The frantic scrabbling sound from within the wall was loud enough to cut through Kai’s panicked haze and even gave Grok the Scrap Monger pause. The big man froze mid-lumber, his meaty fist still clutching the wrench, his already unpleasant expression twisting into one of wary confusion. His head tilted slightly, small eyes narrowed towards the innocuous-looking panel Kai was still slumped against.

  "What in the sg heap was that?" Grok grumbled, his voice losing some of its threatening certainty. Maybe a security drone? Or worse, Sewer Patrol conducting sweeps? Both were bad news, even for Grok.

  Kai blinked, equally bewildered. He hadn’t done anything except deliver a profoundly ineffective kick. Had he actually broken something inside the wall? Knowing his luck, probably something load-bearing or explosive. "Uh..." Kai began, trying to formute a new, hopefully life-saving lie based on this unexpected audio cue. "That? Oh, that's just... the resonance dampeners recalibrating! Standard procedure! Happens all the time!"

  (A/N: Kai's BS skill needs leveling. Badly. (シ_ _)シ)

  The scrabbling intensified, becoming more focused, accompanied by a scraping sound, like cws digging into old metal. A thin crack appeared along the panel’s seam, not from Kai's kick, but seemingly pushed outward. Dust and fkes of rust showered down.

  Grok took an involuntary step back, wrench held defensively now. "Resonance dampeners don't got cws, runt."

  "Maybe they're the new models?" Kai offered weakly, eyes glued to the widening crack. Whatever was in there, it wanted out. Badly. And frankly, Kai wasn't sure if that was better or worse than facing Grok’s wrench therapy.

  With a final, protesting screech of tortured metal, the panel didn't fall off – it was crudely shoved outward and downward from the top, bending at a horrible angle and hanging precariously by its lower hinges. The opening revealed wasn't rge, maybe just wide enough for a skinny guy to squeeze through if he really, really wanted to.

  And something did want to.

  Out of the darkness behind the panel shot a blur of matted, grey-brown fur. It didn't emerge gracefully; it practically tumbled out, hitting the slimy floor with a slight thump before instantly righting itself.

  It was a rat.

  But... huh.

  Kai stared. He'd seen plenty of Undercity rats. They were usually scraggly, diseased things, skittish or aggressively stupid depending on the local mutation strain. This one, though... it was big. Not monstrously so, but definitely on the upper end of the rat-size chart, maybe the length of his forearm excluding the thick, scaly tail. Its fur was patchy and grime-coated, but its movements were whip-fast and deliberate. It shook its head, dislodging a chunk of ancient insution, and its whiskers twitched furiously, sampling the tunnel air. Its eyes—they weren't the usual beady bck dots. They were rger, dark, and unnervingly keen, darting around, assessing the situation with an intensity that felt less like animal instinct and more like rapid calcution. There was an undeniable presence to it, an aura of alert intelligence that set Kai's teeth on edge almost as much as Grok did.

  (A/N: Dun dun DUN! Enter Squeaks, Stage Left! He exists! Probably smells bad tho. (￣(oo)￣)?)

  The rat’s sharp gaze flicked from the looming Grok, to Kai pressed against the wall, then back towards the dark opening it had just vacated. It seemed... trapped between options.

  Grok blinked, his brief caution evaporating, repced with disgust and renewed irritation. "A fragging rat?" He spat on the floor. "Sg it all, Kai! You made me hesitate for vermin?" His knuckles whitened around the wrench. The moment of potential escape provided by the weird scratching was gone, repced by amplified rage. "Right. That's it. Pying games is over."

  He started forward again, purpose radiating from him like heat off stressed metal.

  The big rat, startled by Grok's sudden movement and booming voice, reacted instantly. It didn’t flee back into the hole. Instead, it executed a lightning-fast diagonal dart, skittering towards Grok but veering sharply at the st second to shoot right between the scrap monger's thick, widely pnted legs.

  It was pure, unpredictable chaos theory in action. Grok, focused entirely on Kai, wasn't expecting a low-altitude ankle-level attack vector, even an accidental one. He yelped in surprise—a high-pitched sound comical coming from his frame—and stumbled, his bance momentarily thrown off as he tried not to step on the rapidly exiting rodent.

