Rats

Climbing back down along with the others, we climbed out of the into the filthy alleys we visualized from where we were, it had been quite a feat getting down after we made sure everything had stopped.

"You made it guys" sounded Lily's excited voice from between the alleys, along with her beastly charge toward Mark.

I would have to make sure that the couple had a success story in this life. But for now I would have to deal with this problem that was coming our way.

"And in a big way, I'd say."

A pair of men emerged from the main street, carrying crossbows, difficult weapons for simple Zaunites to acquire. Behind them was the leader of the Prix gang. Robert prix.

A man with curly hair and a face full of scars. He wore his hair pulled back in a ponytail that created a messy look, but looked like he was trying to spruce it up with second-rate clothes from the noble piltovites, to anyone from the sinkhole they would be expensive and impressive clothes.

"Now tell me, why shouldn't I remove a nuisance that has caused me to lose money and men?"

"Only a coward would be afraid of boys" I said, with a provocative tone, I knew what was coming, he couldn't get upset no matter how I talked to him, so at least I would satisfy my ego.

"I like this guy, I'll teach them a lesson as a sign of my good mood."

His men, approached as they put aside their weapons, to start beating us, we tried to put up resistance, but Yutong was hit in the face. He was our strongest and biggest member, but he was easily knocked back a few meters. The rest of us didn't fare any better, but if there was one thing we rats were good at, it was resisting beatings.

"You see in that collapse, five men died, very valuable men, one of them being one of my most trusted men."

"He was a bastard" I said as I kept my body curled up, only for a stomp to reach my head even though my arms blocked most of it, I felt how they were about to fracture.

"You're right, but he was a useful bastard, it's not easy to find a man who does dirty things willingly" Robert ran his hand over his clothes, checking them for dust, and blew.

"They'll work for me, they just took over a good portion of my labor and that's not good for my business, they'll work until they pay me what they owe me."

he finished, grinning like a wolf.

"...We will" I said, while pretending that my own words seemed to bother me.

"Well, good luck boys" Robert snapped, and like trained dogs, his men stopped the beating they were providing us.

My plan was simple. to secure an umbrella for the storm that would be raging in the sinkhole in the next few days, The gang war over scrap metal rights.

Robert was a narcissist, he saw people based on their capabilities and how they could be useful to him, even going so far as to use bastards like One-eyed, we needed to prove that we would be useful pieces and even better, that we were not a danger to him.

In the past we had only been disposable pieces in the war of gangs that changed owners when the previous one died, rats and messengers, sometimes seen as sacks to get even for the tensions of the war.

After they left and we recovered from the pain enough to move, we circled the piles of rusted junk to look for a secondary entrance to our hideout. A sewage outfall located in the old housing developments in the area had been abandoned and no one would go near it with the danger of contamination, flakes of brown paint that once must have been red were flaking off the walls.

The stench of rot and waste permeated the air. No sound could be heard from inside.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" murmured Lily amid the uncomfortable silence. Unlike me, she , though not too well. Her face reflected a deep, hidden fury, though Irwyn could read that in her oldest friend's expression.

"Do what, kill them?" I replied with a hint of annoyance in my voice, "They're trained, they're older and more experienced."

"Fuck, I get it" Yutong lay down with the others as he wiped the blood from his face with one of Mark's few extra shirts. "But it's not fair to have been beaten to death, only to be their slaves."

"Please, at least use your clothes," Mark said "And there was never any justice here to begin with..."

"Calm down, I have a plan, I've heard rumors that a few years ago there were Noxian metal orders, but these were lost after a pirate attack, a few days ago, curious about what seemed to be a stupid myth, I stumbled upon a surprise in the steam drains."

"You're crazy even if what you say is true, we would die before we could enter that place" Mark was right, the name of steam drains had remained from the old days when it was used for simple restructuring vapors, but the high command decided to use a system that dealt efficiently with gases and now it is an area of toxic gases that could kill anyone with the slightest inhalation, people called it 'the gray'.

"I could make the necessary equipment to enter if we get everything we need" With that metal and the rest that would be there, not only could we make simple weapons, I could make a stable base for us, a power base that would secure our lives.

__________________________________________________________

Some would say that the sinkhole would be the garbage and waste of both cities, and they would not be wrong, but it is also the heart of Zaun, where most of the materials that were used for any construction of the Zaunites come from. So getting materials that will be used to build gas masks was something that could be done with ease if you find the right materials.

"I hope this pays off," I said to myself.

First, I needed to recycle the materials, something like pure silicone could only be found in the upper docks, but sometimes a few worn out sailor's gloves would fall down the channels, it would just have to be adapted with cuts and some basic sealing techniques like the use of acid, which filled the water channels at this level.

In the end, they resulted in rustic masks, which were full of scraps due to the combination of different materials, some of them even with lenses of different shades.

"Although working with acid again had been annoying."

I looked at the burns on my hands, I had forgotten the pain of acid burns, I had lost the sensitivity in them I guess it was because I was constantly exposed to those acids, it was a common thing of Zaunite engineers. Those who were lucky adapted and had high tolerance to acid and toxins, those who were not will die or have changes implemented to their bodies such as prosthetics or artificial respirators.

"Damian, are you here?" I heard Yutong's voice

"This way."

"Wow, I never doubted your abilities, but this is beyond what I expected" His look seemed impressed and excited by the result of my efforts.

"Yours is the black one, it was made with boots, so it will be the biggest one, let the others know they will have to come to talk to you about how they should be used and the care they should take" I said as I finished preparing the last of them and set my worn gloves aside.

"Because you didn't tell us about your abilities."

"It's not something I was hiding, it just hadn't been given the opportunity or the time to do so."

It wasn't a lie at all before I entered the orphanage where we met, I had been an engineer's errand boy for as long as I could remember, I had learned a few tricks but nothing that elaborate, that it wasn't until I was older that I was able to pick up the learning again.

This time I would make the most of any advantage. There were some plans for the sinkhole in these years and we would ride that wave of change.