3 New Life

Now I am a baby in the slums that is known as the Lanes. An city filled with thieves, cutthroats, and beggars. All of which would turn on you in a heartbeat if it meant lining their pockets with a few more coins. Not to mention the poor living conditions, the toxic air and the polluted waters. Then there's the scarce food resources that would make even the lowest of Piltovers' citizens vomit.

With such a bleak outlook for my future, I would normally be upset, but I did wish for this and I have the abilities to be able to survive in this place and once I meet the main cast, I can start to do a little more to change things, as I would be under Vander's protection and that carries some weight with the citizens of the Lanes and a little protection from the Enforcers. For now though, I would make due with what I got.

After a week in the breathing device, the doctor and nurse returned to check on my condition and did some tests to make sure I was able to breathe properly in the toxic air. They were surprised that I didn't have any problems whatsoever in breathing the toxic air and gave the all clear. I was handed to my mother and they took the device with them as they left.

My mother happily held me close in her arms as if to protect me. She smiled at me like always, but I could see a slight sadness in them. During this whole time, I notice that not once did my father appear, so I assumed that he is either dead or abandoned my mother when he found out she was pregnant. With the rampant poverty and poor living conditions, it would make sense if he chose to leave due to the inevitable medical bills and amount of money needed to raise a child, plus my mother wouldn't be able to work during her pregnancy and for awhile after. He also could've easily been killed during a run in with some lowlife who wanted what was in his pockets or something. I'll have to ask her when I'm older.

During the next year, all I could do was eat, shit and sleep. My mother took care of me as best she could. She had rested for maybe only a month and she ate very little and it was taking a toll on her. Often she would be short on breast milk for me and I would go hungry, by thanks to my adaptability I was able to need less food, which helped her out quite a bit and made it easier to take care of me. After that month, she carried be in a cloth on her body that I assumed was meant to carry infants in order to free up the mother's hands. With me strapped to the front of her body, she gathered a bunch of food and supplies and filled a basket on her back and made a long trek through the Lanes to a market area. In the market, she spent some coins in order to purchase more supplies and then continue her journey to what appeared to be a food stall. She apparently owned this stall and it had been closed while she was pregnant with me. She put her supplies down and adjusted the cloth that held me so that I was now strapped to her back. Then she cleaned the stall and made preparations to open up for any customers. It took her a few hours and even though I was on her back, I noticed how tired out she was and could easily figure out how much of a toll this took on her as a woman that recently gave birth. She didn't have enough food to eat and the air she breathed and water she drank was constantly affecting her health.

Seeing this, I wanted to help her out, so I chose to receive an item this month and chose a quick acting super soldier serum in order to help her. I don't know which area it came from as Marvel and DC didn't have such a quick acting serum, so it had to have come from genetic era universe and there are many. Using my enhanced strength, with my small baby hands, I managed to hold on to the syringe that held the serum and quickly inject it into my mother's body. I quickly chucked it into the background as I noticed my mother grunt in pain and reach for the area I injected her in. When she didn't find anything, she just rubbed the area a little bit and went back to work. She probably thought it was just some back pain due to the long trek with all the supplies on her back and the work she had to do while I was on her back.

The serum quickly started doing its job as I noticed my mother have more energy and saw her work with more speed and enthusiasm. When the cleaning and prep work was done, I saw multiple people come to the stalls and greet my mother and they congratulated her on her return and said they were glad she could give birth safely. I was able to figure out my mother's name due to this. It was Ester Knight. Some called her Ester, while some called her Ms. Knight. They all seemed to know my mother really well. I guess they were frequent customers. They all wanted to get a look at me and apparently were amazed by my appearance, but also shocked about my eyes. They wanted to know my name and apparently it was Lucius Knight.

After all the introductions, they asked when she would be ready to open. She was already prepared and waiting for customers, so she let them sit down at the counter of her stand and quickly prepared their food. When I saw what they were eating, I couldn't believe my eyes. It seems that the toxic environment had caused the animals here to mutated into grotesque abominations. They look appetizing in the least. I couldn't even begin to imagine how they taste. To think Vi was eating stuff like this when she returned to the Lanes form prison and calling it delicious, but I guess they don't have much choice in food sources and they learned to adapt. I'll probably be fine with it later as I grow up, but why does everything seem to have tentacles attached to it? Did some eldritch horror get summoned here?