  That stumble was Kai’s second miracle in as many minutes. He didn't think; he just moved. While Grok was regaining his footing and swatting vaguely at the space the rat had just occupied, Kai threw himself, skinny frame and all, into the narrow opening revealed by the bent panel.

  He half-dove, half-slid through, scraping his shoulder painfully against the ragged metal edge. The space beyond was pitch bck and smelled infinitely worse than the main tunnel – a potent cocktail of stale air, mould, decay, and something unnervingly chemical. He nded awkwardly on a floor slick with goodness-knows-what, his breath catching in his chest.

  "Get back here, you little sludge-worm!" Grok roared from the other side. Kai heard a heavy cng as the wrench likely impacted the tunnel wall where Kai’s head had been moments ago.

  He scrambled deeper into the oppressive darkness, desperate to put distance between himself and the opening. He could hear Grok fumbling at the panel. There was a horrendous screech of metal protesting, then a heavy, final THUD. The faint light filtering in from the tunnel was abruptly cut off, plunging Kai into absolute, smothering bckness.

  A sickening wave of custrophobia washed over him. "Hey!" Kai yelled instinctively, pounding a fist against the unseen wall where the panel had been. "Hey! Let me out!"

  Grok’s voice came back, muffled but audible, ced with vindictive satisfaction. "Changed yer mind about yer cozy little hidey-hole, runt? Nah. You sit tight in there. Think about them fifty credits. Maybe sixty by the time I get bored."

  "Grok, come on! It stinks in here! There could be anything!"

  "Exactly," Grok chuckled humourlessly. "Might even be worse than me. You find any 'high-grade salvage' in there, you lemme know." Heavy footsteps echoed, moving away from the panel. Was he leaving? Or just waiting?

  Silence descended, thick and heavy, broken only by Kai’s own ragged breathing and the slow, slimy drip-drip-drip of something nearby. He was trapped. Properly trapped. In the dark. In a space that smelled like death farted.

  "Oh, fantastic," Kai groaned, slumping back against the cold, damp wall. His voice was loud in the confined space. "Just brilliant. Trapped in a sewer-fvoured coffin with Grok the Gorger pying guard outside. Could this day possibly get any worse?"

  (A/N: Kai, my dude, rule number one of the universe: Never ask that question. Ever. (′-ω-｀))

  He took a few deep breaths, trying to quell the rising panic. Okay. Situation assessment. Dark? Check. Smelly? Double check. Trapped? Undeniably. Alone?

  Wait.

  His blood ran cold. He hadn't seen the big rat come in here after him, not in the split second before Grok sealed the panel. But it hadn't gone back out past Grok, either. Which meant…

  A faint scrabbling sound reached his ears, coming from deeper within the crawlspace. Close. Too close.

  "Scrap," Kai whispered, pressing himself ftter against the wall, every muscle tensed. He strained his eyes against the darkness, trying to make out any shape, any movement. The darkness was absolute, inkier than spilled recycler fluid. He couldn't see his own hand in front of his face.

  His internal monologue, never quiet for long, kicked into high gear. Okay, okay, don't panic. It's just a rat. A big, weirdly smart-looking rat, but still just a rat. Probably more scared of me than I am of it. Right? Except I AM really scared of it. What if it's rabid? Or carries that Blight Rot disease? Or it's got radioactive teeth? What if it decides my face looks like a giant nutri-nugget in the dark? Stop thinking about the teeth!

  He held his breath, listening intently. The scrabbling stopped. Then, a soft sniffing sound, seeming to move slowly along the floor a few meters away. It was methodically exploring the space, its senses presumably far better suited to this lightless environment than Kai's were.

  "Uh... hello?" Kai whispered hoarsely into the darkness. His voice cracked. "Nice... ratty? Good... vermin? We don't have to be enemies, you know. Plenty of... disgusting wall mould... for both of us?"

  There was no response, just the soft, deliberate sounds of the rat moving around. Investigating.

  Kai slumped further, resting his head back against the slimy wall with a sigh that fogged the air momentarily. This was pathetic. He, Kai, a (nearly) certified genius of snappy comebacks and tactical annoyance, was trapped in a smelly tube talking to a rodent he couldn't even see.

