before staring around the room in some interest finally. She wanted to look at those screens, see what exactly they were up to... The submersible vessels held way less interest in her eyes. "This is more like it... And yes. I did assume so, much like other times. Who are these people and why is it so important we go down in this wreck?"

Adam couldn't honestly defend the man's manners so he kept silence on that front. "These people are from the Excavation and Treasury Committee that are in charge of finding lost relics that once belonged to our people." Adam walked over to a screen that looked as if it was detecting some kind of sonar frequency showing blips almost at the center.

"This monitors otherworldly signatures. Specifically if something has a reiatsu signature. The first time our people crossed the ocean to our shores they were beset by various perils including natural disasters, poor navigation and pirates. Something like 18% of all shipments never made it to their destination in those days and many of those objects had some bit of Quincy power stored inside. Not enough to threaten us or really improve upon our own strength but there is enough unaccounted for that would cause us a serious headache if anyone else were to get their hands on it."

Adam looked up from the screen. "Plus I just can't pass up a chance to see an old vessel submerged in the sea." Adam said, his voice squeaking lightly in excitement betraying his calm demeanor

"I see... Its a honor to finally meet this group then." Selena nodded respectfully to them, despite their lack of well proper greetings and just followed Adam along so she could check the screens herself. Staring at the sonar-like screen, she nodded as he continued to speak, taking in the information on the items and shipments lost...

Seemed like something they would definitely need to handle and wrapped up in an almost publicity stunt too. How nice. She nodded thoughtfully and looked over at Adam, about to compliment him for once until he spoke again. Her wry look was back and her purple eyes rolled. Yep, he ruined it.

"Well lets hope you don't mess up and end us both up dead cause of your excitement. Ugh, that would be a waaaste." Selena bemoaned her fate softly, wondering if the squeaky voiced quincy would lead her to her inevitable death this soon... "So we both go down there in one of those vessels then or are we swimming ourselves with tanks? How do you plan on us retrieving those objects and what are we supposed to do?"

"The plan is to use the mini sub's on screen radar to get an exact reading. There are a few wrecks down there so its important to be accurate. After we find the correct ship we'll go take a dive to see what we are dealing with. If its too big we can attach a winch and tow it back." Adam took out his phone and began scrolling through it.

"When we get back I'll send out a second team to strip the ship of any other relevant artifacts that may lead others to our doorstep. We'll then have the wreckage brought to the surface and donated as an historical artifact to show our patronage. Thus preserving our secrecy while looking good doing it." Adam said with a smirk.

"Here is the short list of museums etcetera. I'll forward it to you"

"Surprisingly thought out for something I wasn't planning." Selena snarked as she listened, her eyes darting to the phone for a moment before going back to the screen. "Is there anything of immediate danger we might have to face?"

If so she'd want to be prepared...

"So we are the initial scouts and grave robbers and the rest will strip it...." She snorted as he sent the relevant data to her phone, which was in her wet suit, zipped up safely. It could survive the dunking... Maybe. Maybe she should ziploc it just in case. "It sounds like a good enough plan. I'll pick one out when we get back, one with the best prospects for both publicity and people's opinions..."

Her mind was whirling with thoughts, maybe a smaller one, where they fund the setting up to help improve the local tourism to visit such a find. It would look rather good on work and they could afford to be a bit generous. No one would look into the wreck's contents as much if they did that...

"I don't head a multi corporate conglomerate as well as keeping the books operational for a massive shadow organization for nothing. One tends to pick up a few things here and there" Adam said with a small smile and a wink

"No danger should be present unless schools of fish are things that you find dangerous to your health. Even sharks and the like... if we see any at all... will leave us alone. They really aren't the people eating type but if it makes you feel better." Adam said as he trailed off to a storage locker where he pulls out a knife.

"This will make anything you cut explode. The beauty is it is just a modern marvel of technology. Nothing Quincy about it. Its what divers use in case they run into sharks."

