Through Clouds of Steam (A WWFFY)

Chapter 2: Inexplicable Circumstances

You feel light-headed, like you had been spinning around in circles for the past ten minutes when you finally feel the ground beneath you again. Unsure of whether to lower your arms from where they had been shielding your eyes from the blinding light from earlier, you risk peaking from in-between them to see that the light, although still quite bright, is now at a far more acceptable level. However, that is all you can gather of your surroundings as a thick layer of what seems like fog hangs in the air, obscuring what lay beyond your immediate line of sight. What the heck? What is this place?

- Am I dead? D: (B)
- Am I in Wonderland? :D (A)
- ^I'm pretty sure we just fell into the sewers. -.- (D)
- ^But since when have the sewers been bright? o.0 (C)

As for what you could make out in the thick fog, you see that you're stood on a golden-looking circular platform in a cylindrical metal cubicle of some sorts, with a window-sized glass panel directly in front with no visible exit. The roof of the cubicle is concave and seems to be made of a coppery-coloured metal, as is the rest of the cubicle. Well, I'm definitely not in the sewers. At least, I don't think so... It doesn't stink or anything. It's quite humid and warm inside and you notice a layer of condensation on the inner side of the glass panel - which is when you are reminded of the fact that you had been soaked to the bone only a few minutes ago. But when you examine yourself you realise that you're as dry as anything. How is this possible? Where the heck am I?

- *le gasp* I bet we're in a stasis chamber! =O (C)
- ^What, and been frozen for a thousand years or something underground? xD Please. =.= (D)
- ^Well, that could actually explain why we're dry. But there's no way that could have happened. Could there? o.0 (B)
- ^Chill, guys! It's pretty obvious what's happened here: we've just teleported onto a starship! 8D (A)

Panic starts to set in as you realise something's not quite right and you frantically look around for a way out. Hoping to perhaps take a glimpse at what might lie outside of the cubicle, you reach out towards the glass panel to wipe away some of the condensation when a loud hiss, like that of water being splashed on a hot surface, escapes the front of the metal cubicle and the part with the transparent panel slides open. You jump back in surprise, waiting for a few seconds to see if the cubicle would do anything else that might shave a couple of years off your life, but decide against lingering on the inside any longer in case the door shuts and locks you in forever.

Now that the door to the cubicle is open, however, you realise just how quiet it had been on the inside; all you could hear was your heavy breathing and the rustling of your clothes. But now, you could hear a strange, loud whirring sound coming from whatever lay hidden in the thick curtain of mist, and the odd clicking and clinking sounds coming from what sounded like metal hitting metal. At random intervals all around, you could vaguely make out bright lights flashing on and off.

- Okay, I've figured it out! We're on a steam train! 8D (B)
- ^Underground? =.= Clearly, we're in some sort of secret hideout or other. e.e (A)
- Whirring... Fog... Flashing lights... I have no idea where we are. .____. (C)
- ^Nevermind where we are, where does the open door lead to, I wonder? o.o (D)

As you take a step towards the exit, you see the humid fog escaping the cubicle and spilling out, and a refreshing breeze with a slight smell of burning blowing in and taking its place. This... It can't be fog. It feels different. It's like... steam or something. All the steamy fog slowly makes its way away from you and the cubicle in wisps of cloudy white like it's being drawn away by something, and as your surroundings start to clear, you absentmindedly step out of the safety of the cubicle and into the steam-filled open space.

- Told ya it was a steam train. -w- (B)
- ^Steam, maybe. But I still don't think it's a train. -.- (A)
- ^Perhaps it's some sort of new and improvised method of transportation similar to a steam train? 83 (C)
- ^But why would we randomly fall down a hole into one? D: (D)