  "Alright, fine," he muttered, more to himself now, just to fill the oppressive silence. "So, Pn... uh... D? Wait for Grok to get bored? Yeah, fat chance. The man holds a grudge like a Trash Titan holds onto a discarded power core. Pn E? Find another way out?"

  He shifted, carefully patting the walls around him. The space felt like a narrow service conduit, maybe half a meter wide, slightly taller than he was when crouched. The walls were cold, damp metal, slick with slime. The floor felt uneven, littered with small debris his fingers couldn't identify in the dark – bits of rust, pebbles, maybe fossilized rat droppings. Fun.

  He started inching forward, deeper into the crawlspace, away from the sealed panel. One hand outstretched, groping blindly. His footsteps squelched softly.

  After a few meters, his outstretched hand brushed against something soft and furry.

  "YAH!" Kai yelped, snatching his hand back as if burned, scrambling backward until his spine hit the opposite wall. His heart hammered.

  There was a startled squeak from the darkness where his hand had been, followed by a rapid series of scrabbling sounds moving away from him. Clearly, the rat hadn't appreciated being groped in the dark either.

  "Okay! Okay! Sorry!" Kai stammered breathlessly, holding his hands up defensively even though there was no one (and no light) to see the gesture. "Personal space, got it! My bad! Didn't see you there! Literally!"

  He stayed frozen for a moment, listening. The rat had retreated further down the conduit. Good. At least it wasn't charging him with radioactive teeth bzing.

  Progress? he thought wryly. Or just mutual terror?

  He resumed his cautious exploration, moving even more slowly now, constantly probing ahead with one hand. The conduit seemed to continue straight for a while. The air grew staler, thicker, the chemical undertone more pronounced. He could feel grit under his worn boot soles.

  Suddenly, he heard the rat again, but the sound was different. Not moving along the floor, but... climbing? A faint scratching sound came from slightly above and ahead of him.

  "What are you doing now, Whiskers?" Kai muttered under his breath, craning his neck uselessly in the dark.

  The scratching stopped. A moment ter, something small and hard nded on the floor near Kai's feet with a faint plink. He flinched, then cautiously reached down. His fingers closed around a small, metallic object. It felt like... a bolt? Or a rivet head? Smooth, cold metal. Where had it come from?

  More scratching from above. Another plink. This time, it sounded like a fke of dried rust.

  Kai looked up again, though it was futile. Was the rat trying to... dig through the ceiling? Or maybe investigating a vent? Hope, that stubborn idiot, flickered again. A vent could mean an escape route.

  He continued forward, following the direction the sounds had come from. After another couple of meters, the conduit seemed to T-junction. Left or right? The scrabbling sounds seemed slightly more pronounced to the left.

  "Alright, Sniffles," Kai murmured, deciding to unofficially name his fellow prisoner based on the earlier sniffing sounds. "Let's see where you think the party's at." He turned left.

  Almost immediately, his hand brushed against something vertically oriented. A dder? No, more like... rungs set directly into the wall? He felt upward. Yes, metal rungs, slick with grime, leading... up?

  He heard Squeaks – he was definitely calling it Squeaks now – scrabble down from somewhere above him, nding softly on the floor nearby before retreating a safe distance again.

  "So, you found a way up, huh?" Kai mused, feeling the first rung. It felt... mostly solid. Maybe. "Where does it go? Out? Or just into another, potentially smellier, death trap?" He hesitated. Climbing in pitch darkness into an unknown vertical space felt like several different kinds of stupid. But staying put meant eventually dealing with Grok, starvation, or potential sewer monsters. Up seemed marginally less terrible.

  He took a firmer grip on the first rung, tested it with his weight. It held, groaning slightly in protest. He found the next rung with his foot. Okay. This was happening.

  "Don't suppose you have night vision you feel like sharing?" he asked the darkness where he presumed Squeaks was lurking. Silence was his only answer, besides another slimy drip. "Didn't think so. Worth a shot."

  He began to climb, slowly, deliberately. Each rung was cold and slippery. His scraped shoulder throbbed with every upward pull. He focused on the rhythm: hand, foot, hand, foot. Test the rung before putting full weight on it. Try not to think about the darkness below or the darkness above, or the fifty-foot drop onto spikes that probably awaited him if one of these rungs gave way.

