Luther was staring down a very, very, very deep hole in the center of Central Park. The hole seemed to pass down for miles on end, dark, eternal, with a certain musk of deep roots and earth. A deep, cavernous craig- with a jagged opening, wide, and becoming wider as Luther's machines continued excavating away at the places where the soil of the park and the cavern were thin. There had been disappearances from the park recently- people out for a stroll suddenly vanishing without a trace. Seemingly swept off the earth. To where? Luther couldn't say. But after a quick seismograph reading, he determined that there were deep, deep, cavernous tunnels running under the park- something far below had dug it's way up- and this singular spot was without a doubt the center of the disappearances- it was where the earth was most shallow- a fine rug, really- in relation to it's distance from the tunnels. There were slits in the soil just long enough for arms to drag unsuspecting victims into the ground with them.

Luther had been called- or rather, he volunteered, finding the whole thing rather interesting. Something was coming from underground, and by the looks of this tunnel, it was something intelligent. And the hair found at the entrance to the caverns- coarse and heavy like wool, black. It wasn't human, but it had traits of the human gene code- it was close to an ape. Interesting. By this time- Luther had his machines working away, pulling up earth, and creating a large lowering device- one that could lower a small group of people down into the tunnels- Luther would be going of course. He had weapons, and plenty of them, whatever was in that tunnel might not have been susceptible to negotiations- in which case, the young genius would need to be a bit more persuasive.

Now he was only waiting on one thing: Raphael Varano. This land was under his name- Luther found this to no surprise- which meant that there was a good possibility that he would want to be involved in the searching of these tunnels as technically they were his property. But Luther was nearly certain that the altruistic manner of Varano would intrude upon the extermination aspect of Luther's plan- given, it was plan b, it was a plan none the less. Plan A wasn't much of a plan itself, really- go into the tunnels, meet the forces at power, decide whether they were a threat and lead the way from there.

He stood next to the beams that upheld the small elevator-esque device, awaiting Raphael.

IT CAME FROM THE UNDER THE EARTH!

The thought brought a smile to Raphael's lips. He had seen things from other planes of existence, he had been to microspace, he had been to Atlantis, and he had visited Hell and bluffed his way past its high demons to retrieve the souls of a Promethean's family. There was still something about the Earth, though. Mole Men! Underdwellers! Subterranean civilisations! Pulp fiction books with old, worn covers, bent back as he flicked through them. Fantastical illustrations and things whose eyes couldn't bear the light of day. IT CAME FROM UNDER THE EARTH! He had crossed frontiers that few people could even imagine, let alone breach, but this was something else entirely. It was something close at hand, within basic, human reach; they could drill their way down to the core of the Earth and find out what was there, but its closeness didn't make it any less astonishing. Or any less appealing.

This was something that man had been wondering about since they first thought to wonder.

Raphael knew that there were things down there; Vidal had briefed O.N.O.E.S. of some interactions with some of the beings down there. And there was Terra, of whom he hadn't asked nearly as much about where she came from as he would have liked, largely because he didn't want to tread on uncomfortable territory for her. Despite the fact that he knew such things existed, he had yet to encounter any. There were always concerns and ventures that were more pressing than childhood fancies and the twinkle in the eye of a boy who looked out at the world and wondered. Now, though... now he had a reason. And while he wasn't going to be distracted from the duty at hand, he also wasn't going to deny himself some of the more... indulgent aspects of this visit. Satisfying curiosities. For a moment he felt as if he was eight years old again, staring into the ant farm at the school.

Under the earth. This would be intriguing.

It didn't take him long to get there. The Doors had yet to come; Raphael had already breached The Bleed, but the notions as to how to implement it to affect everyday life hadn't come to him yet; they lay buried under other considerations and other projects. It didn't matter, though. There was the infinite laboratory. Much of the reason that Raphael owned so much land within New York was because if you were going to shape the course of a world, you had to start with America or China. If you were going to shape the course of those countries, you had to start with New York or Hong Kong. If you owned most of that city, your thoughts could run through it, rippling along it like wildfire. Memes. Memes given life, spreading until they thought a better world into being. And because it made it that much easier to give cheaper housing to many of the people who would otherwise be unable to afford it.

It also meant that the city was littered with apartments that he owned.

And within the apartments that he owned, there was a room. The doorway to each of those rooms opened up to the Infinite Laboratory; a Laboratory that existed outside of time and space, within a small fragment of the Null Room. The result was that as soon as he managed to press other matters aside, he arrived almost instantaneously within the nearest apartment just by stepping out of the Infinite Laboratory and willing the doorway to lead him out into the apartment closest to the site in question. From there, it was just a matter of how quickly he could walk there. The result was that he didn't keep Luther waiting long at all. One hand in his pocket, he glanced over the elevator with a glint in his eye. "All right. I'm here. I'm ready." He glanced to Luther with a smile. "This should be... to call it interesting is to do it a disservice."

Luther took a few moments to ponder over the readings from his latest scanning of the area- he thumbed around his touchscreen, investigating all the characteristics that were coming up- heat signatures, deep in the bedrock, moving. There was certainly life beneath the ground here- they weren't robotic. What sort of lifeforms were crawling through the soil and earth... only time would tell. As Luther glanced up, he watched Raphael approach and gave a sort of "hmm", looking down at his phone once again. Varano, a mind to be reckoned with, perhaps even on Fate's level- or at least that was how Luther currently felt. It would be some time before he changed his opinions.

"Hm. Interesting? Perhaps so. I assume you've been filled in on the occurrences as of late? Several humans have been abducted- nine in total, though that is only the reported numbers, there may be more. These tunnels go quite deep, and from what I can tell they're rather roomy as well- I've been picking up heat signatures too, more than a handful."

A machine scurried over to Luther, boxy with long spider-like legs, it stopped just before the young genius and it's boxy head unfolded, revealing a row of guns- ranging in size, though none were bigger than a compact SMG. Luther picked up a pistol that appeared to be made of pure chrome, no trigger, with a circular barrel.

"You're free to any of the weapons."

He had no fear that Raphael could figure out any of the weapons present- but they were offensive, only one or two served any purpose other than lethality. Luther stepped into the elevator, obviously eager to get going.

"They've been abducting from this spot pretty regularly for the past couple of weeks- I wouldn't expect any of these people to still be alive. As far as I'm concerned, the mission is to step in, secure the humans if we can- and if the enemy proves itself unreasonable, execute them."

As soon as Raphael stepped into the elevator, Fate would press the down button on their machine and lower the two into the wide, spacious cavern below- it appeared to be at least 15 feet in all directions- the ground soft earth, but the walls a tough rock. No movement.