The group got out of the vehicle in the back alley of a Chinese restaurant. Rotting noodles hung from a nearby dumpster, with flies crawling all over them.
Peter rubbed his head and looked around for the marker Tony had left behind. Bald Tony had a strange quirk: he carved a tiny Iron Man mask emblem onto all his gadgets, as if declaring ownership.
Before long, Peter found the symbol on an inconspicuous brick and pressed it.
The dumpster beside them split apart, revealing a deep tunnel below.
"Ugh, another filthy place." Little May sighed. She did not want to go in, but she honestly took the lead anyway, explaining as she went, "He believes people instinctively avoid filthy places, so the entrances to his Safehouses tend to do the opposite and are placed somewhere dirty. The first time I ever entered a men's restroom was because he designed a Safehouse beneath the restroom at Central Station."
"Dark. Too dark." Jessica shook her head repeatedly, covering her nose as she followed.
The Ultimates members had sat on the trailer and been blasted by the wind the whole way, leaving all their hair in a mess. But since Deathstroke had already made an agreement with them, they obediently followed as well. Ultimate Tony, however, looked somewhat expectant.
"I wonder what the other me is like, but his taste is clearly inferior to mine." That was his assessment as he surveyed the tunnel. "Forget putting a mat at the entrance for guests to wipe their shoes on—at the very least, he should have installed some lights, right?"
Just as Jessica had said, the tunnel was far too dark. Once everyone had entered, the entrance sealed itself automatically, leaving them in complete darkness without any illumination.
"Ben, I'm afraid of the dark." Susan