There were some small fish that didn't seem to have tentacles, but instead looked like it was fused with a leech or lamprey and were covered in slime. The eels looked the most normal, but had a row of purple eyeballs along the side of it's body. Probably in order to see predators coming. There were huge crabs too, but they had tentacle coming from where their face should be. My mother would grab ahold of the tentacles with one hand and hold the shell with the other and yank the tentacles out along with some meat that looked like a brain. The legs were huge and contain a lot of meat too. The shrimps had tentacles where their legs would be and seemed like half the size of a lobster from my previous world. They would get deshelled and cleaned and cooked whole with the tentacles still attached. The way they squirmed and the noises their bodies made when being cooked were nightmare inducing. Not to mention everything was discolored from what it was in my old world, but since I'm not in my old world, I could easily get over that. Besides the sea food, the only other source of meat were oversized bugs and by oversized, I mean that they were the size of a small human child. They ranged from bug resembling beetles, worms and centipedes to grubs, pill bugs and spiders. I'm guessing the spiders were going to be like crabs, but a land form and a lot more dangerous.

(A/N: Not actually sure about this. I just found it weird that all instances where they showed food in the Lanes were tentacles and some weird small fish with a lot of slime. The others were made just cause I wanted to add more stuff to their food possibilities.)

After a day of watching my mother cook these creatures and people eating them, I noticed that she raked in quite a bit of coin and wondered why she seemed to live in such poor conditions before. Were the prices for medical help really that expensive here or was there another reason she seemed to live like she didn't earn enough to live off of? Also, with all this money and her good looks and personality, I don't think anyone would abandon such a woman. That narrowed down the possibilities of what happened to my father. My guess is something happened to him and I'm guessing the reason behind it would be the amount of money him and my mother had on them from the stall.

After awhile, look and behold, I had my answer. Some sordid type of people were making there way through the crowd of customers while shoving the others out of the way. They were probably one of the gangs around here trying to make a name for themselves and mark this area as their territory and trying to collect protection money.

"Well, it's nice to see you back in working condition, Ester," said the lead thug with a smirk on his face that showed he didn't really care and was probably about to do something underhanded to my mother. The lackeys behind him shared the same grin while some were giggling to themselves.

"Leave this place. I don't want any trouble and I definitely won't be serving you any food here." My mother tried to put up a brave front, but I could feel her shaking. She was obviously afraid of them. Some customers tried to stand up for her while others fled, but the thugs outnumbered them and pulled out blades to keep them at bay.

"Now that's not what I wanted to hear. You know since you've been gone, we haven't received any of the money you owe towards your protection fees. This is a dangerous area filled with all kinds of lowlifes and thieves. My group provides a service to protect this area from such people, but such work doesn't really pay, so all we ask is that the people under our protection pay a little fee so that my men can still protect y'all and be able to return home with a stipend that'll allow them to pay their dues and put food on their table. That's all."(Lead Thug)

"That's horse shit and you know it. You and your men are the ones harassing and stealing from us and you have the nerve to ask us to pay you to keep your men in check? Even after paying you, we still get harassed and robbed. They constantly ask us to give to food or merchandise, but refuse to pay making it harder to even pay your fee and we still need pay our own bills and put food on our own tables. Not to mention the multiple cases of them harassing the women around here. A few were even found dead in the alley after your men dragged them off. There's even a brothel just up the street that they could go to with all the money y'all take from us, but y'all still prefer to commit such a heinous crime. I'm not paying you a single coin, so you can get your cronies and leave, cause I will fight you if I have to and would gladly add you or your cronies to my menu." (Ester)

'You tell him, mom.' I couldn't help getting excited by my mother's courage. Though she was clearly scared, she still voiced the worries and concerns that everyone in the market felt. Though I will admit that in a place like this, that has no Enforcer or form of laws and criminal justice system. was kinda ignorant, but I'll stand behind her conviction.

"You really want to go there? Alright, then we might as well make an example of you, so that others don't get any bright ideas to do the same as you. Boys!"(Leader Thug)

Damn. This was not looking good.