The Undercity is not remotely a very nice place to live, or even to pass through.
Existing quite literally under the shining glory of San Angeles Undercity is shrouded in near perpetual darkness. Life in Undercity is cheap, the police only venturing there in force and often only if they can get support from the First Metahuman, Freedom Brigade, or National Guard.
The remains of the various towns and suburbs and even bits of old LA and San Diego lay underneath San Angeles, and these ruins form the core of Undercity. The terrain is difficult at best, and nigh impassible at worst with a definite warzone atmosphere prevalent in the dark squallor.
The Undercity is home to some of the most vicious gangs on Earth, and lots of homeless that can't afford to live anywhere else.
Despite the poverty it is possible to survive in Undercity, the local inhabitants having a sense of community of sorts. No matter how grievous their issues with each other the bitterest of enemies will band together to face a common foe, be it a genetic horror spawned in The Spill, or an incursion by Law Enforcement in pursuit of a metacriminal.
Rumors abound about black ops missions to Undercity, or that various government agencies or corporate entities have secret and illegal research facilities hidden in the ruins. There are several super villains and criminal organizations that call Undercity their home, but none of this is easily verified or otherwise substantiated.
Gangs in Undercity have very colorful names like Reapers, Rippers, Talons, or the largest group, the Fallen Angels. Many of the gangs have metahumans among their numbers, and the competition for resources is fierce and often bloody.
Law Enforcement is content to let the Undercity stew in its own juices for the most part, but that tolerance is swiftly dispelled when problems below spill over into San Angeles proper.
Undercity has seven regions of note: The Dump, The Spill, Lost Angeles, The Bleak Market, The Waste, Saint Jim, and The Restoration.
The Dump
The Dump is one of the few spots in Undercity that ever gets natural sunlight. San Angeles has an open area in Facilities where the various Waste Removal firms in the city dump their trash. There is a small complex beneath the opening where refuse is sorted for recycling, the rest is then bulldozed into ever expanding fields of trash over which are vents to gather up the methane emitted by the rotting garbage and used to help power the city above. The area is rife with scavengers, both human and otherwise trying to glean whatever can be had from the discards from above.
The Spill
The Spill is where the waste processed by the water plants and several chemical plants above is dumped. The area is a horror of toxic waste and genetic abominations created by or living in the vile effluvium. Disease, toxic gases and fluids, mutated animals or insects (or people) are all bred here as the waste combines and is added to from above. Only the most desperate of individuals will enter the Spill, or live there.
Lost Angeles
The largest habitable area in Undercity, Lost Angeles is a honeycombed maze built from the crushed remains of the old city. Pockets of relatively intact buildings are sought after for living spaces, and bases of operations. Roughly half the denizens of Undercity make their homes in Lost Angeles.
The Bleak Market
The Bleak Market used to be Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres from its opening in 2004 until the Quake. The outer shell of the park provided support that left a significant area of open space under San Angeles and some very enterprising Undercity natives turned it into a market second to none in Undercity. The Bleak Market is the place to go for just about anything, legal or otherwise. Order is maintained by the iron rule of Anton 'Bleak' Hammer and his men. Bleak is a metahuman with power over gravity and a mean disposition. Bleak takes a cut of everything that gets sold or traded in his market, and is very intolerant of double dealing or chaos — both cut into the bottom line.
The Waste
The Waste is a barren area that stretches between the remains of old LA and old San Diego. Very little lives there, the terrain treacherous and forage virtually non-existent. Rumors persist of bands of undead that roam the area, though they are given little credence. Still, the few people that try to travel through The Waste generally do so in force of numbers, and swiftly as they can.
Saint Jim
The area of Undercity known as Saint Jim is the second largest habitable area in the region, and surrounds The Bleak Market. Saint Jim is the tumbled remains of San Diego and located beneath the southern parts of San Angeles. One area that is both remarkably intact and remarkably dangerous is the remains of the San Diego Zoo. Having several significant pools of water and home to a great many exotic animals, the area is both a prime hunting ground and a good place to get killed.
The Restoration
Beneath the beating heart of San Angeles, various corporate and government interests have invested in the restoration of the city under Downtown with the intent of working outwards from there. It hasn't been much of a success—a sprawling neighborhood of crime-riddled tenements ruled over by corporate-backed slum lords, with only the fading posters on the walls recalling the hope that once lit this project.