Selena just raised one eyebrow but gave Adam the benefit of the doubt for now. Her focus instead went onto the 'dangerous' label he seemed to mistake her words over. "I'm more worried about magical quincy artifacts still imbued with power accidentally going off. Or just being dangerous themselves. I can handle sharks, its some weird spiritual timebomb that's worrisome."

Selena held out her hand for the exploding knife nonetheless, not turning down any weapons she could be given for this. Worst comes to worse she could just stick it in Adam's leg when he pissed her off enough.

"Unlikely, the signature isn't very strong and was found mostly by happenstance. If it was more dangerous we would have spotted it earlier. The really dangerous items are probably buried or sealed deep, not just sitting in the ocean. Although stranger things in this world have occurred." Adam said as he made his way to the mini sub.

"Anything else before we head out?"

"Well then I'm all set. Boring useless artifacts are totally how I wanted to spend my day off." Selena followed Adam, rubbing her forehead as she pulled out her phone one more time. Her phone had GPS on it and she took the coordinates and sent out another message. "Worst comes to worst we get stuck at the bottom of the ocean for a few hours with a boring artifact."

If she could stand Adam's company that long and not stab him. She'd gotten better about her temper, but that was pushing it.

"Oh don't worry, I'll make sure you get overtime for this... and hazard pay." Adam added merrily as he stepped up into the pod door from the small catwalk leading up to the sub. He pops in and takes a look at the equipment. In reality the sub was only about the size of a mini van. Not really meant for extended trips or large capacities of people. You could comfortably fit about 4 people and some small cargo but that was really it.

Taking a seat in the drivers side he activated the sub letting it come to life with the sound of a light hum. He checked his meters, all optimal and buckled up.

Selena just gave Adam a look and rolled her eyes. As if the money was worth her time. Sheesh. She stepped inside the pod door, moving to take a seat while he checked all the stats and information. Wasn't like she'd had enough experience at these sorts of things to be any help, so she sat down and kept out of the way.

Once he started it up, she got herself buckled in and tried to hold in a bored yawn. "How long till we reach the bottom then?"

Really, the faster this was over with the better.

"Not long. It isn't deep." Adam said as he hit the intercom.

"Captain, we're ready."

"Aye lad. Releasing Clamps. Happy Hunting" The sounds of the sub being detached clanged loudly as the sub sank slowly. Lights activated on the ship illuminating the cavernous abyss and sitting at the bottom were two old ships circa the 1700s, both severely damaged.

"Quite an old wreckage really but a sight to behold... see the ship and how they've become almost indistinguishable from each other? The Quincy ship had rammed the other in a suicide attempt." Adam seemed way too excited about the history then the artifact he was hunting but then his countenance grew dark.

"But why did they do that? The ship has inferior weapons but much lighter and could have avoided a fight... in fact... that's not a cargo ship at all." Adam checked the navigation as they got along side them.

"The artifact is on the other ship..."

"Good." Selena yawned again, settling back against the chair as the Captain of the ship gave them the okay to go as well as releasing the sub. She couldn't resist a shudder at the abyss below them, not liking the look of the two ships but at least it wasn't as scary as garganta.

Listening to Adam as she looked at the two ships, Selena shrugged at the question. "Beats me. We can just get this artifact and get out and let someone else figure it out. Maybe it was taunted? Maybe the captain was just suicidal."

Whatever had caused it, the quincy artifact was what they were looking for really and not the secrets behind its carrier's untimely demise.

"Let's go... " Adam said in a hushed voice. He was obviously lost in thought as he stopped the sub next to the other vessel. He walked into the adjacent room and placed his scuba helmet on his head along with the tank.

"We're headed to the Captains Quarters. It will be on the main deck away from the front of the ship." Adam locked the helmet and pushed a button on his wrist.

"This will allow us to communicate. We have enough air for the next 4 hours. We shouldn't have a problem but keep an eye on the gauge" Adam tapped the gauge that was located on the arm band