The Unhuman Cities

Jakob carried his vibrant blade on a deserted part of the city. There is a man standing in front of an entrance to a tunnel. The man wore his carapace armor under his rain cloak. His rifle slung on his side. He eyed Jakob with a pallid eye as he stretches out his hand. Jakob threw a coin coated in gold on the palm of the man. The man's eyes widened for a moment. He nodded. Then opened the door behind him by pushing down the lever. Jakob walked past the man. The door behind him shut back with a clang.

Jakob traversed the wet and moldy slope concrete floor pointing downwards. He stopped in the middle of the tunnel. He pushed four panels. Put his right shoulder on the wall and pushed forward. Rats came out of the wall as he pushed. Jakob heard water rushing. He pointed his left hand, aimed at the ceiling, launched his grappler's stake. Leaping upwards, he clung to the ceiling, inserted the tips of his fingers on the gap on the ceiling. He swings his right arm, took his grappler stake from the wall, and uses the momentum to advance forward. He fires his grappler stake again on the left side of the tunnel. His legs running on the other side of the wall. Pausing, he clawed the wall and made a cat leap, pulling his stake from the wall. He bounced off the wall like a spring and caught an edge.

The water half filled the tunnels. There was a stinging odor in the air mixed with the damp smell of the moldy water. He heard water meeting pipe. Below him he was the toxic materials coming from the under-cities. Jakob could have used the normal route instead of this one. He preferred entering the city without being detected by the eyeballs of Haven.

Jakob continued going this path until he happened on a ventilation shaft. Searching the side, he found the manual controls of the shaft. He picked the lock of the box. Turned the switches up. Waiting for the fan to stop. He watched the back and heard the fan stopped. Jakob continued down this pathway until he reached this wide and gaping under-city that would have blinded the eyes of anyone. Using neon lights to create a bright city made of metal. Jakob didn't understand the aesthetics or what made them want to do that other than repel the light.

Jakob made his way to the under-city, making no noise or attracting attention for himself. He blended right in as he walks the familiar crowded streets filled with demihumans. Demihumans are those who could not become etherians. Instead of the ether turning their bodies stronger, allowing them to use the ether. They become defective monsters who grow animal parts, some of them even having truly become dog-heads. Jakob could see the various demihumans walking through the city without hiding their cat-like-ears or leathery skin. Jakob melted to the place. He didn't come here for any purposes other than to see if the city exists. He went to a shop that had four red stools and a cook frying on an iron cast wok. The cook stared dully at Jakob as he gestured to the last stool on the left. He took a bowl. Gave it to Jakob and had Jakob stick around for his meal. After savoring his meal, Jakob scaled the areas around the city, clinging to the edge before pulling himself up to the radio tower that houses home of the head honchos.

It didn't take long for the busybodies to come and point a gun on him from the side of the roof. Jakob gave the man a momentary glance before shaking his head. "I ain't going to do anything," Jakob said. He reached out for his pockets and threw the guard some cash for him to be leave him alone. The guard, still gun pointed, took the cash on the ground and left Jakob alone watching the city.

Jakob stayed on the roof of the building before he rappelled down and started searching for someone. He started in Sector 2 where the sweatshops and machineries are located. He stayed on one of the sweatshop until someone called Drak, a tall and average man with a mechanical prosthetic on his left hand. He turned to Jakob with inquisitive eyes. "What brings someone from the top into our world?" he asked.

"How are things here?"

"Are you here for business or not? This is not exactly the place for questions. You've been waiting for hours here. How many screws you lose friend?"

"Estrella looking for work?"

A beat.

The workers stood up with their handguns pointed at Jakob. Jakob leaned back on the steel wall, staring unblinking at Drak whose prosthetic turned into a hand cannon. Jakob swung his coat to his side. The vibrant blade making a humming sound.

"I want to know if Estrella is hiring."

"They are not looking for humans in their ranks."

"Yet they keep you and these folks around them."

"It will not be easy. You'll be their dog if you want them to have you in their ranks."

Jakob lifted his chin. He leaned forward with elbows on his lap. "The Rat Skinners. That's what they call those folks down Sector 4, right? I heard that they've been a pain in the ass since they started taking some tunnels. I heard the Estrella had lost four of your mates in the recent ambush, like what two days ago?"

Drak paced side to side with that hand cannon of his. He looked at Jakob as if Jakob was a madman or a fool. Jakob laughed inwardly as if he was both. Then he turned his attention to the workers, who showed no change in their expression other than their slit eyes narrowing.

"Earning a vibrant blade ain't an easy feat. If you come swaggering around this shithole, then you must have some capabilities. You a merc?"

Jakob nodded. "I'll go kill them. If your people would meet me with that. Do you think they'll understand?"

"What's your name?" Drak asked.

Jakob said without hesitation. "Jak. To me it ain't no use in the uppers now with all that nonsense when they want to explore the damn world and get killed by the belua. I need some new employers here."

"Is that so?" Drak snorted. "Leave this place. Don't come back until you give them this favor of yours."

Jakob didn't waste time on more words. He sauntered out of the shop while the workers have the barrels of their small firearms still pointed at him. Jakob knew who he was, and his tussle with the beluamans made him fully sure that he can negotiate with them.

The Rat Skinners were one of the raider groups that had become a plague of Aured City. Greedy mongrels that Jakob had hated with every inch of his body. Left alone, they became a threat to the city when their leader named Duncan. A parasite and a bandit had his way on whatever the topside wanted. The demis are human, but the one thing that separates them is their innate ability to mutate their bodies. Jakob could remember the days where most of the troubles came from them, capitalizing the war between the humans and the beluaman and the inner strife from the etherians that made it possible for things to escalate beyond any point of recovery.

Jakob was here because he wanted to cut out the tumor before it grows into a cancer. Hunt them down, destroy them, and let none live, Jakob thought.