  He climbed for what felt like a long time, maybe five or six meters. The air changed slightly, growing warmer, dryer, but also gaining a strange metallic tang, like ozone or burnt wiring. The chemical smell intensified. Not good.

  His hand reached for the next rung, and found... nothing. The dder just ended. He felt around. He seemed to be in another horizontal conduit, branching off the shaft he’d just climbed. Could he pull himself up?

  He heard Squeaks scrabble effortlessly up onto the ledge beside where his head was. How did it do that in the dark? Sticky paws? Alien technology? Performance-enhancing sewer sludge?

  "Show off," Kai muttered. He strained, found a handhold on the edge of the conduit floor, and hauled himself up with a grunt, rolling gracelessly onto the new surface. He y there panting for a moment, the metallic tang sharp in his nostrils. This conduit felt wider than the one below.

  He sat up, feeling around. Metal floor, cool to the touch. Smooth walls. This felt less like a forgotten sewer line and more like... a service duct for wiring? Or ventition?

  Suddenly, a low, ominous hum started, seemingly vibrating through the floor itself. It wasn't the distant hum of the Sector processors; this was close, powerful, and felt inherently unstable. The metallic tang in the air sharpened, making his eyes water.

  From nearby in the darkness, Squeaks let out a short, sharp series of high-pitched distressed squeaks – completely different from its earlier exploratory noises. This was pure arm.

  "Okay, yeah, I don't like that sound either!" Kai said, scrambling to his feet. The humming intensified, accompanied by a flickering light. Not steady light, but strobing pulses emanating from further down this new conduit.

  Blue-white light fshed intermittently, each pulse briefly illuminating the space. Kai got fshes of what looked like thick bundles of insuted cables running along the walls, some frayed or damaged. He saw Squeaks pressed ft against the floor several meters away, fur on end, staring intently down the conduit towards the source of the light and humming.

  Fsh. Cables. Grime. Fsh. Rat. Fear. Fsh. Oh scrap, that cable looks really frayed.

  The humming reached a new peak, a keening whine that vibrated in Kai’s bones. The air crackled with tangible energy, raising the hairs on his arms. Ozone smell choked him.

  Squeaks suddenly bolted, not away, but towards Kai, chittering frantically. It zipped past his legs, heading back towards the dder shaft they’d just climbed. Smart rat.

  Kai turned to follow, but just as he took a step, there was a blinding fsh of blue-white light from down the conduit, far brighter than the strobing. It wasn't just a fsh; it was an explosion of raw energy. A visible arc leaped from a junction box bursting open down the tunnel, striking the metal wall near Kai. The sound was deafening, a tremendous CRACK-BOOM that smmed into him like a physical blow.

  He stumbled backwards, vision completely whited out, ears ringing horribly. He felt an unbelievable surge of energy wash over him, through him, searingly hot and shockingly cold at the same time. His nerves screamed. It felt like being dipped in liquid lightning while simultaneously chewing on tin foil connected to a faulty generator.

  He vaguely registered another shape near his feet – had Squeaks doubled back in the chaos? Had the bst thrown it? – just as the energy peaked. He felt a jolt, not just from the ambient discharge, but a focused point of contact near his ankle, an agony separate from the overwhelming torrent.

  His consciousness fred white hot, then sputtered. Vaguely, somewhere deep inside the chaotic noise engulfing his brain, he thought he heard a digital voice, tinny and distorted, overpping with the ringing in his ears.

  [CRITICAL BIOLOGICAL TRAUMA DETECTED]

  [MUTATED VERMIN - LV ??? - DETECTED WITHIN PROXIMITY OF CRITICAL HOST]

  Darkness rushed in, mercifully swallowing the light, the noise, and the pain.

  (A/N: And Boom goes the dynamite! (Or the junction box). Things just went from bad to 'what the actual scrap just happened?!'. Symbiosis Protocol, engage! Hope Kai enjoys sharing headspace! ( ′ ▽ ` )? Thanks for reading! See you in Ch 3!)

  The End. Only for this chapter, please remember to come back on Sunday for the next one :hamster_cry: